When the Clock Ticks [Shourtney]

6. 6:42 A.M.

Heyo, how you doing?

First off: 1k+ reads! Yaaay! We're halfway through the book, so thank you so much, you guys! Sending love to you all virtually, but make sure to still wash your hands and wear a mask. ~

Last chapter was one of my favorite chapters written out of all my books. My other favorites would probably be:

- Here's To Us: chapters 1 (the morning after the marriage) and 16 (flight gets delayed at the airport)
- Almost, But Not Quite: chapters 15 (New Year's party) and 20 (live report situation and ending)
- The Three Laws of Motion: Acceleration-3 (one-night stand) and Interaction-5 (holding hands)

Just sharing, I guess? Writing's just so much fun.

Anyway, enough talking for me, let's start! Courtney's POV, and see ya!

-/-/-

I honestly have no idea why I did that for Shayne. Why did I do that? Should I have done that? Was Seth weirded out by what I did? Was Shayne himself weirded out by what I did? Does Kevin know I did that?

Endless questions fill my head as I lie down on my bed. We had just gotten home from Arizona, and I felt really exhausted. Of course, my body isn't as energetic as it used to be because of all the medications kicking in. Even when I'm in bed, all my body could sense was the beeping of the monitor on my right and pure, unsaturated exhaustion. Thankfully, my mind could wander elsewhere, but elsewhere seemed a little awkward to be in right now. Was doing that weird chess competition for Shayne a good idea? I mean he said that he really needed it, and that's positive, but why did I do that anyway and why am I feeling so confused about it?

"Come on, Courtney!" I shout into my pillow. "If your body's messed up with the fight against the sickness, your mind has to stay reasonable. Why did you do that?"

But, to no avail. I was confused, but probably for a reason, so I let it slide for a while as I try to fall asleep as quickly as I can. When I do sink into dream land, however, I can barely swim in the sea of questions I have for myself. I keep swimming in the sea of questions for a few days too. A week after the Arizona trip, I was still so confused about so many things, but maybe I'd get my answers today.

"This is, by far, the most careless idea for you guys but one of the most brilliant ideas for the viewers that you two have ever made," Ian tells the Shayne and I as we set up for filming purposes. "You sure you can do this? You sure we're not crossing any personal boundaries here?"

"Absolutely, they emailed to us that they were cool with it, so there's that," Shayne replies, casually shrugging. "Besides, it's just two of them: Alex and Wahlid. And the fact that they agreed to the entirety of the idea, that just goes to show they're cool with it."

Last week, Shayne suggested that we do a video on our past relationships. Bringing closure to the past romantic experiences in life, basically, was a good thing to put on a bucket list, not only going to countries and doing whatever it is you want to do. Not everyone gets closure from the people they've untangled themselves with, and sometimes, it takes a leap of faith to ask for closure. Ian, however, was very against this idea, thinking that we were crossing boundaries. But as Shayne said, the given parties had agreed to meet up.

For our past relationships, we only chose the ones that may or may not have hit us a little too hard on heartbreak. Wahlid, as people may know, is my ex-boyfriend, while Shayne chose his high school girlfriend, Alex McConnell. We had prepared a coffeeshop-esque set here in the office for us to communicate and not cause possible disturbance for people who actually want to be in coffee shops.

"Well, good luck to you two," Ian tells us, sighing. "If something goes wrong though, I'm just gonna be nearby, okay?"

So we proceed to the waiting room, where Wahlid and Alex were staying at. I had to fetch Alex so as to not cause any conflicts with Wahlid prior to the shoot, and thankfully, Wahlid was at the restroom when I came around. "Hey, you're Alex?" I say to the redhead on her phone in the waiting room. "I'm Courtney, nice to meet you."