richpez for mae

9

Why had he not texted yet?

Lauren had finished volleyball practice and was heading back to her dorm, talking to Jamie and Meredith on her walk. By talking, she meant she was listening to Meredith talk about a guy called Brian who she met at the party that weekend, and how they had been talking non-stop. Lauren, on the other hand, hadn't heard a thing from Joey. I mean Joey didn't have her number or any social media of her to follow, but she still wished she could contact him.

Her ears suddenly perked up when she heard Meredith mention Joey. She snapped her head to the side and zoned in on their conversation.

"Brian said that he came with some guys called AJ and Joey, but he said he was much better friends with Joey than he was AJ."

"Wait, did he mean Joey Richter?" Lauren asked suddenly.

"Yeah! Why, do you know him?" Meredith asked.

"He's the coffee guy that I told you about!" Lauren beamed, the mention of his name exciting her. She couldn't figure out why he had this effect on her, but Meredith began to speak before she could think.

"No way! I take back anything bad that I said about him. We had such a good conversation before he left the party. Super nice guy!" Meredith smiled.

"Do you happen to have his number or anything?" Lauren blurted out, and Meredith and Jamie stopped walking to look at her.

"Oh my god, Lauren's shooting her shot with a boy. I can't believe this day is here!" Jamie exclaimed.

Lauren threw her hands in the air defensively.

"What? No, I'm not! He just seemed like a nice person and we'd be good friends." She stuttered.

"Uh-huh," Jamie laughed jokingly. "I mean Julia did say that you and Joey looked pretty comfortable in the corridor at the party. But if you only want to be friends, so be it."

"If you really want his number, I can message Brian and ask him." Meredith smiled at Lauren, Lauren grinning back sheepishly.

Meredith pulled out her phone and texted Brian, Brian replying shortly after with the number. She forwarded the number to Lauren's phone as they carried on walking to their dorm.

Waving to her friends, she headed up the stairs to her dorm room and shut the door, flopping onto her bed and pulling out her phone. She saved Joey's number in her phone and stared at the text screen, unsure of what to say.

She thought back to their interaction at the party. They were both pretty tipsy but she remembered their moment as clear as day. She didn't want him to be a stranger in her life, because, for the first time, she had actually started to like the boy. She didn't know if it was the alcohol telling her that she liked him at first, but the next morning when she woke up and her first thought was him, she knew.

Lauren could have sat there all day thinking of a good message to send him. Lauren had never sent the first message before. Ever. She didn't like messaging people at the best of times because she was never interested in the guys who messaged her, so actually feeling an emotion for Joey that wasn't distaste or misery made her feel bolder than she ever had been before. She typed out the message and pressed send, immediately staring at the screen to wait for his response. She had never acted like this and was surprised at her own impatience and nervousness for his reply.

After what felt like an eternity, his read receipt showed up on her screen and she almost squealed that he had seen the message. Now she just had to wait for a reply. That's if she even got one. She quickly locked her phone and threw it on her bed, not even wanting to see if he had responded to her or not. Already too embarrassed if he didn't remember or her message came on too strong.

Joey

I think you're mistaken. I'm not a barista.

She laughed at his witty reply and carried on messaging until he asked her to meet.

Joey

I'll pick you up from your lecture?

She thought forward to what she was doing at 1 pm and smacked her head when she realised what lecture she had at that time, her lecture actually finishing at 12:45. But that wasn't what was bothering her. It was who was in her lecture with her that caused her the problem. Darren Criss. She didn't know if Joey or Darren remembered the conversation in the kitchen, but she could remember it clear as day. And she felt so uncomfortable even thinking about it.

Her and Darren were best friends. They met during freshman year of college and instantly hit it off. They had the same lectures so used to hang out a lot in their friendship group, their group being mostly a bunch of theatre majors who used to hang out in basement arts. Obviously, Darren had swimming too so would drift in and out as often as he could. But Darren was like his older brother, and he knew that if Lauren told him about seeing a guy and he didn't think Joey was up to standard, he would find a way to break it up, one way or another. And Lauren knew he was just being protective, but for once, she actually really liked Joey and didn't want Darren to sabotage it. Darren and Joey were friends so she had a good feeling that he would approve of him, but that was a risk that she wasn't willing to take just yet.

She presumed that Joey had either forgotten about the kitchen conversation because he was too drunk, or Darren hadn't said anything too bad to him for Joey to be scared away. But she was glad either way and replied back to him to hopefully change their meeting point.

Lauren

How about I meet you?

Joey

Ashamed to be seen with my Lopez?

She laughed.

Lauren

No, just easier if we meet in the middle, see you at the sports centre?

Joey

Cool! See you there

Lauren locked her phone and rolled into her back, looking up at the ceiling above her just as Julia walked into the room.

She threw her bag on the floor and sat on her bed, panini in one hand and phone in the other. Julia looked over at Lauren and frowned.

"What's with the face? Is this a good or bad reaction to something?" Julia asked cautiously.

"All good. Joey's taking me for coffee tomorrow." She grinned.

"No way!" Julia exclaimed. "That's going to be so much fun! What time?"

"I'm meeting him at the sports centre at 1. Just have to avoid Darren at the end of my lecture so that he doesn't scare Joey away." She laughed, sadly.

Her face fell slightly as she thought about the prospect of Joey telling Darren or his friends about their coffee date.

"What's on your mind? You face just fell." Julia asked as she stood up and headed over to Lauren's bed, sitting crossed legged next to her.

"I'm gonna have to tell Joey to not tell his friends about us having coffee so that nothing gets loose to Darren. I don't want him being harassed by Darren, because I know how horrible it is." She sighed.

"I don't know, Darren and Joey seem to be really good friends, so he might not act up about this. I know he doesn't have the best track record for not scaring guys away, but he just does it because he cares." Julia exhaled.

"I know that. But liking Joey feels, different. I've never felt like this about anyone before." She sighed. "And you know how Darren is. Who knows how he'll react."

"Well, you've not even gone on the date with him yet. We can talk about all the possibilities afterwards."

"I don't even know if its a date yet!" She huffed.

"Oh, it's a date." Julia grinned. "Now, let's stop thinking about stupid boys and watch a movie. You pick."

Lauren's smile grew wider as she sat up and let Julia shuffle closer to her, pulling open her laptop and opening Netflix to distract herself.