⌜ chapter fifteen ⌟

Letty takes a deep breath as she closes the last box full of her things from what was once hers and Eric's bedroom. He's currently on campus going through his classes, so she's at the apartment to pack up her things and move them. She hasn't seen him since they broke up, and she's in no hurry to change that, knowing how much it'll hurt.

"Is that everything?" Alec asks as he picks up the box that she just closed.

"I think so." His sister nods as she glances at him. "I wanna take one more look around, make sure I didn't forget anything anywhere." She tells him, and he nods.

"Alright. I'm gonna take this down to Reggie's truck." He then turns around and walks out of the room.

The brunette sighs as walks toward the window, her fingertips skimming over the sheet covering their mattress. All she wants is to rewind time so that she can be with him again, lay down together while they talk and laugh, cuddled up for hours. But she knows that she can't, and that she'll never be able to be with him like that again.

She stops next to his dresser as she looks out the window, and her hand knocks into a picture that Eric has of himself and his siblings, making it fall over. Sighing, she picks it up to place it back in its spot, but her movements fall short when she sees the little velvet box that was sitting behind the picture frame. Her eyebrows furrow as she sets the photo down and picks up the blue box, then she hesitates before opening it.

Her breath catches in her throat when she sees the engagement ring; it's a thin silver band with three diamonds — one in the center with smaller ones on either side. It's beautiful, and her dark eyes fill with tears as she looks at it.

"Hey, the car's packed and ready to—" Reggie stops when he sees Letty standing there, staring at what's in one of her hands while her other hand covers her mouth. "Scarlett?"

When she doesn't move, he walks over to see what's captured her attention. His jaw goes slack as he looks from the ring to her tear-stained face, and he rests his hand on her shoulder. He gets no reaction from her, so he reaches up and takes the box from her, shutting it and then leaving it on the dresser where he assumes she found it.

"Come on, Scar." He wraps his arm around her shoulders before guiding her out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him as they go.

After getting all of her things back into her old room at the boys' house, Letty lays down on the bed and squeezes her eyes shut as she tries not to cry. Seeing that ring was like a hard blow to the stomach, and it knocked down the wall that was holding back the pain of losing Eric.

Reggie walks in, not bothering to knock because he knows that she wouldn't answer anyway, and then he closes the door. The older boy walks over to the bed and lays down beside her; he's on his back, fingers laced together over his stomach as he looks up at the ceiling. The brunette doesn't acknowledge his entrance, she just continues trying to hold back her tears.

"You know, I watched your brother go through this same thing after his girlfriend broke up with him. So, if you wanna talk, I'm here." He finally says. "Or you could always talk to Alec, since he's been where you are."

"I can see on his face that he's still where I am." Letty says. "I don't wanna hear that this pain is never gonna go away."

"You two may be similar, but you're not exactly alike." Reggie tells her. "Believe it not, you're actually stronger than he's ever been. You should be proud of that."

"Why? What's it gotten me?" She questions, sniffling as she wipes tears from her face. "We're in exactly the same boat — the only people who want us are the ones just as screwed as we are."

"Oh, Scar, we are way more screwed than you." He shakes his head. "You have no idea."

"And yet I'm still in the same position as you." She argues. "Or do you have some secret girlfriend who's totally accepting of your past and everything that you've done?"

"No." He sighs. "Eric's just one guy. There's—"

"Don't." She shakes her head as she turns away from him. "I don't wanna hear the plenty of fish in the sea bit, and how one day I'll find someone who... Just leave me alone, Reggie."

Half an hour later, Tyler knocks on her door and tells Letty that she has a call from Cory. The brunette then takes the phone and listens to everything that her younger brother's best friend has to say; something's going on with Shawn.

Apparently Shawn didn't do an assignment for school that he was supposed to turn in a few days ago, and Cory tried to cover for him. Feeny got mad at the boys, and then Topanga tried to help, which only ended up making things worse for all of them. Now Mr. Feeny wants Shawn to get tickets for the Super Bowl, which is proving to be impossible because the only way that they could get them was to win some radio show competition — the competitors were supposed to stand on a billboard and whoever lasted the longest won. The problem with that was that it's freezing outside, and the last competitor besides Shawn was an Eskimo, so he gave up and lost.

Throughout all of this, Topanga isn't allowed to help her friends, and Cory has to make sure that neither Shawn or Topanga fails...or else they'll all fail. So now Shawn's sitting up at the billboard, and Cory's at a bit of a loss for what to do. There was no rule against asking Letty for her help, so he's hoping that she will.

Letty climbs the ladder to get to the top of the billboard, and Cory and Topanga — who got there a couple minutes before her — scoot over to give her room. "Hey, bud." She greets as she sits down beside her brother. "You wanna tell me what's going on."

"Whenever I've wanted anything in my life, there's always been an Eskimo standing in my way." He tells her.

"Yeah, me too. Only my Eskimo has always been my father." She sighs as she wraps her arm around his shoulders, and he leans into her side.

"There's just so many things standing in my way."

"No." Letty turns her head and rests her forehead against the beanie that he's wearing. "You and me — we made it out of the trailer park, and we're gonna do better. The only thing standing in our way now...is us. I know it's a hard pill to swallow, but it sounds to me like you wouldn't be in this mess right now it you had just done your damn homework like you were supposed to."

"What do you mean?" Shawn asks as he pulls away a bit so that he can turn and look at her.

"Haven't you been paying attention the past few years?" She questions, and he raises his eyebrows. "Okay. I think maybe it's time I stop protecting you from my past. Maybe I should let you learn from it like I did, only you get the easier version."

"I still don't get it."

"The worst part of the abuse from my father wasn't when he'd hit me. Bruises and cuts heal, even when they leave scars, but it wasn't the physical pain that broke me." She tells him. "He told me every day for ten years how useless I was, how I'd never amount to anything. I believed that I'd never be anyone important, that my life was never gonna be better than it was. But do you wanna know what changed that?"

"The bastard left." He says, and she shakes her head.

"Jon told me that you looked up to me." Letty says. "So, I stopped looking at myself through my father's eyes, and I tried to see what you saw. I worked two jobs to keep food on the table and to keep the lights on. I kept my grades up, and I took care of you as best I could. I did all of that, basically alone, and I'm still a teenager. So, I made a decision to work my ass off and build a life that I could be proud of, and I did it for me... Shawn, the only Eskimo that you have standing in your way is you. You don't believe that you can do well in college, and that'll be the only reason that you don't. The only person that needs to believe in you is you. Not me, not Cory, not Jon, or your parents. You.

"You got stuck sitting in front of a billboard in this freezing weather because you made the decision not to do your homework. When you could've done the work and gotten a grade, you chose what felt like the easiest path, but it's not what's best or what's easiest for you in the long run. Thirty years from now, wherever you end up, that's all on you, Shawn. You are in control of your future, you just gotta believe in yourself a little first."

"It's gonna be hard." Shawn says, and she nods.

"Yes, it is." She offers him a small smile when he sighs. "You want me to tell you another thing that I've learned over the years that helps a lot?"

He nods.

"No matter what you're doing, or where you're trying to go in life... You're not alone." She tells him. "You've got three people sitting in the freezing weather because we love you. When you were trying to join Harley's gang of thugs, I may be the one who called Dean, Hope, and Melissa, but they came for you. And when Alec got rid of Mr. Mack, it wasn't me that he was looking out for, it was you. Cory's stood by your side even for the dumbest things you've done — like when you needed a place to hole up after you cherry-bombed a mailbox. And Topanga never seems to be very far behind. Jason's been looking out for you just as long as I have. I'm sure I don't have to go over the long list that is everything Jon's done for us, and Feeny... Well, I talked to him before I came here, and he seemed pretty upset with you. Something I've come to realize about him — he doesn't get angry unless he really cares about you."

"I'm not alone." He repeats, and she squeezes his shoulders.

"You never have been, and you never will be as long as I'm around."

"I'm going to the Super Bowl." Shawn says suddenly as he gets to his feet, and she looks up at him.

"You don't have any tickets."

"I don't care."

"How are you gonna get there?" She asks, and he shakes his head.

"I'll figure it out." He tells her, and she nods.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Letty asks as she stands up.

He hesitates for a second and then shakes his head again. "I may not be alone, but I have to do this on my own." He says, and a smile tugs at her lips.

"Okay." She nods. "Call me if you need anything. You know where I'll be."

"Waiting by the phone to hear that I'm okay." He nods, and she chuckles as he starts for the ladder. He then turns back and quickly kisses her cheek. "I love you, Scarlett." He says, and her smile widens.

"I love you too."

"Are you sure about this?" Cory asks after Shawn's gone, and the brunette turns to look at the younger teenagers.

"I'm sure." She nods. "Go talk to Mr. Feeny."

That Sunday, Letty walks into Chubbie's with Alec right behind her, and they hear everyone cheering as they're watching the Super Bowl. Eric and his dad are celebrating what just happened, and the brunette looks up at the tv, trying not to look over at her ex-boyfriend as he sits back in his seat.

"Look at that!" Mr. Feeny suddenly yells, and everyone looks at him as he shoots out of his chair.

"Look at what, George? The play's over." Mr. Matthews says, and Eric's eyes land on Letty, as she's now standing beside their old teacher.

"I'm looking at the crowd." He tells them, pointing up at the screen. "Look at the boy holding up the sign!"

"Which one?"

Eric's still looking at Letty as a wide smile spreads across her face, and Alec wraps his arm around his younger sister. "The one that says, Hey, Feeny. Nothing's impossible." She tells him before looking at Feeny; the older man smiles as he turns his gaze from the tv to her. "My baby's finally growing up."

"You and that kid make no sense to me." Alec says as he looks at Shawn in the crowd.

"He's gonna be okay, huh?" She asks, and he nods as he looks down at her.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think you both will." He offers her a small smile.

"We all will." She says as she wraps her arm around his back, and he nods, knowing exactly what she means.

"Aw, look at that, our baby's finally growing up." Reggie wipes a fake tear from his cheek as he looks at the brunette.

"Get bent, Reginald." Letty mutters as she looks back at the tv.

"You talk like a Winchester...or is it like a Singer?" He asks, and she smirks as her gaze turns to him. "Yeah. You definitely spend too much time with Jason and Hope."