The Switch / Shourtney

Chapter Twenty-Two: Japan

April 10th – 11th, 2018

I was still feeling out of it as our Uber pulled up in front of LAX just a few hours later. Damien and I scrambled out of the car, grabbing our suitcases and dashing towards departure. We were running late (Damien had forgotten his passport), and we rushed through check in and quickly headed over to the long international security line. Luckily, it moved pretty quickly and in no time, we had reached our gate.

I couldn't help but be overtaken by Damien's contagious excitement. I mean, we were going to Japan after all. Somewhere I always dreamed about visiting and I was able to go there with my best friend. But even though I was trying to remain excited, my head was still spinning from the events of last night. Had I done the right thing leaving like that? Should I have stayed to talk about it? It was probably stupid of me to have kissed her. She hadn't officially ended her relationship, she was confused.

And what did it even mean that she had kissed me. Was it just because I was there, or was it more than that? Was it possible that she has feelings for me too? It hurt my chest how much I wished that to be true, but I didn't want to let myself believe that. If it wasn't true, it would just hurt more.

All I knew was that I didn't regret kissing her back.

"Shayne... Shayne!"

I was jerked out of my thoughts by Damien's voice.

"They're boarding our zone, man."

"Oh, right, ok." I said, and I followed him to the back of the line.

I showed my ticket to the gate agent and made my way down the bridge and onto the plane. Damien and I were seated towards the back, in aisle and window seats respectively. By some twist of fate the person sitting between us didn't show up and I was eternally grateful as I spread out and tried to get some sleep during the long flight.

After landing, it was a whirl wind. We quickly made our way out of the airport and to our hotel. Our room wasn't ready so we left our bags at the front desk and jumped straight into a bit of touring. The non-stop pace was good for me. We were moving so fast and trying to take in so much that I didn't have time to dwell on the events of the previous night. I lost myself in the excitement of exploring the city. I tried to remain as in it as possible, I didn't want to think about Courtney.

I guess I didn't do as good of a job as I thought though. Damien and I were finally back at the hotel after having grabbed a late dinner and were settling into our room. I had just finished shoving my clothes into the weirdly shaped dresser in the corner of the room when he turned to me.

"Shayne," he asked a little hesitantly as I sat down on my bed, "Are you ok? You've looked a little off all day."

I shrugged, "Yeah, I'm fine, just a little tired," I replied will a slight smile, hoping that he would buy my lie. Predictably, he did not.

"So I know this isn't just jet lag. What happened to you between leaving the bar last night and our flight?"

I looked away from Damien towards the hotel window, hoping he would just let it go. But of course, he didn't.

"Come on Shayne. What happened?"

"Nothing. Ok?" I ground out, keeping my eyes fixed on the horizon.

I knew that if I looked over at Damien, I would break, and tell him everything. He seemed to know it too, because he walked around the bed and in front of the window, blocking my view.

"Alright, enough of that. Speak."

"Fine," I sighed, pausing before saying shortly, "Courtney and I kissed."

"Um what??" Damien's eyes grew wide. "When, how, why?"

"Well after we left the bar, I went home to pack and she texted me around 2, asking me to come over."

"Oh god Shayne," Damien shook his head at me.

"I know. I knew it was a bad idea but I went anyways, obviously, I wanted to make sure she was ok. And when I got there, she told me how her and Wahlid fought about how he wasn't spending enough time with her anymore and how she felt like he didn't care. And she told me that he wanted to take a break to think about things."

"Please don't tell me that you kissed her because they were on a break," Damien groaned.

"Fuck, no," I replied quickly. "I told her that he was an idiot for not appreciating her, and that she deserved so much better than that, and she... all of a sudden she was kissing me." I ran my hands through my hair. Reliving the memory was making me anxious and confused all over again.

"And what did you do?" Damien asked.

"Well I kissed her back, but then I stopped myself and she freaked out. She was confused and upset and she kept apologizing like she had taken advantage of me." I took a deep breath.

"Damien, I don't know what to do."

Damien was silent for a moment before folding his arms and leaning back against the window sill.

"You have gotten yourself into quite the mess there Shayne."

"Tell me about it," I nodded.

"I'm not sure how much you can do. I think this might be one of these things, no matter how hard it is, that you just have to wait out."

"But-"

I tried to protest but Damien held up his hand, "I know that you care about her, but honestly, this is a frigging tangled mess of emotions right now, and I know that you don't want to be a cheater."

My face went red. Of course, it had occurred to me that I had sort of enabled Courtney to cheat on Wahlid by kissing her back. My brain was rationalizing that it didn't really count because they were 'taking a moment to evaluate' whatever that meant.

I voiced my reasoning to Damien but he shook his head at me.

"That's a loophole and you know it man." He pushed himself off from the window sill and sat down next to me on the bed.

"Look, I care about you and Courtney, and I want you both to be happy. If that's with each other, then great. But," He put a hand on my shoulder, "I think the best course of action for you sir, is to give her the space to work out what she's feeling, to work out this stuff with Wahlid, and then you can go from there."

I sighed, knowing he was right, but that didn't mean that I stopped wanting to call Courtney and see what was going on. The 5000 miles between us felt like an ever-growing distance.

"I just want to fix things."

"I know man, and you will. It will just take time. I know it will be hard, but try to put it out of your mind until we get back to LA. Let's try to enjoy this incredible country, shall we?" He shot me a half smile and I couldn't help smile back at him.

"You're right," I agreed. "Let's make this the best God damn trip ever."

A/N: Heyo! SO, I am slowly crawling out of my schoolwork induced coma and was able finish up this chapter to post. Guys, it's been ROUGH. I can't wait for this semester to be over!

I guess this chapter is Shayne trying to figure out what to do about what happened between him and Courtney. Shiz is really going to hit the fan next chapter when they talk in person but I feel like Damien would be a good advice giver and would want to help Shayne through it even though Shayne probably wouldn't ask for help.

I love writing Damien, he's just the best, although I don't think I reallllly do him justice, but I try 😬 Also, side note; I don't really know what they did day 1 in Japan so I made it up, don't at me lol 

Let me know what you guys think! I love reading your comments!

Love y'all!

- Kat