why do we put each other through hell? - Shawn Mendes, why
-
aria stirs the cup of tea, letting the milk lighten the colour, and add a more creamy taste to the caffeinated drink. her mother is finally at home, meaning that aria, along with liam, and her father, are to take great care of her until she's gained her strength back.

"hey mum," aria says softly, sitting next to her on the couch, placing the mug of tea on the coffee table. "how you feeling?"

"much better, sweetie," her mother replies weakly, turning down the noise of the television. "enough about me, baby, what about you? you look like the living dead, hun."

"thanks mum," she says sarcastically, rolling her eyes, and bringing her knees up to her chest. "and nothing, i'm fine," she lies, bunching up the sleeves of shawns old long sleeve in her small fists, looking at the television, which is playing the most recent episode of keeping up with the kardashians.

"so how was-" her mum gets cut off from the doorbell, making the two of them sigh. aria couldn't keep up the lie any longer, she had to tell her mum about what happened between shawn and her. aria quickly stands up, walking to the door, unlocking it, and revealing shawn mendes, the one and only.

the brunettes face falls completely, as she stands up straighter, looking behind her, seeing her mum looking contently at the screen. "uh, what are you doing here?"

"i didn't think you would be here," shawn mumbles, his eyes falling low. "uh, i came to drop this off, its from my mum."

"oh," aria answers simply. "uh thanks, i guess."

"mhm," he nods, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "so i'll see you soon, then?"

"soon," she nods, looking up, and connecting their eyes. this is the only moment shawn has to completely and utterly understand the girl standing in front of him, and seeing how truly hurt she is over the situation. how can he possibly try to not love her?

"aria," shawn says quietly, reaching out with his hand to grab her wrist. "i need to talk to you."

"there's nothing to talk about," she mumbles, looking down, and snatching her wrist away. "i'll see you around, shawn."

"aria, please-" she shuts the door firmly, letting out a puff of air, as she sighs to herself. "god damn." shawn mutters, leaning against the door. "no." he says to himself. "no, i'm not taking this."

he rings the doorbell again, making aria sigh loudly on the other side of the door, before opening it.

"what do you-" she gets cut off by shawn leaning forward, grabbing her by the waist, and placing his lips onto hers, catching her by surprise. "shawn-" she pulls away briefly, only to have shawn pull her back in again, kissing her hard with all the passion he has left in him.

"don't do this," he says, pulling away, breathless, and his lips slightly more swollen than they were before. "don't end this."

shawn decided to go against what he told his friends. he couldn't fall out of love with her, it was impossible.

"you should go," aria weakly says to him, her eyes glazing over with tears. "please, shawn."

"no, why should i?" shawn questions. "i don't want to end things with you, i'm not going. i'm not leaving until you actually give me a valid reason for us to break up and end this, when we clearly are better with each other."

"don't you see, shawn?" aria questions, a tear rolling down her cheek. "after we told our family and friends, things have just been going bad for us. we've never had this much trouble before, heck, you got punched out cold by your best friend for just dating me. i'm sorry shawn, but this is how it's supposed to be. get over me. lose your love, do anything. but we are over."

"no we're not over!" shawn yells, as a rain begins to set over the scene. arias mum listens to the arguing couple with open ears, concerned, but not wanting to get involved. "no! we're not gonna conform to what my friends want, you do realise that means that they win, right? we're not doing that!"

"what else can we do then?" she asks hopelessly, her voice cracking, and tears rolling down her cheeks. "go back to being hidden?"

"no," he mutters, grabbing her by the hands, and pulling her outside into the rain.

"shawn!" she yells, looking at him in shock, as he looks around, seeing a few girls looking at the scene, one with their phone held up, and he automatically grins, knowing she's a fan.

"we are not staying hidden," he grabs her by the arms, bringing her close, and kissing her underneath the rainfall, not caring how wet their clothes are getting, not caring about how cold it is, and definitely not caring about the chance they could get ill. "i love you, aria. i'm not letting you go that easily."

"i-" she cuts herself off, looking at shawn optimistically. "i need to go see if my mums okay with just liam in the house." shawn nods understandingly, letting her walk off. "this doesn't mean we're not talking about things."

she escapes back into the house, ringing out her clothes and hair, whilst shawn gets back into his car, sitting down in the drivers seat, a lazy smile over his lips.

"hey, mum!" aria calls, walking into the lounge, seeing liam sitting next to her. "oh."

"go," liam and her mum both say. "don't leave him out in the rain."

"i love you!" she calls, pulling on a new jacket, and different shoes, before running out of the house, getting into shawns car, seeing him scrolling through twitter.

"nothing's online yet, which is good. i want to confirm things first before the world jumps to conclusions with fake news."

"can you take me to brians? i need to talk to him."
-
the shock was evident on brians face, as he opened up the door, revealing aria. he hadn't seen her since japan, and he was confused completely, because just the day before, shawn confirmed he had to fall out of love with her, so why would she be here?

"hey," aria says confidently. "can i come in?"

"sure," he says, opening the door wider, as aria walks in.

slowly, she walks in, and folds her arms. "i wanted to talk to you all about shawn."

"aria-"

"no," she says firmly. "i completely understand why you hate me. actually, i completely understand why you would hate me to be with shawn, i know how bad it looks, and i do understand," she begins. "but at the same time, i hate how you're preventing your best friend from being happy."

"granted, you've know shawn on a closer level way longer than i have, and i understand if that is your reasoning behind things, but shawns happy with me. and i don't understand why you don't want him to be happy."

"shawn and i have decided to get back together," she says, making him all look down at the floor. "and i don't want you shunning him for it."

"aria, wait," brian says gently, as she turns around to walk out of the apartment. she drops her shoulders, looking back at him. he steps forward, looking down at her, their faces ever so close.

"brian, i-" he cuts her off, pressing a gentle kiss to her lips, before pulling away, and gazing at her. "brian? what the fuck?"

"i-"

"no, what the fuck is wrong with you?" she spits, turning away, and walking straight out, completely shocked by what's happened.

what is she going to tell shawn? how would shawn even react? should she tell shawn?

"hey," shawn says, as soon as she sits back into the car. "better?"

"i guess," she shrugs, as shawn pulls out of the parking space, driving away into the distance. "brian kissed me." she blurts out. the car comes to a sudden stop, as shawns eyes widen, but then he remembers what brian told him the previous day.

"wait, what?" shawn asks, pulling the brakes on the car. "he did what? he kissed you? what?"

"shawn-"

"why did i let you go alone?" he curses, pulling on his hair. "after he told me yesterday that he likes-"

"he likes me?" aria asks, utterly confused. "why does he act like he hates me?"

"he wants us fucking broken up that's why," he mumbles, starting the car back up. "too fucking late, he cannot get his way. i won't let it happen."

aria sighs softly, leaning her head against the window of the car, looking outside. "can we go to yours?"

"sure," shawn agrees, a slight sadness among his voice. aria notices, but doesn't question it, considering that he is annoyed at his best friend, and doesn't even know what to think.

aria just hoped that their friendship wouldn't be ruined because of this.