⌜ chapter seventeen ⌟

Letty's at work and they all hear a loud bang outside. "What was that?" The brunette asks as she looks over at the new guy that Mr. Matthews hired after Eric quit to be a model.

"I don't know." He shakes his head, and they walk outside.

The two employees make it out there and see a huge fire coming out of the mailbox. Her eyes widen and then she sees Shawn running in the opposite direction. She puts her hand over her mouth as some people call 9-1-1, and a guy comes running out of a store with a fire extinguisher.

After work, Letty goes straight to the Hunters trailer, but his parents tell her that he hasn't come home. She knows that he must be over at Cory's house, but she has to go back to her own trailer, so she can't check in on him yet.

Letty and Miller talk to Mrs. Hunter the next day, and she tells them that Shawn didn't make it home last night. He slept over at Cory's — Mrs. Matthews called her last night to let her know after she got home. After school, Letty plans on going straight over there to talk to him and try to convince him to head back to the trailer park.

School finally ends — after what felt like an eternity and a half — and the teenage girl rushes over to the Matthews' house, immediately gaining Eric's attention. "What are you doing here?"

"Yeah, we're still not talking. I know — I'm not here for you." She tells him and then goes up the stairs to his and his brother's bedroom.

"Scarlett!" Cory says with a huge smile on his face.

"Yeah, hi, Cor." She walks over to his bed and lifts up the blanket so that she can see underneath.

"Hey, how's it going?" Shawn waves as he looks up at her.

"Out." She orders, and he crawls out from under Cory's bed and sits on the foot of it.

"I'm not going home." He tells her as he brushes his hair out of his face, and she sits down next to him.

"Why did you come here? Why didn't you come to me?" She asks him.

"Because I know that you'd tell my mom. I see how close you are with her. She's like a mom to you." He says, and she sighs.

"She's really worried about you, you know? Shawn, she and your dad both are." Letty tells him, and he looks down. "I talked to them this morning."

"How mad are they?" He asks.

"You did a stupid thing, and yes, they're upset. But Shawn, they're worried about the fact that you haven't come home." She says. "You're their son, and they love you and they're worried about you."

"I'm not going home. I can't." He shakes his head, and she sighs. "Please don't tell them that you know where I am."

"Okay. I won't."

"Really?" He asks, surprised.

The brunette nods. "I trust that you'll come home when you're ready to. Just know that I'm here for you, Shawnie. Whenever you need me, no matter what you've done."

"Thanks, Scarlett." He says, and she hugs him. "I really appreciate it."

Letty gets up and goes back downstairs to the kitchen, and Mr. and Mrs. Matthews both look over at her. Eric walks into the room as she reaches the last step.

"How is he?" Mrs. Matthews asks, and the teenager takes a deep breath as her gaze moves to her.

"He's scared. He's afraid that his parents are just angry with him, and he doesn't want to go home. He knows that he messed up and he knows how big it is this time." She tells them. "I really think that we should give him some time. He'll do what's right."

"You really believe that?" Mr. Matthews asks, and she nods.

"Yeah, I do. He's a troubled kid, but he's not bad. He just needs someone to give him a chance."

"And that someone's you?"

"Always has been. Always will be."

"You realize that eventually he's going to get to the point where you can't give him any more chances, right?" He asks.

"Only if we back him into a corner now. He's just a kid, and he's smarter than he lets people think he is. He'll do what's right."

"I hope you're right." Mrs. Matthews says, and Letty sighs.

"I know I am. I've known that kid his whole life." She says and then goes out into the backyard so that she can leave, declining Mr. Matthews' offer to drive her home because of the storm.

"Hey, Letty, can I talk to you for a second?" Eric asks as he goes after her.

"Uh, yeah." She hesitates a moment, pulling her sweater tighter around her body, and then turns back to him. "What's up?"

"I want to talk about the other day, up in my room." He says as he brushes his wet hair out of his face, and she sighs.

"What's there to talk about?"

"Did what I said mean anything to you?" He asks.

"Yeah, it did." She nods, her own wet hair sticking to her face. "What now?"

The two teenagers hear Cory yelling for Shawn from upstairs, and Letty looks up. Shawn climbs down the tree into the backyard and then runs off, leaving the Matthews' house.

"Shawn!" Letty calls after him. "Shawn, wait!" He ignores her and keeps going.

"Letty—"

"I have to go find him." She cuts Eric off and then takes off running after Shawn.

She looks for a long time, but she doesn't find him. She goes to his trailer and his mom tells her that Cory's​ on his way over and then they're going to go and get Shawn. She can go with them if she wants. And she does.

They get to the boys' school, and Cory goes in ahead of Letty to try and make some headway on the situation. He talks to his best friend in their classroom, but then Shawn makes a move for the door. Cory lets him go, knowing that Letty's there waiting for exactly this.

Shawn stops when he sees the brunette and he sighs. "Come to drag me to the car?" He questions. "You lied! You said that you wouldn't tell anyone that you knew where I was." He accuses.

"I didn't. Your mom told me, Shawn. I went looking for you at home, and she told me where to find you." She tells him. "But now we're going home. You can't run from this anymore."

"Yes, I can! Just get away from the door." He tries to move past her, but she gets in the way as she steps inside the room.

"I'd do things her way, if I were you." Miller says as he leans against the doorframe, and Jason's standing right behind him. "She's a lot nicer than we are."

"You're ganging up on me now?" Shawn looks between the two of them.

"What can I say? I need help, and he shows up. He's like Batman, minus the cape." Letty tells him, but he's not amused by her attempt at lightening the mood.

"You're not even talking to him." He argues. "How can you try to make me face my problems when you're running from yours? You're a hypocrite!"

"He's got a point." Jason tells them. "Kiss and make up, you two." He nudges Miller, who holds up a hand to flip him off.

The brunette turns so that she can see both Shawn and Miller. "I took the cigarette from him so he couldn't light it, then I asked him not to smoke around me. You showed up after he agreed, and I was just gonna hand it back." She tells the older boy. "I got so mad because I do need your help sometimes, but I didn't need it then. I want to be able to handle my own problems when I can handle them alone...and I could handle that one."

"But you can't handle them all alone." Miller says, and she nods.

"I know."

"And now they bring it back to me..." Shawn mutters, and Letty turns back to him.

"Shawn, you have two parents who love you, who are worried about you. Cory lied to his parents because he was trying to be a good friend, and you know how hard it is for him to go behind their backs." She says, and he looks at his best friend. "And I'm not going home until my pain-in-the-neck little brother is sitting in the car next to me."

"My parents are gonna ground me for, like, a year." His voice is soft; he's scared.

"And that's really worse than sleeping under Cory's bed, or under Mr. Feeny's desk?" She questions. "Grounded or not — nothing you do will ever be bad enough that you can't come home. Kids are supposed to make mistakes, Shawn, it's how you learn. So learn from these past few days, and do better."

"Will you stay with me while I talk to my parents?" He asks, and she nods.

"I am always here for you, Shawnie."

"You guys are adorable." Jason says as he turns to leave. "Now let's go home. It's freezing outside, and I'm soaked."

"That sounds like a personal problem." Miller walks past him, and he shoves the blond boy in retaliation for the comment.

"Do all of your friends act like this?" Cory asks as he looks at Letty.

"Pretty much." The brunette nods. "Now let's go home, huh?"