During lunch Shawn and Zoey were currently explaining the game Seven Minutes in Heaven to Cory as the three of them walked into the cafeteria and sat down at an empty table.
"Seven minutes in heaven?" Cory questioned.
"Yeah. They pick a boy. They pick a girl. Then they send you two into a dark closest." Shawn explained.
"Well, how to do you find the girl?" Cory asked.
"With your lips." Shawn answered excitedly.
Cory smiled excitedly in anticipation. "I'm gonna like this game!"
"Yeah, if that's what you're eatin' for lunch, I don't think the girl's gonna like it." Eric said to his little brother as he passed their table on his way over to the vending machine.
"Nobody's talking to you!" Cory shouted.
"Just trying' to help!" Eric retorted.
"Okay, look. Closet strategy is the key. You've only got seven minutes, and you have to make every second..." Shawn stopped himself when he and Zoey watched as Cory was kissing the air.
Zoey furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What are you doing, Cor?"
"Lip ups." Cory responded as he continued doing the actions. "I want to be in shape. I want to go the distance."
"Tick, tick, tick, tick." Eric said as he walked past the three of them.
"What?" Cory questioned.
"Time bomb." Eric said before he walked over to a table with his friends.
"Just ignore him." Shawn told his best friend.
Cory scoffed. "Please. He's just playin' some game. But, doesn't work. Never has, never will."
Zoey nodded and began to eat her lunch. As she eating, she noticed Cory still looking at Eric's direction with a nervous expression on his face.
"Cory." Zoey called out.
Cory jumped and turned to face her. "What?"
"What Eric said, it's not bothering you, is it?" Zoey wondered.
Cory shook his head nervously. "No, not all all. In fact, I'm going over there right now and tell me how much it's not bothering me."
Zoey raised her eyebrows as she watched Cory standing up from his seat and walked over to his older brother, sitting down beside him. She chuckled lightly.
"It's bothering him." Zoey stated.
Shawn nodded in agreement. "Totally."
••••
When it was around six o'clock Shawn, Cory and Zoey arrived at the make out party.
Zoey wore a dark pair of jeans with a black singlet with a red flannel over the singlet, her hair was up in a messy bun with strands of hair down the sides of her face.
She wanted her first kiss with Leo to be special.
Zoey looked around the double story house and noticed that everyone from school was basically here tonight. Apart from Leo.
Shawn smiled and rubbed his hand excitedly. "This is great. All the girls brought their lips."
"Shawn, there's a girl with braces. What if I get her? She could cut my tongue and I'll bleed all over my shirt." Cory said as he began to look at the girls in the room. "Oh, no. Sally's wearing wool. I'm allergic. What if I sneeze in her mouth and pop her lungs?"
"Relax, man. Have a snack." Shawn suggested as the three walked over to the food table. "Carbo load for the big race."
"With bean dip?" Cory questioned in disgust and looked up at Shawn. "Are you out of your mind?"
Zoey furrowed her eyebrows. "What are you worried about, your breath?"
Cory immediately placed his fingers against his mouth. "My breath! I didn't even think about that! Oh, man! I'm gonna kill 'em comin' and going! I'll blow us both out of the closet! I'm gettin' out of here."
Cory was about to turn and leave the party, but Topanga appeared in front of him. She wore a long flowery dress.
"Hi, Cory." Topanga greeted with a warm smile.
"Hi, Topanga." Cory greeted as he quickly placed his fingers against his mouth. "Boy, what a great party, huh? I was great. I was in the closet for fourteen minutes. I'm gonna go home and ice my lips."
Cory tried to quickly dash out of the building, but Shawn and Zoey immediately grabbed onto his arm, stopping him from doing so.
"Cory!" Shawn and Zoey exclaimed in unison.
"Eric was right. Too much can go wrong." Cory explained nervously.
"Cory, chill. You're gonna be fine." Shawn assured. "And you know why? 'Cause right up until the second you got into that closest, we're right here with you, no matter what. 'Cause it's Cory, Shawn and Zoey, the three of us."
"Shawn and Zoey." A person called out for seven minutes in heaven.
"See ya!" Shawn exclaimed excitedly. He grabbed onto Zoey's hand and dragged her towards the closet.
Zoey didn't have any time to process and before she knew it, she was already inside the closet with Shawn. The door was slammed shut and it was basically pitch black inside the closet.
"Shawn this feels weird." Zoey admitted softly.
"Why does it feel weird?" Shawn wondered.
"Because I'm dating Leo." Zoey replied in a 'duh' tone. "And he was meant to be you, and he was gonna be my first. But n-"
"Wait, wait, wait." Shawn said, interrupting his best friend. "You haven't had your first kiss, yet?"
"No." Zoey answered with a frown. "And I was gonna have it tonight, but Leo didn't show."
"Maybe I could be your first so you wouldn't be afraid." Shawn suggested.
Shawn stepped closer and his lips were then on hers, faintly, but they were still there. It was Zoey's first kiss, and didn't know what to do, so Shawn took the lead. He kissed her a little deeper, feeling more confident as she slowly began to kiss back, her hands moving to his shoulders.
Shawn moved his hands to her waist. Their eyes had flickered shut a long time ago. Their kiss was slow but passionate, showing just how much they cared about each other.
They pulled away a few seconds later, both panting slightly, blushes quickly coating their cheeks.
"Wow." Shawn breathed.
"I know." Zoey said with a slight giggle.
Shawn chuckled before he grabbed a shirt from the closet and replaced it with the one that he currently had on. Zoey laughed softly.
"All right, kids. Now, times up." A voice called out. The door opened and Shawn automatically closed it again. "Come on, come on. No overtime, no extra innings."
Both Shawn and Zoey had wide smiles on their faces as they walked out of the closet and towards Cory, who looked at them suspiciously.
"Is that the shirt you went in with?" Cory asked Shawn, looking at the item of clothing.
Shawn laughed when he noticed the new item of clothing on him. "No. Cory, the closet is your friend."
Zoey nodded in agreement before she saw a familiar person over Cory's shoulder. It was Leo, looking furiously when he figured out what happened between her and Shawn. He scoffed and began to walk out of the building.
"I'll be right back." Zoey told her friends before she run after her boyfriend. She rushed outside to see Leo in the backyard, pacing madly. "Hey, Leo."
"Don't, 'Hey, Leo' me. I know what you did in the closet." Leo spat.
"Leo, it's just a game. That's what it's all about." Zoey assured, her voice soft.
Leo shook his head angrily. "No. It's not just a game. You and I were meant to have our first kiss in there but Shawn took that away like everything else."
Zoey furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean 'everything else'?"
"I mean, Shawn gets you for everything. Partners for projects, shooting hoops, asking girl advice." Leo listed with a serious tone. "Why don't you just go be with Shawn!"
He turned around and began to walked away. Zoey quickly stepped forward and grabbed his hand, to try to talk sense into him but he pushed her back harshly.
"Hey!"
Zoey looked in the direction of where the voice came from and saw Shawn storming over to them.
"Shawn please don't do anything." Zoey begged as he stood in front of her.
"Leave her alone." Shawn ordered Leo.
"Fine!" Leo spat. "She's not worth it, anyways."
And with that Leo stormed away, leaving Shawn and Zoey alone in the backyard together.
Zoey looked down at the ground and frowned slightly. "Thanks, Shawn."
"Hey, Zo, it's okay." Shawn said, taking her hands into his. "I'll be here for you."
••••
Leo had now turned to poison in Zoey's mind. She slugged her bag strap over her shoulders as she walked through the halls whilst hearing that Topanga and Cory went inside the closet but didn't kiss at all.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the Amazing Lipless." A group of kids yelled.
Zoey silently walked over to her friends that stood in the middle of the hall, not saying anything since her breakup.
"I'm okay. Life goes on." Cory assured before handing a pencil to Shawn. "Here, drive this through my brain.
"It's okay, Cor. I think it's only a few guys that know, and it's not like they're gonna tell everybody." Shawn said.
Cory nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, nobody else will know."
"Hey, Cory," Mr. Turner greeted as he approached Cory. "Listen, uh... if you ever need to talk about, you know, anything, I'm always available, okay?"
Mr. Turner shook his head in sympathy as he walked towards the classroom.
"I've sunk so low that even teachers feel sorry for me." Cory stated with a frown.
"Look, in situations like this, it's like my uncle Ralph always says, 'It's not what you did. It's what they can pin on you'." Shawn told his friend, trying to cheer him up.
"So you're saying I should...." Cory trailed off.
"Deny." Shawn stated. "Deny everything. Hey, you were in a closet. Who else knows what actually went on in there?"
"Just because he didn't kiss me doesn't mean he's some kind of freak." A voice explained. The three turned to Topanga to see that she was talking to a group of girls.
Cory's eyes widened. "No. No! Make her stop!"
"Look, all of you. Any guy can just crawl in a closet and kiss a girl, but Cory's different, because he is a really nice boy." Topanga argued.
••••
Shawn, Cory and Zoey sat at a table in the cafeteria and were talking about what Topanga had said to the group of girls. Everywhere where they would go, there would be always a comment about him and Topanga.
"Well, I'm a nice boy, guys, and now everybody knows it." Cory said with a frown.
"Hey, baboon." Harley greeted as he, Joey and Frankie approached their table.
Shawn and Zoey immediately stood up from the table, not wanting to get beat up.
"We'll just be over here." Shawn said, motion the area they stood in. Harley gave him a pointed look and Shawn and Zoey stepped back. "Over here."
Harley sat down beside Cory and placed a hand on his shoulder. "There's an inspirational thought I'd like to share with you. 'I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a boy who had no lips'."
"That's a good one, Harley." Joey said as he laughed. "That's a great one. I'll be laughin' at that one for years. I'll be telling' my grandkids about it sixty years from now. Unless I don't have grandkids. Then I'll tell some kids in the park, and the cops will come and say..."
"Shut up!" Harley demanded.
"Look, Cory's obviously depressed, so why don't you just leave him alone?" Shawn said in a serious tone. Harley gave him a death stare. "Over here."
"W-Why do you even care about nothings like us?" Cory wondered.
"'Cause you seventh-graders are my little any farm. I watch you work and play and run through your tiny tunnels, and when I hear that one of my little ants is gettin' his legs ripped off... well, I can't miss that." Harley explained.
Cory sighed. "And here I thought my life had no meaning."
••••
During the next day at school Shawn, Eric, Cory and Zoey were sitting down in the cafeteria eating lunch together. Cory was explaining to Shawn and Zoey about a poetry reading he went with Topanga and kissed her.
"I'm telling you, it's a new breakthrough in dating technology." Cory stated.
"You make out at a poetry reading." Shawn said.
Cory smiled. "Oh, I love poetry now. In fact, I'm thinkin' of becoming a poet. There once was a boy named Cory... "
"Who now has an interesting story." Eric added.
"He learned about kissing...." Cory continued.
"... And all he was missing..." Eric trailed off.
"... when he and Topanga made out!" Shawn finished, trying to rhyme but couldn't. Zoey reached out and patted his shoulder.
"Shawn, can you say 'summer school'?" Cory wondered.
"Hi, Cory." Topanga greeted. Zoey looked over at saw a group of girls behind Topanga.
Cory smiled. "Hi, Topanga."
"Well, see ya." Topanga said with a smile.
"See ya." Cory said and the girls walked out of the cafeteria. He sighed. "When are they gonna leave me alone?"
••••
After school Zoey currently sat on her bedroom. Her eyes dripped with tears. Her walls, the walls that held her up, make her strong just... collapse. Moment by moment, they fall. Salty drops fall from her chin.
A noise was then heard coming from the window. Zoey turned her head to see Shawn climbing through the window. When Shawn stood up, he noticed Zoey and sighed heavily.
Zoey frowned. "Hey."
"How are you feeling?" Shawn asked as he made his way over and sat beside her.
"Like garbage." Zoey admitted softly. She leaned her head on his shoulders and sniffled. "Why does it hurt so much?"
"Because you liked him, Zo." Shawn answered honestly. "And I'm sorry that I was the reason you two broke up."
Zoey sighed. "It doesn't matter now, Shawn."
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PUBLISHED: March 14, 2018
WORDS: 2327