Chapter four: Sanatorium for Broken Hearts
"Hey," Shannon called out gaily as she walked into the Dining Room- their camp's Mess- later that day, arm in arm with her BFF.
Abby turned, the familiar face breaking into a grin as she characteristically bounced towards them.
"You're happy! So is the Cold War over then?" Abby squealed, looking at them.
"Yep," Anna smile, daintily seating herself.
"Shannon, get me a piece of chocolate cake, yoghurt and salad," Anna ordered.
"Yes, Sire." Shannon murmured mockingly.
Abby raised her eyebrows ridiculously.
"You wouldn't get it." Anna said to her twin dismissively.
So Shannon went to get Her Highness' desired order, and like the good girl that she was, she coquettishly smiled at a boy, winking at him as he let her have his place.
"Well, never seen this side of Ms. Kilbourne," Trevor's back said to her.
Shannon looked up at him, surprised, and tapping him on the shoulder, said, "Hey! What are you doing here?"
"Getting food. Have you ever tried that?" Trevor grinned, turning his head towards her.
"Haha, very funny."
"So…do you regularly do that?" Trevor enquired.
"Do what?"
"Trap poor boys with your pretty smile so that you could hog their place?"
"Not usually…" Shannon smiled coyly--and suggestively.
"Ah…" Trevor nodded, turning his head away.
"Looking nice today." Shannon grinned.
"Really?" Trevor asked, his eyes getting strange.
"'Course." Shannon's grin now turning Cheshire cat's twin.
"It's unusually hot here, isn't it" He tugged at his collar, passion red, clearing his throat and resolutely avoiding her eyes.
Whoa. Was it just her or was he blushing?
"You will not believe what just happened!" Shannon called out, laughter floating in her voice before the actual sound.
"What?" Abby yawned.
"I made Trevor blush…." Shannon sang out as she bounced-sat herself next to Anna.
"You shouldn't go around pulling out young boys' belts, dahlin," Abby cackled.
Anna, on the other hand, looked at her suspiciously, "what did you do? …Oh no, you really didn't pull his belt, did you?"
It was decided that day: Anna would make one of those anxious mums who are overly concerned about the states of their children's socks.
"No!" Shannon laughed, "No way. That is something Abby would enjoy, seeing the poor young men, clutching their pants, and whisking away red faced." Shannon fluttered her eyelashes towards the accused as Abby protested, "Never. No way. Or, well, wait. I did do that once…" And as her friend went into a deep trance about that (good) time when she did do something so immaturely naughty, Shannon explained her outburst: "I made Trevor blush by smiling at him."
"He…blushed?" Abby said, confusedly raising her eyebrows, after fully having enjoyed the men's embarrassment in her imagination; poor them, and they had hoped to win Abby' permanently reserved heart.
"How did you smile at him?" Anna asked the same time; she knew Shannon simply too well to know her to be so innocent.
"Oh…just a bit--shyly." Shannon replied nonchalantly, finding the white goo on her plate more interesting all of a sudden.
"Why were you flirting with him?" Anna asked, raising half an eyebrow dangerously.
"I wasn't---"
"Oh my gosh! That's it! That's it! Shannon likes Trevor!" Abby exclaimed in her grand way that usually made skeptics raise their eyebrows or roll their eyes. But that's because they didn't know Abby's exclamations and how harmless they were.
This one, however proved to be more fatal than bargained for.
This one made Shannon sincerely wished she had never opened her mouth.
But corrections had to be made where they were due:
"Now. First of all, I didn't flirt with him. And even if I did smile in a bit dally manner--not consciously, mind you--so what? It was just in good fun!" Shannon cried warmly, then lowering her voice, all the while scanning the room, hissed, "And I do not like Trevor!"
Before Anna could say anything, Abby cut in with, "but that's it, see? A normal person would laugh it away but Trevor, he would obviously blush because he likes you. So if you flirt with him, he sees it as you liking him back, which obviously flusters him since he can't believe that you could possibly like him back!" Abby grinned breathlessly.
"Please---" Shannon began; but as nobody that day was in a particular courteous mood, Anna interrupted with, "That's a possibility."
Distracted, Shannon whirled towards her all-of-a-sudden crazed friends and shout-whispered, "What!"
"Yeah. I mean, why not? I always got the vibe that he had feelings for you. The way he looked at you and all…"Anna thoughtfully looked at the checked shirt victim as he neatly emptied his plate into the bin.
"But if she doesn't like him back, it wouldn't be the first time." Abby smirked.
Mad Hatter, Alice and the March Hare sat in silence for a minute, each pondering the possibility. Mad Hatter enjoyed it and indulged herself in a scenario of little Trevvys and Shannies running around in diapers; Alice wondered about the insanity of this world, wondering why she wasn't surprised after all she had seen; and March Hare sighed for her ailing friend who clearly was wounded by another adult male in her life.
Presently the bell rang, clanging the three out of their reverie.
"…You are mad." Shannon shook her tray in the bin, spilling half its content outside. "You all are reading too much into this thing. It was just a stupid blush…not a love declaration," she trailed away softly; however contradicting it with the bang of her tray on the metal table.
It was hard for her friends to decipher the expression as she ethereally floated away to her classes- the blank, serene expression on her face making matters unclear and mystifying, but of one fact Abby was sure: "I love match-making."
"Hello there, mon amie!" Trevor grinned as he removed his bag for Shannon to sit in the Astronomy class that day.
"Hi," Shannon smiled softly, the sunshine shining cheerfully behind her.
Trevor caught his breath and hacked uncomfortably, "well, this is our second-to-last Astronomy class."
"So it is." Shannon slowly flipped her notebook over and again in her hands.
"And camp's about to end in a week." Trevor continued, hesitant.
"Hmm."
"You will be going back to Stoneybrook, then?"
"Uh-huh. And you, to New York?"
"Yes," he looked at his hands, "you'll keep in contact?"
"Of course. You will reply?"
Trevor nodded, reddening.
"I think I'll miss you." Shannon whispered moving her hand forward to find his.
Trevor held his hands behind his back like a prisoner in handcuffs.
Shannon blinked, and leaned away from him hastily.
Friends don't act that way.
And friends were all they shall remain.
-------
The boy you never wanted
Just steals your heart
I never saw it coming
…Till I fell so hard.
Stanzas that haunted her dreams, hour after hour, dream after dream. She saw Juliet sing to Romeo, the stars to the moon, the carpet to the dust; her mother to her father; the butterfly to the flower; and she to…
She woke up.
"I have a problem." Shannon mumbled to Anna.
"What is it, dear?" Anna asked, setting aside her violin.
"I am...feeling weird." Shannon briefly glanced at Abby.
"Abby darling. Could you excuse us for a minute, please?" Anna asked, enjoying playing mother.
"You wish!" Abby scoffed, firmly throwing herself on the couch.
"Abby…"
Sighing, Abby slowly crawled to the door and left, but not without giving both of them her worst, most evil fisheye.
"So what's it?" Anna asked anxiously.
"I have been feeling bizarre for a couple of days. I mean, I blush when I shouldn't; smile when I wouldn't. I feel happy one second and utterly mortified the other. When I near him, it's like I am near the sun. I feel the sunshine; but I feel the intense heat too. That wasn't how it used to be. We were friends. Good friends. But now, all of a sudden, all there remains is a strange anxiousness and awkwardness. I hate it but I can't do anything about it. We went to Taco Bell last night and neither of us really talked. Not even about Astronomy. Oh, it kills me!" Shannon tumbled into a chair, her head in her hands.
Anna was quiet for a moment.
"You like him then?"
"I can't!"
"Why not?"
"Because he's not my type."
"Uh huh."
"No seriously. We are friends and that's all we are ever going to be."
"But you obviously--"
"No way, Jose. I've been watching too many of those love stories with the boy-girl friendship theme. Psh. Naw." Shannon waved his thought away, as if it were some irksome fly that could be swished away with her scorn.
"Well. I must go to Astronomy now. Tata, amiga!" Shannon left her best friend in a flurry of forced cheerful words and extreme tumult, her steps hasty as if afraid Anna may reveal something she wouldn't be able to bear.
As if haste and scorn had ever scared Trouble away.
No, Trouble was like that devil that wouldn't let go. Trouble on mission is, well, a trouble.
So fasten your seatbelts.
Trouble has just boarded the Killyou Airways.
Shannon knew that everything in life could be controlled. Including one's self and heart. And as she set for Astronomy, she took out a rope and bound the red thudding idiot to herself, promising never to give it to anyone, come what may.
Though the ropes cut, she bravely walked down the corridor.
Life can be controlled.
Sad as it is, it is true.
But heart…
As she turned the corner, she heard something she certainly could not bear. You shouldn't eavesdrop, it really isn't good for you. But Shannon was helpless; Trouble had plotted it so.
"What're you doing this Saturday?" She heard a female voice breathe into somebody's ears.
"Uh, nothing." Somebody.
"O-kay. How about a burger in cafeteria right now? And a date this coming Saturday?" the voice cooed as Shannon caught the rustle of cloth and, peeping carefully, she saw the girl fling her arms around him.
Suzanne Crimson. Who was having the very effect as her name; Trevor was turning a deeper shade of the colour of passion by the second.
"I--I don't know. Maybe." He mumbled, nervously footing nothing.
"Great! I'll wait for you then. Bye!" And Suzanne leaned over and gave him a peck on the lips, making Trevor look like as if he were about to swoon.
Suzanne jaunted away, leaving Trevor to sigh and red glass to shatter on the path she left behind.
Oh, it's true: Nobody hears when the heart fragments to a million and one pieces.
That was not good.
Every particle in her being echoed that except the rebellious mind, which callously asked, "Why?"
"Because." Her old heart thumped; it was still busy surveying the damage and had no time for Brain's foolish questions.
Brain is called obstinate for a reason. It laughed pitilessly, "why, he has all the right to go out with any girl he wants to."
Heart found it hard to breathe; the lungs had stolen all the air, as usual. Yet it managed to gasp out: He never told me.
"Why should he?" Brain pointed out maliciously.
"Because." Heart sulked; not liking questions on its authority.
Shannon and her heart were united on one front: they hated the word 'why'.
It simply caused too many problems.
The last thing Shannon wanted right now was to face him but she had no choice: it was the last class of Astronomy and they had to present their project today.
So she crept in, her tail tucked, her ears flattened and her heart bloody; the bleeding would not stop.
Suzanne was nowhere to be seen.
Trevor was, looking rather red and nervous.
"Hi," he mumbled to her.
Shannon didn't say anything to him.
The ability to speak is largely connected with the heart, it is true.
Besides, her teeth were jammed together with a spicy goo called jealousy.
Perhaps the greatest irony of life is that the Heart, the machine of life, is the most fragile of all; it was like that delicate china that could not be handled carefully enough., even by mother. But it was like a woman, internally strong. It faced the most hurricanes, even more than the bladder, and it was always came out limping, but walking nevertheless.
It was valiantly trying this time as well. It had summoned all its physicians and they were working.
But the case was serious; the hot water was deeper, the claws sharper.
Alas, but broken hearts require more than mere stitches.
"Hey Shan! How's the day been?" Anna asked as she set the tray next to her, later that afternoon.
"Hearty." She mumbled.
"Mine too. I talked to Trevor during the music class today," Anna chirped, picking up her muffin; glancing sideways at Shannon, and fearing that little fear she always had for her best friend.
Shannon grunted.
"And we played together again. I am learning the guitar now. It's a lot of fun.," she laughed as Abby slid in the chair opposite to them, crossing her eyes.
"What?" Shannon asked Abby, chewing the rubber slowly. No respect for veggies. As usual.
"Tara Smith. She needs to get a grip." Abby fumed.
"What's she done now?" Anna enquired.
"What's she NOT done?" Abby cried.
"Shh…" Shannon hissed, spying the pretty brunette, hoping she had not overhead them.
"She knows Rick likes me and I am into him. Yet, she goes around flirting with him, left, right and centre just to spite me, putting all her nasty paws over him." Abby growled ferociously, stabbing her knife into the chicken as if wishing it were Tara.
"Boyfriend stealers are the worst," Shannon readily agreed, her eyes disgustedly examining the sickening spectacle occurring on the adjacent bench.
"Yeah and she---" Abby began only to be cut by Anna's loud, "Anyway, so I am pretty sure I've mastered the G chord. Trevor says I'll learn faster since I know how to play the violin." Anna waved her fork, her prawns shaking along it pathetically.
Shannon recoiled back a bit.
"He also said that since he and Shannon here are finished with their Astronomy course, he is thinking of doing Latin."
"Latin?" Abby stared.
"Yes, it's a language." (Abby rolled her eyes.) "So, I asked him, why was he doing a third language? He's already doing French and Spanish."
"And German. But, Latin sounds interesting." Shannon looked up to see a ray of hope shining through.
Hallelujah.
"Oh Lord Almighty, help this poor child!" Abby cried.
"What? Why?" Shannon asked as she made her plate run for cover from the assault made by the shaking prawns on Anna's forks.
"Doing too much work is a disease, my sweet child. You do not need Latin. You'll never need Latin."
"But it sounds like fun." Shannon feebly protested, seeing green meadows and running deer in those Latin classes. Maybe they would assign partners again?
"No wonder you and Trevor are made for each other. Geeks…" Abby shook her head in mock sorrow and horror, causing laughter and Shannon's heart to trip three steps.
"He's with Suzanne Crimson." Shannon answered too hastily, as she picked up her fork and poked at her uneaten burger.
"Is he, now?" Anna asked, interested.
"Yeah." Shannon mumbled, her eyes turning a green never seen before.
"Who's Suzanne Crimson?" Abby asked in a revolted voice.
Shannon silently pointed towards the blonde who cooing away at a red-faced Trevor at the table next to them.
"She does know checks doesn't go with stripes, doesn't she?" Abby scoffed harshly as she looked her up and down.
It was mean, but it did contribute a bandage towards the mending heart.
"Of course she doesn't," the heart thought smoothly as it put a piece to rest, tired and weary. It had a hard job to perform, and it was already beat.
The eyes weren't though. If anybody had looked into Shannon eyes' at that moment, they would have seen a cat there; for they glowed just as bright, just as green.
"You do like him. Don't you? But you just can't accept it. Because he's not your standard of ideal man." Anna voiced Shannon's insides, saying the shameful that used to be true so easily.
Shannon kneeled next to her and looked down at the blue tiled floor, feeling like Columbus on his first voyage, looking for the land but simply never finding it.
"It's hard for you, isn't it. You are such a perfectionist. You think life can be lived as it is in books and movies. But you need to understand. Life can't be lived that way. Wake up, darling. Understand that in the end it is the heart that matters. Materialistic things would get you nowhere," Anna cupped Shannon's head and spoke to her in the way her mother would have, if she had not been picking up her own broken red shards.
"You could be the most beautiful, the richest. But when it comes down to the person, goodness matters. Hearts matter. They must meet."
But to meet ,there must be faith. And Shannon could see her sailing away on a boat, taking away Trust as well.
Shannon didn't think she would ever find Faith again. But then, Surety was there and she had said to her:
All men are the same.
Amen.
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Author's note: :D What can I say, I love melodrama? You all, I am so serious. Start reviewing! This is like the fourth week. Aw come on? Please? You are making me beg, sheesh, shame on you. :P
Lines mentioned: Love Story by Katharine McPhee, on which this story is based. :D
Adorations,
Ginny