Even Though: A StarKid/Joey Richter Fanfic

Chapter 11-All The Small Things

"So...are you feeling better, Cassie?"

"Get out of my room," I said to Joey, my voice monotone. After explaining the situation to the boys, I decided I was too fatigued to remain downstairs and retreated to my room. I was reading a Harry Potter book when Joey had entered my room. The clock read 12:37 am.

"Well, I see your attitude is back to normal," he said, chuckling slightly, "But come on, Cassie. How are you?"

I looked up from my book, my eyes boring into his. He seems sincere enough, I thought. Just talk to him.

"Shouldn't you be downstairs with your Neanderthals anyways?" I said, ignoring my thoughts.

"They're, uh, all asleep," he said, scratching the back of his neck, "I just, ya know, wanted to talk about earlier."

I sighed and shut the book, pushing my reading glasses further up the bridge if my nose.

"I'm...fine," I said, absentmindedly braiding a strand of my hair, "I mean, we're best friends." I continued, speaking of Dylan, "Friends fight all the time."

"Not you and Dylan," Joey replied, "Anyone with half a brain can tell you guys are like, made for each other." I scoffed. "What?"

"Nothing," I said, finally looking at him directly, "It's just, for a split second, I honestly thought that I did feel 'that' way for him. Like maybe we were made for each other." Joey cleared his throat.

"And now?"

"Now, I don't," I replied simply, "Now it's just...different." The air was still around us, the only noise being a faint sitcom playing on the TV downstairs.

"Well I'm sorry to hear that," he replied after what seemed like an eternal pause. I raised an eyebrow. "Really, I am." I gave him a suspicious look, eyebrow still raised. "What?! I can be sincere when I want to be."

"Yeah, okay," I said with a smirk, "You have your moments, I guess, but, come on. We're not exactly 'amigos simpáticos' at the moment."

"Really?" he inquired, "I kinda thought we were." He almost looked hurt.

"Look, I don't know, okay?" I snapped, "My life is just really fucking complicated right now and I don't know what to do." Again, the silence that followed was deafening.

"Well," he said softly, shoving his hands into his basketball shorts, "My grandma always told me when life is making you feel down and out, it's time to get back up. So that's what you gotta do; get back up."

"But how the hell am I supposed to do that?" I replied, exasperated. I felt hot tears behind my eyes, "Dylan hates me. Jaime probably hates me now. You know your life is going down the crapper when my best friend at the moment is my brother's annoying righthand man." Joey chuckled, even though my remark was at his expense.

"Well, maybe start by being a bit nicer," he said gingerly.

"You're really telling me to be nicer?"

"See?" he remarked, "Your attitude sucks ass." I huffed, blowing a few strands of brown hair out of my face. "And don't worry. Things will work out. Just apologize, even if you don't think you're wrong."

"But-"

"You know, you really need to work on swallowing your pride," he said, cutting me off, "Especially since you're our Maria. You're gonna get criticism. You're gonna have people talk shit about you. But you have to suck it up, because there's a cast of 30 people, the whole drama department, and hundreds of people who will watch our show are depending on you. And me. So drop the attitude, work your ass off, and make up with your friends." I blinked a few times, taken aback by Joey's long-winded monologue.