Joey still hadn't gotten a good night's sleep. She was tossing and turning all night wondering what to do about Pacey. The last thing she wanted to do was get in a car with him and drive home to Boston. But here she was sitting in the kitchen at the B and B with her bag on the floor beside her. Pacey would be there any minute to pick her up.
Bessie put a canvas grocery bag full of food on the table. "Bess I can't possibly eat anything right now," Joey said miserably. "I lost five pounds in the last week."
"Josephine! You need to work things out with Pacey and take better care of yourself. He would smack you upside the head if he knew you weren't eating properly." Joey blushed and didn't mention the fact that at the café the day before Pacey had scolded her for not eating enough of her lunch. "Bodie put some stuff in here for Pacey too. But now I think you ought to just save it all for yourself."
Joey waved her sister away, "I'll eat Bessie. God, I'll take a Polaroid of the scale when I weight myself and mail it to you if it will make you happy."
"I see your hunger is making you irritable."
"You're what's making me irritable," Joey shot back. "I'm not going to see you for a while, please at least try to be nice."
They heard Pacey's car on the gravel driveway. "Joey Alex is in the living room, you better say goodbye. He'll have a fit if you forget." Joey knew Bessie was trying to get rid of her but she left the room anyway.
"Hey Bessie how's it going?" Pacey said as he let himself in.
"It's going." Bessie lowered her voice, "Thanks for taking care of her Pacey."
He looked at his feet, "I haven't been doing such a good job of that lately."
"I just want you both to be happy. You two are great together and I'll be damned if you let a fuck up like Dawson come between you. My mom always liked you better you know? I guess it runs in the family."
Pacey smiled at her, "Yea you Potter women can't get enough of me." Joey came back in the room then. "Are you ready to go Joey?"
"Yea I guess," she said as she grabbed her bags off the floor. She passed Pacey the bag of food, "You can handle this right?"
He looked inside, "You're trusting me with a bag full of Bodie's cooking?"
"Good point. On second thought you can take this," she gave him her bag and took the food from him. Joey gave Bessie a hug and promised to call her later on that week. "Let's go."
~
They had been driving in silence for an hour and Joey was trying not to fall asleep when all of a sudden Pacey swerved in to the next lane and gave the finger to some old guy in a station wagon. She jerked to attention and looked around. "Sorry, I think that guy's had his license since Lincoln was in office." He added in a more calm tone, "You can go back to sleep now."
"I wasn't sleeping!"
"Could have fooled me." He looked over at her, "You know the traffic is terrible if you want to nod off that's okay with me. You look like you could use it."
Joey scowled, "Stop worrying about me."
"Someone has to."
"I think Bessie does enough for the both of you."
Pacey smirked at her, "Well in Capeside it's Bessie's job. But now we're in my jurisdiction."
"Right," Joey said dryly. "So tell me. What sort of conspiracy were you and my sister forming back at the house?"
"Bessie and I don't have any conspiracies against you Jo."
Stop calling me that, if you don't mean it. "Okay then how was Bessie meddling in our relationship? Sorry did I say relationship? I meant situation." She noticed Pacey wince and smiled since she got the reaction she wanted.
"Why are you acting like this?"
"Because I'm sick and tired of not talking about it! It's not a relationship Pacey, we're barely friends anymore. It's like you've given up on me."
Pacey's jaw dropped, "I can't believe that's what you think."
"What am I supposed to think?" she asked as she slumped back in to her seat. "You won't talk to me anymore. You act like I don't exist."
"Then what was this whole weekend about?" he asked her loudly.
She put her hand on her forehead and sighed, "How the hell should I know? I mean you're avoiding me then Mitch is gone and it's like you're my best friend again. What's going to happen when we get back to Boston? Because you keep changing your mind and I just can't deal with it." Pacey stomped on the gas pedal and passed a shiny red sports car. "Look if we're going to have this conversation we should at least get off the road."
"I'm not stopping this car until we get home!" Pacey replied. He swerved around the cars. Joey ignored him and turned on the radio. They didn't say anything to each other the rest of the way home.
~
When they got back to the campus Joey grabbed her bags and stormed off in the direction of her dorm room. I can't deal with anymore of his crap today.
Back in her room she unpacked her bag quickly and changed in to a pair of pajama pants and a hooded sweatshirt.
Shit! I left the food in the car, Joey thought when her stomach started growling. She was about to check the little mini fridge in her room when there was a knock at the door.
"Missing something?" Pacey asked when she opened the door, he was holding the canvas bag from Bessie out to her. Joey reached for it but he pulled it back, "The magic words?"
She cocked her head sideways, "Fuck off."
"That's not what I had in mind," he said but he handed the bag to her anyway. "Listen can I come in and talk for a bit."
Joey pulled the door back further so he could come inside. "Do you want something to eat?" she asked as she emptied the bag out on her desk.
"Yea sure." Pacey watched as Joey made two plates of food and heated them up in her microwave. It was kind of a familiar sight. He was beginning to feel a little too comfortable in her room and considered leaving. "Joey about before, I didn't want things to go like that."
Joey handed him a plate and sat down on her bed to eat, "How did you want them to go?"
"I just thought that when we actually talked about what's going on between us, it wouldn't be so hostile." He pushed the food around on his plate for a few seconds, "What happened to us Jo?"
If you would like to be contacted when I update any of my stories e-mail me, kr_sta@hotmail.com or go to my website, http://www.angelfire.com/grrl/trickyfic. PLEASE REVIEW.
