Shawn Mendes Imagines

One Last Song

A/N: this is longer than I've ever written, and sadder too. I'm proud of it though, so please read it all x

Death is a delicate affair. It's inevitable, of course, but that doesn't stop people hoping upon hope that their life will be a long one, filled with love and fulfilment. It's a sad reality that more often than not, that is not the case, and lives are ripped from families with no warning, for no good reason other than the universe being cruel.

However, in some cases, warning is given, and people try and make peace with the fact that they can't stop it from happening. But no amount of warning will ever prepare someone enough for the utter loss and devastation they feel when the person they love is gone for good. When every thought and wish, and for some people prayer, was for nothing, because nothing will ever bring you back that person. Seemingly mundane memories now take on a whole new meaning and every single mistake you could have made is amplified. The hurt and pain is irreversible.

Death leaves a trail of what ifs in its wake.

What better way to prevent such heartache than to push everyone close to you away? Protect them by making them hate you and no longer fear the day you leave.

Unless, of course, you had no one to protect in the first place.

******

It was a warm, sunny day in August when Y/N got the diagnosis. Malignant brain tumour. Stage 4. Incurable. Roughly 18 months left to live.

I'm going to die, Y/N thinks as she walks home, not caring that it will take her an hour longer than necessary. I'm going to die.

Unlike in movies, the world doesn't stop spinning, time doesn't slow down,  and people continue about their days as if a twenty-four your old girl didn't just receive her death sentence.

It was rare, the doctor had told her, for a person of her age to be given such a fatal diagnosis. That did nothing to ease the shattering of Y/N's heart as she sat in that stiff office chair, her mind slowly turning numb.

Now, as she nears the path to her apartment, every treacherous cell in her body seems to awaken at once and she barely makes it through the door before she crashes to the ground, gut-wrenching sobs and wails echoing through the empty rooms.

She's going to die and there's no one there to care. 

***6 Months Later***

The rain came down heavily as Shawn wove his way through standstill traffic, guitar strapped securely to his back. Yesterday's promise of good weather felt like a lie.

The café is heaving when he bursts through the door, shaking droplets of water from his curls. Grinning, he makes his way towards the stage in the back of the room, a place that is quickly becoming a second home for him.

For the last year or so he has been coming here every weekend to play live music for the customers while they relaxed, platefuls of food in front of them. Although it doesn't pay well, he wouldn't give it up for the world. Just to see even one person smiling and singing along with him makes up for the lack of income.

Shawn Mendes loves to make people happy.

He's halfway through his set by the time he notices her. Settled at a table in the corner furthest from Shawn was a young girl, about his own age, watching him play, a slight smile on her face as she mouths the lyrics alongside him, a faraway look in her warm eyes. Her face is striking, beauty radiating from her with so much power that he wonders why everybody's aren't locked on her, admiring her. The light catches the side of her face as she moves slightly, highlighting her prominent cheekbones.