Runaway
Part 1 in the Sixteen Candles series
by Amanda

Disclaimer: To be honest with you, I don't own DC, "Deep Water," or Time Magazine.

Author's Note: This takes place 3 years after my previous installment. And thoughts, flashbacks, and something to show that a word is being enunciated are in **, so you'll have to figure that one out on your own.

Author's Note #2: (ALL OTHER AUTHORS PLEASE READ): This totally and completely came from my own imagination, so if there's a part of your story that somehow got into mine, it's purely coincidental, so please don't send me hate mail! Someone did it to me and I was completely unaware I had used some of her story in mine, and she was extremely harsh and rude about it. So if you feel the need, please make it non threatening!

---

You find yourself falling down
Your hopes in the sky
But your heart like grape gum on the ground
And you try to find yourself
In the abstractions of religion
And the cruelty of everyone else
And you wake up to realize
Your standard of living somehow got stuck on survive

When you're standing in deep water
And you're bailing yourself out with a straw
And when you're drowning in deep water
And you wake up making love to a wall
Well it's these little times that help to remind
It's nothing without love

You wake up to realize your only friend
Has never been yourself or anyone who cared in the end
That's when suddenly everything fades or falls away
'Cause the chains which once held us are the only chains we've made

When you're standing in deep water
And you're bailing yourself out with a straw
And when you're drowning in deep water
And you wake up making love to a wall
Well it's these little times that help to remind
It's nothing without love, love, love
It's nothing without love
We've compromised
our pride
And sacrificed ourselves
We have to demand more
Not of each other
But more from ourselves
'Cause when you're standing in deep water
And you're bailing yourself out with a straw
And when you're drowning in deep water
And you wake up making love to a wall
Well it's these little times that help to remind
It's nothing without love, love, love
It's nothing without love
It's nothing without love

-"Deep Water"-Jewel

Dawson Leery sighed heavily as he got out of his taxi and walked up to the entrance of Harvard University, where he was going to college. Despite everything that had happened to him in the past 3 years, he was still going to the best university in the country.

Dawson had ran to his grandparent's house in Connecticut, and made them promise not to tell his parent's where he had gone. And he never regretted his decision of leaving his family and friends until now.

Where was Joey? Was she with Jack, had she lived up to her dream of becoming an artist? Had Pacey turned out okay? Was he still blissfully happy with Andie? Was Jen still a party animal? Had his parent's gone through with their divorce? His grandparent's would probably know the answers to some questions or could find out, but he had always been to heartbroken to ask. As he glanced at the building, a startling realization came to Dawson. *I don't know what happened to my parent's mishap of a relationship. I don't know where my friends are, where they're going to college. And I never will.* *But you have to move on. Remember how much it hurt to now that no one cared?* Dawson remembered, alright, but he didn't remember saying goodbye to anyone. In person, that is.

*I have to move on. I'm here to start a new life. And that's what I'm going to do,* Dawson decided. He took one look back at the curb, and walked into the building. And he vowed it would be his last time looking back at anything.

**********

Josephine Potter got out of her friend Pacey Witter's car. His girlfriend, Andie McPhee, was quick to follow.

"I wonder where Dawson's going," she pondered to her two best friends.

"He's not coming back, Jo. He never had any intention to come back," Pacey replied, although he was as remorseful as she was. If he had only remembered what day it was. If *everyone* had only remembered it was Dawson Leery's 16th birthday.

It had been 3 years since Dawson left the note on his bed. Joey had kept it and it was now stained with tears. She had looked at it so many times, the exact wording and Dawson's writing were now engraved in her mind. Joey closed her eyes, remembering...

* "Hello?" Joey picked the phone.

"Oh, God, Joey, oh God," Mrs. Leery wailed. "How could I have forgotten? He's my only son, my pride and joy, my reason for living!"

"What's wrong, Mrs. Leery?" Joey asked, genuinely concerned.

"Dawson ran away, Joey, because everyone forgot his birthday," Mrs. Leery sobbed.

Joey collapsed on the couch in shock. She had forgotten her best friend's birthday. Dawson was her best friend in the world, and she forgot his birthday.

"I'll be right over, don't worry," Joey reassured Mrs. Leery.

"Okay, Joey. Goodbye."

Joey rushed over to the Leery household where she found Mrs. Leery clutching a piece of paper on the porch.

"Here, read it," Mrs. Leery ordered, handing Joey the note.

Joey's heart broke in two as her eyes befell the note.

Dear Mom, or anyone else who reads this,
You know, it's funny. Everyone always tried to convinced me I had this perfect life, just as everything began to fall apart. My parents decided to have an open relationship, and Joey dumped me. And when I need someone to lean on when my parent's announce their divorce, Joey deserts me and leaves me isolated in the world of reality.
Then this. On the most important day in any teenager's life, everyone forgets what a great day today should have been. My sixteenth birthday. And everyone forgot.
Mom, you were in a nasty mood. Joey was working on a sketch and told me to go away. Pacey had to get to class because Andie would kill him if he failed Marine Biology. Everyone could have taken 2 seconds to remember what day it was.
Summing up my life, I have concluded no one cares about me, no one loves me, and this makes my life not worth living. Which is why I've decided to run away.
I apologize to burden you with any pain this may bring, which I doubt. But if you had to go on the emotional roller coaster I go on every single day of my life, this would be your only option, too.
This is my final goodbye to all of you, and everyone. I know you'll probably throw a party, now that I'm gone, but I love you, Mom and Dad. I love you, Pacey, (as a friend!) But the person I love more than life itself is Joey. It's always been you, Jo. And it always will be.

Dawson*

"I know, Pacey. I know," Joey sighed as her eyes welled up with tears. Why couldn't she have made the effort to remember that it was Dawson's birthday?

Why couldn't *everyone* have?

**********

Dawson walked into his dorm. It looked pretty nice, like no one had been there before. He took his bags and set them down on the bed he now claimed to be his. But he knew if he went on like this, living in the past, it would be a long 4 years.

**********

"Pace, we'll walk you to you dorm," Andie offered. "Wouldn't want you getting lost or anything."

"Okay, I could use some company." He paused. "I still can't believe I'm going to *Harvard.*"

"See what happens when you work hard and pass Marine Bio and-" Andie cut herself off.

*When he ran to Marine Bio, it pushed Dawson over the edge and now Pacey doesn't have him anymore.*

Pacey smiled sadly at her. "It's okay, And. Joey and I have to learn how to deal with the memory of that day. And all the memories of Dawson himself. We know if we had took a minute to remember and had acted differently, Dawson might be here with us, but he's not. We made a mistake that threw him off the ledge of life, and we lost him. But we'll go on." Pacey walked up to his dorm. "305, this is it." He opened the door and saw a blond teenager sitting on the couch, reading the latest Time, which had Steven Speilberg on the front.

Pacey gasped. "Dawson?"

---

Oh, it's gonna be continued, alright, in "Chances Are."