The Two of Us: A Richpez fanfic

Chapter 8

Joey's PoV

It wasn't long before I found myself on Brian's doorstep waiting for him to answer the door. He didn't know I was coming so hopefully I wasn't interrupting anything. To my relief, when he finally answered the door, Meredith was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey Jo, what's up?" he asked, looking a tad confuse to see me.

"I don't know man, I've got so much going on in my mind right now"

He gestured to the couch so I went over and plopped down he sat beside me. I began to explain about the fight with Mariah and everything that went down with that. Then I talked about my conversation with Lo. I told him, "She said she thought I deserved better. And I just didn't know what to think of that. I know she could've just been looking out for me and stuff, but I don't know man, I just felt like maybe there was something there."

He thought a moment then said, "Look I'm not saying you're wrong about there being something there because I've thought for a while that Lo likes you. You can sort of tell by the way she's always looking at you. But do you think maybe you thought she was feeling something because you wanted her to be? You know, because you like her?" Hearing someone else confirm what I had already been thinking made it all seem more real. And for the first time, I said it out loud.

"Yeah Bri, I think I do like her. I mean there've been signs pointing to it forever, but I think I was just trying to block them out because I didn't want to hurt Mariah. And really I still don't. I do have feelings for Mariah still, I just also have them for Lo."

"Listen, back in college I knew how much I like Mere. Even when I was still dating Jaime. I knew that if my feelings for Jaime had been strong enough for a lasting relationship, I wouldn't have been thinking about Meredith like that. That's why ended up breaking up with Jaime. I was nervous about it because I didn't want to hurt her, but do you remember what happened after we broke up?" he asked.

"Yeah.. you started dating Meredith and Jaime started dating Dylan almost immediately."

"Exactly, so it ended up being better for both of us. I got what I really wanted, Meredith, and Jaime got Dylan, who she had been crushing on since before we started dating. It all worked out in the end. I think if you're having any feelings for Lo, it's because you know you're going nowhere with Mariah. So it would be best for you to just end that now so you can move on and go after what you really want."

Brian was so right. I nodded my head and told him I was going to go wait for Mariah to come back and then end things with her. It was true that it wouldn't be fair to Mariah to keep things going when I was having these feelings for Lauren. I headed back to my own apartment to do what had to be done, no matter how uncomfortable I thought it might be.

I walked into my apartment and heard some noises from the bedroom. Mariah must be back. Here we go, you can do this Jo. I opened the bedroom door and was a little surprised at what I saw.

"Oh, okay" I said, causing Mariah to stop what she was doing and turn to face me. She was in the middle of packing up all of her stuff. From the looks of it, she was planning on breaking up with me as well.

"Joey. I, I didn't think you would be here before I finished, I was going to call.." she stammered.

"You know what don't worry about it. Since you're here though and considering what you're doing, I think we need to talk." At this she sat down on the bed.

We both got in our words about how we didn't think we should continue our relationship. I talked about how I still had feelings for her, but also for Lo. And she talked about how she still had feelings for me as well, but couldn't be in a relationship when she knew my heart wasn't all there.

"I hope we can still be friends" I said.

"Me too" she replied. She quickly finished packing up her things and left.

I was alone now. Single and alone, free to let my mind think about Lo in any way I wished without feeling any guilt. I pondered what I would do about my feelings for Lauren. If I would tell her and if so, how.