richpez for mae

6

Joey slid into room M102 5 minutes late. 6 minutes to get from bed to his class was something that he was pretty impressed by. He just thanked his lucky stars that he had good stamina and fitness or else who knows what time he would have arrived. He slipped into a seat next to Brian who looked genuinely surprised that the boy was sat next to him.

"Well, that was quick." He muttered, inhaling slightly. "Do I smell coffee?"

Joey's brain suddenly clicked on as he remembered his encounter with Lauren in the hallway, his fumbling brain cancelling out the conversation they had to focus on getting to class on time. He internally cringed at the thought of their conversation and how the interaction occurred, remembering her soft voice and caring eyes, and him placing a hand on her arm. He shook his head disapprovingly at his past action of placing his hand on Lauren. He thought about how weird it must have been for her for some almost stranger to knock over her drink and then touch her arm, but then looked down and pulled his shirt up slightly to see a red mark forming on the side of his body from where the coffee had spilt, luckily no proper burns.

"I accidentally ran into a girl while I was running to class and her coffee spilt on me."

"Oh jeez man, are you okay? Is she okay?"

"Yeah, I spoke to her briefly ushering apologies and told her I'd buy her a new one the next time we spoke and then rushed off."

Brian's head turned back to the lecture, making notes in his notepad.

"If it's a random girl, how do you know that you're gonna see her again to get her a coffee? Or were you just being nice?" Brian whispered quietly.

"Oh, it wasn't a random girl which is why the encounter is so much worse. You heard of Lauren Lopez?"

Brains head immediately snapped towards Joey and his eyes grew wide.

"Lauren Lopez?" He asked slightly too loud as other people in their lecture turned and stared at them before turning back to the lecturer. Joey shushed him quietly.

"Guessing you know her?" Joey asked, amused.

"Know her? She's apparently the hottest senior girl in Michigan! My buddy Jim showed me a picture of her and wow, she is something else. Beautiful. And YOU spilt her coffee?"

Lauren was known as the hottest senior in college? He knew that she was incredibly attractive, but he didn't think of the idea that other people would feel the same way that he did about her. His heart dropped slightly. He hadn't known Lauren for long at all, but he still thought about what if, on the off chance, she would like him. But when he was competing with Senior, Junior, and other Freshman boys who were taller, more attractive, smarter, funnier and nicer than him, and his mood saddened that she probably would never like him, not even as a friend.

"Yup. I don't even know if I'll see her again, whether she'll even want to see me again. But I know Darren's good friends with her. So if worse comes to worst, I pass on my apologies through him."

The rest of the lecture Joey spent in silence, writing notes and daydreaming about Lauren, hoping that her day was going well despite their recent interaction.

-

All-day, Lauren had not stopped thinking about Joey. She couldn't concentrate. Her 9:30-11 lecture was spent thinking about their interaction and all the different ways it could have happened and things that she could have said or done differently. She TA'd dance till 1 pm, wanting to focus on the students in the room dancing but only thinking about having Joey in the room with her to perform it to.

She met up with her friends from volleyball to eat lunch together in the cafeteria before heading to practice, but she was too focused on watching the doors to see if Joey would walk in or his friends would walk by and ask about her.

Practice was her main distraction from not thinking about Joey. It had never been a place for her outside interactions to interfere with her training and that session was no different, leading the group and focusing on ball-handling skills and proper technique for the newcomers and the veterans.

"Thanks for the practice, Lauren!" The last of the freshmen girls smiled as they left the hall, leaving her, Jamie and Meredith in the room.

"You guys all going to the party later?" Meredith asked as she pulled a jumper over her head.

"Definitely, are you, Lauren?" Jamie asked.

"Yeah but I still have no idea what to wear. And the party starts in like 2 hours!" She groaned as the three of them left the sports hall and walked down the corridor. As soon as she left the sports hall, her body was on Joey radar, knowing that this was a prime area to spot him. Jamie and Meredith carried on talking, whether the conversation was directed to her was a question she could not answer. She looked left towards the pool but her face fell when she saw the 8 lanes empty. She wondered where the boys were as they usually swam when she was training.

"Earth to Lopez?" Meredith laughed, clicking her fingers in Lauren's face. She snapped her head back to her friends who were looking back at her, puzzled. "You okay in there? You were just staring off into space."

Lauren's lips raised to a grin, turning her head away from the girls to look at the corridors ahead. "Yeah, sorry. I'm okay. I was just thinking about something that happened this morning, that's all."

"Ooo do tell." Jamie ushered eagerly.

"So I was walking to class this morning and this freshman was running late to class, so he was running down the corridors. He turned onto the corridor that I was on, obviously not realising that I was there until it was too late, but he dodged me but hit my coffee instead and it spilt all down him." Lauren grimaced thinking about the pain that he must have been in since she had already burned her tongue on the same cup just seconds earlier.

"Sounds like he deserved it." Meredith huffed.

"Well he was ushering me apologies and my coffee was super hot so it almost definitely burned him. But he said that he wanted to take me out for coffee to apologise, and he's a swimmer so he's usually around here. But today he's not."

"Oh my god, you're upset that a freshman guy who spiled your coffee isn't here to take you out? How do you even know him? Do you like him?" Jamie asked, shocked that Lauren would even think about a guy when the people on her team joked that she was married to the sport.

"I barely know him!" Lauren started, throwing her arms in the air. "Darren introduced us. He seemed really nice and genuinely apologetic when it all happened so I know he's not an ass. And he just seems... different... to the rest of the guys who I've met before." Lauren sighed, walking through the doors and outside into the warm evening sun. "It's not like I expected him to be here waiting for me so that he could take me out. You just asked what I was thinking."

"But you think he's cute?" Jamie smirked.

"Kinda, yeah. It's probably nothing. I might not even see him again. He might not even remember me."

"Oh come on Lauren, everybody knows you. He'll find you, I know it." Meredith giggled.

The girls lived in the same building, so they chatted aimlessly as they walked back to their dorms, waving each other off when they arrived as they went to their rooms to get ready. Lauren opened her dorm room door to hear faint music playing through a phone speaker, heading in further to see Julia sat on her bed, applying makeup to her face with a towel on her head and body.

"Oh hey girl, you gonna start getting ready for the party tonight?" Julia asked cheerily.

"Yeah, I'm so excited to properly see everyone again. I don't wanna push it and get overly drunk but I know that I have no self-control when I have alcohol in my system, so if I'm vomiting tomorrow morning before practice, just say I told you so." She chuckled, throwing her belongings onto her bed and heading into the bathroom to start getting ready for the party.