Hello again, lovelies. Thank you so much for your feedback and support of this series and our other one-parters. It warms our hearts to read your wonderful notes. It's Friday and as long as we have ficlets ready to post we will. ;) So let's see what may have happened after the altercation at Logan's Marina…
*~*Tested*~*
Dawson slowly walked backwards watching his two best friends close ranks against him. His eye hurt. He was the one who had been maligned. He hadn't even started it and yet Joey was not only tending to Pacey's cut lip, she was spewing outrage at him.
Since when did Joey Potter stick up for Pacey Witter against Dawson Leery? He had spent the better part of his childhood mediating their spats. In what unraveling universe did Joey step between him and Pacey and choose Pacey? As he reached the road outside the marina and headed home, he shook his head as if to restore that fragile universe to its rightful order.
She hadn't seen the whole incident, he began to rationalize. She knew what a screw-up Pacey was despite his temporary transformation to A-student, do-gooder, all-around sanctimonious angel last year. Surely Joey thought Pacey was cold-hearted for dumping Andie. Yes, she just didn't have all the facts. They might not be number one on each other's speed dial lately but he could always count on her to take his side. Once she figured out what really happened on that dock she'd be spewing that outrage in the right direction.
Or it could be simple retaliation born of spite due to a certain someone with blonde locks, and a name that rhymes with Steve. She'd said it herself with no small amount of animosity.
He still didn't know what happened to the test. Shit. He bet if he stopped at the Witter's he could check under Pacey's bed with all his Playboys and find it. He knew Pacey wouldn't go home smelling of alcohol. He paused at the corner, debating. His eye throbbed and he reached up to touch it gingerly. He'd better go home and get some ice on it.
The adrenalin that had allowed him enough propulsion to knock down an inebriated Pacey was draining away. He pondered as he walked. Maybe Jack took the test. He wouldn't put it past him. He had stolen his girlfriend. Dawson narrowed his eyes.
It couldn't be Andie, she didn't need it; she already got straight A's and had studied ad nauseum for this test. Same for Joey but if she was nervous about the test she might have taken it as insurance. He briefly wondered if her father's deceit was a genetic trait.
That left Jen. She didn't seem to care about the PSAT one way or another but to a girl of questionable moral character was stealing really out of the question?
Dawson sighed and stewed as he settled into the settee on the porch, a bag of frozen peas held to his eye. As the pain subsided and the swollen tissue began to numb, his thoughts narrowed and focused, each of his friends' names sliding away from his consciousness leaving only one name. The one who started this mess, who made him doubt his lifelong friends, who seemed determined to cause nothing but trouble…
Eve.
*~*Hangover Cure*~*
Joey released the handle on the gas pump and caught a flash of blue coming down the dock from the street. She looked up to see a familiar law enforcement officer approaching. As she replaced the cap and held out the clipboard for the boat's owner to sign, Doug got close enough to call out, "Hey, Joey, seen Pacey?"
Thinking on her feet, Joey insinuated herself between Doug and the doorway to the office as the motorboat backed out of the slip. "Yep, we're studying for the test tomorrow," she said nodding earnestly.
Doug arched his eyebrows in disbelief. "My little brother? Studying?"
Joey casually leaned against the doorway only partially blocking Doug's view but effectively impeding his forward motion. Pacey snored softly behind her, his head tipped back against the file cabinet. "Let's face it, he needs all the help academically that he can get. We're planning to head back to my house after I close up here."
Doug narrowed his eyes a little and smirked. "Hey, little bro'!" He shouted.
Pacey's head jerked upright in confusion. "Whaaa…what?"
Joey stood her ground between them, her eyes widened imperceptibly. She only wanted to keep Doug far enough away from smelling the alcohol.
Doug laughed and called out over her head, "Easier to read with your eyes open, Pacey. Try it."
Pacey rolled his eyes and ignored Doug's taunt. He tipped his head back and resumed his nap with no effort.
Doug's gaze fell back to Joey. "Good luck with your study partner, Joey. Looks like you would have had better luck with Dawson."
Joey laughed at the irony of that statement as Doug turned sharply on his heel and strolled back the way he had come, waving his goodbye. She wondered if her phone call to the Witter residence had prompted Doug's impromptu visit or if somehow in a fit of spite Dawson had tipped Doug off to Pacey's alcoholically-altered state.
She sighed heavily as she turned to gaze at the sleeping boy. Now what was she going to do? She couldn't leave him here. She needed to lock up the marina. And she definitely had more studying to do. She desperately needed to do well on this test.
Making a decision, she switched off the gas pumps and all but one outside light in her usual closing routine. She hung the clipboard on the hook by the door and then attempted to wake Pacey by calling his name.
Snoring emanated from his slackened jaw.
"Pacey!" she said a little louder this time.
Pacey's head lolled to one side abruptly quieting the noise mid-snore but he didn't open his eyes.
Taking action, she shook his shoulder vigorously and hissed at him. "Pacey!"
"WHAT?" Cerulean eyes set in a web of red opened and glared at her.
"This isn't the Logan Motel. I have to lock up and we have to get out of here. We can't stay here all night."
Pacey shook his head to clear it and started to slide off the desk, stumbling a bit as he did. "Yeah… yeah, okay, Jo."
As he headed for the door, Joey asked, "Where are you going?"
Pacey blinked at her. "Did you or did you not just tell me to get out of here? C'mon, Potter, make up your mind."
"Well, where are you going to go?" She wondered.
Pacey frowned a little. "Don't you fret about that, Josephine. I'll see you tomorrow."
Joey worried her bottom lip, debating. "You can crash at my house if you want."
Pacey grinned a little and waggled his eyebrows. "Really? I had no idea you felt that way, Joey."
"Ewww… you cretin." With an exaggerated sigh, she said, "Never mind. Go crawl back in your hole." She pushed him a little so that he was out of the doorway and slinging her backpack over her shoulder, locked the door.
As she started down the dock, Pacey followed. "Prude."
"Pervert," she retorted, her smile hidden by the dark.
The walk home was uneventful but for Pacey's tendency to weave a bit as he walked. Andie, the alcohol and the altercation with Dawson seemed to have taken their toll on him and he was quiet as he trudged beside her. Joey's thoughts were focused on her place in the study guide although she experienced a fleeting thought as to how she was going to explain Pacey's presence to Bessie. For his part, he just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and staying awake until they reached her house.
Joey could hear Bessie quietly crooning in Alexander's room as she and Pacey slipped through the door, quietly closing it behind them. Pacey headed straight for the couch and flopped down on his back, his arm folded behind his head as Joey dropped her backpack on the floor near the small kitchen table. When she turned and saw him, his eyes drifting shut, she whispered loudly, "What are you doing?!"
Cocking one eye open, Pacey mumbled, "Potter, you are the Queen of Mixed Signals. No wonder Dawson is looking somewhere more obvious. Did you not say I could crash here?"
"Not on my bed!" she retorted. "Get off before you fall asleep and become dead weight."
"I'll pull out the sofa bed so we can share," he offered, promptly closing his eyes again.
Joey scowled in revulsion. "Never gonna happen. Now get your ass off my bed."
Pacey reluctantly struggled into an upright position and glowered at her. "You've been sleeping with Dawson for years."
"Your point?" She threw him a blanket and pillow she had retrieved from hall closet and pointed to the floor.
"What is going on out here?" Bessie hissed as she appeared from the darkened hall.
Joey shrugged. "Pacey and I are studying for the PSAT."
Bessie glanced between them taking in the extra bedclothes and smirked at Joey.
Joey pleaded with her silently as Pacey slouched against the back of the couch and once again closed his eyes. Shaking her head Bessie relented, "Well, keep it down. If you wake Alexander I promise you won't get any studying done."
Bessie didn't know the meaning of this unexpected overnighter but she knew the dynamic of the three childhood friends had changed since Dawson had returned from Philadelphia. She also knew through the whispers of the small town grapevine that Pacey's home life was sometimes volatile so she had not argued over his unexpected presence here tonight.
Joey let out the breath she'd been unconsciously holding as she watched Bessie debate, decide and then retreat to her room. She saw that Pacey had fallen asleep again and went to rouse him. She poked and shook him until mumbling, he slid off the couch onto the floor, grabbing the pillow as he went and stuffing it under his head.
Joey shook the blanket out over him and considered whether to try to get him to take some aspirin as she looked longingly at her backpack. The evening had turned out to be one interruption after another starting with Pacey's encounter with Mr. Dock. She knew she needed to do well on this test and finally decided she'd done enough in tonight's melodrama. If Pacey had a headache in the morning, maybe it would teach him that life's problems couldn't be solved with a bottle of liquor.
Settling in at the table, she focused on the study guide in front of her.
"Joey?" Pacey cracked one eye open at her from his prone position on the floor, his voice muffled against the pillow.
Joey rolled her eyes, "What now, Pacey?"
"Thanks."
She shook her head with a small smile. "Whatever."
Glancing again at the sleeping boy, she retrieved the aspirin from the kitchen cabinet, filled a glass with water and set it on the coffee table where Pacey could see it when he woke.
Sunlight filtered through the curtains of the Potter living room, falling on Joey's curled form. Panicked she bolted upright. Her gaze searched out the alarm clock and she sighed in relief to see that it wasn't yet 7. She had grabbed the afghan off the back of the couch and stretched out here what seemed like just a few short hours ago. Rubbing her eyes tiredly, she swung her legs to the floor only to entangle them in the empty blanket which had covered Pacey the night before.
She ran her hands through her thick hair and mentally shrugged. She wasn't surprised to find him gone although she hadn't heard him leave. She knew he probably needed to slip into the Witter house while everyone was still sleeping to avoid questions and accusations. She snickered as she noticed the water was gone and the top askew on the aspirin bottle. Well, she couldn't worry about Pacey right now. Her future was in the school library waiting to be decided by her answers on a computerized sheet of red ovals.
She grabbed the blanket off the floor and slowly folded it. She just hoped she was ready.
