vienna

[drewharts]

WITH MAMMA MIA NOW WRAPPED UP, drew could turn his attention to what mattered most for the rest of the summer. auditions. sure, he had a glee club audition waiting for him at mckinley, but what felt more important than that? college auditions. he was still a novice when it came to musical theatre, but with two shows under his belt drew had fully decided that stepping out on a stage was the only time other than when he was partying he felt invigorated and truly himself. he wanted to bask in that feeling for the rest of his life and he wanted to give the joy of live theatre to others. after a little research, he’d narrowed it down to a few schools that seemed impossibly competitive, but at the top of the list? NYADA. allegedly, all the biggest stars went there. so naturally, drew wanted to follow their shine, drink that in, experience, and learn from the best. now that he had a taste of the euphoria that followed a great performance and the hope that he was filled with for the entirety of their new york trip, he couldn’t get enough. so? his next step? turned to some more seasoned performers. on this particular occasion,  the meeting place of choice was his very own basement, which, he wasn’t sure many had seen. he sat on the worn couch, absently picking at some of it’s frayed green threads as a desperate, almost pleading look crossed his face, “look, you don’t have to help me, but i’d really appreciate it.” drew sighed, picking up in the middle of an ongoing conversation. “there’s still so much i don’t know and i want this audition to be great. you don’t have to do much just… tell me what to expect and help me pick a song maybe? please?” 

@limastarters​

[joeyhqs]

When Drew had asked him to come over to his place, Joey had assumed that they were planning their campaign since school was starting pretty soon and they had to be the best of the best if they wanted to win. But once the two of them started talking about college auditions, Joey really didn’t know what to say – he hadn’t thought at all about what he wanted to do for his future and the worst part is that he promised his dads that he would consider it during the summer. But now summer was almost over and Joey still had no idea what he was going to do once he graduated. As he heard Drew talking about helping him, Joey smiled and nodded slowly. “Of course I can help you, I want to help you! You’ve been tutoring me all summer, you’ve been dealing with everything I say and I’m sure that you probably lost some brain cells while you were talking to me, so it’s my time to help you.” Joey said, wanting to help his friend, especially since Drew helped him out so much during the summer, he wanted to pay him back. “Well, like I said, I don’t know much about NYADA… I always thought it had something to do with that video on Youtube with the cat that’s shaped like a pop tart. But then I asked my dads and the two of them went there, apparently it’s super hard to actually get in, so you should expect a lot of competition. As for the song, I think you should do the best song ever written, Run Joey Run. Especially since it has my name in it and that’s a very important detail.” He said with a small chuckle. “But I really don’t know how to help you more than this, I haven’t really explored that much about colleges…”

[oscar-piastri]

[joeyhqs]

@milansworld: #quickmaths

@dumbofassjoey: what??

[joeyhqs]

ivystjamess​:

IVY DIDN’T WANT TO TELL JOEY HE DIDN’T GET IT, because to some extent he did get it. but this was the second time ivy found herself on the receiving end of this kind of carelessness from julien. she scoffed a little at joey’s comment, “i can say i hate him and i will.” she said in a stubborn fashion usually seen in unreasonable children. “like, it’s the second time he lead me on and like make me feel like maybe i was actually important to him and like? how pathetic would it be if i trailed him for the rest of forever.” she tried to defend her own actions, “i’m totally done with him.” ivy explained, though even those words felt wrong slipping off her tongue. “and just because like we have to see him doesn’t mean anything. i’m already totally planning on giving him the silent treatment when we start school again.” she finished filling joey in on that part with a nod, making it clear any talking that was going to happen between herself and julien had already passed. and then things got tricky again, “joey i wasn’t like, keeping it from you specifically. it was from like everyone. and it happened so quick and julien was so back and forth.” she listed, “and it’s over now. for good, so you don’t have to like worry.”

“Yes, you can say you hate him, but I don’t think you actually mean it. We’ve both been through a phase where we hate Julien, I’ve been through that pretty recently and look at me now, I’m good with Julien. And I know I almost screwed it up, but if I’m being honest, I can’t imagine a life where I’m not friends with him, even if he’s the world’s biggest jerk and looks like a more feminine Daniel Schuester.” Joey told Ivy, being honest about the way he felt about Julien. Even if the two had a lot of stupid arguments, Joey was grateful to have a friend like Julien in his life and even after everything that the two had gone through, he still considered him one of his closest friends. “Oh, so you’re planning on giving him the silent treatment all year? Even when the two of you have to prepare a song for glee club? Can’t wait to see you guys perform a musical number that was done in The Artist.” He said with a chuckle, shaking his head at the thought of Ivy giving Julien the silent treatment all year, which was impossible. When Ivy mentioned that she wasn’t keeping all of this just from him, Joey nodded slowly and smiled softly. “Okay, I believe you… I just don’t like it when you keep things from me, even if it’s a secret. I mean, we tell each other everything and when you didn’t tell me this, I just felt like you didn’t trust me.”

[joeyhqs]

@dumbofassjoey: i can't believe that i'll be alive in the year 3000, that's so amazing!! i'll be like, 80 or something

[joeyhqs]

Everything that happened in this past week had Joey thinking about a lot, which was a rare thing for him to do actually. There was nothing he could do about the Ivy and Julien situation, the two of them had to figure what was going on between them on their own, but what had happened between Ivy and Leo was the thing that made him mad, especially since he never cared for Leo, in fact, he never liked him at all. Making his way towards to the Lima Bean, Joey was taken by surprise when he saw Leo sitting outside, reading his book, which made him roll his eyes. ‘Who reads a book at a coffee shop?’ Joey thought, before making his way inside of the coffee shop and smiling towards Eli St. James, ordering a coffee and making his way back outside, before he sat down across from Leo and stared at him for a while before “accidentally” spilling his coffee all over whatever he was reading. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry, I’m so clumsy.” Joey said, chuckling a little and leaning back on his chair as he looked at Leo. “Listen up, Roddy from Flushed Away, we need to have a talk.” He said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t like you. And I don’t like what you did to Ivy.” He said, not used to acting like this around people, but he didn’t care since it was the guy that had hurt his best friend the most.

@leo-mccarthy​

[joeyhqs]

roryslade​:

“No,” Rory shook her head and let out a sigh. “I haven’t talked to him. Like, really about anything,” she said, and learning about these other kisses just angered her. It wasn’t like her and Julien had been together for years, but they had been together long enough that Rory would have wanted him to come to her in the first place and just be honest. At Joey’s offer, she smiled slightly. It was a kind offer, but she wasn’t in a place to hang out with other people or even go out and eat. If there was someone that would know how to comfort Rory, it would be Ruby, but it was still too early to really talk to people. “I appreciate the offer, but I think I’m gonna have to decline. I’m just not really hungry and I’d rather just go home and cry it all out. I think that’d help a little.”

Joey felt bad for telling Rory that, maybe it wasn’t his place to tell her that this wasn’t the first time that Julien and Ivy had been together, but giving the situation she was in, Joey thought she at least knew this hadn’t happen just one time. “Now I feel bad, I’m sorry… Again. And I know it’s not my place to tell you that, but I don’t know what else to say.” Joey said, shrugging his shoulders as he looked at Rory. When she declined his offer, Joey nodded slowly and gave her a comforting smile, deciding not to bother her anymore about it. “That’s okay, I understand. Sometimes it’s better just to cry about it. I’ll leave you alone now, I just wanted to check if you were okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Joey said with a small nod, before making his way out of the auditorium.

[fyeahspiderman]

(✿◕‿◕)

[joeyhqs]

ivystjamess​:

IVY ROLLED HER EYES AT THE QUESTION. not that because she thought joey wondering why she had told julien she hated him, but she felt stupid having to remember the context in which she said it it under. “i don’t know why i said it, i like was just so angry and totally word vomited at him.” she explained, a slight pout appearing on her lips. though this time it wasn’t in attempt to get anything she want, she just felt as dumb as people tended to think she was. “i don’t think i meant it, but i like wanted him to hear it so he knew how much he like hurt me i think.” she told joey, still looking slightly out of it. at least she had now surpassed the crying phase. “ugh, i wasn’t really thinking of family dinners.” ivy admitted, then shrugged, “but i guess like if he sits on one end with like trace, finn, and sawyer and then we stay on the other with like eli and wren, it could be okay.” she mumbled, looking at her clasped hands in her lap. it helped ground her a little bit which, was better than nothing. then came the big question that sent ivy back into the state she was in when she had blown up at julien opening night, “well there were like other times i guess.” she began, trying to keep it brief, “i did say it would be a one time thing and it meant nothing and i thought julien was like totally on the same page,” ivy seemed to be acting more herself seeing as she started on another fast paced, signature, ramble of hers, “but then he kissed me on my birthday and told me it did mean something, then we like… made out when he came over last monday, and then opening night, but like, that was totally it.”

As he heard Ivy trying to explain why he had said those stuff about Julien, Joey looked at the girl with a small smile on his face, happy that at least Ivy really didn’t actually hate Julien. If she truly hated him, then she would have never kissed him, right? “C’mon, Julien has hurt the both of us, we just can’t say that we hate him, even if it feels like we do sometimes. We’re supposed to be friends and honestly, it really doesn’t feel like that right now.” Joey said, shaking his head slowly and sighing. “You can’t avoid Julien for the rest of your life, not even during family dinners, even if you sit away from each other. Our families are always meeting up, you can’t just ignore me. I think the two of you should just really talk about it.” He said, not sure if he could help any more than that, especially since it was up to the two of them to talk through this whole situation. As Ivy started explaining all the times that the two of them were together, Joey raised an eyebrow and looked away from her for a bit. “So, you just kept all of this from me? You’ve been with Julien more than one time and you didn’t tell me? See, this is why I think people don’t trust me anymore… And I understand that you wouldn’t want to share, but still… It would have been nice to know what my best friend has been up to.”

[joeyhqs]

rubyzizes​:

Ruby spun her pasta on to her fork and brought it to her mouth while she waited for Joey to speak. She chewed her food slowly while he spoke, shrugging her shoulders at his question. “I have literally no idea if that’s what really happened,” she told him again, chuckling softly, “that’s why I’m asking you.” As he continued to explain what he knew though, Ruby put her fork down and pushed her plate forward slightly to indicate that she was done before she crossed her arms over the table. “I definitely feel bad for Rory. There’s a special place in hell for people who cheat so I really hope Julien gets his ass handed to him,” she mused as she shook her head disapprovingly. Ruby had her own opinion about the fact that Julien had cheated with Ivy, but she wasn’t about to start mouthing off about the St. James girl to her best friend. Plus, Ruby was friends with Ivy too, even if she found her taste in men questionable. On some level, she also felt bad for Joey in the moment. It was kind of widely understood that him, Julien and Ivy were all childhood friends and she had no doubt that this recurring affair between Julien and Ivy made him feel like a third wheel, especially given his own history with the youngest Schuester. “I mean…I’m sure they didn’t tell you because it was like a fucked up situation that they both felt guilty about. People don’t usually share it when they’re like…having an affair,” Ruby explained, hoping that would give Joey some peace of mind. “I don’t think it’s personal Jojo, like I don’t think they were purposefully keeping it from you specifically. I’m sure they didn’t tell anyone.” Ruby reached for her water and took a big sip through her straw as she shook her head at his question. “No, I haven’t talked to her. She booked it pretty quickly and hasn’t really been like…talking to anyone from what I could tell.” 

“Oh, I guess now you know… That’s really what happened, I guess Julien and Ivy were kissing in the choir room and Rory just walked in and saw both of them doing it. I don’t know why people keep kissing in the choir room, it’s not a great place and apparently all the doors are always open, so it’s no wonder that someone could just walk in.” Joey said, looking down at his plate for a few seconds before finally deciding to take a bite out of his pasta as he looked at Ruby as she spoke about being cheated on – he couldn’t forget that the girl had been cheated on once, so of course she had a strong opinion about this matter, but Joey wasn’t about to talk about it, knowing that it would probably just make her even more upset. “I’m sure Julien will learn from all of this. I mean, you have to make mistakes in order to finally grow, right? And it’s not like all of us haven’t made mistakes before… He just needs to assume that what he did was wrong and he needs to apologize to everyone he hurt during all of this.” He said, shrugging his shoulders as he finally put his fork down and pushed his plate slightly forward, imitating what Ruby had done earlier. “Yeah, you’re probably right, it’s just weird for me to not know this type of things. We always shared everything about each other, so not knowing this just kind of threw me off. And I haven’t talked to Ivy either, I just don’t really know what to do anymore… I’m trying to be a better friend to everyone since the whole Julien thing but I feel like no one trusts me anymore.” He said with a sigh, resting his head on his hand, looking over at Ruby.

[joeyhqs]

julien-schuester​:

When Joey confirmed that he didn’t hate Julien, he let out a breath he didn’t even realize he’d been holding. It was no secret that it meant a lot to him to be liked and there was nothing he hated more than people being mad at him, especially his friends and family. “Thank God,” Julien breathed out, taking a seat on one top of a black box backstage next to Joey. For a moment they just sat there, and he knew it was probably on him to speak up, but Joey beat him to it. The question threw Julien off. How did Joey know? Kind of a dumb question…the news had been seemingly spreading like wildfire and at this point the list of people who didn’t know was probably shorter than the list of people who did. He let the question hang in the air for a moment while he thought about it. Why had him and Ivy started doing this again? “Honestly?” he started, sighing deeply as he turned to look at his friend with a pained look in his eyes, “I don’t know. The first time it really just…kind of happened. But then after that we just like…started talking a lot more like texting  and stuff and it didn’t help that we had to kiss all the time for the show.” Julien’s heart started racing in a bad way the more he talked about it. Him and Rory still hadn’t talked so he had no idea where he stood with her and talking about Ivy just made him feel more guilty. “I really don’t have an answer Joey. I don’t know what it is. But the lying to you part…don’t blame Ivy for that. Blame me. I asked her not to tell anyone.” It was shitty to admit but it was true. Julien had been covering his ass and had asked Ivy to keep quiet about their encounters for reasons he felt were obvious—namely Rory. 

Joey looked over at Julien as he sat down, not taking his eyes off of him, waiting for him to answer. When he finally started talking, Joey sighed as he heard the other speaking about the whole situation between him and Ivy. The past couple of days had been all about this and Joey didn’t know what to say anymore, but now that the secret was finally out, he couldn’t help but feel bad for Rory. “Listen, I really don’t know what to tell you anymore… I told you that you should have told Rory when the two of you kissed for the first time, but you said she wasn’t going to find out. And now she has found out and you’re worried because everyone hates you?” Joey asked, looking at Julien as he spoke. He did look like he regretted every decision he had made about kissing Ivy, but it still didn’t make it okay. “And I know I’m probably not the best person to talk about this, I’ve had my share of making mistakes. I mean, I basically told everyone that we slept together and ended up hurting someone I really care about.” He said, shrugging his shoulders. “And I know that you care about Rory, I mean, why else would you date her? Just don’t make things even worser or something.” He crossed his arms over his chest and sighed – he just wanted this whole situation to be over, especially since school was about to start and Joey didn’t want to be torn on his second senior year. “You should apologize to Rory and really mean it. I can’t be sure that she’ll forgive you, but at least you tried.”

[joeyhqs]

roryslade​:

Rory was still shaken up by everything, but saying it out loud? It felt like a sudden relief. “Wait,” the blonde shook her head slightly as Joey revealed that this had happened before in the course of Julien and Rory’s relationship. “This has been going on?” She asked, a hint of anger on her voice. Rory genuinely thought that it had only happened once and that one time was when she caught them but she had to face the music and realize that maybe it had been going on and for how long. “No, you don’t have to apologize,” except for not telling me, she thought to herself. It wasn’t Joey’s place anyway to tell her, but it would have been nice to know regardless so she could have saved herself from literally walking in on them. “It’s not like you cheated on me.”

Joey could only assume that Rory at least knew that this had been going on for a while, he would have thought that Julien had told her that this wasn’t the first time they were kissing. “I thought you knew… I think it was only just another kiss and they both said it didn’t mean anything and well, I believed them. I just didn’t think that it would happen again.” He said and what he said was true, Joey didn’t think that they would kiss again because both of them had told him that it didn’t mean anything – but he was probably stupid for believing in that. Seeing Rory like this made him uncomfortable, he felt like she was about to break down in tears at any moment and Joey didn’t want that. “Still, no one should ever go through something like this, I really don’t know what to say… How about you come to Breadstix with us? You can sit with me and Ruby.” He said, hoping that it would actually cheer Rory up by being around some people that weren’t Ivy or Julien.

[joeyhqs]

archerxcs​:

to this day archer never understood that method of bullying nor how the kids ever got away with it, but he was glad it wasn’t something he’d ever had done to him while at mckinley. the last thing he’d want to deal with is changing his clothes in the middle of the school day because some asshole wanted to throw rocks and flavorful colored ice in his face. “wasting a perfectly good slushie isn’t my taste so we don’t have to worry about that.” kicking off his shoes, the male made joined his friend on the couch and made himself at home. he wanted to suggest going to his room but because they hadn’t really talked about where they stood after their hook up, archer felt that might be a little too much too soon considering he hardly ever spent time in a bedroom with someone else for platonic reasons.“you sure you wanna do that? because that sounds like a bad idea depending on what streaming services you’ve got.” just thinking about all the options made him a little anxious. most of his browsing sessions usually ended with him watching something he’d seen already or random videos on youtube.

“You’re right, I wouldn’t waste a slushie like that. Apparently it happened a lot back in the McKinley when the Glee Club was still the worst club in that school.” Joey said, remembering all of the stories that his dads had told him from when they went to McKinley and all of the slushies that they got thrown at their face. Smiling when Archer sat down next to him, Joey shrugged his shoulders when the other started talking about what they should watch. “Just choose something random so we can have some background noise while we make out.” He said with a chuckle, almost sure that the two of them would probably end up making out on the couch. They hadn’t had a chance to talk about what had happened in New York and to be honest, Joey was doing fine without talking about it – he wasn’t exactly the greatest person to talk about his feelings, so he just tried to avoid it as much as he could. “How about we watch Harry Potter? Those movies are really old, but I just enjoy watching them. And it’ll be a great background noise.” He said, chuckling again.

[joeyhqs]

ivystjamess​:

IVY WAS TORN. was leo a bad person? she didn’t think so. maybe a miserable asshole, but she hadn’t really had it in her to sit down and assess the content of leo mccarthy’s heart as of late. “well, then like, let’s just not talk about him.” she suggested, sniffling once again. she still felt woozy, out of it, like she’d just gotten off orion at king’s island. but there were still tears to wipe and conversation to be had, even if joey didn’t take it horribly. “but i like blocked his number and stuff friday night and told julien i hated him, so, i’m like boy free right now.” she added, figuring she might as well catch joey up to speed so he wouldn’t feel more left out than he already did. though she said those things casually, it was a scary feeling. logically, ivy knew she wasn’t alone. she had eli and joey and lemon, but she felt terribly isolated and untethered. each time she brought herself to remember reality, it brought aches upon aches to her heart and soul. but eli had told her in once during a fit of crying that it hurts to become, so maybe this was good. maybe she was becoming. but this other feeling? guilt. ivy was ridden with guilt upon learning keeping this secret made joey feel bad. and guilt was a rare emotion coming from self-motivated ivy st.james. “joey, i’m sorry.” she wept, another wave of tears rolling down her cheeks. it would’ve been a dramatic sight to see had it been anyone but ivy who approached most everything with a degree of melodrama that only rachel and jesse st.james could have spawned. “i should’ve told you i just like…i don’t know.” a sigh, “let me like make it up to you, i’ll put everything out on the table now i swear.” she spoke quickly, her tears slowing down enough where she could place her hands and fold them in her lap, “any questions you have about anything i’ll totally answer, no more secrets.”

Joey nodded his head slowly, agreeing that they should stop talking about Leo, especially when he was probably the person that annoyed Joey the most, but he decided to put that aside for now. When Ivy talked about hating Julien, Joey raised an eyebrow, confused about why she would say that. “Why did you tell Julien that you hate him? C’mon, we’re all friends, we don’t hate each other. Our family dinners are already as intense without this much drama, we don’t need to add up to it.” Joey said, shaking his head again – even after everything that they had been through, the three of them had always managed to stay friends and Joey wasn’t going to let this ruin their friendship, especially when they had been friends since they were kids. Seeing Ivy cry made Joey sad, he didn’t like seeing his best friend like this, but sometimes it was better just to cry. When she said that she was going to tell him everything, Joey nodded slowly as he thought about everything that happened during the past few weeks. But he was curious about one thing. “Why did you kiss Julien on opening night? I’ve tried thinking about it, on why you would do it… But I just can’t wrap my head around it. I thought you said that the kiss was a one-time thing, but now I don’t understand.” Joey said, shaking his head.

[joeyhqs]

roryslade​:

Rory wasn’t a bad liar, she was just a sad girl, and was bad at hiding it. Given how fresh the wound Julien left, it was hard for her to hide how she felt and really, she was just so tired that she didn’t feel like hiding anything. It’d be more work than she was willing to put in. She just wanted to go home, watch Dawson’s Creek, eat ice cream, and cry. Rory was surprised how much Joey seemed to be interested in her now, it was a refreshing change but it still wasn’t something she wanted to reflect on in the moment. “Thanks, I’d like to think she would be too,” she said with a light deflective shrug. When Joey pointed out that she was lying, the blonde let out a sigh. Joey would have to find out sooner or later. “Um, it’s really nothing,” she shook her head even thought she knew it wasn’t nothing. “I just-,” she felt herself semi-choking up. “I saw Julien kiss Ivy. Um, but not like in character. I think they sneaked away to do it.”

When Rory finally told him what had happened, Joey was at a loss for words. He really didn’t know what to say, but the last thing that he expected was to find out that Rory had caught Ivy and Julien kissing, especially after both of them told him that it wasn’t going to happen again and that it was a one-time thing. “Oh.” That was the only thing that Joey could say before he actually processed what he had just learned. “I really don’t know what to say about this, I knew about their kiss from a few days ago, but they told me it wasn’t going to happen again.” Joey said, shaking his head as he thought about it. “And I tried having Julien telling you about it because I didn’t want you to get hurt… I don’t think anyone deserves to get hurt like that.” He said, sighing and crossing his arms as he shook his head. “I’m really sorry, Rory, you didn’t deserve that.”

[joeyhqs]

ivystjamess​:

DESPITE HAVING ABSOLUTELY BLOWN UP ON LEO AND BLOCKING HIS NUMBER, ivy still felt a weird need to defend him. well, maybe not defend, but rather shine a light on his own reasoning, “he was just like scared and confused too i guess. i like chose to listen to him.” she vocalized, followed by another sigh. with joey’s arms wrapped around her and her arms loosely draping over him, she slumped into their hug. it made ivy want to cry. apparently, it wasn’t easy to talk about these things just yet. in fact, it was still really difficult. it felt like she had accidentally picked at a scab and prematurely re-punctured her wound, “but yea, it like, totally sucked.” she mumbled. her gaze flicked towards the ceiling as she tried to rapidly blink away her tears. the effort was futile as wet droplets spilled onto her cheeks and she pulled away to wipe them, “sorry, i’m like… crying.” she said with a sniffle. she thought she was doing better, so why was this dull aching back? why did she feel trapped in her own body? in a predictable fashion at this point, though physically present, she began to drift as she continued to catching her falling tears with her own fingertips and smearing them away. “joey, i do like trust you, completely…” ivy said, though she seemed to be lost in some kind of haze. she was still there and aware of course, but not really there.  “it’s just like, there’s sometimes like some things that are like tricky to talk about you know? this is just one of them…”

“I don’t care about Leo, Ivy! What he did to you was not okay and you can’t keep defending him just because you used to date him, he’s a bad person! I never liked him and apparently, I was right.” Joey said, getting it off his chest, especially since he really didn’t like Leo and what he had done. The more he thought about it, the more he got mad at Leo, especially since he could see how much he had hurt Ivy. “I’m sorry that you had to go through all of that, Ivy… It must have been hard, but if you had told me, I could have just been another shoulder you could cry on, you know?” Joey said, wrapping his arm around the girl, giving her a small smile. “And you can cry, it’s not the first time I’ve seen you cry. Besides, we’re always watching romantic movies, do you really want me to talk about the time we cried like babies after finishing our Twilight marathon?” He said, chuckling lightly, hoping to actually cheer Ivy up, even if it was just a bit. “But I can’t lie to you, it kind of makes me feel bad when you don’t tell me what’s going on because I already feel like no one trusts me… And you know, I just thought you really trusted me, but I understand that it’s probably not that easy talking about it.” Joey said with a sigh.

[joeyhqs]

ivystjamess​:

NOW THAT THE MOMENT HAD ARRIVED, ivy found herself just as at a loss where to begin as the last time she tried to tell joey. she didn’t know what was holding her back. she trusted joey, she had been her best friend as long as she could conceptualize what a best friend was, there was no reason not to lay it all out on the table. but as her heart beat increased and she focused joey’s welcoming expression in front of her she still couldn’t seem to find the words. even though she was doing better and there were no longer any strings tying herself to julien or leo, the discomfort that it would cause the relieve her whirlwind of a july was off putting to say the least. would joey be mad she kept this from him for so long? would he judge her? now she was just being stupid. taking another deep breath in, ivy found her voice. although shriveled and buried deep inside her chest, it was enough to bring her to say, “joey, look… i do wanna tell you it’s just like… hard.” she explained, another sigh following. now that the dam had broken though, she fell into a classic ivy st.james fast paced ramble, where she didn’t know exactly when to just up. “so like… i was pregnant and i um like wanted to keep it, at least i thought i did, but when i told leo he convinced me that we weren’t ready to like be parents or whatever. so, i had lemon like take me to a clinic in dayton and get things taken care of. that’s why i missed all that rehearsal and stuff.” a breath, “and then when i like went over to his house it was just like too hard and we broke up because like the whole thing just put us on different pages and i guess once we got to new york you like… know what happens from there.” she finished, looking past joey and out her window, even talking about it in brief made her feel ill over again, except this time she was more frenzied than past times telling the tale. her heart was like a caged animal ramming into it’s prison, except there was no hope for ivy to actually escape the enclosure of her own body. she forced herself to look at joey. clearly on the brink of freaking out, she once again began to speak quickly, “but i like never cheated on him… i know some people are saying i totally did, but what i told you is what happened, i can pinky promise, you can like ask leo, or lemon, or like julien even, i even have the positive tests still and doctor’s notes and stuff…”

Joey was having a hard time trying to figure out why it was so hard for Ivy to tell him what had happened between her and Leo. The two of them had been best friends since they could remember and they would always tell each other every little thing, so it was hard for Joey to understand why she kept this from him for so long. But he wasn’t at mad at her, he was just sad, thinking that he had lost all of the trust that Ivy had on him. “You know you can tell me everything, right?” Joey assured her when she told him it was hard to talk about it – Joey figured it would be hard for her to talk about breaking up with her first love, but he wanted her to know that he was there for her, no matter what it was. But his expression changed when Ivy mentioned she was pregnant and started talking about what had happened, making Joey confused about everything. He didn’t know how to feel about it, in fact, he didn’t know what he was feeling right now. He was sad that it took Ivy this long to tell him about this, but at the same time, he was devastated that Ivy had to go through all of that. On another note, he was angry at Leo for making the decision for Ivy, instead of talking about it. “Wait, hold on, that was a lot to take in, you were pregnant? Is that why you kept asking me if your outfits looked weird?” Joey asked, as he finally realized what Ivy meant with all of that, understanding all of the texts that the two had sent to one another. He couldn’t imagine how Ivy felt during that. After a few seconds of just staring at Ivy, Joey wrapped his arms around the girl and hugged her, which was something they didn’t do often, but Joey had no idea what else to say. “I just don’t get why you didn’t tell me earlier, you know? I thought we didn’t keep secrets from each other… I thought you trusted me, is this because of the JBI Jr. and Julien thing?” He asked, pulling away from the hug as he looked at the girl. “I always knew that Leo was awful, but now, I hate him even more now. How could he do that to you?”