Bullied || Shawn Mendes

Chap. 11

My heart races with the feel of Shawn's grip around my arm. He pulls me off to the side so I'm not in the way of anyone trying to get on the bus. He quickly walks off in the other direction and I'm hesitant on whether or not I should follow him or not. Eventually, I decide to chase after him and I practically have to run to keep up with him. I want to shout out his name and ask him what's going on but I can't find the words and end up not saying anything at all.

He leads me to an alley behind the school and he quickly turns towards me, his breathing is loud and hard, making me feel more and more nervous as the seconds go by. He's pacing back and forth in front of me, and now I'm honestly getting scared for my life.

"Shawn," I manage to say. My voice is quiet but scratchy, "you're scaring me. What's going on?"

He continues to pace back and forth but stops when we make eye contact, "there's something. . .Tegan, I. . . um. Look -uh- Lexi. . ."

Shawn dozes off and it looks as if he is about to cry. I'm too afraid to say anything so for a few minutes, we stand in silence, with the sound of our heaving breathing the only sound taking over the small alley.

"Lexi and the guys wanna hurt you."

My heart drops and I feel the sudden sensation to scream out loud. Everything around me gets quiet and a loud ringing starts to ache my ears. I've never been so scared for my life like I am now. Tears start to flow down my cheeks and all I wanna do right now is tear down a wall. My feet start to move backwards until I run into the hard brick wall. I slide down the side of the wall until my bum is down against the concrete. My head falls into my knees and soon I start to cry hysterically.

I can tell Shawn doesn't know what to do. He's squatted down next to me, with a look of confusion and worry. I have break downs like this all the time though, and I don't know how to control myself.

"I know this is hard," I hear him say, "but I. . .I'm gonna help you."

My head slowly lifts from my knees to meet Shawn's gaze. My tears have started to slow down and I'm now able to contain myself. I look up at him, with a look of shock on my face.

"Why?"

He sighs, and sits beside me leaning against the wall.

"Well," he starts, "because what we did to you was wrong. And I'm sick of it. I couldn't watch them treat another human being like that."

"Then why did you?"

"Because I was afraid. I was afraid of them. I didn't want to tell them to stop because I was afraid that they'd do something stupid to me. I know, it's dumb. I was afraid of my own friends. But it's true. I was terrified of them. And I'm really sorry I never said anything."

I can't seem to find any words to say to him. I wanna shout at him for not saying anything but I also have the strange urge to hug and squeeze him tight. I feel his eyes on me and I turn to see a bold brown eyes.

"You don't have to be afraid," he says, in almost a whisper," I will protect you."

I wanna say something back, but I seem to be choking on my own words. The only thing I can do is stare at him, blinking my eyes quickly to make sure I'm not dreaming. My mouth opens, but I don't say anything. I open my mouth several times, but no words make their way out.

The weather starts to get chilly after a while, and I find myself wrapping my arms around my knees to keep warm. Shawn sits quietly next to me. He's been sitting quietly for a long time. Like he's thinking so much and his head is about to explode. My crazy, over protective mother had been texting and calling me for several minutes, but I turned my phone on silent after the seventh time she called me. I wanna stand up and leave, but I can't find the energy to actually get up and walk miles home.