thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far. you're all great! :)

sorry for the wait! the wifi at the hotel turned out to be even worse than i had expected :( so i had to write chapters 8 - 10 without wifi.

however, with these prewritten it means i can start a posting schedule! :D from now on, a chapter will be posted every friday, unless for unforeseen circumstances i'm unable to post, in which case i'll post a message on my writing tumblr ( improbablynotwriting) or if its required, i'll post an author's note here instead of the chapter.

[[ EDIT 16/7/15: I'm guessing this probably will end up being posted on a Saturday, rather than a Friday. Sorry about that! The plane journey is on Friday and it takes longer than I expected it to. Chapter 9 will definitely be posted next Friday, though! ]]

ENJOY! :)

Pam Beesly was never one to make friends very easily, but despite only having known Jim for a little while, she felt like he was her best friend. They hung out outside of class sometimes, mostly sitting in the canteen, and usually surrounded by Kelly, Ryan, and occasionally Dwight, but when he spoke to her she felt like they were in their own private world.

(He just had a way about him – maybe it was the way he tilted not only his head, but seemingly his entire body towards her when he talked to her, or maybe it was the way he mostly responded without missing a beat, never having to pause to think, or even guess what she was trying to say. He just knew, always, what she wanted to tell him.)

There was only a matter of hours left until the big party, and she couldn't wait. Whenever Jim mentioned it – which to his credit, was not too often – she felt a surge of excited-nervous energy and could hardly sit still. She felt like a kid, like when she was in middle school and daydreamed about all the fabulous parties she'd be invited to when she was in high school.

(Of course, these didn't come until much later, until she and Roy were "official" enough that people knew they had to invite the both of them, like a paired set.)

Presently, Pam was sitting in her usual seat in History, with Jim's seat lying empty beside her. He hadn't come to their table at breakfast, and a huge part of her wanted to go see if he was okay, but Ryan had been in the middle of one of his speeches about "post-post-modernism" and she'd have felt bad if she'd left. Instead, she tapped out a message to him under the table, and sent it when no one was looking.

No reply.

There was only a couple minutes until class begun, and so the normal people started to file in. The striped sweater boy, who Pam had recently learned was called Oscar, shot her a shy smile as he walked to his seat. She returned it gladly, but was still wondering where the Hell Jim could be.

Dwight arrived surprisingly late (which for him, was 2 minutes before class began) and grunted at her as he sat down. He set up his old custom-built laptop, his 3 pens (in case 2 ran out, of course) and the (still unused) notepad on his desk.

Michael Scott soon wandered into the room, and yet there was still no sign of Jim. While the professor got ready, Pam leaned over her desk and tapped Dwight on the shoulder.

He snapped around as if he were ready to fight. "Ugh, what is it? I'm busy."

Pam ignored the fact that he was doing absolutely nothing. "Have you seen Jim?"

Dwight rolled his eyes. "He slept in today, like the good-for-nothing idiot that he is. I haven't seen him since then, but he's probably still asleep."

"Oh. Thanks." She slid back into her seat. Jim never slept in. He said himself that it was almost impossible to sleep through Dwight's early-morning alarm, and even if he had, it was midday. Surely he couldn't have slept for that long.

She set up her class materials and was just about to send him another text – where are you? – when, as if on cue, he sauntered up the row and flopped down into his seat. Pam was fully aware she was grinning, but she didn't even care.

"Hey."

"Hey!"

"Where've you been?"

"I was preparing."

"Preparing for what?"

"Wait and see." He gave her a half-smirk that she could have sworn made her stomach flip, and then reached into his bag for his things as if nothing had happened.

Pam raised her eyebrows, but said nothing. If Jim was so busy "preparing" all day, then whatever he had planned had got to be good.

Mr. Scott began one of his long, rambling speeches that he always performed at the start of class, whether they had anything to do with the topic or not. Dwight, as per usual, booted up his laptop, getting ready to transcript the entire lesson.

But suddenly: "Damnit, Jim!"

Jim burst into laughter beside her. She could feel his whole body shaking, just from her arm resting near his.

Curious, Pam leaned over the desk, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible so as not to attract the attention of Michael G. Scott, and was simultaneously thrilled and mortified by what she saw, on the desktop background of Dwight's computer.

Dwight's head, pasted on top of the body of a black bear, with discarded, rotten-looking beets lying all around him. There was a speech bubble coming from his head with the words: BLACK BEARS ARE SUPERIOR written in multicoloured Comic Sans font. The whole picture looked terrible, but in the best way. Jim must have sneaked the picture when Dwight was yelling at him, as his face was contorted in ways that Pam never knew were naturally possible.

"What is the meaning of this?" Dwight hissed, turning around in his seat to shoot Jim a death glare.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jim replied innocently. Almost all traces of his previous laughing fit had been wiped from his face. He was good, Pam knew.

"I know it was you who did this!" Dwight was angrier than Pam had ever seen him, so she stifled her giggles in the sleeve of her sweater and pretended she wasn't following the one-sided argument like it was a tennis match.

Jim shrugged in response to Dwight's claims. Dwight, apparently realising he wasn't going to get anywhere with this debate, uttered the words: "You'll regret this," before turning back round in his seat, opening up the word processing document he used for class, and began frantically typing, trying to catch every single word that their professor said.

"Well done," Pam said, once she was sure Dwight couldn't hear.

"Thank you," Jim grinned wide, like he really meant it.

"So that's what you've been doing all day?"

"Yep," he replied gleefully, popping the p. He then added, somewhat bashfully, "it took me about an hour to figure out how to work Photoshop, though."

Pam smiled at his confession, though she didn't really know why. "You have to let me in on this, next time."

"Seriously?" His grin was ear-splitting now, threatening to stretch right off his face and into the corners of the room.

Pam only nodded, matching his grin with her own.

"Okay, then." He nodded, once. "Good."

It felt like an alliance; a new type of connection, had been made.

"I'll meet you at 7, okay?"

"Yeah, sure." Pam replied, pulling at her sweater sleeves. They could cover her hands if she pulled hard enough, and right now, the entirety of both hands were engulfed in them.

"O—kay," he said, and the pause between the 2 syllables was too long. There was silence for a moment, but then he shot her another grin – Halpert grins, as she was starting to call them – and made some excuse to leave, to go back up to his room. He "had to study", or something, she wasn't really sure, but whatever it was sounded ever so slightly fabricated.

Art History had just finished and Jim had ran into her on her way back to her room, so she continued her walk.

(She had a sneaking suspicion that their encounter hadn't been an entire accident, that perhaps Jim had been looking for her, and maybe he knew what room her AH class was in and had deliberately came to find her, to speak to her. It's just that there had been a lot of "run-ins" recently between her and Jim, and after the first 4 she decided there was no way that all of them could be totally accidental.)

She eventually made it back to her room, only 5 minutes delayed. Kelly wasn't there, for once; Pam guessed she was probably with Ryan, or maybe at class. (Not that Pam knew what classes Kelly went to, or if she had any classes at all.)

The few moments of time alone in her room were a blessing, and Pam usually used them to just study in peace, without Kelly speaking constantly at a speed of probably 100mph. This particular afternoon however, she decided to make some calls.

"Mom" was first on speed dial, always had been, and despite having already texted her twice during the course of the day, she tapped the little "Call" icon, held the phone to her ear, and waited.

2 rings, and then an answer.

"Hi!"

"Hi, mom."

She settled down in her bed, comfortable with her pillow at her back and her feet under the comforter, while her mother and she exchanged pleasantries and how-are-you-s. The small talk continued for a couple of minutes before her mom apparently couldn't wait any longer to hear the news.

"So the big party's tonight, right?"

"Uh-huh. Jim's meeting me here at 7."

"Don't drink too much," Helene warned, though Pam could sense the smile in her voice. "Don't let that Jim coerce you into doing anything you don't want to-"

"Mom, no!" Pam interrupted, heat rising to her cheeks. "We're not – He – He's not that type of guy." She could only hope her mother hadn't picked up on all the stuttering.

"Well, what type of guy is he, then?" Pam knew in an instant that her mother had been waiting for her to slip up, waiting for the perfect moment to bring up the topic of Jim so that it would seem like Pam's idea.

She struggled to find the words. After all, she hadn't known Jim for that long. They didn't have deep conversations or anything like that, and thus she didn't know much about his true character. How can I describe someone like that? She wondered.

"Jim... Jim's nice." Settled. Except, her mom probably wasn't convinced. "He's a nice guy. Friendly, you know? And he's funny. He pulled the best prank on Dwight today, his roommate..."

The conversation then consisted mostly of her describing the elaborate prank Jim had pulled on Dwight earlier that day, laughing when she recalled all the planning that had went into it, all the little details Jim had explained to her when they were supposed to be listening to the lesson, how he had managed to get ahold of Dwight's laptop in the first place, and especially how it took him an hour to figure out Photoshop. (She left out the part where she drew a little cartoon of Dwight in the margin of Jim's notepad, and he added the caption: "I'm taking this to the authorities!" because that felt too private; simultaneously insignificant and the best thing about that class.)

"So... You're fond of Jim, I take it?"

"Well, yeah, I guess. He's my friend." Pam held the phone closer to her ear. Her mom's voice had gotten quieter and more subdued ever since she first began talking about Jim.

"You're sure he's just a friend?"

"I'm dating Roy." Pam replied, knowing she sounded tense over the phone. "He actually said he'd call me at around this time, anyway, so I'd better go."

"Oh." Helene's voice sounded a little surprised, and she had good reason to be. Both she and Pam knew that Roy was hardly the type of person to schedule or arrange anything, let alone a short phone call. "Well, bye, honey."

"Bye, mom." Pam faked a smile, hoping it would transfer through her voice. It didn't. "I'll text you tomorrow."

Her mom replied with a final request to tell her all about how the party went, half-jokingly told her to "be safe" one last time, said goodbye again, and hung up.

The conversation had her thinking. The last time she had spoken to Roy had to have been at least 2 days ago, when he had mistakenly texted her instead of a friend and she had used the opportunity to ask him how community college was going so far. (In his words: "It's basically high school, just with half the gang missing.")

She did feel kind of bad, not even thinking to call or text him at all. She'd only called him once, on her second day, and had hung up abruptly when he tried to convince her into phone sex.

So she dialled his number from the recent contacts list and waited the usual 6 rings before he finally answered.

"Heeeeeeeey," He said, dragging it out way longer than was necessary, making Pam wonder if he was drunk already.

"Hey," she replied, softly.

There was a pause on the end, a moment of quiet, and Pam guessed he was perhaps moving away from whatever crowd he was with currently into a more private space. Suddenly there was a whoosh, the kind of noise phones always make when they're being hurriedly picked up, and she could hear Roy's breathing again. "What's this for?"

"Nothing. I just thought I'd call." Why was this so awkward? She had no idea what to say to him. "Um, how are you?"

"Great! I'm doing... I'm really great." His voice lowered. "Hey, if you wanna do this, just gimme some time to get somewhere quieter, I can totally make time for a quickie..."

"Roy, no." She sighed into the phone, not caring if she came across as exasperated as she felt. What is wrong with him?

"Oh. It's not like that?"

"It's not like that." She repeated, firmly so that maybe he would actually understand, this time.

"Uh, wait a second, then. We can Skype – I've got another hour or so before have to meet the guys for drinks." He paused for a second, and Pam guessed from all the noise that he had started walking somewhere. "There's an empty class just down here..."

There were a couple minutes of silence, cut only by Roy's laboured breathing down the phone. Pam was suddenly reminded of how much she hated that – he always held the phone too close to his mouth, and it just wasn't pleasant to hear his heavy breathing all the time.

She hadn't really planned on Skyping him, but since he had suggested it she figured it wouldn't hurt to just go along with it. So she booted up her old PC laptop on the desk, opened Skype, and asked down the phone: "Ready yet?"

There was a clicking sound of a lock and the thud that she supposed was a door, and then Roy confirmed he was ready, and hung up.

Seconds later, the option popped up for a call pending.

Accept

"Hey, babe!" Roy's face materialised on her screen. His eyes were slightly crossed, and his voice a little slurred. Pam guessed he'd been drinking a bit before she called.

"Hey," she said again, as if the previous phone call hadn't happened. "How are you?"

"Good. A little tipsy. Uh, how are you?" He looked as if he was staring at something just above his phone screen, craning his neck slightly. Pam knew he was probably staring out the classroom's window, watching his friends stumble off to the bar, wishing he was with them.

"Great." She replied, and her voice came out clipped. "So how're your classes?"

"Awesome. Total skive, like, the teachers don't even care if you show up or not. It's amazing."

She wasn't even sure what Roy did in College, other than the fact that he'd already changed his classes twice so far. She waited for him to ask her how her classes were going, but he didn't, just kept staring at that spot above the screen.

"School's good so far. Classes are fine. I think my favourite is probably History actually, not Art, even though we don't do much work there." She launched into talking about her classes, about all the interesting people there; like Phyllis, who could finally go to College thanks to Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration; and Kelly, who was sweet if a little talkative; and all the professors, especially the one-and-only Michael Scott.

Roy nodded along, grinning at the appropriate parts, but Pam still felt as though he wasn't really listening. That is, until she mentioned Jim.

"Jim?" Roy seemed to finally be paying attention. He looked straight into his camera lens, and the angry expression on his face filled up Pam's screen. "That's a guys' name, though."

"Yeah." His manner at this point made her uneasy.

"And you're saying he's a friend?"

"I can have guy friends, Roy." A rare act of defiance – she usually hated confrontation, especially with Roy, and avoided any areas that could be cause for conflict.

"What, is he like, gay or something?" At his girlfriend's raised eyebrows, he added hastily: "Not that that's bad, or anything."

"No, Roy. Anyway, he's nice. He's just a friend, a good friend."

"What's his full name?"

Pam rolled her eyes. "Don't go looking him up. It doesn't matter. Can't we just talk about something else?"

"No, I know. I just want his name so I can... Uh, ask the guys if they know him. Check him out and everything."

It was clearly a lie, and a terrible one at that, but Pam knew he would just keep on asking until she gave in, so she decided to spare him the trouble. "Halpert."

"Cool, cool."

The conversation quickly went on to another topic after that, and soon enough, it felt just like old times. It was as if they were back in high school again; comfortable, with Roy doing most of the talking and Pam laughing along with him.

There was a knock at the door: smart, 2 raps, and then another, quick one, as if the knocker was nervous or something.

"Who's that?" Roy asked, interrupting his own story of the bar fight he had witnessed the previous night.

Pam checked her watch. 18:47, so surely Jim couldn't be there already. "I'll go check, just a second." She got up from her desk chair (with some difficulty, having been sat there for almost an hour) and padded to the door, barefoot. She swung it open, only to find Jim Halpert, fiddling with a thread on the grey sweatshirt he had on.

"Oh, hi!" He said, startled, as if he hadn't expected to see her at the door to her own room. "Sorry I'm early, just, Dwight kicked me out 'cause he's expecting someone, and I just figured..."

"No, it's okay. Only, I'm not really dressed yet." She had only planned on wearing a shirt and her best pair of jeans, but had een hoping that Kelly would be back in time to help her with her hair.

"Oh, okay. I'll go, come back in like, 15 minutes or something?"

"No! No, it's alright. I'll just be 2 secs."

Jim turned in his tracks, shutting the door behind him. Pam whipped back over to her desk, shut the lid of her computer (despite Roy's desperate pleas of "you don't have to, it's not like I haven't seen you like this before") and grabbed her jeans, carefully laid out on her bed, and the purple blouse she had set over her chair.

She involuntarily cursed, more times than she would care to admit, rushing to pull on the jeans, and stuck her head through one of the arm-holes of her blouse before finally getting it the right way. When she checked in the mirror, she looked alright, except she had wanted to spend more time on her makeup and hair, but knew that this would have to do. Her hair was totally loose around her shoulders, but her black clip she had used during the course of the day to pin it back had vanished, and she didn't want to keep Jim waiting for too long.

"Come in!" She called, and the door shuffled open.

Jim apparently didn't know where to stand, so just leaned against the (now closed) door, running one hand through his hair.

"I just need to grab my purse." She assured him. She did as she said (a bright blue purse she'd had since she was about 16 and didn't exactly go with her outfit) and went to follow him out the door, before realising that her laptop had been left on.

She rushed over and snapped it open. Roy hadn't disconnected yet, and stared at Jim with narrowing, distrustful eyes.

"Who the Hell's that?"

Pam instinctively backed away from the computer. "Jim. We're going to his cousin's party." When Roy didn't make any move to disconnect, she added pointedly: "Right now."

"You never told me about a party." He had a sullen look on his face, now, as if was getting angry and (unsuccessfully) trying to hide it.

"I'm pretty sure I mentioned it." A huge understatement. Pam knew she'd already talked this over with him, twice.

"So this is Halpert."

Jim shot him an awkward smile. "Hey. Roy, isn't it?"

"Pam's boyfriend, yeah."

Jim looked away, his gaze fixed pointedly on a spot on Kelly's wall, but when Pam checked, his eyes were far away, not really taking in anything.

"Roy, we have to go."

"Halpert!"

Jim's eyes snapped back to the laptop screen, and he stood up straight, as if being addressed by an army major.

"Take care of Pammie. Don't try anything."

"Um, I will and I won't." The joke was weak, and he averted his eyes to the floor once more.

"Pam'll tell me all about it," Roy began, staring right at the other boy. (Or as best he could, considering he was staring into a phone screen.) "So don't even think of-"

"Roy," Pam cut him off, firmly. "Everything'll be fine. We need to go now."

"Okay, okay. See you later, babe."

Pam knew he probably wouldn't. "See you later."

Roy hung up before she got the chance to, and so she shut the laptop once more, firmly this time.

"I'm ready. Let's go!"

Jim gave her a trademark grin, but something about it just seemed forced. Together, they left the room. Pam locked the door, knowing Kelly had a key, and then started her determined stride down the hall.

She couldn't wait.

title taken from: "Run" by Snow Patrol :)