Some Things Never Change [SHAWN MENDES]

November 13, 2014

Life was good.

My EP was selling well, and I was continuing to work on new music. The second single from my upcoming full-length album had just been released along with a music video, and both were getting lots of buzz. Some critics saw me as "just a Viner/YouTuber," but I was determined to prove to them that I was a legitimate singer-songwriter like my idols John Mayer and Ed Sheeran. I spent hours of my free time trying to improve my guitar skills, and every time a potential song lyric popped into my head, I wrote it down.

The next big adventure was performing live in front of substantial audiences. I was embarking on my first tour tomorrow, so tonight I was being thrown a send-off party by my family. It wasn't a huge crowd; just the people I'd miss the most while I was gone.

"Have I mentioned how jealous of you I am?" Brian asked.

My friends and I had moved down to the basement after eating our fill of pizza and chicken wings, leaving the adults upstairs. I'd need to pop back up there every once in awhile since the party was in my honor, but for now it was nice to be with people my own age. I'd missed a lot of school lately and would be taking the rest of the semester off while a tutor accompanied me on the road. I'd be back in school for January and most of February, but then my tour resumed with the European leg, and it was up in the air if I'd see an actual classroom after that. There were already plans being made for another tour that would follow my album. Andrew and my team at Island records were also looking ahead to my second album, which they hoped would come out around my eighteenth birthday.

"If your music career turns into something big, I hope you'll remember the little people that supported you from the start," Matt said.

"Something big, I feel it happening..." Ian started to sing, though he was terribly off-key.

"Enough talking about me!" I demanded emphatically.

No one listened, of course.

"Maybe you'll meet Fiona when you perform in London and hook up with her," Brian said. "She did say in that interview that 'Life if the Party' was her favorite song, so it's possible she'll go to the show."

Fiona Slattery was a model and actress from Dublin who had been labeled "The most beautiful teen in the world" by multiple news outlets. She was two years older than me, but it's not like that mattered because she was so far out of my league that it wasn't even funny. I had it bad for her, though, and all of my friends knew it. She was tall with porcelain skin, long wavy red hair, and pouty pink lips that put dirty thoughts in my head. There was a folder of photos on my phone dedicated just to her that I looked at when I needed to "relax."

"There's no way Shawn's coming home from tour a virgin," Ian said, "but if he loses it to Fiona, that would be so fucking spectacular. Epic, even."

"I'm pretty sure she's been spotted with Harry Styles lately," Ceci said from her seat on the couch.

"Way to be a buzzkill, Cecilia," Matt said.

"Oh. Sorry. Let me start over. Yes, Shawn, of course Fiona is going to see you on stage, be awestruck by your homespun Canadian charm, and fuck you in your hotel room later that night," Ceci said drily.

"I never said I had a chance with her," I asserted.

"But it's damn fun to imagine, isn't it, bro?" Brian cackled.

Ceci stood up. "I'm going upstairs. I don't want to choke on the testosterone that's filling this room."

"I think that's just Shawn's toxic farts," Ian said before high-fiving Matt.

After Ceci left, the conversation continued along the same vein, though the guys suggested several other girls I should try to get with if I had the chance.

The party broke up around midnight, but the Burroughs family stayed behind to help clean up.

"You and Ceci can take a trash bag to the basement and pick everything up so that I don't have to deal with that mess tomorrow," my mum instructed.

We dutifully went downstairs and had the room tidied up in under ten minutes. I collapsed on the couch, exhausted from the party and from the whirlwind that my life had become. Ceci sat in a chair across from me.

"Sorry about earlier," I told her. "You know how the guys are."

"I do, unfortunately."

"Are you mad about the conversation?"

She shook her head. "Not mad. It is kind of disappointing to hear that you'll be using your celebrity status to get laid as much as possible. That's not you."

"I never said that. The guys were just being stupid, and it's not like I agreed with them."

"Hm. But you didn't disagree, either. If Fiona shows up backstage you aren't going to tell her no, are you?" she pressed.

"That's a ridiculous hypothetical situation and you know it. Besides...Andrew has rules about banging girls on tour. I guess there's the possibility I could find some who were willing, but I've got a chaperone traveling with me to prevent it from happening."

"It's much more than a possibility, and I'm sure there are ways around the rules. Just make sure you are always safe. You do have condoms to take with you, right?"

"I thought my mom was upstairs, but here she is sitting across from me," I said with a groan.

"Sorry. I couldn't help it!"

She looked gorgeous tonight in a black and red striped sweater and black leggings that accentuated her ass perfectly. Brian had taken a picture of it when she wasn't looking, which pissed me off, though I couldn't tell him why. I did, however, make him delete it.

"Come sit with me, Ceci," I urged as I patted the couch cushion.

We had only kissed once since the camping trip this summer, and that had been on my sixteenth birthday. It was one brief kiss that we'd snuck when no one was looking. Since then, we hadn't had much opportunity.

The thing between us was weird. We'd made out for hours in the tent, and things had gotten a little intense. She'd taken her shirt off, and I'd ended up on top of her. Yet we were still just friends. Nothing more. She'd clarified this the following day when we had a few minutes alone on the dock, and we'd reaffirmed that it was staying a secret.

"I'm fine where I am," she said.

"You're not going to see me much over the next couple months," I said.

I was missing her birthday, which was less than two weeks away, but she already knew what her present was. I was flying Ceci and her parents to New York City to watch me perform at the Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden. They'd be staying at the same hotel as me and my family. I had a day off between shows, so we were going to check out the city together the following day.

"I hope I can survive the separation," she said semi-sarcastically.

I stood up and held an imaginary mic to my mouth before starting to sing. "Cecilia, you're breaking my heart. You're shakin' my confidence daily."

She smiled at me which just egged me on more.

I walked towards her chair and dropped to my knees. "Oh Cecilia, I'm down on my knees. I'm beggin' you please to come home."

"Can I confess something?" she asked.

"You can tell me anything. You know that."

"Ever since I heard that song, I was hoping you'd sing it to me one day."

"I can do it again if you want," I said softly as I looked up at her from the floor.

"Ceci!" Lisa's voice rang out from the top of the stairs, interrupting us. "Time to to go home! Shawn has an early flight tomorrow."

"You got down on your knees for nothing," Ceci said as she ruffled my hair.

As we walked up the stairs together, I wondered if she knew how dirty that comment sounded.