Monsters and Men ~ Rosenwalker & Richpez

Chapter 3

Joey Richter walked down the hallway with Brian, the two of them barely speaking as they sipped their coffee. They had both undoubtedly failed their trig test, but were too brain dead to even feel stressed about it. "At least this test only counts for five percent of our final grade."

"Yeah you're right." Brian mumbled miserably. "It's not worth much. We just gotta not suck again some other time."

"I believe that we can succeed at not sucking in the future." Joey said, allowing a smile to cross over his crooked jaw. "Chin up man, at least now we get to go to Glee! Best class of the day."

"Normally I would agree, but Glee is stressing me the hell out right now."

"Yeah, but at least we get to be stessed as hell with our friends."

"You mean Lauren?" Brian teased, nudging him as Joey flicked him off. In the same way Joey was the only person who knew about Brian's crush on Joe, Brian was the only one who knew about Joey's crush on Lauren. Of course, anyone with eyes could see that Joey was totally in love with her. Brian could only hope that he wasn't that obvious around Joe.

As they walked into Glee and set their bags down, Joey spotted Lauren across the room, sitting in a split, her chest down against her front knee. He gestured for Brian to follow him as he stuck his chest up, trying to walk over to her with confidence. "We get it, you work out." Joey teased her.

"Fuck off Richter," Lauren said with a smile, picking her chest up to look at him.

"Hey now, I get it. Rolling around the stage all night requires superior gymnastics abilities."

"It does actually." Lauren said matter of factly. "And if you're gonna stand over me like a hawk you wanna make yourself useful and pull my arms up so I can slide further down?"

"Do hawks stand over people? I don't think that's accurate." Joey teased as he walked behind her, lifting her arms over her head.

"UGHHHH!" Lauren groaned as her body slid further into her split. "Why you gotta torture me mentally on top of physically JoJo?"

"Because he lives to be a maximum annoyance." Brian added, making Lauren laugh. Brian couldn't help but give Joey credit. At least he had the courage to go up to his senior crush and mess with her. He scanned the room for Joe, but he wasn't there yet. Brian sighed, thinking about how Joe was probably off walking his girlfriend to class. Carrying her books. Holding her hand. Laughing with her. Kissing her cheek.

Brian shook his head to clear it as the bell rang. He knew that the more he fixated on Joe, the more heartbroken he was going to feel, but he just couldn't stop himself sometimes. He followed Joey back over to their seats, unable to help but notice that Joe still wasn't there. He tried to focus on what Mr. Davidson was telling them, but his brain didn't feel like processing words after his trig exam. He sipped his coffee, deciding to allow his mind continue to think about Joe since he wasn't going to pay attention to class. Mainly, how cute Joe looked in the blue beanie he'd been wearing that morning. It really brought out his blue eyes. Brian groaned. Why did he have to be so perfect?

Speak of the devil, a moment later Joe burst through the doors, causing Mr. Davidson to fall silent. "Sorry I'm late." Joe mumbled, quickly walking over to the nearest empty seat, which happened to be behind Brian.

"I don't want you to be sorry, I want you to be on time Mr. Walker." Davidson lectured. "Now as I was saying, this week's assignment is duets. Particularly, show tunes. While Broadway is of course preferred, non traditional duets are welcome as well. So, find a partner!"

Everyone in the room jumped up and scattered to pair up. Brian turned and looked at Joey, who looked back at him. "Whatcha wanna sing?" Joey asked him.

"No no no, the question is what do you want to sing with her." Brian teased, gesturing toward Lauren, who hadn't found a partner yet.