Joey took a deep breath. How did I get here, she thought. Not literally how did she get from her house to here – she was painfully aware of what that had involved – but what bizarre string of events led her to be standing at this particular doorway on a Friday night? Joey felt her nerves intensify as she tucked her hair behind her ear.
Pacey heard the blue truck pull up. He peeked out the front window, and saw Joey walking to the building. He completed several last minute checks in anticipation of the knock on the door. He touched his wallet, which was securely in the back pocket of his jeans; cupped his hand around his mouth to smell his breath, and quickly looked around the apartment for a mint. He looked out the peephole to see Joey tuck her hair behind her ear. God, she is beautiful, he observed.
Joey finally lifted her arm to knock on the door. She barely had time to put her hands back in her coat pockets before the door opened revealing a grinning Pacey. "You made it!" he said excitedly.
"Barely," Joey stated. Pacey held the door open motioning for her to come in. "I did pretty well on the way back to my house earlier, but the way here did not go as well."
"No?" Pacey inquired.
"No. There was definitely some honking involved," she reported.
"Are you causing trouble on my streets?" Doug asked as he entered the room.
"Oh, hi, Doug," Joey greeted him as a slight flush came into her face. "I may have had a bit of a problem driving stick. Some people just are not as patient as your brother, that's all," she explained.
"My brother is patient?" Doug questioned. Pacey's eyes met Doug's beseeching him not to ridicule him in front of his date. Recognizing Pacey's silent request, Doug amended his forthcoming statement. "Yes, I suppose he is," Doug agreed.
Pacey smiled at his brother silently thanking him for the compliment. "Ready to go, Jo?"
"Sure, Pace," she responded. "Have a good night, Doug."
"You too, Joey," Doug said with a knowing smile.
Pacey gently placed his hand on the small of her back. Joey felt electricity surge quickly through her at his contact. Others had made this same gesture before, but none elicited a fraction of the reaction that Pacey's hand had. Pacey, oblivious to his effect on her, led Joey outside. "Would you like me to drive, Jo?"
A look of relief came to Joey's face, "Could you?! I really do think I'm getting it, Pace. It's just that people suck, which makes it super stressful," she explained in one long breath.
Pacey did not want to embarrass her, so he forced himself to stifle the laugh caused by her exasperation. This girl is going to be the death of me. "Would be my pleasure, Potter." Pacey opened the passenger door and offered her a hand up into the truck. He hustled around the hood to join her in the truck.
"So what are we doing anyway?" Joey asked.
"Well, I had several adventurous activities planned, but I was instructed to limit my physical exertion. So …" he attempted.
"Dinner and a movie?" Joey completed.
"Pretty lame, huh?" Pacey lamented.
"I think that sounds nice," she responded easily. "I call dibs on picking the movie though."
"And why is that, Potter?"
"Because I refuse to be stuck watching yet another Adam Sandler movie," she explained dramatically
"Hey, The Waterboy was awesome!" Pacey exclaimed.
"No, Pacey. It wasn't." She shook her head violently to portray the strength of her conviction. "Neither was listening to you and Dawson say 'You can do it!' every five minutes. You guys are much less amusing and creative than you think you are."
Pacey knew by the tone of her voice what face she was making, and was rewarded with her patented crooked playful smile the moment he turned his gaze from the road to his passenger. "You wound me, Potter," he said with an equally goofy smile. "OK, so Big Daddy is out. Even though it has a cute kid in it, but that's fine, be closed-minded," Pacey teased. "They might still have Fight Club showing. Now THAT is quality cinema!"
"Pacey, you've already seen it," Joey observed.
"Well, yeah, Potter, but you haven't," he shrugged.
"I already know the twist, Pace," Joey explained.
An expression of exaggerated disbelief washed over Pacey's face. "What? How?!"
"Jackers," she replied.
Pacey shook his head in defeat. "Unacceptable. I'm going to have a talk with that boy," he said seriously. "You can't just go around ruining experiences for others."
Unable to resist the temptation, Joey added, "I also know that Bruce Willis was dead the whole time."
She giggled when Pacey's face turned stern. "Jo, if you tell me you saw that ending coming, I will unequivocally say 'you're lying.' So don't even bother."
"I wasn't saying I saw it coming. Just now that I've seen it 10 times, it's sort of lost its luster," Joey explained. "Despite Dawson's insistence, I don't actually enjoy dissecting movies to death."
"The guy does like to re-watch movies," Pacey agreed. "The worst is all the pausing and rewinding. Would it kill the guy to just let the movie play?"
"Amen, sister friend." Joey laughed again in response to the 'Don't-call-me-sister-friend' look plastered on Pacey's face. "Sorry, couldn't help myself." She watched Pacey relax after his pretend indignation before continuing. "Oh, you know what movie I saw recently that was terrible?" she asked. Pacey shook his head. "Cruel Intentions. It was Andie's pick during girl's night the other day. Somehow I let Jen talk me into seeing it with her. Such an awful movie! Really disgusting behavior. Not to mention the atrocious hairstyles! Like the bleached-blond do on that one character … the Ryan Philippe character's friend. What was his name … Blaine! Oh my goodness… so bad!"
"I actually liked his hair. Thought it was very … forward of such a young actor," Pacey suggested.
Joey chose to ignore Pacey's comment, and continued. "Jen's pick wasn't so bad actually. She went with 10 Things I Hate About You because she thinks the male lead is 'gorgeous.'"
"Isn't that the rom-com that's based on Shakespeare?" Pacey asked.
"The Taming of the Shrew, yes," Joey clarified.
"I'll pass," Pacey voted. "In all of this discussion we forgot to discuss whether we do the dinner or movie part first," he added as the cinema came into view.
"I say, movie first," she suggested. "More room for popcorn."
"That's my girl," Pacey praised. Joey flushed at his words; I like the sound of that. "Well, Potter, we're here. What's it gonna be?" he asked.
Joey remained seated in the truck for a moment before smiling ear-to-ear; "I got it, come on!"
Once inside the theater, Pacey followed closely behind Joey as she chose seats in a row near the back. "I can't believe this is the movie you wanted to see," he chuckled. Joey held his seat down for him because his hands were full from the massive popcorn he had purchased.
"Why not? The first one was so cute!" she claimed. "Besides, as requested, this should require minimal mental effort."
"I'm not complaining. I think this is perfect," Pacey explained as he placed the popcorn securely between them. "Though a G-rated movie offers fewer cuddle moments than say an I Know What You Did Last Summer, but I enjoy a challenge," he said purposely allowing the huskiness to enter his voice. Joey unconsciously bit her lower lip in response to the change in timbre. "Here," he said fixing his blue eyes on hers, "I brought you extra napkins." Joey remained still under his gaze for a moment before taking them from his hand.
"Thanks, Pace," she managed to say forcing herself to fight the urge to maul him in a public place.
"Anytime, Potter," Pacey responded. The pair settled into their seats as the lights went down in the theater to reveal an animated desk lamp playing with a ball.
Joey's attention turned to the screen, but her body remained aware of the presence of the boy next to her. She sighed with the realization that he had her feeling an exhilarating mix between comfortable and anxious. It wasn't the anxious nervous that usually accompanied first dates, but rather anxious excited. Joey put another handful of popcorn into her mouth before wiping her right hand on the napkin setting on her leg. She smiled at him in the dark silently thanking him for being so thoughtful.
A/N: Season 3 of DC was during my freshman year of high school, so I just couldn't resist some of the pop culture references. Hope you enjoyed this "high on the schmaltz factor" of a chapter!