The Switch / Shourtney

Chapter Four: Closer

Late August, 2017

I mentioned the pizza incident, and "that night" but I'll get to that soon. I would say that the next part of my story happened about a month and a half after Summer Games. I wasn't imagining that we got closer after we came back from Wild West. We always were very close friends but something was a little different now. I sometimes wondered if it was because I had kept my distance from her when I had a girlfriend and I wasn't scared of that anymore. Or maybe it was because of the night in the bathroom, when she helped me out of my panic attack.

In any case, were definitely better friends than we were beforehand. The others joked about it and so did we. We sat next to each other more in meetings, gave each other more shit about stupid things, and laughed with each other. A lot. The Shourtney mentions in the comments shot up exponentially, we laughed that off too. We were just really good friends. Family even.

The squad knew that I was having a really rough time with the break up, and like any good friends, they made sure I wouldn't wallow in it. Keith would throw an arm over my shoulder and make a joke before giving me a pep talk. Olivia would shoot me a kind look and tell me that she was there for me if I needed to talk. Noah would mostly try to distract me when he saw I was in a mood, but he was also the best at giving me space and making me feel understood.

Courtney did basically all of the above, but she also had a unique way to try and break me out of my funk. The first time it happened I was on the squad set. I guess I was distracted, staring off into space, thinking about Dee. Suddenly Courtney was standing next to me pointing her phone at me.

"No no no no no no" she said, her voice high and sympathetic as she recorded, giving me a couple small pats on my shoulder. When she stopped recording I told her she was ridiculous but she just shrugged and smiled.

"I don't like to see you sad, Shayne"

The second time I was sitting on the couch texting Dee back. She had messaged me that I should come pick up some clothes and books I had left at her apartment. I felt a tightness in my chest and I could feel my stupid eyes glimmering against my will. Then, from across the room I could hear Courtney's, "No no no no no no", and saw her holding up her phone in my direction. I put my phone down on my lap, staring out into the distance dramatically.

It became sort of a running gag; I could count on her being there to make fun of me when I was feeling down. As weird as it sounds, it did help me, and after a while, she stopped having to do it all together.

One day in late August, Keith and I were sitting in the office, just relaxing before our next shoot when Courtney burst into the room.

"Ok," she said, bouncing over and sitting on the edge of my desk. "Who's coming with me to get Starbucks?"

"Oh hell no," said Keith, "It's hotter than Satan's ass crack out there, I barely survived the trip from my Uber to the building."

Courtney rolled her eyes, "Shayne?" She asked.

"I have to side with Keith. We might actually melt if we leave this building, and does LA really need any more unidentifiable substances on its streets?"

"Shayne. Ew. But you owe me," Courtney pushed. "Remember when you almost let me choke to death this morning??"

"Um ok, don't be dramatic I would not have let you die." I shot back, "Honestly though Court, why don't you know how to eat a bagel properly?"

"It just went down the wrong tube."

"Oh, it just went down the wrong tubeeee?"

"Shut up." She replied crossing her arms and holding in a laugh. "It was actually the coffee that almost ended me"