It's My Life • Shawn Hunter

60| The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

Shawn and Zoey were at Chubbies on a date.

Shawn leaned in and nearly missed, his lips a tad too far left and his nose bumping against hers, but he persisted. His eyes were closed, but he could hear the crinkling of her smile as she maneuverered her mouth in position, tilting her head so that their lips could meet firmly and happily at last.

Zoey was breathing right into Shawn's nose each time she exhaled, ticking his nostril hairs and making him giggle, which started her giggling too. When he pulled back sheepishly she nibbled on the tip of his nose, then kissed it, and his eyes opened to see hers shining bright.

"See, Zo, that's why you're such a great kisser." Shawn told her.

"How do you mean?" Zoey wondered.

"Well, you know, a lot of girls trap both lips in this vacummy-suction thing and, you know, then your moth caves in, you've gotta break the seal before your lungs pop." Shawn explained. "You don't do that though."

Zoey hide her smirk. "Well, I better be the only girl you kiss from now on."

"Well, before you I've done some random sampling. Purely for scientific reasons." Shawn responded.

Zoey huffed. "Kissing research?"

"I don't mind if I do." Shawn smirked, leaning over the table and pressed a kiss against her lips. "I love you, Zoey Francis."

"I love you too, Shawn." Zoey replied.

"Good, I'm glad." Shawn stated with a lovingly smile. "So when's our next date?"

"I'm doing volunteer work at my mother's café this week. We could work together." Zoey suggested.

Shawn chuckled. "You know that's not really my thing. It's like my dad always says, 'Only volunteer if they'll reduce your sentence'."

"Well, maybe sometime we could go on a picnic." Zoey muttered.

Shawn nodded hesitantly. "I love picnics."

"No, you don't Shawn." Zoey said with a small chuckle.

"You're right, sorry." Shawn apologized. "How about we get back to what we do best?"

"Shawn, you know we really haven't been on dates. We're just always kissing." Zoey simply pointed out.

"I just really like kissing." Shawn replied.

Then all of a sudden Zoey felt a buzzing in her pocket. She reached into her jean pocket and pulled out a pager, meaning that her mother needed her at the cafe.

"That's my mother." Zoey informed. She leaned across the table and kissed her boyfriend. "Thanks for tonight."

"You're..." Shawn began, but Zoey already got up and walked upstairs out of Chubbies. "...welcome."

••••

At school, Shawn unlocked his locker, placing his bag inside and began digging through his cluttered locker for his math book.

"Shawn." Cory called. He raced down the small flight of stairs and closed the locker. "Needless to say, I'm a little upset."

"You're always upset." Shawn stated.

"Well, more than usual." Cory added. "You see, this morning I'm having breakfast with Janitor Bud."

"Janitor Bud?" Shawn questioned, furrowing his eyebrows.

"I owed him." Cory explained. "And, you know, we're talking, and it comes up that last night you were out with Zoey."

Shawn nodded. "Yeah, I went out with Zoey. So? We've been a couple for a while."