"Oh, hi Joey! What's wrong?" She took a dainty bite out of her apple and put a hand on Joey's arm.

"Just...everything. I really hate to be melodramatic, but seriously, this has got to be one of the single worst days of my existance, and it's been a fairly long life up until now...at least for me." She took the time to carefully bang her forehead against the surface of the table. "I was late again this morning, and bombed my retake quiz because I didn't have time to study last night. Bessie wants me to watch Alex tonight and I'm sposed to be at the library, doing research for a paper." She yawned. Andie frowned.

"Did you not sleep well, or something?" Joey looked up quickly, folding her arms across her chest.

"Something like that." For a moment, she'd forgotten herself. What the hell are you doing Josephine? Now you have to pretend that everything is normal. Pretend that last night didn't happen...Joey repeated it in her head. It didn't happen...it didn't happen...

"Um...Joey, are you alright?" She jerked her head, eyes following the hand that was waving in front of her face. "Oh good...you're back." Andie grinned. "For a minute there, I was afraid I'd lost you." Joey gave her a half smile, thoughts still doing laps in her mind. She'd been with Pacey on the dock til about 11 the night before, and then, he'd walked her home. They'd sat on the porch a bit longer, and finally, he'd left. That had been close to midnight. And then, Joey had laid awake for hours, trying to justify her actions.

She sighed, leaning her chin on her hand. "Maybe I should ask Bessie for a few days off." Andie frowned.

"I thought that you were closing up when I left with Jack..." Joey quickly looked at her.

"Yeah, but I'd been working all day." She smiled, brushing a strand of hair away from her face. Andie appeared to accept her answer by shrugging and taking another bite of her apple. The blonde girl, straightened up in her chair, searching above the heads of other students. Finally, her eyes made contact with a familiar pair of blue ones and she smiled, waving. Joey kept her eyes glued to her tray.

A few moments later, Pacey slid into the chair next to Andie.

"Hello girls. How are we on this fine afternoon?" Joey looked at him, glaring.

"Not so great." His expressionless gaze met hers, trying to stare her down, until finally, he gave up, eyes moving to the table. Then he looked at Andie.

"How's your day been? Hopefully better than the Ice Queen's." Joey gave him a sharp kick, and watched, savoring the moment as his teeth sunk into his lower lip, stifling the sound of pain trying to escape his lips. Andie looked away from her book, to the clock. Finally, she turned to Pacey, smiling genuinely.

"It's great, as usual." Her eyes moved once, quickly toward the clock, and then back again. "It's great, but I've gotta jet. I'll talk to you later." She kissed Pacey on the cheek. "See you later, Joey." Joey half-waved to her retreating back.

Pacey turned his face toward Joey, eyes stroking softly over her shiny hair. He flexed his fingers and licked his lips nervously.

Joey had her face down, eyes steady on the Coke can in front of her. Her hands were shaking, betraying her calm exterior. Frowning, he reached over the table to grab her hand, to steady her grasp. He sighed quietly when she wrenched it away.

"Don't be like that." Her head snapped up, eyes blazing.

"Don't be like what?" she hissed. "Don't be like this?" She pinched the skin on the back of his hand between her fingernails. Joey sat back in her chair looking smug as he yelped and rubbed his hand. His angry eyes met hers once more.

"What the hell was that for?"

"Take a wild guess." He leaned over the table and whispered loudly.

"Hey, you kissed me." She cast furtive glances over the near-by tables and gave him a look full of hatred.

"You mind keeping it down? There might be some part of this school that doesn't know it yet." He gave her a surprised look.

"You mean I wasn't supposed to tell anyone?" Her jaw dropped and her eyes began to water.

"You can't be serious...God what have you done..." He grabbed her hand and this time, she didn't move away from him.

"Joey, stop. I was only joking. C'mon..." He stopped midsentence as he saw the look on her face. The lights in the room were gleaming on the unshed wetness in her eyes. It made her look evil, and for an instant, Pacey was afraid.

"You bastard." Joey got up, sliding the chair back hard against the table next to theirs. She strode quickly out of the room, fists clenched tightly. She walked past the class rooms and the banks of lockers to the outside doors and sat on the cement steps, trying to rid herself of the tears. A couple minutes later, she felt a hand on her back. She slid over to make room for Pacey to lean against the wall next to her.

She tilted her head back, eyes to the sky. It was remarkably cloud-free this afternoon. Not a shadow of what it had been.

"I'm sorry." Pacey's voice invaded her private moment.

"No. You're not." He turned his head towards hers. She could feel the hot breath on her neck and she tried her best to ignore it, eyes following the leaves as they swayed on the branches in the wind.

He sighed, turning his head back. "You're right. I'm not. At least not about kissing you last night." Joey pulled her knees up to her chest, hands on her ankles and laid her head down, eyes cast towards Pacey. "But, I am sorry about the thing I said in there." He continued to look forward, hands on his knees. "I was only kidding, and I thought you'd know that."

"It's alright," Joey mumbled against her arm. He turned to the dark-eyed girl, watching the breeze blow a strand of hair across her face.

"Is it? Because I know that in the course of my lifetime, I've made my share of mistakes, and right now, I can't think of any one that I've regretted this much." Joey leaned back against the brick wall, fingers tucking hair behind her ears as she spoke.

"As much as you might regret saying that, right now, there's only one thing that I can think of to regret. And we both know what that is." She let the thought hang between them. Pacey watched her hands as she let them slide down off her knees. He remembered how those fingers as the traveled along his cheekbone, stroking and caressing gently. He closed his eyes as his mind traveled back.