Lauren wraps her coat around herself as the frosty wind sweeps through her body. It's an early morning in Michigan and she's making her way over to the Drama building to rehearse again for Space Tour.
Lauren frowns to herself as she walks; she loves her friends and she loves being in Starkid but she hates rehearsing. Lauren is very much a person who just wants to get started, and rehearsing is usually pretty frustrating, especially when there's paperwork and admin stuff to get through. She does understand that all that stuff is necessary though, it's just not something she looks forward to.
As she's getting closer to the building she spots Joey walking over from the opposite direction. She grins and smooths down her hair before calling his name. "Joey!" She shouts and he turns around, looking for the voice, until his eyes land on Lauren and he smiles back.
He makes his way over to her cheerily. "Morning," He's got his hands in his pockets and his shoulders are hunched up, probably as a way to try and keep the cold away.
Lauren continues walking and he walks next to her. "You alright?" She asks and sees him nod out of the corner of her eye.
"Yeah I'm good thanks, you?" Lauren turns to him, still smiling, and nods as well.
"Yeah I'm okay."
Joey walks a few steps ahead of Lauren and opens the door for her. She shakes her head at him with a smirk and then goes to walk past him into the building but the gap between him and the doorway is small enough that she has to resort to squeezing past. She curses silently to herself and takes a deep breath in before attempting it.
Lauren avoids his eye line completely as she shuffles awkwardly into the building. She feels Joey's breath on her forehead as she presses up against the front of his body, her heart pounding in her chest. She looks up at him for a split second as her tiny frame is so close to his there isn't a gap between them. Joey's looking back at her, his face is sincere but he's trying not to smile. She can feel his heart in his chest due to how close they are.
After what seems like minutes Lauren finally gets into the building and composes herself before turning around and giving Joey a smile. Neither of them say another word as they walk into the rehearsal room.
***
Lauren sits on the floor with a tired sigh; they have been rehearsing all morning and it's finally lunch. She grabs a salad out of her bag and a fork and as she's about to start eating Joey sits down next to her.
"Course you've got a salad," He laughs and she frowns at him, trying not to smile.
"Excuse you!" She says back and he laughs harder. Joey gets a sandwich out of his bag and leans against the wall behind him before taking a bite.
Lauren starts to eat her lunch while looking over her script; she was practicing her solo next and hasn't had a lot of time to go over it. She's been written in to do Get Back Up from Starship so she knows the song but she hasn't done it for six months so she just needs to remind herself of it.
"I'm so happy you're doing that song,"
Joey remarks as he sees her looking at the words.
Lauren smirks at him. "And why's that?" She asks, her eyes narrowed.
Joey raises an eyebrow at her. "Are you kidding? It's like the hottest thing I've ever seen." He says and Lauren's expression changes; she wasn't expecting him to say that.
"Really?" She asks, clearly shocked. Joey looks at her for a moment and sees how surprised she is at his comment.
He leans closer to her, smiling a little. "Yes Lauren."
