Shawn woke up to something small hitting him in the face. He cracked an eye open to see Maya sitting at the counter. Her smile got bigger when she noticed he was awake and pelted him with a bit of cereal again. She had been at it for a while considering the amount of cereal that was scattered around him on the couch and on the floor.

"Is this your idea of breakfast in bed?"

"What do you expect me to do when I find you asleep on the couch? Why're you here anyway?"

He heard Maya giggle as another piece of cereal bounced off his head.

"What, not happy to see me?"

"I didn't say that." Maya looked into her bowl of cereal, stirring it around with her spoon. "It's just usually you stay with the Matthews'."

"Yeah, well. I thought it might be nice to have a little change of scenery."

Shawn sat up and looked around the apartment.

"Mom got called to a last minute audition."

"Yeah, she told me. I was half expecting Riley to be here though," he said after a beat.

"Riley and I are kinda in a weird place right now."

"Oh yeah? What happened?"

"Just stupid boy stuff."

"Is the boy stupid or is the stuff stupid?"

"Both."

"You want to tell me about it?"

"Not really."

"Okay, well if you don't have any plans today I was thinking we could go to this art festival I read about."

Shawn watched her sardonic smirk turn into a genuine smile.

"Yeah, I definitely want to do that."


This was possibly the best day of Maya's life. She was surrounded by art. Each side of the street had booths and all the booths were filled with artists, all willing to talk to her about different styles and techniques and mediums; giving her advice and encouraging her. For the first time since Texas, she felt like herself. She felt sure of herself.

"I went on a date with Lucas," Maya said as they were watching an older woman paint. "It's a long story, but that's what's weird between me and Riley."

"Okay. And how did the date go?"

"Terrible. We just sat next to each other, staring at a wall and not talking. And then when he did finally say something, it was this stupid story about him giving birth to a horse or whatever." Maya said, flippantly. "So I poured a smoothie on his head."

"Why did his horse story upset you?"

"Because I'd already heard that story. From Riley. He was just gonna tell me the exact same story that he told Riley and I didn't want that. But it doesn't matter anymore because I decided we're just going to be friends."

"What made you do that?"

"Because I don't want to just hear all the stuff Riley's already heard. I wanna hear the stories that she doesn't know, you know? But that's probably impossible because he's probably told her all of his stories because they talk about stuff like that all the time. I don't want to go out with him if I'm not going to feel...special, I guess."

Shawn didn't say anything at first. He looked like he was trying to choose his words carefully.

"You deserve to feel special, Maya. Because you are special."

Maya blinked back the tears that were starting to well up. It meant a lot to her that Shawn said that. It meant a lot to her that he listened to her and validated her feelings; that he didn't ask about how Riley or Lucas or anyone else but her felt about the whole messed up situation.


When Shawn and Maya got back, the apartment was warm and sweet-smelling. They found her mother in the kitchen by the stove.

"Oh hey, you two. I figured we'd have vegetable soup and grilled cheese for dinner, and brownies for dessert. How's that sound?"

"Sounds great, Mom. How was your audition?"

Maya could hear the gentle clinks as Shawn got out the bowls, plates, and silverware. It made her unexplainably happy that he knew his way around their kitchen.

"Better than expected. They want me to come back and audition again. And what were you two up to today?"

Maya told her mom everything she could about the art festival as the three of them sat around the small kitchen table and ate dinner. Afterwards, Shawn insisted on doing the dishes, so Maya showed Katy the expensive set of pastels Shawn bought her and excitedly told her some of the ideas she had for using them.

Even though she was still worried about how Riley and Lucas were going to act the next time she saw them, Maya went to bed feeling happier and lighter than she had in a long time.