The Web I Spin for You ~ Richpez & Rosenwalker

Chapter 44

"I would maybe make the voice sound a little more ridiculous?" Joey suggested.

"Oh, I can do ridiculous," Lauren laughed, tossing her hair over her shoulder. The two were hanging out before rehearsal for Spies are Forever, hitting some of Lauren's problem parts in the theatre. "Okay let me try again." She sang through Mrs. Mega's lament again, making her voice as high and whiny as possible.

"I love it, it's fantastic," Joey stated, laughing. "Granted, I'm probably biased on the fact that I think you're hot."

Lauren rolled her eyes, walking over and sitting down on the floor next to him. "As thrilling as getting your amazing directing is, I actually called you here so that we could talk about serious stuff."

"Ah. Let me guess; Zoey and Joe stuff?" Joey asked, laying down on his stomach.

"What else? We'd live unproblematic if it wasn't for her." Lauren said, giving a half-hearted laugh. "Yeah so, you will not fucking believe the conversation I had with Joe on the phone last night."

"Ooh, tea." Joey stated happily, crossing his legs and resting his head in his hands like a child. "Do tell."

"Oh god, where to begin," Lauren started. "At first I figured Joe wasn't going to want me tell you, but he basically in a nutshell said that I can tell you everything that we know Brian's going to tell you after he talks to him."

"Oh shit, is this about Brian?" Joey asked, his face suddenly serious.

"Oh yeah, it's completely about him." Lauren said, realizing that Joey was going to be a lot more concerned now that his best friend was involved. "Part of why I really wanted to talk to you about, apart from the fact that I talk to you about basically everything."

"Us? Talk about everything? No way," Joey teased. "So what happened with Joe?"

Lauren sighed, glancing around the empty theatre anxiously. "Joe called me asking whether or not I think that he's a toxic partner to Brian."

"Toxic how?"

"That's exactly what I asked. To which he responded 'like how Zoey was with me.'"

"Jesus Christ, where the fuck did he get that?" Joey asked "Because of what happened the other day?"

"Do you know about that?"

"No, Brian wouldn't give us any details. Just that he and Joe were fighting and he thought that that's why he was skipping auditions." Joey stated, running both of his hands through his hair. "God, this is insane."

"I know. That's why I wanted to talk to you; has Brian ever said anything about Joe doing anything that seems... you know, weird?"

"As in toxic weird?" Joey asked. "Because there actually have been one or two things that he's mentioned to me about him being like... possessive. Well, not being possessive, but saying possessive things. He said it was while they were having like, phone sex or something."

Lauren resisted the urge to immediately spill to Joey everything about Joe's intrusive thoughts. "Did he say what Joe said to him?"

"I didn't ask," Joey answered simply. "I don't wanna hear that shit," he joked, before his face grew more serious. "I guess I should've."

"Don't blame yourself. I wouldn't want to know either," Lauren reassured. "God, you know this shit is just going to keep getting worse and worse right? Especially with prom right around the corner."

"Why prom?"Joey asked wearily. "You, you don't think that she'd gonna try to get him to go to with her to prom like she did Sadie Hawkins, do you?"

"Oh, she one hundred percent is." Lauren stated confidently. "The dance is just going to be Sadie Hawkins all over again in terms of her making it so that none of us can enjoy ourselves. She'll send people after us, and now she has the added benefit that the entire school hates Joe and anyone who associates with him."