Chapter 4 - Challenge
The boys strolled down the boardwalk. Every two steps a pretty girl made them crane their necks.
"Is it just me?" asked Pacey, "Or there too many fine lookin' women out here?"
"There's such a thing as too many?" asked Charlie.
"Fine lookin' men too," Jack pointed out.
"Agreed," said Oliver.
They all stopped and looked at him.
"That sounded gay didn't it?"
"Where are we going," asked Dawson.
"I thought you knew," said Pacey.
"How would I know? I've been here half a day."
"Why don't we just hit the first place that appeals to us?" Oliver suggested.
"Best plan we got," said Charlie.
"What about over there?" Dawson pointed to a pool bar across the street.
"It'll do," said Pacey.
-----
The bartender slid two beers over to Pacey and Dawson.
"Mind telling me what you and Joey talked about this morning?" asked Pacey.
"I didn't tell her, if that's what you're asking," said Dawson, "I just said that Oliver and I decided that a Florida road trip would be the smarter choice."
"So what now?"
"I don't know, Pace. I have no idea what I'm gonna do. I feel... lost."
"Just give it some time, man."
"That's not the answer, Pace."
"What do you mean?"
"That's what I always do, give it time," said Dawson, "I get all tangled up in this dream of the two of us. I put myself out there. Open myself up. Everytime hoping against hope that this... This could be real, you know? That for the first time, fate will be kind enough to give us a shot. But it never happens. I break my heart every time. Then I give it some time and it just happens all over again."
"What are you saying?"
"I can't do it anymore. You were right. I can't keep coming back to her. I just can't. One of these days it'll kill me."
"So what's the answer? What? Are you gonna give up any hope of ever being with her? How are you even going to do that?"
"Go to New York."
"What?"
"Or at least get out of Boston. There are plenty of film schools out there."
"Dawson, have you forgotten that last year you were virtually on a plane to LA, and for Joey you gave that up?"
"I know, I know. It was my choice. I thought being around her would be enough, but its not. Ok? Its worse. I can't even look at her without burning to stroke her face. Without wanting to kiss her, and beg her to be mine until the stars die..."
-----
"Okay, well then tell me one thing you know."
"I know I wanted you there. At the end of the day, when I got back to my room, I wanted you there."
"Why?"
"I don't know why. I don't know what I meant. All I know, is that I wanted you there."
"Jo, maybe that's the ending we're supposed to have. Maybe every other, attraction we feel toward each other is just fear, of moving on and growing up."
"Is that what you really think?"
"I don't know. But I do know that if I get on this plane, I'm never gonna find out. Alright? 'Coz we're gonna move on, we're gonna grow up and four years from now we're gonna wake up and we're gonna be complete strangers to each other. And the only thing that I know for sure, is that I don't want that to happen. Do you?"
"No."
-----
"Whoo! Yeah!"
The club was thronged with hollerin' women. Five dancers, replicas of Michaelangelo's 'David', strutted their stuff on the stage. Letting it all hang out, so to speak.
Audrey, Joey and Jen were near the front of the crowd, craning their necks to look up at the dancers. Suddenly, Audrey leapt on the stage. She bent and took one of the performer's thongs in her teeth and drew it slowly down. The crowd went nuts.
"Audrey! Get down from there!" Joey scolded her.
"She's out of her pretty blonde head," Jen laughed, "Whoo! Go Audrey!"
Joey leaned in close to her, "I'm gonna go touch up before anyone realises I'm with her."
"Wait a sec, I'll come with you."
They pushed through the crowd and entered the restroom. They stood side by side at the basins, looking at each other in the mirror.
"So, what are you gonna do?" asked Jen, flipping open a compact.
"About what?"
"About Dawson. About him turning around and coming all the way down here to see you."
"He didn't come here to see me. He came down here to be with all of us."
"Joey, please, you're a lotta things, but you're not stupid. A little naïve maybe, but not stupid."
"Its not gonna happen ok? Remember, I wanted to get back together and he didn't. Nothing's changed."
"Dawson changed," Jen insisted, "He was going through a lot back then, with his dad and everything, and, well, he came to me because I was safer. But he never really wanted me. He wanted you."
"We both agreed we wouldn't try again."
"But, aren't you scared?"
"Of what?"
"Well, you guys are soulmates, right?"
"I like to think so, yes."
"Dawson and Joey, the eternal lovers."
"Jen, where is this going?"
"If you're soulmates then why are you both so damned scared? You survived everything life ever threw at you. The love you guys share survived me. It survived Pacey. It even beat death, Joey."
"I know it did."
"But what if it doesn't always survive, Jo? What if, somewhere down the line there's another Jen, or Pacey, and it doesn't survive."
"Everything has to die sometime, Jen."
-----
"So, Dawson," Charlie strolled over and sat on a stool beside him, signaling for a beer, "What made you decide to come south for the spring?"
"What made you?" Dawson countered.
"In a word – Joey," Charlie took a sip, "And I have a sneaking suspicion our motives match."
"What if they do?"
"Then I guess we both prepare for battle," he said, quite amiably, "Because make no mistake, my friend, history or no history, I have no intention of giving Joey up without a fight."
"You make it sound like she's a prize."
"But she is. The ultimate prize. How often do you find a girl that gorgeous – that smart – that annoying?"
Dawson chuckled, "Not very," he said, but then he grew serious, "What are your intentions toward her, Charlie?"
"I don't have any," he said, "What will be, will be. For now, its enough to be around her."
"Yeah," Dawson nodded, "I know what you mean."