Hey, guys! Whaddup?

Any fans of the Try Guys here like me? Ariel just gave birth to the second baby Fulmer, Finn! My heart feels so happy, and I feel like 2020 has been saved. Ned is my personal favorite from the guys, and I am so gosh darn happy for them! I hope they get a girl next too.

Also, happy birthday to Ian, the Smosh father! It feels absolutely surreal to see him much older than when I saw him when I was 8. Time really does fly when you're having fun, and that time is well-spent for our guy. Love you, Ian!

Anyway, let's get started, shall we? Shayne's POV and see ya!

-/-/-

I've gone through really hectic weeks, and even though I have an apartment of my own, that sleep on Courtney's couch was the best one I had in a while. Waking up was even better, because I witnessed Courtney in her most random state as she sang to Miley Cyrus while making pancakes. It was a view I wanted to wake up to every morning.

But of course, reality hits when we continue sorting letters, and we find one for one of the biggest celebrity weddings of the year. I was then again reminded of our work, which constantly ruined my schedules as well as my time with Courtney. Sure, our brand was a couple, but I began seeing her less because she became more occupied with a lot of stuff. So far, the business has become a burden rather than a stable career path, and I could easily tell when both Tommy and Spencer were completely out of it. Sure, our team became bigger by the month, adding Damien to our roster of four. Our base was Courtney's apartment, and I could only imagine how bad it was for her because she couldn't draw the line between work and home. Just like the pandemic a year ago.

Anyway, this celebrity wedding of 2021 became such a talked about event that we couldn't even decline. Several holidays were coming up, such as thanksgiving, Christmas, Damien's birthday. As much as we wanted to take some time off, it was impossible at this rate. The person at the bank I was speaking with about the loans was getting upset too that I wasn't returning his calls. Now I know how Zayn felt before he left the band.

"You look fabulous," Tommy tells Courtney as she finishes her makeup. "Come on, I gotta take a photo of you and Shayne. The followers on our Twitter have been a bit crazier than usual."

"Ha, they're not the only crazy ones," Spencer mumbles. "I'm getting crazier by the day."

"Hey, y'all," Damien says as he peeks out of the hotel room's bathroom. "I gotta go head to the office. If you guys are tagging along, except Shayne and Courtney, I'll just be in my car for five minutes."

"Not going," Tommy tells him. "I barely had any sleep last night. Spencer?"

"Same. I already told Ian."

I sigh. "So only Damien's going to work today?" I ask, slightly frowning. "Damien, can you tell Ian that we're sorry? Just a big thing today."

"Oof, he's gonna be a bit pissed though," Damien replies. "I'll try my best, you guys."

When Damien leaves, we all silently carry on. Spencer continues working on something on his laptop, while Tommy uploads something on our social media account. Courtney, now fully dressed and all ready to go, steps out of the room to enter the balcony. We're gazing over some Los Angeles beach from our hotel room, but this time felt different. Everything about today was different, and even though we were all supposed to be glad that we were here, we weren't. We were tired, we had been working non-stop to get here, and none of us were looking forward to this. What used to be fun became such a hassle for all of us.

It sucked. It really did, and I realized that when Courtney and I go downstairs and into the parking lot. We get into my car, and she takes a deep breath. "Alright, let's get this over with," she mumbles, looking exhausted already.

"I really don't wanna go," I tell her, sighing too. "Is that stupid for me to say?"

"No, it's fine," she says, sad. "I just feel a bit tired, and we should really catch up to that shoot we'll be doing for Smosh's 16th anniversary."

I don't start the car though, and the two of us sit beside each other, not even interested in talking anymore. I arrive to the conclusion that the whole fun behind this was over when it turned from a random thing we did for a bit of cash to a full-time job. And we didn't want that at all, but we couldn't control it anymore. I read a book about economics a while back, maybe a really long time ago because I haven't read books a lot these days, and here's how that affected us: when the demand is high, the supply should also be high. So now that we're crazy in the limelight, we have to give it our all. But when I look at Courtney saving her entire bubbly personality for the cameras later, I don't really know if she has any more left to give.

"Hey," I say to her. "The people there are all crazy rich and some are even pretentiously wealthy. They don't live in LA studio apartments, and they don't have to worry about paying rent every month, what to cook for dinner every night, or getting from one place to another. These are insanely rich people, but we don't have to fit in with them, okay? Let's be crazy stupid together. We've been like that since forever anyway."

She chuckles a little, nudging me on my shoulder. "If only Red Bulls could hook me up with Damien's energy during a What're Those shoot, I'd take it. But, ya know... bet."

So we head into the huge celebrity wedding, and these celebrities (whom I will not name-drop because I'm not rich enough to flex that) have a red carpet prepared as if the wedding were some sort of premiere. Then again, when two movie actors get married, they really want to show off their hard work turned into cash. I couldn't blame the rich for being rich, but I could blame them for letting poverty slide just because it's much more convenient for them. I could feel Courtney getting nervous, because her hands are shaky and such, but we couldn't care less. This was our first big event, and I kinda wish it was our last, but this is where we show the world who we were.

And personally, I liked who we were. Courtney and I were goofballs who always just wanted to have a good time. She'd tease me for being a massive bookworm, and I'd nudge her for being such a nerd sometimes. But pushing all that aside, we liked good times. We turned hard times to good times, and so when we step out of my car, I poke my tongue out at her, and she playfully smacks me on the arm with her clutch. I offer my arm, and she gladly takes it as we walk onto the red carpet, right in front of cameramen, paparazzi, and journalists.

"Uh, what do we do?" Courtney asks me.

"I have an idea," I tell her before looking at her dress. "Get on my back."

"Are you for real?" she says as I look at her, poker-faced. "When you said wacky, I didn't know we're gonna be this wacky."

"We're wacky all the time," I assure her. "So get on my back, and hold on tight."

Awkwardly, as Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara stand behind us, Courtney gets on my back, wrapping her arms around my neck as I lift her knees up. When the cameras turn to us, I only run on the red carpet, making Courtney laugh as we charge up to the end of the carpet, not even looking at a single camera. It was the only time I genuinely smiled today, because after seeing Courtney upset the whole day, she finally laughed. I missed that. It was so stupid. So stupid of me to do, but I knew exactly why I did that.

Eventually though, the goofing off had to stop, and we had to shake hands with a bunch of people. If this were held last year, that would be a big no-no. The wedding drawls on forever, and Courtney and I listen half-attentively to the long vows. Celebrities like them were bound to get divorced someday. Everyone could feel it when the bride's mother rolled her eyes at the groom's mother. Not a good thing to see before getting married and also before Thanksgiving. The ceremony closes, and we head to the reception area, where we met more and more people. I was starstruck to meet some of them, but the rest of them were just ordinary people. I couldn't even act surprised anymore, because my cheeks hurt so much from all the smiling and talking. The only time I got on my phone was when I made my way to the washroom.

And oh, boy.

From: Da Man Haas
Dude. You and Courtney should get back to the office as soon as you can. I've called Spencer and Tommy over, and they're here already. Ian's mood is getting worse in every minute. Can you guys at least show up in the last 30 minutes of the shoot?

From: Da Man Haas
On a scale of one to losing it, I think Ian's at a seven.

From: Da Man Haas
Anyway, if I were to make a charcuterie board, do you think I should get gouda or feta?

From: Da Man Haas
I don't know if that's important right now, but I do hope gouda, because that's what I got from the store.

From: Shanyé West
We'll try to get there as soon as we can. The reception's just started though. I'll tell Courtney.

From: Da Man Haas
And...?

From: Shanyé West
I think gouda AND feta. It's not a charcuterie board if it only has one piece of cheese.

From: Da Man Haas
Damn. Man of taste. See ya in a bit.

"Yeah, so, uh, we're doomed," I tell Courtney, who was just about to eat her first bite of dinner. "We gotta go. I mean, we can eat dinner, but after that, we gotta go."

"Sure thing. We gotta eat this quickly if we wanna make it. LA traffic's gonna be worse tonight."

So we quickly eat our dinner. Thankfully, the events coordinators were super chill about letting us leave, and so were the newlyweds. We get into my car, and I hurriedly drive out of the gazebo, only to realize that we had to be there in 30 minutes if we wanted to not piss Ian off. Mythical was an hour away.

"If only we had a freaking motorcycle!" Courtney exclaims before looking out the window. "Dude! A rental shop!"

"I don't know how to drive a motorcycle, man!" I reply, crossing my arms.

"Who says you're driving?" she says to me, grinning evilly. We park my car at the rental, we choose a bike to hop onto, and Courtney revs up the engine as I hold onto her for dear life.

I shout at her as we drive through the highway, arms around her waist, "How do you know how to drive a bike?!"

"I don't!" she answers. "My brother does! I've watched him do it, so I think we can make it."

It was a weird sight for Los Angeles residents that night: a couple formally suited and dressed up racing through the toughest of traffic with helmets on. The guy's the passenger, the girl's the rider, but this is just us helping in tumbling the patriarchy down. I could only sigh at the thought that we had done so much in a day, with Courtney having a full day doing her makeup, getting a dress, and styling her hair and me making all the arrangements with future events. Even though we were a sight to behold, we were both really tired from being said sight to behold. As Brendon Urie said, nobody knows you now when you're dying in LA.

We arrive. But when we do, it's the last ten minutes of the shoot, and it's a TNTL. Courtney doesn't even bother taking off her heels; she just sprints towards the set. When Ian sees us, I see his shoulders loosen. He's still upset though, I can tell. Courtney and I just deal with couple jokes for the rest of the TNTL. When we do an outro, I had never felt more relieved in my entire life. Everyone says goodbye to one another for the day, timing out of the office and leaving. Ian wordlessly pats us both on the back, which is a signal that we had a meeting tomorrow, first thing in the morning. Everyone's out of the office except Courtney and I, and we sit down on the floor, looking wound up by the wind because of our ride.

"Damn," was all that I could say.

"Damn indeed," she mumbles, sitting down next to me by fluffing her dress on the floor. "Ian's mad already. I know he'll make us choose between the business and Smosh."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Do you... have an answer already?" Because I didn't have an answer. Like, sure, I didn't want to spend every day of my life in a hectic mess like I have been for the past few months. But at the same time, if I let that go, we would have to tell everyone the truth. Courtney and I weren't together, that whole couple thing was a ruse, and it's the end of the line. And honestly, I don't think Courtney and I would ever be the same after this. We never quite planned what we'd do if this business took off, and now that it did, we're stuck at a crossroads.

Courtney sighs before looking at me sadly. "Yeah." She's choosing Smosh. Of course she is. She wasn't the one who pushed with the whole business thing anyway. Who am I to blame her, when I was the one who pushed her to be in this whole thing?

Maybe it's because, for a second there, I thought we could actually do it. I thought that if we tried harder, we would be able to do it smoothly and without a problem. But I'm not talking about the business anymore, because I'm not in a relationship with this girl. I don't think I can ever be, because I tried too hard to make that happen. Now she's miserable and so am I. But if I really do love her, then I wouldn't go with the business, because it's bringing the both of us to pain like this. That would be my answer. That would be my only answer.

But the question is, if she loved me back, would she choose the business? And now that she didn't, is there even the smallest, tiniest chance that she loves me? After everything that happened between us? All those silly fights over melted cakes and countless hours of buying dresses, were they all for nothing?

If only it was easy to ask.

-/-/-