Part 11, by stormluver
A Crack in the Ocean
"Abby, you don't know what you're talking about." Dawson flipped a page in the book, placed it on the machine and pressed the COPY button.
"Don't I?" She leaned on the copier, stroking the control panel. He pointedly ignored her and collected his papers. "Well, what about this dance on Friday? You're going right?"
"Yes. You too, I assume."
"Of course. I couldn't let down the entire male population of the school. Besides, I have a hot date."
"Who's the lucky inmate?" he smirked.
"Well, who do you think you're going with? It can't be Joey."
"As a matter of fact, we've been planning this for a good month."
"How sweet. Almost makes me want to vomit all over those nice new shoes of yours."
"Spare me the dramitization."
"Well, it should certainly make an interesting and entertaining spectacle."
"You blowing chunks in the library?" She rolled her eyes at him and followed Dawson over to their table.
"No. Watching your reaction when you find out who Joey came to the dance with. If you even show up after she blows you off."
"For that absolute last time, Joey is not fooling around."
"Don't say I didn't warn you."
"If I had it my way, I wouldn't ever say a damned thing to you." He stacked his papers and shut his folder. "I think we're done for the day."
Joey flopped down in the chair opposite Pacey and groaned.
Okay. I ordered the movies and the lady at the desk looked at me like I was renting porn."
"Well, they are sex movies." She rolled her eyes at him, then smiled a little.
"Is Ms. Krantz still watching us?" He laughed.
"You bet. Going on twenty minutes now."
"Always writing in her notebook?" He nodded and then leaned forward on his elbows, resting his chin on his folded hands.
"How about we give her something to write about?" Joey raised an eyebrow and glanced at Dawson across the room.
"How about we just steal her book?"
"Fine by me, but grand theft notebook isn't nearly as thrilling as what I had planned."
"We'll see about that." He raised his head, his eyebrows arched.
"Oh, will we?"
"Well, since I've already done enough with you to fill a notebook, I think the only thing left to do, would be to steal hers, and compare notes."
"I can think of one thing we haven't done." At her glare he grinned. "This of course can be divided into several different categories ranging from position to vigor to..." She slapped him.
"Pacey, shut the hell up." He began to stand up.
"You wanna get right to it?"
"You wish." He sat down again.
"I bet you're slightly upset too." She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest, shrugging and shaking her head.
"No. I'm good. I'm glad I'm in a relationship with someone other than you."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I was under this odd impression that you liked a little passion with your monogamy."
"I get plenty of passion."
"Yeah." He folded his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair. "Yeah, I know." Joey closed the magazine she was flipping through.
"Well, as a matter of fact, Dawson and I are going to the dance. How about yourself?"
"First off, the quarterly dance hardly qualifies as a night of passion..."
She cut him off.
"And second?"
"And second..." he gestured to their books. "I think we're back to the project again.." She smirked and pulled out her notebook.
"You checked all these out?"
"Yeah, only for two weeks though." He sotod up and began flipping through the pile. "We've got Time, Parenting, a variety of Christian literature promoting abstinence, and this ineffectual crap." He held up a copy of Seventeen with a pained expression plastered across his face.
"Nothing else?" He shrugged.
"A small variety of randomness." Joey dug through the pile, and let a Sports Illustrated dangle from her fingertips.
"Don't get that look, Josephine. That has an article on Magic Johnson."
"Yeah, whatever."
They read through a few articles, Joey taking notes and Pacey photocopying various charts and graphs. Fifteen minutes later, devoid of shoes, Joey slammed her pen down, loudly, and looked up at Pacey.
"So, you're not going to the dance?" He kept paging through the magazine in his hand, head down.
"I didn't say that."
"Then, you're going?"
"I didn't say that either." Joey scowled and pushed her chair out, standing up.
"I'm going to go copy this page. I'll be right back."
Five minutes later, she slid into the chair next to him with a sheaf of paper in her hands. She looked at him.
"So, are you going?" He turned a page.
"I haven't decided." She sat back in the chair and frowned.
"Oh." He turned his head to the right, towards her.
"Do you want me to be there?" She crossed her arms.
"I couldn't care in the least." He nodded and grinned.
"Fair enough."
He rubbed the side of his unshod foot boldly against hers. If Joey was surprised, she didn't show it. But soon, her chair was pressed tightly up against his, and Pacey was rubbing the back of her hand with the pad of his first finger as she read quietly aloud. Their thighs were touching and their feet slowly moved against the other's.
Pacey put his hand over hers and smiled as her fingers pressed up between his, squeezing his hand for a few seconds.
Joey looked at him and smiled. Pacey stared at her, bringing her hand to his mouth. He kissed the first knuckle of every finger. She laughed a little.
"We are so weak."
"You better believe it." He noticed that Joey had stopped laughing and he lowered his hands to the table top. "You wanna go somewhere that's...else?" She grinned.
"Yeah." They picked up their books and stuffed papers and folders into Joey's backpack. Pacey slipped it over his shoulders and they walked out the front door, oblivious to the pair of eyes that followed them.
Pacey pulled a t-shirt over his head and got up from the couch as he heard a sharp knock at the door. He pulled aside the small curtain in the window of the door and cursed silently as he surveyed both the harsh light of the recently absent sun and the short blonde with two small pigtails. Slowly, he opened the door and shut it behind him as he stepped out onto the front porch.
"Andie...hi."
"Hey Pacey. Jack told me you called. And I totally wouldn't have come over if he hadn't said that you sounded kind of urgent, and so I thought..." She smiled slightly and shoved her hands in the pockets of her windbreaker. "Well, I just thought I'd show up, with absolutely no notice. I'm sorry. We can talk another time."
"Don't worry about it. We can talk now." He motioned to the wooden step. "Have a seat."
As they sat, he worriedly looked over his shoulder into the darkened house. Turning back, he saw Andie had her arms around her knees and was looking at him.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?"
"Well, this is kind of hard to say, mainly because we never really defined our relationship as it is, but I was wondering if we could go to the dance on more casual terms." Andie raised her eyebrows slightly.
"Casual? You mean as friends?"
"Yeah, I guess. We've never been seriously exclusive, or anything realtively close to that. And I think that it would be best if we went as friends, so we could stay friends." She looked away.
"Well, I'm not going to say that I'm not hurt by this, but I guess it's not that big of a deal, because," she looked at him. "I never wanted this to get serious."
"You didn't." It came out as a statement, but questions were written all over Pacey's face.
"No, I didn't. In the past few years, I've had some serious things happening to me, and right now, I think I just need some good friends...like you, and Joey, and Jen." She looked up into the bright, cloudless sky. "I need to have some fun. And so far, I have been. Plus..." She paused dramatically, and grinned at him. "I kind of like this other guy. Not that you're not a perfectly nice guy, but..." She let the sentence go as he laughed out loud. "Besides, I know you have a thing for Joey."
"What?"
"Well, don't you?"
"That is hardly the issue. The problem at hand is that you're breaking my heart." He put his hand on his chest.
"Pacey, you are so full of crap. It's so obvious."
"In what way?"
"Well, the way you look at her, even if there are other people in the room." She stood up and brushed her hands on her shorts. "Anyway, I'm ok with it, and it's getting late, so I'm gonna go." She started walking backwards towards her car. "We're still going together, right?"
"I'll pick you up at seven." She got into her car and he walked up to the door.
"Pacey, just make it happen. Take some action." He didn't have to ask what she was talking about.
"You do realize that she's going out with Dawson."
"I almost forgot about that little detail."
"I can see how that's possible, considering they're hardly ever seen together anymore."
"Bitter much?"
"You know, sometimes life just isn't fair. And I knew it before, but this little life lesson just reinforces it."
"It'll all work out in the end."
"Spare me the optimistic melodrama."
"I'm serious. Make it happen. Anyway," she turned the key in the ignition. "I'll see you tomorrow at school. Goodnight." As she drove off, he held up a hand in a sort of half-wave.
He walked back into the house and stood over the couch, looking at the figure curled against the back. Joey's sweater was pulled up over her navel and as he slid down next to her, he covered it again, with his hand. As she sleepily turned in his arms, her legs entangling with his, he kissed her wool-clad shoulder.
Take action. Make things happen...
That was do-able...that was definitely do-able.
"Watching Saving Private Ryan again?" Dawson's head cranked to the right as Pacey walked in the door.
"God, Pace...you scared the shit outta me." He clicked the pause button and looked at his watch. "It's after eleven."
"As I'm well aware." Pacey collapsed in the chair by the desk.
"So, are you going to tell me why you show up with absolutely no notice, or am I supposed to guess?"
"Ouch. Really Dawson, when did you start objecting to seeing your best friend?"
"I'm not objecting. It's just late."
"Yeah. Right. Now, tell me something you didn't just pull outta your ass."
"I'm sorry, I'm just tired."
"And that's why you just started a long and plot-filled drama." Pacey put his feet up on the desk. "You always were a bad liar."
"What are you talking about?"
"Do you realize that this is the first time since you've been home from Boston that we've even talked? We haven't said hi in the halls or anything."
"What's your point?"
"My point, old friend, is that if you're trying to ditch me, if I cramp your style, just say so, and I'm gone. Don't be immature about this, because, frankly, I don't need the aggravation." He stood up and began walking towards the door.
"Pace, wait." His hand on the doornob, Pacey slowly turned his head back towards Dawson. The blond boy stood up, ran his hands through his hair and sank back down onto the bed.
"It's not you." Pacey leaned against the doorframe, eyebrows hanging low over his eyes. "If you want to know the truth, it's Joey." Pacey closed the door, and slid into the chair. "Abby says she's running around on me with some guy." He flopped back onto the pillow. "And I don't know if I mind. I mean, I don't believe a word of what Abby says, but if it were true, I'm kind of wondering if I have the right to be mad at her considering..."
"Considering what?" Pacey watched as Dawson pulled a flannel covered pillow over his face and mumbled into it.
"Excuse me?" The pillow was removed and Dawson looked up guiltily at Pacey.
"Considering that I met someone." Pacey's eyebrows almost hit the ceiling.
"You what?" he almost choked.
"I met someone. But it wasn't serious. I'm never going to see her again." He sat up and leaned against the headboard. "But should I tell her, or should I just ignore it? I mean, there's something not right between Joey and me lately. Even before I left, and we were just starting, it was weird."
"Ever consider that it was just normal nervousness?" Pacey's heart was pounding.
"It was different than when Jen and I started going out. There's always the obvious possibility that we know each other too well. But if there is another guy...do I have the right to complain?"
Pacey leaned his elbows on his knees and rested his chin on his folded hands. Everything he knew about morality spun crazily through his head, circling wildly out of control.
"I honestly can't tell you. Lord knows that I haven't exactly followed the rules in the last year."
"But Pace, you have a code of ethics that I know you follow, even when you're breaking the law. It's discreet, but I know it's there, and I know you know what I should do." He looked at Pacey expectantly.
Pacey took a deep breath, rubbed his temples with thumb and middle finger and looked up.
"It's not my place to judge how other people should feel. And considering that I've known you and Joey since almost before we could walk, I don't think I could make a fair statement about the sincerity or lack there of concerning your relationship." Dawson hit himself in the face with the pillow and sighed. Pacey released the air trapped in his lungs slowly, grateful that the topic had been dropped.
Joey stood in front of the mirror holding up a dress. This too had been Bessie's once upon a time. It was plain, devoid of ruffles, lace and pattern, but the satiny black dress was a classic, and it fit. She removed her clothes, and put the dress on, loving the feel of the cool fabric against her skin. She turned to one side, and then to the other, watching the short skirt flutter slightly as it followed. Quite different than the mourning garb she'd been wearing earlier in the week, this dress made her feel like a different Joey. Someone dangerous, sexy, wild... Someone who didn't care what people thought of her... Someone who took without reason and destroyed without provocation. She was going to destroy him in this dress. Now if only she could decide who she was trying to destroy.