18│IT'S NOT A CULT

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❝A good friend can tell you what is the matter with you in a minute

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❝A good friend can tell you what is the matter with you in a minute. He may not seem such a good friend after telling.❞

Arthur Brisbane

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Shawn Hunter was a lost soul. He didn't think much of himself, in fact, his sense of self was so warped that he thought he was empty inside. Missing, incomplete. Even when life seemed perfect, he was always looking for the telltale sign that his luck was up, that his dream turned into a nightmare. Because he genuinely believed that life wasn't meant to work out for him.

That was why it was so easy for The Center to pull him in. All his life he'd been surrounded by what he saw as two groups of people. The first, better versions of himself –Cory and River– that he would never come close to and the second, people he would never be good enough for –Elena. Then he finally met a third group of people, people who he thought he was exactly like.

And that seemed like a godsend. So, he didn't understand why everyone was so against it. Why they wanted him to stay away from the only group of people that didn't make him feel alone.

Cory and Jonathan had made it clear that they didn't like The Center. He was hoping with everything in him that Elena wouldn't be the same as he climbed through her bedroom window.

Elena looked up from the art magazine she'd been flipping through and smiled when she saw her boyfriend. "Y'know, you could come in through the front door for once."

"Why use the front door when I can use the Shawn door," He countered with a bright smile as he pulled her in for a tight hug.

Elena frowned at the sudden, jerky movement of it all. It wasn't like his usual hugs, this seemed more formal like he was using it to replace a handshake. She didn't know how to explain it, she just knew that something was off.

"Are you centered, Elena?" He asked her nonchalantly as if he'd been asking her that all his life.

Yup, something was definitely wrong. She'd been hoping that Cory had just been exaggerating when he told her about Shawn's latest identity crisis. Unfortunately, he hadn't.

"That's... new," She commented, wanting to gauge his reaction before she started asking questions.

"Yeah, I learned it from The Center," He explained proudly, "I really like The Center, Lena."

"Uh-huh," She nodded, racking her brain for the best way to approach this.

She'd always been blunt. Never shying away from pointing out facts from stupid, especially when it came to her best friends. But recently she'd noticed that Shawn wasn't as strong as he made himself out to be. He was fragile in that he didn't have much he believed in so he clung to what he did believe like it was his lifeline. Elena knew he wouldn't accept any criticism against The Center, not even from her. He'd get defensive and see her as being against him.

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