Classification: P/J
Story Synopsis: When Joey returns from her trip away, she starts acting more than slightly strangely. Is she merely outgrowing Capeside and all the friends it holds for her, or is her weird behavior down to something else?
Notes: Since I kinda wrote this on a whim, it doesn’t take place at any definite time -- merely when Dawson and Joey are together and Pacey and Andie aren’t. Anyway, in this story Joey has just returned from a short trip away visiting relatives in Boston. We meet her and Dawson on her first night back in Capeside.
On the flickering TV screen in Dawson’s bedroom, ET was attempting to phone home. Joey stifled a yawn and reached past her enthralled boyfriend for a handful of popcorn. As she chewed thoughtfully on a kernel, she contemplated how the story might have gone if ET had got the engaged signal. Brushing the thought away, she nudged Dawson lightly with her foot in an attempt to distract his attention away from the plight of the fat fingered alien with a soft spot for Reese’s Pieces. When he didn’t respond, Joey rolled her eyes and stood up from her position on the bed. She began rummaging noisily through Dawson’s closet, looking for her jacket. Finding it, she slipped it on and turned back to where Dawson had --finally-- noticed what she was doing.
“Hey, where are you going?” he asked.
“Home -- it’s kind of late.”
“Jo, it’s 8:30!” Dawson laughed, reaching out to pull her back down onto the bed. She squirmed out of reach and realisation seemed to dawn on his face. “What’s up with you?”
Taking a deep breath, Joey launched into her speech, “Dawson, while I was away I had a lot of time to think. This trip gave me a chance to take a long, hard look at my life--”
“Where are you going with this, Jo?” he interrupted in confusion.
“I think we should see other people.”
“What?”
“I’m saying we should break up.”
“You’re not serious,” Dawson cried, his face crumpling with hurt.
“I’m sorry, but it’s over.”
Dawson watched, dumbstruck, as she climbed nimbly out of his bedroom window, her brown hair blowing lightly in the breeze. He listened numbly to the soft thud which signalled she’d reached the bottom of the ladder and then to her muted footsteps to the rowboat moored at the end of his dock. His mind was reeling, he was stunned. Had that really just happened? It all seemed so unreal . . .
Of course, Joey had been kind of distracted all day, ever since he’d picked her up from the bus station, but he’d just figured she was a little tired from her journey home. He would never, in a million years, have guessed that this was what she was planning to do. It wasn’t just what she’d said that bothered him, though; it was the way she’d said it, too. All the through the conversation she hadn’t seemed in the least bit upset -- on the contrary, she’d appeared calm, almost . . . flip.