Hellooooo thereee, my dear friends!
Thank you for 4.5k+ reads here and 2k+ reads on The Three Laws of Motion! If you haven't checked it out, it's a Smosh x Reader book of 15 oneshots, five each for Damien, Shayne, and Ian. Go check it out if you wanna! My personal favorites for each are #4 for Inertia (Damien), and both #5's for Acceleration (Shayne) and Interaction (Ian).
On my Insta fan account, I did a Zodiac x TNTL with Shayne's characters! You can check it out @/shourtney.longknee! A sample is up in the media section, as Aquarius is my sign.
Anyway, lettuce begin... Shayne's POV and see ya!
-/-/-
What in the absolute hell?
"What?" I ask Courtney. "What? Why would we tell Ian? Isn't that basically what we've been avoiding for the past nine months?"
"I know," she answers, rubbing her eyes. Only then do I notice that she's been crying. Why? "I know that it doesn't seem like the best plan there is, but we really have to tell Ian. Aren't you tired of hiding? Aren't you tired of having to go around everywhere as if this wasn't happening?"
"I am," I retort, crossing my arms. "But it just isn't enough reason for me to drop everything and tell Ian. He's our friend, and you're like a sister to him, but Courtney, we could lose our jobs. Ian isn't the only one who'll be stepping in on this, also Rhett and Link would. I don't want that to happen, so we'll stick with the original plan of pretending nothing ever happened, that this is completely normal."
"Don't you see how hard it is every single day for us?" she says, frowning but not angry. "I... I can't even do things in public anymore. I'm terrified that someone will find me going home here and it'll ruin so much of my career. And your career. And basically Smosh. I don't want that to happen, so if we tell Ian now, it's damage control."
"No, if we tell Ian, we could get suspended," I reply. "Why would that thought even cross your head? We've been working at this for nine months, and then you want to give up when it's only three months away until it's over? Courtney... you know I'm here to help you and support you in any way I can through these last three months."
"I can't last three months in here anymore."
"Why not?"
Just as Courtney was about to say something, her phone rings from her pocket, and she answers it, avoiding my gaze, "Hello?" There was a long pause. "What did they say?" There was another long pause, and I see Courtney pursing her lips and closing her eyes as tears stream down her face. "Okay. Okay. I'll... I'll be there. I'll be there."
"What's going on? Who was that? What happened?" I ask as soon as she ends the call.
"Kari... told me it was going to be fine when she tells my parents," she mumbles, picking up her car keys and her wallet. "It's not. Everything is not fine right now."
"Where are you going?" I say, now ultimately worried. "You can't drive now. Not at night, and not while you're crying. I'll drive you where you need to go."
"They'd hate you, man," she replies, rubbing her eyes. "They'd hate to see you." With that, she leaves and closes the door behind her.
I felt my heart shatter into the smallest pieces of glass shards, seeing Courtney so heartbroken and so tired. When I finally compose myself to follow her, she was already gone. I try calling her, but she doesn't answer. Probably ignoring me, but I'll get through.
From: Shayne "The Rock" Bottom
Please tell me where you're going. It's already so late. I need to make sure you're okay.
From: Shayne "The Rock" Bottom
Courtney, I know you're stuck in traffic and you can read my texts. Please reply. Please.
When she still doesn't respond, I decide to call another person, the only man I can trust other than our lawyer.
"What's up, mi amigo?" Damien greets me upon answering my call. "By the way, you're making lasagna? For me? I'm no Garfield, but thanks, bro."
"Yeah, happy birthday tomorrow, how'd you know I was making lasagna? But anyway can you call Courtney for me?" I reply, pacing around the apartment. "She left a while ago without telling me where she went and we had just gotten into an argument. She isn't responding to any of my calls and texts."
"Ooh, okay, let me give it a shot and I'll update you, man." He hangs up, and probably after five minutes, he calls back again. "No responses to any of my calls, wait for a few more minutes for the texts." After another five minutes, he calls. "No response."
"Dang it," I mumble under my breath. "Okay, I'll try to go look for her. Thanks, dude."
"Good luck, mi amigo!" he exclaims before hanging up.
I get into my car and try to think where Courtney would meet both of her parents this late at night. I don't exactly know where they live and I didn't have Kari's number to ask her. Where in all of Los Angeles would Courtney go to meet her parents? Why would they even meet up with her this late? They could just meet her tomorrow or even just call her so I'd at least be beside her when she had to explain.
Just before I was to take a swift turn into the midnight bottleneck, Courtney finally returns my call, so I greet her with a, "Where are you?"
"Do you...," she says before sniffling and taking a deep breath. "Do you remember that small diner nearby Defy?"
Sighing, I reply, "Yeah. Are your parents there already?"
"Not yet, they're close though," she answers. "Kinda close. I'm with Kari right now. You... you don't have to worry about me."
"Yes, I do," I tell her, making a U-turn to head to the nearest turn to Defy. "And if they're close, well, so am I." I hang up and focus to getting to that diner as quickly as possible.
Thankfully, when I get there, I see Courtney's parents arrive in separate cars. Afraid that they'd lash out, I only watch from my car to see them calmly take their seats and watching Kari explain. I'm not a lip reader or anything, but I'm basing off of their facial emotions that things are escalating from calm to mildly aggressive. And here I am, staring at my wife trying her best not to cry for a mistake with only half of the responsibility as hers.
When Damien calls me, I immediately answer as he says, "Hey, how's it going with Courtney? You found her yet?"
"Yeah," I reply, keeping my eyes on her. "It's... it's bad, man. I thought everything would be alright, but now her parents are furious with her. It's both our fault, but dude. God. It just hurts me to see her like this. She doesn't deserve this."
"You know why it hurts you, right?" he asks.
"Of course," I answer.
I feel my heart sink to my stomach when I see her wiping her eyes. God, I felt terrible, so terrible that I just had to get out of my car and go inside the diner which was surprisingly full of people at night. When Kari spots me from their booth, all of their heads turn to me and I walk towards them nervously.
"Oh, well if it isn't Shayne," Mr. Miller says, obviously annoyed by my presence at their family meeting. "Perhaps you have some words to say about this mishap?"
"I have, yeah," I reply, gazing at Courtney who's looking at me all confused. "I'm not the best writer out there and I think I'm just saying this in a moment of passion, but... well..."
I point outside the window, and the four of them seated in the booth look outside at the nearby Defy building. Now that I see it, it's still huge and intimidating and I quite hate it with all of my heart. That place could have been such a great home if it weren't for the fact that we were so controlled to do fun things. But that place still is important for a reason.
"Right over there, there's a room where they held auditions for Smosh," I begin. "That's where I met your daughter. She told me afterwards that she was 18 when she auditioned, and I think I was 23. Now, we're 25 and 29 and stupid and dumb enough to get married in Vegas. But we made that choice. I don't know how we did, but we made a choice."
"What are you trying to say?" Courtney's mom asks, crossing her arms.
I continue, "Ever since I met your daughter, I knew she was going to be great. I knew she was going to be greater than she could even imagine, and when we became friends, I knew she was already there, but she could go farther and reach greater heights. I've always believed in her, even though our arguments are sometimes so immature, like who does the dishes? Who cleans the toilet? Who does the grocery shopping? Who chooses the movie? I didn't know I'd ever get to see the day that I'd actually live with her, but it's been nine months and... she is unbelievably incredible not just as a friend, as a co-worker, and a roommate."
I look at Courtney and say without even the slightest bit of hesitation, "After the audition, I told her that I'd see her at work, but neither of us knew that it was the day I met my wife. It was the day I met one of my best friends... It was the luckiest day of my life to get such a great job at some shitty place with some great people, but it was even luckier because I met the woman of my dreams. The love of my life. Courtney, I... I'm in love with you."
All of them stare at me, dumbfounded and shocked and their mouths agape. Especially Courtney, and I don't know if it's in a good way, but I decide to keep talking anyway, "We'll push through with the divorce though, of course. We aren't allowed to have work relationships, so there's that, and I married your daughter without your consent and also without her sober consent. So that's bad, very bad as my best friend, Damien, describes it. But what I'm asking of you right now is to help her through these last three months of the divorce, because she just told me earlier that she was so tired of it. I wanted to hold her in my arms then and there and tell her that it was going to be okay, but I know that the support has to come from you guys. If there's one thing I learned from this, it's that she knows what she's doing, she's got her life planned, and you can trust her not to make this mistake again. Let me promise that to you, as her husband, co-worker, roommate... and friend."
Courtney's dad takes a sharp breath before holding her hands and smiling at her. He says to both of us, "I'm sorry that you two have to go through this. I don't know how my daughter feels for you, Shayne, but having undergone through a divorce myself, it really isn't easy, especially if your partner's someone you've gone through countless struggles with. But my decision stands that you have to get a divorce, but we're here for her."
"Thank you, Shayne, for telling us this," Courtney's mom adds, smiling gently at me and losing her anger. "Courtney, baby, I'm sorry I didn't understand at first. I was so worried that you didn't have this under control, but judging from what your husband just said, I know you do. We're always so proud of you. And thank God your father and I are both in LA when you decided to tell this to your sister. I can't imagine you telling this to all of us separated. You're making the right decisions, baby."
In a short while, they leave alongside Kari who embraces me and thanks me for all my help. When they were gone, Courtney sits back down in her booth and bursts into tears. "Oh, God," she mumbles, smiling and crying at the same time.
"You gotta know how funny you look like right now," I tell her, sitting across her and handing her several tissue papers.
She takes a deep breath, laughing as she wipes the dripping mascara off her cheeks. She says, "You said so many great stuff, you know? I can't believe you really said that."
"Did you think I meant it?" I ask her, and she's frozen for a second.
"Did you?" she retorts.
I feel my heart fall into my stomach as I shake my head guiltily.
"Yes, duh," she replies after a moment of silence. "Of course. Of course."
Of course, every bit of what I said was true. I loved Courtney with all of my heart. I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life, but it's this moment that I actually freaking hesitated to tell her it was all true. I'm afraid that she doesn't feel the same way, but when she holds my hand from across the table and smiles ever so gorgeously, I think I'm lost in her eyes again.
It's not yet the right time, I think to myself as we drive home and I stay awake in bed. I just have to wait a little longer, and even if it'll take a long time, I'm willing to wait.
This is the girl I'm going to marry. I just know it, and even though I already did, I gotta do it again.
-/-/-