Starting Over / Shourtney

Chapter Ten: Breath In

<Shayne's POV>

I got to Ian's place at around 10:00 am, freshly ground coffee in hand and still energized from my trip to the gym that morning. It felt good to go through my regular workday routine for the first time in a while. It was as though if I did that, I could trick my brain into thinking that things were back to normal, even when they were anything but.

"So welcome to the new office," Ian joked as I followed him into his living room. Ryan was already there helping the camera crew set up, and Keith and Courtney were sitting on the couch reading through the script. "We're just waiting on Noah and Olivia."

"And yet Keith is here," I commented, to an eye roll from my usually terminally late friend.

"Wow, things really have changed around here." Ian joked before adding, "Too soon?"

"Maybe just a little," I grinned, settling down onto the couch next to Keith.

We were filming the Mandela Effect sketch today. It was something Monica and I had finished writing around a week or so before the shutdown. The premise was that I didn't believe in the idea of a Mandela Effect until I ended up in a reality that was just slightly different from my own.

It was sort of ironic that we were shooting a video about alternate realities, since it kind of felt like we were living in an alternate reality right now. A reality where Smosh might be over, a reality where I had kissed my best friend...

I looked over at her, she was on her phone scrolling through Instagram. I wondered what she had been up to this past week. We hadn't really spoken since Saturday, only shooting a few texts back and forth and of course the group skype call with Ian. Although my week was sort of busy, with school work and a shoot day for the Goldbergs, I had wanted to see her again. But with things being so fragile, I didn't want to push it. As much as I didn't like it, I felt like I needed to let things settle.

Keith nudged my side, pulling me from my thoughts. He was flipping through the script for today's shoot. "This is one of the weirder things we've filmed."

"I mean is it really though?" Courtney joked. Her voice sent a jolt through my veins as she looked over at the two of us, "We've filmed some pretty weird stuff."

"True that."

"I mean this is Smesh after all." I added.

"Dude," Keith groaned. "That joke was baddd."

"Very on brand then."

Courtney caught my eye and I shot her a soft grin. She laughed and shook her head at me, rolling her eyes, and I felt my insides melt a little. I was glad we could joke, I was glad things could be back to normal, whatever normal was.

"God, sorry I'm late," Olivia exclaimed, as she stumbled into the room, dropping her bag onto one of the chairs, and then herself onto the couch next to me. "I hope you weren't just waiting on me."

"No worries you're good, I just got here." I chuckled slightly at her frazzled look, "besides, Noah's not here yet either."

"Oh, he pulled in right behind me," Olivia replied, fixing her hair.

"So then you know we weren't just waiting for... never mind." I said, shaking my head. Sometimes it was best not to question Olivia's thought process. Besides, Noah was walking through the door now too, so we started getting ready to film.

The set was smaller than I was used to. We had Ryan directing, one guy on sound, one on lights, and one filming. But the smaller set felt like home. As we did the first few shots I started to feel better and better about the situation. We could do this; we were doing this. Shooting low budget could work, and hopefully we'd work out a permanent solution soon.

A couple hours in we broke for lunch. We still had another few shots to do but we needed to reset anyways, so grabbing a bite to eat seemed like a good idea. The squad, Ian and I ate our food and just talked about nothing. In that sense, it felt like a regular shoot day, like there wasn't this big dark cloud in the shape of the defy shut down floating over our heads.

I finished the food I had packed and threw out my trash before heading back into the living room. Courtney was leaning against a wall eating some chips while Noah Olivia and Keith sat on the chairs beside her finishing their food.

"You want some Shayne?" Courtney asked me brightly as I made my way towards them.

"Um, Yea sure." I replied and she beamed, walking towards me, a singular chip extended in my direction. When I didn't reach for it, she came closer and pressed it against my lips, trying to shove it into my mouth. I held firm, keeping my mouth shut tight.

"Oh my god he's like a little bird," Noah called from his seat and Courtney pulled away laughing loudly. She looked back at me to see my reaction and I just shook my head at her.

"You're absolutely crazy Courtney," I said, but I couldn't keep the smile from creeping on to my lips.

It was funny how quickly the squad and I fell into our regular shoot day antics. It helped me to see them all there, working and joking around as if it was just same old - same old. There was one shot we did where I was lying with my back on the coffee table, the camera hanging directly over my face. My character was meant to be waking up from a dream, startled and taking a breath in as he came to.

It might be a bit dramatic, a bit too LA, I have been living here for a while so it's only natural, but the shot felt symbolic. As Ryan counted me in and I took a deep breath, it felt like starting over, like stepping in to this new reality, this new normal that we were forced into. Maybe we didn't have everything figured out with Smosh, maybe I wasn't exactly where I wanted to be with Courtney, but I knew that we would figure it out. We would figure it all out.

And at least for now, we would be back here tomorrow.

A/N: Hope guys like this chapter, it was a bit rushed 😬 but I have a big-ish announcement! I'm going to be participating in the Smosh Writing Week next week! Which means I most likely won't be updating 'Starting Over' until the week after BUT it does mean that I will be posting DAILY all of next week!! There will be  6 one shots and a special 2 shot according the the writing prompts which I will post in a new book that I'll probably title Smosh Writing Week 2019! SO keep you're eyes open for it! 

ALSO Hey There 😊 I wanted to Shout out some newbies as well as familiar faces that I've noticed voting/commenting a lot on my feed recently and some people that I didn't mention last chapter, sorry again if I miss anyone!

@addictedtosmosh @Smoshnotsmash @Bellajackson9 @Oliviascourtney @ShartneyShipper @eat-pie-everyday @altheamariabancilo @FFAddicted123 @FlowersLoveMe1017 @blottieXDaze @Kevyn1313 @Prismarineme @avid_PTX_fan @Artsynerd00 @Fandom_Quee43va @mindfislytherin @IShipShourtney @OliviaDyson6 @Smoshnourtney @KyraNemec

I freaking love you all and thanks for the support! It's what keeps me writing 

And, once again a big shout out to @shaynerobberttopp on Instagram who posts all the Instagram stories that Shayne is ever in. Any time I mention something that happened in a insta story or social media post, I get the date and reference from them. (In this chapter its Courtney shoving a chip into Shayne's mouth lol)

- Kat 💛