Faith, Trust, and Tiny Italian Cupcakes!

Faith, Trust, and Tiny Italian Cupcakes




Chapter One



May 17th, 1991

Santa Barbara Police Station



"Shawn, I really don't wanna be here...," Whined the midget-y ten year old Burton Guster. "It's scary here."

Equally midget-y ten year old Shawn Spencer scoffed at Gus's fright. "Oh come on, Gus. My dad works here. He wouldn't let anybody hurt us."

Gus didn't say anything more, but the big pout on his face said he really didn't want to take the chance that Shawn's dad might be out patrolling away from the building with all of the scary guys.

"Dude... what are you saying to me with your face right now?" Shawn asked incredulously, giving his friend's face a half disturbed, half impressed glance. "We'll only be here for a minute. I just need to tell dad that our weird neighbor is dancing on top of his roof without pants on."

Little Gus shook his head. "Man. Your neighborhood is weird."

Shawn nodded emphatically and looked around the big station. "Hey!" he called out. "I'm looking for my dad!"

The woman at the desk gave Shawn an almost pitying look. "Oh honey. What did he do?"

Shawn blinked. "Um, I don't know. But I know he's here, because he's usually here around this time of day so I came to see him."

The woman cooed at him. "Oh, you poor thing. Having such an irresponsible daddy."

Shawn was really confused now, and he gave Gus a weird look. Gus shrugged. Shawn looked back at the woman. "Um, yeah, he did lock me in a trunk last week -"

The woman looked shocked. "A trunk?!"

Shawn felt like he shouldn't have said that. "Um... could you just call Detective Spencer for me? I need to tell him my neighbor is scaring me."

The woman nodded and gestured for Shawn to sit down on a bench off to the side. Shawn and Gus sat down and looked at each other.

"So... did I just get dad in trouble?" Shawn asked.

"You know that's right," Gus said.

"Great."

Shawn and Gus sat there for a few minutes before the lady said that Shawn's dad was out on patrol and would be in the station in just a bit. Shawn made a reluctant Gus stay with him, and they devolved into chatting about superheroes.

Shawn was half admiring the sparkle-y jewelry the weird woman at the desk was wearing and half winning an argument with Gus about why Star Wars was better than Star Trek when a door opened down the hall and a teenage boy was lead out by a cop and sat on the bench next to Shawn. The cop told him sternly not to go anywhere, then walked off to pursue other matters.

Gus had tensed so badly when the boy was put next to them that Shawn was worried that his friend may have broken his spine from jack-knifing so far back. Though, Shawn could see why Gus was scared.

The boy was maybe around 18 or 19. He was slim, but had rough looking fingers, so he obviously wasn't a stranger to fighting. His hair was shoulder length and black, held up in a ponytail like the ones Shawn's dad said beatniks wore. He was wearing black shoes, black pants, and a black coat that went all the way down to his thighs, and he was fiddling with a pair of blue gloves. They had blood on them.

Shawn's eyes travelled up to the boy's face. He was pale, and his face looked a little thin. One of his eyes were swollen shut, and his lip was busted open and bleeding. The one eye that was open was bloodshot and glistening with tears.

One tear fell down his cheek, and Shawn felt something in his chest go KER-PLUNK. Oh. Maybe that was his heart.

Shawn's dad always said that men shouldn't cry in public for any reason. But, when Shawn fell off his bike and busted his knee on the pavement, the detective had hoisted him up into his arms and didn't tell him to stop crying until they got to the house. Because sometimes, it your were hurting enough, it was okay to cry just a little bit.

He didn't exactly know why he did it, but before he realized what he was doing, he had reached across the bar separating him and the teen and grabbed one of his hands.

The teen looked at him, startled. Another tear fell, but he reached up with his free had to wipe it away.

"It's okay," Shawn said awkwardly. "Whatever happened... it's okay. You shouldn't cry."

The teen leveled him with a curious stare. Sniffing a little bit, he spoke softly; "How would you know that? You have no idea what's happened."

Shawn coughed. "No. But, did you do something bad?"

He opened his mouth to say something. Then he stopped. He looked like he was thinking about it. "I'm gay."

Shawn blinked. "What... is that?"

"It means I like boys. You know. Like how you might like a girl who is pretty? I like boys like that. Like kisses and hugs and... kisses."

Shawn stared at him for a moment, slowly registering the meaning of the new word. Then, he looked down at himself. Then back up at the teen.

He smiled a little. "I only like boys my age."

Shawn gave him an unimpressed look. "I'm just as good-looking as anyone your age."

The teen laughed. It was short, raspy laugh, and it kind of sounded like it might have hurt. It didn't sound like he'd laughed anytime recently. He coughed a bit and reached up to hold his chest, as if it hurt. Shawn noticed that he hadn't let go of his hand.

"My name is Aaron," he said, once he was done coughing.

"I'm Shawn," he said. "This is my friend, Gus."

Gus nodded stiffly in Aaron's direction. Shawn could tell he was uncomfortable, but interested. He was eying Aaron's bruises.

"Why is it bad that you're gay?" he asked.

Aaron smiled sadly. "Because it's not normal. So my dad didn't like it."

Shawn frowned. "I'm not normal. But my dad thinks that's cool."

Aaron laughed again, quieter this time, slower. "That's nice."

"So, you're here because you're gay?" Gus asked.

Aaron shrugged. "Not really. I'm here because I was keeping it a secret that I was gay." He fell quiet. "I was keeping a lot of secrets."

Shawn looked curious. "What kind?"

Aaron gave him a soft smile, and shook his head a bit. "It's complicated."

"I'm brilliant," Shawn said automatically.

Aaron raised an eyebrow. "Fine. I have a boyfriend. And I didn't tell my father." He looked down, eyes darkening a bit. "Dad found out – he was so mad. He started beating me."

Shawn eyes grew wide and looked at the wounds on Aaron's face again. He could feel Gus next to him, doing the same.

"I didn't tell my boyfriend. I didn't want him to feel responsible. But... today... my dad beat me harder than usual. And then Caleb came over to bring me out to dinner, and found me bleeding on the front porch. He went inside to confront my father and..."

Aaron stopped talking. He looked like he wanted to continue, but the words kept catching in his throat.

Shawn held his hand tighter. "Aaron?"

"My father threw him against a wall really hard. He's in the hospital now, and I don't know if he's ever gonna wake up," Aaron's eyes filled with tears. "So yeah. I was bad. I put the guy I'm kind of in love with in the hospital because I couldn't stand up to my dad."

"That's not your fault!" Gus exclaimed. It drew the attention of a few people around the station. Gus blushed, but stubbornly reached across Shawn's lap and took Aaron's hand. "That was your dad's fault. Not yours!"

Aaron looked distressed. "But I was doing something wrong."

Shawn shook his head. "No, you weren't. Take it from someone who does things wrong a lot. You just liked someone and didn't want to hurt anybody. There's nothing wrong with that."

Aaron glanced at Shawn and smiled a tiny smile. "Why am I talking to a kid about this?" he asked out loud. It sounded more like he was asking himself more than anything.

Shawn made a face. "I'm 14."

"Oh ho ho, like that's so different than -"

"SHAWN!"

"Dad's back!" Shawn said immediately. He saw Aaron flinch when his dad yelled and frowned. It would be best if he got to his dad before his dad got here. Aaron didn't look like he could take any more loud noises.

Shawn got up quickly and walked over to his dad, who was glaring at him from near the sparkle-jewelery-lady.

"Did you tell Officer Allen about the trunk?" he hissed.

"In my defense, the woman has circle talking skills. I was so confused, I didn't know which way was up."

"Shawn! I am so... damn MAD at you!" Henry snapped. "I could...! I could...!"

"Dad, can you help my friend Aaron?" Shawn asked, breaking into Henry's angry tirade.

Henry faltered, caught off guard. "What?" he snapped.

Shawn pointed at Aaron. "His father hit him because he was gay and put his boyfriend in the hospital."

Henry stopped moving for a moment. Then he looked up at saw Gus sitting next to Aaron, his hand having replaced Shawn's. Aaron was looking over at the, face flushed with embarrassment.

Henry walked over to him. "You," he said. "haven't talked to anyone since you've been here. Why now?"

Aaron stared up at Henry. He was uncomfortable, obviously, but also... determined. "Because," he said. "Shawn is the only one who has told me that I haven't done anything wrong." Aaron glanced at Shawn and smiled. "And he told me it would be okay, too."

O

A few hours later Shawn and Gus were in his dad's car headed for home. Gus was sound asleep and Shawn was looking at Aaron's number in his phone. This was a friend he would keep for awhile.

"Dad," he said suddenly.

His dad glanced over at him. "What, Shawn?"

Shawn kept staring at Aaron's number.\

"Would you hit me?" he asked.

"Not even if you killed a man," he said seriously. No hesitation.

Shawn smiled to himself and closed his phone. "Cool!" he said.

"Yeah... but please don't, huh?"