richpez for mae

19

It had been a month since the Halloween party, thanksgiving break having come and gone, and winter was fast approaching. Students were preparing for finals that came in the coming weeks, Christmas and Hannukah being right around the corner but celebrations of festiveness were blocked by revision and exam prep.

After their weekend together stowed away under blankets in Joey's dorm after the Halloween party, neither Lauren nor Joey had properly spoken about their actions from those few days. They had watched movies, talked a lot, kissed a lot, but they both had managed to avoid the 'what's happening between us' talk.

They weren't purposefully ignoring it. Sure it would have given them clarity to define what they were, but they were both under the pretence that the other was happy leaving their relationship status undefined. And they were both quite happy to continue that way it if it meant Lauren could hold Joey's hand on their way into Ann Arbour, or Joey could sneak a quick kiss to Lauren's forehead before leaving for class or practice. And Lauren had started to subconsciously go to Joey's dorm after her lectures or after practice, ending their day tangled under his duvet, mumbled sweet nothings exchanged into each other's skin, and knowing they'd wake up next to each other in the morning to head to class was a feeling they didn't want to end.

Regarding their relationship status, Lauren was happy if Joey was happy, and vice versa. But deep down, they both really wanted to have a solid conversation. Looking at the talk they needed to have, it wasn't going to be hard. But the fear that one may not want it as much as the other was the thought that hindered them both speaking up. And as well as that, Lauren was a senior. Even though the end of the college year was far away, they knew it would come so fast and Lauren would eventually be moving away. For the months they had been friends, and now they were, more, they didn't want it to just be a college fling. And they hoped the other felt the same way.

The new subtle routine that was forming between them did mean Julia made Lauren fess up about what was going on between the two of them. Lauren only went back to her dorm for new clothes, to grab books and to bring back laundry that would end up being left at Joey's and would be muddled up in his wash load anyway. Lauren had told Julia, Jamie and Meredith about her Joey situation, and Joey had told AJ, Brian Holden and Brian Rosenthal who he had recently become really good friends with through his new theatre class.

Over thanksgiving they spoke every day, texting and calling to fill each other in on the parts of the day that they hadn't spoken about yet. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder and in their case, it really did. They both missed each other dearly, and they both made that very clear, telling each other that they missed each other every 5 minutes on call and texting it to each other frequently.

-

Joey had just finished training and had gotten changed from his swimming shorts into regular clothes, leaving the stalls and heading over to talk to his friends in the changing room. Finals week was fast approaching Joey was hyperaware of it, every conversation revolving around studying and how stressed everybody was. But everybody was also aware that Christmas was right around the corner, so the tones of peoples chats were of stress but excitement.

"When do you fly back after Christmas?" Darren asked Joey as he ate a protein bar, perching himself on the bench next to where Joey was stood.

"December 28th. Get to Michigan late afternoon ish. What about you?"

"Same, and I'm flying from LAX too!" Darren grinned, and Joey returned the smile.

"No way! We could be on the same flight."

"That would make life so much easier, we could meet at the airport and then we can get an uber from the airport back to college when we land."

"Yeah I'd love that. And even if we're not on the same flight we can just wait for each other because the wait won't be long if were both meant to arrive in Michigan in the afternoon."