Someone could've cut the tension and awkwardness with a knife, it was so thick in the air between them. Joey felt sick to her stomach with nerves and he was stalling.
Just get it over with, please just do it quick like a Band-Aid, she thought miserably, but she just returned his smile with one of her own that didn't reach her eyes, either. Joey's lips pressed together to keep herself from speaking, because if she started, she'd never stop, and she might say something stupid that she'd regret or wish she could take back. She wouldn't be able to unsay whatever that stupid thing was, if she did.
Joey watched him carefully, waiting for him to finally say something and when he did, Joey sucked her bottom lip in between her teeth, chewing on it. How could it not change anything for them? It was easier when Malia was an idea. When she had no face, no personality; just a name that Stiles said sometimes. Now she was a person — and a prettier one, at that — and that made things harder. Stiles wasn't going to just be able to turn off the feelings he'd had for Malia...and Joey wasn't going to be able to turn off the insecurity that flared and throbbed with Malia's arrival.
"No?" she asked, shifting her weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other.