"SO YOU'RE A TOUGH GUY, LIKE IT REALLY ROUGH GUY, JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH GUY, CHEST ALWAYS SO PUFFED GUY" Elle and I screamed the lyrics of Billie Eilish's, 'Bad Guy', along with the rest of the people in the crowd, jumping up and down.

For the past couple of hours, Elle and I were singing, dancing, screaming along to the lineup for today, Saturday. After Billie's performance, Elle and I decided to go get coffee at this cute little stand in the middle of the grounds. We were waiting in line, a pretty long one, and I heard someone yelling my name from a distance but I wasn't sure so I turned around to look and see. "Alana Sinclair?!" The voice sounded so familiar but I couldn't pinpoint exactly where from.

A couple of people down the line, I saw a face that was very familiar to me. He was wearing an all white outfit along with a rainbow makeup look. He whispered something to the person next to him and walked up to me. "Sister!" He opened his arms and I went in for a hug. My eyes were wide as I was a bit starstruck.

"James Charles?!" ( hello everyone. many of you know that James Charles was involved in a scandal with Tati Westbrook. she had a video that came out today and James made a response video. I don't agree with the actions that he has decided to make and I don't know if everything that was said was true, so if it was, please don't attack me for having James in the story, he just seemed like a cool person to put in at the time that I wrote this. soooo yeahhhh. have a great day :) 5/10/2019)

"Sister Alana! It's so nice to meet you!" He smiled widely at me.

"You too!" I smiled back. "I'm confused. How do you know who I am?"

He looked at me as if I were crazy. "Anyone who is a fan of Daddy Shawn Mendes knows who you are"

My heart dropped a little at the mention of his name. All the Coachella festivities have done an amazing job at distracting me from everything that has happened. James must have seen something change since he said, "Oh. Sister, I'm sorry. I totally forgot"

"It's fine" I said giving him a small smile.

"Do you want to go sit down and vent? I'm very good at giving advice!" He shimmied a little.

I chuckled. "Sure" James took my hand and led Elle and I to this canopy area that had couches and stuff. We sat down on the purple couch and I watched as James crossed his legs. "Alright. Tell me everything"

"Before I tell you, you should tell me what you know" I said.

James took a deep breath then said, "Well. I've seen the pictures and the videos. Shawn said you broke up? That's pretty much it. I don't know why"

"Wow. It was pretty sudden wasn't it"

"Yeah. It was. I loved you two together so much"

I grinned. "Thanks" I cleared my throat then continued. "I guess I'll tell the story now. So I was at home, doing schoolwork and Elle over here" I gave her a quick side hug. "Saw the pictures of Shawn and Camila and showed them to me"

James' eyes widened as I said this. "He cheated on you?!"

"Pretty much. He actually came to my house a week later and apologized, said he wished he could tell me why he did it but couldn't. Honestly, if you don't have the guts to tell m-"

James lifted a hand, shushing me. "Kitty girl. Please repeat what you said"

"If you don't have th-"

"No not that. The sentence before it"

"He said he wished he could tell me why he did it but couldn't?"

His face brightened. "Ah. We have a winner"

"What?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"Why wouldn't he be able to tell you?"

"I don't know?"

"Don't you see it? I think he was forced to cheat"

Elle, who was to the right of me, started bouncing up and down. "Oh my gosh! James you're a genius!"

I looked at them both, pure confusion on my face. James spoke up. "In this type of industry, companies only want one thing, publicity and sales. Before all this happened, did Shawn mention a meeting?"

"Yeah. He had to leave Hawaii early because he was called in for a meeting"

James raised his eyebrows. I spoke, "You think he was forced to cheat on me?"

"Alana!" Elle said, softly shaking me. "The night before the pictures surfaced, didn't Shawn call you and tell you that he loved you and you shouldn't forget it?"

My mouth opened a little. "Oh my gosh. I need to go talk to him" I stood up from the couch, running my hands through my hair. "I need to go talk to him!" I said a little louder.

"Are you leaving now?!" Elle asked.

"I have to go see him" I replied.

"I'm excited for you but you can't just leave me alone!"

James put a hand on Elle's arm. "Don't worry sister. You can stay with my friends and I. As for you, Kitty Girl" He pointed to me with his pointer finger. "You need to go get your man" I nodded my head saying goodbye, then ran to the ground's exit, calling an Uber to take me to the hotel.

On the way there, I tried calling Shawn's phone but he wouldn't pick up. I got to the outside of the hotel, paying the driver, then getting out of the car and going to the front desk in the lobby.

A petite girl with blonde hair was sitting at the desk, looking at something on her computer screen. "Hi! How may I help you?"

"Hi! Can you please tell me which room Shawn Mendes is staying at?"

"I'm sorry. We aren't allowed to give out that type of information"

"Oh" I said, glumly. "Alright, thank you" I walked away from the front desk, walking towards the elevators and tried to call Shawn again. It went straight to voicemail. Why isn't he answering his phone?!

I felt the urgent need to talk to him so I tried calling Andrew. Thankfully, he picked up. "Hello?"

"Andrew! Hey, it's Alana. Is Shawn available?"

You could hear a sudden change in his voice as it grew soft. "Hi, Alana. We're currently boarding the plane so it won't be a couple of hours before we land"

"Boarding the plane? I thought Shawn had interviews in LA?"

"Yeah. They're all done. We're going back to Toronto now"

"Oh. Okay. Thanks Andrew" I hung up the phone, getting into the elevator and pressing the button for the floor my room was on.

I walked into the room, thinking of a plan. I needed to go to Toronto. I called Elle and she picked up after the sixth ring. "ALANA ARE YOU ALRIGHT" There was a lot of noise in the background and she had to yell for me to be able to hear her.

"Hey Elle! Shawn's going back to Toronto and he's not here anymore"

"YOU SHOULD FOLLOW HIM THERE"

Great minds think alike. Are you going to be okay on your own?"

"I'LL BE FINE. GO TALK TO THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE" She hung up and I went over to my laptop, ordering a ticket for a flight and packing all of my things into my suitcase.

—————-

A four hour flight later, I was back in Toronto. I called an Uber and made my way towards Shawn's condo. Paying the driver, I went up the elevator onto the eighth floor and to the door of Shawn's place. Hesitantly, I rung the doorbell, anxiety building up in my stomach. I heard shuffling from the other side of the door and watched as Shawn opened it, a surprised look on his face.

"Alana. What are you doing here?" He said, surprisingly.

"I need to talk to you. May I come in?"

"Yeah of course" He fully opened the door, allowing me to roll my suitcase along as well. I left it by the door as Shawn led me to the living room. We sat next to each other on the comfortable couches.

He cleared his throat. "So um. What did you want to talk about?"

Needing an answer, I just immediately blurted out the question I've held for the past couple of hours. "Were you forced into cheating on me?"

"What? How did you know?"

"So it's true?"

His eyes softened as he began to speak. "The new president at Island wanted more publicity and said that if I didn't, he'd ruin mine and Andrew's career. Now, it looks like I chose my career over you but I was actually saving Andrew. I'd choose you over my career any day"

My eyes began to fill with tears. "Wow. I understand. You have to do what's best"

"Hey" He said, softly. "Don't cry now, you're going to make me cry"

I chuckled into my cry. "Ah. I'm sorry. It's just been so hard without you, you know?"

He grabbed my left hand in both of his, squeezing it to comfort me. "Does this mean we're okay now?"

I thought about it for a second. "We're going to need some time to recover but" I smiled gently, staring into his eyes. "I think we'll be alright"

"So" he said. "Tell me the story of how you found out"

"It's actually pretty crazy. You know James Charles?"

"The Youtuber guy?"

I chuckled. "Yeah. He's an absolute sweetheart"

We spent the rest of the evening, talking about everything and catching up. Things were definitely not back to normal but I feel like it's getting there. With everything that has happened, it's going to take some time for me to be comfortable with seeing Shawn again. The transition from hating him to forgiving and understanding why he did what he did was definitely messing with my heart.

After about an hour, Shawn and I decided that it was time to head to bed. Shawn started walking up the stairs and noticed that I wasn't following him. "Are you coming?"

"Would it be alright if I stayed in the guest room?"

Shawn gave me a subtle frown. "Alright. Why don't you want to sleep upstairs?"

I gave him a sympathetic look. "Time, Mendes. It's going to take time" He grabbed my suitcase from my hold, leading me downstairs to the guest room, and placed my suitcase near the door. "If you need anything, I'm just upstairs"

"Thanks"

"Of course. Good night ho-" He stopped himself from completing the word. "Good night, Alana"

I smiled softly at him. "Good night, Shawn"