❝'Cause you know the truth hurts but secrets kill.❞

Hopeless | Halsey

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"Elena, hey," Cory smiled although his brows were furrowed in confusion, "Not that I'm not happy to see you but what brings you here so late?"

"Shawn cheated on me, and I'm so mad!" She let out an anguished scream, her face going red.

"W-what?!" Cory's eyes widened and his head spun as he tried to make sense of everything.

"Oh, I have to break things! But everything upstairs in my room is too nice!" She screamed.

"You do have a very nice room," Cory nodded, as usual having the attention span of a goldfish, "I must say, you have such an eye for interior design. I mean the colors and the-"

"Run a tab, Cory!" She screamed as she started grabbing things and throwing them to the floor in a flurry of anger and unshed tears, "Aah! I gotta break more things!"

Cory looked around and shrugged when he saw a box of Eric's old school trophies. "Here."

"Oh," She breathed out, finally having stopped screaming, and smiled, "I feel better. I really do. Okay. All right."

Cory nodded slowly as he inched away from her discreetly. "Well, I think we just saw what it would look like if someone cheated on The Incredible Hulk."

"So, how much do I owe you?" She asked as she pulled out her checkbook.

"How about an explanation and we call it even," He arched his brow.

Elena let out a laugh. "Wow. You are really bad at business. But okay."

"You know, for someone who just went all Incredible Hulk in my room and thinks her boyfriend cheated on her, you are surprisingly calm right now," He frowned as he sat down on his bed.

"Because I'm not thinking about my cheating boyfriend," She spit the last two words out like venom, "Because if I think about it I get angry and if I let the anger go away then all I'm left with is sad. And I hate being sad. And I am not going to be sad over a cheater!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, okay slow down. Now, I'm just going to put this on before I voice out my thoughts," He smiled as he put on a football helmet and secured it tightly, "Okay, now I just want to point out that Shawn would never cheat on you. I mean the guy's waited his entire life for you, you really think he's going to throw that away so easy?"

"My parents were married and had a kid but that didn't stop my mom from cheating."

"Okay, fair point but that is not what's happening here. I know Shawn and so do you for that matter. He's not cheating on you," Cory told her earnestly, "Why'd you even think that?"

"He's been lying to me," She admitted as she played with the ring he'd given her, "He keeps bailing on me and coming up with the dumbest excuses. And now all of a sudden he's sick."

"Well, maybe he just doesn't want you to catch whatever he has," Cory smiled warmly, "Now if you ask me that is him being a great boyfriend right there."

"Cory, he wanted me to stay with him when he had chickenpox," She reminded him blankly.

Cory paused, trying to think of anything to explain Shawn's actions other than cheating. "...All right, well, how about I prove to you he's not cheating?"

"How are you going to do that?"

"I'm going to go over to his trailer," He explained simply, "And he's going to be sick as a duck."

"Dog."

"What?" Cory's brows furrowed.

"It's sick as a dog not a duck," She corrected him.

"Really? Huh, I always thought it was 'duck'," Cory frowned before he shook it off, "Anyway, off I go to prove your boyfriend's innocence."

Elena smiled warmly at her best friend. "Thanks, Cory. I'll just clean this mess up."

"Do you think getting him flowers would be too much?" Cory wondered as he put on his jacket.

Her brows furrowed. "Why would you get Shawn flowers?"

"Well because he's my best friend and he's sick."

"Too much."

"I think you're wrong."

"Then why'd you ask me if you already decided to go with the flowers?" She scoffed.

"I was hoping you would agree with me," He shrugged as he tied the laces on his shoes.

"I never agree with you," She reminded him.

"I know," He sighed and shook his head, "I don't know what I was thinking."

"You can think?" She teased him as she slowly put Shawn's ring back on her finger.

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"Shawn," Cory kicked his leg against the door to knock since his hands were full with all the bags he was barely carrying, "Shawn, it's me, Cory."

"Cory," Shawn opened the door with furrowed brows, "What are you doing here?"

"Well, my best friend tells me my other best friend is sick and his folks are out of town. I just thought I'd drop by and check on you. These bags weigh a ton," Cory huffed and pushed past him to set the bags down onto the kitchen table, "So y'know I just brought over a few little sundries to tide you through; cough syrup, aspirin."

"Vaporub?" Shawn frowned as he looked in the bags, "What, you didn't bring me any flowers?"

"Well, actually, I did," He smiled sheepishly as he held up a small vase with yellow flowers, "I just didn't know if it was appropriate."

"It's not. It's not appropriate," Shawn shook his head with a sigh, "Now, uh, if you'll excuse me, I um, I gotta get some sleep," He faked a cough, "I'm very contagious."

"Oh, say no more," Cory smiled, ecstatic that he could go home and tell Elena that she had finally been wrong for once. But he was of course going to leave out the part about her being right about the flowers, "I'll just plug in the humidifier and be on my way."

Cory was about to eat his words. Because as he walked over to the wall plug-in a girl, Claire Furgeson, walked out of the bedroom wearing Shawn's robe.

"Shawn?" Claire mumbled as she yawned.

"Claire?" Cory stared at her in shock before he turned to his best friend, "Shawn?"

Cory's brows furrowed as his thoughts spun. He stared at Shawn as a flurry of emotions washed over his face before he finally settled on anger as his eyes narrowed. He couldn't believe that Shawn would do this to Elena. His thoughts were a mess and he didn't know what to do so he marched towards the door.

"Cory," Shawn called desperately as he followed him outside, "Really, you don't have to go."

Cory turned to him with fury in his eyes and scoffed heatedly. "Me and my Mentholatum. How could you, huh?" He pushed him angrily, "What's the matter with you?!"

"Cory, Cory," Shawn held his hands up, "Calm down, man. It's not what you think-"

"Oh, of course not!" He scoffed, "Look, Shawn Hunter, I may not be as strong as you but you got another thing coming if you think I'm not going to at least try to knock your head off for this."

"Cory, this isn't what it looks like," Shawn promised earnestly.

"Then why'd you lie, huh? Whatever it is, you could've just told me."

Shawn shook his head with a heavy sigh. "No, I couldn't have."

"Why not?" Cory asked him as his shoulder sagged defeatedly.

"Look, you're just going to have to trust me on this one, okay? But you and I both know I would never do anything to hurt Elena," He looked at him desperately.

Before he could answer, Claire walked out. "Cory, you won't tell anyone I was here, will you?"

"Well, normally I would've told Shawn, but he already knows. Unless he's just a complete idiot."

Shawn sighed in relief, taking that as Cory agreeing to trust him. He nodded thankfully at him.

Cory pursed his lips as he gave Shawn one last disappointed look before he walked away. He hoped he'd made the right decision and that Shawn really wasn't cheating just like he said.

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Cory and Shawn were studying at Chubbies but all Cory could think or focus on was Claire. When he'd gone home last night, Eric had thrown him a pillow and a blanket to sleep on the couch because Elena had fallen asleep on his bed. So, he'd gotten a free pass that night on covering for Shawn which he really didn't want to do. And today he'd managed to avoid her by telling her he was hanging out with Shawn to get more information.

But he knew that come tomorrow, he would have to talk to her and she would want to talk about Shawn and nothing else. Cory was always bad at lying but he was especially bad at lying to Elena. Not that he even wanted to but he was choosing to trust Shawn for the time being. But he still needed more information about what was going on.

So he stared at Shawn and exaggeratedly tapped his pencil against his books to get his attention.

Shawn looked up at him slowly and raised a brow. "Yes?"

"Shawn, we've always told each other everything," Cory started causally, "So-"

Shawn cut him off with a huff. "Did I say there was nothing to tell?"

"But I-"

"Did I say there was nothing to tell?" He repeated pointedly.

"Yes, but you still--"

"Then let it go," Shawn snapped as he narrowed his.

"Shawn, you and a girl spent the night together. Without me and with a girl that wasn't Elena."

"Man, this is not something you sit around and talk to a friend about." Shawn huffed irritatedly.

"Why is that?" Cory threw his hands up and scoffed, "Because you've moved up to a higher level of lying to your girlfriend, and I'm still walking around with my address in my pocket?"

"Don't be so hard on yourself about that one," Shawn teased him, "That's a tough address. 321."

"No, no," Cory shook his head, not wanting to get distracted by jokes, "This isn't the time for jokes. This is important, it's about where you are and where I'm not. And from where I am, I can't lie to Elena."

Shawn's smile fell and he gave him a serious look. "Well, you have to. Besides, nothing happened with Claire."

"Well, how do I, with good conscience, say that to Elena when you won't tell me anything?!"

"You just trust your best friend Shawn," He snapped pointedly.

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Cory had decided that morning before school that he wouldn't lie to Elena. But he also didn't want to upset Shawn by breaking his promise so he'd resigned to avoiding the girl all day. It was difficult and he missed his best friend but he hoped it would be worth it when he could tell her in the end that Shawn wasn't and isn't cheating.

He hoped to God he would get to say that.

However, while he'd been able to avoid Elena he hadn't been able to avoid Topanga. When she questioned him about why he was avoiding her, he caved and told her what was going on. In his defense, Shawn had made him promise not to tell Elena, or at least that's why he remembered. Topanga ended up being furious with him for hiding everything from Elena and had walked off in a fury. And since then she had been avoiding him.

"Well, I hope you're happy." Cory glared when Shawn joined him by their lockers.

Shawn gave him a weird look. "What?"

"I've blown it with Topanga, and it's on your head." Cory snapped as he crossed his arms.

"Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. What?" Shawn breathed out with furrowed brows.

"I told Topanga about not telling Elena about Claire because you asked me not to tell," He explained with a huff, "And now she's mad at me and calling me a bad friend."

Shawn's eyes widened and his voice raised scathing. "What?! You told her about Claire?"

Cory paused and started nervously. "...Uh, perhaps."

"Cory, you promised you wouldn't tell anyone," Shawn stared at him disappointedly as his voice softened, "I thought I could trust you."

Cory let out a soft chuckle as he shrugged earnestly. "Shawn, we're talking about Topanga-"

"No," He cut him off, "We're talking about trust. But you don't know what that means, do you?"

Before he could walk away, Cory sighed and burst out. "Elena thinks you're cheating on her!"

Shawn froze and spun back around with wide eyes. "W-what?"

"She thinks you're cheating on her. That's why I came over that night because she was at my place going crazy telling me you were cheating on her. So, like the best friend I am, I told her there's no way my Shawn would do that. But looks like I was wrong," Cory frowned.

"I-I'm not cheating on her!" Shawn burst out frantically, "I would never do that to her. I-I"

"Well, it doesn't seem like that to her," Cory pointed out quietly, Look, Shawn, if you aren't cheating then whatever you are doing you can tell us. We've been best friends forever."

Unfortunately for Cory, it was as though Shawn couldn't hear him. His head was just swimming with the idea that Elena thought he was cheating on her. Without another word, he marched down the hall and towards the Art classroom.

"S-Shawn!" Cory called after him as he tried to catch up, "Where are you going?"

"You think I'm cheating on you?" Shawn breathed out as he entered the Art class.

Elena stiffened at his voice, her brush frozen on one spot on her canvas. "Yes."

"That's all you're going to say?!" He exploded as he stared at her with wide eyes.

Elena's jaw tightened as she threw her paintbrush down onto the palette splattering red paint on the wall. She glared at him as she turned to face him. "Yes, that's all I'm going to say!"

"How could you think I would cheat on you?" He asked her with sad eyes as his voice broke.

"Because I know what cheating looks like," She scoffed as she glared at him.

"Lena, we're not your parents," He burst out in exasperation.

"Yeah, right," She rolled her eyes, "You've been lying to me and avoiding me and-"

Shawn cut her off with a huff. "Look, if you don't trust me enough not to cheat-"

"You don't trust me enough to tell me what's really going on!" She countered sharply.

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"You know, Shawn, you don't have to always use the window," Cory sighed.

"I like it. Danger," He explained simply with a smile as he jumped down from the window.

"Well, bye Cory," Elena didn't even look in Shawn's direction as she stood up to leave.

"Lena, wait!" Shawn begged as he grabbed her hand, "Please."

"Are you done lying to me?" She asked with a brow raised.

He sighed. "Don't you think that if I could've told you something, I would have?"

"Shawn, I think you know that you can always trust us with anything," Cory answered for her.

He paused and tightened his hold on Elena's hand desperately. "You swear you'll never tell?"

Cory nodded without any hesitation. "We swear."

Elena, sensing this was important, put her anger aside and nodded. "Yeah, we do."

"Okay, Claire and I aren't doing anything," Shawn gave Elena a meaningful look, "We never have. The reason she's been staying at my place... Her dad hits her."

Cory and Elena froze as they stared at him in shock. "What do you mean he hits her?"

"At night sometimes, he yells a lot and beats her up," He explained solemnly.

"Wait, Claire's dad?" Cory asked with furrowed brows, "He's the vice president of a bank."

"Yeah, I know," Shawn nodded with a tight smile, "Good job, fancy home, a low life creep. But I just can't hide her at my place anymore," He frowned, hoping Cory understood what he meant.

"Well, we should probably go to the police," Cory said decidedly.

Shawn shook his head with a haughty laugh. "No, Cory, the cops aren't going to do anything."

Cory frowned, clearly not understanding the issue. "Why not?"

"Because I'm a kid from a trailer park and he's the vice president of a bank," He scoffed, "I mean, who do you think they're gonna listen to?"

"Well, then at least let me tell my parents," Cory begged, trying his best to help, "I mean-"

"No!" Shawn cut him off loudly, "Cory, you just swore that you wouldn't tell anyone. I need to know, can I bring Claire here tonight?"

Cory paused as he thought everything over. "What about her dad?  I mean won't he be upset if she's not there? What about her mom?"

"Her mom's scared, she's just pretending it's not happening. And Claire's gotten really good at sneaking out," Shawn gave Cory a pleading look, "Please, Cor."

"Yeah." Cory answered after a beat of silence, "I'll call you when my parents go to sleep."

"I'll stay over," Elena offered quietly, "Might make her more comfortable."

Shawn nodded and managed a weak smile. "Thanks, guys."

"I'll go get her some stuff from my house," Elena decided as she stood up and got her jacket.

"I'll come with you," Shawn said immediately and followed after her.

The two walked down the street in silence too consumed in their own thoughts to speak. Their hands brushed against one another occasionally before they intertwined them tightly, still not saying a word.

"I'm sorry for-" The two cut themselves off with a chuckle when they spoke in unison.

Shawn tightened his hold on Elena's hand. "Look, I'm sorry for lying to you. I just wanted to help Claire out and I didn't know how, all I knew is she didn't want anyone to know."

"It's okay," Elena reassured him with a small smile, "Just tell me you're dealing with something next time? So I don't destroy Cory's room over nothing," She chuckled lightly, "And I'm sorry I let my mom get in my head."

The two continued to talk as they made their way to her house to pack a bag for Claire.

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"So, Claire and Elena got out before your parents woke up?" Shawn asked worriedly.

Cory had set up the living room couch for Claire to sleep on and Elena had opted to sleep on the ground next to the couch in case she needed anything. The two had managed to sneak out early in the morning before anyone had woken up. Once they'd gotten to school, Elena had gotten her extra house key from her locker and given it to Claire and told her to come over any time she needed to. She really hoped she would take her up on her offer.

"Yeah," He nodded tightly, "Your plan of protecting her one night at a time worked. For one night, Shawn."

"Good," He breathed out a sigh of relief before giving Cory a hopeful look, "So, um, now it's the next night, and I'm wondering if you can leave your door unlocked again."

Cory sighed, really thinking they needed to do more. "Shawn..."

"Cory, she likes your place. She said she feels safe there. Can't you just do this?" Shawn begged, "Elena's Dad is going on a business trip soon and then Claire can stay with her."

"You can't just move from place to place because it feels safe," Cory argued, "Did you see what that jerk did to her arm? Now, we gotta get Claire, and we gotta go to the police."

"No," Shawn shook his head vehemently, "Cops just make things worse."

"Oh, you're right, Shawn," Cory scoffed sarcastically, "You put a cherry bomb in the mailbox. The cops came and made things worse for you. You stole Turner's bike, more cops, more worse."

"So you see my point then?"

"Shawn, you're a criminal," Cory pointed out sharply, "The cops were doing their job. Now, we're getting Claire, and we're going to the police."

Too caught up arguing, they didn't notice Claire and Elena join them. "If you do, I'll just lie."

Cory turned to her exasperatedly, clearly worried for her. "Claire, you gotta do something."

"Look, Cory, you come home to the people in that picture and you know they love you. My dad loves me, too. He just has all this stress at work, and I get in his way at the wrong times."

Elena frowned at how Claire was excusing her father's behavior. But after spending last night letting her cry it out, she knew Claire didn't want to talk about it right now. So, she just rubbed her shoulder comfortingly and returned the weak smile Claire gave her.

"No. No," Cory huffed desperately, "He's wrong, okay? What he's doing to you is wrong."

"Cory?" Shawn implored, his eyes begging him.

Cory sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I'll unlock my door."

"Thanks, Cor," Shawn patted his shoulder.

"C'mon," Elena nodded for Claire to follow her, "You still need to finish copying my homework before class starts. And I got Marge, the lunch lady, to save us two slices of pie."

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"Cory. It's the middle of the night. What, didn't Claire show up?" Cory asked

"Yeah, she showed up," Cory grumbled and nodded to Elena, who was helping a limping Claire

"I'm fine," Claire promised, her right eye swollen shut, "It's really not as bad as it looks."

Shawn's eyes widened worridley. "I-I'm so sorry. He won't do this to you again. I promise."

"Shawn, you can't promise something like that," Cory huffed, "I know you wanna do the right thing, but you have been wrong on this all the way."

"Look, in a year and a half, I'll be off at college. Until then, I'll just stay out of his way."

"Claire, you haven't been doing a real good job of that so far," Shawn pointed out softly.

"You're against me now, too?" She asked, her voice breaking.

"You don't deserve this, Claire," Elena rubbed her shoulder sympathetically, "Nobody does."

"You didn't make him do this, Claire, but you can't make him stop all by yourself," Cory frowned.

"I didn't do anything to him," She cried, "I didn't do anything. Why does he hit me? Just me?"

The three best friends shared a look before they decided on what to do.

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Cory, Elena, and Shawn quietly snuck into the Matthews' home and started packing up Claire's stuff. They'd decided to send her to Vermont to stay with her aunt since she liked it so much up there and she'd be away from her father. Elena used her card to buy the ticket for her and they had her wait outside while they got her things.

"Cor, don't forget those," Shawn called quietly as he pointed to the pillows and blanket.

"Yeah, I know," Cory stuffed them in a bag, "It's a good thing my parents aren't up yet, huh?"

Just as he said that, the living room lights turned on. "Yeah. Good thing we're still asleep."

Amy and Alan were sitting on the stairs with expectant looks on their faces.

"Yeah, we shouldn't be up for an hour," Alan mused to his wife.

"Mom, Dad, it's nice to see you both," Cory chuckled nervously and handed Shawn the bag.

"Yeah, anything we need to know about before we wake up?" Alan raised a brow.

"Well, first off, it's got nothing to do with these," Shawn promised as he held up the billows.

"Cory," Alan called warningly.

Cory sighed. "We were taking care of a friend who was being roughed up by her dad."

"Claire Ferguson?"

Shawn's eyes widened as he turned to Cory accusingly. "You told them?"

"No," Cory shook his head quickly, "This time, no."

"No, he didn't tell us, Shawn," Alan agreed.

"She left her schoolbooks here," Amy explained softly as she held up the notebook.

"She wanted us to keep it a secret," Shawn admitted reluctantly.

"We decided to respect that," Cory added.

"And we did everything we could to help her," Elena nodded.

"Hey, guys, if you're got a friend in serious trouble, then the only thing you have to respect is how to get her the right kind of help," Alan told them.

"Oh, we took care of that," Shawn reassured him.

Alan raised a brow. "Did you?"

"Did you call the police?" Amy asked them.

"No. We put her on a bus to Vermont to stay with her aunt."

"And it's where she wants to be," Cory smiled, "So we did the right thing."

"Really?" Alan nodded slowly as he pursed his lips, "What's gonna stop her dad from bringing her back home and he continues?"

Shawn shook his head as he grimaced at the mere thought. "He's not gonna do that."

"Well, who's gonna stop him?" Alan questioned heatedly, hoping Shawn would finally see it his way, "Are you gonna stop him, Shawn? Is her aunt gonna stop him? Because the distance is not gonna be what stops him."

"I'm gonna stop him," He decided.

"How?"

After a beat of silence, Shawn finally said. "I'm going to the police."

"Good," Alan nodded and he went to grab his keys, "We'll drive you."

"I promised Claire I'd take care of her."

Cory and Elena smiled. "Well, now you really are."

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"She looks really happy there," Elena smiled at the photo Claire sent them with her letter.

"Yeah, Claire says she's really happy in Vermont. I mean she started a new school, she's making new friends. Her dad's in a therapy program and she says maybe they'll see each other again someday," Shawn smiled brightly as he read the letter.

Elena wrapped an arm around his waist. "You did a really good thing, Shawnie."

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〚𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄〛

Back-to-back update because the last chapter was so short. I hope you guys liked it! I wanted to keep Claire's story as her own, please let me know what you thought.

How are you guys liking season 4 so far? The next chapter is going to be the birthday episode, but it's going to be about Elena's birthday instead of Topanga's.

Please don't forget to vote and comment, comment, comment!

Have a great day and stay safe ♥♥