The Web I Spin for You ~ Richpez & Rosenwalker

Chapter 17

But then why did she feel so sick and enraged at the sight of him laughing and chatting with these admittingly cute girls?

Eventually the discussion ended, and all of the girls hugged Joey goodbye before heading off in the opposite direction. Lauren especially found her face heating up at the sight of the girls hugging him, and she couldn't for the life of her figure out why she was feeling this way. She liked Joey, but not to this extent. Besides, she wasn't the jealous type!

She had all but decided to abandon her plan to talk to Joey and head home. Clearly, Joey was having no issues getting over her, and she was way too heated to talk to him about any of this now. However, before she could make her getaway, Joey turned around, spotting the small girl. "Lauren?"

Lauren froze, closing her eyes in frustration. "Goddammit." She whispered under her breath as the handsome boy approached her.

"Hey, have you been here long? Do you need the stage or something?"

Did she lie? Did she make a run for it? What could she do? "Oh no, it's okay, it's all good."

"Are you sure? I'm done—sorry, I should have reserved it."

"No no I'm not here for the stage, I was here for you." She said before she could stop herself. Her emotions were running too high, and her filter was completely off.

Joey raised an eyebrow at her, suddenly feeling very light as butterflies swarmed around inside of his stomach. "You were... waiting for me?"

"So, who were those girls?" Lauren interrogated, ignoring the question entirely. "Are they... friends of yours or something?"

"Who, Mary Kate, Esther, and Tessa? Surely you've met Tessa; she's Moses's girlfriend. She's a junior in the choir, wait—" Joey stopped himself, noticing the blush spreading across Lauren's face. "Why are you asking?"

Lauren shrugged, staring down at the floor to avoid his eye. "No reason. I mean... you just seemed super friendly and familiar with them, and I've never seen them before. You've definitely never mentioned them. So what, what were you meeting with them about?"

A smile crept upon Joey's face, which thankfully Lauren wasn't looking at, otherwise she might've smacked it off. "They uh, er... fuck this is embarrassing." He closed his eyes, running both of his hands through his hair, which he'd been growing out of the past couple of weeks. It couldn't be true, and yet there was no other way to describe her behavior; was Lauren jealous? He'd never seen her act like this before.

The girl looked up at his mention of embarrassment, her suspicions growing. "What, you have a crush on one of them? Is one of them like, an actual fuck buddy?" She asked, faking a laugh to make it seem like she wasn't upset and that they were just two friends joking around.

Joey laughed. "What? Of course not! I just told you Tessa is Joe Moses's girlfriend, and I think Mary Kate might also has a boyfriend that's in my grade. And I'm not exactly positive about her sexuality, but I know that Esther's seeing a girl right now. They're just some friends I was talking to about... about..."

Lauren couldn't help but notice the blush spreading across Joey's face, and for the first time realized that she might have been overstepping. "Hey fuck, I, I'm sorry. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"Ah, it's okay." Joey sighed nervously, shifting his weight between his legs. He'd already admitted his feelings for her and been rejected—telling her about his show couldn't be any worse. "Uhh so, you know how Davidson picks one student written Musical every semester?"

Lauren shook her head, thrown completely off by the topic. "Uh, yeah?"

"So, I'm working on a play with Corey and Brian. I um, we don't want anyone really to know incase it doesn't wind up working out—save ourselves the embarrassment, you know?"