Hello again! First of all, HUGE thanks to TOW146 and zendog for reviewing! *hands out imaginary pineapples* Secondly, I'm going to try and update this once a week, I'm working on picking an exact day, but for now just expect an update sometime at the beginning of every week. Enjoy!
Chapter One: First Impressions
"Shawn? Why is the door of the Psych office unlocked?" Gus barked into the phone as he entered the office. He took a breath to continue, stopping when he saw the sleeping form on the couch.
"Buddy? You there?"
Gus slowly raised the phone to his ear again. "Shawn, why is there a girl on the couch?"
"Wait, what?" Shawn responded, genuinely confused.
"There's a girl sleeping on the couch in the office, Shawn."
"Gus, you know I'm in a semi-stable long distance relationship. Why would I order a hooker?"
"Not funny," he snapped back. "She looks young, maybe seventeen, tops. What do I do, Shawn? I can't wake her up, she might attack me!" His eyes widened as yet another horrifying possibility occurred to him. "What if she's rabid? She could be rabid, Shawn!"
"All right, all right, calm down. I'll be down in a second."
Upon entering the office, Shawn saw that Gus was right: there was, indeed, a teenage girl curled up on the couch, asleep. Gus was perched on the desk, watching her warily and holding a baseball bat. Shawn rolled his eyes. "Seriously, dude? You're afraid to touch her?"
Gus glared at him. "Look at her, Shawn," he hissed. "She could be dangerous."
Shawn took a closer look at the girl. Her hair, despite being tied back with a large red scrunchie, was tangled, and the plain red shirt and jeans she wore were slightly ragged. Overall, though, she looked like she made an effort to keep clean. No makeup, cheap plastic-y watch, bare nails, white converse knockoffs-well, they probably used to be white..."She doesn't look dangerous. A runaway, maybe."
"So...do we call the chief?"
"Well, maybe we could talk to her first. I mean, we don't know how she ended up here. Come on, Gus, a little courtesy!"
"I think we should call the chief…"
The two became so caught up in their bickering, they didn't notice the girl stir. She opened her eyes groggily, then shut them again and rolled over. Suddenly she sat up, staring at the two men with fear-widened eyes. Cautiously, she climbed off the sofa. Maybe I could sneak out…
"Stop!"
She froze, standing in the doorway, her eyes shut as she cursed internally. Reluctantly, she turned to face them.
"Who are you, and why were you on our couch?" Shawn was doing his best to channel Lassie, and while Gus found the effect comical, the girl appeared to be scared out of her wits.
"L-look," she stammered, "I-I'm sorry. It's just, I - it was raining, and the door was open. I didn't - I didn't mean any harm. I'll just go, I won't bother you again."
"You didn't answer my first question."
She paused, still wearing the frightened deer-in-the-headlights expression. "Aria. My name is Aria. Can I go now?"
"How old are you?" The girl didn't respond, instead turning to leave. "I can call the cops and press charges. How old are you?'
She lowered her eyes, caught. "I'm twenty one."
Shawn and Gus exchanged a look. Yeah, right. If you're going to lie, at least say something remotely believable. Raising a finger to his temple, he closed his eyes dramatically. "No! I'm sensing you're younger...thirteen?"
"Um...no…" Her expression shifted from terrified to confused.
He tried again. "Fourteen?"
Aria smirked, slightly amused. "Nope."
"Fifteen?"
She gasped in mock astonishment, clapping her hands to her cheeks. "Wow, how on earth could you have figured that out?"
"Psychic."
"Last time I checked, psychics weren't real."
"You were wrong. I am as real as you are...you are real, right? Or is this just one elaborate hallucination?"
"Yes!" she responded sarcastically, her eyes widening yet again. "This is totally just a dream! Close your eyes and count to ten and when you open them, you'll be awake. I'm not actually real."
"Please. Everyone knows you have to count to twenty one and a half to make yourself wake up from a dream."
"Uh, Shawn? Nobody knows that. That isn't a thing." Gus objected, wrinkling his forehead.
"Gus!" Shawn complained, "Don't be a microwaved iPhone." He turned back to face Aria. "So, you ran away from home? Do you live nearby? What's your last name?"
"No!" she protested - a bit too quickly, Shawn noted. "I mean, no, I didn't run away from home, yes, I live nearby. What actually happened…" She sighed. "God, it even sounds ridiculous in my head. Basically, I like to walk on the boardwalk during my free time, and I was out a little later than usual, and the storm came so quickly. I was just looking to keep dry. The power blew before I got a chance to call my mom, let her know where I was."
Shawn paused, thinking. "You're right. That does sound ridiculous. How about the truth?"
"That is the truth! I swear, that's what happened. Scout's honor." She held up her left hand eagerly. "So, um...I'm gonna go now, you forget about this encounter, and we part ways as unlikely friends," she suggested.
"Sorry, no can do," Shawn said, shaking his head.
For once, he and Gus were in agreement. "He's right. We need to at least call your parents."
Aria sighed. "Well, can I at least get your names before we start negotiating? You're full names. You've already got the home-court advantage. It seems kinda unfair."
"Shawn Spencer," the light haired one replied. "And this is my associate-"
"Burton Guster." He gave his friend a glance of annoyance.
"Okay...so, anyway, um, Mr. Spencer, Mr. Guster…nice to meet you...bye!" She bolted for the door.
Gus briefly considered chasing after her, but after a few moments, it became clear that Shawn had no intentions of doing so himself, so Gus abandoned that plan in favor of heading for his desk, glancing at his watch as he reset the alarm clock to the correct time. Shawn's gaze followed the the girl until she was out of view. "Gus."
His friend looked up. "Yeah?"
Shawn kept staring out the window. "Gus, she was lying."
"Yeah, she admitted it, remember?"
"What? No, not the age thing. I think the part about her being fifteen was the only honest thing she told us, that and her name. She was biting her lip after everything else she said, and drumming her fingers against her leg. That, plus the shifty eyes, and the guilty run out the door? She's one of the worst liars I've ever met."
Gus furrowed his brow in confusion again. "So…?"
Shawn appeared for a moment to be deeply contemplating something, then shook his head. "I don't know, it sounded more dramatic in my head. Maybe I'm just hungry. Jerk chicken?"
"You know that's right."
So, that's Aria! You'll have to excuse her behavior this chapter - we all get flustered sometimes, right? ;) Until next time! Please review!
xoxo,
DoeEyedDarling
