Shawn Mendes Imagines

Follow My Lead

Taking a break from the sweet vs sour series for a moment... a request from @gpiggy20! I kinda added a bit to it completely by accident but I hope you still enjoy it x

"S'up Tiny." I hear him before I see him. An elbow knocks against mine as he slumps into the seat beside me, sending my pen across the page and scarring my work. A girl sitting nearby shoots me a dirty look - for what, I don't know.
"Mendes," I mutter in greeting. Deeming the page useless, I rip it out and start anew. Thankfully maths class had just started and I'd only written a few sentences on the problems we were doing. "Stop calling me Tiny."
"Why would I do that?" He smirks, opening his book. The teacher eyes us from his desk, a warning lying wait on the tip of his tongue that threatens to tell us to shut up.
"Because." I whisper, too distracted to come up with a proper answer.
"Hate to break it to you, darling, but you are tiny." He responds simply.
"You're just unfairly tall." I mutter, pen between my teeth as I try to follow the lesson.

This conversation occurs at least once every week, but that doesn't stop me from hoping for a different outcome each time. I guess some things are too permanent to erase.

I've known Shawn since I was five, when he accidentally tripped me up in the playground and apologised profusely afterwards for ten minutes. Even as tears dripped down my cheeks and onto my dress, I insisted it was okay. The whole interaction was really quite mature for two five year olds.

Years passed of short greetings in the hall or in class. There was never any need or reason for us to be friends. That is, until Camila suddenly hit puberty and decided boys were God's greatest gift to the world. She tried it with everyone, and Shawn was no exception. Except he was, in a way. He turned her down, admitting that he had his eye on someone else. Camila wasn't bothered, he was only a distraction from her own real crush who hadn't noticed her yet, and they remain great friends to this day.

I never used to have a problem with Shawn. I always thought he seemed sweet. I used to watch him with his friends across the cafeteria at lunch, a wide grin on his face and shining eyes as he joked about with everyone.

That all changed at a party two years ago, when I walked in on him with his tongue down the throat of Ashleigh, a girl who had openly bullied me all through high school. He had known of all the things that she had done and how it affected me thanks to Camila, and had even comforted me on one occasion when it all got too much. "Don't waste your tears on a person like that. You're amazing and if one stuck up bully can't see that then it's her problem."

I still remember his face when I opened that door - eyes wide and cheeks flushed, hair sticking up in every direction. He called after me when I turned and left, tears building up behind my eyes. I didn't turn back, and haven't since.

Half the lesson passes before I feel another nudge to my arm. "What?" I sigh, glancing at him out of the corner of my eye.
"What did you get for number four?" Shawn whispers, trying to peek over my arm to my copy.
"Piss off." I grumble.

A beat of silence.

"Please, Tiny." He begs.
I make the mistake of glancing at him, immediately seeing the pout of his lips.
I sigh again, louder this time. "Y is equal to 56."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He whispers excitedly, earning a glare from the teacher.
"Eyes on your own work Mr. Mendes."
"Yes, sir." Shawn replies, before muttering under his breath about the stick up his ass.
I try to hide the smirk pulling at my lips as best I can, but the wink he sends my way dispels the belied that I got away with it.

I watch for a few moments out of the corner of my eye as Shawn continues working on the next question, tongue ever so slight showing between his teeth, before bumping his arm with mine.
"What the fuck? Why'd you do that?" Blue pen is scrawled across the page as his eyebrows shoot up in shock.
"Payback." I say, shrugging.