Chapter 7 - Consequences

Jon knew better than to think he was out of the woods yet. He doubted they were even close.

But that morning had made him feel like maybe there was hope, like they could still find their way sooner or later. Jon spent most of the day catching up on grading, house work, and sleep. Shawn came down to eat something around lunchtime, but he went back to his room when he was finished. Jon wondered if he hadn't been sleeping for the past few days and needed to catch up. Or maybe he was awake in his room, and he just needed some time to himself. Jon didn't mind either way.

He cooked and set the table for two, just in case. And to his surprise, a minute after the oven beeped, Shawn came down and sat at the table.

Jon didn't dare speak and break the spell. Shawn thanked him quietly when he passed over the serving bowl, and he ate, if a little slower than usual.

Halfway into the meal, Jon was confident that if he had started talking, Shawn would listen. He could talk to him about the drinking, about his attitude lately, about skipping school and endangering himself and sabotaging his future.

But despite having slept all day, the kid looked worn out. There were deep bags under his eyes, his skin was paler than usual, and even his hair hung flat.

So Jon took a different approach. He put down his fork and looked up. "Hunter, I'm sorry."

Shawn's eyes flicked up at him, then back down to his bowl. "For what?"

"Losing my temper in class. It wasn't right, I shouldn't have embarrassed you like that."

Shawn shrugged. "It's OK."

Silence.

Jon picked back up his fork, poking at what was left of the pasta without actually eating anything. "Where did you get the alcohol?"

"Uh, you don't have to worry about that."

"And why is that?"

"Because I'm not going to drink again. It's not worth it."

Jon nodded slowly. "I'd still like to know where it came from."

"Uh, I don't think you wanna know."

It was the way Shawn said it, the way his eyes darted toward the kitchen. Jon knew. He was going to have to stop storing liquor in the house. He would have to pass off everything he had now to Eli, assuming he had any left. "Your butt is grounded."

Shawn's jaw set. "I already told you, you can't do that."

"If I have to show up to your last class of the day, walk you to my car, and stand guard by the door of the apartment all evening, I will. I can get a lockbox for the TV remote, I can get password protection for the phone. But I don't think you wanna go there."

Shawn shifted his weight. "How long?"

"How long do you think is fair?"

"Come on, man, my dad never made me guess."

Jon was half surprised that Shawn's dad had ever taken the time to ground him. He decided to go lenient, just this once, since Shawn had already had to suffer through the hangover. "A week."

"Could I talk you down to a weekend?"

"You could talk me up to two weeks."

"A week is fine." Shawn gave a nervous laugh.

Jon nodded. "That means no allowance, no dessert, and no driving practice."

Shawn's eyes widened. Jon hadn't given him an allowance the year before. They'd hardly ever had dessert. And they definitely hadn't driven. "So when I'm not grounded…"

"Ten bucks every Monday morning, not a minute sooner. That's a privilege, Hunter. And...we can do some baking or something every now and then, I've got a couple of recipes tucked away."

"And the driving?"

"Got your permit?"

"Yeah."

"Want me to take you to the DMV when you're sixteen?"

"You'll practice driving with me?"

"Sure." He knew he was taking his life into his hands, but he figured he might as well, all things considered.

Shawn looked hopeful for a moment, but then he looked down again.

"We don't have to."

"I want to, it's just…" He bit his lip. "It's kind of… you know…"

"A dad thing?"

For a second, Jon thought he'd messed up. Shawn seemed to shut down. But he hadn't stormed away from the table, so there was still hope.

"It's OK, kid," he said quickly. "You can wait, I get it."

"Nah, I don't want to wait."

"You don't have to decide right away."

Shawn perked up. "Hey, if I learn how to drive, can I ride your bike?"

"Not a chance."

"Hey, I had to take a shot," Shawn said, smirking. He looked down at his bowl again, and his smile slowly faded.

Jon knew what it was like to have vision of something in your head and watch it slip away. He didn't know what it was like to be ripped away from a parent he loved—he really had never been close to his parents—but he knew the pain of loss, too. So he took another risk. "Shawn, I'm so sorry about your parents."

Shawn shrugged. "Someone probably would've found out about the drugs sooner or later, whether or not you said anything about the... neglect."

That didn't sound like a word Shawn would use. He wondered if the kid's social worker had said it. "Yeah, but I know you miss them."

"I'm fine, Jon."

"I'm just saying, if you ever want to go down to the jail and visit your dad—"

"I already went. With Cory."

Jon blinked a few times. That was the last thing he was expecting.

"Yeah, my dad's doing OK. I mean, jail sucks, but he's been there before. He wasn't actually doing drugs, or selling them. Just storing them for a guy in the trailer park. We were getting a cut of the profits, I guess. I should've known, we had too much food around the house…"

Jon felt sick to his stomach.

"He says the judge just has to order him to do some stuff to get me back, and he's going to do it as soon as he gets out."

Something about that hurt. Jon wasn't sure what it was. Maybe it was a lack of trust; he wanted to believe that Chet could improve, but that year away hadn't filled him with confidence. Maybe it was fear for the kid, that he would go through this entire thing all over again, growing more jaded each time he was abandoned.

But this pain felt a little more selfish. Against all odds, Jon had desperately missed the kid when he moved out the first time. He didn't wanna go through that again. It was stupid, since that was exactly what he wanted—God knew he wasn't going to adopt the kid—but telling himself that didn't stop the aching in his chest.

Out loud, though, he just said, "That's terrific."

Shawn's expression darkened. "Why? So you can get rid of me?"

"Hunter, you know I don't mean it that way."

"You wanted my dad to be in jail."

"I never wanted that."

"You called the police."

"I did what I had to do."

"Whose side are you on, man?"

"Yours." Jon didn't even have to think about that one. "Always yours."

Shawn stared at him for a long moment. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I want you to be safe, I want you to grow into a smart, well-adjusted adult. I want you live a good, fulfilling life, find happiness, all that. So...I want you to be wherever you can do that best. And if your parents can get some help, they'll be the best people to raise you. They know you better than anyone, and they love you."

Jon immediately regretted his word choice, remembering what Shawn had confessed about his dad the night before, that his dad had never said those words. But it didn't seem to faze Shawn. He half smiled and picked up his plate, taking it to the sink.

Then, he started doing something that he had only ever done when Jon had fought him to do it. He started filling the sink with warm water and soap.

Slowly, hesitantly, Jon brought his dish to the sink. "You washing tonight?"

"Well, I figured, since you cooked."

Jon didn't ask if it was a new rule Shawn was proposing, or if he was just in a good mood tonight. It didn't matter. Something had changed between them, one way or another. He decided to press his luck just a little more. He gave Shawn a couple of claps on the back and said, "You're a good kid, you know that?"

"So you'll reconsider that grounding?"

"Hunter!" Jon ran a hand down his face. He should have known.

Shawn put both hands up. "Fine, fine." He walked toward the stairs.

"You're not gonna..." Jon gestured to the dishes.

Shawn looked back, from the sink to Jon. "Nah."

Jon crossed his arms and gave him his best teacher look.

"Or… I guess I can." Shawn came back to the sink.

Jon brought over a clean dish towel and stood beside him to dry. "You know, Hunter, I could offer you a different deal."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"Instead of being grounded for a week, I could give you a to-do list. I spring you the minute you finish."

"Wait, so, if I finish tomorrow…"

"You're off by Sunday. But I should warn you, you might not be able to finish that fast."

"Oh, we'll see about that. What's the list?"

"Easy. You're done the minute your room, the bathroom, and the dishes are clean, and you have no missing assignments."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"Can I get that in writing?"

"Gladly." Jon took a notepad and wrote the four items, then he tore off the page and placed it on the counter in front of the kid.

Shawn smiled down at it for a moment, then his eyebrows drew together. "Wait, but what if I finish almost everything, but then my teachers assign more work? Or the dishes get dirty again?"

"Not my problem."

Shawn frowned, looking at the list again. "I'm not...re-grounded if I miss another assignment after I finish this, right?"

"Nah. You know the consequences for missing assignments, though."

"Oh. We're still doing that."

"Yeah, we are." Jon put a hand on the list. "We have a deal, Hunter?"

The smile slowly crept back onto the boy's face. "Deal. You're getting the crummy end of it, though, Jon."

"Yeah? How's that?"

"Cause I'm just gonna work all day tomorrow."

"I'll find a way to muddle through." He should have thought of this sooner. Suddenly, though, he thought of a loophole he needed to close. "You get an F on any of those assignments 'cause you were rushing to get sprung, you're grounded again."

"How about a D?"

"Hunter..."

"Fine. I'll try." Then he mumbled, "No promises though, my teachers hate me."

"Feeny doesn't hate you."

"My science teacher does."

"Teachers don't grade based on whether they like you. They grade based on the quality of your work."

"Maybe you do," Shawn said.

That didn't sound right to him, but he made a mental note to keep an eye on the situation. They had made more progress in one night than Jon had ever expected.

They finished the rest of the dishes in comfortable silence, then Shawn disappeared to his room again while Jon camped out on the couch, just in case the kid changed his mind in the middle of the night and tried to make another run for it. Jon didn't think that would happen, but at this point, he was almost getting used to sleeping on the couch. It felt safer.