Chapter Twenty-Six - Joey's P.O.V.
After returning to the house and changing into our pajamas Jack and Tobey start the fire, while Pacey and I make the hot chocolate. We are in kitchen when there's a knock at the door.
"I'll get it." I say expecting it to be Andie. Opening the door I am face to face with Dawson instead.
"Dawson!" I say surprised by his appearance. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to see you. To wish you a merry Christmas, I never got the chance at the party. Do you have a minute? I'd like to talk."
"Uh, sure. I guess." I quickly look towards the kitchen, and see Jen helping Pacey. Wrapping my sweater tightly around me I step out on to the porch. "So?"
"Jo, why are you punishing me like this?" he asks.
"What?" I'm shocked by his question. "How am I punishing you?"
"Your so called engagement to Pacey Witter!" he spits out angrily.
"Dawson when are you going to understand that I'm with Pacey because I want to be. I love him more than I've ever loved anyone. That I plan on spending the rest of my life with him."
"That's just it, you're not going to. Don't you remember that we are soul mates? That we belong together."
"No Dawson we're not soul mates, we're not anything. You and I we had our time and I discovered that we don't belong together. We, "I say indicating the space between us, "We we're never meant to be. Now I'm trying to have a pleasant evening and this isn't helping so since I have nothing left to say to you would you please leave, as long as you continue to believe what you do we can't be friends, you are no longer welcome here. Goodnight." I say turning to go back inside the house.
"You've changed you know!" He says bitterly as I turn the door handle.
"I'm glad you've finally noticed that." I say with my back still to him.
"I don't like it. I don't like who've you become. You're not the same Joey Potter anymore, the Joey I know would never dress the way you do, or say the things you just said to me, and most importantly the you I know would never act the way you do. Tell me Josephine when exactly did you become Pacey's whore? Was it when he fucked you at that ski lodge, was it after he came back from Miami, or maybe you've just been a whore your whole life." He is angry, I can hear it in his voice, I know he's trying to hurt me but he can't because I know the truth. However his words to irritate me and I can't let him get away with it.
"Excuse me?" I ask, spinning around to look at him.
"I saw you, you know. Yesterday, and I heard you again earlier tonight. Do you like it when he fucks you?"
"That's none of your business. Why would you watch us?"
"I wanted to talk to you earlier when you were out shopping but you were never alone; so I came over to talk to you, too make you see what a mistake you're making by tying yourself to that loser for the rest of your life."
"I'm not making a mistake, and he's not a loser. You're just too wrapped up in your own little world to see that."
"Anyway, I heard a scream, the door was locked and I was worried you'd hurt yourself so I went to look in your window to see if you were okay and instead I saw you fucking him. I was always curious what was so great about him, so I watched you two fuck each other."
"That's disgusting. Get off my property now, before I call the police and have you arrested."
"I'll leave, but I will be back. After all I'm the one that really loves you, and when you're ready I'll be waiting."
"You're delusional." I say to him before slamming the door closed and locking it for good measure. "Arg!" I scream, pulling my hands through my hair in frustration.
"What's wrong Jo?" Jack asks from the sofa.
"Baby, who was that?" Pacey asks at the same time as Jack. He has just walked into the living room and is carrying two steaming mugs of hot chocolate.
"Three guesses!" I mutter.
"Dawson?" They all say in unison.
"Yeah! Pace can I talk to you alone for a minute?"
"Yeah sure." He says setting the mugs on the coffee table. "We'll be right back." He tells the others as I head for my room.
"What was he doing here?"
"Why else would he be here, he wants what he's always wanted. He wants to play this out like it's one of his lame scripts, only he wants to rewrite the ending."
"Well, if it helps he had a go at me back at the party. So you want to talk about it? He didn't try and hurt you did he, you're shaking."
"No, he didn't touch me. I'm just so angry right now that's all."
"Why? What did he say?"
"He said that he watched us having sex."
"What? When?"
"Yesterday. Yeah that was pretty much my reaction. It's disgusting. I honestly think he got off on it too, like it made him feel all powerful or something."
"You know I thought I saw something move outside the window yesterday, but I just figured it was the wind in the bushes."
"He called me a whore." I say very quietly.
"Excuse me? He called you a what?"
"A whore, he said I was just your whore." I say louder this time.
"That bastard, I'll kill him."
"No Pacey, I don't want you getting into any kind of trouble. I told him to leave, that he's no longer welcome here, and that if his behavior continues I will call the police and have him arrested.
"Jo, do you really think he's going to listen? He's obsessed. He needs professional help, medication, something."
"I know, can we please deal with this later? I just want to have a nice quite Christmas at home with the people I love."
"Me too baby. But don't think this is over; Mitch is looking into what he said about his transferring to BU for me. If he finds anything out I want to know that you're going to be safe. Now lets get back out there."
Returning to the living room I hear Andie's perky voice, and Jack saying he'll explain it all later.
"Hi Andie, you made it." I say.
"Yeah, I saw Dawson leaving in a hurry as I got here. Is something wrong? Is everything alright?" she asks picking up on the vibe between the rest of us.
"Not really, it's a long story and right now it's Christmas so I'm not really up for talking about it. Let's just say that Dawson Leery is no longer a friend of mine." I say quickly hoping to avoid further conversation.
"Okay, sorry I'm late. I ran back home to get these." She says holding up about six photo albums.
"Wow, that is a lot of pictures." Pacey says from behind me.
"Yeah, I went on this tour of all of the wine regions and these are some of the pictures I took."
"Again, that's a lot of pictures."
"Shut up Witter, you know how much I like taking pictures."
"Don't remind me, I spent two years avoiding having my picture taken by you." I say teasing her.
"Jack!" she whines to her brother "They're picking on me."
"They do that." He observes not really coming to her defense, Jen just laughs softly.
"Arg, I hate you sometimes." She says throwing a small pillow at him. The room erupts in laughter seeing Jack's stunned face. Soon we are having a full-blown pillow fight. Of course the moment that one of the feather pillows explodes is the exact moment Bessie, Bodie, Grams, and Alex choose to walk through the door.
"What the hell is going on in here?" Bessie yells at all of us. We all stop mid-swing and turn to look at her.
Pacey who was being attacked by all three of us girls crawls from beneath the pile of bodies and grins at Bessie and says, "What can I say, I'm irresistible." We all start laughing again this time Bessie, Bodie, and Grams join in.
"Well, we're going to bed. Joey, Pacey make sure this place is feather free by morning." Bessie says and walks through the room and up the stairs, Bodie and Grams follow suit.
"K guys, I think play time is over. Lets clean up this mess." I turn around to see the five of them trying to sneak from the room. "Oh no, you helped make the mess, now you get to help clean it up."
"But Jo, look at this place." Pacey whines.
"Pacey John Witter, if you plan on sleeping anywhere near me tonight; you will get your fine ass in here and help me." I'm using the same tone of voice I use when Alex won't take his bath, he knows I mean business and slinks back into the room looking defeated.
The next morning we are all gathered around the tree, wrapping paper has been thrown everywhere, all the presents have been opened and we are all stuffed from the amazing breakfast that Bodie prepared for us.
"Hey guys before we all get up I have one more present to give." I say. Reaching between the cushions of the couch I pull an envelope out and hand it to Pacey.
"But Jo, you already gave me my gift remember. The painting of the True Love."
"Actually Pace, that was only half of your gift, this is the other half."
He opens the envelope and reads the papers in his hands, looks at the picture, and looks up at me questioningly.
"Jo, what is this?"
"Well Pace, if you can't figure it out then maybe you don't deserve it." I tease him.
"Well obviously it's a boat, and according to this, he holds up the paper, it's my boat, our boat."
"That's right Pacey. She's a little old and in desperate need of some TLC but I saw her and knew she was meant to be ours."
He pulls me into his arms and hugs me tightly, whispering "thank-you" in my ear.
"You're welcome, but I had a little help, so you should really thank Jack, Jen, Grams, and Bessie too. If you want to see her, she's in your old slip at the marina."
"Wow, guys this has been the best Christmas ever, thank you so much." He says grinning from ear to ear.
"Pace, all we ask is that you invite all of us when you christen her." Jack says smiling.
"Will do." He says still grinning.