Your shoulders

Loony Tunes

"Yuh-huh! He said so himself right before he picked you up!" Shawn exclaimed, trying to convince an entirely unconvinced Cory as he wrestled with his grasp on their popcorn, his soda, as well as four other things he was juggling.

"No way! D'ya know what he took?" Cory leaned down, close to his chest to snag a sip of Shawn's drink that he held in the crook of his elbow.

Shawn let him, not blinking twice at the gesture. They'd been saying ever since they were kids 'what's mine is yours' and given Shawn's life at home, he'd barely had enough to pay forward.

He shrugged, making an 'ion know' noise through closed lips before picking up pace while walking down, down, down the carpeted hall. They were running late to the movie and he'd waited all week to watch it, he refused to miss a second of it.

Cory grabbed ahold of his shoulders and spun Shawn towards him. He fumbled clumsily with the drink and popcorn while staring at Cory with wide eyes.

Cory dragged out the silence in an attempt to sweat out an answer from Shawn. As much as he'd hate to admit it, Cory's method of glaring at him silently had always proved itself to be successful.

"So uh where's Topanga? Couldn't make it heh?" he chuckled, eyes darting around nervously. The cheap attempt at a diversion hadn't worked to break Cory's quiet spell in the slightest.

Shawn started shifting anxiously in his grasp before complaining about the stares they were receiving, pointing out that they would miss the start of the movie, and even threatening to drop their popcorn at one point. Anything to cut into the silent treatment.

"Your brother has been doing-" he whipped his head left and right in search of any eavesdroppers before mumbling quietly under his breath "drugs.. and you okay with it?!"

"Well he's an adult and I'm certainly not one to be judging anyones life choices. He's just messing around it's not like he's addicted.." Shawn said meekly.

Cory raised a brow.

Shawn knew how stereotypical it sounded but it was true. He wasn't hooked, he was just some college kid messin' around. He figured plenty'a guys do that around Jack's age.

"I mean c'mon. Have you met the guy? He's so goody goody, he's probably just trying to figure out how or where he fits in.." Shawn defended, rolling his eyes.

"This conversation is not over, mister!" Cory poked his chest with a determined look on his face and pulled them inside the theater.

'God he is just like his dad' Shawn thought 'same look on his face too and that damned finger?! I oughta snap it off..'

He's too young to be acting so old. Maybe Shawn only thought that because he didn't really know how disciplined he should be at this age, having an absent father will do that to a young boy. Perhaps Shawn could've been like Cory if Chet had given him the chance. On the surface he'd convinced himself that he would have hated ending up so 'square', but truth be told he wanted what Cory had so bad.

He'd probably kill for it.

As much as he hated the idea, he needed stability and being deprived of it for most, if not all, his life had done irreparable damage.

He hadn't been aware of it now but eventually it'd catch up to him.

But for now, he was sitting in a dimly lit theater watching a movie not suitable for most audiences with his best friend having the time of his life, blissfully unaware.

Parts where the movie went without excessive gore or borderline porn had Cory and Shawn goofing off. Blabbing off, throwing popcorn at the row ahead of them, and putting ice cubes down each other's shirts gave security every reason to kick them out thirty minutes before the movie ended.