Chapter 2
Jen Lindley stood by the corner of the street waiting for Audrey to pick her up. They were going to the apartment Joey shared with Pacey. Her head was still pounding due to her lack of sleep. She laughed to herself thinking about Joey's call last night. Who would have thought that she would be the one Joey would call about her boyfriend problems? It didn't seem so long ago when they fought over a boy. Jen was taking a sip from her coffee cup when Audrey's red convertible stopped in front of her
"Hi!" Jen greeted Audrey as she jumped into her car. "Thanks for picking me up."
"No problem. What are you doing in the office on a Saturday anyway?"
"I just had to meet with a client to finalize the date and location of her wedding." Jen was now working as an event's planner. "So you wanna tell me what happened last night before we meet Joey?"
"I'll be gad to. So, Joey found Pacey in a restaurant having dinner with some woman. It turns out she was some old girlfriend back in high school-"
"Wait, girlfriend in high school, you mean Andie? I thought she's in Italy?"
"No, not Andie. I think her name was…um…Tamara."
"Tamara who? Tamara…Tama- oh my god! Tamara Jacobs, Ms. Jacobs! She was our teacher in high school! So it was all true, all the rumors…oh my god.
"She was a teacher?…Why am I not surprised? Never mind. So anyway, when they got home Joey asked him why they were having dinner together. Apparently, Pacey just shrugged and when she asked if he was cheating on her he neither confirmed nor denied anything. So they get into this fight and she throws him out. I thought she called you last night?"
"She did but I didn't understand a word. Wait- Again? She threw him out again?"
"Why are you even surprised Lindley?"
"I'm not surprised Audrey; I'm just fascinated that they have managed to keep this up years, almost a decade now, after high school."
***********
Twenty minutes later.
"Just tell him to come home Jo-"
"Jen I'm not going to be one of those girls who begs him to come back after I see him with that…that …woman."
"I doubt they're anything other than friends." Audrey commented then added "He did not say he's been seeing her."
"Well, I'm not going to wait for him to slap me in the face with it."
"Joey, this is Pacey we're talking about." Audrey reasoned "If he were some other guy, if he were Charlie Todd, Eddie, Professor Wilder, or for heaven's sake Dawson-" Audrey glances at Jen "Sorry honey, no offense meant."
"no offense taken." Jen replies smiling.
"Good. Anyway," Audrey continues "as I was saying, if he were some other guy I would have told you to drop him but this is Pacey we're talking about, the love of your life, the guy who is crazy in love with you."
"but I can't just drop the subject." Joey says trying to defend herself "they say that sometimes you get in too deep in a relationship that you forget to keep your head above the waters and I don't want that for me."
"so that's what it's all about" Jen blurts out smiling. "of course it is. I mean we all saw it but it took the brilliant Joey Potter up 'til now to discover."
"what in the world are you talking about?" Joey asked
"well being Joey Potter, you like being in control of your life. Everything has to happen just as you planned it. Relationships are hard to manage and it can get in the way of your plans. So you developed a strategy to not be in a relationship. You end it right before they start by choosing guys who are totally wrong for you so you won't feel guilty later on when you get rid of the poor guy if ever the relationship goes too far."
"This should be interesting" Audrey butts in and Joey rolls her eyes
"How did I come to such a conclusion? Right." Jen continues "Lets take Dawson- apparently your first love but you wanted him when he was too scared to do anything else with you other than watch E.T. in his bedroom. And remember Drew, the spoiled rich kid? There also was Charlie Todd the player,-we'll cover Pacey later- you knew all about his reputation but I believe that only attracted you more to him. Then came along Professor Wilder- the forbidden one but of course that only made you want him more. And of course who could forget Eddie- the guy who had so many insecurities he might as well been Sigmund Freud's best bud. Anyway, then you come across Pacey. He was pretty much you're average screw up. He was the town loser and it did help that he picked on you a lot. So you subconsciously said 'why not? He'd be easy to get rid off after I use him for sex' but it all backfires because you find yourself liking him a lot so you run to Dawson and managed to screw up your relationship with Pacey."
"I would like to add my personal opinion to that" Audrey says "If you ask me it simply means your relationships, with men in particular, thrive in pain- you know hurting the one you love. This could've resulted from your relationship with you're father; it's not your fault. Come to think of it, your relationship with Pacey seems to be masochistic. I mean you are the only people I know off who gets so turned on by bantering. Frankly, that freaks me out a bit."
"Thank you to you two for making me feel like a psychological freak."
"Joey," Jen continues, "what I'm trying to say is that you found the one for you. Pacey makes you feel completely helpless and you're not used to that; I think that's why you always run away. You try to regain control but you can't because the mere sight of him makes you weak in the knees. So you try to fight it. You try to get rid of him by using even his minor slip ups to justify it. You are as stubborn as he is, that's why even after ten years of a non- continuous relationship with each other, the two of you are right where you were back in high school. Joey Potter finally fell in love- and you don't know what to do about it."
