What Should I do? | Shawn Hunter

xvi. Two Lost Souls.

KARDERN FELT BETTER after the conversation with his dad and he tried to get back to focusing on his work. Ignoring Shawn the best he could, and clinging like the lost little boy, he still very much was to his dad's words: He was a good person, it wasn't his fault and he's still very much a child. 

So he turned back to his schoolwork and tried as hard as he could to drown himself in his work, ignoring the outside world as much as he could because if Kardern wasn't trying to get his grades up then he was crafting worlds in his head as he read the words on the page, almost devouring worlds after worlds 

Reruns of NYPD Blue was on the living room TV screen, while Kardern sat at the kitchen table. Textbooks were strewn around the table, passages highlighted and notebooks had different coloured sticky notes attached to them in a messy scrawl (as long as it was legible, Kardern would count it as a win) 

The spine of the book that he was currently reading was facing up, taunting him although for right now, he was trying to catch up on his schoolwork and he knew if he was to pick up the book even if he justified it to himself that it was only going to be a chapter (he knew it wouldn't be) and so he was trying to ignore the Siren call to read his book 

Unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately, Kardern hasn't quite decided) the front doorbell rang, leaving him in a state of confusion because it had been lashing down with rain for most of the afternoon and the winds had only picked up since you had finished school. 

His eyes glanced at the clock on the wall, trying to figure out who would be crazy enough to be out at this time of night with a storm howling on outside. His Dad wasn't due to finish work for another two hours and Kardern's gut twisted 

What if something was wrong?

He couldn't think like that, he thought with a shake of his head as he got up from his seat and made his way over to the door. Kardern peaked through the peek hole in the door to try and see who would be visiting him at this hour, but it was too dark to see much of anything except a figure shrouded in darkness and soaked through to the bone 

Caution was with Kardern as he peeled open the door, the rain lashing down so hard that it created little puddles at his feet even though Kardern was still nestled within the safety of his home, and he saw that the shadow grow into an actual person from the light that spilt out of the house. 

Shawn looked up at Kardern with wide eyes looking very much like the scared little boy he was at that moment. Hair that had been soaked through with rain, sticking on his forehead and the side of his neck. His cheeks were red and hollow from the cold and his head was bowed as he lowered his gaze from Kardern and began to bounce nervously from foot to foot

All in all, Kardern should not be thinking of how hot it all was.

He stood in the archway of Kardern's house, a little bit out of the way of the rain that continued to pour down. His coat clung to his frame (though Kardern was honestly surprised he had a coat on in the first place, everything about this screamed it was an impromptu visit )

 Shawn's tone was demure and very unlike the cocky nature that Kardern had grown used to as he muttered out an explanation as to what he was doing there  "I didn't know where else to go and I know your mad at me--So if you want me to go, I'll go"

"What?" Kardern blinked, his brain taking a few minutes to register what was going on and worry imediently flooded through him and he immediately shook his head and tried to argue    "No Hunter you can't go out in this, it's been storming for days"

As if his voice had snapped something within Shawn, he imediently began to backtrack, getting soaked all over again and Kardern didn't think as he reacted on instinct and reached out to stop Shawn from going anywhere, grip turning white as he held the back on the coat with all the force he had