THE DOCKS
Joey noticed a familiar form sitting on a bench near the docks. It was Pacey. She hadn't spoken with him in a while so she decided to see what he was up to.
"You're going to have to develop a better work ethic," she started, coming up behind him. "Keep this up and you're never going to pass biology."
His lack of response surprised her until she came around to see his face. Something was definitely wrong.
"Hey," he mustered.
"I haven't seen you in a while. What have you been up to?" she queried.
"Not much."
"No offense but you look like hell."
He laughed shortly. "Leave it to you to tell it like it is."
She sat down next to him. "What happened?"
"Andie and I have been having problems."
"What kind of problems?"
"Oh, we just have different needs. I need her. She doesn't think I do, at least not now, now that I've got my shit together. And she apparently doesn't need me, or want to need me, or some such nonsense that I have given up trying to understand. Bottom line, we broke up."
"God, I'm really sorry."
"Yeah. It sucks all right."
"Is there anything I can do?"
He laughed again. "Boy this is ironic, huh? I tried to help you out when you and Dawson broke up and now look at how the tables are turned."
Remembering what Pacey did to help her, she stood up and grabbed his hand.
"Stand up," she commanded.
"What?"
"Get up. It's too hard to do this sitting down."
Curious, he stood up. "Too hard to do what?" But before he could get his sentence out she had wrapped her arms around him in a hug. Smiling in remembrance, he hugged her back. After several minutes, he pulled back and looked down at her.
"Thank you."
"That's what friends are for."
"You're not going to break out into song are you?"
Thinking the same thing, she immediately took her cue and dramatically began singing.
"In good times, in bad times, I'll be on your side forevermore. That's what friends are for…"
She stopped to see a smiling Pacey.
"You've gotta stay off the drugs, Joey."
"Very funny. Was I that bad?"
"No. It's just scary. You're starting to act like me."
"You're right. That is scary. I think there are medications for that though," she teased. "At least you're smiling."
"Yeah, but I'm falling apart on the inside. I can't stop thinking about her."
He sat back down.
"I know how you feel. When Dawson and I broke up, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I thought I had made a huge mistake. I didn't think I'd ever stop feeling so miserable. Then one day, I went through the entire day feeling like something wasn't right, something had changed, and I was right. I hadn't thought about Dawson the entire day. I didn't feel so lousy anymore. It made me feel strong that I made it to that point. Unless, of course, I'm still in denial, but I don't think so. I think I'm finally ready to move on. I think Dawson and I can now work on being good friends again."
"That's great. Unfortunately, I don't think Dawson has hit that happy point yet. I talked to him last night. He's still a mess."
"I'll guess I'll just have to wait then." She pondered that a moment before continuing. "In the meantime, maybe I can help out you, if you want me to."
"Help with what?"
"Well, the first question is, do you want to get back together with Andie?"
"I'd love to but I don't think…"
"Leave the thinking up to me," she interrupted. "I'll talk to Andie."
"Seriously, Jo? You'd do that for me?"
"Do I have to start singing again?"
"No, please. Save it for the telethon." They both laughed.
"Ok then. I'll talk with her."
Pacey smiled thoughtfully at her. "Have I told lately how great you are?"
"Not lately, no."
"You're great."
Joey rolled her eyes. "Enough with the compliments. I said I'd talk to her. But right now I have got to go study for our biology midterm. I'll see you later." She said and started walking away from him.
"Ok, see ya."
CAPESIDE HIGH SCHOOL
A couple days have gone by since Pacey and Joey spoke. Students were leaving for the day. Joey was walking toward the exit with her bag in hand when she spied Andie gathering her books from her locker and putting them in her bag. Joey paused for a second then figured it was as good a time as any to talk to her.
"Hey, Andie."
"Oh, hey, Joey. How are things with you?" Andie didn't seem too happy and continued packing her books in her bag.
"Pretty good. How are you doing?"
"I'm doing all right."
"No offense, but you don't seem to be your chipper self."
Andie finally closed her locker and turned to look directly at Joey.
"Pacey and I broke up."
"Yeah, I heard. I'm sorry."
"Thanks. I hope that won't make it awkward between us."
"Please, I thought you would have dumped the little weasel a long time ago," Joey caught herself. "I mean, no, of course not. If you want to talk about it…"
They both started walking down the hallway to leave school.
"I don't know what there is to talk about."
"Well, I'm guessing by the way you're acting that you didn't exactly want to break up with him."
"No, I didn't, but our relationship was just based on something that I don't think a relationship should be based on."
"What? Sex?"
"No. Need. He needed me to push him to do his homework and build up his self-esteem. I needed him to help me deal with some problems in my family."
"Well, that's great then. You compliment each other."
"Maybe, but it's time we both grew up and learned to find a better way to deal with these things. We've become too dependent on each other. We can't always be the kind of person that the other needs. It's not fair." She stopped and closed her eyes, sighing. "It's not that I don't love him. I do. It's just that I think I've hit a point in my life where it's time to make some big decisions. I need some time to do that on my own." She opened her eyes and looked back at Joey. "I think he does too."
Andie started walking again. Not knowing how to respond, Joey didn't follow her.
JOEY'S HOUSE
Lost in thought, Joey didn't notice Pacey sitting on her porch steps until she was almost to them. He popped up excitedly to meet her. Needless to say, she was a little less excited to see him.
"Man, Joey, you took long enough to get home. I've been trying to take that as a good sign. I saw you talking to Andie and I ran all the way here to wait for you and see how it went. So, how did it go?" He looked at her expectantly.
Joey didn't know what to say. She felt like she had betrayed him by silently agreeing with Andie's reasons for their breakup. Pacey was waiting for her to say something.
"Joey? Come on, what happened?"
"She still wants to be friends."
Pacey's face fell. "What did you say to her?"
"I just asked her why you guys broke up."
"I thought you were going to try changing her mind?"
"Pacey, what she said made sense."
Pacey was stunned. He didn't foresee this turn of events. He thought Joey could get him and Andie back together. He wanted to believe that so bad. He knew that Andie had made sense, which was why he couldn't get mad at her. However, he now had someone to be mad at.
"What are you talking about, Joey? You agreed with her?"
"It just sounds like you guys became a little too dependent on each other. You both need time to grow and experience life away from each other for a while."
"What do you know about it? You act as enabler to Dawson and suddenly you're an expert?"
"I'm just saying it made sense to me, but yeah, I could relate."
"I can't believe this."
"Pacey, we're just sophomores. Life is pretty much just starting out for us. A lot of big decisions need to be made about our futures and we have to make them for ourselves. Unfortunately, being a teenager doesn't help a whole lot. It's all about hormones and rebelling and trying to find something to wear. We don't always make the best decisions but we have to live with them and try to learn from them."
Pacey stood fuming silently.
"Pacey, I'm sorry."
"No, Jo, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for having trusted you with my feelings only to have them cast aside by some feminine psychological dogma. We may all be just a bunch of hormone-driven high schoolers but it doesn't make my feelings any less real."
He quickly turned and stalked away. Joey felt terrible. She was upset because she didn't think she deserved his anger but at the same time she also felt that she had let him down. She watched him until he disappeared and then she went inside.
Later that night, Joey was trying to do her homework but was distracted by the day's events. She needed to talk to someone. Dawson was out of the question. She already talked to Andie once and that's how she got into the situation in the first place so that was out. She thought of Jen but they have never been on the friendliest of terms. Too bad Bessie wasn't home. Even Alex wasn't around to bounce her thoughts off of. Truth be told, Pacey would have been the person she would have gone to in a situation like this. That was the saddest realization of all. She should have never gotten involved.
As if on cue, a light rapping could be heard at the door. Joey got up to answer it and was surprised to see the person she was just thinking about staring at her through the screen.
"Pacey?"
"Hey, Jo. Can I come in?" he asked quietly.
"Sure." She opened the door for him. He wandered in and stood uncomfortably avoiding her eyes.
"I just wanted to say how sorry I am for today. I meant what I said about my feelings. It was just unfair of me to take them out on you."
"I'm sorry too."
He looked quizzically at her. "What for?"
"I shouldn't have gotten involved. I just wanted to help."
"I know and you don't know how much I appreciate that. That's why I had to come over and apologize. I don't want to hurt our friendship over something so stupid. I was stupid."
Joey shook her head. "Can't we just forget about it?"
"I think that's a good idea." He smiled briefly. "Well, that's all I needed to say. I guess I'll leave you to your homework." He headed for the door.
"Hey Pace?" Joey called and he turned back to her. "I think I've had enough studying for tonight. Would you like to maybe go for a row down the creek?"
"I'd like that."
THE CREEK
The sky was perfectly clear. The crescent moon reflected off the still waters. They drifted silently, wherever the current wanted to take them. They hadn't spoken since they set off from the dock. It was a comfortable silence though, each with their own thoughts, staring off into the darkness.
"What are you thinking about?" asked Pacey quietly.
"Grilled cheese." He turned with an amused look on his face. "What?
“I'm hungry. What are you thinking about?"
"Andie."
Joey rolled her eyes.
"Don't give me that look," he said.
"I didn't give it to you. You were born with it."
"Maybe I'm born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline."
Joey chuckled. "Can we not talk about Andie or Dawson or any other angst-ridden topic?"
"That certainly limits our topics of conversation."
"Come on, there are lots of things we can talk about."
"I'll take 'Russian Czars' for a thousand, Alex."
Joey just glared at him. "Never mind."
"You give up too easy, Jo. So, have you done anymore drawing lately?"
"Actually, yeah, I've been trying to do some painting too. I've painted this boat a couple of times."
"Really?" He glanced over the edge of the boat. "I think it could've used another coat."
"Very funny. It works pretty well as a subject though, turned over on the grass. I try to paint it at different times of the day to catch the different shadows and colors."
"Like Monet's haystacks?"
Joey was surprised at his apparent knowledge of art. "They're actually grainstacks, but yeah. How do you know about Monet?"
"Sixth grade field trip. Mrs. Charles took us to Boston to see his exhibit, remember?"
"Yeah, I'm just surprised that you do?"
"I'll admit, I did think it was pretty boring. I do remember it though." A mischievous grin crossed his face. "In fact, I also seem to remember that a certain young lady slipped and fell in one of the galleries."
"Oh my God." Joey covered her eyes. "That was so humiliating. I had forgotten all about that. Everybody turned and laughed at me, even the guard."
"Well, it was funny. Your shoe flew off and hit that lady with the headphones."
"Thanks Pace. Any other repressed memories you want to make me recall?"
Pacey just chuckled. They sat quietly again.
"Speaking of our childhood, you know what this reminds me of?" asked Joey.
"What?"
"That story about the creek. How did it go?"
"What story?"
"It was in grade school when we were learning about the history of Capeside. There was that story about the creek."
"I don't remember a story."
"It was about how the first settlers came here and had a hard time getting enough food for everyone. There didn't seem to be any fish. They'd row out into the creek every night hoping to catch something. They finally asked the Indians for help. The Indians did some sort of fish dance and they caught tons of fish."
"A fish dance?" asked Pacey skeptically.
"I was just a little kid. I don't remember exactly how it goes. You don't remember it?"
"Fish dance," he muttered, shaking his head.
Joey looked over the side of the boat and into the water.
"Holy cow, there's a fish down there."
"There's no fish down there."
"Yes, there is. Look for yourself."
He got up and squatted next to her looking over the side of the boat. He leaned a little forward to see if he could see through the dark water. "I don't see any…" At that moment, Joey gave him a big shove and pushed him into the water. He surfaced a short distance away only to find her laughing.
"You make a better painter than a storyteller," he said, spitting out water.
"Reeled you in, didn't I?" she laughed.
"You realize what this means, of course." He grabbed the side of the boat.
"Don't you dare."
"Oh, I dare." He brought the side of the boat down so quickly that it launched Joey into the water. She surfaced a few yards away. He managed to get himself back into the boat as she swam over.
"Great. We're even. Can you help me up?"
"I'm not sure what the settlers would have done in a situation like this? Maybe I should go ask the Indians."
"Please, Pacey. I'm cold."
Pacey tried to keep as much weight on the opposite side of the boat and pull her in as well. Not the easiest of tasks.
"All right. On the count of three. One, two, three." With one quick motion she flew into the boat and found herself sprawled on top of him. Her face lay against his chest. They lay still for a moment, both a little exhausted from the exertion. Slowly she raised her head to look into his eyes. He stared back, shaking his head.
"Fish dance. I can't believe I fell for that."
She laughed and crawled off of him to a seat.
"Come on, Kemosabe. It's time to head home."
She grabbed the oars.
"Yeah, it's been a long day. You want me to row, Jo?"
"No, I got it." She started rowing towards the shore.
She noticed him looking strangely at her. "What's wrong?"
"You. I don't think I've ever seen you in as good a mood as you've been lately. I was just wondering what the cause was. Was your relationship with Dawson that horrible?"
"No, of course not. I don't know what it is. It's not like I'm completely happy or anything. I'm not. I've been pretty lonely. But I guess I've just realized that that's part of the process. I can't be happy all the time so I've stopped trying. I used to think, 'I feel sad, my life's horrible'. Now I just think, 'I feel sad, oh well'. Then I wait for the next emotion to take its place. It's a strange thing, but yeah, I've never felt better. Your jokes even seem funny to me."
"Ouch."
"Are you still thinking about Andie?"
"Yeah. Does your new philosophy happen to offer a twelve-step program?"
"As a matter of fact, it does, and stop number one just happens to be…..rowing. I'm getting tired."
He smiled as she handed the oars over to him.
"Home, Jeeves."
"Yes, Miss Daisy."
