Right Place, Wrong Time

27. Soft Place to Land

Hair bedraggled from the cold shower he'd taken to wake himself up after the interrupted sleep of the night before, Joey stumbled downstairs. There, his roommate Pomme was getting ready to leave too.

"You look as tired as I feel," Pomme said. He held out the plate of toast he was eating standing up. "Want some?"

"Thanks," Joey said, grabbing a slice and tearing a bite out of it.

"Did you get in late last night?" Pomme asked.

"Uh, yeah," he admitted. "Sorry if I woke you."

"I thought I heard the door." He raised his eyebrows. "Anywhere fun?"

"Not really," Joey shrugged. Pomme was pretty clued in on his situation with Lauren — it seemed there were few people who weren't, at this point — but he wasn't going to tell him about what happened last night. That was her business.

As expected, though, this only made Pomme more interested. "Who were you with?"

"No one. I went for a walk by myself."

Pomme leaned back against the counter, crossing one foot over the other. "Really? At 3am?"

Joey shrugged. "Prove I didn't," he said, his avoidance of Pomme's gaze basically an admission of guilt.

"I'll ask around then."

At this, Joey smiled to himself. The likelihood to Pomme that Joey had spent most of the night alone with Lauren was so impossible that he'd probably never even ask her, and she was the only witness. Even if he did, then it was up to her what she told him.

"You do that," he said, brushing his hands off and going to the front door. "Now are we going or not?"

Brian had left earlier that morning, but when Joey walked into the class they shared together, he could tell Pomme's asking around had already begun, because the interrogation continued, notes passed between them on the desk.

'Where were you last night?'

'I went for a walk'. Joey doubted either of them were ever going to believe him, but consistency was key here.

'A likely story'

Joey didn't respond.

'Was it a party none of the rest of us got invited to?'

Joey shook his head.

'Were you meeting someone?'

'I said I was by myself' he wrote.

The next note was one word. 'Lauren?'

When Joey glanced at Brian he was grinning, clearly taunting him. 'I wish' he wrote.

Brian gave him a look.

'You're spending a lot of time with her now'

'I love hanging out with her'

Joey heard scratching on the paper and looked down to see that Brian had scribbled out half of Joey's sentence, leaving 'I love her'. He snorted. Brian already knew the answer to that non-question, though there were developments he didn't yet know, but maybe the small truth would get him off his back. 'She doesn't want anything to happen. And that's fine'

Brian finally gave it a rest with the notes and Joey tried to pay attention to the rest of class. Really, he was looking forward to the next one; his favourite class of the week, the one he shared with Lauren. Seeing her first thing in the morning rejuvenated him for the whole day.

As the lecture hall filled with people and the seconds ticked closer to the beginning of class, Joey was convinced that this morning Lauren was going to be a no show. He'd struggled enough himself even with the potentially dangerous amount of coffee he'd consumed to try to keep himself alert, and she'd had a worse night than him. At the last minute, though, she dashed into the seat he'd saved beside him.

"You made it," he smiled.

She grunted in response, evidently still feeling the effects of the late night. Once their professor began talking, she lay her head down on his shoulder.

"I'm so tired," she murmured.

"I bet. Did you sleep okay after I left last night?"

She turned her head up to face him. "I did. Thank you."

"Of course."

"Did you clean up before you went?"

"Yeah," he said. When he'd gone back downstairs he'd passed all the baking stuff in the kitchen and couldn't bear to leave it to her, so he'd stayed and washed everything up and cleared it away even as his eyelids drooped and his head pounded with lack of sleep. It was the least he could do to help her out.

But her face softened even more. "I was going to do it in the morning."

He gave her a gentle nudge. "Then you definitely wouldn't have made it in. And I wanted to do it for you." He wished she'd let him do more.

She nuzzled further into his shoulder, filling his heart with warmth. "Thank you for taking care of me."

"What are friends for?"

"I'm a bit of a mess."

"You're not a mess," he said, reprimanding her in the softest voice he could. "Or at least no more than everyone else."

She sighed.

"How are you really feeling?" he asked, lowering his voice further.

"Not good," she said honestly. "But better than yesterday. Thanks to you."

He wrapped an arm around her waist to squeeze her in a half hug. "I meant every word last night. I'm always here."

"I know how I can repay you."

"Lo, no, you don't have to-" he started. But then she pulled a tupperware container out of her backpack, filled with the rest of the cookies from the night before. "Yeah, okay, that works," he grinned, and for the rest of the class they split the cookies under the table. Joey could list a million reasons he was grateful to be Lauren's friend, but he had to admit this one was high up on the list.

At the end of class, he was in a hurry to pack his stuff away, knowing he had to move quickly if he wanted to walk Lauren to her next class and get to his own on time. He did it every week, and she hadn't yet discovered that his class wasn't down the corridor, like he claimed the first time, but in another block entirely. Those few extra minutes of conversation were worth it.

But naturally, in his rush today combined with the sleepless night, pages of loose paper spilled onto the floor when he picked up his binder, some drifting away down the stairs, getting swept further in the tide of feet leaving the room. He groaned in frustration.

"You can go without me," he said immediately to Lauren.

"Not a chance," she said, diving down to help him scoop them up. While she finished collecting the ones at their feet into a neat pile, he dashed to retrieve the others, hastily smoothing them out.

"I think that's all of them," she said when he returned to their place, piling them into his arms.

"Thanks," he panted. He tucked them back inside the binder and placed it more carefully this time in his bag. The room now completely empty save for them, he grabbed her hand and pulled her along to her class.

"See, I'm a mess too," he said as they walked.

She giggled. "Should I pretend you did it on purpose to make me feel better?"

He grinned at her. "That would make me feel better."

Their fast pace to make up the time made the conversation feel even shorter than usual, and he was sad to have to let go of her hand when they reached her room.

"Have a good rest of your day," he said.

"You too. Try not to drop anything else."

"I'll try," he said. He walked down the corridor, checking back over his shoulder to make sure she'd gone inside. Then he set off in a sprint towards his own class.