The Switch / Shourtney

Chapter Thirty: Welcome to Chillie's

May 28th, 2018

I tried hard not to read into it, I really did. But after the weirdness that was Friday, it was impossible for my brain not to be whirring in circles.

It was radio silence from Courtney over the weekend. I texted her once, but she didn't reply. On Sunday night, I did that sort of stalkerish thing where I checked her Instagram story to see what she was up to, but she hadn't posted anything in 13 hours, and even that was just a picture of a smoothie.

Finally, it was Monday and I shuffled into the office at 9 am ready to start a day of script writing. It was a whole hour before I realized that Courtney still wasn't there. I asked Ian if he knew where she was and he said that he was pretty sure that she had called in sick and wasn't coming in today. I felt a pit in my stomach and I pulled out my phone again to message her.

Hey Court, Ian said you weren't coming to the office today, just wanted to check if you're feeling ok

- Shayne

I double checked the message before sending it. I got a reply from her about 10 minutes later.

Nice of you to check in on me, but dw I'm doing alright. I'm just feeling a bit off and had some stuff to take care of today.

- Courtney

I asked what kind of 'stuff', but didn't get a reply. I was still feeling a little uneasy, as if she wasn't saying something. I tried not to feel too insulted about it, but it was hard to when I felt like she was sort of avoiding me. We had such a good time at The Passage, at least I thought we did. Things had sort of been off since then and I really hoped I hadn't done anything wrong.

I sulked through the rest of the day, trying not to overthink the situation. It was proving to be difficult. At one point, I could see Damien mouthing "You ok?" at me from across the room, and I plastered a fake grin onto my face and nodded.

"Just tired," I mouthed back.

I was still in a bit of a funk when I got home from work. I warmed myself up some leftovers and scrolled through my phone as I ate. Still no new messages. Sighing, I decided to take a shower to clear my head.

I got out of the shower and dried myself off, still thinking about what could be going on with Courtney. I headed back to my room and pulled on a plain white t-shirt and some jeans. I fixed their cuffs and then brushed my hands through my damp hair. Only then did I pick up my phone again.

I saw that I had a couple of texts from Damien and a missed call from Olivia but I wasn't really in the mood to talk to them at the moment. Instead of checking them, I clicked onto twitter and waited for my feed to load.

I chuckled to myself at something funny that Sam had posted and continued scrolling down to see that Courtney had made a post about 30 minutes ago.

"The best thing about a break up is that I can quit the girlfriend facade of never knowing where to eat, and have Chilies every night as the lord commands."

My heart stopped.

Before I knew what, I was even doing, I had grabbed my car keys off the side table and was racing down the stairwell of my building to the parking garage. I turned on my car and drove immediately to Courtney's apartment building. It was only when I pulled into the parking lot that I realized how fast my heart was beating.

Was I crazy for coming here? She hadn't spoken to me all weekend. Would she be upset that I was here now? But I pushed those thoughts out of my head. I needed to talk to her.

I parked my car in one of the visitor spaces and got out quickly, walking towards the building. Not paying much attention to my surroundings, I threw open the door to the building's lobby, strode through, and nearly crashed right into someone.

"Damn it, I'm sorry," I said, and did a double take when I realized that it was Wahlid standing in front of me.

"Hey Shayne," he said a little awkwardly.

He was holding a cardboard box under one of his arms. I just stared at him, not really knowing what to say. Since all this stuff with Courtney had come out into the open about a month and a half ago, I hadn't seen him in person. It was weird to see him here now, especially after just having learnt about his and Courtney's break up. I wasn't too sure how much he knew about what had happened between Courtney and I, or if he even knew about any of it. I felt uncomfortable to have run into him here.

Wahlid shifted his weight awkwardly before gesturing to the box in his arms. "I was just picking up some of my stuff." He said, "I'm guessing you heard about me and Courtney calling it off on Thursday night."

I nodded slowly, the pieces starting to fit together in my brain. So, this why Courtney was in such a weird mood on Friday. I wondered why she hadn't just told me.

Still unsure of what to say to him. I settled on, "Tough break man, Courtney's an amazing girl."

He grunted in acknowledgement of my statement, fiddling with the side of the box. A somewhat uncomfortable silence hung between us. I just wanted to get out of there and go up to talk to Courtney.

"Well I don't want to keep you," I said, starting to back away from him and head towards the elevators.

"Wait, Shayne," he called to me, causing me to stop and turn back towards him. He was looking down at the floor as if he was searching for the right words to say to me.

"Look. I, know that there's something between you two. Just," he hesitated for a second before saying, "just treat her better than I did, ok?"

Taken aback, I gave him a quick nod, and he gave me a small half smile in return before turning on his heel and heading out the doors of the building.

I watched him go, still a little shocked at what had just happened. I shook my head quickly, trying to clear my mind and then walked back towards the elevators. I got on one and pressed the button for Courtney's floor.

I found myself tapping my foot nervously as the lift slowly climbed higher and higher. It let out a ding and the doors opened for me to step out. I walked down the hallway towards Courtney's apartment. When I reached her door, I took a deep breath, cleared my throat, and lifted my hand.

And I knocked.

A/N: I don't usually do cliff hangers but when I do... Lol sorry 'bout this one but the pay off with be worth it. One more to go.

P.s. Anyone catch the vine reference? lol

Love you all too much for words,

- Kat