lonely- a joey birlem fanfic

Chapter five- Interference

You got up early the next morning, to get ready. You felt really good. You straightened your hair, then wore black leggings, with a plain black shirt and a pink Everlast hoodie. You then wore your new black and white Nike running shoes.

You wore your hair down, because it was straightened, and then put on some silver jewellery to match your outfit. 

Then, your Mom dropped you off at school.

As soon as you were dropped off, you found Mark and Charles talking to Joey about the cooking project. You smiled as you walked up to them.

"Hey guys," you grinned, and Joey immediately smiled at your presence.

"Hey, y/n," Mark said, then did the strangest thing ever; he hugged you. For a very long time. This caused Joey to lose his smile. Charles was on his phone, not taking much interest in what was really going on.

"Hi... Mark," you say awkwardly, then pat his back slowly.

"How's my ray of sunshine today?" he smiles, then breaks the hug.

"I didn't know I was that special to you," you laughed, then added, "I'm good. You?"

"Better now," he responded.

"So, how are you, Joey?" you asked Joey.

"Fine," he mutters, staring at his fingers.

"Are you okay?" you ask.

"I'm fine," he says, then Charles looks up to see what was going on. Then Joey walks away, followed by Charles.

"What's wrong with him?" you ask Mark.

"I don't know... but he kept talking about you so that's why I hugged you so he could back off. You guys barely know each other," Mark says.

"Mark! We went on a date on the weekend!" you scold, "we're really close!"

"Define 'really close.' How close?" Mark asks.

"Like, kissing-close," you say, then feel the blush on your face, "why did you do that?"

"Because I didn't know about your stupid date!" he replies, "I'm sorry!"

****

*AT LUNCH, AT THE TABLE*

You sit next to Joey, and you can tell he's having a pretty rough day. You don't know why though. He barely spoke to you in your subjects and he did most of the work in the cooking group, not taking any breaks.

"Are you okay?" you whisper to him during lunch.

"Is it obvious that I'm not?" he replies.

"Yes."

"Well there you go," he mutters, then takes a bite out of his sandwich.

"Joey, what's wrong?" you ask quietly, then put your hand on his leg in concern.

"You clearly have a boyfriend and yet you kissed me on the weekend," he replies.

"Wait... what? Who exactly is my boyfriend?" you ask him.

"Mark."

"Joey, Mark is a delusional 16-year-old who thinks he can go around flirting with girls because he thinks that their crushes don't know them well enough," you say, "I am not dating him."

"Wait... you aren't?"

"No way!" you say.

"Then why did he do that this morning?" Joey asks.

"Because he thought you were obsessed with me and he thought we didn't know each other very well so he did it to make you jealous," you rolled your eyes.

"Well, it worked," Joey replied.

You blushed and smiled at the same time, knowing that Joey got jealous because of Mark flirting with you. Mark, of all people.

"Joey, I don't like Mark," you say.

"Then who do you like?" he asks, smiling at you, so closely that you could lean in and kiss him. This makes you nervous, as you smell his cologne, and stare at his cute yet matured smile, and as you feel his dark eyes stare at you.

"Someone," is all you mutter, "Who do you think I like?"

"I honestly don't know," he says.

"So I clearly didn't make it obvious enough on the weekend?" you sigh, smiling.

"No, y/n, you didn't," he flashes you a playful smile.