shawn mendes imagines

THIS OR THAT

You saw him from across the room first. He was laughing with his friends, his hand gripped around a glass bottle of beer. Your best friend was saying something to you but her voice just became an echo in your ear as you focused more and more on the way his body moved when he shifted from one foot to the other and the way he ran his fingers through the mop of curls on his head.

"Hello? Are you even listening to me?" Your best friend waved her hand in front of your face bringing your attention back to her. You nodded and took a sip of the white wine that was in your hand, barely touched. She shook her head in disapproval, knowing full well that you weren't listening to her. When you looked back at his table, he was gone.

The second time you saw him that night he was behind the stage rubbing his hands together as his eyes scanned the crowd. You were alone now, your best friend running off to the bathroom but you figured she got distracted by a cute boy at the bar so you didn't expect her back anytime soon. No one announced his name when he walked up to the stage with a guitar hung across his back. He gripped the microphone the same way that he gripped the beer bottle and whispered a hello into it. His voice sent shivers down your back.

No one was paying much attention to him. There were a few glances here and there but it seemed like you were the only one who's eyes were solely on him. He swung the guitar to his front and began strumming a familiar song and he began to sing Use Somebody by Kings of Leon. His voice was soothing and it gave you such a sense of peace that you almost forgot the chaos around you that was this bar on a Friday night. You were still alone when he finished and you had hoped that his eyes would catch yours before he stepped off the stage, but they didn't.

The third time you saw him you were carrying your best friend to the cab that was waiting out front for her. She was half asleep, whispering meaningless words into your ear as she stroked your hair lovingly. She kept saying that she loved you but you ignored her, telling the cab driver her address and then shutting her in. You always were the sober one at the end of the night.

You pushed the hair out of your face and waved to her as the cab drove away. Once she was completely gone, you grabbed your phone to call your own cab. You knew that her doorman would get her to her apartment in one piece, so you never felt bad for sending her off alone. You would call the building later to check up and all would be well. She would never even remember half of the night.

Your skin felt tighter as the goosebumps spread along your arms. You rubbed your hands up and down them trying to warm up, but it was the middle of October and you were only wearing a thin cardigan. As you went to turn and head back inside, your body abruptly stopped as it smashed into something big, strong, and muscular. "Shit! I'm sorry," the big, strong, and muscular thing said. His hands shot your biceps, steadying you so you didn't fall backward. The voice was eerily familiar and you got similar chills as you did earlier inside the bar but this time it wasn't from the breeze. When you looked up, you saw him.

"Hi- fuck, hi. Hello," you mumbled, taking a few steps backward and out of his grip. He smiled down at you and his cheeks flushed.

"Hello to you too?" He asked, his voice going up an octave at the end. "I'm sorry I ran into you. I- I wasn't paying any attention. Although," he said as his eyes looking you up and down. It was soft and subtle but you noticed it. "I should have."

You couldn't help but blush at his words and the way he was looking at you. "It's my fault," you said. Taking the blame seemed to be the easiest route out and when the boy shook his head and opened his mouth to speak, you ducked around him and back into the busy bar.

The music was a shocking change from the quietness in the street, but you were thankful for the noise now. Talking to boys was never your forte. You were never particularly good at it and although you weren't exactly new to the dating world, you have had boyfriends in the past, meeting hot, random strangers was a whole new ballpark from meeting cute boys in your high school English class or Math 201 lecture a few years later.