"Shawn, what was that?" Cory exclaimed as he finally caught up with Shawn at the apartment. They were in Shawn's bedroom. As Cory stood in the doorway Shawn grabbed his duffle bag which had held his clothes when they first left Philadelphia.
"That's it! I have had enough, I'm going back home," he said seriously as he was packing his clothes into the bag.
"Home? Shawn, what are you talking about? This is our home!"
"This?" he said looking up. "This isn't our home! This just happens to be a place that I said for half the summer. Home is back in Philadelphia. I'm leaving New York. I'll go and stay at Jack and Rachel's place while I sign up for fall classes at Pennbrook. You're welcome to join me but I highly doubt that you will." He finished cramming in all of his belongings into the bag. He flung the bag over his right shoulder and walked out toward the kitchen. There he stuffed the bag with sodas and chips.
"Shawn, how are you going to get there? You don't have a car, I don't have a car, Topanga doesn't have a car, and Eric took his when he left."
"Look around Cory! We're in New York City! I don't need a car, I'll take a cab."
"A cab! It's 250 miles, the fee would cost you a fortune."
"Then I'll take the bus. Cory, if you are trying to stop me, then stop now. I've made up my mind; this is what I want to do. So you're either in or out, right now?"
"Shawn, you can't just run from your fears," Cory said calmly.
"I'm not, he's the one who ran from his fears, I tried to face mine. Are you in or out?"
Cory sighed then without looking at Shawn said, "I'm out."
"You've made up your mind, I've made up mine; I'll see you around." And then Shawn left, without looking back.
He found his way to the bus station and purchased a ticket for the 5:00 trip. Shawn decided to wait at the station to avoid any run-ins with anybody. He took a look in his bag to big a large shoe box on top of his clothes. Thinking for a moment, he did remember ever putting a box in his bag. He opened the box up to find envelopes of all shapes and sizes. Inside the envelopes were letters, written by Shawn, addressed to Turner. They were dated, going back to 1997. Shawn went through every letter to find them all open and smeared. He knew that these must have been read multiple times.
"Cory," he thought. "Cory must have slipped these into my bag at some point." Shawn smiled a bit in disbelief. "Turner must have given it to him to give to me." He went through the box to find one envelope that didn't belong to him. Inside was a piece of paper that read, "Dear Shawn…" The rest of the paper was blank.
Shawn closed the box and rubbed his eyes. He took a deep breath, put the box back in the bag, and took out a book. When the bus arrived he took one last look around at the crazy city that he had lived in for a mere three weeks.
Sorry that was so short but the next one will hopefully be longer!
Shawn reached the Philadelphia Bus Depot at 8:30 and the apartment at 9:00. He took a look around at his old home. Everything was the same; the couch, the kitchen, everything. Shawn took a deep breath and felt a wave of relief come over him. He was home.
He put his bag in the bedroom that Jack and Rachel didn't use. He looked in the fridge for something to eat but found nothing but a bottle of ketchup. "No problem, I'll just go to Chubby's," he said closing the refrigerator door.
As he walked into Chubby's he was surprised to find the place over taken with high school students. "Should've figured. Everyone my age is at the college store."
He ordered a burger and fries and sat down in the old booth. As he ate his food he looked over a college classes book he found at the counter. While searching through the different English classes someone sat down in the seat next to him.
"Interesting, I thought you went to NYU?"
Shawn looked up to find Eric looking over his shoulder. "Yeah, well, New York just wasn't the right city for me," Shawn said playing along.
"Of course, you, the one that hates restraints, I can see why you would hate a large city like New York," Eric replied sarcastically. "Now seriously, what happened?"
Shawn sighed and put hid face in his hands. "It's complicated."
"Yeah, well, uncomplicated it. When we left you were thrilled to go. Three weeks later, you're sitting in a booth back here. Obviously something happened."
"He just…he didn't make even the slightest effort."
"By him I take it you mean Mr. Turner?"
"What? Oh, yeah."
"So one class didn't go as you wanted, and maybe you aren't at the point of comfort where you can see each other outside of school. That isn't any reason to give up."
Shawn looked up at Eric. He didn't normally take Eric seriously but just then there wasn't any other way to take him. "Wait," Shawn said confused. "How do you know about class, and the run-ins afterwards?"
Eric leaned in close to Shawn's ear. "Can I tell you a secret?" Eric asked quietly. Shawn nodded anticipating something amazing. "Brothers, they keep in contact with this amazing thing called…email!" Eric smiled.
Shawn looked at him and smiled, the first smile he had shown in days. "Very funny," he said.
"Thank you," Eric retorted. "So, where you staying?"
"Jack and Rachel's, in the extra bedroom."
"You're welcome to stay at my parent's place. We have a foldout couch and a refrigerator full of food."
"How did u…" but Eric nodded down to the half-eaten burger. "Observant. But no that's all right. The apartment's fine."
"Fine with me. So, you plan on taking these courses now?" he asked modestly.
"I'll think about it. You want the rest?" Shawn asked holding up the French fries and quickly changing the subject.
"No, I'm good. Just take what I said into consideration."
"I will. I'm gonna go. I'll see you later."
"Yeah, me too." They parted at the door; Shawn going back to the apartment and Eric going to the house.
Shawn had a hard time sleeping that night. He thought about Eric's words. "Should I give him another chance? How can I face him?" he questioned himself. He fell asleep thinking of the answers.