Summer Girl || A Shourtney Story

.04 into the fire, feeling higher than the truth

With a quick turn of the blackboard, Shayne's name was scrawled in thin white letters. He put himself. I knew he had lost his virginity later than I had, given one of our conversations from a pizza night a year or two ago. That being said, I didn't know what age he was, and I was surprised to hear him admit it in camera. And even more, I was surprised that there was a small pit growing in my stomach at the thought of Shayne having sex with someone.

No no no no. This was not happening. I frantically snapped myself out of the trance, desperate to rid my mind of the thought.

I missed Sarah calculating the score, but Damien's excitement caught me back on track.

"Oh so it's a tie!" Damien yelled. His energy was electric.

"Oh my god!" I yelled into the void behind us. Focusing on the game was the perfect excuse not to focus on my very questionable thoughts about a certain blue-eyed boy. That, and my internal competitive streak was coming out.

"It's time for the tie breaker-" Sarah began.

"We're all virgins here!" Shayne yelled with open arms. Weirdo, I thought affectionately.

"This question is for everyone on the cast. Who out of everyone – two people- do you think would be the best ship?" Sarah said.

My heart pounded furiously as if I was running a marathon. Why did Sarah have to ask that question? It was completely in of the realm of possibility – after all, they had been asking about losing our virginity a moment ago. But to put something like that in the vast openness of the internet – when I myself didn't know how to feel about it – felt intrusive, albeit thrilling.

I sighed. I was being irrational. Of course, Shayne and I were the obvious choice, but there were plenty of other options too. Keith and Noah had a strong connection, and original members of the cast would remember the classic IanCorn ship that was practically there from the beginning.

When analyzing my teammates, I assumed the worst. They knew I was the brunt of most "shipping" jokes. It was probably going to be Shayne and me. I scrawled "Shartney" across my blackboard and winced internally.

My team was first to reveal their answers.

"Damien and Shayne – Shaymien?" Lasercorn guessed.

"The internet really wants this, and the internet has never steered me wrong before – Shayne and Courtney!" Damien said confidently. He flashed me an earnest smile, but it did little to calm my rapidly beating heart. He couldn't have known about last night... unless he did. A flush of embarassment washed over me.

"I'm gonna go for my boy Koah – Noah and I," Keith said. I mentally facepalmed.

"So Keith and I spend a lot of time doing stuff together at his house... dating isn't one of them, but maybe we should try it," Noah grinned. Damn it. I should've changed my answer.

"You guys, I can feel the sexual tension radiating to the right of me. I think they should get it on," Kimmy said.

Well, shit. This was not according to plan. It seemed like the obvious choice was me and Shayne, but now I just felt like an idiot. I had to figure out some way to justify my answer without sounding like a obsessive fan girl.

"I get teased at work a lot, y'know, about certain ships and on the internet, so I went ahead with the internet and put Shartney," I grimaced.

As I explained myself, I peered cautiously over to the other team, my eyes lingering on Shayne for a moment. He didn't react. He didn't even flinch. He just stood there with the same smile he always had for videos. Nothing new. My heart yearned for a reaction, any sort of sign, but he gave me nothing.