In Five Years

Prologue

When the invitation to Sam and Olivia's wedding had arrived in his mailbox, there was no way Shayne could say no. They'd been two of his friends for such a long time, and hell, they may have taken it into their own hands and met in a grocery store, but he had been the first one to realise how perfect they were for each other. And it's not like he was going to be busy.

"Why wouldn't you go, anyway?" Damien asks him, leaning back on his best friend's couch loosely holding a controller and watching as Shayne finishes plating their dinner over in the kitchen. It had been five years since the two had last worked together at Smosh, but they still kept up their catch-ups as much as they could – monthly, at least.

"She'll be there," Shayne answers, shaking his head and letting his eyes drift to the bookshelf with his handful of framed photos. His ironically favourite photo from the surprise graduation party-slash-video-prank they'd done all those years ago – seven, now. God. – sits at the back of the shelf, the second person in it covered by the photo frame in front.

"Why are you so insistent you can't be in the same place as Courtney? It's been five years since you've seen her, buddy. You're the one that's convinced she's probably forgotten you exist," Damien replies, eyebrow raised. Shayne sighs, and Damien quickly adds, "although I think that's bullshit."

"Fine. It's bullshit, she probably hasn't forgotten her ex-best friend who disappeared with no warning or explanation," he grants, begrudgingly shifting their two plates down to the sofa to hand one to Damien and take his own place on the couch beside him, "but she definitely hates my fucking guts. Rightfully so. And she's this big award-winning amazing director now and I'm just the pathetic old ex-friend still embarrassingly obsessed with her and if I were her I wouldn't want to be anywhere near me."

"Are you really going to keep letting this thing with her consume your entire life?" he asks, in response, a tad judgemental. Shayne shrugs.

"I don't know what else to do. I tried moving past it, didn't work. Tried to go to therapy about it, didn't help. I fucked up. I don't deserve to demand closure from her, and I gotta just live without it," he replies, awkwardly stabbing at the food on his plate with his fork as he speaks.

"You need to talk to her, Shayne. Don't be so hard on yourself. Yeah, you fucked up, but you're Shayne and Courtney. You mean a lot to each other. You owe it to both of you to at least try," Damien emphasises, but Shayne shakes his head.

"We were Shayne and Courtney. We meant a lot to each other. That's in the past," he rebuts.

"You mean to say she still isn't everything to you?" he queries, unsurprised when Shayne doesn't say another word until Damien reluctantly changes topic to his own voiceover work three minutes of uncomfortable silence later.

They echo the same conversation what feels like a hundred times in the lead-up to the wedding. For good measure, Olivia starts bugging him about talking to Courtney, too. He rejects the idea every single time, but as stated, he can't say no to the wedding. He doesn't have a date, but Damien and his partner let him third-wheel their attendance and promise not to judge his blatant nerves the day of. So sue him – he literally hasn't been in the same room as her for five years, and he knows he'll spend the whole time trying to avoid looking for her or catching her eye.

All in all, it goes okay: he doesn't actually see her through the ceremony or the start of the reception, and as they get into the dancing portion of the night after dinner and Kimmy pulls him into some stupid progressive-partner dance when her own now-husband Shane declines, he doesn't mind. It's great to catch up with all his old friends, and he laughs along at their antics, catching up with Kimmy as they dance – loosely – together.

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Courtney is, frankly, too busy to attend most of the things she gets invited to by various ex-Smosh friends. They're still her closest friends, and she's grateful they understand. No one had been more surprised than her at her rapid shift from YouTube comedy directing to being an honest-to-God Hollywood movie director, but it had eaten up most of her time and energy with awkward schedules and compulsory press commitments.

Also, there's that thing where she's well aware a certain ex-coworker has been actively avoiding her since literally the day Smosh ended and it still fucking hurts, but she tries not to think about that too much.

She makes an exception for Olivia's wedding. There's an OSCAR nominees luncheon the next day that her agent had told her she had to attend because everyone thinks she'll be nominated, but on a scale of one to ten of importance, that's a five at most, and one of her best friends finally (seriously, they'd been together for 9 years) getting married is a solid ten. So, she gets out of the luncheon, and she RSVP's a solo yes to the wedding.

"Babe, I want you to know that I absolutely wanted you to be a bridesmaid, but I know that's a lot for you at the moment and I'll just be happy to have you there," Olivia had told her, when she'd first dropped by Courtney's apartment to hand over the invitation in person. The timing wasn't ideal, Liv was right: she was in a heavy filming schedule in the months leading up to the wedding, although they were due to wrap a week before it. So, Courtney had pulled Olivia into a hug, promising she understood, and she'd be there.

The movie wraps early, to literally everyone's surprise (Courtney silently prays on the evening after they wrap that it doesn't mean they'll have to reshoot a bunch later on when she looks at the director's cut). It means she can make it to Olivia's bachelorette party the weekend before the wedding, wincing when Olivia squeals over the phone when Courtney calls to tell her that.

It's a full-weekend party, and although a lot of it is bright drinks and bright pools and bars at night, there are quiet moments, too. Courtney takes one of such moments in the house they're renting by the beach to pull Olivia aside, one train of thought running through her mind.

"Is Shayne coming to the wedding?" she asks, nonchalantly, although she knows Olivia is well aware she'd given up on pretending she was over that. She'd told Olivia more than enough times, knowing she was still in contact with him, that she just wanted a chance to talk to him and at least find some answers.

"He better turn up, he RSVPed yes. Coming with Damien and his partner," she answers, Courtney simply nodding in response.

She debates, for the next week, whether she'll try and confront him and talk to him on the day – but it's Olivia's wedding, and he'd put so much effort into avoiding her, and also, she's a fucking chicken.

On the day, she quickly confirms the latter, as her eyes keep accidentally finding the back of his head. Her heart races in nerves each time, her cheeks heat up, and her throat tightens as sadness threatens to invade her mind. She pushes it down as much as she can, settling into the company of her old Smosh friends and Olivia's own friends. It's a nice night, and she's seated on a table with Claudio and Sarah, who are more than happy for her to grill them about their near-constant touring around Europe in the last few years, planting seeds in her own mind. She kind of has the money to do it now, if only she had the time and someone to travel with.

She loses Sarah and Claudio's company a while after the dancing starts. She's soon approached by Jackie, though, and Courtney reluctantly lets her pull them onto the dance floor during a cheesy progressive-partner dance as they catch up on what they'd both been up to, having not seen each other for close to two years.

Jackie laughs loudly at a joke Courtney makes halfway through the song, head tipping back for a moment in joy as she does.

"Oh, Courtney, how I've missed you. But hey, gonna spin you onto someone else now, yeah?" she grins. Courtney laughs, giving a gentle squeeze of her shoulder with the hand loosely holding it as they move to the music.

"Sure, sure, we'll catch up more later, yeah?" she offers. Jackie doesn't have time to reply, but she nods, and right on beat, the music changes slightly. They both take the cue, Jackie moving to dance with Ian behind her in the same fluid motion where she prompts Courtney to turn around. Courtney lets the movement take her forward, one hand settling on her new partner's shoulder and the other on their waist as theirs do the same to her.

She feels a familiar energy prick at her fingers, eyes shooting up to greet her new partner, and time freezes.

She is face to face with Shayne Topp.