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❛ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴇᴘʜᴇᴍᴇʀᴀʟ, ᴘᴛ. 𝟸 ꒱


❝ OUR SOULS WILL BE THE
SAME & WE'LL KNOW WE'VE
BEEN THERE ❞
— Mukta

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[DAY FOUR]

There were two things that Shawn noticed about Juliet and they were both habits that she seemed to have without realizing she did them. The first was that when she was uncertain or overthinking something, she chewed on her bottom lip as she thought. (It drove him nuts.)

The second was that she fidgeted with the necklace that she wore around her neck. It was silver with a letter J that sparkled with tiny, reflective diamonds. Shawn wondered if the J stood for her (Juliet) or her boyfriend, whose name he'd learned was Jack (he'd never hated a stranger more.) He preferred to think that it was the former.

She would twist the chain absentmindedly a total of three times before she let it undo. The silver would glint in the light and he'd be reminded (yet again) that there was someone else in her life.

"Shawnie?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I borrow a pencil? I was running late this morning and forgot mine."

It took a moment for her words to register. "Oh. Oh, sure. Here, I don't use it anyway."

He passed her the requested item without a thought. He was almost glad he hadn't processed her question because then he would've put it down on her desk rather than handing it straight to her. Their fingers brushed for the first time and the electric shock made him jerk his hand away in surprise. Juliet's face flushed pink and she turned away quickly. "Sorry."

🌎🌎🌎
[DAY FIVE]

"You want to do chores?" he asked her incredulously at lunch the next day.

"Well, yeah," she admitted sheepishly. "I never get to do any since we. . . well, we have the means. I mean, normal people do chores, right?"

"Yeah, but they're so boring."

"That's fine. We can make them fun."

To his surprise, helping Cory in the yard did turn out to be fun. While they were raking the stray leaves together, Juliet turned her rake into a sword. This prompted a joust between the two boys with the victor "winning her hand."

(It should be no shock that Shawn won.)

🌎🌎🌎
[DAY SIX]

On her second-to-last day in Philadelphia, Shawn invited her over to share dinner with him and John. She'd agreed and they were now walking down the city street to the apartment. Somewhere in the distance, a car backfired.

Unused to city noises, Juliet jumped and grabbed for the first thing she could reach. It happened to be his hand, but it wasn't like he was going to complain.

🌎🌎🌎

"John, I'm home!" he called as he opened the door.

The dark-haired man turned from the stove to lay eyes on the two teens and his gaze followed their arms to their still-clasped hands. "You're almost late."

"Almost isn't is," the redhead said cheerfully.

Shawn noticed the teacher's glance downwards and he looked in that direction as well. His eyes widened slightly. "You're still holding my hand," he pointed out as he lifted their joined fingers up.

She refused to meet his eyes. "I was hoping you wouldn't notice."

His expression softened. "Notice what?"

It was hard to miss Juliet's bright, beaming grin.

🌎🌎🌎

It was amazing how seamlessly Juliet fit into his life. It felt perfectly natural to have her help make dinner and talk easily throughout their time together. Despite only having met her six days ago, it felt like he'd known her forever.

After helping clean up, they went to the fire escape that was outside of his room. He sat down on the edge and let his feet dangle above the street as he rested his arms on the metal rod that supported the railing. The redhead sat more cautiously next to him and her fingers found her necklace as usual. Twist, twist, twist.

They sat in a comfortable silence for almost half an hour until Juliet spoke in a voice so quiet that he almost missed it: "I am unhappy."

Startled, he turned to her. "What?"

"You asked me on Wednesday at the bus stop if I was unhappy and I didn't answer, but I can now. I am unhappy."

His mouth parted slightly as she surprised him (yet again) how much she paid attention to their conversations. "Oh. Um, I'm sorry."

She shrugged. "It's not your fault. I just. . . I've never admitted that to anyone before." Twist, twist, twist.

"Have. . . have you ever been happy?" It was hard to imagine that she wasn't with how easily she smiled, but he hadn't been wrong when he'd thought that it could be brighter.

"I don't think so," she said. "I mean, I don't want it to seem like I'm complaining since I love my mom and dad, of course, but sometimes I wish things could just be. . . different. You know?"

"Yeah," Shawn agreed. "It's not like this is my first choice of places to live but I'm trying to make do with what I have."

Juliet nodded in understanding. "Exactly. It's. . . it's even worse because I can't truly be myself, either. My parents have expectations of me, I'm supposed to be this amazing girlfriend. Whenever I meet new people I have to live up to what they've pictured I am. Acting hasn't made it any easier, either, since that's when I really have to be someone else. . ." she trailed off and looked down at her swinging feet. "Sorry. I don't know why I'm telling you this—"

Twist, twist, twist.

"You don't know who you are," he interrupted her gently. "I get it."

She lifted her gaze to meet his and she found that he meant his words sincerely. His eyes held that silvery look to them whenever he was being genuine and there was a faint, charming grin on his face and— Jack, your boyfriend. Remember him?

"I know what you're saying," he continued. "Cory seems to have everything figured out. I mean, he's been with the same girl since kindergarten. He's got a good family and I know that he always means well. I just. . . don't know anything."

Juliet had never met anyone like Shawn Hunter. They both seemed to understand each other without needing to fully explain themselves. It was like they were two parts of an Oreo cookie, smushed together to make a perfect whole. As she held his gaze, she was overcome with the strong, sudden desire to kiss him, just to see what it would be like.

As she wrestled with the sudden urge, he swept a hand through his hair and he still had that infuriatingly handsome grin on his face and—

Jack who? 

🌎🌎🌎
[DAY SEVEN]

The last day of the best week of her life came all too soon. After school, she headed to the airport with Shawn who was reluctant to say goodbye before he needed to.

He loved Cory, of course (even if he never really said so.) They were best friends who stood by each other through thick and thin. They would always be there for each other, no matter what. He even loved Topanga, to some extent. She was a nice girl who would treat his best friend well. She could look out for Cory when he couldn't and there was something to respect about that.

Still, there was no Topanga-like person for him, and he'd always wanted the love that his friends shared (even if he'd never admitted it.) It felt like he'd had that chance with Juliet but now she was leaving (forever) and there was nothing he could do about it.

He walked with her to the jet bridge where her flight would leave for sunny California. They paused in the middle of the hallway after the rest of the passengers had boarded. She gave him a hesitant smile. "I'm sorry that I crashed your school."

"I don't hold it against you," Shawn joked lightly. "It's not like I care about that place that much."

"So you didn't hate that a semi-famous person knocked you off the popularity ladder for a week?" Juliet teased him.

He shrugged. "Some sacrifices are worth it. It wasn't even that terrible. It was kind of. . ."

"An adventure?" the redhead offered as she remembered their impromptu bus trip.

"Part adventure. Part miracle."

She gave him a shy smile and her gaze fell to her feet as she became uncertain of how they should say goodbye. She startled as she felt a warm hand cup her cheek and tilt her head upward, only to find Shawn looking down at her softly. Thoughts of what her parents and boyfriend would think were far from her mind as she copied the gesture to lift her hand to rest on his cheek.

Before she could even think to stop herself, she was leaning forward at the same time he was and the distance closed between them. When their lips met, it was everything she knew a kiss could be. His lips were soft and warm on hers and wow did he know what to do. She made an effort to stand taller as she pushed up on her toes and her free hand grasped the lapel of his leather jacket.

The final boarding call for her flight made them separate, their faces flushed from the unexpected action. Juliet swallowed against the sudden lump in her throat. "Um. Bye, I guess."

"Have a good flight," he replied. He made an effort to not say such final words.

She gave him one last, sweet smile before she turned around to board her plane. Even though a part of him felt like crying at the thought of never seeing her again, his lips still tingled from their kiss in a way they never had before, so he chose to focus on that instead as he headed back into the airport. 

🌎🌎🌎
[THE AFTERMATH]

Shawn was noticeably quieter in the days following Juliet's departure and— despite Cory's nagging— he didn't share much about his feelings. Even the return of his father and the promise of a place for him to live didn't cheer him up as much as it should have. He only felt marginally better when John came into his room while he was packing. "Hey, I found this a few days ago when I was cleaning. This was your friend's, wasn't it?"

He turned to see the dark-haired man holding a glint of silver. Without stopping to think, he lunged forward before he pulled it away from his teacher. "This was Julie's."

"That redhead you had over?" John asked with a nod. "She seemed nice."

"She is nice," he said. It was as close as he could come to saying: "I need to go to California. Can I?"

But it wasn't very close and the two sentences didn't even share any of the same words. He was in the middle of moving houses and even if he had still been staying with John, the older man had no idea how much Juliet had actually meant to him.

If he had shared any of this, John might have thought that this was a good time to remind Shawn of his own story of how the rich girl he'd dated in high school had dumped him, only to reach out again many years later. (That maybe not all hope was lost.)

They might have talked about how it felt and if anything could be done to rescue the relationship. (Even if she technically had a boyfriend.) But then Shawn's father called his name and the moment was lost. The opportunity dissipated like smoke in the wind. 

🌎🌎🌎

Juliet ignored the nausea-inducing liftoff of the plane in favor of rummaging around in her carry-on bag. Her hand landed on what she was looking for and she pulled out a slim, wooden pencil. The eraser was partly used and the green paint of the brand's name had been etched off, but it was her own souvenir from Philadelphia. It was the only memento she had of a dark-haired boy whose eyes were bluer than the sky and whose smile could make her stomach to do somersaults. 

Neither of them would know that they had left pieces of themselves with the other, but they would both treasure the items along with their shared memories of the best week in Philadelphia they'd ever had.

🌎🌎🌎
[2000 , current timeline]

"Do you really think something like that could happen to us?" Shawn asked as he rested his chin on top of his girlfriend's head.

Juliet lightly pushed him away. "It might. Like I said, there are millions of possibilities."

"Are any of them good?"

"Well sure, but there's no way to really tell."

"So there's a world where you wised up and started dating me earlier?" he suggested with a mischievous grin before he ducked out of the way of her reprimanding swat.

"Or our situations could have been reversed where I would be the one chasing you for eleven years," the redhead offered.

"Now that sounds like a world that I want to live in," Shawn said. He laughed as she stood to chastise him further for teasing her.

"You would," she scoffed.

He became slightly serious and he reached forward to grasp her hands. He pulled her closer as he met her eyes. "But I am glad that I live in this world. It's the one I would choose no matter what."

"Really?" she asked with surprise.

He shrugged. "Well, yeah. It's the only one where I know for sure that we end up together." 

A/n: for the scene where Shawn is saying goodbye to Juliet in the airport, don't forget that this is the 1990s; 9/11 hasn't happened yet. Therefore, security is almost non-existent. Think the final scene in My Girl 2 (it was the inspiration for this! You'll probably recognize some of the dialogue.)

[written jan. 2022]
[edited jun. 2022]