The Web I Spin for You ~ Richpez & Rosenwalker

Chapter 2

"Lo, hey, Lauren!"

Lauren Lopez spun around, having been on her way to the choir room. She turned to see Joey Richter running towards her at full speed. She bit back a smile; the younger boy was jogging in a very dorky manner, but somehow he still managed to look cute. "What's up?" She asked him once he'd finally caught up to her.

Joey smiled faintly as he approached her, before realizing that all of the courage he'd spent the day summoning had faltered. "H-hey. Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt you, are you busy?"

Lauren brushed a sweaty lock of hair out of her face, for some reason feeling very heated. "Nah, I was actually about to head home. I've had enough for today."

"Oh, um... should I let you go?" Joey had already started backing away, but Lauren reached out and grabbed his arm.

"No dorkus, now tell me what's up?"

Joey looked down at her hand holding his arm, before willing himself to just do the deed. "Here!" He yelled, aggressively shoving the iced coffee he'd bought for Brian that morning at her. "I um, I got this for you. Well, that's a lie—I got it for Brian, but Walker decided to beat me to the punch and take him on a coffee date at six thirty in the goddamn morning like a fucking sociopath—but anyway I figured as a fellow caffeine addict that maybe, maybe you would want it, and I, I should've stopped talking a minute ago." Joey stared down at the floor miserably. Fuck Brian, how had he managed to talk him into doing this?

Lauren looked back and forth between the coffee and Joey several times, before graciously accepting it. "I guess that would explain why it's warm." She commented, amused and flattered by the overall gesture.

"I uh, I was going to give it to you in Glee, but I um, I figured that it was too cold this morning, so I decided to let it melt, well not melt but get warm." Joey stated nervously. In truth, he'd just been too nervous to give it to her during Glee. "I guess you can sip it on the way home? Unless the reason you were leaving early was to go take a nap?"

Lauren gave him a soft smile, before taking a sip of the coffee. "No, I just need to get away from it all." She looked around anxiously. "You wanna come sit in the choir room with me for a bit? I had to swing by there to pick up a few things."

"Sure!" Joey said happily, unable to believe that his insane romantic gesture had secured him more time with Lauren. "So, what are you running away from?"

Lauren scoffed as they entered the building. "What am I not running away from? Schoolwork, college applications, Glee, fucking Joe acting like he's totally fine when I know for a fact that he's not, dance, my feelings for you—" she froze, but she'd already said it. It was as if her mind had switched into autopilot, and she was venting unfiltered to one of her friends. "Being the drama president is also a massive pain in my ass." She added desperately.

Joey tried to focus on everything else she had said, even though her blurting out "my feelings for you," was replaying over and over again in his head. "That er, that definitely sounds like a lot for one person to deal with." He said, weighing over his words. "I would probably explode if I was drama president. What um, what do you do for stress relief?"

Lauren sipped her coffee, taken aback by Joey's question. "Relief from stress? No such thing." She joked, still flustered from mentioning her feelings for him.

"You gotta have something," Joey told her sympathetically.

"I mean, I guess exercise. Dancing actually for fun when I can find the time outside of all of my lessons."

"Nah, that's too close to being productive. When's the last time you did something relaxing just for the hell of it?" He asked as they entered the choir room.

She bit her lip as she set her bag down on the floor. "I... I guess I honestly can't remember. I'd say the cast parties for Potter musical, but god knows with everything involving Joe that those were anything but relaxing." She walked over to her cubby, grabbing some of her sheet music out. "What do you do?"

"Easy. Puzzles." Joey said simply.

Lauren cocked an eyebrow as she opened her backpack. "Really? I did not have you pegged for a puzzles guy."

"Have you ever done one?" Joey asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious that that was a stupid thing to tell her.

Lauren shrugged. "When I was a kid... I never thought about doing one now. They make those for adults?"

Joey nodded, knowing that this was his chance. "I'm currently working on this stupidly hard Charles Wysocki Christmas one."

"Christmas? Already? Is it that hard?" Lauren asked, intrigued.

"Oh yeah. It's like a thousand pieces. I doubt I'll even have it done in time." Joey ran a hand through his hair nervously, debating if he should take this chance, or if he was signing his own death warrant. "Do you want to see it? I was planning on having a good puzzle session today after school if you want to."

Lauren shook her head, having been distracted by watching Joey run his hand through his hair. Apparently, she really liked his longer hair. "You know what? I would love to." She answered honestly, a smile shyly spreading across her face. "I'm gonna head home, but you want me to come back and pick you up after your sixth period?"

"Fuck, really?" Joey asked, resisting the urge to jump up and down. "You do?"

"If that's alright with you?" She asked, worried by how stiff Joey was acting.

"Of course it is! Uh sixth period works great!" He said enthusiastically, unable to hold back the contagious grin and blush as it flooded his face. "We can puzzle and vent! Or vent and puzzle. Whatever works."

Lauren giggled, looking down at the floor shyly. "Venting and puzzling sounds great. Hope you're ready to hear me rant."

xXx

"Okay, this puzzle is a BITCH!" Lauren said with humored frustration.

"Told you," Joey mused, a small smile creeping across his face. "It's fun right?"

"So much fun. And so agitating." Lauren whined as she tried to find which of the many turquoise sky pieces would fit together.

"I think it's safe to say I've got you hooked." Joey said happily. "Just let all of your frustration out on the puzzle."

"Dear god, where was this puzzle when the Zoey and Joe drama was at its peak?" Lauren asked, smiling in satisfaction as she got three pieces in a row to attach. "Or at least what we hope was the peak." She mumbled to herself.

Joey froze from his puzzle work, looking over at Lauren anxiously. "Do you not think that it's over? Well not over, but I mean... they're broken up, so, is she still an issue for us?" He ran a hand through his hair anxiously, trying to find his words. "I, I thought the issue at hand was just allowing Joe to get over everything that Zoey put him through."

"It should be," Lauren answered, focusing on her current puzzle piece at hand with razor sharp intensity. "I'd like to think that it is, but knowing Zoey? There's no way in hell she's been leaving Joe alone."

"Really?" Joey asked in disbelief. "I... I figured that they hadn't talked at all. With the way she ran off at the party, she made it seem like she was done with him."

"We would love to see it," Lauren mumbled, trying out two pieces to see if they fit. "I know her. That's just her act. It's the façade she puts on for the rest of the world. She's mortified that Joe left her—not because she loves him, but because it means that she lost her control over him." She was now trying to force the two pieces together even though they clearly were not going to fit. "He was her possession; she was supposed to decide when she was done with him. Instead, he humiliated her and walked out on her in front of half the school." Lauren finally gave up on forcing the pieces together, looking across the table at Joey wearily. "I would be very surprised if we were done with Zoey. There's no way in hell she's going to take what Joe did to her sitting down."

Yay Richpez chapter! Now can anyone tell me what foreshadowing is?👀