Big Brother is built on putting its houseguests through many kinds of stress. They have to share a living space with up to 16 people, all of whom they are competing against for the top prize of $500,000 dollars. On top of this, houseguests may randomly be selected as "Have-Nots," which means they are forced to sleep in an uncomfortable room and are only allowed to eat specific foods, including the mysterious oat-based slop that has been a staple of Big Brother since Season 7. Between being hungry, sleep-deprived, and constantly on the lookout of other people's intent to get you out of the game, the series puts an immense amount of stress on its competitors. No one is safe from its perils, not even the seemingly inseparable Big Brother 17 showmance of Shelli and Clay.
Tensions have been high this week, especially since the plan for James to throw the Battle of the Block competition failed when Liz saved herself single-handedly and dethroned Jackie as HoH. Now Clay is on the block and Shelli is panicked. In addition to being worried for him, Shelli also found herself in the unfortunate position of being a have-not for the week. All this stress weighing on both of their shoulders led to some raised voices and hurt feelings in the house.
Around midnight on July 26, Shelli was removing the days' make-up in the bathroom. Clay entered and sat on the opposite side of the room. Clay begins talking about upcoming competitions and other plans for the week while Shelli is looking in the mirror. Shelli began dropping hints that she would prefer to have a conversation with Clay where her un-made-up face wasn't very easily visible to one of the bathroom cameras. Clay, simple yet fine specimen that he is, wasn't picking up the hint and began to get frustrated. This led to the part of every insignificant couple fight where the couple asks themselves "are we fighting right now?" before Shelli burst and explained that "I look like f*cking sh*t right now. Can you come over here and not make me stand right here In front of the f*cking camera? How else do I have to say it?" before being overwhelmed with frustration and fleeing to the Have-Not room.
At this juncture, Clay's action-plan to heal the wounds was to lie motionless for a few moments. Soon after, Shelli detailed the fight to Liz and talked about how frustrating it is being a woman in the Big Brother house, and dealing with make-up in a house where you are always on camera. Shelli explained that she usually loves staying up late and talking with Clay about everything, but also talked about how "a girl needs her space sometimes."
Whether this fight will be the beginning of the end for the showmance, or just another one of those not-a-big-deal fights that every couple gets into has yet to be seen. Perhaps it was just the slop and the lack of sleep that made Shelli a tad more irritable. Even if she's been having a rough week, Shelli's gameplay has been solid so far, and hopefully she won't let any frustrations with Hunky McNoShirt get between her and $500,000.
Things change so quickly in the Big Brother house, it can be hard to keep up. To keep track of everything going on in the Big Brother house, check out Bustle’s very own Big Brother podcast, The Diary Room. Listen to the latest episode below, and be sure to check out future episodes on Bustle’s SoundCloud page and iTunes.
Images: CBS; Giphy (2)
