Shawn Mendes, the Secret? [COMPLETED]

Chapter 13 - Date

Around 2 minutes later we arrive at Shawn's mystery date place. I hear him get out of the car and open my door he leans over me to unbuckle my seatbelt, I feel his warm breath on my neck and it tickles. Suddenly his hand grabs mine pulling me up from the seat all without saying anything. He locks the car up.

"When can I take off my blindfold?" I whine.

"In a couple seconds, so calm down!" He says standing behind me with one hand on my waist and the other on my hand guiding me to where ever we are going. I can smell fresh flowers and I can feel myself standing in squishy mud. "You ready?" Shawn asks with excitement in his voice. Which makes me beam with happiness mostly because I can take off this horrid blindfold.

"Yes!" I answer delighted to be free from my vulnerability. I feel Shawn's hands untie the blind fold and then he slips it off of me. Wow! We're surrounded by thousands of tall, sturdy trees that are swaying side to side in the wind. Hundreds of vibrantly coloured flowers are scattered around the Forrest and there's birds swooping around in the sky - which every so often start talking to each other. It's magical!

"Look over there!" Shawn whispers while pointing out a tree house, which is beautifully decorated with fairy lights on the outside and a tire swing.

"Are we going there?" I curiously ask.

"Yep!" Shawn responds popping the 'p'. He runs to the car and grabs a basket before holding out his hand for me to hold.

"What's in there?" I ask resting my head on his shoulder as we walk towards the tree house.

"That's for me to know and you to find out." He says.

"Mysterious!" I remark raising one eyebrow at him. We walk through some trees and find a ladder leading up to his secret tree house. "Where exactly are we?" I find myself blurting out as we stop at the ladders.

"This is Aaliyah and I's secret hideout that my dad built us." His eyes light up at the memory. "We'd come out here every spring, summer sometimes fall if it was nice enough."

"I feel as though I'm intruding." I joke.

"Just climb up, silly." Shawn says giving me a small push towards the ladders.

"Fine!" I jokingly whine.

Pillows, blankets, bean bags, fairy lights, muffins, popcorn and pizza! Woah does this guy know how to plan the perfect date. On the wooden walls of the treehouse there is photos of Shawn and Aaliyah playing hockey and on family holidays. From the balcony type of place you can see an amazing view of the beach and forest. Wow, I can see why this place was Shawn and Aaliyah secret spot. (A/N: this is the tree house on the cover of the story and the photo attached to this chapter).

"So do you like it?" Shawn asks, snapping me back to reality.

"Yeah it's amazing." I answer with a smile on my face.

"Pizza?" He asks holding the box towards me. I see that he has gotten comfy on the old leather couch.

"Is that even a question?" I joke grabbing a slice on ham and pineapple pizza. Yum! I jump on the couch and join him in his feast of muffins, pizza, and popcorn! We talk about random stuff for the next 30 minutes or so.

"So what's that whole thing about somebody being alive about?" Shawn asks curiously.

"Erm ..." I stall trying sort out my mix of emotions. I feel tears form in my eyes and before I knows what's happening I burst into tears. Shawn looks at me with a mixture of confusion, sadness, and empathy. I get up and run onto the balcony not wanting Shawn to see me in such a mess. I stand outside for a minute on my own before I feel an arm slither around my waist. Resting my head on Shawn's chest I sob into his shoulder.

"I'm so so sorry, shall we change the conversation?" Shawn asks softly resting his chin on the top of my blonde hair. I don't answer him mostly because I'm so engrossed in crying but also because I don't want to ruin the perfect hug. Shawn starts playing with my hair like he did in the hospital.

"What are you doing?" I ask in an inevitably sad voice.

"Playing with your hair." He responds softly. I grab his hands firmly and lead him to the couch wiping my tears away as I walk. Shawn sits down and I lay across the sofa resting my head on his lap. Shawn continues playing with my hair. We sit in silence for a minute while I calm down and prepare to tell the worst part of my life.

"Well ... when I was younger, much younger my brother went into the army. It was his dream." I pause to collect my thoughts and to hold back the tears long enough to get out this story. "He would send us letters every week informing us on what he was doing and we'd always write back. One week we didn't get a ... reply! So we thought that it got lost in the mail but after a month we got no letters. It was scary and after two months we thought he had died, however we got a letter saying that he was missing in action."

I sit up and snuggle into Shawn letting tears trickle down my face as I thought about what had happened. "In that letter it also said that they was only a 9% chance we would ever see James again." I spit out sobbing into Shawn's jumper while he stroked my head as if I was a dog.

"That must of been terrible." He sympathises. "But isn't he alive?"

"Well ... that's what they say but they don't know when we will see him next. And he doesn't know that my mum and dad broke up this year. James will be so upset!"

"It's all going to be okay, Charley. I know it will."

"How do you know?" I ask looking up to him.

"Because I do." Shawn assures me. "Anyway it's not like your life got much worse!" He jokes not knowing that it did before I came to Canada.

"Yeah...erm... it sort of did!" I laughingly blurt out.

"What do you mean?" He asks with concern filling his eyes.

"Erm ... a couple months before I moved here a guy who had a bad reputation in my school asked me to be his girlfriend." I say biting my lip as I feel Shawn tense up. "Then he abused me!" I blurt not wanting to go into detail, "but I broke it off with him the day I moved to Canada just incase he would hurt me anymore." A river of tears flow down my cheeks as Shawn holds me tight. How come I'm always crying around Shawn? He just seems to let me be myself, and I love it. "I'm sorry!"

"What for?" Shawn says softly.

"Ruining this perfect date." I sob.

"Charley, you have done the opposite but ruin this date!"

"Huh? I've just been crying for the last ten minutes Shawn and you've had to listen to only the parts of my life that were horrible."

"Exactly, you have opened up to me so much, told me about yourself more than any other girl has ever done before. I love that!"

"Really?" I ask unsure.

"Yes!" He giggles holding me tighter. This has been a night to remember!

Thank you for reading! It took me some time to write this chapter because I wanted it to be good (even though it still isn't) and also because I've been busy with tests and learning the ukulele! If you enjoyed please SHARE, VOTE and COMMENT!