𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 ━ shawn hunter¹

23│HOME

"You could call him."

"I thought you didn't like him."

"I don't, but you're usually better at problem solving than this."

"What if I just wanted to be alone?" she asked with a sigh.

The dark-haired boy stood up. "I'll leave you to it, the—"

"You can stay," Juliet cut across him, and gave him an almost pleading look. "I just— I don't want just anybody. I'm. . . well, I guess I don't really want to be alone."

The boy sat back on the bed and gave her a sympathetic look. "When's the last time you saw your mom?"

"The same time you did," she answered. "I haven't even heard from her."

"Same," Shawn agreed, then he paused as if he were thinking about something before he added, "why don't we go out?"

"What about the Matthews?"

"If I want to spend time with my best friend you better believe I will," he answered firmly. "We could do something to feel free, y'know?"

Juliet frowned. A majority of her was tempted to do what Shawn wanted to do but the responsible part was holding her back. She glanced towards her bedroom door, knowing that the rest of the apartment was completely empty and dark. The thought of staying behind seemed more depressing by the minute.

"Alright, I'm in."

🌎🌎🌎

It turned out his brilliant idea had been to go to the school at night, which Juliet had joked that he spent so long wanting to be away from the place during the day it was ironic they were there again. They weren't alone, though, and a group of older kids had brought spray paint to "decorate" the school. As one of them handed a can to the redhead, Juliet glanced towards the dark-haired boy uneasily. "I don't know if this is a good idea, Shawnie."

"'Course it is," he said, shaking his own can. "No one can tell us what to do and we're having a great time."

Their 'great time' only lasted a few more seconds when bright blue-and-red lights lit up the area, causing the group to scatter. Shawn grabbed the redhead's hand and they both dropped their paint cans to run down a nearby alley. "I knew this wasn't a good idea!"

"Yeah, yeah, you can say 'I told you so' later, okay?" Shawn whisper-yelled as they ran.

"If we get caught let me do the talking. Got it?"

"We won't get caught!"

The dark-haired boy was never known for being right, though and the police caught up to near Mr. Turner's place. Juliet thought quickly about the most trusted adult they knew and came up with a lie about how they were staying at their teacher's apartment. 

Shawn knocked on the door when they arrived and it opened to reveal their teacher. "Capelwood, Hunter, look. This really isn't a good time."

"You're telling me," Shawn agreed as the cop who'd brought them stepped into Mr. Turner's sight. "He's a cop."

"You Johnathan Turner? You know these kids?"

"Yeah, Shawn Hunter and Juliet Capelwood. I'm their teacher at John Adams High. Officer, you wanna tell me what this is all about?"

"We spotted your friends here loitering outside the high school with some older kids. They had about twenty of these." The cop held up one of their dropped spray cans.

"Spray paint?"

"Looks like they were planning on doing some redecorating."

"No, no, no," Shawn corrected him. "We were just gonna sell them to some bad kids and overcharge them, of course. Serves them right."