"What did I do?"

Shawn's forehead creased with concern as he phoned his girlfriend, who had just quite simply dumped him by sending a text message. Not only was that the lowest thing anyone in a relationship can do when breaking up, Shawn just didn't understand why she was leaving him. It was the perfect echo of most of the other times. They had no reason to leave him, or at least none that he could detect. He was always sweet, polite, gave them anything they asked for, within reason of course. He wouldn't hurt a fly, never mind a girl, so it wasn't like he'd abused any of his girlfriends. He tried his best to hold down this relationship, and while it had lasted longer than most of them had, it was coming to an end, too. He bit his lip lightly and tried to hold back tears as he waited for her to respond.

"Does it matter, Shawn? We're through, and nothing you say to me is going to change that. And if you call me again, I'll tell my boyfriend that you're stalking me."

"Stalking?" he said, distressed. "But I only called you once!"

She didn't answer him, but she did hang up the phone. He stared at it for a few seconds before sighing and putting it back in his pocket. This was useless. Would he ever be able to break the habit of being dumped by every girl that ever dates him? And she had a new boyfriend already? Things were going from bad to worse in a matter of minutes. A tear trickled down his cheek, but he swiped it away quickly with the back of his hand and shook his head lightly. He needed to go out and do something to distract himself. He'd heard about the cafe being a good place to spend some time, and even though he'd rather go to a nightclub, he resisted the urge. Nightclubs could mean running into one of his many enemies.

Less than fifteen minutes later, he was sitting alone in the cafe, in the table closest to the corner. He absentmindedly twirled a stir stick around in his coffee as he went over things in his mind.

Shawn hadn't really been paying any attention to his surroundings, else he probably would have heard the door to the cafe open, and seen the girl walk inside. But at the moment all he was paying attention to was the fact that no matter how hard he tried in the past three years, he just could not hold down a relationship. He sighed wondering what it was about him that drove everyone off. Or maybe it wasn't anything about him, maybe it just was him. He had no way of knowing. And that fact irritated him. His lips twitched into a frown as he stared at the swirling liquid, sighing quietly.

He nearly had a heart attack when the girl sat down in front of him, and not only that, but spoke to him. He jumped slightly, his eyes widened, and his brows disappeared behind his dark bangs. He let out a sigh of relief, because he'd been worried about who it was, but she didn't look familiar, and she didn't sound like a jerk. He let go of the stir stick, which continued to rotate in the still swirling drink, and brushed his blue-tinted bangs from his eyes. He chanced a small smile, which worked out well, he didn't grimace. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said with a shrug and a nod. "Just having a shitty day overall. But things will clear up, they always do."

This was true, in a way. Relationship-wise, he'd already accepted the fact that he was screwed. He would keep trying of course, but he'd given up most hopes. But other things tended to eventually get better for him. He survived the car crash after all, and they'd almost garunteed him death. He was in a social mood - surprising considering what he'd just went through - so he decided to make conversation. "You're from the Academy, right?" It was obvious, elementals could sense when another person posessed power, just not confirm what element. "Which element are you in? I'm earth," he said with another small smile.

[LMFAO she's funny]

"Yeah, definitely," Shawn sighed in agreement, looking down at the table and tracing an odd pattern in the wood, trying to keep his calm composure stable in his facial expression. Come on, Shawn, he told himself fiercely. No showing any sign of weakened emotion, because you know what that gets. Everyone'll be calling you a wimp for months. He managed to keep his expression stable, and breathed an inaudible sigh of relief. "Days just suck sometimes. Everything seems like it's going to be fine, and then... well, shit happens." He paused. "Sorry, I'm being really depressing. I'll stop that now, don't worry." Don't want to scare off anyone who's taking the time to be nice and talk to you.

He followed her eyes with his own grayish-green gaze, which turned into a slight glare when he realized the way they were staring at her. Honestly, no one at the school had a life anymore. It had all became one big popularity contest. "Geez, it's worse than politics," he said, shaking his head and turning his attention back to the girl. "I don't click with anyone around this place, at least not ever since the fire and thunder students decided I made a good punching bag. No one wants to be seen near the loser." He rolled his eyes.

He burst into laughter at what she said. In the beginning, he hadn't gotten the whole sexual innuendo joke, but now that he knew what it meant, it was just as funny to him as it was to everyone else. "... thanks?" he said, after straightening up. He'd been laughing so hard his sides had started to hurt, and he'd doubled over, holding his ribs. "Don't worry about it," he assured her. "I've done that more times than I can count... and holy shit I just did it again. Shoot." He totally hadn't mean to turn one bad joke into another, but it had happened. Of course. What a way to humiliate himself.

When she blushed, he did, equally as embarrassed. "I like your hair, too," he said, trying not to sound like an idiot. She was very pretty. "By the way, I forgot to tell you my name, because well... yeah. I'm Shawn." He smiled. "And don't worry about being random, I'm used to that kind of thing." He was - that was his sister Jacklynn for you.

"People don't want to hang out with you just because you're adopted?" Shawn said in disbelief, his eyes widening and his mouth dropping open. With his current facial expression, complete with the shock, he looked quite boyish and young. He closed his mouth, now shaking his head in obvious disgust. "I hate people that judge character by looks and social backgrounds. Just because my older brother's a drug addict, my parents have turned on me lately because they think I'm going to be the same way... I've even heard them discussing 'what to do with me', like I'm some annoying pest that keeps invading their privacy. I'm afraid of what they might do, they might stop me from hanging around my own sister, seeing as what happened to me when Jamie... well, yeah. Are your parents nice, though?" he wondered aloud, then mentally slapped himself in the face. "I'm sorry, I spoke too soon. I should have thought... you don't have to answer that..."

He laughed softly and nervously when she accidentally did it again, this was turning from bad to worse, but at the same time it was pretty funny, so he couldn't hold back his laughter. Honestly, could things get anymore awkward? Here he was sitting with a girl in a cafe, while the two of them unintentionally cracked sexual jokes back and forth. Oh my. "Yeah, I know what you mean," he agreed deliberately making sure there couldn't be another hidden innuendo in his words, because that might make it seem like he was trying to impress her in very wrong ways, so he was going to stay away from that approach to humour.

"It's nice to meet you, too," he said shyly, blushing lightly. He blushed at every sort of emotion imaginable, which made him even more embarassed. It might seem like... well, he did like her, he did find her attractive, but he didn't want her to know. In his mind he cast around for a good subject, and as usual one thing came to mind. "Are you into music?" he wondered.

Well, at least they're nice to her, Shawn though sadly, thinking back in his mind to when his parents used to act like they loved him, used to act like they cared what happened to him. In his mind, he saw their proud faces as they watched him playing in the yard with his older brother Jamie. Jamie... before he changed. His older brother had been a perfect role model, had protected and guided Shawn in everything, and then suddenly he fell into the wrong crowd and bang, all of a sudden he was a jerk. And yet even though he'd turned his back, Shawn still loved Jamie. He knew his father wanted Jamie to overdose so that he learned the consequences, but Shawn wanted him to live. He still had intense feelings toward his brother, he wanted to repair the relationship even though he knew it was impossible. "You should make it up to your parents," he said, meaning his words. "In the end, what have you got but family? A lot of people take their family for granted, but they shouldn't. There are people who's parents are dead, people who's parents don't care about them. They may not be related to you in blood, but judging by your words, they love you, so you should repair what you had. Who cares if you have a blood relation to them or not, as long as they see you as their kid, and the other way around?"

Shawn laughed with her and shifted awkwardly, discomfort flowing through him, tensing his muscles slightly, but not in a noticable fashion. He felt really out of place, sitting there and thinking about sexual jokes while he was sitting across from a really pretty girl.

Glad to have the subject off of the 'that's what she said' phase, Shawn nodded and grinned enthusiactically. "Yeah! I definitely love music, except most country and rap. There are a few good rap artists, like Eminem, and some good country songs, but mainly I hate it. I'm mostly into rock, and screamo. A lot of people think it's weird that I like bands on different sides of the genre spectrum, but I don't care what they think. I love what I love, and no one can change that. Music is my life, it always has been. It's helped me through so much in my life, I owe everything to it. And to think some people bash those that say they can relate to songs." He realized he'd been talking a bit hyper, so he blushed. "Sorry. I get really verbal about music. I can't help it."

Shawn felt bad for her when she started to agree with him, and he bit his lip, looking away and studying a crack in the floor rather than meeting her eyes. He was shy whenever he said something that might affect someone's emotions in a negative way, because truly he was one of the nicest people you could meet, and he valued everyone else over himself, even his enemies. So when she spoke, he felt a stab of pain, even though it wasn't him feeling the original emotion. Her face was composed, but he could tell by her words, could just guess what she's going through. "It's not your fault," he told her, finally glancing back and shaking his head lightly. "Anyone would have done the same, it's not something anyone would expect. So all you can really do is apologize for overreacting, make it up to them. If they're as nice and caring as you say, I'm sure they'd forgive you."

His lips twitched into a smile when she mentioned Eminem, and even chuckled softly. "Yeah, I know the words to a lot of them, too. Sort of a guilty pleasure -" he froze, resisted the urge to facepalm, shook his head and continued, "- ... pretend you didn't hear the joke in that, anyways, but I do sort of like the stuff he sings. Or raps, or whatever. The lyrics mostly, because stereotype rap artists annoy me with their disgusting raps about naked women -" he blushed slightly when he said this, seeing as he was in the presence of a girl, "- and money, and drugs, and I just get so sick of hearing about it. Rap makes the music channels almost worth turning off. Ugh, I hate it." He smiled and brushed his blue-black bangs from his eyes. "I have heard of Saosin, but I've never actually listened to any of their music. What genre are they?" he wondered. He grinned when she said she was the same way about music. "I don't use playlists, I just flip through the shuffle until I find a song I like." He shrugged. "I guess that's a little weird, but that's me for you."

Shawn nodded, accepting her words as the truth, then hesitated slightly before speaking again. "I know... it might take time to get over what you did, get past it and forgive yourself, but you'll need to forgive yourself first, before they can possibly forgive you. If you don't, then you'll get nowhere. But trust me, I understand that it might take you a little while. I've had to deal with taking the blame for my brothers addiction, and for a while I believed that it was my fault. But once I backed up and really looked at what was happening, I realized that I'd need to get past that if I ever wanted to have a life again. So I did." He smiled shyly and hesitantly.

He had been taking a sip of his coffee, and had forced himself to resist the urge to laugh until he'd swallowed and safely put the cup back on the table. "If you don't know, then maybe it's best I not humiliate myself again," he chuckled sheepishly, running his hand through the back of his black hair. "Yeah, rap sure is pretty shitty. I just can't stand hearing all that commercial stuff they put out there nowadays. I know it's what sells and all, but ugh, is it ever annoying. I like the honest rappers, but there doesn't seem to be many of them that ever manage to make it big around here." He nodded softly when she talked about Saosin, noting the name in his head and making a mental reminder to look them up later, using one of the most useful online sites. YouTube. Shawn sure did owe a lot to YouTube. "I do that too," he agreed, referring to when she mentioned leaving a song on repeat for a long period of time. "I can go for weeks listening to only two or three songs, or perhaps just a single band, depending on my mood."

Shawn listened to Lily talking about the music industry nowadays, nodding in agreement but not interrupting her out of politeness. He did chuckle a little when she mentioned the gangster 'yo I'm so pimp' thing though, because it was true. But it was wickedly hilarious to hear her say it, and thinking about this made him blush lightly. Yeah, it was pretty hard to find something that didn't make Shawn blush, especially when he was around a girl. Whether he had a strong affection toward her or absolutely no attractions at all, he always seemed to be on overdrive with the blushing in the presence of a girl. And he was ten times more shy, as well. Which was saying something, because in general Shawn was one of the most shy people in the entire Academy.

"I might sound like a major music geek when I say this, and well technically I am. But the first thing I do if I think I'm going to like a band is listen to all their songs once. Then I decide whether I want to really get into the band or not. If I do, I learn the words to every single song, and sometimes I'll teach myself the guitar parts as well. Then I learn the names of all the members and the basic background of the band. The deeper the obsession, the more I end up knowing about them." He paused. "And that's a pretty sad way to spend my life." He laughed.