With Fingers Intertwined // Courtamien // Smosh

Chapter One: Spicy Chocolate

~Courtney's Perspective~

My eyelids slowly separated at the sound of the Circuit tone blasting from my phone. I rubbed my eyes in attempts to wake myself up, no use. I hit snooze and return to my original position, squirming around for a moment before I settle my face into the soft silk sheets. Aren't beds just so comfortable when you need to be awake? What felt like a few minutes pass until I turn over to the sight sunshine peering through my blinds. The light forces my eyelids to open as I stretch my arms above my head and groan. I then sit myself up and place my hands on the surface of my still-warm sheets. As I rest my hand I feel it brush against something cold. I pick up my phone screen and glance at the numbers displayed in white letters against my lockscreen. "Oh, crap!" I say, throwing myself from my bed. An hour, I'd overslept my an hour. I probably hit cancel instead of snooze, dammit. 

My clothes were already laid upon the floor, just where I had set them last night. I shove my legs into my new black jeans and force a matching black crop top over my head. I then front door, keys in hand. I see a lightweight jacket hung up on my closet door, the one I'd so recklessly thrown open in search of the bra I'd worn for the past four days. I grab it and slide it over my arms, ignoring the heavy heat of a Californian July. 

After practically speeding through the city and almost blowing two stop lights, I finally arrive through the cold metal doors of the Smosh studio. Shayne and Damien are already seated upon the middle couch, so I hop into a seat positioned on Damien's right. I look over at him, he's wearing black jeans and a black top, too. I force my involuntary smirk back into a neutral expression and push my hair up and out of my face. Today we're recording for Smosh Games, so Ian, Matt Raub, and Tommy all gather in surrounding chairs. Damien is always good at the games we play, any game, and I seem to always fall behind. My thoughts are shortly interrupted by his voice, and it made my heart do a small jump in my chest. "Valorant, Overwatch, League of Legends. All difficult games that we are not good at." he says.

I try to mentally prepare myself for the game I'm about to lose. "I never played any of those." I think to myself. Damien responded, and I realize I had said that aloud. I'm nervous, and still not fully awake. I wish I had gotten coffee this morning, I swear Starbucks is a human gas station. I snap back to the conversation when Damien says something to make everyone laugh. Today we're playing Luigi's Mansion 3, which I've only ever heard of. This is a hot pepper chocolate roulette challenge, my least favorite of everything we do on this channel. If you lose a game, you pick a chocolate. Some are regular chocolates, some have ghost peppers in them...great...

After Damien finishes talking, I pick up a controller and select the color of my Luigi character. I decide on orange, trying to come up with a pun or something to break the silence I've hid behind most of the morning. I begin my sentence, unsure of where it's going "Orange you glad I'm Luigi?" I mutter loudly. Orange you glad? Did I seriously just say that? No one laughs but we begin the game and swiftly move past it. Damien passes me a glance and we start the game. Tommy and I are on a team that, to my surprise, ends up beating Shayne and Damien. Thank God I don't have to eat spicy chocolate. 

Damien reaches for a chocolate and puts it in his mouth. I can tell by the look on his face that it's spicy. Whenever he eats or feels something he doesn't like, he makes a little smirk. I feel bad and rest my arm on the back of his chair as we continue playing. Not even five minutes after, Tommy and I lose, and we both nervously place the chocolate on our tongue. His chocolate is normal, I wish I could say the same for me. The spice builds up slowly to the point where I'm panting like a dog. Why did this day have to go so wrong? Damien takes a seat next to me and the other boys continue playing. Maybe it's the fact we're unintentionally matching outfits, but Damien looks really good today. He started growing facial hair not too long ago, which I normally hate on guys, but somehow he pulls it off quite well. 

The game ends in about fifteen minutes and it's time to close up the video. Tommy tries to talk through fiery pepper chocolate, and I find this as my time to say something before the video ends. "We may suck at video games, but we're all good kissers!" I say, pointing to the pile of spicy Hershey Kisses on the table. Damien laughs and I push myself towards his, making sarcastic kissing gestures near his face. I'm surprised he didn't pull away. 

The camera turns off and I hop up from my chair, my gaze falling on a plastic cup with the green Starbucks logo on the front. My mouth begins to salivate as I envision sipping an iced coffee right about now. Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew was my go to order, and the print-out label on the cup's side told me this person had ordered the same thing. I pick up the cup. "Two pumps vanilla, one pump hazelnut, two pumps cinnamon." said a familiar voice behind me. I turn around to see Damien with his hands together, smiling down at me. I didn't even notice I was staring. "That is what you usually order, right?" he asked, seeing my eyes make their way to his. 

My lips part and a smile appears on my face. "Yeah, yeah it is, actually! Thanks!" I say, obviously blushing. 

"What can I say?" he says shrugging "I know you too well, Court Bort." Court Bort, I love the nicknames he uses. I was about to call him Damimen, the nickname I gave him, when he spoke again. "I picked it up this morning, usually you show up with one, but I felt like surprising you today." His smile widens along with mine. "Besides," he says "I knew you'd need something to wash ghost pepper spice from your mouth." I had completely forgotten about the burn in my mouth since Damien started talking, but being reminded of it make it come back. I take a sip of my drink and look up to thank him once more, but he's already left through the side door. I grab my keys and drive back home, the iced drink building condensation in the scorching heat, which I felt when I hopped into my hot car. 

I push the front door of my home open to find my place just as messy as I'd left it this morning. I step over the pile of clothes in the middle of my floor and hop on my bed. I use my phone to take a picture of my drink and post it to Instagram. I rarely post pictures that aren't of me or my friends and family, but for whatever reason, I just felt like documenting this. I upload it with the caption "Relationship Status: It's caffeinated". I place my phone down and go to take one last sip of the drink in my hand, but before my lips can even reach the green plastic straw, a bing sound chimes from the screen. An Instagram notification: "damienhaas liked your post"

I smiled and let myself fall back onto my bed, a faint spice still lingering on my lips. I gazed at the paper label on the almost-empty cup and smiled at the word "Damien" printed on the side. Today was a good day.