Boy Meets World

"Nothing at All"

Rating: PG-13 for strong language, themes, and just on general principles. Plus, the slash lives!

Setting: Directly after "Nothing's the Same"

Note: This is the sequel to "Nothing's the Same". That's all you really need to know.

Feedback: Is a great way to shed pounds and inches. [email protected]

Disclaimer: What? You think I own them? Um... does lusting count towards ownership?

For: the Macs among us

Chapter One- Only the Beginning

I walk down the streets of New York. After seven years of living here, it's home and I can't imagine living anywhere else. I round a corner and see my apartment building. It's an old converted brownstone. Good neighborhood and all. I moved in here two years ago.

I pick up my mail, sorting through bills, junk, and see a letter from my mother. She's fine, she writes. Josh likes his school. They both send their love. It's still weird realizing that my mother and Josh live in Montana, but Mom seems to be happy.

After I check my messages, I turn on the television. Candy, the successor to Oprah, is on. Today is her book club, and Shawn's making an appearance on her show today.

Candy starts the interview by asking Shawn about the new book. I know all about it, because I received an advance copy. Everything that Shawn writes, I read.

"It's about the struggles of a family on the streets." As he speaks easily, I can see that he is not entirely comfortable with the cameras, but he hides it well. Five years is enough time to get used to almost anything.

"Where do you get inspiration for your stories?" The perky interviewer asks.

"Some from my own experience. Others- I don't know. I just write." Shawn gives his patented lady-killer smile.

"So, are you seeing anyone at the moment?"

Shawn blushes lightly as he shakes his head no. Immediately the women in the audience respond. They scream and one stands up and says, "You can call me, honey!"

He strokes his goatee reflectively as the interviewer asks an odd question. "I was reading your book before the show started. I was looking over the introduction. Your dedication reads, 'To Cor- in fine weather and foul'. Want to explain that?"

"Well, Cory Matthews is my oldest and best friend." Shawn leans back a little in the chair and smiles. "The quote is something that I use to illustrate our friendship."

700 miles away from where he is, I smile.

After the interview's over, I turn off the television and go into my small kitchen. Nothing's in the refrigerator, so I decide to go out and grab something for dinner. I'm about to head back out the door when the phone rings.

"Hello?" I say, prepared to get anyone off the phone with a few words.

"Cory?"

"Hey Eric." I'm actually glad to hear from my brother. Nowadays, we're doing good if we see each other on holidays.

"Hey. Did you watch Shawn's interview?"

"Of course. What are you up to?"

"Today? Dad wants to have Jack and I over for dinner, so we're tied up for the evening. You?"

"Same as usual. Catching up on paperwork, then crashing."

"You should come and visit us soon. Haven't seen each other in a while."

It's scary that even after almost ten years of not living together, Eric and I can still be so in synch. "Get out of my head! I was just thinking that."

"So, will you come?"

"I'm due for some vacation time at work," I say thoughtfully. I thumb through some papers on my desk and find my calendar. "Um, how about we try for a month from Saturday? I can stay for a week."

"Sounds good. Looking forward to seeing you."

"Me too," I say sincerely. "Talk to you later."

"Bye, Cory."

***

A month later finds me on a plane back to Philly. After all this time, I still don't like flying, especially after the attacks on the World Trade Center. I knew people who worked there. Hell, I almost worked there.

I basically white-knuckle my way through the whole flight and am picked up by Eric. My brother still pretty much looks the same as he did all those years ago when he graduated from college, except that he wears glasses now, like me.

We embrace each other whole-heartedly. "Hey," I say when we finally part.

"Hey yourself. How much luggage did you bring?"

I claim my one suitcase and we go to Eric's car. "Where's Jack?" I ask.

"Still at work. He'll be at the house by the time we get there."

Eric drives through the now-familiar streets. We pass the trailer park where Shawn used to live, now an empty lot. John Adams High School still looks the same, and I halfway expect Eric to park so that we can go to school.

We finally pull up to Eric's house. It's weird thinking of it as Eric's and not Mr Feeny's, although I think Feeny still technically owns it. He lives in Florida now with Dean Bolender-Feeney, happily fishing each day, he writes.

I follow Eric inside, noting some of Josh's pictures on the walls, along with photographs of us taken over the years. I'm staring at one of Eric and I when we're real young when the ringing doorbell gets my attention.

Hesitantly, I answer the door, and am pleasantly surprised to see my father there. "Dad, hi," I say, before hugging him tightly.

We stay like that for a while, with me briefly noting how I can almost slip right back into the same Cory Matthews that I was when I was here. My dad's pretty much the same as he was when I moved away; just more involved with the store. Eric says that he rarely dates, that he just pours his efforts into his work.

"Well, won't you come in?" I finally say.

He follows me into the living room as Eric reappears from one of the back rooms. "Hey, Dad. Just get here?" he asks.

"Yeah. Just trying to catch up with Cory here. So, how goes it at the office?" He says to me.

"Same old. Endless paperwork, social climbing, all of the endless things I put up with. It's a job." I stop and take a breath, surprised at myself for saying so much. "How's the store?"

"Good." My father goes on to detail the things that he's done differently since the last time I visited the place. I listen politely, even though I have no interest in the world of camping supplies.

When he finally stops talking, Eric asks, "So, are you ready for dinner now?"

I look up at Eric quizzically. "Isn't Jack joining us?"

"He has some things to do at work, and I thought it would be nice for the three of us to eat together, you know, catch up on old times."

"Sounds good, but I have some paperwork that I need to do before the store opens tomorrow. We'll go out before you go back, all right, Cory?" My dad touches my arm briefly and exits before anyone answers. Eric, unfazed, says, "Looks like it's just you and me."

The restaurant that Eric takes me to is nice and unfussy. We order and sit quietly, waiting on our meals. Eric suddenly breaks the silence.

"So, are you seeing anyone in New York?"

I blush and stammer out a negative answer. "You know how it is, I'm too busy..."

Eric holds up a hand, halting my babble. "You said that the last time I asked. When was the last time you went out on a date?"

"Well, let's see. There was Paula, we went out a couple of times..."

"You told me about Paula," Eric interrupts. "That was at least a year ago. Anything a little more... current?"

Defeated by my own ineptitude to lie to my brother, I simply shake my head. "I'm just not... ready," I finally say.

"Not ready?" Eric repeats. Realizing that his voice can carry, he lowers the volume of what he says next. "Cory, it's been almost three years. I know that you don't want to talk about this, so we're not. All I'm going to say is that maybe you'll never feel completely ready, but you have to at least make the effort."

I look over at him steadily. "I haven't met anyone worth the effort."

Eric sighs theatrically. "Oh, Cory, Cory, Cory. Can't see the forest for the trees, I see."

I narrow my eyes at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Maybe you don't have to look so hard, Cory." After he says that, Eric gives his full attention to the food, leaving me baffled. I try catching his eye, but when I succeed, he only comments, "If you're not hungry, we can take that home."

As we're driving home, I ask him, "What you said in the restaurant, about not looking so hard- what do you mean?"

Eric says patiently, "Maybe the person you're looking for is already there."

That makes even less sense than the first statement to me, so I let it go and stare out the window at the passing scenery.

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Should I even make predictions of when the next chapter will be up? Let's put it like this- if my muse doesn't give up on me, and I can find time, I'll try for... whenever. Sound good?