Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 101: TeeKO

Courtney and Shayne end up having a productive packing weekend, and it leaves them in a good place, only bits and pieces to finish through the rest of the week amongst work. It means their apartment is uncomfortably empty in places, through the week, and Courtney struggles to pull together enough outfits for everything they're filming from the small amount of clothing she has not already packed.

"Huh, look at that, Courtney wearing the same shirt for two videos in a row- I'm guessing this means you're all packed and ready to move?" Damien comments, as they all filter into their Games studio for a family-style shoot with a new Jackbox game about creating graphic tees, the Thursday afternoon – the day before they take possession of their new house.

"Exactly that," Courtney confirms, with half a laugh, "handover is literally tomorrow, we'll go get the keys after work."

"When are you actually moving? This weekend?" Olivia steps into the conversation, curious.

"Yeah, we've got a moving company doing all the furniture and big stuff on Sunday. We've got another week before we have to be out of the old place, though, so some of the bits and pieces might move a little more gradually through the week, but we'll be living in the new place from Sunday night," she explains, before their conversation is quickly interrupted by the start of their actual shoot.

It's a fairly simple premise, but much like most Jackbox games, it just works. They each draw a bunch of small drawings, they suggest a handful of short slogans, and then they get an assortment of previously-submitted drawings and slogans to pull together onto metaphorical t-shirts. Courtney, for her part, commits to drawing a whole lot of butts and boobs – she has a brand to live up to, after all – but it is Olivia who takes the first competition by storm with small, minimalist stick figure heads, and the winning phrase, "I'm a bitch". Courtney won't complain – it's a vibe, and she low key wants it to be an actual shirt.

She glances to her side partway through the first drawing section of their next game, to see Keith struggling despite having a full iPad and pencil where the rest of them are using their fingers on much smaller phone screens. She goes to say something, as she glances back up at the cameras, but instead her heart drops when her vision blurs as her eyes move across and suddenly there's a tiny, spinning, bright spot in the top right corner of her vision. She gives the camera what she hopes is an annoyed glance, instead of saying anything, leaning down to subtly grab her drink bottle and take a sizeable swig of water as she looks back down at her phone.

It holds off for a little while – she manages to finish the drawing round, and she starts the caption-writing with ease. She soon finds, though, that concentrating on the letters on the screen is not helping, as they move and jumble across her vision as she struggles to focus on them. She's quietly glad that Olivia, Keith and Damien loudly argue over how much time was left for captions, so she doesn't need to say anything. She can't actually see anything on her phone screen by the time the matching round arrives, but she drags aimlessly across the screen anyway, hoping the outcome isn't too bizarre as she reminds herself she just has to act like she's okay for another, like, six minutes.

She can almost make out the images on the large TV in front of them, and the others call out the slogans when they display, so she manages to make a series of logical votes in the competition rounds, although she doesn't speak up much, other than when Keith directly calls on her, once – she merely repeats back the slogan of the tee she chose, that Jackie had shouted just before.

She can feel the nausea and the headache, and this time, her heart racing uncomfortably fast, as everyone talks through the outro. She tries to keep her face positive, she laughs when the others do, but she doesn't say anything, and the second the director calls cut, she slams her eyes shut and curls forward, hands pressing over her face.