Pacey sat outside Joey's building. It was one in the morning, and she wasn't home. Which, if he really thought about it, wasn't all that odd. It was a Friday night, and college campuses always had a party going on somewhere.

He just figured that she would have been home. Joey wasn't one to party.

Or, at least she hadn't been when they were in high school.

But they were in two different worlds now, and they had become two completely different people.

He had called her phone eight times in the last hour, and she hadn't answered once. He knew she had turned it off, because it was going straight to her voicemail. He wanted to talk to her. Needed to talk to her.

Hell, at this moment, he just needed to know that she was still alive.

To say that their relationship had changed in the last year would be an understatement. After three months of calling each other about every little thing that happened, Joey had started to get distant. She stopped calling about the little things that would happen, and soon, she stopped calling about the bigger things. He knew when she had exams; because Courtney had insisted on telling him everything about her friends in Michigan. She didn't call about her grades, she didn't call about her friends, she didn't call about her family – she just didn't call at all anymore.

And that's what had pissed Pacey off the most about her phone call this afternoon. Courtney didn't need to answer his phone for him. He had voicemail. He had an answering machine in his dorm. But she had found it necessary to always answer his phones when she was over. It was as if she thought that by doing so, she could control his social life and the people he associated with.

And he really hated that his relationship with Courtney had been the beginning of the end of his friendship with Joey.

But if he really thought about it, and he always refused to do so, their relationship falling apart could be traced all the way back to the casual way he treated her after kissing her.

But he refused to think about that kiss, because it meant too much to him.

He shifted on the bench, trying to get comfortable. He was going to wait for her.

Even if it meant sleeping outside her building.

----

Joey stared at her phone, the music from the ringer impossible to hear inside the Kappa house. The caller ID displayed Prissy Whiner, obviously meaning it was Pacey. He had changed his name in her phone the first time he visited her at college, telling her that since they were so far apart now, they'd only be calling to complain to each other about the distance, and the lack of intelligent acquaintances available at college. If things hadn't changed between them, she could have been sure that when she called him, it still said Josie Piss in Boots. But things had changed, and she didn't know him anymore.

She pressed a button on her phone to ignore the call, and slipped the phone back into her purse. She had been in the middle of following Marcus up the stairs to his bedroom for a little weed, and a lot of sex when Pacey called. She refused to believe it was any kind of omen against Marcus, because Pacey knew nothing of her current life. Hell, he didn't even know she was this close to failing. Her phone rang again, causing her purse to shake against her hip. She ignored it.

She climbed the stairs, waving to Miranda, purely to let someone know where she was going. Her phone vibrated once, telling her she had a voicemail. She almost pulled it out to listen, but Marcus was waiting for her at the top of the stairs.

"God, you're gorgeous," he said, running a hand down her arm. His fingers tangled with hers as he led her to his room, and she felt a shiver run down her spine.

"Gorgeous? Really?" She looked at him, wondering if maybe he were slightly insane. "Are you already high?"

He laughed, shaking his head at her. "It's no use denying it, Joey. You are one delicious piece of woman."

Her cheeks turned a deep shade of red as she walked through the doorway to his room. He shut the door, locking it. "You don't have a roommate?"

"Perks of being a senior in a frat. You get your own room." He winked at her, and went over to switch his desk lamp on. He pulled open a drawer and grabbed a rolled up plastic baggie. "Joint, or bowl?" he asked, shaking the bag open.

"Do you have a pipe?"

He winked at her, opening another drawer. "You, my darling Joey, are all kinds of hardcore."

Joey slipped her shoes off and dropped her purse onto the floor next to them.

"You know, if you want, I'm pretty sure I can score us some crack to go along with this pipe."

Joey thought about it a moment, knowing that this was a step she was going to come to eventually. "Yeah?" she asked, wondering just how long it would take him to find it, and if that would give her enough time to put her shoes back on and walk home.

"Let me find Brent, and I'll see what I can do."

She smiled at him as he left the room, waiting for him to close the door before grabbing her stuff and pressing her ear to the door.

The music downstairs was too loud for her to know if Marcus was anywhere within earshot, so she pulled the door open slowly. Peeking around the door, she saw him heading up another flight of stairs to the third floor, where there were four more bedrooms and another bathroom. Quickly, she ran down the stairs and out the front door.

Home,, she thought, racing down the front steps and toward her building.

----

Joey had been standing in the same spot for ten minutes. When she had left the frat party, the last thing she expected was to come back to her room to find him waiting for her.

It was also the last thing she wanted.

She pulled out her phone and hid herself behind a tree. Pressing the speed dial button, she couldn't help but grin in anticipation of his wakeup.

Pacey jerked awake as the phone buzzed in his pocket. Joey had to stifle her laughter as he fumbled with the phone.

"Ello?" his voice was heavy with sleep, and she felt her stomach drop to her feet.

"Can I ask what is you are doing outside my dorm at 2:30 in the morning?"

"Jo? Where are you? Are you upstairs? Why didn't you wake me up?" Pacey rambled into the phone, running a hand through his hair.

She stepped around the tree, and flipped her phone shut. She sat next to him, but didn't look at him. "What are you doing here?"

"It's good to see you too, Jo. How's school going?" Pacey ignored her statement completely, wanting this to go as smoothly as possible.

"Cut the crap, Pacey. What are you doing here?"

"Joey, look at me."

She simply shook her head. "You shouldn't have come."

"I tried to call, but you didn't answer your phone."

"I was busy."

"Jo-"

She looked at him now, her eyes devoid of any emotion at all. "It would be better if you left, Pacey. And please don't call me anymore."

He found himself without the ability to speak. He could only watch as she got up from the bench and walked away from him.

And walked right out of his life.