⌜ chapter two ⌟

"So, uh... Have you talked to Eric yet?" Jason asks as he and Letty are playing pool in the back area at Chubbie's.

"Nope." The brunette says as she leans over the table.

"It's been a few days now."

"Been busy."

"Yeah. Busy avoiding him."

"Hey, Jase?" She looks up at him. "Butt out."

They keep playing, and then Shawn and Jack walk over; they aren't paying any attention to the two at the table. "So, how do you know Wendy?" The older boy asks his brother.

"She came to the door. I was in a towel." Shawn tells him.

"Hey! Sister ears." Letty looks at him. "No descriptions, or I will kick your ass."

"How do you know Wendy?" He asks Jack, ignoring her.

"Orientation." He crosses his arms over his chest. "It was a lot more exciting than it sounds."

Shawn holds up his right hand to show him his palm. "Phone number." And then Jack does exactly the same thing.

"You guys don't wash your hands?" Letty questions.

"Kiss." Shawn's still ignoring her.

"Kiss." Jack says. "And she performed I'm A Little Unicorn for me."

"I didn't think they could make it any weirder." Jason shakes his head as he takes his turn in the pool game.

"We've got a problem here, Jack." Shawn says as Cory creeps over with a video camera.

"Yeah, you both need better taste in women." Letty tells them.

"No." Jack argues. "The only problem I see is that I'm in the middle of a date, and you're in the middle of me being on a date."

"Where did you take her?" Shawn asks.

"To dinner and a concert."

"Dinner and a concert?" His eyes widen as he leans forward in disbelief.

"Sheryl Crow." He tells him. "We're here for dessert."

"You win." The younger boy shakes his head as he takes a step back.

"What?" Jack asks, obviously confused.

"I-I can't compete with dinner and a concert, Jack."

"Shawn, it's not a competition."

"Well, not anymore."

"Can somebody please explain this whole competition thing to me?" Letty asks. "What is with guys and having to compete for a girl?"

"Later, Scar." Jason shakes his head at her.

"Look, there's more to this than Wendy, alright?" Jack says, talking to his brother. "So, if you want, I'll tell her to go home, and you and I could have some time to talk."

"Cory." Topanga leans toward him when he moves forward with his camera.

"No, you know what?" Shawn shakes his head. "I'm sorry I bothered you at all. Have a nice date, okay?" He turns around and quickly leaves the restaurant.

"And that's game." Jason takes Letty's stick, and she goes after Shawn.

"Excuse me! Little brother?!" The brunette calls as she runs after him. "Hey, I raised you. Get your ass back here."

"They're really that close?" Jack asks as he looks at Shawn's friends.

Jason shrugs as he motions in the direction that they disappeared in. "She raised him."

"But he had our dad and his mom."

"Sometimes." He nods.

"Sometimes?"

"It's really not my place to speak on any of this, man." Jason tells him and then sets down the pool stick before leaving the restaurant as well.

—

Letty's walking out of Shawn's room when she hears Eric and Jack talking in the living room, but it sounds important so she doesn't want to interrupt their conversation.

"You know, the whole reason I wanted Shawn to move in here was so I could get to know him. And he won't let me." Jack's saying. "I reach out, he resents me. I try to be honest with him, he runs out. Maybe this brother thing isn't going to work, man."

"Eh, you know, maybe you're right. Why don't you just, you know, walk away? Then you won't be brothers anymore, right?" Eric says.

"Yeah, I mean, we don't even know each other. What makes us brothers in the first place?"

"Okay." He turns to face his new roommate. "When I was twelve, Cory and I went to a Phillies game. My father gave me just enough money for two hot dogs. So, you know, I went and I bought two hot dogs." He tells him, and Jack nods. "Of course, I realized by the time I got back to Cory,  I ate 'em both. Cory cried." He chuckles.

"This is very sad."

"That was the happy part. You want sad?" Eric asks. "I went up and down the aisle trying to collect money from people. I got a dime here, a quarter there. And I went and I bought Cory a hot dog. Man, he was so happy. He smiled. And then I smiled 'cause I-I felt good. You know, I did the right thing. I was a good older brother. He started giggling, reached his little hand out for that hot dog, and took a foul ball right smack-dab in the head. Knocked him unconscious. Cory doesn't giggle anymore."

"Your brother giggles as much as the twins." Letty argues as she walks out into the room. "Now, where was this guy the other day?"

"I didn't know you were here." Eric says as he turns to face her.

"Shawn let me take a nap in his room. I was exhausted after work earlier, and the girls were throwing a tantrum so I couldn't sleep at our place." She shakes her head.

"Can we talk?"

"Yeah, actually. I think it'd be a really good idea for the three of us to talk. But, uh..." She points at Jack. "You and Shawn... Do you remember Alec?" She asks, and he nods.

"Your brother. He's a lot older, you idolized him." Jack says.

"Two years after your mom took you and bolted, Alec vanished. He took his pregnant girlfriend, left Philadelphia. Of course, I didn't know anything about her, or where he went, or why he left. I just lost my big brother." She says as she walks down the few steps to get to where they're standing in the kitchen. "Almost ten years later, he shows up on my boyfriend's doorstep, tells me he loves me and he's coming back. You know what I did?"

"Would I be too hopeful to think that you heard his story and forgave him?"

"I told that I hated him, and I never wanted to see him again."

"Of course I would be." He nods.

"He came back some time later."

"Drunk." Eric interjects.

"Yeah, well, the men in my family think they can drink their emotions away. He told me how sorry he was, that he wanted to make things right. Told me he had a kid... I punched him in the face, and kicked him out."

"You always were a violent kid." Jack mutters.

"Bad genes. Anyway, you wanna know how things turned out?"

"You haven't seen him since?"

"I moved in with him, and it was not a smooth start." She tells him, and he seems to really be listening. "I snapped easily, avoided the house a bit. Things turned around eventually... Come on, Jack. You didn't really think you'd come back after all this time and things would be like you never left? He had a whole life while you were gone, and it wasn't exactly a cake walk."

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess you're right." He says.

"Since we're telling stories — I have another. I was eight, it was right before Christmas... My second one with just my dad, and it was...not pretty." Letty looks at Eric, and he grinds his teeth as he realizes exactly what she means. "I was upset, angry. I hated everything, and I wanted to be anywhere else in the word. I went over to Shawn's. He was six, and his mom let me act like I was babysitting, not that she went anywhere. It was a situation where I felt like I had some sort of control... And then she walks over to me, and she gives me a letter. It was the first one I ever got addressed to me, but it said Claire. She didn't know who sent it, but she knew that sometimes my mom called me that. I opened it, and I saw that it was signed J.

"My mom was gone, my brother was M.I.A., my dad was a drunk, my best friend was six... Eric, you and I were friends, but we weren't close. Dean, Miller, and Sam were always on the road with their dad, Hope and Melissa weren't around much, Jason had other friends 'cause he's older than I am. When I say that I had nothing and no one, that's not an exaggeration. I was alone. But then the letters started coming, and I finally had hope. So, I told myself that I just had to make it to eighteen.

"And, yeah, I clung to that hope. Sometimes, I was over the moon when I got those letters in the mail. Because everyone else chose to leave me, but Jack was taken away. He was the only one who didn't leave of his volition. He was the only one... And to say that I haven't given you a real chance because I've been waiting for him to come back? Are you kidding me — after everything that we've been through, everything that I did get to where I am now?"

"It was stupid, and I'm sorry." Eric says, and she shakes her head.

"Do you have any idea how much it hurt when you said that?" She asks.

"Look, I wasn't trying to get in the way of anything here, and the rest of this sounds like you two should talk." Jack says. "I'm gonna go look for Shawn." He tells them and then starts for the front door.

"You've known me for how long?" Letty asks as she turns her body completely to face Eric.

"Twelve years."

"And in that time, how often have you known to me to just...say how I feel? Just say my feelings outright?"

"Not often."

"My friends and I were taught a lot of things as kids. How to function properly in a healthy relationship was never one of them. So, I'm learning." She says, and he nods.

"I know." Eric says. "And I'm sorry."

"What you said isn't what bothers me. I've seen enough angry outbursts to recognize them before they happen. What bothers me...is that I don't think you realize just how many times I've said it."

"What?"

"I'm bad at saying how I feel, so I try to show it." She tells him, moving closer to him. "Every time I kiss you after you tell me that you love me, not throwing away your birthday present after you were an asshole to me, letting you go after Shawn when that whole thing with Topanga was starting." She cracks a smile, and he chuckles. "Giving you this ring..." Letty reaches for his right hand to look at the ring that he never takes off. She then looks back up at him and rests her hands on either side of his face. "Eric, you and I never would've slept together if I didn't feel that way about you...but you've told me that you love me so many times, I don't want to just say it."

"I don't need some big gesture." He says, and she smiles.

"Nobody needs one." The brunette says. "But some people do deserve one."

Eric smiles as he leans down and presses his lips against hers, his hands are resting on her hips so that he can pull her against him. One of her hands stays on the side of his face as her lips move in sync with his, and the other moves up to tangle in his hair. His hand rests on the small of her back, keeping her as close to him as possible.

Jack and Shawn walk into their apartment later, and the younger boy yells when they see Eric and Letty making out in the kitchen. "My eyes! My eyes!" He's covering his face when Eric looks over at them, stepping away from the counter so that Letty can hop off.

"Sorry, Shawnie." The brunette says as her boyfriend wraps his arm around her and pulls her into his side.

"The person who raised me should not be allowed to make out with anyone in the place where I live!" He yells as he looks back at them; his brother, however, is staring at the floor.

"Keep dreamin,' buddy." Eric says as he rubs Letty's back. "I live here too, and I'll make out with my girlfriend wherever I want."

"Can't you two be obsessed with each other somewhere else?"

"That's a great idea, Shawn." Letty says as she starts to push Eric toward the steps. "You know, I haven't seen your room yet."

"God, I love your mind." Eric chuckles as he leads the way to his bedroom.

"You two sicken me!" Shawn yells after them, and both of the older two start laughing.

"Well, that was awkward." Jack mutters as he closes the front door.