screen. ➳ Joey Armstrong

➳ two.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay over Arden? Come on, at least let Joey drive you home." Adrienne offered, a worried look on her face as I placed the last plate on the dishwasher. As tempting as sitting next to him alone for like 5 minutes sounds, I'd feel bad for making him go out for me.

"Thanks Adie but it's okay, I don't want to be a burden and besides, I live like five blocks awa-"

"I'll just drop you off on the way to my house, Den." Joey yelled from the living room and my cheeks turned redder than mars.

"O-okay, thanks!" I yelled back, mentally slapping myself for stuttering as I half ran into Jakob's room to get my bag. I flung the door open and Jakob jumped, headphones and laptop flying off the bed.

"Shit Arden!" He yelled, quickly closing his laptop screen. "would you care to knock? I could have been naked or something." He huffed, holding a hand to his chest.

"Hey, calm down. It's okay to watch porn Jakey, I know it can get lonely at times." I grinned, picking up my bag.

"Oh, fuck you." He rolled his eyes, making me laugh even more. "I was talking to someone."

"Ooo, was it your girlfriend?" I wiggled my eyebrows like a total dad. You know that kind of dads.

"Yes, now piss off." He muttered while frantically typing on the keyboard.

"Sure thing, bye Jakey." I blew him a kiss and I'm pretty sure he flipped me off before shutting the door.

That was so weird, like I get he wants privacy with his girl and all but why would he be so jumpy about it? And with me, his best friend. I thought we were past the point of no return when we saw each other naked at a pool party when we were 12 in the comfortable-around-each-other scale.

I made my way downstairs and watched from the living room as Joey kissed his mom on the cheek goodbye, and my heart did a backflip.

"You ready?" He asked, grabbing his car keys and phone off the coffee table near the tv.

"Yeah. Bye Adie!" I jogged to the kitchen and gave her a hug.

"Bye sweetie, be safe." She smiled.

I followed Joey to the driveway, my heart pounding quickly on my chest. I hopped on the passenger's seat while he started the car and adjusted the rear view mirror, some acoustic song playing softly on the radio.

"falling in love, falling in love, falling in love will kill you..."

Ugh, tell me about it, unknown singer on the radio.

I discretely looked at him, and my heart did the thing again. His brows were furrowed in concentration as he pulled out of the driveway, his mouth parted in the most seductive way. You see, Joey is one of those people that are extremely hot even when they're not trying to be. He did a lot of things subconsciously that drove me crazy, and that mouth-parting thing was my favorite.

"So Ari," oh my god. No one calls me that since I was like, four years old. If anyone else had done that it'd be so weird, but right now I'm over the clouds.

I hum in reply, turning to look at him fully.

"I think that Jakob's hiding something, he's been acting kinda strange lately. Do you know anything?" he bit his lower lip. Fuck, Jakob owes me big time.

"Uh, not really Joe. Maybe he's just stressed, with the band and all." I lied, turning my attention to the raindrops sliding on the car window.

"Yeah, that must be it."

He focused in the road ahead for a few seconds, probably thinking about Jakob, before turning to me again.

"Hey... so you know, you're a girl right?" He blurted out. What?

"Uh, last time I checked, yes." I giggled and he rolled his eyes at me.

"I mean that you know what girls like," he sighed, his face flustered. "like let's say I want to give a certain lady a gift, what would be best?"

"Well it depends who she is, like, your mom likes cute tops but you can't give that to your grandma." I laughed to cover up my sheer stupidity. What the fuck did I just even say?

He raised and eyebrow at me and shook his head. "No, Arden, I don't mean my mom nor my grandma. I mean a girl, like a girl that I like. Her birthday is in a few days and I, uh, I want to give her something special, she doesn't know that I like her though."

I could practically hear my heartbeat accelerating as I struggled to keep my cool, my birthday was next week but he couldn't possibly be talking about me, right?

"Hmm, well in that case I think any piece of jewelry will do. Just not a ring, too soon for that, she'll be scared. A cute necklace that reminds you of her would be perfect." I grinned, trying my best to hide the crisis going on inside my brain.

"Ah yes, great idea. I think she'd love that," he smiled to himself. "thanks Den!"

"Ha, always glad to help." I choked out with the best smile I could muster in my nervous state, turning back to the window to realize we were almost home.

Joey pulled over in front of my house, pressing the button to unlock the vehicle's doors.

"Thanks for the ride, Joeybean." I chirped, opening the door and getting out as he grinned at the nickname.

"No problem, señorita. Take care!" He waved and I couldn't help but giggle.

"You too!" I waved back and made my way to the porch, twisting in the key and opening the door as I watched him drive away.

I closed the door and made sure no one was downstairs before sliding against the door and sitting on the floor, holding my flustered cheeks in my cold hands.

"Dammit Joey." I huffed, running my palm across my face.

Could it really be me? Could this be the moment I've been waiting for basically my whole life? To be honest, I don't think so but he did say this girl's birthday was in a few days, and mine is literally next week.

I always say that I don't want to get my hopes up, but I can't help it. The last time Joey got a girlfriend I didn't hang out with Jakob or showed my face in the Armstrong household for about three weeks, I was too busy drowning in self pity and cheap chocolate. Of course I apologized later and told them I was sick, but I'm pretty sure Jakob didn't buy it. They broke up like two months later though, and as selfish and inconsiderate that this may sound, I was so glad.

Ugh, I know, I'm terrible but I have a really big crush and the boy is completely oblivious so give me a break there fam.

"Arden, are you alright?"

I looked up to see my dad holding a mug, quirking an eyebrow at my current state.

"Yeah dad, I'm fine. It's just that... my legs hurt a little." I lied, standing up and dusting myself off.

"I thought Joey was driving you home." He frowned. Shit.

"Yeah, he did. But uh, I'm still kinda tired, ha, I need to start going to the gym again, I'm so unfit. Iloveyoudadgoodnight." I babbled the last part as I gave him a quick hug and ran upstairs, avoiding any more chances of fucking things up.

I shut my door and took off my shoes and jean jacket, sighing loudly as I threw myself on the queen sized bed.

I can't keep doing this to myself, Joey Armstrong is going to ruin me. But then again, how do you get over your crush when the only remotely bad thing he has ever done is not liking you back? I swear the man is just perfect.

I wriggled out of my jeans and pulled the duvet over my tired self, praying that I could forget about all of this for a while and actually get some sleep.