𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 ━ shawn hunter¹

13│GETTING HITCHED

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❛ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ɢᴇᴛᴛɪɴɢ ʜɪᴛᴄʜᴇᴅ ꒱


❝ WAIT— ARE YOU
A CLOSET NERD? ❞

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Shawn was getting by as best he could with his father's death by stacking empty soda cans into a pyramid in the corner of his room. (Hey, no one said they had to be normal coping methods.) His brother had tried to get in touch several times, all of which had gone ignored. However, Jack was more persistent than he'd given him credit for and the older boy walked into his room after he'd knocked. "Hey, what's going on? I left, like, ten messages. Why didn't you call me back?"

"'Cause I don't want to."

"Look, Shawn, we need to go down to dad's trailer."

He turned away from the pyramid. "What's the rush?"

"I know how hard this is, man, I really do, but we need to go through his stuff."

He shrugged. "You do it. Throw everything out." He went over to his brother and plucked the can out his hands. "You done?"

"Yeah," Jack answered. "But Shawn, you grew up there, alright? You know what everything means. I wish I did but I don't."

Shawn faced him again. "You want to know what everything means?"

"Yeah, I want you to come down and tell me."

"No, I can tell you right here. I had a lousy relationship with my father that I don't want to relive so I ain't going," he stated as he flopped down on his bed.

"Shawn, we need to go down, okay? We owe it to Chet," Jack insisted.

"We don't need to do anything."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that Chet was the only real link between us so now that he's gone, I don't think you owe anybody anything," Shawn explained bluntly as he pushed himself off the mattress to sit at the end of it.

"I'll do it myself."

A knock on the door revealed a guy who lived down the hall from them. "Hey, Shawn. Your brother called a half hour ago."

The older boy scoffed. "Yeah, he got the message."

🌎🌎🌎

Reluctantly, Shawn found himself at the trailer later that night. He'd tried his best to push the idea out of his head because what he'd said was true: he didn't want to relive the memories. Still, not all of them had been bad (most notably ones that included a girl with bright red hair) and a nagging voice that sounded suspiciously like Julie's insisted that he shouldn't leave his brother alone to do something like this.

As he entered the trailer, Jack turned to him. "Hey, change your mind?"

"I didn't mean we're not brothers," he said by way of apology.

"Oh, hey, forget about it."

"I just meant that with, you know, dad dying and everything going on with Julie that I don't really feel connected to anything."

"Hey, I'm here for you, man," his brother assured him and before he could fully think it through, Shawn found himself giving him a quick hug. "How's it going with that redhead of yours anyway?"