Sand In My Shoes

Part 5

Ice

"Ok," Pacey said, walking in the door with a bowl of ice, two bottles of beer and a dishcloth before closing the door, "have you removed what was shoved up your ass yet?" he asked.

"Firmly extracted," she responded, sitting up and resting against the headboard.

"Good," he smiled, putting some ice in a cloth and placing it on her swollen ankle. They sat in silence for a moment whilst he held the ice to her skin.

"I'm sorry y'know Pacey," she told him seriously, looking at him.

"What for? The gas station or just now?" he questioned her.

"The gas station mainly. I was bang out of order," she told him softly

"Don't worry about it," He smiled, looking up at her and fixing his eyes onto hers. "No big deal,"

"Yeah it was, I mean you were only asking me about Dawson and…"

"Actually," Pacey interrupted. "Just for the record, I wasn't asking about Dawson,"

"You weren't?" she questioned him in surprise.

"No. I was going to ask if you had heard from Andie," he told her, his face dropping at the mention of her name.

"Oh," Joey said. "Boy do I feel stupid," she sighed. "Not to mention guilty,"

"Yeah well you should," he laughed lightly, resting the ice on her ankle and shifting up the bed, perching on the edge to talk to her. "I haven't," he confessed.

"Haven't what?" she asked him.

"Heard from Andie," he said sadly. "She hasn't written to me, called me or emailed me for almost two weeks. She called Jack but not me," he said sadly, swallowing the lump in his throat.

"Pace I…" She didn't know what to say, she shuffled down the bed and swung her legs over.

"Keep them up," he ordered, placing them back on the bed,

"I'm sorry. Why didn't you tell me before I made a fool out of myself like that?" she asked him, watching his eyes as a tear gently seeped from the duct. He quickly wiped it away, he couldn't let her see him cry, there was never a good time to let Joey Potter see you cry.

"What was I meant to say? 'Hey Jo, haven't seen you in two weeks, my girlfriend is ignoring me but how are you?' huh?" he asked, shaking his head bitterly. "We don't talk about things like hat. We don't have a relationship where we share secrets and heartbreaks,"

"Pacey, do you remember about six months ago?" she asked him. "I was in the icehouse and you came in after hours for leftovers?"

"I always do that," he said creasing his brow. "It's called free food,"

"No, it was my fathers' birthday and I had just come back from seeing him with Dawson. You sat there and you told me about when you used to play pewee Baseball and you lost the game?"

"Yeah," he answered. He screwed his face up in confusion; he didn't know where this was going.

"Well you persuaded me to go and tell him how he made me feel and you drove me all that way in the dark and then paid the guard twenty dollars just so I could see him," she smiled reminiscing.

"Your point is?" he asked.

"That's a friendship, a pretty good one. The kind that takes years to build and one stupid comment to completely wreck. We have a kind of friendship where you have to read between the banter to find the meaning and I guess I forgot to do that. Because through all of my heartbreak and the hard time I've had recently I forgot about you, I forgot that you're going through this intensely, gut wrenchingly painful separation from the love of your life and I,…"

"Apology accepted," Pacey told her, interrupting her and shaking his head at her rambling.

"I wasn't apologising," she denied emptily

"Oh please! I know a Josephine Potter apology when I hear one," he told her smugly

"So," Joey said, ignoring his comment. "What brought you here tonight?" she asked

"Jackers persuaded me. You?"

"Jennifer persuaded me,"

"This isn't your scene," he told her. "Jocks, cheerleaders, a keg and a lot of underage sex? That's the fun you very rarely participate in. in fact the last time I recall you going all out and coming to a party like this you ended up with a guy who called you Chloe, who I had to punch out and we had to take you back to your place where you drunkenly kissed Dawson because you presumed he was your hero," Pacey told her, handing her a beer and taking a drink from his.

"You did that?" she asked him suddenly.

"Did what?" he questioned emptily.

"Punched out serial rapist guy?" she asked a little surprised and a little angry. Surprised that he had done it and angry that even to this day Dawson hadn't actually admitted that it wasn't him.

"Yeah, I did actually," he sighed, shaking his head from side to side. "But as usual Dawson was the hero. I mean Robin does all the ass kicking and then Batman comes in and takes all the credit for it,"

"Is that how you see yourself? Robin?" she asked and he nodded. "I always thought of you as more of a Tonto character,"

"Oh thanks," he replied sarcastically. "I'm down, kick me!" he sighed.

"Tonto was the wise one; the lone ranger wore a mask and rode around town on his big horse saving the day but Tonto? Tonto was the ever-wise one," she explained.

"You think i'm wise?" he asked her sceptically.

"Well about some stuff. I mean a year ago I would have said you were immature, un-sophisticated, chauvinistic, cocky, arrogant, really…" she said counting her impressions on her fingers.

"Ok, ok, I get your point!" he said, cutting her off.

"But now, I can admit you do know more about some stuff than Dawson does,"

"Like what?" Pacey asked curiously.

"Like sex," she told him and he almost spit out his beer. "You've done it; you're bound to know what you're talking about some of the time," she explained. "Or at least to people who haven't had sex you sound like you do," Joey said. They sat in silence for a moment. "And a silence ensues," Joey joked, watching his cheeks turn a shocking shade of crimson "And embarrassment too,".

"I just, well, I," He was speechless.

"What? You thought I was such a prude that I couldn't talk about sex?" she asked him, sitting on the edge of the bed. Her ankle was starting to feel a little better now and watching Pacey Witter blush was a sight she was enjoying seeing very much.

"No. it's just I…" he opened and closed his mouth, without words coming out. "Is your foot any better?" he asked her changing the subject.

"A lot better," she told him, silently laughing at the crimson of his cheeks.

"Ok, so you want to go back and meet up with Jack and Jen?"

"Sure," Joey said getting up and leading him out of the bedroom back to the party outside.