"Everyone's asked you at this point, but how are you going with... things?" He rolls his apple in his hands. "I've been hearing some things, just wanted to check in." Damien's always been a sweetheart, both on camera and off. When we went to Australia, he was always checking in to make sure all of us were getting enough water and sunlight.
Like houseplants.
"I'm not surprised that you heard something, people haven't been too inconspicuous with their concern." I laugh to myself before answer his question properly. "I've just had a little too much going on upstairs. But, we can all thank Olivia. She pulled me through, yet again." I watch her and Keith finally come in from the carpark, playful bickering over but smiles still just as bright.
"That's always nice to hear." I see a smile on his face.
"How about you? Are things good with the geese? With Saige?" Saige and Damien are a story for the books, they're so perfect for one another. Recently Saige has been in less Smosh content so she can focus on her D&D, as well as other streaming stuff, so I find myself asking after her a lot.
"The geese are currently in training to become ninja warriors, just gotta figure out how to get them to hold shurikens with their toe beans." We both smile. "Saige is great. I mean, she's Saige, she's awesome." I smile at his affectionate tone, a rose shade appearing around his ears.
"How many Red Bulls are you planning to chug before What're Those?! today?" I nudge him lightly.
"What? Me? I would never!" He makes his voice go high pitched. "Probably 3. Speaking of which, I gotta go get ready for just that. I've heard your one of my victims today. I shall see you soon." He starts walking away slowly, looking like a demon.
I pull my phone from my bag to finally check the schedule for today, but get distracted by a string of messages from Shayne.
Shaynia - I called Olivia, she said you were feeling better, but she didn't convince me.
Shaynia - If you're open to it, I really wanna sit down and talk.
Shaynia - I'm worried about you.
My heart skips a few beats as I overanalyse the messages. Such a sweet boy. I type out a message but don't send it for a few moments.
Court - I'd like to talk.
Despite all my troubles that are based in my feelings for him, I really want to talk about Kari. He knows how much I love my family, so I can easily convince him that all this is about our fight. Also, I need to apologise to Kari, and I can't think of anyone who could give me better advice on what to say to her.
"Tonight? After work?" He appears at the door. If it had been anyone else, I would have jumped through the roof, but his voice is so soft. I nod.
"Deal." He's not even that close to me, but I can't help but think about my dream. My heart skips a few more beats before Heidi appears at the door.
"Courtney, you're supposed to be on set! They're about to start." Dammit. I'm drawn out of my fantasy as I rush, with Heidi tailing me, to the SG stage. I find Noah and Ian at the table, ready to start.
"Well look who decided to show." Damien says in a wacky voice, Red Bull in hand.
"Sorry?" I slide in between Noah and Ian.
"You should be." He stretches out his words before chugging the remainder of his drink. He puts it on the floor and crushes it before throwing it Noah. This is gonna be chaos.
The door to the stage opens as Damien starts the intro and I watch Shayne walk in. He has a habit of watching videos being recorded, especially ones with Damien. It always ends with a few comments mentioning how you can hear him laughing.
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"Damien, put down the sword." Spencer says like a concerned father from off camera. Damien just did the outro, but they kept recording because he started acting dumb with a plastic sword he was given. He instead steps behind Noah and holds the sword to his neck.
"Make me." He raises an eyebrow to challenge Spencer who just pauses before laughing.
"Cut." He says still laughing. I stand up and stretch after Ian moves from his stool. I turn to see Damien apologising to Noah.
"I'm sorry, my boy." He pretends to plunge the sword into his chest, making Noah laugh again. The two of them continue joking as I walk away, catching up to Ian.
"How long do we have until EIOYI?" I still haven't looked at the schedule.
"We're gonna start after they're done with Beopardy. I'm just on my way there now if you want to tag along." He open the stage door for me.
"Sure." I have to prep for EIOYI, but I also want to see Shayne. He left in the middle of us filming to go shoot Beopardy. I don't even know who's on the panel. The second I step into the Pit stage, a tightness grasps my chest. The last time I was in here, I had a panic attack behind the set. You're fine. You've got this.
"None of you got it! You all guessed around it." Shayne's voice calms me before I even see him, despite the fact that he's laughing at them. My heart settles when my gaze falls on him. He has a wild look directed at the panel. Keith starts complaining and Shayne just ignores him, asking Olivia to pick another question. The theme is music, and apparently Tommy is winning, which makes sense.
Jackie correctly guesses a question about award winning songs as I approach Garrett who's off to the side prepping. "What torture do we have today?" Usually I know the general gist of the episodes, but I've been so out of sorts lately that I don't have a clue what the theme is.
"Theme's Italian food, but the majority of them are bad. Big Bite is good today, though." He smiles as he hands me my apron and a pair of gloves. I hear Shayne start talking about the Final Beopardy.
"How long do you think till we start?" I pocket the gloves for now and turn back to look at the set.
"They've got about 20 minutes left on that, then we need to do set up and some of them will probably need to change. We've also got to go find the bibs, they've been misplaced. So, probably 40, maybe 50 minutes?" He pulls the food cards from his pocket and places them on my shoulder for me to take.
"Do you want me to go look for the bibs?" I turn back around. There's nothing else I can really do to help.
"No, that's all good, don't worry. I've got the art department on it." He smiles before walking out.
I turn my attention back to the set. They're all revealing their answers for the Final Beopardy. Tommy ends up winning and he gets up and jumps in celebration.
"I'm usually too dumb for these! But now I'm better than all of you!" He bows dramatically as the rest of the panel laughs. Except for Keith who's still complaining. It's all extremely chaotic. My eyes drift to Shayne. He's laughing loudly, a hand over his mouth. As the chaos calms down he looks back at the camera's but stops on me instead.
Even at a distance, I get lost in his eyes. He smiles at me and the whole world falls away, it feels like it's just me and him in this room. A part of me wants to go to him, to ignore the cameras, the crew, the cast. That part of me wants to be in his arms again.
The more logical part of me knows the truth. That this is one-sided, and the chance he'd ever see me like that after all this time is so slim. He thinks of me like a sister, and this isn't Game of Thrones. And we work together, in the eye of the public, if things went wrong, it would impact way more than just our love lives.
He raises an eyebrow at me, catching me in my staring. I plaster a fake smile on my face before turning around.
This talk we're gonna have might just be the end of me.
viii.
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love letters | shourtney
أدب الهواةThere's always been something between Courtney and Shayne, whether she acknowledged it or not. Now that Shayne has been appearing in Courtney's dreams, things are going to get difficult if she wants to keep it quiet, while still keeping him in her l...
