Our animal love will be enough to protect the both of us.
In the days that followed, one thing was sure: That Lauren was sick and tired of Joseph Walker. She allowed herself to be friends with the other band members, but always found an excuse to leave when things involved the drummer too much. His jibes hadn't let up, and Lauren often found herself sitting in clouds of loathing for him, trying not to blow up like she had the Friday after her impromptu performance. Others had noticed his rudeness, too.
At one point, JoMo took him aside, on Thursday night after the band played. The girls were hanging around with the band again, and Joe had decided to make a couple jokes.
"What was that about?" he asked his fellow Joe.
"What?" Walker replied.
"Lauren was getting upset. You couldn't stop joking for one second?"
"I said she looked like the panda bear hat because she's so small. That's not being rude, that's being honest"
"Well, actually no, that IS rude. At least, it came across as rude. The only reason she didn't explode and yell at you was because she's trying to get along with us. ALL of us. That won't work if she just perpetually dislikes you."
"Why would I want her to like me?" Walker shot back a bit too quickly.
"Yeah…" Joe shook his head at Joe. "Listen, Joe."
"Yeah Joe?"
"Just don't be such a dick." With that, Moses walked back to go hang out with his friends. But Walker resolved to not make fun of people anymore. Or at least, not as much.
Joe thought to bring this up with Joey later, about him being a dick.
"Joey," Walker said, as they left the restaurant that night. "Am I really a dick?"
Joey was hesitant to answer. "Well… Yeah. But I don't have as much of a problem with it." Seeing Walker was concerned with this answer, Joey tried to soften it. "Look, yes you ARE a dick. But… but you're MY dick." That was the best Joey could think of to affectionately call someone a dick. Joe decided it was the best he was going to get.
That Saturday, of course, the band performed. They set up, soaked up the cheers from the ever-adoring fans, and, then, instead of Darren, it was Joe who spoke, from behind the drums.
"Hey guys!" They cheered for him. "Well, today we're going to play a new song we've written. Darren took a chance this week, and let me help with some lyrics here and there. So here goes nothing. The song we wrote: Animal Love." He dashed back behind the drums, and counted off the song.
The starting chords rang through the air, and Lauren already felt her foot tapping the beat on the floor. Jaime, who had resolved to come to every Saturday performance, could tell, too, and Julia was already falling under the curse of Darren's music. But then Darren began to sing, and the song really took flight. It wasn't like their usual music, though. It seemed different – not better or worse, but more artistic. More unique. Like they were really going for their own sound. And then, Darren hopped down from the stage, taking the microphone with him. Since he usually played guitar, he couldn't normally do this, but since Joey was playing guitar for this song, Darren took the reins on his performance. He serenaded the screaming audience up close, moving expertly to the back of the room.
He went right up to Julia, and sang directly to her. Only, he played it off as the leader, comically singing in her face, dancing around her next to the bar. She smiled and laughed, and played right along, not thinking too much of it, just putting on the show for the audience. And the listeners just ate it up, screaming and cheering, and quite nearly drowning out the actual music.
And, since everyone could see that Darren's song was for Julia, nobody noticed that, just maybe, Joe's was for Lauren. Maybe.
After closing, the staff hung around a bit, not sure if another night of group-bonding would be called for after the night's stellar success. But Joey had some different plans. He raced around the restaurant until he got to the bar, where he hopped up in between where Julia and Jaime sat.
"Ladies! I say tonight, we don't just celebrate – we make an event of it!"
"Like what?" Jaime asked.
Moses walked up after him, and said, "Joey wants to clubbing tonight."
"Believe it or not," Lauren said, "We've not gone to a club once since we've been here."
So it was decided, and the girls were ushered out the door by Darren, Joey and the Joes, out to their first club experience in the grand city of New York. As they set out down the street, Lauren did her best to stay between Moses and Joey, keeping Walker well out of sight, so she wasn't tempted to hate him any more than she felt she already did. But it seemed that, in the brief walk, Lauren always ended up falling by him. After a couple minutes, it seemed to Lauren that he was doing it on purpose. Fed up, Lauren hung back, and faced him.
"What?" she snapped, more fiercely than she intended.
He ignored it, though, and said, "I.. Um, I just wanted to apologize for earlier in the week."
Lauren looked at the group, still heading down the road. Either they didn't notice that Lauren and Joe had stopped, or they kept walking on purpose. Either way, they were already safely out of earshot. "Oh no. I do not want any more of your apologies."
"No, I mean – for real. I was… I've been kind of…" He scuffed a shoe in the dirt, and mumbled something under his breath.
"What was that?" Lauren asked, although she thought she could make out what he said.
"I said," he explained, "I've been an a…" again, he mumbled to the ground.
"Being an…?"
"An asshole, alright!?" He confessed loudly. "I was being an asshole! Because, well, I am an asshole. But I feel bad about it now, okay?"
"Okay," Lauren said, smiling that she'd won. She'd gotten Joe Walker to say he was sorry for something. "I accept your apology." She was about to turn to catch up with the group, but Joe caught her arm and held her back.
"I want to make it up to you," he said.
"How?" Lauren cocked her head to the side. She wasn't sure where he was going with this. He already apologized. What more could he do?
For a moment, Joe actually looked nervous. Lauren never thought she'd see him looking like anything other than a raging douche bag, but there he was stammering over his words, blinking too much, shoving his hands in his pockets. It was almost comical, how frustrated he'd become. "I want to take you to dinner. Or something. We can get ice cream, a coffee, a drink – I don't know."
Lauren didn't think she understood. "You want to take me… like, on a date?" She couldn't believe her ears.
"Well, I mean... yes?" He half-grinned boyishly at Lauren. But she wasn't having it.
"So let me get this straight," she said, incredulous and offended. "You felt bad for being rude, so you offer, as repayment, a date with yourself? You think that spending more time with you would be the perfect gift to smooth things over."
"Okay, that's not fair," Joe defended. " When you put it that way, I seem like even more of an asshole!"
"Because it's an asshole thing to do!" cried Lauren. "You think that everyone just loves you. That just because you're talented and attractive that – "
"So you do think I'm attractive," said Joe, taking a step towards her.
Lauren realized she'd trapped herself. She couldn't deny what she'd said though, that would seem pathetic. So she tried to take the "above it all" route. "Well yes. That's obvious."
"Obvious I'm attractive, or obvious you're attracted to me?" he said, edging closer again.
"Ugh, you are such an a – " And then Joe bend over and kissed her. He just sort of went for it, anything to keep her from calling him an asshole again. He didn't really know what else to do. He lingered for a moment, and, when he pulled back, the emotion in her eyes was unreadable. That is, until she slapped him across the face, and stormed away in a huff, back up the sidewalk, back towards the Treble Café.
He watched her walk away, forlorn and embarrassed for himself, raising a hand to brush his cheek where she'd struck him. "Good going, Walker," he said to himself, "What an asshole."
Thank you guys for all the feedback! Keep it coming, or I won't know if you like where the story's headed or not. Thanks again! :)
