Lost Without You

Chapter 1

  "Come on guys! We are going to miss the first sunset of the season!" Jaime yelled at everyone, running to the stairs that lead to the roof.

Everyone was moving pretty quickly to get blankets, snacks, and drinks before heading up to the roof. Ever since college before they would start a show it was a Starkid tradition to go up to a roof, watch the sunset, and enjoy the company of their friends. At this point none of them were really sure if it was just because the sunset was so pretty, or because now they were too scared to break the tradition and risk jinxing themselves. This year was going to be very different for Starkid because they were performing two different shows, ANI and The Trail to Oregon. It was going to be weird having everyone split up for the whole summer, and Lauren was honestly kind of worried about it.

"Earth to Lopez? Grab the blanket and lets go! I already have your weird ass gluten and dairy free cookies and I'm making you share with me," her best friend Joey yelled at her from across the room.

She laughed at him. "Joey, what on earth makes you think I would ever share my cookies with you?"

Joey stood by the stairs, impatiently shifting from foot to foot. Lauren could tell he was trying to decide if he wanted to bicker or if he wanted to get her up to the roof to make sure they didn't miss any of the sunset.

"Lauren, you're going to share them with me because you love me, I am starving, and if we don't go up now we may miss the sunset and we don't have time to look for more snacks."

She laughed while grabbing the blanket and walking towards Joey who looked very happy that she was conceding.

"Okay fine, I'll share them with you," she said with a devious smirk on her face. "But you gotta race me for them!"

She laughed, turning around and pushing Joey back trying to get a headstart. She took off up the stairs trying her best to take two at a time with the blanket Joey and her would be sitting on soaring behind her.

"Not so fast!" Joey said behind her. It did not take long for him to catch up at all with over the foot of height difference he has on Lauren. Joey grabbed the blanket and pulled her back into him. She shirked so loud that she was surprised their friends didn't come running over to the stairs to see if she had just been murdered. Joey lifted her up and threw her over his shoulder.

"You've just been snatched by... the Bandit King." Joey said laughing, making a reference to his character from Trail to Oregon. He ran the rest of the way up the stairs with Lauren over his shoulder acting like he was snatching her from someone.

They reached the top of the stairs, and Joey finally put her down and started to open the door to the roof. Lauren definitely thought he was going to let her go first, but she was met with his hands spinning her around to face the other way while she heard him laughing like he had just heard the funniest joke in the world. She turned back around to see Joey standing on the roof with all of their friends sitting and chatting behind him.

"Looks like I won the race, Lopez, so now you have to share your cookies with me!"

Lauren huffed walking onto the roof. "Yeah, I guess so," she said, trying hard to pout but not being able to because her laugh was breaking through too much. Joey grabbed the blanket from her, and her hand and dragged her over to what he deemed "The best available spot that was left because someone was just being so slow."

They went back to where the wall and the roof meet next to Meredith and Brian Holden. Joey and Lauren always loved to get as far back as possible, because they believed that they got to view the sunset for longer... and because Lauren was so short if she sat too close she would never be able to see it over the wall of the roof.