𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐲 - 𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐩𝐞𝐳 𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐬

𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Lauren slammed her hand down on her phone, kicking herself for forgetting to turn her alarm off the previous night.

It was Saturday, and most of her friends were hungover because of a big party at one of the seniors' houses. Lauren, Julia, Joe W and Darren had decided not to attend as they wanted to enjoy their weekend rather than suffer with headaches and puking and overall pain.

The brunette fell back into her slumber for a few hours and woke up when Julia yelled at her from the other room.

"Hey, Lo? You up?" The girl's voice came.

"I am now, what do you want?"

Julia pushed Lauren's bedroom door open, smiling sarcastically. "Have you checked your phone yet? Cos I have a voicemail from Joey saying he was watching Brosenthal do a headstand."

"I haven't checked my phone yet," she smirked, bewildered at her friends' antics. "And what has that got to do with me?"

"I don't know..." she hummed, avoiding her eyes. "It's just, Joey mentioned something about you in the voicemail he left and I wondered if you have any from him."

"What did he say?"

Julia suppressed a laugh, biting her lip. "Um, just something about you being his favourite person in the whole wide world or whatever..."

Lauren's cheeks flushed bright red, her heart fluttering at the thought of being Joey's favourite.

"Let's check my voicemail then," Lauren grinned, grabbing her phone from her bedside table.

And sure enough, she had four voicemails from him, drunk voicemails probably. Definitely drunk, they were from the night before, and she knew he was at the party. She played the first message, happy to hear his voice.

"Hey Dare... you're probably asleep right now, but oh well. Can I tell you something? I'm gonna tell you something... Lauren is amazing. Isn't she? She's so great. I mean she can sing, she can dance, after all miss this is France... wait wha-"

"Lauren!" Julia squealed, way too excited for 9am.

"He was drunk, out of his mind, can't you hear him slurring his words and chatting utter shit?" Lauren hesitated, running a hand through her hair and ignoring her fast beating heart.

"Next one, please!"

"That beepy bitch cut me off, how on earth dare whomever? Anyways... Lauren is really pretty. Like she's so pretty it's stupid, it's like she's an angel or a princess or a goddess ooh or all three! She would be such a badass princess. Lo wouldn't need a knight in shining armour... I get jealous sometimes, of you an-"

Lauren laughed at Joey's stupidity, before the rest of his words caught up with her and she realised just how much he was complimenting her.

"He is so into you, Lo! Angel, princess, goddess, badass, he really thinks the world of you," Julia smirked, sat on the end of Lauren's bed. "And I wonder why he gets jealous? I can't believe he still thinks he's talking to Darren, though."

"Yeah..." she chuckled nervously, avoiding Julia's eyes.

"Beep! Rude! Yeah I get jealous of you and Dylan and Walker and Nick. I feel like she likes you more than me. And that hurts my heart. I want her to like me. I think I'd take good care of her. She'd never get hurt, not on my watch time turn day. We could cook together or go swimming or see a movie or fall asleep under the stars..."

Julia sighed, clutching a hand to her heart. "Lo, that's so romantic, he's so in love with you."

"He's so sweet, I can't believe it... it hurts his heart to think I like the other guys more than I like him," Lauren softened a little, astounded at the adorable-ness of Joey's words and his sweet, gentle voice. "He would take good care of me... and I do like him- woah! Julia, I like him!"

"I know, we all know, play the last one, go!"

"Darren! It's me again! Shhhhh you gotta be quiet and you have to promise me, pinky swear, that you won't tell Lauren I said this but... I really really really like her, and I wish she was my girlfriend. But don't tell her, shhhhh! Okay that's it, Brian just put cocktail cherries on my computer so I'm gonna go find Joe and tie them back to back, bye! Don't tell shhhhh-"

The beep cut him off for the final time, and Lauren let her phone fall to her bed. A shit tonne of information had just been unloaded on her, and it all made her feel so warm and fuzzy inside. Joey wanted to be her boyfriend, he wanted to be with her, he liked her.

"He really really really likes you, Lo, and he wants you to be his girlfriend," Julia smiled, eyes sparkling with excitement. "What're you gonna do? Say yes? Confront him? Ooh, if you do confront him, make sure I'm there, please?"

"Oh I'm gonna need you for emotional support... you know what, fuck it! Let's have everyone there, I'll just ask him on Monday, we all have lunch together anyways so that's a great opportunity for confrontation... right?" Lauren asked for reassurance, unsure if that was the wisest way to go about her situation.

"Yes, yes yes yes, do it!" She clapped quickly, energy all the way up.

Well, Joey didn't know that Lauren knew he liked her, and Julia knew that Lauren knew that Joey didn't know that Lauren knew he liked her.

In the words of Phoebe Buffet, they don't know that we know they know we know.

Part 2?