l o o s e c a n n o n

“They were pretty fucked up. Honestly, I meant what I said the other week about you being refreshing for Arden. I know that you think you’ll be a terrible boyfriend but I think she’s already experienced that. You treat her a lot better than most others have”, Lola told him. “If you seriously want me to do some recon to find out whether she likes you, I will. I’ll pretend that we’re back in high school and get the gossip for you”, she teased. “The sex must be really good if you want to make sure that you get laid one more time”, she laughed. “If you wanted to sleep with her and then end things, I’d call you out for being an asshole but if you sleep with her and then talk about it being something more… well, I think that’s okay”.

“you say that now while we’re just sleeping together. wait until the jealousy thing kicks in. then we’ll see if i’m really better for.” joey reminded her. “i probably should say no to that idea but i’m going to say absolutely do it. just see what she says.” though he didn’t trust that arden would be entirely honest if she had feelings for him with lola knowing how close she was to him. “oh don’t get me started. she does this thing with her tongue and oh god.” he smirked. “we both know i’m capable of doing both of those things. i don’t know, maybe i’ll be able to catch a post-sex clarity moment. that’s a thing for girls too right?”

“They didn’t think about it either. They were so caught up in their feelings for each other that they didn’t even think about the fact that it would be a minor inconvenience when it comes to nicknames”, Noah joked. 

“how dare they!” joey laughed. “luckily i still have pocket rocket so it’s not so bad for me.”

“How long ago did she say that she wasn’t ready for another relationship? If it was when the two of you first started fooling around, there’s a possibility that she may have changed her mind. I think she needed time to get over her last few relationships but that doesn’t mean that she’ll never be ready again”, Lola reasoned. “It’s true that most people on campus love Arden and it’s also true that your relationship history isn’t great but if that’s the only thing holding you back from actually trying to be with her… well, I’d maybe rethink that. You always think that you’re going to fuck everything up but you also tend to overlook that you’ve been able to maintain your friendship with me and you’ve definitely matured since our NYC days. The fact that you’re even thinking about the possibility of fucking up and hurting her is kind of proof of that. I guess all I’m saying is that if you want to be with her, I think it’s worth a shot. You deserve to be happy”.

“well yeah but it sounded like her past relationships were pretty fucked. i imagine that takes a lot of getting over or something. i don’t know, i’m usually the other side of the relationship.” he shrugged. he inhaled as she spoke and hummed. “can’t i just send you to find out if there’s something there or not before i try make a move? that sounds so much easier.” he half-joked. “i don’t even know how i’d bring it up. can i bring it up after sex so at least i get one last time before things get fucked up?”

“If that is the case, I hope he picks someone hot and exciting”, Noah told his friend. He couldn’t imagine Joey settling down with someone that wasn’t adventurous or a little wild, even if he wasn’t choosing the partner himself. “Don’t worry, Violet will never find out. I intend to keep my feelings for you very secret”, he joked. 

“if not i want a refund from whatever russian bride site he got them from.” joey joked. “i’ve changed my mind. i am now offended you don’t want to shout them from the rooftops! you know, in the words of ariana grande, break up with your girlfriend, cos i’m bored.”

“He expects you to take over the family business one day then?” AJ asked. Whilst she and Joey had known each other for years, they had never really talked about their families – at least not when they were both living in NYC. “This particular conversation is making me sound a little spoiled”, she joked. 

“always has. something about not wanting money grabbing geoff to get it.” joey shrugged. “is that a bad thing?”

“Honestly, I’m kind of surprised that you’re still on campus. You must be feeling stir crazy by now”, Arden acknowledged. She certainly wasn’t complaining about the fact that he was still at MU as she genuinely liked his company but she knew that it was somewhat unusual for him to stay settled for so long. Arden simply smiled warmly at him when he said that she deserved it. “Opening the doors too? Wow, I’m impressed. You’ll be reaping the benefits of that chivalrous gesture later tonight”, she said, her words accompanied with a wink so that her intention was very clear. 

“you have no idea.” joey shook his head. what he would give for a week or a month in a warm country doing nothing but fucking and drinking and smoking. “hey if it’s a date, i like to go all out. got to show i can be a gentleman sometimes.” he joked. “but i definitely wouldn’t say no to getting benefits from being like this.” he added with a grin. 

Lola breathed a sigh of relief when he said it wasn’t like that. Joey had a habit of running when things got too hard so she was glad he wasn’t broke or anything like that as it would surely make him bolt off campus for a while. “I kind of thought that your feelings might not be entirely platonic, I just wasn’t sure if you had realised that or even wanted to acknowledge it”, Lola admitted. From what he had said about his relationship with Arden, it had definitely seemed different than his usual casual flings. “What do you want to do about it? Are you planning on telling her or pretending that you don’t have feelings for her? Do you even want to keep fooling around with her? It might not be best idea if you have feelings for her…”

joey paused again and let her ask a million questions on what he was thinking of doing to handle the situation. “i don’t know.” he answered simply. “she’s told me before she isn’t ready for anything like that with anyone and we both know even if she liked me or wanted that again with me, i’d only drive her insane and fuck it up. everyone loves arden here, can you imagine the witch hunt if i hurt her?”

“Oh? Why’s that?” Arden asked curiously. Her father was a shitty absent one too, however she had never really justified or rationalised his behaviour so she was curious as to why Joey was giving him an out – even if it was a small one. “It wasn’t until I got to MU that I realised that no matter what I did, no matter how hard I worked, I’d never be able to truly impress him or win his love. That realisation was what made me start taking a little time for myself amongst everything else that I’m doing for my course, my extracurriculars, and my sorority”. 

joey hesitated at the question. there was a lot he could say. he knew he could trust arden but that didn’t make it any easier to actually say. “grief can really fuck someone up and losing a son at a young age can’t have been easy.” he confessed. although he made it sound like it didn’t affect him nearly as much, like he was detached from the entire thing, there was clearly a lot of hurt there if she looked hard enough. “i’m glad that you saw that truth and you could focus on not burning yourself out. i quite like you not burnt out.”

“A problem?” Lola repeated, immediately sitting up so that she could look at him; a concerned expression on her face. “What’s wrong? Do you need money or a place to stay?”

“no nothing like that.” joey quickly assured her to try and ease her before sighing. “i think... i might possibly have some feelings for arden. maybe a little more than some.”

“You just seemed to have your panties in a twist is all,” Hannah shrugged. “Oh, Joey. Don’t you know that cruel is precisely what I am?’ She grinned, tapping his nose with her index finger.

“i can’t believe you just tapped me on the nose.” joey chuckled. “i’m aware that you can be cruel. it’s kinda your brand.”

Arden just laughed softly when he acknowledged that she was right and grinned, her own attention focused on the view too. “I definitely wasn’t high before coming to meet you. I don’t know, I just… I always seem to get pretty reflective around you”.

“i won’t complain. i love watching you talk to like that. it’s really hot.”

“Should I be worried that I’m getting replaced?” Lola jokingly questioned. “This is going to sound a little weird but sometimes I think Arden needs that. She needs someone that can push her out of her comfort zone and make sure that she still has a little fun, otherwise she’s at risk of just drowning in her coursework”, she said thoughtfully. Lola simply nodded when he said that dealing was working out fine at the moment, however her financial support would always be available to Joey if he needed it. 

“no one could replace you.” joey assured her. “i agree with you and there’s the bonus that she can actually make me study which is keeping me on track here too. it’s a win win situation for us both.”

“Of course you do”, Lola retorted, playfully rolling her eyes at her best friend. They both knew that she didn’t mean it – she genuinely considered him a wonderful friend. “Thank you, Joey. It means a lot that you’ve always been a stable person in my life”.

“are you going to try and tell me i’m not?” joey raised an eyebrow, daring her to try. “the fact that i could be stable to anyone... my dad would be so proud.”

“I didn’t think you would be”, Lola said, grinning as he quickly took the other sun lounger and stretched out; making himself comfortable. “How’s everything going? I feel like you’ve been keeping a really low profile, I’ve barely seen you over the last couple of weeks”.

joey didn’t answer back for a few seconds as he hummed about the things that had been running through his head lately. “i’ve been... busy.” he answered. “i think i have a problem, pocket rocket.”

“He’s my boyfriend if that’s the clarification you need, Joey.” Violet answered. “Yeah I don’t blame you. I’m surprised you’ve not run off to some island somewhere.”