When the Clock Ticks [Shourtney]

9. 10:56 A.M.

Heyo! How are you all doing, people?

Three chapters to go after this one, and I haven't written them yet, but there is a storyline. Speaking of storylines, I did make several while writing Here's To Us, and in the media section, you can see what was supposed to be "Girl Stellar." I might release more of these storylines in the following chapters of this book, and hey, who knows? I might... still be able... to write them... if you want... hehe.

Anyway, Shayne's POV and see yaaa!

-/-/-

Courtney's directing her own farewell video, and I don't think our set has been this cramped before, even though the only set we had for this video was a gray background.

"Hey, guys," she begins, smiling intently at the camera as if nothing wrong were happening. "My name is Courtney Miller, and I've been working on Smosh for the past five years and some days now. It has been an extremely magical time being here, and I can definitely say I've grown as a person thanks to Smosh."

She returned to work on Tuesday instead of Monday, simply because she broke protocol by chasing after me to the front parking lot of the hospital and was discharged later than planned. We filmed some final episodes of different shows for the next few days with her: one last Every Blank Ever with her, one last sketch with her, one last Eat It or Yeet It with her (even though it wasn't going to be the same without her as the host), one last Smosh Games video with her, one last Smoshcast with her, and one last Try Not to Laugh with her.

I hadn't spoken with her off-camera, simply because it was too distressing for me to talk about what had happened for the past few days that she didn't know. First, I went to Cassandra.

"Courtney is sick, then?" she asked as I dined with her for lunch on the Monday Courtney didn't return to work. "That is really saddening for a person as young as she is, given that she always looked healthy and had a long way ahead of her."

"Well, that's the oddness of science for you," I replied, sipping some iced tea. "Did you know this was going to happen though?"

"Oh, not really," she answered, sighing. "I always expected that young influencers like you would go out in your own blaze of glory. People die in so many absurd ways these days, oftentimes caused by other people's greed manifesting."

"Really well said," I said, sighing. "But I'm just really upset that she didn't tell me any of it. Ian knew, but neither of them decided to tell me. I know they were trying to protect me and all that, but it just sucks to think that they just couldn't see me being able to protect myself."

"Well, people have their reasons," she explained, getting Kelly to pour me another glass of water. "Not everyone wants to reveal their reasons for either doing or not doing things. I do believe that it was a wise decision for them not to let it get out of their circle. They didn't want to freak you out."

"I'm not freaking out," I replied, scowling as I drank some water. "I'm just... okay, maybe I am freaking out. The person I genuinely like is gonna die through a sickness that shouldn't even be there in the first place, my boss didn't bother telling me that, and my best friend probably has no idea about it until earlier. I just always thought that if something were to go down, I'd be part of the people who would know first and be able to help. Too bad they don't see me that way."

Cassandra laughed at me a little before saying, "Oh, silly boy. Of course, you're a part of their group. They love you enough to know that it was better for you not to know. Especially Courtney, who saw you go through varying degrees of freaking out as death came closer to you. I think you're old enough to understand how important the saying 'ignorance is bliss' is in many situations."