A/N: Hoping this doesn't turn into a disaster this soon.

Thanks for the feedback (This is a lie. 30 visitors and 1 review? you suck. thnx Sarah though)

But seriously, thoughts? - Natt

Warning: Mentions of sex.

Chapter 2: The bet

The first week was a fair sampling of what that year would be like. By Friday, Lauren had an entire one page list of books to retire from the library, and what it seemed like a not-very-fun weekend ahead. Plus, Mrs. Wood, the professor of Dramaturgy, announced an optional project in which she'd give a prize by the end of the year to the essay she thought deserved it the most; topic free to pick under the history of dramaturgy. As soon as the words extra credit were mentioned, she was in. She knew she had one long year to work on it, but the sooner she could choose a theme she liked, the best.

So when that Friday afternoon she headed to the University's library, she thought she was going to enjoy a peaceful time alone, in silence. It seemed almost as if she was prophesying a catastrophe. Lauren walked to the reception to search for the books on her list in the archive, but meanwhile she heard a pair of voices that were particularly loud and indiscrete to be in that place.

She glanced quickly towards the studying zone (Not only it was close to a coffee machine, but it was the only part of the library with decent chairs), and she confirmed her suspicions. Joe Walker's group was in there, talking and –as far as she noticed- no one didn't even hold a pen. Didn't they have somewhere else to go to waste their time?

What was truly kind of freaking her out was that guy Darren Criss, who was in there, too. And this wasn't for no reason. She couldn't get out of her mind something she heard that Tuesday, the day after they had that unpleasant encounter outside of the Administration Department.

It was all an unfortunate coincidence. She was going to the store to get something for dinner, when she saw two guys involved in what it seemed a fight, or a really uptight discussion; pretty close to the entrance of the campus, near a corner. She didn't recognize them at first, and afraid they weren't students, she quickly stepped back and waited a little while where they couldn't see her. It wasn't her intention to hear what they were saying at all, but then she realized they were Joe Walker and someone else- probably that guy Brian Holden.

"I tell you, I have no fucking clue who it is, but when I find out…"

"We're going to find out, Joe, we're going." Brian assured, but his tone sounded sort of nervous. "You know they can't get away with something like that, not with us."

"Who could've fucking done that?!" Joe sounded really pissed off. "Why? I bet it must be one of those jilted guys from Minnesota. Those idiots have hated us as long as I can remember."

"We'll find out after we report it… it's a crime!"

"No!" It seemed as if Brian wanted to help, but he couldn't get it right. "We can't report it! Under any condition, Brian. The police station in charge of this zone wants to see me dead after what happened last year. Remember? They'll work against us and I'll never get my bike back again." Joe snorted abruptly. "I can't believe they did this."

"They'll pay. Whoever did it. We'll find out."

"You can be fucking sure I will." Joe finished off as he walked away, passing dangerously near Lauren, but without turning back or even perceiving her existence.

Lauren waited a few seconds before turning around the block. Brian was nowhere to be seen by then. She continued her walk to the grocery store, but a knot was terribly adjusting around her neck, and she couldn't get that conversation of her mind. Neither she could then, neither she could in the entire week.

Something stopped her from telling people about it. She almost confessed it to Caroline like a dozen of times, but she finally swallowed her words back in. Maybe it was just that she wasn't sure what she heard or what it meant, or maybe she was just trying to make herself the less involved on the matter as she could. But how could she ignore such event?

Everything was indicating that it was Darren Criss the guy who stole Joe's motorbike. Everything. When Lauren saw him, he was fixing it in a very particular place. He couldn't turn it on, or make it move, or something. And he said he wouldn't like to waste time. And the next day, that guy's bike mysteriously disappeared? It had to be him.

What confused her was that they appeared to be friends. What if it was all a misunderstood? She didn't want to cause a mess. But a grand part of her was pleading her to say it, to please her necessity to do the right thing.

So that's why seeing them together at the library was freaking her out. She didn't yield though, she was determined to study in her usual spot. They couldn't handle a long time in that place whatsoever, right?

She didn't look around as she walked to an empty table. She knew that as soon as she gave them the chance they'd start to mess with her. And the distance was perfect because she couldn't hear what they were saying, despite they still were loud enough to bother her.

Darren wet his lips slowly as he leaned over a little bit, losing the track on the conversation. He did so much that he didn't even care to interrupt Jeff as he commented.

"Look who came."

Everyone's head turned into the direction in which Lauren had been walking without putting an effort to disguise it.

They did kinda have the intention to study, at first. It was Jeff's idea, and he texted Brian and Richard, whom he shared classes with, to work on an essay due next week; but it wasn't long until the word spread and Darren, Joe and Jim showed up too. The result was Richard working as if he had four hands, and everyone else making plans for that night. There was an illegal street bike race circuit that used to be very popular a few years back. Darren was disappointed to hear the police broke down the system and it was abandoned now. What were they supposed to the whole year?

"Lopez?" Brian said, surprised she got Darren's attention. "I haven't seen her outside of her dorm during these three years."

"Yeah, but look at her." Darren continued, absorbed.

She had a black tight little skirt, and a sort of transparent sky-blue blouse that outlined her torso. Her short brunette hair was falling onto her face, and she was continuingly putting it behind her ear. Her expression was absolutely focused on reading five different books at the same time, he couldn't see which books they were. Her feet was shaking in an anxious tick, and she wet her index finger with her tongue every once in a while to keep turning pages. She found her not absurdly pretty, but more as beautifully fascinating. Intriguing.

"Not bad." Joe added, shrugging. "I think I saw her with a guy, like, two years ago. Keaton S. something? From NYU?"

"Isn't he like 28?" Brian asked, curious.

Joe nodded. "She might not be what you think, bro. I wouldn't let that nerdy look carry me away."

Jeff winced. "I don't know, man. I say she has the V-card." He commented as if he truly knew what he was talking about.

"No, you guys don't get it." Brian said, frustrated. "I've been with a girl like her before. It's not the deal if to have sex or not, it's how." He stood up, and even Richard stopped his writing to pay attention. Brian made a gesture as pretending he was fucking a girl from behind. "Okay," he indicated. Then he made like he was getting a blowjob. "Okay," Then he pretended to be on the missionary position on the table, almost throwing on the floor a pile of books. "NOT okay."

The boys found it hilarious. As they were laughing their asses off, Darren rested his back on the chair, still staring at Lauren.

"So? Which one is she?" Jeff asked.

Brian shrugged, still not getting up from the table. Instead, he called. "Hey, Lauren!"

The girl instinctively looked at them. Brian repeated the same inappropriate but shameless gesture; and they laughed again like if they've never heard something funnier. Lauren didn't give him more time to stand up and continue his performance. She turned her eyes away, holding her best resting-bitch-face while she closed her Dramatic Criticism book, piled them all and grabbed all she could before taking off.

"You finished?" Darren asked, unamused.

"Don't be a hero, Darren." Joe said. "A girl like that would never pay attention to you."

"I'm sorry?" Not only he stole his ex-girlfriend, he also had the privilege to lecture him about dating now. "She'd choose me a million times before you."

Joe laughed, but it was pretty sarcastic. He noted the challenging tone on Darren's voice.

"Yeah, right."

"You'd have zero chances. She's not like…" He wanted to say Devin, but he didn't. "any of your girls."

"And what makes you think you could do any better than me?" Joe straightened his back on the chair

"Are you kidding me? I could get any girl, anywhere, anytime." His tone was smug, but he was a little annoyed now.

Joe raised his eyebrows. "Let's bet on it, then."

Darren wanted to smile. He had been so wishing for a moment like that. Joe as the only leader of the group was seriously boring, he needed to break the harmony once and for all.

"What's your statement?"

"The one that gets on Lopez's bed first, and is able to tell if she was a virgin or not, wins."

Darren's fingers were taping the table. He looked at Joe. "Wins what?"

"I would bet my bike, but see, that's a little bit problematic right now."

This time Darren couldn't help but to grin slightly. "I bet mine. If you win, which you won't, it's yours. But if I win, you're banned from having sex."

Joe laughed, and the rest quickly joined him. It was a good prize to pay though. "What?"

"If I win, you can't have sex with anyone from this university until you're out."

"No way." Joe refused. It was supposed to be his last year, but it still wasn't worth it.

"Scared?"

Darren knew that there was something they had in common, and it was that he couldn't say no to a challenge.

Joe stood up. "Fuck, let's do it."

Darren grinned. "Remember that the word spreads very quickly in here."

"It'll go even faster when I'll get your bike."

Darren stood up as well. "It's a bet." He whispered, as he shook Joe's hand.

The tension was almost touchable. Pretending it was as two years before was pointless. Things changed, and they both had done things that were absolutely ineffaceable by then.

"Wait, you're gonna try to sleep with Lauren?" Richard said. "What about Devin?"

Joe messed with Richard's hair, playfully, as he sat down again.

"You're still a noob, Rick."

Darren didn't sit down. He grabbed his keys and packet of cigarettes from the table.

"Taking off?" Brian asked.

"Rising early doesn't always help, dude." Joe messed with him. "Do you think you'll get her to sleep with you in a day?"

"A master never reveals his secrets, you should probably learn that." Darren put his things in the pocket of his hoodie and left.

He walked quickly down the stairs, looking around to see if he could find Lauren anywhere near. He didn't take too long, he spotted her inside of the Hard Rock Café, one of the most interesting places on the campus.

Darren walked inside and took a seat in front of her, at her table, without hesitating for one second. Lauren didn't close her book this time. She barely lift her gaze, but she closed her eyes for a second, sighing, wondering what on earth has she done to deserve this.

"What. Are you. Doing here?"

"I'm sorry." Darren said with a low, but honest tone. "My friends are assholes."

Lauren nodded. "True. I reject your apology, though."

A sight of a grin showed up on Darren's lips. "You reject it? Why?"

"Your friends are assholes. Therefore, you're an asshole by association."

Darren crossed his fingers and rested his elbows on the table, leaning a little bit forwards. "That's a pretty judgmental statement. You don't know me." His tone was soft.

Lauren put down her Dramatic Criticism book, imitating his position.

"You were there while they were acting like jerks, and you didn't do anything. It makes you just as bad as them."

The waiter from Hard Rock thought it was a great moment to interrupt.

"What can I get you?" Nick said. Lauren knew him; he was a friend of Caroline and was on freshman year.

Darren and Lauren answered different things at the same time.

"Two coffees, please."

"Nothing, thanks." Lauren stared at him. "I'm leaving." She cleared.

"Let me make it up for what happened." Darren insisted. "Two coffees." He repeated to Nick, and he nodded, and proceeded to walk to the kitchen.

"It's not gonna make it up." Lauren shook her head. "The best you all can do is stay away from me. We don't like each other, so there's no reason to force this through awkwardness."

Darren arched his eyebrows, "We? You cleared up already why you don't like me, but I've never said I don't like you."

"You wouldn't like me if you knew what I know."

"What do you mean?"

Lauren whispered. "I know what you did." She wet her lips, but she didn't break the eye contact. "You stole Joe's bike."

Darren's face went blank for a few seconds. He looked astonished.

Nick thought this was also a great moment to bring their coffees to the table. Darren leaned back on the chair, kinda annoyed, both in silence, as he left.

"How do you know about…?" He turned his head to look around and make sure they were the only ones there.

"It was a matter of getting two pieces together, it's pretty obvious." She showed off, whilst it was a lie; but he didn't have to know she overheard a conversation.

"Well," he mumbled. "to be honest, you really don't know what you're saying. I'm giving Joe his bike back, eventually."

"Look, I don't know your intern group struggles, or what is going on with you two, but…" Lauren struggled to find the words. She didn't want to sound so rude, but there was no other way to say it. "I'm gonna report you."

Darren limited himself to snort. "Are you a sneak?"

"What you did wasn't right, under any condition. I'm not going to be a complicit!" She complained. "So if you don't give it back soon, I'm gonna tell."

"You're also threatening me now?" He was close to being amused.

"Stop trying to make me sound like the bad one in here. I was just trying to study and get my shit done."

Darren glanced at her books, while he drank some of his coffee.

"Dickinson… Shakespeare… Something not less dramatic than yourself, I see." He joked, smirking.

Lauren frowned. "Excuse me?"

"What are you working on?" He tried to pass by that accusation.

"I gotta do a project about dramaturgy, and I know I'm gonna go for classic period drama, but I haven't choose the topic yet."

"Always go for Shakespeare." He recommended. "He saved my ass the last years."

"I'm not doing it just to save my ass." Lauren replied. "Besides, I don't wanna take the easy way."

"You're underestimating the beauty of simple things."

Lauren frowned, piling her books again. She had no idea what he was talking about, or what he was trying to do; and she didn't want to find out.

"Thanks for the coffee, but no thanks."

Darren folded the corner of his lips, defeated.

"Lauren." He dared to call before she left. She looked at him, but she already stood up. "You're not gonna give me away, no?"

"Yes." She just answered, determined, before turning away.

Strike two.

Darren watched her leave, and in that moment took the decision he was either changing that answer or changing the question.