Part: 3 of ??

Classification: other/tri

Rating: If you watch Dawson's Creek, you can read this.

What Did I Do

So it's been a week since we broke up, and I'm missing Erik. I suggested Pacey and I do something tonight, but now I don't really want to go. Maybe this thing was just a crush and I screwed up by letting Erik get away. I don't know, but I think I'm about to find out, because Pacey's at the door.

"Hey Pace," I say, opening my door. I'm glad Laura's not here, again, because I don't want her to know anything about this.

"Hey Jo, ready?" He's looking as good as ever, in gray cords and a white t-shirt, but I don't really seem to care.

"Yeah, let's go." I'm trying to sound happy, when I only feel horrible. We go out in silence and get in his car. Walking by Erik's door, I feel trampy, like I'm going out too soon after our split. I can tell Pacey's aching to have some conversation, so I start.

"How's your organic chemistry coming?"

"Good, it's not bad now, but of course I've had five months of it already. I think I like it. Being a doctor is what I've always wanted, you know that, and I think it's natural to be frustrated when your passion is hard at first."

"I agree." More than he knows, definitely. Fortunately, we're going to the movies, so talking will pretty much be outlawed. And it's also a good thing the theater is close by, so I don't have to hold up my end of this chatter.

"Hi, can I have two tickets for 'Wrong Again'?"

We're at the ticket window, and I feel ill. Rob, Erik's roommate is coming in the door with his girlfriend. And there is Jill and Max, one of Erik's best friends and his girlfriend. I'm getting a little panicky because they will inevitably see me. Of course, I'm right, and here comes Max and Jill.

"Hey Joey, Pacey," Max says.

"Hey guys," Jill echoes.

"Jill, Max, hi guys. How are you?" I try even harder to sound happy, but I know Max can see right through me; he always could.

"We're good, you?"

"Pretty good. Hey Pace, why don't you go get the popcorn?" He obediently heads for the counter and leaves me with Max and Jill.

"So, uh, how's, you know, Erik?" I try to sound nonchalant.

Max leans close, as if he doesn't want Jill to hear him. "He's not so great Jo, not great at all."

Now I feel so much worse. "Oh. Um, well, tell him I said hi."

"Will do," he says with a nod. "We'd probably better get in line."

"Yeah. Nice seeing you guys."

"You too Joey."

Right then Pacey arrived at my side, popcorn in hand. "You feel all right Jo? You don't look well."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I think I'm getting a cold or something."

"Okay." He seems to accept this, and we go in to the theater. The rest of the night went pretty much the same way, him asking if I was okay, if I was sure I was okay, and me answering lamely that, yes, I was fine.

As crazy as this sounds, now I was with Pacey, and all I could do was think about Erik constantly.

For the next week I tried cheering myself up by hanging out with Dawson and Pacey, calling Jen, Jack, and Andie a lot, and going with Laura to a frat party. Nothing helped, although I did feel slightly better in the company of Dawson and Pacey, reminiscing about times before college and before there were the other three. Times when I didn't have a care in the world, despite my mom's death and my father being in jail.

Whenever I called Jen, which was almost daily, she told me to really think everything through, for she was the only one who knew almost as much as I did about this whole thing. I talked to her about and hour ago, and told me that if I didn't smarten up and start to get out of my slump, she would take matters into her own hands. So now, I have to at least pretend that I'm cheering up, because god knows what Jen is up to.

"So Jack, how are you today?" Jen asked him on the phone, knowing exactly where she wanted the direction of this conversation to go.

"Good. Jen, what plan have you devised to pull Joey out of her slump?" He didn't have to wait for her to drag it out, he knew that was the purpose for this call at 11pm.

"I want Joey to get back together with Erik as much as you, but we both know that pride will keep them apart. So, I have a contrivance. You know those dating ads they have in newspapers? The ones where you describe yourself and someone picks you out of a list of around 3,000 possibilities and you go on a date? Well that's my plan."

"To make an ad for Joey and hope she is the lucky one-in-three thousand? Yeah right, and she would go for this because...?"

"Because she won't know, and by the time we've got her a date, having the character traits that she does, she won't back out."

"You are sneaky, Jen, very sneaky. But it just might work. What were you thinking of putting in the ad?"

"Well I had one planned out, I'll run it by you: SWF, 20, college student seeks attractive, honest, caring SWM 18-24 who enjoys art, sports, movies, and music. How's that Jack?"

He was considering this, and decided it needed something else. "How about this: SWF, 20, seeks energetic SWM, college student who is in to art, sports, movies and music. Integrity and solicitude are a must."

"Jack, the literary genius. Nicely done. I like it. And it will keep the morons at bay. I'll put it in the Providence newspaper by Monday. Then we'll go from there."

"Sounds like a plan. Now I've got to sleep. I have an early class tomorrow."

"Classes on Sunday? Only an artist would have classes on Sunday. I'll talk to you later, Jack."

"Bye, Jen." Jack could only hope that when Joey found out, she wouldn't be so mad that she disowned them as friends.

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