Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 17: Positivity

They try to forget about what they've filmed over the weekend, going about their usual routines. On Monday Shayne has a Goldbergs shoot, and the rest of them film a try not to laugh without him, which is weird, to say the least.

"How you feeling?" Damien asks Courtney when they're back in the office later Monday afternoon, and he doesn't need to elaborate on what he's referring to.

"I don't know," she admits, "I'm nervous, I guess, but I kind of just want to get it over with, and part of me doesn't even really care because I know I'm not going to look at any of the reaction if I can help it. I gotta chat to Tommy about what part of the video is going to go on the Smosh snap story and whatever because I usually share those but you know..." she trails off.

"Do you know how he is?" Damien asks again, and Courtney nods.

"He was pretty anxious this morning, but we both think he'll be okay by tonight. I think the anticipation is what's getting to us. It'll be fine when it's done," she replies, and Damien nods.

"I'm sure you guys will be fine hiding out at your place when it drops, but if I can do anything to help, even if it's filtering through the response to give you a bit of an idea or whatever, let me know."

"Thanks, Damien. Oh, totally unrelated, but Shayne found a game he borrowed from you a while back when we were cleaning out the last stuff at his old place this weekend," she suddenly remembers, quickly moving over to her own desk to pull it out of her bag and hand it back to him.

"Oh, wow, he took that years ago, but thanks," Damien laughs, "tell him I'm still keeping custody of his Pokémon cartridge until he actually owns a system that can play it, though."

"Wait, which console was this?"

"GameBoy Colour, he's only got the original-"

"I've got a Colour," Courtney grins, "and since he lives with me now... I think you gotta hand over that cartridge."

"Oh, no, so much for holding that over him," Damien laughs, "think you could keep it quiet and give me a few days so I can fuck with him a little?"

"Sure, that sounds entertaining. Anyway, I better go find Tommy," she replies, before turning over towards the editing room.

She finds Tommy at his usual spot, Ian hovering over his shoulder and looking at something.

"Hey guys, whatcha looking at?" She asks, grabbing their attention.

"Oh, Courtney, good timing - we're just cutting the snap story and post for tomorrow's video promo. Basically - do we include your thing in the promo or not?"

"I mean, it'll push up the click through," she muses, "show me the options?"

The first one is a cut of some of their weirder explanations - Noah's creatively inspired green Mrs Incredible, Shayne's potato with eyes, the blue sad face Keith had drawn instead of Riley from Inside Out with the explanation "that's the movie with the emotions, right?"

The second is much the same, but Shayne's potato is replaced with her claim of girlfriend privileges. She tilts her head to the side, processing for a moment.

"I don't actually think the second one cuts together as well," Ian admits, "and what you're comfortable with is more important than click through this time. Look - it's going to get out no matter what."

"Yeah, I think to keep it with the casualness we were going for, the first one," she confirms, and Tommy nods.

"Great, that's done then. You guys going to have a fun celebratory hide for the last time tonight?" He jokes, and Courtney shakes her head.