These Babes: An Ongoing Richpez Project

Everything We Need Is Enough Pt.3

3.

"Lauren are you okay?"

"Huh?" The small brunette turned to face Meredith struggling to hear her over the sound of the crowd screaming.

It was the first Space tour date and so far everything had gone swimmingly. Right now, Joey was singing 'Even Though' to Jaime as the rest of the Starkids stood patiently, waiting to start 'Liam's Got a Phone Call'

"So, this is the part where we kiss?" Joey was saying and Lauren snapped her head back around to face him and Jaime. God, why did it always have to be Jaime?

"Will you stop glaring?" Brian hissed in her other ear and she turned to face him, a scowl on her face.

"I'm not glaring!" She exclaimed as the cheers of the crowd grew louder. Why would she be scowling?

She watched as Jaime caught her eye briefly and offered her a sympathetic half smile as she reached for Joey's shirt. Lauren's heart was hammering in her chest as the two moved closer, with no time to think about what Jaime's smile had meant, a thousand screams and flashes followed and she carefully rearranged her features into a pained smile as she willed the intro to the next song to just start already.

"Uh oh," Brian said into his microphone and Lauren took a deep breath as they separated. She didn't take her eyes from Joey and he winked at her the second he was back at his mic stand. She smiled genuinely and shook her head disappointed in herself for feeling the way she did. At least at this point she'd figured out it wasn't jealousy, or at least not jealousy directed at Joey.

Joey and herself were good. In the year that she'd moved from New York to Chicago she'd made frequent road trips back to campus to hang out with him or he would drive up to her Mom's place to meet her when he was in desperate need of vegetables. The two were closer than she'd thought was possible and so she had come to realise that she wasn't jealous for the reason she (and everyone else) thought she was jealous. No, Joey was just her best friend and she was obviously jealous of Jaime's talent. The way her voice carried through the audience like a beacon of light was something Lauren was both awed and inspired by. She didn't mind the fact that the fans clearly saw something between Jaime and Joey, why should she? It made total sense. They were paired together for almost every duet and in every show they normally played some sort of love interests, it just made sense. Even though, in her opinion, she had the most chemistry with Joey, but hey, who was she to tell the fans that?

They reached the end of their set without a hitch and began the walk offstage when Jaime appeared at her side and hooked her arm through hers.

"Everything okay?" She asked as the cheers and screams moved further and further away.

"Yeah, it was a great first night!" Lauren grinned at the girl beside her as they walked down the narrow corridor together.

"And you and I are okay?" Jaime asked, her voice wavering a little.

"What? Why wouldn't we be?" the small brunette replied, rounding a corner and tugging Jaime into the girl's dressing room.

"Just the whole Joey bit where we have to fake kiss," Jaime shrugged, "you were scowling at me the whole time,"

"I was?"

"Yeah and I just wanted you to know that it really is fake, I'm not interested in Joey like that at all," Lauren narrowed her eyes, wondering why she was telling her that.

"Okay?" She said, her tone implying she was unsure where Jaime was going with this conversation.

"And I know you guys are just best friends or whatever but- "