THE FIRST TIME

CHAPTER TWO - FIRST DATE

"In the car, I just can't wait

To pick you up on our very first date

Is it cool if I hold your hand?

Is it wrong if I think it's lame to dance?

Do you like my stupid hair?

Would you guess that I didn't know what to wear?

I'm just scared of what you think

You make me nervous so I really can't eat"

BLINK 182 (From the album "Take Off Your pants and Jacket" (2001))

After Pacey had dropped Joey off practically at her front door that evening, it had felt like she was walking on a cloud of fluffy pink love all the way to her room. Was this actually happening for Joey Potter, the girl who never gets what she wants, or least feels like she doesn't? And why had she been wasting so much time on pining after Dawson, when the right guy had been right in front of her the entire time? All of that time she'd spent yearning for the wrong guy seemed so meaningless to her now, where she could say that she didn't only have a boyfriend, she had a boyfriend that she was so head over heels for, that it felt like this was a dream, she would wake up to find out that her life felt as sucky and miserable, as it had only a few days earlier, when this crazy adventure had begun for them.

If you'd told her a week earlier, that this would be happening, she would have told you that you were either crazy or on drugs. That everything had changed so fast only made it more exciting and it felt like a whole new world was opening up for her, now that it had. She couldn't deny though, that it had her filled with excitement and every time she thought back on how it had felt, when she'd decided to just go for broke and act on her inner animalistic instincts for the first time in her life, it filled with a warm feeling inside and a satisfaction that she wasn't just doing what everyone expected of her this time, as well as doing something that was just for herself for once. She couldn't say exactly how she would have reacted, if Dawson had been upset over her and Pacey dating and if he had, she probably would have backed down just to keep the peace in their little clique. Without having any other friends to fall back on, she needed to keep herself on good footing with the few she did have, after all. Now that he had given them his blessing though, there was zero reason why she shouldn't try to milk this for all it was worth and see where it would take her.

The day after at school, she would finally be the one to flaunt her new boyfriend in front of the jealous eyes of the other girls, several of whom it hadn't escaped her glances had been googling at Pacey's extremely well developing body over the past few years. Then, she could soak in their jealousy and feel like she was the princess of Capeside High, if nothing else for a day or two, until everyone got used to seeing them making out and their dating would become old news very fast. Until then however, she planned on soaking it up, all that she possibly could!

"I can't decide with myself, who of you is slumming it!" an unwelcome voice said to try and interrupt Pacey and Joey's before-school make-out session by the trees outside of the high school. Just to rub Abby's face in it, they kept on kissing for at least another twenty seconds, before Joey turned her head to glance indifferently at her.

"Jealous, Abby?" Joey asked the five-foot-tall menace to society, who was clearly finding their becoming a couple to be more than a little amusing.

"Of you bagging Pacey? Sorry, Joey, but as far as this scoring you cool points, it only brings you barely out of the negative, if that! As if it wasn't completely predictable, that a pair of social outcasts like you two would be bumping uglies before high school was over, if you haven't already! I really hope you use protection however, because let's face it, he's not exactly the reliable type! Good for you for having the common sense to aim low though, I say that to the both of you!" Abby told them tauntingly, before turning her back on them and heading towards the school entrance. "Oh, and Pacey. I hear that thinking about baseball will solve that problem in your pants, you'll surely want to "fix", before school begins for the day!"

"Yeah, well ... you suck, Abby!" was the best comeback Joey could come up with and he could easily see how displeased she was with it.

"You suck? That's the best, you could come up with?" he had to ask her.

"I don't know what's happening! It's like I'm losing my perspicacity for making comebacks, because all I keep thinking about is ..."

"Me?" he asked, and she smiled shyly back at him, before tucking her hair behind her ears.

"Kind of, yeah" she told him truthfully.

"Wow, you've really got it bad for me, Potter! Although, you did use the word "Perspicacity" just now, so you clearly haven't gone all the way Ralph Wiggum on me!"

"This is the part where you say that you ..." she said, somewhat leadingly.

"Did my homework? Yeah, I'm pretty sure, I'm covered! As well as can be expected of me, it goes without saying!" he replied jokingly.

"You know that isn't what I meant! Tell me that you like me, or I'll never let you kiss me again!" she told him with a pouty face, very insincerely.

"You're starting to grow on me, Potter. Let me put it that way and hey, now that everyone else will know about us before 3rd period begins thanks to Abby, we won't have to bother with coming out to everyone, so how's that for a bonus?" he said gladly, even if he couldn't help notice a small bit of annoyance on her face over this, the latest in her long line of "Abby Related incidents".

"I just wish, I'd come up with a much better comeback, that's all" she told him sulkily.

"How about if we come up with a really great one together, tonight over dinner?"

"Pacey, we're both working today! Bessie only graciously allowed me to stay out late last night. I don't think she's planning on making a habit of it!"

"You get a dinner break, don't you?" he asked and could see a cute smile start to creep across her adorable face.

"Yes, but you know that I always eat at the Ice House, whenever I work the dinner shift."

"If I put the pedal to the metal on my bike, I can get there in three minutes. I get half an hour off for dinner, that I can probably stretch to forty minutes without getting in trouble, so why not take advantage of it for once in a rare while, instead of just eating a sandwich at the video store, like I usually do?"

She seemed to like that idea a whole lot, so she answered him with another kiss, that made him feel filled with warmth inside and like this school day would go by in a flash. It did have an adverse effect on the "Problem in his pants", but he had a good fifteen minutes until classes began and on top of that plenty of tricks in the bag, thinking wise, to get rid of that problem.

"When you said that you did the homework that could be expected of you, you meant only the absolute, bare essentials, didn't you?" she asked, and he had to admit that she pretty much had him there.

"Second date. Sounds like it's becoming serious with you guys!" Jen quipped, while Joey was talking to her by her locker, that she was getting her Geography textbook out of. "Or is it technically the third, if we count that first hook-up?"

"It doesn't feel like a third date. I mean, the first time was kind of a spur of the moment thing, a "let's just go for it and see what happens type of situation", you know?"

"Or what most people refer to as a hook-up, but I'm following you so far."

"The second felt more like it was a continuation of the first, then it's only singular entity date-wise, if that makes any sense to you?" Joey tried explaining, as she closed up her locker again.

"So, since the first one didn't feel like a date and the second was, in your own words, a mere continuation of the first, which wasn't a date at all, only a hook-up, this will be your actual first date? Did I get that right?"

"I know, it's confusing! Imagine how it is for me!" Joey said, although she couldn't hide the smile on her face, that had practically been plastered on since the evening before.

"Are you excited?" Jen asked, with her own smile being almost as wide as Joey's. Only almost, though.

"It's just him coming over to eat dinner at my family's restaurant, right under my sister's watchful eyes, I might add, and then he has to be back at work right afterwards. Logically, it shouldn't feel like anything big at all, but ..."

"Forget about logic for once, Joey! I would be totally excited, if it were me, going on my first date with a guy, I was a crazy about, as you are about Pacey!"

"I guess, I've just gotten so used to being hit with disappointment all the time, that I keep telling myself not to get my hopes too far up, or they'll only end up being crushed again. It wouldn't be close to the first time; it's happened for me."

"You still haven't answered my question!"

"Okay, so I am! It just blows, that we'll have to save the really fun stuff for the weekends and before school. "

"Not to mention in the lunch breaks and directly after school and ..." Jen started saying teasingly.

"I promise to fill you in on more details, as they arrive! Right now, all I want is to enjoy this day and allow my newfound status as non-single to help me to pretend, that this is an open-minded school with fantastic, forward-thinking teachers all around and best of all, no mean girls or dumb, annoying jocks to irritate me!"

"You're so hopelessly and utterly in love, Joey! Man, I so wish, it were me!" Jen said without thinking about what she'd said. Joey couldn't help picking up on it though, and it made her wonder if the feelings Dawson had for Jen matched back, to those Jen had for him.

"You can leave early, if you want. We'll tell the owner that you got the runs, and it was stinking up the store so bad, that I had to send you home because it was scaring the customers away" Dawson suggested jokingly, while himself and Pacey were stacking shelves together of the latest batch of new releases, that had just come through the door half an hour earlier. It got a wry smile out of his buddy, who didn't seem to mind his idea.

"Tell him that I had a sandwich from that new Deli down the street, just to rub it in!" Pacey suggested back and the two friends shared a short laugh together.

Even if Dawson couldn't help himself from being a bit jealous, when he saw Joey and Pacey walking down the hallways of the school holding hands and the few times, he'd seen them kissing, there was also no denying that them becoming a couple had made his own life considerably easier. One thing was that he didn't have to listen to their bickering anymore, something that had gotten old to him years ago and was one thing, he could never see himself missing, but both of them being in such a constant great mood was definitely rubbing off on himself as well. Pacey had become a lot easier to work with too, now that he actually felt like doing work and not just slacking off most of the time and without Joey there to be an extra temptation, there was nothing left to cloud his mind and only one girl in the entire world left for him to choose from, as he saw it. That being a beautiful young blonde girl, who happened to walk into the store at that moment, without either of them turning to look at her.

"I know that it's totally anti-feminist of me or whatever, but I've always loved watching hot guys working!" Jen quipped in her typical fashion and right away, a small sense of joy filled him inside, just to be near her.

"Hey, I don't think Joey would like to hear you use that kind of language!" Pacey replied jokingly back at her, which brought out that sweet, but almost kind of mystical smile of hers. A mystery that he couldn't wait to explore more, now that there was nothing getting in their way anymore.

"Just because I used plural, doesn't mean I meant you too, Pacey! Man, someone's got an ego, now that he's found himself a hot girlfriend!" Jen joked back at him.

"Pacey wants to leave early, so I'll need someone to take his place. Are you up for the job of watching movies with me and filling yourself up with free popcorn, while I serve anyone, who comes in here?" he asked her and from her reaction, he already knew she'd say yes.

"That does sound like really hard work, Dawson! Especially, since my grams has been pressuring me on going to a church group meeting with her tonight ... okay, you've twisted my arm enough! I give in!" the blonde goddess in front of him said and nothing anyone could have said at that moment, could have made him feel more satisfied inside.

"Why didn't you just say that you had date? Of course, you can have the rest of the evening off!" Bessie told Joey, while they were looking out at the only barely quarter filled restaurant, that Joey suspected had something to do with her sister's recent streak of generosity.

"We were just planning on having dinner here and then, he has to go back to work."

"Then you go to the store with him, and you hang out. A date can be whatever you want it to be."

"Even if there's a third person there?"

"If you were at the movies or out eating somewhere, wouldn't there be more than one other person there as well?" Bessie asked and Joey had to agree with her sense of logic.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"I'll make sure that Bodie cooks up something really nice for you two. Just try to keep it PG, when he gets here, Joey! This is a family place, you know?" Bessie told her jokingly, before going to serve a table, who looked like they wanted another round of drinks. Joey forgot all about them in an instant however, when she saw who walked through the door.

"I thought your lunch break wasn't for another half an hour!" she told Pacey smilingly, while they hugged hello.

"I managed to get the rest of the evening off, thanks to finding a replacement for yours truly. In the form of a girl from the Big Apple, we both know very well" he told he smilingly and it only made her own smile grow even wider still.

"I'm sure neither of them had anything against that suggestion! Guess what?"

"What?"

"I have the rest of the evening off too and Bessie said that she'll make Bodie cook something great for us."

"Wow! It's almost beginning to sound like a real ..."

"Date! That's because it is! The only way it would feel more like a date, was if I weren't wearing my work t-shirt. Then again, we can't have everything, can we?"

"It still feels to me, like I have everything right now. Does that count?" Pacey asked her and if her heart hadn't melted for him before, then this was without a doubt the moment, when it did.

"It does, if you agree that the same goes for me" she answered him and couldn't stop herself from kissing him anymore.

(Jen's main thoughts, during her frustrating three and a half hours of minding store with Dawson):

"Why won't he shut up and let me enjoy the movie?"

"I couldn't care less who the cinematographer was!"

"This is good for you, Jen. It's normal, boring teen stuff, like you're supposed to be doing!"

"What I wouldn't give for a sixpack of beer or a joint right now!"

"Or preferably, both?"

"Man, I'm glad that I won't have to work here five days a week! I'd seriously get bored to death, if I had to do that!"

"I wonder what Joey is doing right now. Whatever it is, she's having more fun than I am, that's for sure!"

"I would look great as brunette! Or maybe I should dye my hair black, just to really freak Grams out? Or purple! Now, that would look awesome on me!"

"If I absolutely had to get a tattoo, what would I have tattooed on me and where on my body? Hmm ..."

"Maybe church group meetings can't be that bad after all? What am I thinking?"

(While a family of six with four unruly kids were in the store):

"I'm never having kids and that's final! I mean it!"

"Maybe I can get Grams to sign off on me getting my tubes tied, if I really beg her hard for it!"

(When Joey and Pacey came into the store after their dinner at the Ice House):

"God, they look disgustingly happy! No, Jen! This is the new and improved you and you are delighted for your new friend, that she's found love! You won't get jealous at her, like you did so many times home in New York! Not at all!"

"Why can't I be her, just for this one evening? She can have him back in the morning or I can try to be her replacement for him! I can be a semi-lesbian for one evening, as long as we keep it to holding hands and if I make my voice the deepest that it can be, I can almost make my voice sound like his! Just one of you, please save me from this video store purgatory!"

"Have they had sex yet?"

"They have, haven't they? No, they haven't! On the other hand, she has that a bit of that glow to her like ... nah, not yet!"

"No, don't leave! Stay here with me, so I won't have to listen to any more boring movie trivia!"

(After Joey and Pacey had left):

"Okay, Jen, so right now you're officially jealous of Joey! Great job, brain and thanks for screwing me over again! I knew I should have gone for Pacey and not this ever-talking chatterbox of useless information! Now it's too late! Dammit! I could have had great sex tonight with a hot guy like Pacey and instead I'm here, listening to this walking movie encyclopedia go on and on! This could be the first time ever, where I can honestly say that I'd rather be home in bed with good book!"

"Maybe he won't even notice, if I doze off for a short while."

"Two minutes, thirty-two. Two minutes, thirty-one ... Pacey was right, that clock has to be running slow!"

"Made it to nine o'clock! I so deserve some kind of prize for this!"

"You're ... I still can't come up with a proper comeback! Urgh!" Joey said with frustration, although it was a frustration of the most minor kind, since she admittedly was enjoying herself a whole lot and had been all evening. After dinner (which was to die for!) and their brief stop at the video store to say hi to Dawson and Jen, they'd gone back to her house and spent the rest of the evening switching between kissing and snuggling in her bed.

"It's okay, Jo. No one says that you need to have it ready for tomorrow" he assured her and it brought the smile back to her face.

"I feel like such a sad and pathetic loser now! I'm afraid that the only way you can make it go away, is if you kiss me some more!" she quipped, in no serious way at all.

"You feel like a loser? How do you think I feel, now that everyone knows I'm dating a brainy chick?" he joked back at her.

"That's all I am to you, huh? Just another brainy chick?" she replied, while trying to sound as aloof, as she could.

"Well, you are the first brainy chick, I've made out with. I need to say though, that now I've tried it, I'm starting to develop a taste for it!"

"You are, huh? Lucky me, I guess! If I'm the brainy one, what does that make you?"

"The shrewd one, who managed to trick you into falling for me!"

"You, shrewd? You by some miracle managing to score with me was blind luck, just admit it!"

"Never!"

"Doesn't it make you feel inferior to know that besides me being smarter than you, I've already kissed two guys, before I decided to take pity on you?"

"You taking pity on me, Potter? There's no way, you could possibly be more wrong! It's the opposite way around!"

"Just shut up and kiss me again, Pacey!"

And so, he did.

END OF CHAPTER TWO