I stayed over at Shawn's place the night of the party, since I figured I would need to help the dummy the next day. We also happened to have basketball practice Saturday morning, so he was pretty much screwed either way. Luckily, I had spare clothes for basketball in my car. I managed to wake up at six am, walking out of the guest room and towards Shawn's room. The house was a complete and utter mess, with cups, bowls and wrappers everywhere. I could even see random pieces of forgotten clothing and random spills of liquor and food. Ugh.

I opened the door quietly, since he was still asleep. I prodded him. "Morning sunshine." I chided, as he groaned and held his head in his hands. "Time to wake up."

"Ugh, what time is it?"

"Six in the morning."

"Seriously? Leave me alone and let me sleep."

"I would, except we have practice in an hour. So, get your ass up."

His eyes widened as he realized, shooting up to a sitting position, only to immediately wince and hold his head. "I'm too hungover for this."

I found a towel slung over his chair and threw it at him. "Go take a shower. I'll drive us to practice today. Then get your ass downstairs."

I left the room and went back down, going into the kitchen to see if I could find some sort of breakfast to eat. I found frozen waffles in the freezer, so I just made those. I also managed to figure out how to use Shawn's coffee pot, and made some of that as well. I was just done making the waffles, when I heard someone groan and stumble out from behind the couches in the living room.

A dishevelled Veronica came out, her hair a mess. Despite all that she still didn't look that bad, not to mention extremely hungover.

"Ronnie? What are you doing here?"

"Huh? Oh, Alex hey. I dunno... I guess I must have passed out..."

I rolled my eyes and poured her a cup of coffee while she plopped down on the kitchen island. "What the hell happened last night?"

"I have no idea; I didn't see you at all."

"Where's Tyler?"

"Didn't see him either."

She groaned and put her head on the white marble, saying that it soothed her headache. I managed to get her to eat something and have some coffee, and she felt better after that. Shawn came down after a bit, wearing basketball shorts and a random Nike shirt.

"Morning." I told him, placing a cup of coffee in front of him as he sat down. He didn't seem the least bit surprised to see Veronica. He hadn't bothered to comb is hair either, and didn't look at all like he could play. I guess I was stuck taking care of these two.

After another twenty minutes and two cups of coffee, I managed to get Shawn on his feet to leave for practice. His house was around ten minutes from school by car, so we got going.

He sat in the shotgun seat, while I drove silently. Neither of us made any indication to say anything. I wasn't even sure if Shawn remembered what had happened last night. It had gotten pretty weird, and only confused the heck out of me. There was no point denying it, some part of me was definitely attracted to Shawn. Like the Shawn Hunter. The one with a reputation for playing around with women. Me and him as a thing? Good lord.

Finally, after five minutes, I decided to speak. "So um, Shawn. Do you have any recollection of last night?"

He thought for a second and then spoke. "Kinda... I mean it keeps coming to me in bits and pieces."

"Um, okay."

Neither of us said anything again, and we reached school. I parked the car in the parking lot, and we both headed up the steps together. We managed to reach practice just in time, as everyone had started to warm up. I dumped my stuff in the locker room and made my way onto the court, smiling at Stacy, who was now in recovery. She seemed to be doing a lot better now.

"Hey Alex!"

"Hey Stace. How you doing?"

"Much better. I just hope I'm well enough to play in the finals."

Coach blew his whistle to call us over, so we all made our way over to him. He gave us the usual inspirational locker room speech, and then put us through hell for the next two hours, with some of the hardest exercises I've ever done in my life. Not to mention, a lot of running. My stamina was totally not up to it.

Not surprisingly, Shawn couldn't keep up that well, stopping randomly with his hands on his knees while his Coach yelled at him to keep going. Andrew asked him if he was good and he just brushed him off and kept running. Can't be easy with a hangover. Why would that idiot throw a party?

After practice as promised, I drove us back to Shawn's house to help him clean up before his dad got back home. It took forever, as we kept finding the most random things stashed around the house. At one point I found a cereal box jammed into the lid of the toilet. Like who does that?

It took a really long time, but we managed to get it done. I was just giving the kitchen counter a last wipe down, while Shawn sat there staring off into space with a vacant look in his eyes. Looks like his hangover wasn't fully cured yet.

"Well, I remember what happened last night."

He spoke up suddenly and I stopped, my back still facing him. I waited for him to continue speaking, not quite sure how to respond.

"Despite how drunk I was, what I said was true you know. Also, I didn't thank you for helping me yet so, thanks."

I turned around to face him, walking over to clean the kitchen island he was sitting at. "Uh, you're welcome." I replied, still unsure of what to say. Looks like whatever Shawn felt was now out in the open. But me? I wasn't quite sure what to do yet.

"So... now what?" Shawn asked awkwardly. I finished cleaning up and stood in front of him. "I dunno. You want to go get hotdogs or something?"

************************************

"This is a pretty good hotdog."

"I know right? I could eat a hundred of these."

Ten minutes later, Shawn and I had gone to a hotdog vendor and bought some, now walking down the street as we ate. It was lunch time on a Saturday, so a lot of people were walking about. Not to mention it was also getting sunny. We went to the park, and eventually found a place to sit that wasn't too crowded. You could see all the kids running around in the distance, laughing and yelling. I smiled when one kid ran around with a dog, playing fetch and giggling happily. Cute.

"I noticed you never quite answered me." Shawn said, after finishing his hotdog. I finished eating mine as well, crushing up the wrapper and throwing it into the bin in a perfect arc. I sighed.

"I'm... confused."

"What do you mean?"

"Like you're Shawn Hunter."

"And you're Alex Peirce. What's your point?"

I rolled my eyes, turning my head to the side to face him. His eyes were glinting in the sunlight and he certainly looked better now, his complexion now back to normal and his face looking less tired. His hair was still in his usual trademark messy look, which somehow looked even better now.

"I just... don't know what to do."

Now he rolled his eyes, putting both his hands on my shoulders and facing me, looking me right in the eye as he spoke. "Alex, come on. We both know there's something going on here, don't even try to deny it. If we both feel the same way about each other, what more do we need?"

"Shawn..." I started.

"Look me in the eye, and tell me you don't feel something for me."

I opened my mouth but no sound came out. I certainly couldn't deny that some dumb part of me felt something for him. But was this actually going to work? Nothing good came out of getting involved with Shawn Hunter. The guy was a mess. Honestly, I was a mess too.

When I didn't say anything, that answered Shawn's question and he smirked, a wicked gleam in his eyes that told me he was about to do something stupid. He grabbed my hand and stood up, dragging me out of the crowded side of the park and towards the trees, which were somewhat like mini woods. I felt the leaves crunch under my feet as we walked deeper inside, until we reached a clearing with only one tall tree in the middle, which Shawn started to climb.

"Hunter! Get down from there!" I yelled, still smiling at his craziness. "Get your ass up here Peirce! Come on!"

Sighing to myself I started to climb. We couldn't go fully to the top since the branches started to get to thin, so we just sat down on a thicker one below, praying that it wouldn't break. It was a pretty sturdy tree though.

The view was great, as you could see down to the park and the streets, since this tree towered a little over the rest. We sat there for about five minutes until I started to hear some angry birds, so we both climbed back down, laughing as we tried to get away from a vicious mama bird.

We started to walk back, the two of us just making random jokes and laughing remembering silly memories of the gang. We were almost back to the park when Shawn took my hand in his again and I stopped abruptly. I started at our intertwined hands like a complete weirdo, looking back up at Shawn's face only to see him smirking at me again.

"So, are you ready to admit you have feelings for me yet?" He whispered in my ear, with the same knowing gleam in his eye, moving his face even closer to mine and smiling.

"Shut up."

Next thing I know, we were kissing.

I couldn't even tell you who initiated it, and I didn't really care either. His hands moved down to my waist and I wrapped mine around his neck, pulling him as close to me as possible. Our tongues wrestled for dominance and I tugged on his hair, as he let out a breathy moan. Now it was my turn to smirk, until he pushed me back up against a tree, one of his hands now at my neck, kissing me even more fiercely that before. He pulled up my legs and I wrapped them around his waist, as he supported me against the tree. We kissed until we were both breathless, pulling away from each other, panting heavily.

I opened my eyes and looked at him, his face flushed and smiling. He dropped down my legs, as I brushed myself off, my face red.

"You're a good kisser." He said as we walked back, and I gave him a playful punch on the shoulder. "Shut up."

We got into my car and I drove him back home, dropping him off in front of his house. "Thanks." He said, and got out, closing the door behind him. I was just about to drive when he opened it again.

"What? Did you forget something?" I asked. He grabbed me by the neck and kissed me again, pulling away with a grin. "Maybe."

I rolled my eyes and drove off as he walked back up to his house, smiling. I can't believe that just happened. Wow. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.