Joey moaned, Pacey capturing it in his mouth as his arms tightened around her. Their
bodies pressed against each other. She felt the quickened beating of his heart
against her own, her hands travelling to touch his chest, down to the hard plane of
his abdomen, and up again to tangle in his hair.

He touched her everywhere. His fingers grazed the side of one breast, caressed her
narrow waist, and stopped at her butt, pulling her against his hard flesh. A deep
ache began to throb at the pit of her stomach. Her limbs felt weak, boneless. She
shifted, rubbing inadvertently against him.

"Jo," he rasped after they broke apart, still in each other's arms. He glanced around
and chuckled, kissing her ear. "If we weren't in a public place right now…"

She smiled, loving the feel of his skin. "We seem to be cursed with bad timing." She
rested her cheek on his shoulder. "I'm starting to get really annoyed."

Her breath felt like feathers tickling the side of his neck. Pacey kissed her forehead,
thinking. "You are?"

Joey nodded. "I seem to remember a conversation in a pool in the middle of the
night, in which a certain person said that he'd… teach me some things."

He looked at her. "What if we schedule your next… lesson, so that there won't be
any more interruptions?" His grin was mischievous.

She grinned back. "What, like a dental appointment?"

"Without the anaesthetic."

They laughed. "Saturday?" He suggested.

Joey was quiet for a few seconds. "Um, actually…" She pulled out of his embrace to
look at him with worried eyes. "I… uh, Dawson kind of scheduled a movie night." The
last part of her sentence came out in a rush.

"What?" His smile disappeared as he stepped back.

"I was going to tell you, Pacey, it's just that I couldn't say it this morning, and - you
know how important Dawson's friendship is to me." Her explanation tumbled out, each
word almost indecipherable because she was talking so quickly.

Pacey's expression became blank. He glanced at the ground, and when he looked
back at her she couldn't read what he felt behind them. "I know," he answered. "It's
okay, Joey. I understand." He stared into the distance. "You know what? I've
actually been thinking about this." He laughed humorlessly. "Maybe we made a
mistake."

Joey started to shake her head, her heart twisting in her chest as her vision blurred
with the tears she was fighting to hold back. "No, Pacey, that's not what I meant -
that's not what this is!" The tears finally fell over, cascading down her cheeks. "It's
just one night, please try to understand…" her voice broke. Her hands impatiently
wiped the wetness from her eyes. "Please don't make me choose again."

He shook his head. "I'm not making you choose, Joey." He kept blinking, his eyes
brimming now, too. He put his hands on her shoulders. "I just don't want to keep
making you end up at the same place. It has to stop. This has to stop."

She looked up at him, her defenses going up. She couldn't understand how he could
react this way to something as trivial as a movie night. "After the past three months,
this is what you've decided? You're just going to forget about everything?"

Pacey dropped his hands to his sides. "If you really stopped to think about it, Jo,
you'd realize that you chose me three months ago because I was the unknown. Not
because you were really in love with me." His throat worked as he swallowed, his
eyes deep blue with sadness. "I know that now. And I accept it. You've had your
adventure. It's time to go back to your old routine, your safe world. That's what this
really means."

Joey was silent. "I guess you've made my decision for me, then." Her voice was
even, controlled.

"I guess so." Nothing more was said as she started to walk away, leaving him to look
at her for a long while before he headed back into the building.

*********

Pacey inhaled slowly, fighting to control the emotions that seemed to swell inside
him. His chest felt hollow. He kept picturing her face, crying in front of him, and he
closed his eyes against the hurt that lashed through his whole body like a physical
blow.

This was it. It was over. And she'd ended up hating him.

An image of her with Dawson flashed in his mind and he couldn't breathe, couldn't
suppress the pain that lulled insistently in his heart. It was over.

**********

Joey mechanically stuffed books into her locker, thankful that the day was over. It
was Wednesday, and she hadn't seen Pacey since the previous afternoon. She felt
like hell.

She had gone home and cried until her eyes were almost swollen shut, Bessie
hovering over her worriedly. She'd felt like her world was taken from beneath her
feet, leaving her lost and floating around aimlessly. Her heart hurt with every breath
that she took.

This morning she'd dragged herself out of bed and gone through the motions,
attending classes with dark rings under her eyes and hardly paying attention. She'd
been half afraid that she would burst into tears again if she saw Pacey, but now…
now she just felt numb. Her heart felt heavy in her chest, tired and ragged.

"Joey?"

She turned at the softly spoken question. Andie stood behind her, a small smile on
her face. "Can I talk to you?"

Joey closed her locker. "Okay." They walked out slowly together.

"I wanted to apologize for the other night," Andie started, hugging her books against
her chest.

Joey shook her head. "Forget about it, Andie. I understand."

"I felt terrible when Pacey went after me and - "

"Pacey and I broke up." Joey struggled to keep her voice level. "Yesterday."

"Oh, my God." She was genuinely surprised. "I'm so sorry, Joey."

"It's okay… I mean, this thing with Dawson… it's never gonna stop, you know? I
guess I should've seen it coming."

"Dawson?"

Joey nodded. "I told him that I'll be spending Saturday with Dawson for movie night,
and he totally freaked, saying that it was what I really wanted." Her heart squeezed
painfully at the memory.

Andie stopped walking to face her. "Joey, don't you get it?" Her voice was gentle,
but authoritative. "He just said that because he thought that's what you wanted to
hear."

"What? Why would he think that?"

Andie glanced away. "He…" she hesitated, shifting from one foot to the other. "He
saw you. When you went to Dawson's Monday night."

Joey's eyes narrowed, confused.

"I - we were on the lawn at the B&B. We were talking, remember? And I wanted to
apologize to you, so we went to your house. Only, when we got there, he saw you
right away. On the Leerys' front porch. In the middle of the night."

Joey looked for a place to sit, her head reeling. Pacey had seen that? She felt a
sharp pain lance through her, wondering what he must have thought. "And I didn't
tell him about it," she thought aloud, remembering their conversation by his locker.
"What did he think?" Her eyes turned to Andie, questioning.

"He didn't say anything. Just turned and said he was going to bring me home."

"But - but we just talked! Dawson and I just talked."

Andie nodded sympathetically. "Maybe he just felt hurt that you didn't tell him about
it."

"He hasn't exactly been too up-front with me either, Andie."

"But think about what he must be feeling, Joey. He's always felt that he has to
compete with Dawson at every turn. Especially where it concerns you, and especially
now. Maybe he was just pre-empting what he thought was inevitable. Joey, don't
you see? He's afraid you're going to leave him, and he's pushing you away."

Joey closed her eyes, remembering when Pacey had talked about the history
between her and Dawson. "And I let him," she whispered, standing up. She hugged
Andie, holding back tears. "Thank you, Andie." She knew what their talk had meant
to the other girl, knowing that she still loved him, too.

Andie hugged her back. "Take care of him," she whispered, before Joey pulled away
and broke into a run.

**********

Joey ran until her legs ached so much they felt like they would fall off, loving the feel
of the wind in her hair. She knew where he was, and she was almost bursting with
what she wanted to say to him.

The docks came into view and she smiled to herself. How could she have been so
stupid? She ran to where he usually was, stopping cold when she didn't find him
there.

Pacey was gone. And so was True Love.