The Secret Life // A Shawn Hunter fanfic

Fifteen ➵ S. H

I waited for Jasmine to show up at Chubbie's. Once I saw her, she was dressed in something different, but I liked it. She showed up with her hair tied into a ponytail, with a red sweater on and black leggings. I headed over to her right away, greeting her.
"Jasmine! You look perfect." I complimented her.
"Thank you, and you look amazing yourself." She said, returning the compliment.
"How was the Halloween party?" I asked her, after we sat down at our regular booth. I noticed her smile sort of faded away a little, but still kept it.
"Oh it was good." She answered.
We didn't stay at Chubbie's for long though. We decided to go ahead and see the new movie Forest Gump. While watching it, at times I would kiss Jasmine during it, but since she wanted to watch it, we instead just cuddled.
At times she'd rest her head on my shoulder for comfort when sad moments would occur during the movie. Like at this one moment, she broke down in tears especially when the mother died. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder to comfort her.
She told me briefly how she lost her mom when we were getting to know each other. I can see how it effects her emotionally and tragically. That's why I've been trying to spend time with my mother as much as I could.
Once the movie was over, she tried to calm herself down from the tears.
"Sorry you have to see me like this Shawn," she apologized, trying to laugh it through.
"It's okay." I insisted. I cupped her face with my hands, and leaned in for a kiss. We kissed for a while until I pulled away so I could hug her.
I consoled her by rubbing her back as I hugged her, until I pulled away. After Jasmine contained herself, we were ready to leave.
Since it wasn't dark out, we decided to go ahead and get ice cream. Hey, for the first day of November, there was nothing wrong with getting ice cream.
I asked her what she wanted, and she responded with chocolate fudge.
I ordered the same as her, and we sat at a table enjoying our favored soft served  food.
After we were finished, we decided to walk over to my place. On the way there, a group of guys were spray painting on the wall. I recognized them.
I tried my best to lead Jasmine away from them but I was caught.
"Hey Hunter! Whatcha doing? Aren't you going to spray paint with us or not?" One of them asked.
"Hey Derek and no.. I'm not." I answered. Jasmine looked confused for a moment.
"Oh, who's this pretty young thing?" Derek turned his attention to her. He tried to lean in towards her but I get in front of her.
"First of all, she's not a thing. She's my girlfriend. She's absolutely stunning and amazing for who she is. Second, don't even think of laying a hand on her." I snapped at him.  Derek glared into my eyes, his expression turning into anger.
"Whatever Hunter! No need to yell at me." He said, putting his hands up in the air offensive and taking a step back. I got a hold of Jasmine's hand again, and tried my best to lead us to my trailer quickly.
:::
On the way there, Jasmine asked me who they were.
"These kids I hang out with sometimes. I used to hang out with them, but then I stopped." I told her.
"You hung out with them?" She asked me, a bit surprised. I bit my upper lip as I was trying to get the door open.
"Yep." I luckily bust through inside, almost breaking the door hinge.
I found my mom cooking in the kitchen. Once she saw us walk in, she went to go greet us with a hug.
"Hey you guys! Did you enjoy your day together?" My mom greeted.
"Yes." I confirmed, heading with Jasmine to sit at the table.
"So what did you guys do?" My mom asked, taking a seat at the dining table as well.
"We went to the movies, we got to see Forest Gump." I say, answering  her question and heading to go fetch a couple cans of coke for me and Jasmine.
"How was it? I heard it's a sad movie." My mom said. I tried my best not to mention much in front of Jasmine. Right away when my mom said that, Jasmine's face fell. I sat down next to her, handing her can of coke. I was prepared just in case she was going to break down again.
"It was." Jasmine mumbled, looking down. My mom noticed her saddened expression, and asked her if she's okay.
"I am it's just-" Jasmine couldn't finish her sentence.
"Jasmine, if you don't wanna talk about it, it's okay." I insisted to her. I began to rub her back, calming her down.
"It's okay, I'll talk about it. Jasmine said at last. Before she spoke, she inhaled and exhaled deep breathes so that way she wouldn't let herself cry.
"When I was six years old, I lost my mom due to a car crash. I just can't let that agonizing memory out of my mind, of seeing her lifeless body on a gurney being pulled into a ambulance. The explosion and so many firefighters coming to try to extinguish out the fire.." She began to sob through her words. I pulled her in a hug, Right away my mom went to hug her as well. We held her for a long time, as she let tears escape her eyes, which fell to our sleeves. We all pulled away, but I still had an arm wrapped around Jasmine to comfort her. My mom went to go fetch some tissues for Jasmine to wipe away her tears.
I mumbled consoling words into her ear, kissing the side of her forehead to cheer her up. When my mom came back with the tissue, she wiped away her tears. Her face was now reddened from her torn down outburst, and it was like that for a while.
"Jasmine, this may not seem like a lot but, I promise I'll be a mother figure for you. You know you have me and Shawn. Chet too, although he's hardly around." My mom promised her, trying to sooth her. Jasmine nodded, and sank her head in my chest. I wrapped my arms around her again, trying to calm her.
"I'm going to finish up dinner. Then we will eat, sound good?" My mom asked us. I nodded for the both of us, as I was trying to calm Jasmine still. Seeing Jasmine break down- a flawless human being with such a nice personality- shattered my heart.
"Can we go in your room?" She murmured, her voice a little muffled. I still held onto her for dear life.
"Of course, anything you want." I regretfully let go of her, leading her to my room. I helped her sit down on my bed, planting a seat down beside her.
"You okay?" I asked her, trying to get a hold of her hand. She nodded in response, and I just looked at her fingers. I rested my hands over hers, sitting here for a while until I thought of something. This was very personal to me but I thought it was time.
I stood up for a moment, then looking for my journal. It was filled with poetry.
Yes, I, Shawn Patrick Hunter, the pink flamingo kid who always moved around when he was young, had a journal for writing poetry. Not even Cory knew.
I always hid it from him when he came over. These poems were very deep and meaningful to me, the only sacred place- haven, it seemed like- to jot down my inner feelings in. I always contained so many feelings- some were even a combined mixture. Wether it was sadness, anger, frustration, disappointed, embarrassment, even happy, this was the place I'd go to.
Not a lot of people would believe me that a bad boy, who's been called trailer trash since forever, wrote poetry.
I had been since the age of five, when my dad started to neglect me. When my mom would wanna leave us, and tried to come back again repetitively.
So, I thought it was time to share it with someone I cared about affectingly.
I sat down next to her, flipping to the first page. Jasmine looked up, the sight of the journal catching her attention.
"Shawn? What's that?" She asked.
"It's a book that means a lot to me. And you're going to be the first one to find out." I answered her. I read my first poem that I've ever written.
I remember on my way home from kindergarten, something a shade of chrome blue in the corner of my eye caught my attention.
The journal had been torn at the edges, but other than that it was in good condition. I picked it up, and inside it laid a pen; I eventually lost it, but oh well.
Now it was shocking for me as a student that hated the thought of school- even at a young age, would actually be interested in picking up a book one day and craving to write something. I for once had been happy.
I ran off with the journal, keeping it with me at all times.
I decided to go to the burnout old shed behind the septic tanks at the trailer park, where I knew I would be alone, decide to write in it.
When I first started to write the first lines of poetry, I was satisfied with myself. I thought even at a young age, I found something I'm good at.
I kept it to myself however. I didn't know what people would think of me, my bad boy reputation being impacted or not cause of me writing poetry.
"This is called, One Day. This was my first one." I informed her. Her eyes sparkled as she waited patiently for me to read it to her. She scooted closer to me so she could listen more, and she looked so interested.
Once I read the first few lines, I would look from the poem as I read it then straight at her. Since I memorized my poem, I kept holding my gaze on her. This one had the most meaning to it. It meant that all I wanted was to have someone to connect with, instead of feeling insecure about my whole background. To stop comparing myself as a lower class person to a higher class person.
After I finished it, I felt sparks. I know I had before, but this one was everlasting to me. As we gazed directly into each other's eyes for long periods of time, Jasmine broke the silence.
"That was beautiful." She said. I formed a slight smile, only until my mom called us for dinner.
:::
My dad had walked in through the door just in time when we went out of my room. He had two brown paper bags in both of his arms.
"Hello my wonderful family! I got groceries." My dad announced, coming to drop the bags on the counter. He took out the food items he bought, which revealed to be some apples, bread, a box of canned cola, cheese, eggs, milk, and juice. The same old same old.
After we finished dinner, I made an effort at trying to help my dad put the groceries away, but he insisted that he got it all.
"How are you Jasmine?" My dad had asked her.
"I'm okay, how about you?" She wondered.
"I'm fantastic!" He exclaimed. I wonder what made my dad so happy. I didn't wanna sound rude, so I didn't ask why. I read on the clock that it was passed 10:00. Jasmine had to go home.
"Well, it's time for me to walk Jasmine home," I said, slipping my leather jacket on,"be back shortly."
"See you in about twenty minutes Shawn."
"Wait," my dad paused, "before you guys leave, here's a chocolate bar for you Jasmine. I bought it while I was at the store. Enjoy, and Shawn, I have one for you too, but you can wait til you get home."
"Thank you." Jasmine responded.
"Thanks dad." I thanked him.
Jasmine held onto the chocolate bar with one hand, while my hand in the other. When I made it back to her house, for some reason I felt iffy leaving her. I don't know why.
"You sure you going to be okay? With your breakdown and all?" I asked her, making sure it was. I didn't wanna leave her being upset and overwhelmed while I was gone.
"I'm will, really Shawn. I promise." She insisted.
"Alright." I sighed. Suddenly she cupped her hands on my cheeks, pressing her lips against mine. We stood outside her house kissing for a while, until she eventually hugged me goodbye.
"Shawn?" She murmured.
"Mmm?" She pulled away so she could face me when talking.
"Thank you for cheering me up today when I was emotional. I wouldn't know what to do without you." She whispered. I couldn't help but smile at what she just said. It felt good knowing I could cheer her up easily.
I kissed her quick again goodbye, watching go inside. I stood out there for a minute, falling into a deep trance of my own thoughts.
:::
I headed on home, ate the chocolate bar my dad bought me, and went straight to bed. I got my journal and a pencil from nearby. I decided to dedicate a poem to Jasmine, since she loved my poetry a lot; plus, with what she's been through and what I've been through, I feel like as if this could connect us even more.
I thought hard and thoroughly over this poem. I had to make it the best I ever could for Jasmine. After flipping in between pages for ideas, that's when I gained an idea that just might work.
❤︎