"Did they hear us?" Lois leaned in to whisper in Joeys ear.
"I'm not sure." he replied, his voice a low murmur. "Think we should say something else?"
Lois shrugged, straightening herself on the couch.
Justin and Lauren stared at Lois and Joey.
No one said a word.
The only sound was the pounding music of the club still thundering around them.
"Are you on crack?" Laurens voice broke shrilly through the music.
"What?" Joey asked, raising one eyebrow at the question.
"I said, are you on crack?" Lauren repeated as she leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees. "Because, if you are on crack, then that would explain the stupid assed fucking thing you just told me. I would say, 'Mmkay, Joeys on crack, so that's why he's so stupid.' So please, for my own sanity, please tell me you're on crack."
"I'm not on crack." Joey said.
"Damn it, Joey!" Lauren yelled, exasperated. "You don't seem to understand the fundamentals of the 'Joey is on Crack' idea, here."
"No, I understand, but I'm not on crack." Joey defended. "I'm serious."
Lauren didn't respond. She merely sat back on the couch, and began chewing her nails. She always did that when she was stressed, nervous or anxious.
Justin just sat there, the same stupid expression on his face as if he didn't quite understand what they had explained to him.
His hand to his mouth, a finger pressed to his lips, his eyes squinted as if in deep thought.
"Justin?" Lois said, finally acknowledging him. "Are you going to say anything?"
Justin sighed, leaning forward to speak. Opening his mouth, Laurens voice came out.
"This is the stupidest fucking thing I think you two have ever bet on!" she squealed. "Do you know that? Do you even understand that? And ya'll bet on stupid fucking things all the fucking time. STUPID THINGS! Like the time you stuck you're head in the hole in the wall!" she said, looking over at Joey.
"Hey!" he whined. "She said there was a surprise in there!"
"Okay, wait! There was a whole story behind that one!" Lois defended. "I said 'Would you stick your head in a hole in the wall?' Joey looked at me like I was crazy,"
"I always look at you like that." he interrupted.
Lois pinched him and continued. "So, he was all 'No, it'd be nerve wracking'. So then I said 'Yeah it'd be nerve wracking, but what if you see something really awesome? Like Lance having a staring contest with JC or something. How much would that rock? Now wouldn't you be glad you stuck your head in that hole?' Again, he looked at me like I was on crack."
Lauren just stared at her cousin as she listened to her ramble. Did Lois even listen to herself when she did that?
"Besides, it wasn't my fault that he actually did it!" she said.
"It was too!" Joey yelled, turning to give Lois a shocked look. "You told me to!"
"I did not!" she yelled back. "I just said, 'Ooh! Lookie! A hole in the wall.' You went and stuck your head in there! I mean, com'on. One day you could just be walking along and oh my, there's a wall with a big gaping hole in it! What do you do? Look in it! It's an everyday scenario. It happens all the time."
How did they get to this? Lauren wondered. One minute, they were talking about this bet Lois and Joey had decided upon, and now they were talking about sticking their heads in holes in the wall. Why did she hang out with these people?
As Joey and Lois continued to bicker on who made who stick their head in a hole in the wall, Lauren pondered.
Why would they even want to go through with a bet like this? It wasn't just their stupidity involved this time. They would be involving other people. Other people who's emotions would become involved. Other people who may get hurt, and that was not something Lauren was comfortable with.
"Lauren?" Justin said, leaning his body closer to hers.
Lauren looked up, and noticed that Lois and Joey were still fighting. "What?" she asked, looking at Justin.
"Do you think we should let them do this?" he asked, keeping his voice low. Not that it mattered. Lois was too busy trying to explain the time she stuck her head in a hole in a car roof and her dad had to cut her out.
"I don't know." Lauren said. "I mean, knowing them, they are just going to go and do it whether we agree to take part or not. Once they get something in their heads, it would take the jaws of life to get it out."
"But at least if we are involved, we can keep track of things, and make sure nothing gets out of hand. We can be the rule makers, in a way. We wont let them get away with anything." Justin explained, leaning his back against the couch.
Justin was right. No matter what they said, Lois and Joey would do what they wanted. They always did. That was how they got themselves into some of the situations they did. They had a gift for getting themselves in trouble.
Supervising them sounded a little stupid, but knowing them, it would be completely necessary. They were like children; you leave them alone, they will tear the house apart. If you are there, even if your not watching them constantly, they will be better behaved just knowing that you are there.
She hated the idea of them going through with this, but at least if she and Justin were involved, nothing would get out of hand. They would make sure to set down some ground rules of their own to this little plan, that would have to be followed or else the entire thing would be called off.
"Lauren?" Justin whispered, trying to get her attention back.
"Yeah?" she said, her eyes darting to his.
"What do you think?" he said.
Lauren sighed. She didn't like this. Not one bit. But there wasn't much she could do other than go along with it.
For now, anyway.
"Okay." she said. "We keep an eye on them. But we are going to have to set some rules of our own, or else this thing is not going to happen. I don't care if I have to lock Lois in her room, or have JC tie her up like the time she wanted to streak down Times Square. Okay?"
"Fine." Justin nodded in agreement.
Looking back to Lois and Joey, Lauren rolled her eyes when she saw that they were still arguing over the stupid hole in the wall.
"Guys." she said, trying to get their attention.
They continued to fight.
"GUYS!" she yelled.
They immediately stopped arguing to look over at her in surprise.
"What?" they asked in unison.
"Okay."
"Okay what?" Joey asked, his face confused.
"Okay, Justin and I will go along with this." Lauren explained.
Joey and Lois smiled happily, both their minds racing with ideas to win the bet.
"On one condition." Lauren added, causing both Joey and Lois to groan. "We have a few rules of our own."
Sighing, Lois agreed. "Okay. That's only fair."
"Okay. First, is there a time limit on your little bet?"
"Yeah," Joey answered. "One month."
"Okay. So, after one month, no matter what is going on, the bet is off. No excuses. Agreed?" Lauren asked, looking between the two.
They nodded.
"Second, if either Justin or I for one second think that things are getting out of hand, or that someone is going to get hurt, this is over. Do you understand me? This is over!"
Again, they nodded.
"Now, Ill be watching Joey and Justin watching Lois. We will be telling each other what's going on, so don't think that you can get away with anything. Lois, if you do something that you know I wouldn't approve of, let me tell you right now that Justin will tell me! So don't bother even doing it if you know I'm going to just end up kicking your ass. And also remember, that we live in the same apartment, so I will have a pretty good idea of what's going on with your little experiment."
"Fine." she agreed.
"I have a question." Justin interjected, raising his hand in the air like a child in a classroom.
"What, Justin." Lauren asked, turning to him annoyed.
"Um, I was just wondering what constitutes a win? Like, what makes the winner?" he asked, fumbling with his hands under the stare Lauren was directing at him.
Lauren turned to Joey and Lois to answer this question.
Honestly, they hadn't really agreed on that. They had sort of just thrown this together in the heat of the moment, and hadn't really set out ground rules. They had never really had a bet of this magnitude before, and there were probably a million scenarios that would arise that they would never even think of.
"Well, I guess whoever is furthest along in their relationship with the person." Lois answered Justin's question. "I mean, how about we kind of keep score. We set out certain events and stuff that usually occur in a relationship, and see what happens. Does that even make sense?"
"None of this makes sense," Lauren shook her head. "But yes, I understand what you mean, and that sounds good. We'll figure that out later."
"I have another question." Justin said, again raising his hand.
"What?"
"Um, okay," he cleared his throat, now that all three of his friends were looking at him annoyed. "What if one of them actually starts to like the person. Like, what if a REAL relationship starts up. Wont that screw things up?"
Again, Lauren turned to Lois and Joey.
Yet again, they hadn't thought of this possibility.
"Well," Lois said, clearing her throat. "Then the bet would be off. The moment that one of us feels something real for the person, then the bet has to end. We wouldn't want things to be ruined for each other because of a stupid bet, right?" she directed the final part of the answer to Joey.
He nodded. "Yeah. That sounds good to me."
Lauren nodded. "So, everyone agree? No one has any problems with any of this, other than the fact that I am completely against this idea from the start, let me tell you that!" Turning to Justin, Lauren sighed. "Anymore questions, J?"
Justin pondered for a moment before shaking his head. "Nope. I'm good."
"Okay, then." Lauren nodded, looking back to Lois and Joey. "We'll come up with more rules and guidelines tomorrow. Something like this is going to have to have rules, ya'll. I mean it, I don't like this idea one bit, but its better that Justin and I are watching you rather than the two of you running off out of control."
Lois and Joey looked down at their hands like children getting reprimanded.
Sighing, Lauren did the same. "So," she spoke. "Who are the unlucky participants?"
