His Son's Teacher

17. Adjustment

On Monday morning, Shawn walked Rio into his class, unsure of what he would do. For the past couple of months, any time he walked into that classroom, it was to talk to his girlfriend but now she wasn't his girlfriend and instead an acquaintance, his son's teacher.

Shawn opened the wooden door slowly and looked around to see no one else present. "Mila!" Rio screamed, letting go of Shawn's hand rushing into Camila's arms. "Morning, Rio." She smiled as if she hadn't just broken up with Shawn.

He was hurting, really hurting. He spent the whole of the day before crying into his pillow at the fact that he had lost his girl. He knew it was his fault for rushing into the relationship but it didn't mean he didn't love the girl.

He pushed the thoughts in his head to the side and lifted a fake smile on to his lips, "Good morning, Mr Mendes." Camila murmured softly. Shawn wanted to turn around and walk out at that phrase, she had never referred to him as Mr Mendes. Ever. Not even when they met. And yet here she was in front of him, pretending that all they had ever been was acquaintances. 

"Good morning, Miss Cabello." He acknowledged, before moving closer to bid goodbye to his son. "I'll see you later tonight, buddy." He pressed a soft kiss to his forehead. "I'm staying with Camila, right?" Shawn shook his head, "No, buddy." Camila looked away when Rio turned to look at her. "You're staying with Hailee after school from now on, ok?"

Rio stayed silent for a moment before asking, "Is this because of Saturday?" Shawn sighed and nodded. "Yes, buddy. Look Mila and I are not together anymore. That means that while we adjust to these changes, you're going to stay with Hailee." Rio shook his head, "No, I want Camila." He whined, grabbing her legs.

Camila crouched down and held his face in her hands, "Rio, baby. I can't look after you right now. Your father and I need time before seeing each other so often before. But I'll see you every day at school." Rio sighed and gave a soft nod, before hugging her once more. "Ok, I'll see you tonight, buddy." Shawn bid goodbye before pressing a kiss to his forehead and walking out. 

Shawn walked quickly out of the building and into his car, he felt a few tears fall down his face. "This is all my fault." He murmured. If only he hadn't of been so bitter about seeing Rachel. He would've still had his girlfriend, a son who doubted whether Shawn actually loved him and maybe he would've had some sort of relationship with Rachel, where they could get along.

But no, he just had to ruin it, by blurting out the angriest and most horrible words he had ever let pour out of his mouth and he was ashamed. He was so ashamed, but he couldn't take it back now. It had happened and he had to pay the consequences.

_____________________________

Camila shut the lights off to her classroom and locked the door before bidding goodnight to the caretaker and walked off to her car. She climbed in and just sat there for a moment. It had been a hard day since she saw Shawn when he walked into her classroom that morning and they had to explain to Rio, that they had broken up.

He was only six and he didn't really understand, which Camila quickly became aware of when Rio continued to ask her about when she was next coming over for a sleepover. He really didn't understand and Camila felt her heartbreak for the boy, but deep down she knew she had done the right thing by breaking things off with Shawn for the present moment.

Finally, she lifted her head up and turned her car on, slowly navigating her way home. She soon arrived at her apartment block and quickly clambered up the stairs, making her way to the familiar door. 

Suddenly, she heard the door behind her click open and out came Emily Wilson. "Ah, Camila. I haven't seen you here in a while. Where have you been?" Camila stared at her creeped out. "What have you been stalking me?" "No, I just noticed that you never enter your apartment anymore." "So you were stalking me." Camila rolled her eyes and turned the key into the lock and pushed it open before turning back around to face Emily.

"Mind your own business and focus on your life. Like your daughter." She retorted. "He dumped you, didn't he?" She cackled. Camila let out a frustrated groan. "Why do you care? He doesn't want you, he's made that so clear to you and yet here you are wasting your time!" She yelled out in frustration at the blonde woman in front of her. 

She let out a sigh before looking back at the girl, "Emily, you're not ugly, you're actually very pretty. And you do deserve to be with someone, but that person isn't going to be Shawn. You can have anyone in the world, so my advice is to let of Shawn because he's not worth the time that's being wasted on him."

Emily looked down for a moment, before looking back up. "You're right. I know you are. But I just didn't want to let go of the prospect, even though I knew I was making a fool of myself." Camila let out a soft smile. "It's ok, we all do stupid things for the people, we like." 

"I'm sorry, Camila." She released to her. "I suppose I've been a bit of a wench and I promise I'll lay off you now." Camila shrugged. "It's alright, Emily." She smiled before closing the door. 

She stared at the door for a moment, before a snarky voice spoke in the background, "Well, that was poor entertainment." Camila turned to find Rachel staring at her a grin on her face and two plates of food. "I made dinner." She smiled softly. "Thank you," Camila commented. "You really didn't have too." 

Rachel shrugged, "It's the least I could do. You're letting me stay here after all." The two collected cutlery and drinks before sitting down on the sofa to watch the TV. 

As they watched the Season 3 finale of Once Upon a Time, the two giggled and laughed and had a nice conversation about life. Finally, as Emma and Killian kissed on the TV, Rachel spoke up to ask Camila a question.

"How was today?" Camila sighed and looked down for a moment, before staring at the picture on her wall of Shawn and her on one of their first dates, with his arm wrapped around her.

"Hard. We had to tell Rio, why I wouldn't be looking after him again for a while. He doesn't understand. I don't know what to do." She sighed and fell back onto the sofa.

Rachel looked over and squeezed her shoulder, "I know it's hard, but you're doing the right thing. He needs to work through things first and it's going to take time, but you can still be friends. You don't have to be acquaintances the whole time."

"But I don't trust ourselves." Camila pointed out. It was true, she knew that if Camila and Shawn were to hang out as acquaintances, they would soon tumble into bed and the point of breaking up would be void. "I'm not saying right now. But I am saying in a few weeks, maybe months. It depends how well he works through his problems, but you decide."

_______________________________

Shawn and Rio lay in Shawn's bed, tightly holding onto one another. "Daddy?" He softly called. "Yeah, buddy?" "Why do you hate Rachel so much?" Shawn let out a deep sigh. He didn't want to explain this to his son. It wasn't fair to him and he sure didn't deserve to hear his father rant on about his deep desire to have his mother wiped off the face of the planet.

He pulled Rio closer to him as he began his explanation, "Look, buddy. Your mother left not long after you were born and I don't know fully why. She left me a note, telling me that she was going to be with someone that she had been in a relationship with while we were together and then was gone."

Rio looked up, unsure and scared to find out more. "Does that make her a bad person?" Shawn shrugged, "I suppose. In a way, yes. But in other ways, we were both at fault, for her departure. Even if I never want to admit it." 

"So you're a bad person too?" He asked, fear clearly heard in his tone. Shawn quickly shook his head, "No, buddy. I've done bad things, but I'm not a bad person." Rio nodded, "So Rachel isn't a person, she just did bad things?" He clarified. "Yes, I suppose so." He answered, gritting his teeth together.

He knew that his son was right, but he wasn't ready to admit it in any way. He hadn't forgiven Rachel for what she had done and quite frankly, he didn't want to. He was holding onto it so he could always remember her as a bad person. 

A part of him wanted to forgive her, not for her benefit but for his own. Sure, it would also benefit Rio and Camila but he was actually trying to move forward himself. So he supposed he was being selfish by not trying to move on, but he supposed he didn't care.

__________________________________

A/N: This is a filler, but it helps to keep the story flowing.

50 votes before next update!