Broken Stars.

I watched Shawn and Catie talk for the remainder of class- reminiscing on the good ol' days-as they liked to put it. I couldn't help but feel jealous, Catie, Trevor, and now this Steven fellow all had Shawn for longer then I have. They all know more about him then I do.

Shawn's still a complete mystery to me. Maybe I could get one of them to explain him to me possibly. The rest of the day I tried to put on the biggest smile I could muster up for Shawn. All he did was talk about Steven, about how coy he was, about how awesome he was, and even about what a douche he had been. Kid was a total player to say the least.

Finally art class came, there would hopefully be no talk about Steven in here.

"So, I hear this Steven guys really cute." Spoke to soon.

"Ugh, can I go at least the last forty-five minutes of the day without hearing about Steven?" Maren laughed at my apparent jealousy then turned her attention back to her painting.

I felt bad for snapping, but really? Really? Steven this, Steven that.

Shawn waited for me by our usual spot, I drove us to school now, since being Seniors on the bus is kind of lame. Plus that Jesse kid rides the bus, and the distance helps me from not killing him.

"Hey babe." he smiled and pulled into his arms, he looked absolutely stunning today. Still, day by day, I couldn't believe he was mine.

"Hey, you ready to go?" I took his backpack from him and carried it for him. Of course he protested but I really didn't care.

The car ride was fun, Shawn didn't mention Steven, but he did complain about his craving for some weird brand of coffee, so we stopped at Starbucks.

"So, what do you want to do today. I have no homework." Shawn laughed, sipping gingerly at the steaming coffee he bought.

"Catie's? Maren's going over, and Trevor and Jaide are going to be there of course, really all we can do... Productively that is."

"Eh, I'm game." He handed me his coffee and picked up a cookie from the counter and left. I stared at him in shock, not only did he steal that, but he left me without telling me he was going to steal it!

"Uh, sir...Do you know him?"

"I uh..." I didn't know what to say. The lady behind the counter just stared at me. "No, I guess not. I'll...Here." I threw five bucks her way and ran out of the cafe. Shawn was standing right outside laughing.

"You gotta let loose."

"Shawn stealing isn't-" He interrupted by kissing me.

"Calm down, I didn't steal, I just left you with the paying." He winked and grabbed the coffee out of my hand. "Even if I stole it, you'd still love me."

"Hah yeah.. oh-kay." I laughed with sarcasm in my voice. He's so weird though.

"Oh oh! Catie's calling!" Shawn laughed as he got into the car and pulled his phone. He chatted away aimlessly, reassuring her that we were on our way. I knew cafinating Shawn was a bad idea, but what can I say? That boy has me whipped.

The drive to Catie's house was oddly short, Shawn would kiss me at all the stop lights, stop signs, and sometimes intersections. He told me stories the whole ride, about how him and Catie used to go to clothing stores and pick out random outfits for each other. It was cute.

As we pulled in I noticed a foreign vehicle sitting where I usually park.

"Does Catie have a boyfriend?"

"Catie...Commitment? HAH." I couldn't help but laughing as well. Clearly that was a stupid question, but we didn't have to be so mean about it. We'd probably shouldn't bring that up with her...She'd kick our asses.

"Then who-" I was interrupted by Shawn's squeal of excitement.

"AH! STEVEN!" Shawn bursted out of the car and literally ran and jumped on someone who had their back turned towards us.

I watched the two fumble around on the ground for a few minutes before getting out myself.

Catie and Trevor soon joined in on the fun. The whole site was a mess! Bodies being tossed, dirt being thrown, and tons of vulgar names being called. I quickly spotted Jaide by the doorway and joined him.

"So...I thought Steven wasn't supposed to be here for a while?" I laughed and nudged him.

"Yeah... I did too, He surprised us all. He's really cute. Trevor basically jumped straight out of his skin to get to him." Jaide laughed along with me. Catie was tickling Trevor, Trevor had Shawn by his shirt pleading for help, and Shawn was sitting on what I think was Steven who was flailing around.

"Hey guys! Break it up now before you kill each other!" They all looked at me like I was insane before breaking out into a fit of laughter. The kid I presumed was Steven sat up and smiled a toxic smile.

"You must be Austin." he said between breaths, his face was covered in dirt, in fact...They all were covered in dirt.

"I am, you must be Steven?" Steven...Such an odd name.

He nodded and I went over to help Shawn up, Jaide was already brushing off a laughing mess of a Trevor. I've never seen that boy this infatuated before.

"Ugh, Austin stop!" Shawn groaned as I pulled grass and dirt out of his hair. "No! I.. No!"

"Stop or I spit clean you." I laughed, pretending to lick my hand. He cringed and ran inside. The kid really hated idle spit.

Everyone slowly started making their way back into Catie's house, Catie was the last one in since she had to wait for Maren to show up. The room was loud with colorful chatter. I really couldn't hear any real conversation going on other then the one inside my head. Shawn was so focused on the tale Steven was telling about his adventures in God knows what state, that he almost fell off my lap. I could see that Trevor was trying to listen too, but Jaide kept drawing his attention away by kissing him.

"Hey, enough story time!" Maren laughed, clearly me, her, and Jaide were the only ones not exactly interested in Stevens journey. "I've decided that we're going to the mall. I need new shoes." Every ones eyes glanced over at her shoes, they were pretty torn up.

"Uhm...Who all can drive?" Steven asked, of course we all could. Stupid question.

"Alright... Who all has a car?" Still, stupid question, clearly only him and I owned vehicles, seeing as there were only two outside. "So, I guess we'll just divide into two groups then. I can take four in mine."

"OH! I wanna ride with Steven! SHOTGUN!" Shawn bolted out the door, and I watched in shock. Was he serious? I'm not trying to call territory again, and I know... No you know what, I'm just over thinking this. Shawn missed his friend, I should be more understanding.

"Uhm... Alright?" I made an awkward attempt to seem fine with it, Maren and Jaide could see right though me though.

The groups ended up being all the old friends in Stevens car, and me, Jaide, and Maren in mine.

"Calm down Jaide." I laughed, he was so fidgety without Trevor now. "You'll see him in like two minutes. I promise you'll live."

"Ugh, shut up Austin! I don't know how you can be so cool without Shawn." Trust me, it's eating me up inside too.

"You never used to act like this with your other boyfriends." Maren laughed. She was probably enjoying Trevor and Jaides relationship more then they were.As soon as we pulled into a parking spot Jaide flew out of the car and ran over to Trevor, kissing his face all over the place. Trevor giggled and tried to pry Jaide off in a cute teasing way.

"I remember when you were like that." Maren laughed as she closed her door.

"I still am, I just want Shawn to get his 'Steven time' in." Maren nodded in understanding.

Really I just didn't want to pull what I did when Shawn and Jesse became friends. I wanted to trust Shawn. He'll tire soon of Steven, seriously, what could be so amazing?

"AUSTIN!" Shawn yelled as he hopped on my back. Hmm...He got bored sooner then I expected.

"You missed the best story! Steven had to spend a night in jail a few months ago this peace
rally he organized with a few other hippies!" I glanced over at Steven, he didn't look like
a hippie, he looked clean. "Then, after he got out, he ran a marathon for... What cancer was
it again Steven?"

"Breast Cancer." He looked as if he wanted Shawn to shut up. I guess he wasn't the bragging type. But now I see the amazing part.

The mall trip was long and drawn out. I visited each store twice, even after we got Maren's shoes. Shawn followed Trevor like he was Moses. I can't help but be jealous, but I kept
quiet and off to the side. Catie asked us all to sleep over, but I respectfully declined,
claiming that I just remembered I had an art project to work on. Surprisingly Shawn
declined the invitation too.

Jaide wanted to sleep over, he really hated being away from Trevor, but he didn't say
anything. Catie begged for Jaide to come over. She could read him like a book, just like
Maren and I could. Trevor smiled with discomfort once Catie said that, and Jaide declined
also. Sometimes I envied how pure their relationship was.

"Come on Jaide, you're sleeping over. I'll sleep in between you two if it makes you feel
better." Catie laughed, tussling their hair as she pulled both boys into Stevens car. We all
knew Jaide wouldn't win this battle.

I had agreed to dropping Maren off at Caties house on the way. She sang and sang the whole way there, Shawn occasionally joined in which made me smile. I loved his voice, he rarely ever sang though which was a pity.

------

"Austin, you seemed...Odd today." Shawn stated, climbing under the covers.

"How so?"

"Well.. I don't know, you're usually more social then that. Do you not like Steven?"

I bit my lip and pulled him close to me. "No, he's great, I just wanted you to have your time with him without a monkey on your back the entire time." I'm really glad he couldn't tell my face because 'liar' was written all over it.

"Oh... Okay." He kissed me quickly and cuddled up next to me. His warm body felt nice next to mine. In fact it felt pretty damn close to perfect.

As soon as his breathing evened out, I could relax. Sometimes Shawn would stay up for hours and just lay there. I hated knowing that I was asleep while he was just waiting for morning to come. The kid was practically an insomniac. I used to try to ask him what was running though his mind, but he'd always just make up something quickly. As cute as it was when he'd say 'Just you baby.' I knew he was bull shitting me.