little fears // Shourtney bits & pieces

I. for here, I hope, begins our lasting joy

Yay for cliches, amirite?

He saw her standing in the hallway near the bathrooms, her back facing him, shoulders slouched and trembling lightly. He squeezed the half-full bottle of IPA he was still holding, and cleared his throat to let her know he was coming. She flinched and spun in place.

"Are you all right?" he asked, wiping one more stray tear from his own cheek.

She was full on sobbing, makeup streaming down her face. Crying Courtney, unless she was shedding tears out of laughter, was a rare sight. His heart clenched.

"I'm fine," she said in a weak voice, placing her back against the wall, arms dangling at her sides.

"Really. I'm just overwhelmed. I managed to hold it for a while, but it's been too much, honestly."

"This is easily the most wholesome day of my life," Shayne admitted, leaning against the opposite wall, mirroring her pose. "But I wish you weren't crying."

"Look who's talking!" she exclaimed, laughing. "Besides, these are happy tears.  I'm so proud of you. And it's fine, really."

"You ran away before I managed to—I mean—I hear you did the lion's share of preparations."

"I guess," she shrugged. "I mean, it was my idea, so I had to step up. Sarah helped a great deal, and Damien, too. Even Matt Raub, if you can believe that. He's a big softie at heart."

He smiled. "And yet they all firmly acknowledged that you're basically the only person I should be thanking."

Courtney exhaled, probably a little frustrated with his nagging, and spoke up after a longer while. "It was a group effort, let's leave it at that. Have you had some of the pad—"

"Courtney. Learn to take a compliment, all right? It was incredible. Thank you, truly. From the bottom of my heart, however cheesy that sounds."

A small smile finally graced her face. Glad that he finally got through to her, he raised the bottle and tipped it slightly, toasting her, and then took a swig.

"You're welcome," she whispered. "But seriously now, dude, did you eat the pad thai? It's from this new place that's supposed to be the best in LA."

"Confirmed. Best I've had thus far."

"Good. That I can actually take full credit for, I chose it."

A few seconds passed in silence, which was not uncomfortable in the slightest. It never was, and it was one of his favorite things about their relationship.

Eventually, he spoke up. "Can I, um—confess something?"

"Always."

"I kinda—I don't know. Have I been weird lately?"

"You mean weirder than usual?"

"Pfff, funny. I guess I haven't been feeling like myself because of the lack of college. I have too much time on my hands and I honestly don't know what to do with it."

"Well, first and foremost," Courtney grinned mischievously, "you should finally slang some dong, man."

His stomach did a somersault, a familiar sensation he'd been experiencing regularly for the past few months, especially when Courtney happened to be nearby. He'd been trying to get to the bottom of why exactly his insides were behaving the way they were behaving. He had an idea, but it was something too disconcerting to even begin to digest.

In any way, he kept cool and said, "I know. Maybe."

"Definitely. The jokes were funny, because they were true."

"Ha, ha... I don't—it's never been a priority. You know that."

"Yeah. You do you, Shayne. Well, now that the prank is officially over, I also have more time. I may try to fight through the awkwardness and slang me some dong, too. Or, you know, not necessarily a dong."

"You do you, Courtney," he laughed, even though his insides slipped again. "We should probably head back."

"Yeah." She sniffled, and wiped her cheeks. "Oh god, I have to fix my face. You go ahead. Can we hug, though?"

"Of course."

The hug was fidgety, and warm, and great. Before they separated, he felt a sudden need to kiss her on the cheek. And as if it were some cliche Netflix movie, in the same exact moment she moved her head a little to the side and his lips landed on the corner of hers. She froze.

"Sorry, I—"

But before he managed to get embarrassed, she unfroze and was full on kissing him, and his stomach started dancing wildly and triumphantly, and he found himself reciprocating, acting on instinct lined with some strong, unfamiliar — or was it? — emotion.

Her hands were on his face, and roamed higher, to knock off that stupid hat and tangle into his hair. Her mouth opened, she moaned, and pushed him towards the wall behind, which his back hit hard when he took a few steps backwards.

A hot, unforeseen makeout session with his best friend — at work, in a corridor where someone could walk in on them at any given moment, after she'd just thrown him the best, most thoughtful graduation party in the history of graduation parties — that was the very last thing on his agenda for the day. And yet, it was very much in progress, and since he had a hard time wrapping his head around what was going on, he wrapped his arms around her waist instead.

The motion, as enthusiastic as it was, made him accidentally let go of the beer bottle he was holding. It fell to the ground with a loud clank, and Courtney gasped and jumped away, keeping him at a stretched arm's distance, her fingers digging into his chest. Her stare locked on the bottle, which was now rolling away, leftover beer gushing all over the linoleum. They were both breathing heavily, waiting for the other to speak up.

"I—" he began.

"I'mma go," Courtney blurted, unable to meet his eyes.

And she bolted towards the bathrooms, but instead of walking in, she passed the door and ran further, disappearing around the corner.

Shayne swore loudly. His instinct told him to follow her, yet his body was completely paralyzed, feet glued to the floor. Before he managed to do anything, he heard a voice coming from the opposite end of the hall. "Well, well, well."

Shayne turned his head towards Ian. "How much did you see?" he mumbled.

"Enough to tell you that you're a stupid boy," Ian said firmly, "and you should fucking go get her. Now would be best, unless you've got something better to do."

"Right, you're right. Courtney!" he yelled.

The last thing he heard before running after her was Ian sighing heavily, like the dad that he was, "Kids these days..."

So yeah, I felt too many feelings because of that graduation video and had to process them. Here's the result.

Thank you for voting and commenting! Tell me what y'all think!

Title from Shakespeare's "Henry VI" — turns out I'm not out of Shakespeare quotes after all, ha!

The formatting may be a bit weird because I didn't feel like switching on my computer and published it from my phone. Will fix tomorrow, or not.