It had been three weeks since Shawn had been staying at the Matthews, and had been telling Zoey that he was slowly hating staying over there. Zoey had offered Shawn if he wanted to stay over at her place, but he kindly rejected the offer.

At school, Zoey slugged her bag over her shoulder as she walked through the halls. She stopped when she saw Shawn drinking at the fountain, wearing a bright, ripped yellow shirt. Not the color Shawn would ever wear.

"Shawn, what are you wearing?" Zoey asked, walking up to him.

"It's a shirt Mrs. Matthews gave me." Shawn replied.

Zoey looked at the item of clothing. "It's really.... yellow."

"Shawn, is that the new shirt my mum gave you?" Cory questioned as he approached his friends. Zoey noticed that he was wearing the same yellow jumper Shawn had on.

"Yeah." Shawn answered. "Looks all right now, huh?"

"Do you know what she's gonna do when she sees that?" Cory asked.

"My guess is - clean it, sew it back together, and put an 'S' on it." Shawn sassed.

Zoey stood in the middle of her friends, she wanted to say something about the way Shawn was speaking, but she didn't want to get caught up in between her two best friends.

"Look, she's trying to be nice to you." Cory told him.

"And I'm just trying to get through this thing without making any waves." Shawn replied, grabbing onto Zoey's hand and walked with her through the halls.

"You know, you can tell me anything, right?" Zoey said.

"What do you mean, Zo?" Shawn asked, stopping in his track and looked down at her.

"Shawn, I know when something is bothering you." Zoey told him. "Please, tell me what's on your mind."

"Do you think we should do this?" Shawn wondered, squeezing Zoey's hand.

Zoey furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "We should do what?"

"Us." Shawn answered. Zoey's mouth parted in shock as she felt the soft panic that grew inside her stomach. Her heart pounded against her rib-cage. "What do you say, Zo?"

"You... You want to be with me?" Zoey asked, stammering over her words slightly.

"Yeah." Shawn replied with a smile. "I've started liking you since you were with Leo, and I just couldn't take it anymore. So... would you be my girlfriend?"

Without hesitation, Zoey nodded. "Yeah."

Shawn leaned forward and kissed her. The world feel away. It was slow and soft, comforting in ways that words would never be. His hands rested below her ear, his thumb caressing her cheeks as their breathes mingled. Zoey ran her fingers down his spine, pulling him closer until there was no space left between them and she could feel the beating of his heart against her chest.

••••

Next morning, Zoey decided to go over to the Matthews place before heading to school. She walked around the backyard and knocked on the back door a couple times. After a second, Mrs. Matthews opened the door with a warm smile.

"Hey, Zoey. You're up early, aren't you?" Mrs. Matthews wondered.

"Yeah." Zoey replied with a nod. "Mum's working early at the café this morning."

"All right, you can have breakfast here." Mrs. Matthews offered, letting Zoey inside the kitchen. "Shawn and Cory will be down in a few minutes."

Zoey couldn't help but grin every time she heard Shawn's name. She couldn't believe that her and Shawn were now a couple. She's so happy that the guy she liked for ages was now her boyfriend.

"Thanks, Mrs. Matthews." Zoey said as she walked over to the kitchen table.

When Zoey sat down at the table, both Mr and Mrs. Matthews stood by the stairs, waiting for Shawn and Cory.

"Guys, breakfast." Mr. Matthews called and a few seconds later Cory walked down the stairs.

"Hey, Cor, where's Shawn?" Mrs. Matthews asked.

"I'm sorry. Who?" Cory questioned. Zoey narrowed her eyebrows, Shawn must've sneaked out of the Matthew's house and asked for Cory to cover for him.

"Oh, Shawn, yours and Zoey's best bud, the guy you're sharing your room with." Mr. Matthews clarified.

"Oh, Shawn. Yeah, he took off real early." Cory said nervously, quickly walking to the kitchen table.

"Like Nine o'clock last night?" Mrs. Matthews asked.

"Well, I wasn't looking at my watch, but do you two just know everything all the time?" Cory wondered.

Zoey nodded. "My mum knows everything." Cory gave her a look. "I tell you what, it's creepy though."

"No, but right now, I do know that Shawn is our responsibility." Mr. Matthews said, walking up to his son.

"But, Dad, Shawn needs space." Cory told his father. "He's like a wild dog doing wild-dog things. You had to be there."

A knock was heard at the kitchen door. Zoey turned to see Mr. Turner entering with Shawn behind him.

"Jonathan, thank you for the phone call. Let us know what's going on in our own house." Mr. Matthews said.

Zoey got out of her seat and walked with Cory towards Shawn.

"Hey, where were you last night?" Cory asked.

"I was at Turner. Would you relax?" Shawn questioned.

"Cory, Shawn and Zoey, upstairs - now!" Mrs. Matthews told them..

Shawn grabbed ahold of Zoey's hand as the three walked up the stairs up to Cory's room.

After a couple of minutes of lying on Cory's bed, extremely bored out of their mind, Shawn decided to go back downstairs. A moment later Zoey sighed and followed him, hearing Chet's voice over the phone, talking to Mr and Mrs. Matthews. She noticed Shawn becoming angry, staring at the adults.

"Well, if I know my boy, even money, when adults are talking about him, he's probably somewhere behind 'em, listening." Chet said over the phone and the adults turned their heads to see Shawn and Zoey on the staircase. "Hi, there, big guy."

"None of you want me." Shawn said, his expression filled with hurt. "Well, that's fine! I don't need any of you! I never needed anybody!"

And with that Shawn stormed upstairs. Zoey raced after him and up to Cory's room. When she entered the bedroom, she saw Shawn grabbed a bag and threw it out the window.

"Shawn!" Zoey called.

Shawn ignored her as he climbed out of the window and towards the tree. Zoey let out a sigh before she raced to the window and climbed out of the window, following after Shawn. Zoey went down the tree and stood beside Shawn, breathing heavily.

"Fall down a blowhole, did you?" Mr. Turner asked as he stood in front of Shawn.

"I'm not in class. I don't have to listen to you." Shawn told him before he began to walk away.

"Where are you gonna run now, Shawn?" Mr. Turner questioned.

"What do you care?" Shawn asked.

"I was beginning to think I didn't care about anything." Mr. Turner replied, slowly approaching Shawn.

"Yeah, fine, whatever. I got to go." Shawn said as he began to walk off once more.

"Yeah, I know. I've been there." Mr. Turner spoke, which caused Shawn to stop in his tracks. "Someone reaches out to you and says they care about you, it's easy to run."

"Look, I'm sure you got a lot of big emotional problems to work through here, but I just need to find a place to sleep, okay?" Shawn told him.

"I'll do you one better. How about I give you a home?" Mr. Turner offered.

"What, your place?" Shawn asked.

Mr. Turner nodded. "Yeah, my place."

"For how long? Three weeks and then you get sick of me?" Shawn wondered. Zoey sat down on the green lounge chair, glancing between Mr. Turner and Shawn.

"Oh, I'm sick of you now, Hunter, but I'm still making the offer." Mr. Turner replied.

"Why?" Shawn questioned.

"'Cause I'm thinking I should do something for somebody else. I think I need that." Mr. Turner answered.

"You're not gonna tell me what to do." Shawn told him.

"Somebody's gotta." Mr. Turner responded.

"You're not my dad!" Shawn exclaimed.

"I'm not trying to be!" Mr. Turner said. "Look, I'm just offering you a roof and a window to crawl out of. Although it is five stories up.

"I like a challenge." Shawn stated.

"So do I." Mr. Turner responded.

Zoey couldn't help but smile when Mr. Turner offered his hand out to Shawn, who placed his bag down and shook Mr. Turner's hand.

Then all of sudden, Cory fell from the tree.

"Oh, gosh!" He groaned.

"Are you okay, Cor?" Zoey asked, getting up from her seat and helped him up.

"Look, I'm gonna go square things with your dad. 'Cause that is what the responsible adult-type would do." Mr. Turner said as he walked back inside the Matthew's house.

"So you're moving in with Turner, huh?" Cory asked.

"You were listening?" Shawn wondered.

"Well, I was snagged up there for awhile. I had to wait till a squirrel lost interest." Cory answered.

"Yeah. You know, Cory, your folks are great and all, but this seems right." Shawn told his best friend.

"Yeah, I think so." Cory agreed. "But you know what this means, don't you? I mean, you're not a stray anymore."

"Yeah." Shawn chuckle as he sat down on the green lounge. Zoey sat beside him and grabbed his hand. "So, what's it like to be a housebroken dog?"

"It's not so bad." Cory replied, sitting beside Zoey. "I mean, you get your meals regular, you get your own chew toy, and if you bring in the paper, they are so thrilled."

"What if I hate it?" Shawn wondered.

"I'll have my mum and dad put in a doggy door for ya." Cory replied.

"Just leave a window open." Shawn said.

Cory nodded. "You got it."

"Mine's always open to you dogs." Zoey said with a warm smile.

"Also, when did this happen?" Cory asked, gesturing to Shawn and Zoey holding hands.

"Yesterday." Zoey responded.

"And you guys are happy together?" Cory wondered.

Shawn nodded and pressed a kiss against Zoey's cheek. "Yeah... we're happy."

___________________
PUBLISHED: March 30, 2018
WORDS: 1690