The Web I Spin for You ~ Richpez & Rosenwalker

Chapter 11

Lots of NMT2 references I apologize if you haven't seen it lol

Joey speedwalked down the hallway, running his hand through his hair nervously. This was his shot; he couldn't fuck it up. Who knew if he'd get another one? His heart was pounding inside of his chest at the possibilities of where the conversation might go.

As he turned down the hallway, he spotted Lauren in front of her locker, grabbing a textbook. A wave of relief passing over him, he hurried up his run, determined that he had to catch her now. "Lauren? Hey, Lauren!"

The tired girl looked up from her backpack, a slight blush spreading across her face as she made eye contact with Joey. "Fuck." She whispered to herself, anxiety beginning to settle over her. "H-hey," she said tensely as Joey approached her.

"Hey yourself." Joey responded, his arms already beginning to tremble.

"What's up?" Lauren asked, despite the fact that she was desperate to get away.

"I um, well..." Joey froze, realizing that he wasn't prepared for that question. "I, err, I brought you this." He informed, handing her a Frappuccino that he'd gone out of his way to get that morning. "I know how much you secretly love them."

Lauren glanced at the Frappuccino nervously, before reaching out and reluctantly accepting it. "Thank you." The fact that he'd gotten her a gift could not be a good sign. "You're... so sweet."

Joey smiled briefly, before his face went back to being contorted from his nerves. "So I um, I know we didn't really get a chance to talk about it Saturday; your parents got home and obviously we couldn't discuss this in front of them, and then your mom offered to drive me home so we didn't have the car ride. I was uh, I was gonna text you yesterday, but I-I figured that we should talk about this in person."

Lauren nodded, her eyes going wide, trying to come up with something else that "it" could possibly be. "Y-yeah. Sure."

Joey was sinking; he could already tell based off Lauren's expressions that this conversation wasn't going to go down the way he had hoped. "So uh, what was that Saturday night? With you kissing me? Like... it meant something, right?"

Lauren broke their eye contact, staring off at the floor guiltily. "I, I don't know." She answered honestly. "I really don't know what came over me; we were talking, we were being honest, and I guess I sorta just got caught up in the moment." Her eyes darted around desperately, wanting to look anywhere but at him. "It didn't... it didn't not mean anything." She lamely reassured. "But, I mean, we like each other. We've acknowledged that... so I think it's safe to say that what happened isn't insane or anything." She knew what Joey was asking, and she did not have it in her to give him a straight answer. "I don't, I still don't think anything should change between us, Joey. It doesn't change the fact that I'm leaving." She finally brought herself to look up at him sadly. "But I hope you know how much I like you." She couldn't help but think back to the last time she'd had this conversation with Joey, and how heartbroken he'd clearly been.

"Oh, okay. No problem." He said with a reassuring smile, playfully shoving her shoulder. "That's for being honest. I'll uh, I'll see you in Glee."

Lauren sighed sadly. "You have a right to be mad at me."

"I'm not."

"Yes, you are. Joey for fucks sake, yell at me! I'm an asshole."

"You're not, I promise." Joey reassured, continuing to smile at her. "It's fine, it's cool. Nothings changed, we're all good." The bell rang, signaling for students to head to their first period. "I, err, I gotta go to my locker. I'll see you in Glee?"