THE FIRST TIME
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE - AFTERNOON DELIGHT
"Thinking of you is working up my appetite
Looking forward to a little afternoon delight
Rubbing sticks and stones together makes the sparks ignite
And the thought of loving you is getting so exciting
Skyrockets in flight
Afternoon delight"
STARLAND VOCAL BAND (Single from 1976)
To Pacey, the first week of being back at school already had him wishing that his next vacation would come soon, with one small exception. As he'd quickly found out, acting was something that came naturally to him and he'd actually begun to look forward to when the rehearsal days for their upcoming production of the romantic comedy "Barefoot in the Park" began, even if one thing did worry him a little. Nikki, who'd been chosen as director of the play (probably on orders from her dad) had him in mind for the leading role of the slightly neurotic Paul, while she was considering Jen to be the frontrunner for the role of his fun-loving wife Corie, who's trying to get her far too uptight husband to loosen up, or as the title of the play says, "Run barefoot in the park".
"You know that we'll have to kiss one another on the lips, if we get the leading roles, don't you?" he asked Jen seriously, as they were making their way to the auditorium for the final round of auditions.
"It's just acting, Pacey. Joey knows that you won't really be cheating on her with me" Jen reasoned, as they rounded a corner. When they did, they saw what looked like one of the new freshmen, who clearly was having trouble keeping his hopeful eyes off his female companion.
"It looks like someone has a crush on you!" he teasingly whispered to Jen, who smiled back at the freshman boy, that looked all kinds of glad to get just that tiny bit of attention from the girl of his dreams.
"He's very cute, but he's also a freshman" Jen answered him, after they'd walked far enough away from the boy, that he wouldn't be able to hear her.
"So? My grandparents on my mom's side are almost ten years apart, and no one's ever bothered them about it, from what I know".
"I'm also guessing that it was a long time ago, that they found each other. Look, I don't like it more than you do, but the unwritten rules of high school say that it's fine for a girl to date someone older than her, but if she tries to date someone younger, she'll instantly get made fun of by the other girls. Does it suck that it's that way, yes! Is it completely unfair on Henry too, that we can't be together for what are totally stupid reasons, that he has absolutely nothing to do with, hell yes! But things are how they are and I can't change the world on my own, now can I?" she told him, in a way that spoke volumes of what she thought of the unwritten code of being a teenager, that all of them had to live with, if they liked it or not.
"His name is Henry, huh? Am I detecting a hint of a crush here, Lindley?" he slyly asked Jen, who looked back at him, like he was suggesting something that just couldn't be true, no matter how you looked at it.
"No, not at all! I'm just saying that ..."
"Jen and Henry, sitting in a tree ..." he teasingly began singing, not to Jen's amusement, it should be added.
"Bite me, Pacey!" Jen sharply answered him, bringing an end to their little chat, just as they entered the auditorium, where their respective fates awaited them.
Jen's reasons for signing up for the drama club, were two-fold. Mostly, it was just to have something to do with her time, while her friends were off in their own respective clubs. Even Abby, who usually shunned everything that had to do with extra time spent at their school, had signed up for the debate team and with neither of them having a new after-school job on the horizon, it only made sense to try something new and try challenging herself for once, instead of just going through the motions, like she had to admit to doing most of the time. The other reason was simpler and had everything to do with her troubles, when it came to finding a boyfriend. In short, she was starting to get sick and tired of always feeling like the one, who never had the tiniest bit of luck in love and a few days before the new school year had begun, she'd made a pledge to herself that this would be the year, where Jen Lindley went from being the hopelessly single girl, that she'd never wanted to be in the first place, to one of the girls that the other girls at school would be jealous of, when they saw her walking the hallways of Capeside High with a boyfriend, who loved her back as much, as she loved him. Of course, this also meant that she would have to start opening herself up to guys, who weren't in her immediate social circle and with the number of hunks that they always seemed to have on their stage crew, she figured that there had to be one of them that wasn't too much of a hopeless case.
After the final auditions, she'd left the school with a gut feeling that the role of Corie would be hers, even if there were a couple of other girls, who were still in the running too. She'd almost made it all the way down to the Ice House however, before she realized that she'd forgotten to bring home one of the books, she needed to do her homework. With there being no other way around it, she groaned in annoyance, as she made her way back to the place, she'd just come from. One thing that she hadn't expected though, was to hear the sound of someone playing an acoustic guitar, coming from inside of the music classroom. With her curiosity once again getting the better of her, she just had to see who it could be that was strumming those strings and as she got closer, she could also hear some very quiet singing, from what sounded like it was a boy. Peering in through the door window, she saw that it was Henry, the very innocent freshman, who was also the only one in his grade, that she could claim to know just a little bit. The song that he was singing was one that she knew too and as she stood out in the hallway listening to him, without him knowing that she was there, she mouthed along to the lyrics, that he (beautifully) sang.
"We busted out of class, had to get away from those fools. We learned more from a three-minute record, baby, than we ever learned in school" Henry sang the words to Bruce Springsteen's immortal classic "No Surrender" to himself, and as he did, she found herself imagining what it would be like, if she simply said to hell with what everyone else would think and went for broke with this sweet young man, whom she imagined had to have the soul of a poet, that was just waiting to come out in the open, where it could be truly appreciated, as it should be. Perhaps, it was the way that her summer flirt with Ricky had gone nowhere and it coming right off the back of her finding out that her previous boyfriend preferred other boys, that made her suddenly feel all kinds of emotional, but in any case, she decided to enter the room and when he saw her, Henry both stopped playing and looked a little flustered, as they made eye contact across the room.
"Don't stop playing, just because I'm in here. That song, you were singing, always reminds me of home, when I hear it. In a nice way too, believe it or not" she smilingly told Henry, who looked both relieved and glad, at the same time.
"My parents don't want me to play my guitar at home, so I asked the principal if it was fine that I come in here every day after school, to play it for an hour or two. Or, as my dad calls it "That damn guitar". Do you really think, I sound good?" Henry nervously asked, which only made her like him a little bit more, like it seemingly happened every time, she'd just made eye contact with him. Truth be told, if he'd only been a year older than he was, then this would certainly be around the time where she would start testing the waters for going on a date with him.
"I think that Bruce himself would have told you that you're doing his song justice, if he was here" she flatteringly said to Henry, who in turn looked like it was the best compliment, he'd been given in his life up to that point.
"Thanks. If there's a song that you want me to play for you, I can tell you if I know how to play it" Henry offered and with that began an hour or so, where all she did was watch him sing and play, while daydreaming about what it could have been like to be loved by someone like him, who would never dream of doing anything to hurt her and would probably worship the very ground, she walked on.
Afterwards, they said their goodbyes and with that also came an invitation from Henry, to meet him in the same place the day after, once school was over for the day.
An invitation that she already knew from moment one, she would be taking him up on.
"Jen, you know that I hate to say it, but what you say and what you do, when it comes to Henry, are two completely opposite things" Joey brutally honestly told Jen, who was helping her with packing down her things and after she'd just been informed of the very romantic sounding afternoon, her friend had just spent with a boy, she strongly claimed not to have any sort of "lubby-duppy" feelings for.
"Is it so wrong of me to enjoy being adored by someone like him? In case, you haven't noticed, stuff like this doesn't happen for me every day, or even every year!" Jen pleaded her case and in a rather convincing way too, if Joey had to be honest.
"And you're not doing anything to lead him on, you say? It isn't what I'm hearing!" she teasingly said to Jen, while filling up a sports bag with clothing, that she'd long since grown out of and they'd already decided should be given to goodwill.
"He's just so adorable, that I can't help myself! It's like having the cutest dog in the world, sitting on your lap and begging you with it's eyes to play with it. Unless, you have a heart of stone, it's nearly impossible to not want to make it happy with you".
"Now, he's a dog?"
"Only in the best ways. Anyway, it doesn't matter, because I'm not going to date a freshman, period!" Jen, rather unconvincingly, stated.
Joey only smiled to herself at Jen's claims and thought to herself that it probably wouldn't be too long, before she had Jen in front of herself again, only this time to announce that she'd gotten over her hang-ups and decided to give a relationship with her freshman admirer a shot, after all. The teasing from the other girls be damned.
In any case, this wasn't the day or time to deal with such things, seeing as Joey's family were less than a week away from moving into their new house, a four-bedroom house only a few hundred yards from her school, where herself, Bessie, Bodie, Alexander and Abby would be living, while her father would continue to live in their old house and serve as caretaker. This was yet another great reason to move, because no matter how hard both of them had tried, it had become clear that her father and Bodie living together would never sit well with either of them. Not to mention that their new home had enough room for Abby too, and if there was one thing that none of them were in any doubt about, it was that little Alexander couldn't wait to have his much-beloved "Bonus Sister" living with them again.
After Jen had headed home and they'd eaten dinner together as a family (another nice part of not owning the Ice House anymore), it fell onto Joey to do the dishes, with a bit of unexpected help from Bessie, who now that she wasn't stressed out at work anymore, had been so pleasant to be around lately that they hadn't heard her raise her voice a single time in weeks.
"How was school today?" Bessie asked her in that way, where Joey could tell that she wanted to ask her something else, only she was nervous to and had to build up to it.
"Pretty good, I guess. You know, I think being on debate team will really agree with me" she answered her sister, who couldn't help herself from chuckling to herself.
"No surprise there!" Bessie quipped and although, her saying so didn't annoy Joey too much, she still threw her sister a pout for good measure. "Come on, Joey! Let's be real here. If there is anyone that I know, who's always been able to appreciate the value of a good bit of arguing, it's you!"
"What about you? Don't you get bored here at home by yourself?" she asked Bessie, who was spending those days replacing the old worn-out wallpaper on their walls, to make it seem less like a house, that practically no money had been put into for years, hence leading to its current state of disrepair. With their new B&B opening in less than two weeks (if everything went according to plan), there wasn't much time either, if they were going to welcome the first guests in by then.
"I have Alexander here with me. Speaking of your nephew ..." Bessie began a sentence, that she didn't know how to finish.
"He's fine, isn't he?"
"Oh, yeah! As long as he's fed and feeling loved, he's perfectly fine and dandy, like he always is, it isn't that! It's just that ... why haven't you told me about the threats against Abby and her girlfriend?" Bessie inquired and Joey could see from the look of her face, that this worried her quite a bit.
"Didn't I? I'm sure that I did!"
"Not to me, you didn't. I get why Abby wouldn't want to talk about it, more than she absolutely has to. If you ask me, I'd say that's just a natural reaction that anyone would have, in a situation like hers. Plus, I'm guessing that the police have implored her to keep her cards close, just in case that the wrong person could overhear it".
"What are you getting at?"
"Look, you know that we all love Abby to bits, and we'd love to have her living with us again and that it has nothing to do with her having a girlfriend, instead of a boyfriend, it's just that right now ..."
"You don't think it would be safe for us, is that it?" Joey finished her sister's sentence for her and in return, got a sympathetic look from her older sibling.
"I hate to lay this on you, but we have a baby in the house and his safety has to come first, no matter what. Can you tell Abby that we can't have her moving in, before this whole situation has been resolved?" Bessie asked of her and with there being little in the way of other choices, all Joey could do was nod and accept this entirely ungrateful task, she'd just taken on.
Back when they were kids, Pacey and Dawson would hold movie nights at least three times a week, usually with Joey there to bicker with him and get his blood boiling just enough, that it was still highly amusing to him. Those days were long gone though, now that himself and Joey had traded their bickering ways in for a relationship and as a consequence, his and Dawson's movie nights had also become fever and further between. This evening however, they were having a "Blast from the Past" themed evening, with them watching "Blazing Saddles" first (and enjoying every moment of its blatant lack of political correctness, that even at this time wouldn't have flown at all!), followed by them watching the early 90's romantic comedy "Singles", which also just happened to be the first of its kind, that Pacey could remember having enjoyed so much, that he wanted to watch it again someday. That day had never come until now, and as he watched it, he couldn't help making comparisons between his friends and the characters in the movie, that almost became as synonymous with the Grunge movement, as Nirvana's albums had been, back in the time it was set in.
The character he had to admit being most like was Cliff, the long-haired Wanna-Be rock star played by Matt Dillon, who's rather clueless in his attempts at being a good boyfriend to his on/off girlfriend Janet, the whimsical and very charming girl, who's still finding out who she's meant to become, played wonderfully by Bridget Fonda, a few years before she decided that the world of Hollywood simply wasn't for her. The one scene that he could remember having laughed at the most, was where Cliff tries to win Janet back by installing a new stereo system in her car (with rather hilarious and unexpected consequences!) and seeing it again had him laughing just as hard, as it did the first time, he saw it, around five or six years before this.
"Whatever you do, Pacey, try not to learn from Cliff, when it comes to winning an ex-girlfriend back!" Dawson joked, as they watched Matt Dillon on screen making a sorry face to Bridget Fonda, after his character had just mistakenly blown out all of the windows in her character's car simultaneously.
"Mental note hereby made!" Pacey quipped back, as they shared a dry laugh.
"Not that Joey would ever dump you anyway, unless you did something really bad, like cheat on her".
"I hope so, anyway. What about yourself and the lack of action on the romantic front, since your ex skipped town on you? Sorry, that wasn't ..."
"It's okay, Pace. I've done enough blaming of myself, to last me a lifetime already, over how me and Mary-Beth ended. That's one mistake, I'm never making again!"
"Are you feeling ready to get back into the dating pool?" he asked Dawson, who just smiled knowingly to himself in a rather unmistakable way. "Okay, who is she and why haven't I heard about it before now?"
"You know Jen's half-sister Eve, right?" was all that Dawson had to say, for Pacey to be able to easily piece a scenario together in his head, that involved his oldest buddy being seduced by a certain blonde-haired temptress, that it would be hard for any red-blooded teenage boy to say no to.
"How long has this being going on?"
"There isn't really anything going on yet, as far as her being my girlfriend or anything like that. We've just been ... relieving each other's loneliness, you could say".
"And how exactly, have you been doing this?"
"She comes over to visit me after work sometimes, when she's got a bad case of that sweet itch, as they call it" Dawson confided in him.
"Lucky you, having a friend with benefits like that! Do you think it could develop into more?"
"It could, if we wanted it to. She's damn hard to say no to though, I can tell you that much!" Dawson stated, not that Pacey hadn't tried on his own, how difficult it was. Truth be told, if he hadn't been with Joey, then he would have jumped right into it with Eve and it could easily have been himself, who was now in Dawson's shoes.
Following the end of the movie, he headed home instantly on his bike, seeing as it was getting late and he had less than eight hours, before he had to get up the day after. As he rode up to his mom's house, he could see that the light in the living room was on, no doubt thanks to Gretchen burning the midnight oil in front of the TV, as she so often did.
"Regressing, are we?" he teased his highly pregnant older sister, when he saw that the movie she was watching was "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure", a huge favorite of his own from his childhood.
"I felt like watching something uncomplicated, and it just happened to be coming on. Nick called me, while you were over at Dawson's. My ex-roommate gave him our number" she informed him, referring to her lousy, piece of filth ex-boyfriend that had left her high and dry, after she'd told him about the pregnancy.
"Did you tell his sorry ass to go to hell, like any rationally thinking girl would?" he bluntly asked his sister, making no secret of what he thought of guys, who would do such a thing to a girl.
"He wants to try being a father to his unborn kid, after all. I couldn't tell him over the phone that I haven't decided yet, if I'm planning on keeping it or not".
"Do you want him to be a part of your life again?" he asked Gretchen, who needed a few moments to think about it, before she could give him an answer.
"I'd like it if we could at least get a better ending to our relationship, than we had. Him yelling "You have to be kidding me, Gretchen" and me spending hours afterwards crying over it isn't how you want any romantic relationship to end, now is it?" she told him, only moments before they both had to laugh at Pee-Wee's childish antics, that so many untold millions of kids around the world loved him so much for, before that infamous indecent exposure incident changed many people's perception of him.
"Does he still live in Boston?" he asked his sister, after an idea had suddenly popped into his head.
"If he's moved away, I'm sure he would have told me about it, when we spoke tonight. Why?"
"We could take a drive up there this weekend, if you're up for it. And, before you ask, yes, I can stop myself from wanting to punch his lights out, if you don't want me to!"
Gretchen took a handful of minutes to consider it, before she decided to go with his suggestion. Now, the only question was if he could actually live up to his word, that he'd just given her.
Having the occasional dirty dream was nothing new to Jen and more than a few times, she'd woken up with panties so wet that the first thing she did, was to change into a freshly washed pair of them. The dream that she had that night was something different though, a far too overly romantic fantasy of herself with Henry, that was like something out of a cheesy Barbara Cartland novel, written for the lonely housewives of the world, whose husbands weren't close to the sort of dreamboats, old Barbara liked to write about.
Perhaps, this was also why she couldn't stop smiling all morning, as the nice memories of it kept sending small waves of romantic joy, shooting up through her entire body. Something, that Joey obviously quickly picked up on, from the moment they saw one another.
"No feelings for him at all, you say?" she quietly and teasingly asked Jen, making sure not to speak the boy in question's name, when others could hear it. "That isn't what it looks like to me!"
"Okay, so I might have some very, very tiny conflicting emotions here! I'll give you that much!" Jen (sort of) conceded, although from what she could tell, it only served to make Joey even more sure that it wouldn't be long, until her one friend from New York had to give in to those so-called "Conflicting Emotions". Something, that even Jen herself now was ready to concede wasn't all that unlikely.
After school was over, she went right to the music room, where what she now had to call her crush (even if she wouldn't tell anyone about it) was waiting for her with his acoustic guitar already in his hands.
"I wasn't sure if you'd actually show up" he greeted her with, as they shared a knowing smile with one another.
"And miss out on the highlight of my day? Don't you know me better than that already?" she half-jokingly asked Henry, seeing as this in all likelihood would be the best part of her day.
"I'm still guessing that you haven't told your friends about us, have you?"
"One of them sort of knows. Look, Henry ..."
"Can I say something first?" he interrupted her and got a nod in reply. "Jen, I know that I'm still getting used to being in high school and it hasn't escaped my eyes, that you never see an older girl dating a younger boy here. I guess, what I'm trying to say is that you don't need to worry about me telling anyone, that we sometimes hang out together, that's all" Henry sweetly told her, before he began playing and singing another Springsteen classic for her personal enjoyment, this time one of his most romantic songs, that she'd only heard once or twice before, from what she could remember. With every word that came out of his mouth though, she found herself dreaming herself back to a time, when if someone like Henry had wanted her affections, then she would have given them to him instantly, or close to it.
"I've got no time for the corner boys
Down in the street making all that noise
Or the girls out on the avenue
'Cause tonight, I wanna be with you
Tonight, I'm gonna take that ride
Across the river to the Jersey side
Take my baby to the carnival
And I'll take her on all the rides
'Cause down the shore everything's alright
You and your baby on a Saturday night
You know all my dreams come true
When I'm walking down the street with you
Sha la la la la la la
Sha la la la la la la la la
Sha la la la la la la la
Sha la la la, I'm in love with a Jersey girl"
By the time Henry played the last chord to the song, Jen was sure of one thing, if she was sure of anything: That whether she wanted to admit it or not, this had to be by far the biggest crush, she'd ever had on anyone! Freshmen or otherwise.
Luckily for Joey, and probably because Abby knew that Grams wouldn't throw her out on the streets, her rather short-stemmed friend took the news in stride and told her to tell Bessie and Bodie, that there weren't any hard feelings on her part. With the worst part of her day then out of the way, all she had left to do was to look forward to the date night, her and Pacey had planned for that evening. Not that it would anything too out of the ordinary for them, but with her beloved heading to Boston for the weekend with his sister, she'd have to take advantage of every little bit of time, she got to spend alone with him until then.
On her way to leaving the school though, after she'd just had "practice" with the quiz team, she felt a pressing feeling coming from her bladder, that she couldn't put off for much longer, which was why she made her way to the little girl's room, where a way to relieve herself awaited her. As she sat there on the toilet seat though and had just finished wiping herself off "down there", she heard the door open and immediately heard the voice of an extremely irritating girl, she'd been trying for most of her life to avoid, as much as possible.
"Can you believe that bitch Ms. Foxworthy ratted on me to the principal, for that little?" she heard Belinda tell one of her several "followers", whose voice she didn't immediately recognize. In any case, she didn't want to have to face either of them, which was why she pulled her legs up and put them on the front of the toilet seat, so they (hopefully) wouldn't notice that she was in there.
"All you did was tell the truth to that fat girl. If she can't take it, that's her problem" Belinda's crony agreed with her, probably in some kind of attempt at scoring some cool points with the school's head cheerleader.
"I know! It isn't my fault that she stuffed her face with cake and potato chips, when she should have been working off some of those unwanted pounds, is it?" Belinda asked her friend and like she had so many times before, all Joey could do was roll her eyes at how incredibly unlikable, it was possible for one girl to be. Yet another reason, why she avoided what most of the other girls at her school called "The Wicked Witch of the East", anytime that she could.
"It's so unfair!" Belinda's friend, whose voice Joey still didn't recognize, agreed with her "master".
"I can't wait until I graduate! At least, I have a date with Chris tonight, so that's something" Belinda said, providing Joey with a piece of information, she couldn't possibly have cared less about. At least, until she heard what came out of Belinda's mouth next.
"Did he tell you if the cops know anything?" the other girl asked Belinda and for once, Joey became the tiniest bit interested in not just the worst girl, but also the worst human being, she'd ever met!
"They haven't turned up at his parents' door to ask him anything, from what he tells me. I told him that it was dumb, and they'd start thinking of me first, but would that dumb-ass listen? No, he had to be a guy and think with his dick and balls instead of his brain, just like he usually does! Believe me, I'd dump his worthless butt in a second, if he didn't have something on me, that I can't have getting out. Sometimes, and I can't believe I'm saying it, but sometimes I can't help thinking that Abby and Melissa got it right on the money, when they gave up on his entire sorry gender altogether!" an annoyed Belinda told her friend, who was busy having a pee of her own, thankfully a handful of stalls closer to the door, than the one Joey was "hiding" in.
Thankfully, they soon left her alone in there. Still, as she stood by the sink, washing her hands, the words that Belinda just said kept running through her head.
Could this have anything to do with what was done to Grams' car? Even if Belinda hadn't said so in so many words, it was still the closest thing they had to a clue to go by so far.
END OF CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
