Monsters and Men ~ Rosenwalker & Richpez

Chapter 10

Joe shook his head. "Zoey's my one and only. That's how I do relationships, and it's how she does them. I only have eyes for her, she only has eyes for me."

Lauren bit her lip. While she was confident that Zoey had said that to Joe, she seriously doubted that she actually practiced it. "So she told you that you're not allowed to look at other girls? Sounds kind of controlling."

"She didn't tell me that I'm not allowed to look at oth-"

"Yeah I'm sure those exact words never came out of her mouth. She just suggested it, right Joe?"

"I don't know what you're trying to—"

"—She said it would make her feel safer in the relationship if you didn't?"

"I—" Joe paused, running a hand through his hair. She really was getting inside of his head. "I don't have to defend my relationship to you." He started to stand up to leave, but Lauren grabbed his arm and pulled him back down.

"Okay, hey," Lauren said softly, regretting pushing Joe on the subject. "I'm sorry. You're right, it wasn't my place to say any of that."

"You're damn right it wasn't." Joe responded, still feeling angry. He took a deep breath. "Thank you for apologizing."

A moment of silence passed between them. They both observed Brian and Joey, laughing together as they painted the props. Lauren turned to face him, smiling. "So are you saying that you don't think Brian's cute?" She whispered.

Joe blushed, letting out a laugh. He turned to face her back, smirking. "I never said that Lopez."

xXx

Lauren sought out Joey as soon as rehearsal ended. She found him with Brian, the two having what sounded like a very heated debate over a video game.

"Listen man, all I'm saying is..." Joey fell silent as he spotted Lauren walking over. He raised his eyebrows at her, to which she gave him a thumbs up. Joey cracked a huge smile.

"What up Lauren?" Brian asked as the small girl approached them.

Lauren shrugged. "Nothing much. Are you guys doing anything right now?"

Brian and Joey exchanged looks, before looking back at Lauren. "Can't say that we are." Joey responded.

"Great; come with all of us to Taco Bell."

Brian laughed. "Who's 'all of us' referring to?"

"Me, Darren and Julia, Brian and Meredith, possibly Joe and you know who."

"Okay first of all, Joe is You-Know-Who." Brian joked, hoping he didn't look completely miserable at the mentioning of Zoey. "Second, that's like half the seniors? I don't know about that," Brian said nervously. He had a little social anxiety over the idea of hanging out with some of the theatre seniors since he didn't know most of them that well. However, he mainly wasn't keen of the idea of being around Joe when he was with his girlfriend.

"Oh hush, you know no one in drama cares what grade you're in," Lauren teased, rolling her eyes. "This could be a chance for you to get to know everyone better," she suggested.

Joey and Brian glanced each other. As social as Joey was, even he had to admit that the idea of going to dinner with seniors made him nervous. Especially when one of those seniors was his crush. "I don't know Lo."

"Oh come on, come with us so I don't have to fifth—possibly seventh wheel. I need more single peeps to hang with us."

"So invite Jaime?"