Chicago in novemeber -Laurwalk

Chapter 7.

Joe slipped away but kept a close eye on the pair.

"You came back." Julia stated, making no attempt to have any eye contact.

"Yeah. I did."

"Should we just cut to the chase?" She asked bluntly.

"Look, Julia. You have to understand -"

"Understand what?" She harshly whispered.

"You left without a real explanation then after a week or so, you cut me off. How am I meant to understand that Lauren?" She finished, now almost in tears. Lauren thought about what she'd said. If anyone deserved a proper explanation about her disappearance, it was julia. Standing in front of the door wasn't the best place though. She lead Julia outside where the cold December air hit her.

"Alright. So I said I wasn't going to talk to anyone about this but I owe it to you. Please hear me out okay? I wouldn't do what I did just to hurt you Julia, you have to believe me when I say that. I'm going to tell you what happened from the start."

Joe looked up and noticed that julia and lauren weren't at the door anymore. He excused himself from the chat with the Lang's and some other people. Wondering around, he looked through a window and saw Lauren, on her own, looking freezing and defeated. 'Shit' he thought. Grabbing his coat, ran out to her.

"Lauren?" She looked at him with bloodshot eyes from tears and shook her head. He knew what it meant. Julia didn't forgive her, maybe he could have a word a bit later. He wrapped his coat around her shoulders and lead her out to the car, not planning on taking her home just yet, it was still reasonably early so they had time. He let her process what had just happened in the car but as soon as he pulled up -

"Do you want to talk about it?" She nodded

"I told her. I told her everything from start to finish and she said I was selfish. First of all for not telling her exactly what happened the first time, then for cutting her off and finally for letting you in, instead of her. She's right though." Joe took her hand in his and looked her in the eye.

"You're not selfish lauren. You were scared. That is the only way to explain the first two things. Who wouldn't be scared? You're so young and not to be rude about Julia or anything but I'm pretty sure that she wasn't the first person you thought if, you had bigger things to think about. And about you letting me in first, hell I'm pretty sure I locked you in my apartment at one point and even if you did go away or nothing happened between us, I would have fought to see you again so it wasn't really your choice." They both laughed at the last part and Joe sighed with relief. At least she was able to laugh.

"So um, where are we?" Lauren asked after coming back to her sences.

"Aah, well the night is still young so I thought I take you out for a little Italian date." She smiled and leaned over to kiss Joe's cheek. Maybe Julia would rethink things and come around.

Over dinner (which was probably the best Italian meal she had ever had!) Lauren thought about how Julia must be feeling. Did she really want to end her friendship with Lauren completely? Or was she just temporarily upset? All Lauren knew is that she had to see her again, not immediately but soon. She needed to patch things up with Julia. She was Laurens best friend and she didn't want to loose the friendship because of what had happened - that had ruined enough things already so the least Lauren could do was fight for Julia's friendship.

"What's going on in that head of yours?" Joe pulled her from her thoughts.

"I can't just accept the fact that Juls hates me. I love her too much to let her go so I'm gonna make this right." Joe smiled. Her determination almost turned him on. He loved how she didn't give up easily, it made him think that if the same thing ever happened to them, they would do whatever they could to make it better like she is with Julia. And Julia will come around but seeing lauren come out of no where will have been hard for her but it'll all be fine in a few weeks.