Aftertaste

"Ian Warburton."

My parents had grounded me, as I had expected. But it was only for a week, which was a little bit surprising. My father explained to me that the biggest part of my punishment would be the fact that I wasn't allowed to talk to Shawn again. Although he didn't understand what I saw in Shawn, he did understand that forbidding me from seeing him was punishment enough.

My mom was avoiding me. Every time we walked into the same room she would give me a disappointed gaze and then leave. I knew she didn't believe that nothing had happened between Shawn and I that night. I couldn't even imagine any of the crazy scenarios that were flowing through her mind.

I had spent the past few days in my room, alone. Laur was allowed to visit me so she could tutor me in math, but other than that I was by myself. There wasn't much to do except homework, so I had taken my father's guitar from downstairs and was teaching myself how to play. I guess you could say Shawn had inspired me.

Shawn knew what had happened after I left his house; my parents took my phone so I wasn't able to text or call him. He had either assumed I had been grounded or thought I was ignoring him. In biology we had switched lab partners, so now we were on opposite sides of the room.

It was Thursday afternoon, and I was sprawled out on my back on my bedspread. My homework was done and my fingers were sore and blistering from so much guitar. I was bored. I had no idea what do to entertain myself.

Soon enough I found myself thinking about Shawn, yet again. I replayed the conversation that Laur and I had less than a week ago, and once again began wondering about Shawn's past. Suddenly, a thought popped into my head. Why didn't I just research what had happened? The internet was stuffed with information, so surely I'd be able to find something about what happened.

My parents had taken my laptop, but we still had a desktop computer downstairs. They were still at work, but I knew they'd be home soon. I only had a short amount of time to use the computer before they would come home and catch me.

I rushed downstairs and booted up the computer. When it started up, I immediately typed Shawn's name in the search bar. To my surprise, dozens of links and articles popped up. I took a deep breath. Did I really want to know what happened? I was second guessing myself. What if what I read completely changed my view of Shawn? What if I became the same as everyone else? I really liked Shawn, and I didn't want anything to change. But I pushed all of my doubts aside. Whatever had happened was a part of who Shawn was. If it really was that bad, then I'd have to live with it.

I clicked on the first link. As it began to load, I could hear a key jiggling in the front door. My breath caught in my chest. My parents must be home. Shit. I quickly went to go close the browser, but hesitated. I was so close to knowing what happened, I just needed this page to load. So I didn't close it. I heard the front door unlock and slowly swing open.

"Shit, shit, shit," I mumbled to myself. The page finally loaded. It was a long article, with tiny print.

"Grace?" I heard a voice behind me, and footsteps walking towards me.

I was only able to read two words, a name, before I quickly yet reluctantly closed the tab. Ian Warburton. That was what I read. The name seemed familiar, yet I couldn't remember who it was. I couldn't put a face to the name.

"Grace," the voice said again. I slowly turned around, ready to be screamed at by my parents. But when I turned around, it wasn't my parents.

It was Shawn.

"Shawn?" I gasped. "What the hell are you doing here?"

He shrugged and glanced over my shoulder at the computer screen. "What are you working on?" I was extremely thankful that I had closed the page. If there was anyone I didn't want to see that more than my parents, it would be Shawn.