Shortcake - A Richpez Story

Chapter 13

Lauren's POV

Oh boy. Oh boy oh boy oh fuck. What have you done Lauren? What did I do? Ahg, I'm so stupid!

I stare blankly at Curt and Kim until Joey speaks up.

"Tell you that...we...liked..." Joey struggles for words.

"The kiss," I blurt, then mentally facepalm.

What the actual fuck is my brain doing.

Joey gives me an odd look, but goes along with it. "Yep. Lauren's a good kisser."

"Uh..." Curt and Kim stare at us, shocked, but then bust out laughing. "Well it's about time you guys started to date. It's obvious you guys have chemistry and have had some since...like, forever."

"Yeah," Curt chimes in, "half of StarKid has a bet on you two dating."

The two end our conversation with that, walking away laughing, leaving Joey and I staring at them in atonishment. We look at each other. I can see Joey's face is red, and I bet mine is, too.

"Uh. Well shit," Joey says, summing up all of my feelings in those three words.

"Ugh, we have to tell them all we're not dating," I groan.

"I have a feeling they won't believe us," Joey replies.

"Yeah. I can imagine them pairing us together since most of our fans do, and since we're so close."

Joey nods, then his eyes brighten. "What if we play it off as a prank? Like, let them believe we are, and then later tell them the truth. We can say we knew that they were betting on us."

"Joey, that's brilliant!" I exclaim. "Haha, we can tell them that a few of them lost money just 'cus we pranked them."

Joey and I laugh together for a moment, totally enjoying the moment. Well, until I jump up and sprint towards the bathroom to empty my stomach.

I gasp for air after dry heaving, eyes watering, snot falling from my nose. I'm a total mess. Why the hell am I throwing up again? I thought this morning that is was just because I was hungover. But some of the other cast members looked a little green, too, and some of them didn't even get drunk. Could the flu be going around? Great, just what we needed for a preformance.

I rinse my mouth, splash water on my face, blow my nose, and exit the bathroom. Jaime comes in and looks at me, her expression puzzled.

"Lauren, you okay?" She asks.

I nod. "Im just a little nauseous, nothing to worry about."

"Except for the fact that Angela and Kendall had to leave because they were sick, too. Angela was feeling sick and Kendall got strep throat."

I groan. "Oh, no."

"Yeah. But. Spill."

"What?"

"You know. You and Joey?" She raises her eyebrow, which I think she does really well. I cross my eyes weird, which Jaime thinks is hilarious.

"Oh, yeah." I look down, a blush forming on my cheeks, making our little prank even more believeable. "We might be dating."

"Finally! Okay, give me details."

"Details? Ok, uh...." I wrack my brain searching for "details." "Well, you know how Joey and I are. After a while, we kinda realized we liked each other a little more than just friends and he asked me out. End of story."

Jaime looks suspicious but doesn't say anything. "Hmm, alright, then, if you say so. I think you should go home, though. We don't want you throwing up during practice or anything."