Chapter Six - Joey's P.O.V.
"Guys, please I need to stop we've been shopping for hours. Look there's a coffee shop. Can we just sit outside and relax. Please just for half and hour." Jack begs.
"I could go for a coffee, my batteries are starting to run low." I say.
Jen mumbles something that sounded suspiciously like Amateurs!
We sit at a small table and talk about school, clothes, what it's like being away from Capeside, nothing all that serious.
"So truthfully did I just make a huge mistake cutting my hair off?" I ask a little worried.
"Joey, stop worrying you look fabulous, guys are going to drool all over you come Monday." Jack says "And trust me, if I weren't gay, or your ex-boyfriend, I'd be hitting on you."
We all laugh at his comment.
"Jen what do you think?"
"Jo you look great, once you get used to it you're going to love it. It's just that it's different, so you're feeling insecure about it. You trusted me enough to talk you into it, now trust me when I say it looks good. And let me remind you that you are starting a new phase of your life, and what better way to do that, than with a great new do, trust me." She says.
Just then the waiter came out to take our order.
"Hey Jen check out that guy!" Jack said nodding towards the athletic blond that walked out of the bookstore and across the street.
"He's cute, I guess if I were looking for someone."
"I never should have sat here, I can't see who you guys are talking about." I complain. "So what's next on our list of activities?"
"Well I want to go across to that bookstore, they have a display of feminist poetry in the window, and I want to check it out. Speaking of the bookstore, Jack that guys been standing there for a while, do you think he's watching us?" Jen asks indicating to the person standing in the store window.
"No, I think he's just reading, better light by the window. But I could be wrong it's almost like he keeps staring at Joey."
"Jo, you should turn around, I can't tell if we know him because of the reflection off the window from the sun." Jen says.
"And how do I do that with being totally obvious?"
"I know, lean down and look for something in one of your bags, and when you sit up again turn you head and look that way."
"Okay, here goes nothing." I bend down, rummaging through a random bag, and try to see who they're talking about. He looks cute but Jen's right there is too much sun to make out anything definite beyond the glass. I can't see anything other than his shape, "We'll have to sit here and wait to see who comes out."
"Sounds like a plan." Jack agrees.
The waiter arrives with our coffee and snacks and goes back inside, leaving us alone on the patio to wonder about the mystery man across the street that's still standing in the window.
"Oh My God!"
"You're not going to believe this." Jack and Jen say in unison as a figure walks up to the table.
"How could you cut your hair? You promised me you'd leave it long. You know how much I love it." He says as I squint against the sun.
About halfway through the strangers angry tirade I realize that he was not a stranger, but someone I know extremely well. Suddenly I'm overwhelmed with my own anger, and respond with the first thing that comes to mind.
"Yeah well you broke promises to Pace. So I guess were even." I say, trying to hurt him as much as possible with those words. He just stands there frozen, shocked at what has just happened. All the while looking amazing, he'd had his haircut; it was now shorter on the sides and just long enough on top to hint at the natural curl in it. It is lighter from all the time he's spent in the summer sun. His tan is a deep brown and his ocean blue eyes swimming with emotions. He's wearing one of his trademark Hawaiian shirts open over a white wife-beater, and khaki shorts with sandals. I'm starting to have trouble breathing as I look up at him.
We just stared at each other, everything and everyone else forgotten. Finally Jen interrupts saying, "Good to see you again Pace. So what brings you to Boston?"
Snapping out of our trance he says, "Well would you believe me if I said I was going to school here?"
No one says anything we all just stare at him.
"No really, I'm serious. I took Mr. Kubelik up on his offer and worked on his yacht this summer. Well he pulled some strings; I guess he knows some people, the right people it would seem, and he got me into a scholarship program at B.U. Four years, full ride." He continues his eyes never leaving mine.
"Pacey, that's so great. You deserve this, you really do." I say at the same time I jump up from my seat and hug him before I realize what exactly I'm doing.
"I know this doesn't change anything and that I was a complete jerk to you last spring, but I'd like to explain things, can I do that? I'm so sorry for everything."
I pull back out of his reach as he says this, "That's all you have to say after what you put me through, that your sorry! I don't think so Pace." I say angrily interrupting him. I'm about to continue yelling at him when the cute blond guy that Jack and Jen had been admiring earlier comes over.
"Hey Witter, stop flirting with the ladies, you said you're not interested in dating anyone except that chick from Worthington. Now let's get a move on Lindsay is waiting for me."
"Matt, I'd like you to meet some old friends of mine, this is Jack, Jen, and this beautiful lady here is Joey." He says with so much love in his voice, I start to get chocked up. I look down and see that we're holding hands, how had that happened?
I panic and say, "Um, Pace we really have to get going. I'll talk to you later okay?"
"What? Yeah sure." He says somewhat confused.
Jack and Jen obviously seeing my distress at the situation had grabbed our stuff; ready to leave when ever I was ready. I look at them and take off down the street, not waiting to see it they were following me. I just had to get away, it's all too much to absorb. Pacey was back in my life just like that, and I knew that the mask I'd had in place for three months now, had just slipped. I need time to think, to absorb what had just happened.
What I didn't see in my hurry to get away from it all, was Jen giving Pacey a piece of paper with our address and phone number on it. And Jack telling him he didn't think it was too late to fix everything between us, if that's what he really wanted.