Pacey bounded down the stairs, backpack swung over his shoulder. He glanced down at his watch and realized he wouldn't have time for breakfast. He sighed as he made his way toward the front door.

"Pacey?" His father's voice called from the kitchen. "Can you come in here for a sec?"

"Great," Pacey muttered to himself, heading to the kitchen. "What did I do now?"

He walked into the kitchen to find his father and mother seated at the table.

"Dad, I'm going to be late--"

"I'll write you a note," his father said. "We need to talk."

"Just sit down, honey," his mother gestured toward the seat between her and her husband.

"What is it?" Pacey asked, alarmed, sitting at the table next to his parents. "Did something happen to--"

"Nothing's wrong, Pacey," his mother reassured.

"We were just talking to Aunt Grace," Pacey's dad began to explain,"and she proposed something I think you should consider..."

Joey stood at her locker, filling her backpack with all the neccessary books and binders. She had actually gotten a good start that morning, and was a in a fairly good mood until she felt a tapping on her shoulder. She prepared an insult as she shut her locker and turned around, expecting to see Pacey, but instead found Dawson.

"Dawson, hey," she said, surprised.

"Hey," Dawson greeted. "You look fairly shocked to see me."

"Well, to be honest, I am," she admitted, zipping up her backpack. "I was expecting Pacey with a smart-ass comment about my life and lack thereof."

Dawson chuckled, and the two walked down the hallway together toward their homerooms.

"Speaking of Pacey, have you talked to him lately?"

Joey shook her head. "Not since my birthday. I just figured he was under house arrest until further notice."

"But you guys work together at the Icehouse."

"Well, when Sarah quit, the shifts got moved around so that service wouldn't be stalled until we find a replacement. Pacey usually works afternoons, and I'm mostly on the night shift," Joey explained. "Why? Is there something wrong?"

"I hope not. It's just...I barely see him. It's like he's practically disappeared."

"Well, since he doesn't exactly fall under the category in which one can blame it on PMS," Joey said," something's probably up. Have you tried actually talking to him?"

"I think the better question is if I've tried finding him," Dawson replied.

"What about marine bio?"

Dawson shrugged. "Whenever I attempt to talk to Pacey, he finds some excuse to be on the other side of the room. It's odd. Strange, even. It's like he's ignoring me."

"What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything. At least, I don't think I did."

"Nah, you probably didn't," Joey pondered. "You're way too self-conscious to forget if you've hurt someone emotionally. I don't think you even could."

"I think this is where you insert the words 'tragically nice' into our conversation."

"Here you go, Dawson," Pacey said as he placed a seafood platter before him.

"Hey, where are you going?" Dawson said as Pacey began to walk away from him. Dawson gestured toward the seat next to him. "Sit down. Chill for a while."

"Can't. Got to hit some more tables."

"C'mon," Dawson persisted. "A few minutes with your dearest, oldest friend."

"All right," Pacey sighed, sitting down at the table. "So, what's up?"

"Well, it's been a while since I've seen you around, and since you're my best friend, I'm mildly curious what you've been up to."

"Dawson, we live in suburbia. Nothing happens here, hence, nothing happens to me. Nothing interesting for average standards, that is."

"Okay..." Dawson said, unsatisfied with Pacey's response. "...guess I'm going to have to be more direct." He took a deep breath before asking the question that had been pestering him for quite a while now. "Pacey, what is up with you? What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," he answered. "What makes you think anything is wrong?"

"Well, let's see," Dawson began,"for the past few weeks you've been hiding behind your school books, spending more time in the library than I'm sure Ms. Tringle does, and taken an amazing interest on the quality of your homework when a month ago you could care less about your GPA and lack thereof. So either you're a project for Mulder and Scully or--" He stopped as an idea entered his mind, and he suddenly he felt as if he knew what was going on.

"Or what?" Pacey waited for Dawson to continue.

"There's a girl. That's it. There's a girl, isn't there?"

Pacey rolled his eyes. "Please, Dawson..."

"Who is she?" he asked.

"There is no girl, Dawson," Pacey told him. "You're jumping to conclusions, as usual."

"Pacey, c'mon," he said, not believing him. "You can tell me."

"I can't tell you because there is nothing to tell."

"Oh, please, Pacey, don't tell me it's another teacher."

"She's not a teacher," the words flew out of Pacey's mouth before he realized he had said them.

"Aha!" Dawson said triumphantly. "So there is a a girl!"

Pacey quickly stood up. "Break's over. Gotta go." He walked away from Dawson's table.

"Just a name, Pace," Dawson persisted, getting up and following him. "That's all I'm asking for."

"Look, Dawson, it doesn't matter, okay?" Pacey replied, annoyed, as he began to clean off a table.

"On the contrary," Dawson argued. "It matters a great deal."

Pacey stopped transferring the dirty plates onto the tray, and looked at Dawson. "Not when she's in love with another guy and not me."

Dawson appeared taken aback for a moment, and quickly felt a pang of guilt for stubbornly pursuing the answer to his question. "Pace, I'm so--"

"Don't worry about it," he waved it off, moving the last of the plates. "Let's just drop it. Subject closed."

Joey's head appeared in the window. "Hey."

"Hey," Dawson said to her as she climbed into his bedroom.

"What's with the frown?" Joey asked as she sat down on the bed next to him.

Dawson sighed and looked away. "I just solved the case of Pacey and the Disappearing Act."

"Congratulations, Nancy Drew." She picked up the ET doll and started to play with it. "So, what had Mr. Witter moping this time around?"

"Basically,"Dawson began slowly,"he's fallen for someone who doesn't return his feelings..at least not to him. The same, old bittersweet and tragic storyline. Guy loves girl...girl loves another guy."

Joey was somewhat stunned. Pacey had not mentioned the name of any potential love interest to her. But then again, they were just beginning to truly be "friends". Maybe they weren't at the stage where they talked to each other about relationships. Still, she was a little hurt that he hadn't brought it up with her.

"So this girl...she have a name?" she asked, trying to sound and appear as indifferent as possible.

"Pacey wasn't exactly generous with the details..." Dawson paused and looked back at her before continuing,"....but I was hoping that you could do the dirty work and pry them out of him."

Joey's eyebrows knitted in confusion. "Why me?"

"I don't know..." Dawson shrugged. "You guys seem pretty close now. And I know, no matter how much you deny it, you're just as concerned about Pacey as I am."

Pacey was sitting at the docks, looking toward the ocean that lay in front of him. But its vastness and beauty did not distract him from the various thoughts that had overflowed his brain that day...that week.

It had been exactly six days when he had realized how much Joey Potter truly meant to him. A month ago, she was just Joey, this stubborn smart-aleck, a girl he had known since preschool. Now, suddenly, she was a woman that he couldn't ignore. And a beautiful one, at that.

But he attempted to ignore her anyway. He had done so successfully for the past week: asking Bessie to change his shifts due to scheduling conflicts, and he knew she would agree with Sarah gone and there already being a lack of help around the Icehouse; hiding down in the library during lunch hour to avoid a potential meeting in the cafeteria; and fulling concentrating on Mr. Conway's lectures during European history so he wouldn't be tempted to look in her direction.

Pacey thought if he stayed away from her long enough his feelings would dissolve. And he did manage to stay away for almost a complete week. The emotions stayed put however. To be brutally honest, he felt as if they weren't going anywhere.

Why he was trying to rid his feelings for her is something you might ask. First of all, Pacey knew he had no chance with Joey Potter, not with Dawson in the picture; why bother? He would just get rejected. Second....if, by some slim chance, a relationship did emerge, he knew she would never be completely happy. And he wanted to her to be. There is also the fact that he wouldn't be able to bare to see the "happy couple" together; it would only remind him of what he was missing out on, thus deepening the hole that always seemed to exist in heart.

Pacey always knew the only way to "escape" the problem was to...well...actually escape Capeside, which was something he wanted to do for a significant portion of his life anyway. Geography was perhaps the best solution to diminishing the love triangle that only he knows of. But an opportunity to change scenery wasn't exactly provided...

Until now.

"Is this seat taken?" A familiar voice interrupted his thoughts. His head swiveled around to see Joey behind him.

"No." Pacey moved over to let Joey sit next to him. "What's up?"

"Not much," Joey answered, sitting down. "How are you? Things okay? Everything all right?"

Pacey sighed in frustration, focusing his eyes back onto the Atlantic Ocean. "Go ahead and ask me."

"Ask you what?" Joey replied, trying to sound oblivious.

"Don't play dumb with me, Jo. You're too smart for that."

Joey exhaled slowly. "I hear there's a girl pulling at your heartstrings," she said to him. "Care to elaborate?"

Pacey chuckled bitterly. "Dawson Leery strikes again."

"He's just concerned about your well-being, Pacey," Joey tried to explain. "He is your best friend after all. If he didn't show any interest in the way you've been acting lately, I would be worried about him, too."

"Too?" Pacey let his eyes wander back to hers.

"Yeah, that's right, Pacey, I care about you, whether I like it or not," Joey admitted. "So, about this girl..."

"You know, I really don't feel like discussing that particular subject right now," Pacey told her, looking away again.

"Well, at least, give me the name so I can go beat her up," she tried to lighten the mood.

A small smile appeared, but he still refused to look in her direction. "That's awfully sweet of you, Jo, but you should've learned by now through watching all those movies with hidden moral lessons with Dawson that violence doesn't make problems go away."

"If you suffocate them long enough, they will eventually."

Pacey laughed. "But then you'd eventually wind up with a court date and an unavoidable death sentence."

"Not unless I get caught," Joey replied, grinning.

"I appreciate the thought, but...." his voice drifted off as the mood quickly became somber again and an awkward pause developed.

"She doesn't deserve you,"she said quietly.

"She deserves better."

"No, that's not what I meant, despite all my past negative comments about...well, basically, you in general. You're a great person, Pacey--"

"Oh, please, don't get started with all that 'you're-a-wonderful-guy' crap," he interrupted her, inwardly groaning. "I'm not in the mood."

"I know you're probably not used to being complimented by me...but I'm telling you the truth. I would never lie to you about this. Maybe occasionally attempt to make a somewhat witty remark about it, but never--"

"Look, I know you would never lie to me. But the truth is..." Pacey stopped to find the appropriate words. "When it comes to the whole 'deserving' aspect of the relationship...I don't deserve her. She's smart, beautiful, great sense of humor...basically perfect. And I'm as imperfect as they come. I'd never measure up to guys like Dawson."

"What does Dawson have to do with this?" Joey questioned.

More than you think, he thought to himself. "I'm just using an example to make my point." He stood up to leave. "Look, I gotta get home before Daddy dearest and Deputy Doug start renting out my room."

"Pacey--"

"I don't wan't to talk about it, all right? Is that so difficult to understand?"

"You have to tell her, Pacey," Jen tried to convince him.

"You know, this is the part where I say that I regret ever confiding in you," Pacey said, wiping off the counter.

"Then why did you?" Jen asked.

"I had to tell someone. Otherwise I would explode," Pacey explained. "One can only hold a potentially life-altering secret to themselves for a certain amount of time before internally combusting."

"You want to know what I think?"

"Not particularly," Pacey responded. "But I have a feeling you're going to tell me anyway."

"I think you told me about your feelings for Joey because your subconscious wants you to actually do something about it," Jen said to him. "I mean, c'mon, Pacey. If someone else was in your situation, how could they even consider confiding in Dawson's ex-girlfriend, who, first of all, happens to want him back and to have Joey 'occupied', so to speak? There's no logic to it."

"You've known me long enough to say that I'm not a very logical person. I can throw some examples at you right now. Well, let's see, you already know about Miss Jacobs. There's also--"

"Cut the crap, Pacey," she interrupted him. "Tell her."

Joey watched them argue through a side window of the Icehouse. She had no idea what they were saying, but she felt that she had a pretty good idea what was going on.

"It all makes sense now," Joey told Dawson. "Pacey is in love with Jen who's in love with you. It all fits."

"I don't know, Joey," Dawson said, shifting on the bed. "There's something not right. There's something we're missing."

"What are we missing? Everything fits together perfectly." Joey spat paced around the room. "You know, it figures that Jen's Mystery Girl. But I still can't figure out what Pacey would see in Jen, no offense, Dawson. Besides blonde hair, big boobs, and pouty lips, there's--" She stopped in her tracks when she caught Dawson's amused look. "What?"

"It's just that...this being based on your behavior at the moment...it seems as if you care about Pacey much more than I thought...more than you think, even."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Joey asked, starting to get defensive.

Dawson paused before replying, studying her distraught face. "Joey, are you in love with him?"

"Dawson! Where'd you pull that out from? Pacey?! God! I think you've lived in that fantasy world of yours so long that you've lost a grip on reality."

"And what is the reality, Joey?" Dawson asked.

"The reality is that Pacey and I mean nothing to each other romantically. Nothing."

"Really?" Dawson stood up to look eye-to-eye with her. "Then, Joey...I want you to look me in the eye and tell me why you're so envious of Jen."

"I am not envious!" Joey exclaimed.

"Then why do you look like you want to strangle someone?"

"Because you keep on asking me stupid, pointless, aggravating questions!"

"No. That's not it. It's the fact that you are extremely uncomfortable with answering those questions. And it wouldn't be so hard to answer unless you started to admit something to yourself."

"And what am I not admitting to myself, Dawson?" Joey glared at him.

"That you like Pacey more than you'd like. A lot more than you'd like."

"Dawson..." Joey shook her head, and began to calm down. "This is so stupid. You're making something out of nothing."

"Well, that's what film-makers do. But I have a feeling that there was 'something' before I even became conscious of it. Am I right, Joey?"

She stared out the window. "I wish you were wrong."

"But I'm not, am I?"

She turned to look at him again, and sighed. "No."

She saw him at the docks again, in the same posistion as he was yesterday and three weeks prior. She exhaled slowly, and forced her feet to walk up behind him.

"We have to stop meeting like this," Joey said to him.

Pacey did not have to turn around for her to see that he was smiling. "I don't know...I think the nostalgic side of me rather enjoys it."

Joey sat down next to him, and for a moment, no one said anything. It was a rather comfortable silence, the two of them watching the sun slowly fall. It was then that she realized that she couldn't put it off any longer. She took another deep breath before beginning. "Pacey?"

He took his eyes away from the sunset. "Yeah?"

"The deal we made, a couple weeks ago..." her voice drifted off, and she looked away uncomfortably.

"What about it?"

"I have to break it off."

"Did Dawson--"

"No, it...it has nothing to do with him. Not anymore." Joey tried to find the best words to explain. "I have to give up on the whole 'Dawson' scenario. I--"

"Joey, don't--"

"Listen, just let me talk, all right?" Joey said to him. "I have to give up on it because I've moved on--"

"Moved on?" Pacey asked, incredulous. "To who? You possibly couldn't do better that Dawson Leery."

"Will you please just let me talk before my conscience kicks in?" Joey said in frustration. She continued,"Dawson is a great guy, one of the best guys that exist on this god-forsaken planet, but he's my friend, and only my friend. Nothing more. And I've accepted that now. Maybe even realized that I wasn't in love with him in the first place, that I was just competing with Jen for his attention, the attention I was so used to because, besides his mother, I was the only female in his life before she came along. I don't know..."

"Look, whatever makes you happy," he said, taking her hand in his. "I am totally with you all the way. Hey, that's what friends are for, remember?"

She groaned inwardly at the mention of the word "friends".

"So this other guy...he treat you well?" he questioned, hoping to get a name out of her.

She thought for a moment before answering. "He...he makes me feel...special...and wanted."

"That's always a good sign."

"But I don't think he's conscious of it. You know, the worst part is that I've supposedly moved on yet I find myself in the exact same posistion I was before. I'm in love with him, he's in love with someone else...why do I constantly torture myself?"

"Well, is he worth it?" Pacey asked her. "The torture, I mean."

"More than you think." Joey looked up at him. "But this time around, I'm going to do something about it." She paused again before continuing. "Look, I don't know how to exactly break this to you, 'cause, quite honestly, I'm scared as hell that you are going to react the same way you do when I replay this scene over and over in my head..."

"Joey, just say it. It can't be all that bad."

"I hope not. At least not to you." Another deep breath. "Okay...here goes...." Her voice became nervous and shaky. "...the guy I'm in love with at this moment...the guy who's in love with another girl much to my utter dismay...that guy... is you."

"Me?" he said incredulously.

Joey nodded her head slowly. "Yeah."

There was another silence. And this time it wasn't a comfortable one.

"Can you...say something...react, maybe?" Joey fidgeted.

"I don't know...what..." Pacey stumbled upon his words.

Joey's face took on one of regret as she jumped up to leave. "God, I shouldn't have said anything."

"Joey, wait--" He got up and stood in her path.

"Look, just let me walk away with some dignity left, okay, Pacey?"

"Joey, we need to talk about this--"

"I already know what you're going to say."

"No, you don't--"

"Yes, I do. You're going to look at me with pity, saying as gently as possible so you can take away a small, insignificant portion of the pain that comes with rejection, 'Sorry, Jo, I'm just not interested. You're a great person and all, but I find blondes more attractive, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.' Then you'll say something about how we can still be buddies--"

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute...blondes?"

"Yeah. You know...Jen?"

"What does Jen have to do with this?"

"You don't have to play dumb. I figured it out."

"Figured out what?"

"Jen...the girl who you been moping around because of...the girl who's in love with another guy...Dawson. It was fairly simple to put together."

"Joey...no...you...you got part of the equation wrong. It's not Jen."

Joey looked at him in surprise, and instantly felt even more stupid when she realized her misjudgement. "As if I could look like a bigger idiot right now. Look, I better go before I cause any more damage to my self-image--"

"No, wait, I have to tell you who it is though."

"I don't want to know."

"You need to know. I have to tell you," he practically begged her. "I don't know how to say this exactly..."

"A name will suffice," she mumbled. "Please spare me the details."

"Joey," he said the name.

"What? I'm listening."

"No, you don't understand...I'm in love with Joey...I'm in love with you."

Now it was her turn. "Me?"

"Who else could it possibly be...but you?"

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Why didn't I say anything? Why didn't I say anything?" Pacey almost laughed at the irony. "I think it's fairly obvious why I didn't tell you how I felt, being that it appeared as if you had eyes for no one but your best friend, who also happens to be my best friend, who is the seemingly perfect male specimen who I can't even begin to compare to."

"Pacey, you know that's not true."

Another uncomfortable silence.

Pacey crossed his arms together. "So...what do we do now?"

Joey did not respond...verbally, that is. She stepped closer to him, tilting her head slightly.

As their lips grew closer together, Pacey backed away. "I can't do this."

"But you just said--"

"I know what I just said. I want to do this, but I can't."

"Why not?"

"Dawson--"

"I told you, I'm not in love with Dawson. I never was--"

"No. No. I've seen the way you've looked at him, Joey. You can't say you never were in love with the guy. You also can't say that you stopped being in love with him because you can't just completely stop loving a person. It's not that simple."

"Then what do we do?" Joey asked. "We can't just go back. Run away from this."

"I beg to differ," Pacey replied. "You know my Aunt Grace who lives in Santa Cruz? She said I could go live with her until college. Basically, it's to take me off my parents' hands for a while. Also, it's a chance for me to start over. A completely new life. God, Jo, do you know how great that would be? To just start over?" He sighed. "I have a few days until I have to make a decision."

"It sounds like you already have," Joey said disappointedly.

"Yeah...I guess I have," he admitted. "It will be better this way, Joey. I've been thinking about it for a while. You and Dawson should be together...are meant for each other. I'm standing in the way of a potentially happy ending."

"You don't know if that's true or not."

"You're right, I don't. But you deserve a happily ever after. And I'm fairly certain that I'm not the one who's going to give it to you. I'm not the fairy-tale-kind of guy."

"Pacey--"

"Joey, please just..." He turned around to walk away. "...just let me to do the right thing for once."

And as the sky darkened that dismal night, so did the chances that Joey would see Pacey Witter ever again.

The End of Friendships, Secrets, and Lies
Or is it just the beginning?
One can never tell....