richpez for mae

12

Lauren sat on the edge of her bed with her headphones in, chatting away to Darren on Skype. They had both finished training and Darren had called her as soon as she had gotten home, rambling on about his week and what he'd gotten up to recently. Lauren and Darren usually called on a weekly basis, sometimes not being able to talk to each other much through the week because of college work and training, and they liked being kept up to date with each others' lives.

She wasn't angry at him anymore for the occurrence earlier in the day. She realised that it wasn't his fault and the moment had passed so there was nothing that she could do about it. Darren didn't mean to break up their moment and he just wanted to look out for her, even if that now meant that Lauren was keeping Joey a secret. But messaging Joey after the event made her feel so much better about the situation, even if she was trying to ignore the elephant in the room and not bring it up. Joey seemed happy enough with the minimal information so she was happy to ignore it. That was until Darren brought it up.

"So, I see you've been hanging around with Joey?" Darren started with raised eyebrows, and it caught Lauren off guard. She almost choked on her own spit as she looked through the screen at him with wide eyes.

"What do you mean? I saw him at the party and I saw him outside my dorm!" She replied defensively, not mentioning the coffee date that they went on earlier in the day.

"And he apparently spilt coffee on you I've been told?"

"No, I spilt coffee on him." She said quietly, realising that that wasn't going to make the situation any better.

He raised his eyebrows again.

"I'm not even going to ask. I'm just looking out for you Lauren." He stated.

"I know you are." She signed. She knew that but she wasn't in the mood to hear it from him, especially when the subject of conversation was boys.

"I just want what's best for you, and I don't know if that's him, that's all." He said bluntly.

"The only person here insinuating anything about this is you." She replied just as bluntly and rolled her eyes.

"Okay, I'll drop it. I don't want to make you more upset."

"Who said I was upset?" She shouted, immediately regretting the tone, and Darren laughed at her. "I'm not upset, just uncomfortable. I don't like talking about relationships, you know that. Especially with you."

"Because I scare them away?" He chuckled. "You know those guys were jerks and weren't in your best interest."

"Darren let's not right now." She pleaded.

He stopped for a few moments and smiled softly at her through the screen.

"I'm sorry Lauren. Let's talk about something else."

Lauren relaxed slightly and carried on the call, but Joey remained at the forefront of her mind for the rest of the evening. She wondered who told Darren about the coffee incident. Was it Joey? Did one of his friends see? She wasn't really phased by it, and once the call ended, she turned off her light and climbed into bed, hoping that next week would come quickly so that she could see Joey again. Alone this time.

-

A few days had passed since their date, and they hadn't seen or heard from each other since their conversation over text. Joey wanted to message her but could never find the right thing to say to her to start a conversation. But it was okay because they were going to see each other soon in a few days, and he knew that he could wait that long.