As soon as Lauren entered the first rehearsal, she made a beeline for Elise. The tall blonde was once again completely absorbed in talk with Megan, but Lauren would take any awkwardness of her entering that conversation over having to talk to Joey. She didn't even know if he was here yet, not wanting to look around the room and risk meeting his eye. The truth was, she was over her annoyance at Joey by now, but she wasn't quite ready to let go of her grudge.
"Hi," she said with a hesitant smile as she approached the two girls. "I'm Lauren," she introduced herself to Megan.
"Megan," the other girl beamed, instantly making Lauren feel welcome. "Are you looking forward to doing the show?"
"Yeah!" Lauren said brightly. "Well, mostly."
"Is this about Joey?" Elise asked, surprising Lauren with the brusqueness.
"How did you know?" she laughed.
The other girl shrugged. "Something seemed off between you last time. It didn't seem like you liked him much."
Lauren rolled her eyes. "I was pissed because he took my parking space."
"You're still mad at me about that?" Joey said exasperatedly, entering the room at precisely the wrong moment.
Lauren turned to him, stifling a growl of annoyance. She'd rather Joey hadn't heard that, seeing as she had been hoping to make amends with him soon in spite of their differences, but she couldn't back down now.
"Yeah, I am," she said, her cheeks flushing. Megan and Elise's conversation trailed off, but all Lauren was aware of was her inexplicable anger towards Joey.
"It's not like it had your name on it," he said.
"That's not the point! It was so obviously where I was going."
"I told you, I wasn't having a good morning. I know I should have paid more attention, but it wasn't intentional!"
"That's not an excuse! Wait... are you crouching?" she exclaimed, suddenly realising she and Joey were face to face despite their foot height difference.
Joey looked down, noticing for the first time his bent knees, and went to laugh, but stopped abruptly at Lauren's glare.
"Look, I just came to try and apologise again, but you obviously don't want to hear it," he said tiredly as he stood up straight. "Maybe you can at least try to be civil." He took a seat at the edge of the room beside Isaac. Lauren felt her face burn with shame. She was acting childishly, and she knew it. She couldn't apologise to Joey, though, because David called them all in for a warmup.
"We're going to do a line through and maybe try to get some blocking today," he said.
This was one of the most dull parts of being an actor for Lauren. The rehearsal was slow, and there was a lot of sitting around as other people stumbled through their lines. She had to admit, though, that the monologue Joey delivered was good, and she tried not to watch with too much interest.
David seemed to agree, because he clapped Joey on the back when he was done. "Great job."
Joey smiled proudly. "Thanks Dave."
Lauren had been standing close enough to overhear the exchange. "Dave?" she said quietly as Joey passed her, one eyebrow raised.
Joey turned to her, seeming surprised that she was talking to him. "We know each other, he taught one of my acting classes last year."
"Huh."
He sighed. "What?"
"You got the job because you're friendly with the director, right?" she said. She wondered why she hadn't seen him at her first audition.
It was genuinely intended as a joke, the type she would have made with anyone, but perhaps it wasn't the best comment to make considering her history with Joey. His face fell and she knew she'd gone a step too far, but before she could apologise he'd turned away from her, busying himself reading his script, and she decided it was better to just give him space.
Lauren stayed caught up in her head for the rest of the day, wishing she didn't have to clash with Joey so much. She really wanted to get to know him properly, but so far all their interactions had ended in argument.
"Lauren, right?" Lauren looked up to see Isaac standing in front of her.
"Yeah." She gave him a weak smile, and he sat in the chair beside her.
"I'm Isaac. I've heard a lot about you," he said.
From Joey, clearly. "I bet," she mumbled.
"He's not a bad guy."
Lauren looked up, surprised. "Why are you defending him?"
"He talked to me about what happened with you two. And he's genuinely sorry."
"I know," she sighed. "I'm the one who keeps fucking things up."
"So you will give him a chance?" Isaac pressed.
"If he'll even talk to me again." The guilt she'd been staving off suddenly hit her. Joey didn't deserve the way she'd been acting towards him, and she wouldn't be surprised if he refused to speak to her.
"I have a feeling he will."
Lauren turned her head to look at him, picking up on something in his tone. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, for someone so pissed off at him, he talks very highly of you."
"He doesn't even know me," she frowned.
"For now," he reminded her.
She sat and thought for a moment. "I'm gonna go and talk to him."
Isaac smiled, standing up. "Good. Well, I'll see you next rehearsal."
She said goodbye, and then went over to where Joey was putting on his jacket.
"Joey?"
He looked up at her blankly.
"I'm sorry about what I said earlier. It was supposed to be a joke, I wouldn't have said it if I thought you'd take it like that," she said. She pressed her lips together anxiously.
"How did you expect me to take it? This is my first show out of college and you were telling me I didn't even deserve to be cast?"
And just like that her heart felt as though it was being shattered. "Joey, no, I-"
"I really tried, Lauren. I know we got off to a bad start, but I wanted to make things better between us. But you're too headstrong for that to happen, and I don't know how you expect me to work with you."
"So this is my fault now?" she said, her voice rising. She had come over here to apologise, after all, and she wasn't anticipating being shut down before she could try to make amends.
"Kind of, yeah," Joey said, the first time she'd heard him sound genuinely angry.
"So is this method acting, or...?" she heard one of their castmates whisper, and her anger flared up even more.
"Well I guess I should just quit the damn show then," she said, throwing her bag over her shoulder and stalking out of the room.
As soon as she climbed into her car she pulled out her phone and called the director.
"Hi, David, it's Lauren. Do you have a minute to talk?"
She explained the situation and the argument she and Joey seemed to have found themselves in, still seething but trying to keep her voice level so David didn't write it off as her overreacting.
"I just really don't think we're gonna be able to work together," she finished, chewing on her lip.
"Lauren, you two have such good on stage chemistry. That's the reason I cast you both together. You know you're not always going to get on with the people you work with, but sometimes you just have to stick it out. So can you try and work through your differences?"
Lauren breathed out a sigh, letting her head fall against the window with a thud. Not the answer she was hoping for, but he had a point. "Yeah, I can do that."
"Thanks. I'll talk to Joey about it too. See you next rehearsal."
"Yeah, bye," she said deflatedly, hanging up the phone.
So this was it then. A last ditch effort at being friends with Joey before she had to suffer through two months with him as enemies. At least she never had to see him again after this.