Everyone likes to make jokes about them.
Topanga, Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, Eric, Morgan, people at school.
They were abnormally close for two teenage boys. But that's what happens when you've known someone for so long, right?
Right?
Topanga will say, "Why don't you just marry Shawn?"
Shawn acts disgusted while Cory plays along. "Because our kids would look like horses!"
He knows it's supposed to be funny.
Shawn never gets the joke.
When they are older and Shawn has an overbearing girlfriend, she tells him he can't spend time with Cory.
He doesn't get that either, but plays along.
The jokes spike in occurence at that point.
"Hunter's gotten himself into a love triangle."
"I never pegged Matthews as The Other Woman."
Shawn would look at his feet sheepishly. Smile. Laugh.
That's what you do when you don't get the joke.
That's what you do when the joke's on you.
As they get older, their PDA becomes more and more taboo.
When they "break up" their senior year of high school, everyone is pretty upset about it.
Cory copes by eating ice cream and watching day time television.
"Everything okay between him and Topanga?" Alan would ask.
"Great! Never better," Amy would say.
"When they kiss, he enjoys it, right?"
Queue laughter.
Shawn handles the loss by finding new friends, "cooler" friends, people more like him.
He tries to give one of them, Chad, a side hug. Chad doubles backwards and gives him an incredulous look. "What the hell are you doing, Hunter?"
Shawn misses the softness of Cory's arms, but remembers that such thoughts are forbidden. Thoughts like his are considered laughable.
After they make up, everyone is happy for them.
"Looks like the happy couple is together again," Mr. Matthews would say.
Shawn laughs along, finally believing he understands.
His and Cory's closeness is something tangible, and when it isn't there, people notice.
So Shawn laughs. Relieved laughs. Happy laughs. Never mocking, he never understands that the laughter only works if it's mocking.
"Yeah, we're about to head out for our first date reunited," Shawn says as he throws both arms around Cory's shoulders. It's lighthearted. It's innocent. He should leave it there.
But he doesn't.
Shawn cups his hands on one side of his face, and plants a big kiss on the guy's cheek.
Cory looks at Shawn just like Chad did not too long ago. Cory's dad looks at both of them, his eyebrows furrowed together in what could be read as either disgust or confusion. Maybe both.
"Shawn, what are you-?" Cory doesn't finish that sentence, he's pushed Shawn away. "Why?"
"It... It was a joke," Shawn insists, deflated. His cheeks burn red. "It was funny."
"You took it too far," Cory says.
"I didn't mean... Look, my mistake. That was wrong. I get it. I'm sorry."
He doesn't get it, but he can't let them know that.
It's awkward for a while, but they move on from it. Mr. Matthews feigns understanding, but will continue to look at the duo suspiciously from time to time.
When they get drunk together months later, Cory admits that it wasn't so bad.
"I mean, you're my best friend. We're allowed to do that stuff, right?" He takes a big swig from his father's whiskey bottle. "I was mostly freaked out because my dad was there... you know what I mean? I don't want him thinking I'm..." He doesn't finish the sentence. He can't finish the sentence, and when that happens he stops walking and looks at Shawn with a look of terror in his eyes. (It's a bit exaggerated because he's drunk, but that's beside the point.)
"Gay?" Shawn offers.
"Yeah," Cory says, "that."
It's quiet for a while. They don't continue walking. They just stand in silence.
"So what if you are?" Shawn finally asks.
"You mean that wouldn't... bother you?"
Shawn doesn't respond for a while. He wants to ask him why it should bother him. He wants to go on about how when someone loves another, nothing should get in the way of that. The poet in him would say that love is so bright it hurts some people's eyes, but it should never be kept in the dark.
He doesn't say any of this, however.
Shawn kisses Cory, right then and there.
(Later, both boys would fake a blackout and never mention it again but,) For the moment it's midnight and they're the only two people on this street, maybe even in this neighborhood, this city, this world, and nothing matters except soft whiskey lips brushing against each other, drunk and clumsy and much too sweet.
When Shawn pulls away, he's got a giant, dimpled grin on his face and he laughs. Shawn laughs and laughs, his stomach filled to the brim with happiness and butterflies that just need to be let out. "Come on," he says, "we really should get home."
Cory, with goofy grin of his own, wraps an arm around Shawn's shoulders. He'd later confess to the boy that he can live without Topanga and not him, but that, too, would be lost in the chaos that is their lives.
They continue their night and, yeah, mischief happens, but this (whatever this is) is by far the most scandalous.