#Sloan conversely couldn’t fucking stand this dude at first-

[odessastone]

Writing some Mauga/Venture that was supposed to just be straight-up PWP. but now feelings are getting involved.

[watchmegetobsessed]

The Long Way Home // Shawn Mendes - part 2

hope you like the story, im having more and more fun with writing it!

Part 1

masterlist

I do grocery shopping early in the morning not wanting too many people to see me around the neighborhood. The nearby Walmart is basically empty and 6.30 am and the elderly cashier woman couldn’t give less fuck about who she is talking to. Once I’m back home I get changed and go for a quick run on the beach, just to have a look around and get my blood pumping for my first official day here. Running in the sand is making me work hard and by the time I finish my lap I can feel my thighs throbbing. I’m panting heavily as I reach my neighbor’s house and switch to walking. The deck is empty, all the blinds are drawn, no sign of her. My mind is still running about her familiarity, but I still haven’t figured out who she is and how I might now her. I spend the rest of the day in the studio room shutting the world out. It’s around eight when I come out of the house again, just in time for another sunset. I make a cup of tea and make myself comfortable on the ground, mentally noting to buy some furniture for the deck. I might as well leave them once I’m gone, but I could really use some seats out here.

The sun is halfway hidden behind the water when I see movements in the corner of my eyes. I turn to the right and see her again. She is wrapped into a grey blanket, her hair looks the same, kind of even messier than yesterday and this time she has a mug in her hands. She sits down on the steps and stares blankly into the distance, just like yesterday.

She probably didn’t notice me and I debate if I should go over again or not. I really want to find out why she looks so familiar and if maybe I knew her name it would finally click. So I decide to go for it again.

Luckily she is kind of zoned out and doesn’t notice me until I almost reach her deck. She jumps a little when she sees me walking towards her, almost spilling her drink. She stands up, but I speak up before she could escape again.

“Hey! Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” I say with a warm smile, trying to look as friendly as possible. She doesn’t answer, just stares at me intensely as I finally reach her deck. “I just wanted to introduce myself. I’ll be spending the summer here. I’m Shawn.” I stop at the steps looking up at her, but her expressions doesn’t loosen up. I look into her green eyes and can’t not notice the dark circles under them that have me wondering what she does that keeps her up all night. She looks skinny, her hands are bony, fingers long without any color on the nails. She doesn’t look like the kind of girl who does hours long glams every day.

I feel like she is not going to say anything, but then she speaks up.

“Okay.”

That’s all she says and suddenly I feel extremely awkward. She doesn’t even want to say her name and I basically feel like she wants me out of her property, but I need to know her name at least.

“And you are…” I try, which clearly is pissing her off and doesn’t want to answer. “Look, I’m sorry if you don’t like famous people, but I swear I didn’t come here to get into trouble. I’m just trying to get away from the world for the summer. I swear I won’t cause any trouble around here.”

“You better not, because I don’t need the attention.”

Her reply is spicy, making it clear that she is not a fan of mine or anyone who is famous.

“Okay,” I chuckle awkwardly, feeling like I’ve definitely overstayed my non-existent welcome. “Can I at least get your name?”

“Look, I’m not trying to get friends around here, okay? We won’t go jogging together, watch the sunset or paint the view sitting on the deck. I’m here to be alone, so don’t count on having a buddy in your neighbor.”

I’m kind of speechless, her dry reply just hits me hard in the head and I don’t know what to say. For such a pretty girl she has a pretty sassy, kind of rude attitude.

“I was just asking for your name. No need to bite my head off,” I say, still not over her behavior.

“I’m Sloan. Thanks for coming over, but I have something to do now. Bye,” she snaps before turning around and walking into the house, shutting the door behind her.

I stand completely frozen for a couple of moments before I manage to move my legs and leave. I slowly walk back to my house and halfway I stop and glance back. I see the curtains move in one of the windows so I know she has been watching me and I just can’t really figure out where to put this conversation in my mind.

Sloan. She definitely doesn’t want to be good neighbors, I mean I wasn’t planning on making a new best friend, but we could have hung out a few times, I was hoping to have her watch over the house when I’ll be gone, but she definitely doesn’t want to stay in contact with me. And her name didn’t even help me figure out why she looks familiar, but seeing her up close just strengthened the feeling inside me.

  “You really didn’t go too overboard with this house,” Brian comments as he looks around in the living room and the kitchen.

“Why would I need more? It’s just me here.”

“I’m just saying, it’s a big change after the hotel suits and luxury apartments,” he shrugs plopping down to the couch, making himself comfortable. I grab two beers from the fridge and join him handing his drink. “Thanks.”

“I’m perfectly fine with it.”

“I know, you are going back to your roots, finding yourself and all the shit,” he mocks me rolling his eyes, but I know he is just joking, so I just shake my head laughing.

We stay silent as he continues observing his surroundings. The place is quite cozy, that’s one of the reasons why I like it. Every piece of furniture seems to be so different, but at the end it looks great together. It’s a nice mixture of vintage and modern that goes perfect with the view over the deck.

I catch Brian staring out the window and I know he is a sucker for a nice walk at the beach but would never admit he likes all these cliché stuff.

“Wanna go for a walk?” I ask and watch his eyes light up.

“Sure!”

With our cold beers in our hands we leave our shoes behind and take the beach barefoot. The wind is messing our hair up, but luckily it’s not cold.

“So, how is writing?” he casually asks.

I know everyone is worried, I would be too. A year ago I wrote two songs a day. Being on tour gave me so much inspiration, but soon my mind got blocked. I didn’t talk about it for a long time, everyone thought things are going well, but then I had nothing to present at the meetings, studio sessions became painful as I couldn’t get one song done in weeks. The team sat me down one day and I told them how I’ve been feeling. The past two years have been too suffocating, I was always on the road basically until I was so exhausted I couldn’t get out of bed. It’s not like I was forced, it was more like my own, inner motor pushing me. I felt like if I don’t do everything right now I might not be able to do it later.

Andrew cancelled half of my plans after that, I spent a week at home, just rewiring my mind and I realized this is what I need. I have to take a few steps back, spend some time alone and get everything in my mind straight and just think about everything that has happened.

“It’s fine. I started a song, but I’ve been here only for two days.”

“You sure being alone is doing good to you?”

“Yes, Brian. And tell this to Andrew as well. He is texting me every hour to check in on me. I’m not a baby,” I chuckle.

“I know! We are just worried about you.” He holds up his hands, clipping the beer between his thumb and pointing finger.

“Worry less, I’m doing fine.”

He stops and turns to me with a serious face and I know he is talking for real this time.

“We just don’t want to see you go where you were in 2018.”

“I won’t,” I reply right away. I promised myself I would never go there again.

“Alright, I trust you,” he smiles at me patting my shoulder before we start walking again. “Oh, you have a neighbor!” he points out nodding in the direction of the little blue house.

Sloan is out on the deck, she is wearing a huge, black hoodie with no pants, she is barefoot, as always and her hair is finally let down. It’s longer than I thought, almost reaches her waist.

“Yeah, she is not a fan of mine,” I scoff taking a sip from my beer. Brian is watching her, he is squinting his eyes as he tries to take a better look at her as she throws a few towels over the railing of her deck.

“You talked to her?”

“Yes, and she made it clear she doesn’t want to be my friendly neighbor.”

“What’s her name?”

“Sloan.”

“Dude, no way!” His eyes widen as he glances at me and then back in her direction. When she is done with the last towel she walks back into the house.

“What?”

“You didn’t recognize her?” he gasps and I shake my head no. “That’s Sloan Westbury!”

“Who?” I ask as my mind is slowly putting the pieces together. The familiar face, the name…

“Shawn, she is Sloan Westbury, the Disney girl who went nuts last year.”

“Oh my God,” I whisper as realization hits me.

I know now, this is why she looked so familiar, I’ve seen her on TV so many times. Last year, when I was touring the press was all up in her ass. She had numerous scandals, wild parties and nude photoshoots, people were judging her every step right until she deleted all her social media profiles and just… disappeared.

“She was rude because she thought I would bring attention to her again,” I realize as I stare in her house’s direction.

It’s all clear now.