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?
The jeep hit a pothole, sending it perilously close to collision with the hedge. He sighed and peered through the windscreen. Ahead, by the side of the road, a blue vehicle was stopped, it’s bonnet propped up. Some idiot had obviously run out of gas or something. Pulling in behind the car, he got out.
“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. I thought no-one would stop and I’d be stuck out here all night. My car just died and . . .” Joey trailed off when she turned and realised exactly who it was who’d stopped to help her.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Pacey smirked.
“Oh no, no, no, no, no!” Joey exclaimed. “This isn’t happening. Tell me it’s not you.”
Pacey grinned at her hissy fit. “You should be thanking your lucky stars that it is me,” he commented gaily. “Now come on, get in the car and I’ll take you home.”
Joey crossed her arms staunchly, “No way.”
“So you want to stay out here all night, then?”
“I’m not getting in that car with you. Not now, not ever,” she told him defiantly.
“Are you familiar with the expression, ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’, Joey?” Pacey’s patience was wearing thin.
“I don’t need your help. So just leave me alone.”
“Jesus Christ, Jo! There are times to be obstinate and this really isn’t one of them.”
Joey remained stonily silent.
Throwing his hands up in exasperation, Pacey made a show of climbing back into his car. “Fine, stay out here. See if I care. It’s no skin off my nose.”
Joey’s eyes widened in surprise, her mouth opened and closed wordlessly; she was floundering. After only a moment’s hesitation, she had yanked open the passenger-side door and was seated beside him.
“You really would have left me out here, wouldn’t you?” she huffed, trying to cover up her discomposure.
Pacey rolled his eyes and inserted the key into the ignition. Instead of the usual roar of the engine, though, there came a strangled pht pht. He frowned and tried again. Once more there was an unhealthy wheeze.
“Oh.”
“Oh? Oh? What the hell’s ‘oh’ supposed to mean?” Joey cried.
“’Oh’ means we’re not going anywhere -- at least, not anytime soon,” he replied
sheepishly, indicating toward the gas gauge, which registered empty.
“Because that was constructive,” Joey snapped sullenly. “You know, he could have been about to stop and help us, but no, you had to destroy any chance of that by shouting obscenities at him.”
Pacey made a face at Joey, obviously busy constructing a suitably biting retort. However, Joey wasn’t about to give him a chance to do so.
“That is the only car we’ve seen in the past hour -- and you sent it away.” She paused and thought for a moment before continuing. “Of course, even if someone were to stop, how do we know that they won’t be some psycho? I mean, how completely R.L. Stine, is this? Two kids broken down on a dark night in the middle of nowhere -- that’s just asking for some axe-wielding maniac to come slash us to pieces.” She shuddered at the thought. Pacey rolled his eyes.
“We’re cursed,” Joey decided, “I mean, could things possibly get any worse?”
As if on cue, there was a deafening clap of thunder as the heaven’s opened. Lightning criss-crossed the night sky as the torrential rain turned the road into a muddy stream.