Shawn was getting by as best as he could with his father's death by stacking empty soda cans into a pyramid in the corner of his room. Cory had tried to get in touch several times, all of which had gone ignored.
Jack walked into the room. "Hey, what's going on? I left, like ten messages. Why didn't you call me back?"
"Cause I don't want to." Shawn replied simply.
"Look, Shawn, we need to go down to Dad's trailer." Jack insisted.
Shawn turned away from the pyramid to face his brother. "What's the rush?"
Jack sighed. "Look, I know how hard this is, man, I really do, but we need to go through his stuff."
"You do it. Throw everything out." Shawn said, walking over to his brother and took the can out of his hands. "You done?"
"Yeah." Jack answered. "But Shawn, you grew up there, alright? You know what everything means. I wish I did, but I don't."
"You want to know what everything means?" Shawn questioned, facing Jack again.
Jack nodded his head. "Yeah, I want you to come down and tell me."
"No, I can tell you right here. I had a lousy relationship with my father that I don't want to relive so I ain't going." Shawn replied as he sat down on his bed.
"Shawn, we need to go down, okay? We owe it to Chet." Jack insisted.
"We don't need to do anything." Shawn said.
"What does that mean?" Jack questioned.
"It means that Chet was the only real link between us so now that he's gone, I don't think you owe anybody anything." Shawn explained bluntly as he pushed himself off the mattress to sit at the end of it.
Jack sighed. "I'll do it myself."
A knock on the door was heard to reveal a guy who lived down the hall from them, poking his head into the room. "Hey, Shawn. Your brother called a half hour ago."
Jack scoffed. "Yeah, he got the message."
••••
Later that night, Shawn found himself at the Pink Flamingo Trailer Park. He'd tried his best to push the idea out of his head because what he'd said was true; he didn't want to relive the memories.
When Shawn entered the trailer, Jack was already inside starting to clean up.
"Hey, change your mind?" Jack asked.
"I didn't mean we're not brothers.." Shawn began.
"Oh, her, forget about it." Jack said, waving him off.
"I just meant that with, you know, all this stuff that's going on between me and Zoey, Cory and Topanga together all the time, and now dad dying, I don't really feel connected to anything." Shawn explained.
"Hey, I'm here for you, man." Jack assured him.
The two brothers gave each other a quick hug.
"Okay, so, let's do this." Shawn insisted as he walked over to the fridge to take down a tin that sat on top of it. "Oh, hey, his financial portfolio." He pulled out a piece of paper. "Oh, my god! Do you know what this is?"
Jack walked over to his brother. "What?"
"His unemployment stub number one. Dad always considered this his first honest money." Shawn answered.
Shawn then tipped the rest of the papers out of the tin and onto the table for him and Jack to go through them.
"'Past due'. 'Final notice'. 'Pay up, we're not kidding this time'. Why would he want to save these?" Jack wondered.
"Oh, dad was a sentimental guy." Shawn replied. Then the piece of paper that he held caught his attention. "This one's weird."
"What?" Jack asked.
"It's a letter to Chet from your stepdad." Shawn informed.
"Oh, hey, that's nothing. I'll just take that." Jack insisted, trying to grab it from Shawn but he stepped out of reach.
"No, no, no." Shawn muttered as he looked down to read the letter. "'Don't worry about paying me back, Chet. Shawn is Jack's brother so he's practically family. We're happy to help out'."
"Yeah, that's nothing." Jack said.
"No, no, pay him back for what?" Shawn wondered.
"Nothing." Jack replied quickly. "... for your shirt."
"Pay him back for what?" Shawn repeated, his voice more firm.
Jack sighed. "For your tuition."
"For college?" Shawn questioned, shocked.
"You know... yeah, Chet just couldn't afford it..." Jack trailed off.
"Wait, no." Shawn interrupted his brother sharply. "You and your stepdad decided to make us the charity case of the year?"
"Your dad wanted you to go to college so bad that he came to my stepfather for help." Jack explained. "Can you imagine how hard that was for him?"
"What else did you get me, Jack?" Shawn demanded.
"Nothing. That was it." Jack replied.
"Books? Did you by my books?" Shawn asked angrily.
"Maybe some books." Jack answered.
Shawn pointed at his clothes. "My shirt? Really?"
"I would never pay for that shirt." Jack admitted as he reached forward to pick at Shawn's collar. "Come on, man. I'm just trying to help out. That's what families do. We help out each other."
"How have I helped you out?" Shawn wondered.
Jack furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What?"
"We're family, right?" Shawn asked as he began unbuttoning his yellow and brown fallen shirt. "Tell me one thing that I've done to help you out." He pulled the shirt over his head and threw it at his brother. "Here, take this. It doesn't belong to me. Nothing belongs to me."
••••
Several minutes later, their disagreement had devolved to idiocy when Shawn pulled off his pants and chucked them at Jack.
"You sure you didn't buy these, too?" Shawn asked, gesturing to his underwear.
"Don't take those off!" Jack exclaimed.
"I don't want to spend my life being a handout case, Jack." Shawn told him.
Jack sighed. "I understand how you feel."
"No you don't!" Shawn shouted angrily. "You don't. You know, I don't expect you to. It's not your fault. You know, I appreciate what you and your stepdad did for me."
"Then why can't you just accept it and move on?" Jack wondered.
"Move on from what?" Shawn questioned. "Nothing is what I thought it was. I don't know what I am anymore."
"You're my brother in his underwear." Jack answered before throwing his brother's pants back to him. "Now would you please get dressed?"
"I'm gonna pay you back for everything." Shawn promised his brother.
"You wanna pay me back?" Jack asked.
Shawn nodded. "I'm gonna pay you back."
"Let me know who my father was." Jack replied.
Shawn furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What?"
"Yeah. Why do you think I wanted to come down here so badly? I wanted to find out just a little something about him." Jack replied.
"You already knew more about him than I did." Shawn said.
"No, no. The important stuff, man. I mean, at least you have memories with him. I mean, I was gone before I could have any and now he's gone and I guess I'll never have any." Jack explained.
"That's probably a good thing." Shawn muttered.
"How?" Jack wondered.
"Cause you're okay. You're the lucky one, Jack. There's no need for you to go through this kind of pain." Shawn told his brother.
••••
The next day, Zoey and Cory made their way over to Shawn's trailer. When they walked inside, they found Shawn sitting on the couch and flicking through a book.
"Hey." Cory greeted.
"Hey, Cor, Zo." Shawn greeted back as he looked up.
"Thanks for letting me have the room last night." Cory said.
"No sweat. So?" Shawn wondered.
"So, do you know what the best part about being a virgin is?" Cory asked as he sat down on a chair beside Shawn.
"What?" Shawn asked.
"No, I'm asking." Cory clarified as Shawn and Zoey exchanged a slight amused glance.
"So, how you doing? You okay?" Zoey questioned.
"I've been so angry, I haven't been able to see straight." Shawn answered.
Zoey immediately knew that Shawn's answer had a double meaning; he was angry at himself too.
"Yeah. I kinda noticed." Cory said.
"But now that my dad's gone I figured it's a good chance for me to get out of here." Shawn responded.
"Yeah, definitely." Cory agreed. "I mean, you don't want to be hanging around in this trailer. So come back to the dorm. You know, we'll talk."
"You and Topanga aren't living together anymore?" Shawn asked.
"Yes, but only during the day. At night she's scary. But I love her and we have our whole lives to live together and know each other." Cory explained.
Shawn smiled. "I'm happy for you, Cor."
"Thank you." Cory said.
Shawn sighed. "I think I need to break away for a while, clear my head, find out who I am."
"Shawn, you just lost your father." Cory pointed out.
"He left me this trailer. It's all he had." Shawn told his best friend. "And eventually, I'm gonna have to sell it off and start paying back some debts, but in the meantime, I was going to hitch it up and hit the open road. Thought maybe you two could come with me."
"You know I will." Zoey responded with a faint smile.
"What, you mean for the weekend?" Cory asked.
Shawn nodded. "Yeah, for the weekend."
"Yeah, sure!" Cory agreed. "Woo-hoo! You know, we're young, we're wild. Can I drive?"
"No." Shawn and Zoey answered in unison as they walked out the trailer.
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PUBLISHED: December 21, 2018
WORDS: 1582