Maya briefly shook her head in response and broke eye contact, considering ignoring his question and continuing to sit silently.
Then, a thought came to her, a curious and desperate idea. If she honestly figured that Cory and Topanga's bickering was related to Maya's personal life, then she had to speak up and ask Shawn about it. He obviously knew all of the answers, relevantly clear because of his wandering glanced and secretive tone of voice.
Shawn wasn't about to turn around, he was determined to hear a response from Maya. Giving him exactly what he wished for, Maya perked upwards and took a deep breath, forming a serious and just as demanding expression.
"Listen, Hunter; I know that Mr. and Mrs. Matthews's problems have something to do with me. And don't try to pretend that it doesn't, because I know you, and I know how you think," she commanded sternly, clenching her teeth and cringing as she talked.
Shawn was shocked by her sudden response, turning away from Maya and taking a deep, heavily breath, looking and slumping down in his leather seat. Maya sat attentively, dominantly turning the tables in their currently heated conversation.
Shawn shook his head briefly and immediately exhaled, still not making eye-contact with the desperate blonde. "You're right," he hopelessly said slowly, running out of excuses to lure her attention away from the topic.
Maya's mouth fell open and her shoulders dropped, as the similar aching feeling fluttered in her stomach. She narrowed her eyes and tightened her fists, then shook her head and rose her voice noticeably, "I didn't do anything, Hunter, I would never want to cause Riley pain!"
Shawn opened his mouth to reply, but hesitated a moment and then signed, having to tweak his revealing response. "It's not exactly your fault, though," he grumbled to her, closing his eyes in a stressed-out way.
Maya tilted her head sarcastically, unconvinced by his unspecific statement, "Then who's fault is it?"
Shawn's mind unawarely wandered back to the night he had first entered the Nighthawk Diner, where Maya's mother, Katy Hart, worked. It was Maya's fourteenth birthday, and Katy had seemingly forgotten the event, and ordered an extra-shift of work that whole day.
Shawn strolled casually into the Nighthawk Diner, at first glance appearing as a normal customer, but actually ready to comfort Katy Hart about forgetting her own daughter's birthday. He looked up and caught her eye-immediately, suddenly pausing for a minute. The blonde women who was scrubbing off a counter in the middle of the diner, her face looked awfully familiar to Shawn, but he could barely remember where he met seen this short, busy women before.
Focusing on Maya's birthday, he decided to shake away the alarming thought that sent a rush of nervousness through him, figuring that he had simply seen a women who obtained a similar appearance to Katy Hart, before.
"Katy?" he called out, reading the blank, rectangular name-tag that she wore upon her blue waitress uniform.
Katy Hart looked up at him and grinned politely, glancing down at her name-tag and nodding, "That's what it says right here, yeah."
Shawn tilted his head upwards and said, "Hi," noticing Katy's slight resemblance to her poor daughter, Maya. Her evident familiarity to him continued to ring in the back of Shawn's mind, noticeably distracting him as he spoke.
She kept a smile glued to her face, but responded in a confused tone, for it was unlikely for her to receive greetings like this from customers. "Hi?" she responded welcomingly, then perked up and tilted her head to the side, "What'll it be?"
Shawn looked down for a second and smiled, stepping forward and sitting down on a small circular seat, and sarcastically saying, "Oh me?"
He tilted his head back up towards Katy and pursed his lips, cleverly adding, "I'll have some birthday cake."
Katy slightly narrowed her eyes and leaned forward, "What?" she wondered, cluelessly, shaking her head doubtfully, not sure if she correctly heard what Shawn had ordered.
Shawn kept his head held high, as he flatly continued to disappointedly speak, "What kind of mom are you, Katy?"
Katy's eyes remained glued to Shawn, as her expression slowly went from puzzled to offended. "What?" she repeated again, turning her head away for a moment and taking a deep breath, "Hey, unless your business with me is tuna melt, meatloaf, or pie, you can walk your nosylittle butt right out of here," she demanded sternly, raising her finger in Shawn's face as she snapped defensively at him.
Shawn and Katy stared argumentatively at each other for a few moments, as Shawn only replied with a cold glare, instead of a verbal response.
Katy leaned her hands against the counter, tensing up guiltily and adding, "Who are you, buddy?"
Shawn immediately replied to her question, shrugging shoulders and introducing himself, "My name's Shawn Hunter."
As he told her his name, Katy stood up a little straighter and wistfully muttered, "Woah," unclearly recognizing his name from somewhere.
Shawn sat upwards as well and furrowed his eyebrows, eagerly wondering if this women had strangely recognized him as well, "What do you mean 'woah?'"
Katy struggled to think back to the familiarity, but then shook her head again, focusing more on their debate, than the sudden urge of knowingness. She slightly remembered Maya bringing up Shawn a couple of times, which she used to form her quick and unfocused response, "You're the guy Maya doesn't stop talking about...the Matthews friend," she said slowly, blinking swiftly and shaking her head blankly, "You guys all went on a...'family' weekend together. She had a really good time, and I appreciate it, thank you very much," she continued, once again speaking with a noisy, stern and slightly sarcastic tone, back on track with their unclear bickering.
Shawn raised his hand a few inches off of the counter and nodded quickly, "You're welcome."
Katy was swift to respond, adding a snarky and threatening comment, "And if you ever question my motherhood again, I will smash a plate over your head," she nodded honestly, glaring seriously.
Shawn smirked at the meaning of her humorous and somewhat empty-threat, "You know what, lady? You already don't like me, so I'm just gonna keep talking, okay?" he explained to her sarcastically, pursing his lips annoyingly.
He was quick to angrily continue speaking, preventing Katy from responding to his last question, "Today is Maya's birthday. What are you doing here since first thing this morning?"
Katy inhaled deeply and shamefully glanced downwards for a second, then sighed and admitted, "You're right."
Shawn looked down at the ground for a second, surprised that she seemingly admitted her mistake, hoping that he didn't offend her too much.
Katy raised her voice again and nodded her head repetitively, scowling closely at Shawn Hunter and finishing her statement, "I don't like you at all!"
Shawn shook his head and smirked at her cleverness, ashamed that Katy was able to trick him into thinking that she cared about her daughter's birthday, for even a second.
Shawn stood up slowly and looked at Katy, now beginning to shout, "Do you think I would walk in here and talk to you like this, if I wasn't so fond of your daughter?"
Katy rolled her eyes, grinning humorously, and muttered, "Oh, you're fond of my daughter?" she formed an upset glare and slightly yelled, "Why don't you tell me about your vast experience raising a child?!"
Shawn opened his mouth to fight back, but hesitated for a while, then blurted out an honest and helpless answer, "I don't have any!"
He watched Katy snicker conceitedly under her breath, then loudly continued to argue, quickly catching her attention again, "But I know you don't work an extra shift at a diner, and miss your daughter's birthday!"
Katy shook her head tiredly, ignoring what he said, and stressfully responded, "And you know this, because you know so much about relationships?"
Shawn shook his head defensively and hopelessly exclaimed, "I'm terrible at relationships!"
Katy's eyes widened understanding as she immediately shouted, "I'm worse!"
"I don't wanna be!" Shawn laughed sarcastically and sighed, turning away absentmindedly.
"Neither do I!" Katy ironically pointed out, shaking her head quickly, with an absurd expression across her face.
Shawn tilted his head back up at her, shrugged his shoulders, and patted his hand lightly against the counter surface, humorously exclaiming, "Well then we've got something in common!"
Katy stared at him with a surprised expression for a minute, thinking to herself. Then, she glanced down at the ground and shook her head disappointedly. "Look," she mumbled quietly, then tensed upwards and looked him in the eye, "My daughter likes having you around," Katy admitted to him, then slowly raised her tone of voice again, "But how can you stick around, when every weekend, she told me you go somewhere else?!"
Shawn shook his head slowly, grinning ironically and defending himself immediately, "I write about places, that's my job."
Katy shook her head again and sighed heavily, gazing at Shawn sadly in a serious way, "I can't let Maya get close to somebody else who just leaves."
Shawn obviously, quickly took offense to her statement, cringing upwards and firmly placing his hands down on the counter. "Ok, hold on, first of all, I'm not a leaver, alright?! I'm a stayer, I'm the one who gets left!" he yelled sincerely, narrowing his eyes demandingly at an upset Katy Hart.
Katy slumped her shoulders, with a deprived, understanding linger in her deep, blue eyes. "Well we got that in common too," she admitted to Shawn, shamefully turning away from him and picking up her wash-cloth again, sighing heavily.
Shawn shook his head and looked away for a second, in disbelief of what she had just told him. If Maya's father was the one who left Katy, regardless of what Maya had told him, then that would mean that it wasn't exactly Katy's fault that Maya was left with an absent-father.
Shawn spoke up confusedly, doubtfully telling Katy, "What do you mean? Maya thinks that you chased away-"
"I know what she thinks; it's her father!" Katy yelled biting her lip and evidently sighing, glancing back over at Shawn.
"A girl should think well of her father," she added quietly, gazing at Shawn in the eye as she spoke. He appeared confused and lost, surprised that Katy had been left by Maya's father.
Katy Hart honestly didn't know what had happened to Maya's father, or who's fault his absence actually was. She kept that information private to herself, waking up guiltily every morning, with her only single-handed knowledge of her daughter's presence.
-
Maya tapped on the frontal headboard of the car, startling Shawn out his deep thoughts, as she loudly spoke up again, "If it's not my fault, then who's fault is it?" she asked him sternly, narrowing her eyes and staring over at him.
Shawn shook his head mindlessly, clearing his guilty memories, and mentally processing what Maya had just asked him. Unfocused and limited, he was unfortunately unable to come up with an answer for Maya, so he simply shrugged his shoulders and sighed heavily, "I...I don't know, Maya."
Maya frowned widely and backed away from Shawn, hurt and disappointed that she couldn't get a sincere response out of him. "That's what I thought," she grumbled sadly under her breath, and sunk down in her leather carseat, staring down at the ground cluelessly.