"What are you doing here?"

Joey's bags fell to the floor with a loud thud. "Gee, whatever happened to 'Welcome home, sis! I missed you'?"

Bessie leaned against the kitchen sink and put her hand on her hip. "Aren't you supposed to be in New York, studying?"

"Summer, Bess. Remember?" She went to the refrigerator to get a drink.

"What about work?"

"I'm a TA. We don't really have much to do when school's out."

"Oh, so you just happened to remember that you have a sister in a little town called Capeside, and decided to drop by for a visit." Bessie said, amused, as she sat with Joey at the breakfast table.

"What, is it so wrong for me to want to come home for a while?" Joey replied innocently.

Bessie smiled as she shook her head. "What's wrong, Joey?"

"Nothing is wrong. I just needed to get out of the city for a while."

"Right. That's why you suddenly show up on my doorstep unannounced."

Joey rolled her eyes good-naturedly and didn't say a thing.

Her sister sighed and went back to the sink to continue washing dishes. "So, where's Pacey? Did you leave him at your place by himself?"

"He moved out a couple weeks ago."

Bessie glanced at her over her shoulder. "He did? Why?"

"Moved in with Anne. He and Jack helped me repaint the living room of our - my - apartment, though." Joey reported nonchalantly.

"I see." Bessie commented enigmatically.

Joey stood up. "Ooh-kay. I'm gonna go to my room now. I think I need a nap."

She picked up her things and locked herself in the familiarity of her old room, studying framed pictures and other assorted clutter that she'd left behind. Her heart felt heavy as nostalgia poured through her, making her miss their days at Capeside High.

She walked slowly around the room, touching her old things, laughing mistily to herself. How pathetic is this? Her gaze was caught by a tattered picture tacked on the corner of her well-worn corkboard. It was of her and Pacey, smiling and goofing off. She touched the frayed edges of the photo, feeling like it was another lifetime ago.

When had she fallen in love with him?

Joey flopped down on her bed and sighed in exasperation. She had to stop this. She had to stop thinking about Pacey. It had almost driven her crazy when he and Jack came to her apartment to help her with the painting - and had found her there with Finn! She'd ended up pretending that everything was normal.

Fortunately, things between her and Finn weren't too awkward anymore. All she'd had to do was avoid all physical contact with Pacey, so he didn't have to see how affected she would have been. But she'd spent the rest of the week wrapped up in her own world, trying to think of all the reasons why it could never be.

Anne.

She summed it all up in that one word. Pacey had moved in with her, so obviously it was serious. She couldn't put herself in the middle of that. The complication of handling a transition from being friends to being… involved, she could handle. But telling Pacey that she was in love with him when he was in a healthy relationship with a woman they both liked? She hadn't even been able to completely come to terms with her own feelings yet!

Being alone in the apartment, with too much time to think, began to get on her nerves. So on Friday afternoon she had stuffed her clothes into two bags and got on the first available train to Capeside.

Joey was beginning to drift to sleep when Bessie knocked on her door. "Joey?"

She got up to open it. "Jen!"

Jen was standing beside Bessie, a big smile on her face. "Hey there, New Yorker."

"What are you doing here? I thought you were away on business!"

"Just arrived yesterday. Business was in Boston, so I thought I'd drop in on Grams before going back. Imagine my surprise when Bessie here told me that you suddenly appeared without notice." Jen smiled knowingly at her.

Joey shot her sister a dirty look.

"What?" Bessie said innocently before making an exit.

"I can't believe it," Joey commented, ushering Jen into her room.

"Don't have a coronary, Joey. She and I were just talking about you yesterday, when I came by to say hi." They sat on Joey's bed.

"Why do I not find that comforting?"

Jen laughed. "She just asked how you were." She paused and looked closely at Joey. "How are you?"

"I'm fine! I'm perfectly fine." Joey insisted, exasperated.

"And how is Pacey?" Jen added slowly.

"He's fine! Why do people keep asking me that?"

"Joey," Jen said calmly, amused by Joey's reaction. "He is your roommate."

"Was. Didn't my sister tell you?"

Jen was genuinely surprised. "He moved out?"

Joey nodded. "I forget how long you've been away. What kind of business was that, anyway?"

"If you're trying to change the subject, it's not going to work."

Joey sighed. "Weeks ago. Moved in with Anne." She was really starting to hate saying that.

"He moved in with Anne?" Jen was incredulous.

"I thought it was logical for him to want to be with his girlfriend." Joey joked.

"Oh, Joey." Jen said sympathetically.

She shook her head, casually waving it away. "I'm fine. I'm completely okay with it. Seriously. I wish them the best."

"You're talking about them like they're getting married."

"Well, they might as well be, and it has no effect on me at all, okay?"

Jen nodded. "You want to kill him right now, don't you?"

Joey dropped her head onto Jen's lap. "Yes!"