“What do you think?"  Jen looked at Jack and Andie who were standing behind her, in the middle of the large room.

They just stared at her in disbelief.

"What?  It's well aired, it's sunny, and it has three bedrooms and a large kitchen.  The bathroom's clean; it's near Grams’ apartment… It's perfect!"

"…Not to mention expensive,” Jack added.

"How are we going to pay for that?" Andie asked. "I mean, Dad's allowance is enough but this is too big for the three of us!"

"Well, I know I haven't discussed it with you first, but my long life experience has taught me that you are more easily persuaded when you're faced with closed deals.  That's it.  It's not going to be just the three of us."

"Jen, what did you do?" Andie said with an I-should-have-guessed expression on her face.

"Well, Joey had no place to go and she really didn't want to stay on campus…"

Jack sighed in relief. "Joey? You know we'd love to have Joey with us. Why didn't you say so?"

"It isn't…"

"Hi!"  The brunette, tanned girl that entered the room smiling interrupted Jen.

"Joey!" Jack and Andie hugged their friend and dragged her into the room. "Jen just told us. We're so happy!"

"Yeah, we knew you'd like the surprise. But this place is… Wow! I'm afraid we won't be able to pay for it even if there are four of us now."

"That's just it. There's…"

"There's also me."

Everyone looked at the tall guy who was standing at the door smirking.  But the smile on his face froze by the absolute silence in the room.

"Jen decided that I didn't need to save her from drowning one more time to forgive my past sins.  And my father is so busy giving money to his mistress that he really doesn't have much left for his only son's education."

Andie surprised everyone when she stepped forth and spoke. "I guess my spending ten months in Italy for vacation can make amends to what you did.  Anyway I love the apartment and I can ignore you whenever I want."

"Sure," Joey continued.  "And since it's obvious you'll have one room to yourself, you should pay a little more."

"Hey, wait a minute!" he protested, but Jen interrupted him.

"Actually, that may not be necessary.  'Cause, you see… I think we're going to have a sixth roommate."

Andie giggled.  "Be sure to rely on Jennifer Lindley when you want to meet new people!"

"I hope it's a guy," Jack stated, "because I'm NOT sharing a room with HIM!"

"Yeah, he's a guy.  But he's not new.  You know him."

Joey noticed Jen's guilty look. "Who is he?" she asked but, in her heart, she knew the answer.

"It's Pacey."

"Hey, do I have to share a room…" Drue started saying, but stopped when he spotted Jen's glare.

"Pacey is in Boston?" Joey asked hoping that no one would notice her trembling voice.

"Well, he called me and asked me if I could help him find an apartment in Boston because the Dean of Worthington has extended his job offer for another year.  I don't know what exactly he will be doing but….” Jen was interrupted once again by a knock on the front door.

"Jen? Are you here?" said a familiar voice that made Joey's heart jump.

"We're here!  I've got a surprise for you!  Come inside!"

"What?" Pacey said as he approached the room they were all gathered.

Then he suddenly stopped.  A thousand thoughts crossed his mind as he saw Joey walking towards him.
Pacey started to smile a little when he thought that Joey was going to approach him.  But he was admittedly perplexed when she stopped short, grabbed Jen by the hand, and dragged her out of the living room.

"Pacey!" Andie squealed.  "It is so great to see you again.  Wow, you look so tan.  How was your sailing trip this summer?”

Pacey plopped his bags down on the floor and wrapped an arm around the bouncy blonde.  "Sailing trip?  Correction, McPhee, I was working this summer.  There's a difference."

"But it was fun, right?  And you must have seen some beautiful places."

"The only thing that would be beautiful to me right now would be a bedroom that doesn't rock with the waves," Pacey paused and looked around the room.  "I certainly hope that you're just visiting, Drue."

Drue placed both hands over his heart dramatically.  "Witter! You mean to tell me that you are not looking forward to sharing this humble abode with me?  That really hurts.  I mean, I know that we had our share of problems last year, but I thought that we had become friends.  Was I wrong?"

Pacey raised and eyebrow and smirked.  "I guess I was a little surprised is all."

Drue chuckled.  "Yeah and apparently so was Joey."

"Come on, Pacey, let me show you around," Andie interjected.  She could see that Drue’s little comment was upsetting Pacey.  Andie was beginning to wonder how this group was going to be able to coexist here...without killing each other.

"Jen, I can't believe you!  How could you invite Pacey to come and live here and not even tell me about it first?"  Joey was livid.  She's been pacing around the largest bedroom for
the past 10 minutes while Jen tried to calm her down.

Jen was obviously losing her patience with Joey.  "Listen to me.  I found this apartment.  I'm trying to help everyone out here.  The more roommates we have, the more people we have to split the rent with."

Joey crossed her arms over her chest.  "You know, I'd rather pay the extra 40 bucks than have to live with someone who hates me."

"What the hell is your problem?  I thought that we were all friends here.  You've had 3 months to get over Pacey.  Why are you pulling this crap?"

Joey threw her hands up, defeated.  She plopped down on the floor cross-legged and buried her head in her hands. Finally, she looked up.  "I guess that I thought when Pacey told me last year that he needed to live his own life, he wouldn't be doing it with me living 10 feet away.  And this is our college experience, remember?  It's supposed to be about new people.  Is it wrong that we aren't out there living on our own?  I thought that coming here would be a whole new world for me."

Jen knelt down.  "It is a whole new world, Joey.  This will help us.  You're going to Worthington and you don't know anyone there.  Jack, Drue, And I will be attending Boston Bay and Andie is at Harvard.  We're going to have our college experiences
separately.  But at the end of the day, there's a home full of good friends to turn to if you need someone," Jen paused briefly.  "Don't you see how lucky we are to get to live off-campus?  We don't have to stuff ourselves into a tiny dorm room with some whacked-out stranger."

"Yeah, but we have Drue," Joey chortled.

"I know.  I wasn't my best decision, but he's starting to grow on me," Jen smiled.

"I bet."

"And this is the third bedroom.  I like it.  It has the best closets," Andie told Pacey.

Jen and Joey stood up as they heard Pacey and Andie approaching.  Jen looked back at Joey and said, "I'll talk to you more about this later."  Joey nodded.

Andie followed Jen and left Joey and Pacey standing there, staring at each other.

"I..." they both began to say.

Joey smiled a little.  "Sorry, you go first."

Pacey took a few steps toward Joey and stuffed his hands in his pockets.  "I can see that my presence here has made you uncomfortable.  I don't have to stay.  It's just that I have a job and I want to take some courses at Boston Community.  I can't do that if I can't find an inexpensive place to live.  I don't want to put you out."

"I'm not going anywhere."

Pacey nodded.  "Okay.  No problem, I'll just get my things.  I'm sure I'll find a place.  I'm just going to have to keep looking."  Pacey turned in midsentence to head for the door.

Joey rushed to him and placed her hand on his shoulder.  "Don't go.  I want you to stay."

Pacey turned and looked down at her hand on his jacket.  She sheepishly released him and added, "We can figure out a way to get along, right?"

Pacy moved a little closer and brushed a few strands of hair over her shoulder.  "If you can handle it, then I can," he replied with assurance.

"Yeah, no problem," Joey retorted.  Pacey finally exited the bedroom and Joey let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding.

She stood there for a while trying to gather some more strength. How did she manage to perplex things again? She thought she would have some time alone to think and find herself. She had done a lot of soul searching during the summer and had concluded that Pacey breaking up with her was not all his fault. She was to blame too; she had been a lousy girlfriend sometimes, but she still thought she deserved more than a break up at the prom and then an apology, which could have done things better if it hadn't been for the fact that Pacey had left without even saying goodbye.  He said he loved her and he would still love her for a long time but this wasn't enough.  And for all she could see today, he was way too comfortable around her for a guy who was still in love with his ex.

Suddenly she heard Jen's voice from the next room.  "Joey, do you hear me?"

"Yes… what?" she retorted as she entered the other room.

"I said, 9a.m. sharp. We'll be all here to clean this place. No excuses."

"Sure, fine."

"And then we have to think about furniture," Andie said. "I mean everyone will bring their own personal stuff but there's also the kitchen and the bathroom…"

"Hey! Maybe we can find some furniture second hand," Jack remarked.

"I'll tell you what," Pacey said while all the rest were thinking, "I can bring the stuff from the beach house. Gretchen and I had a full equipment."

Everyone nodded happily and Joey sighed.  Great, more memories, she thought.

Joey was kneeled on the floor trying to scrub off some spots. She felt she was in that position forever and wiped the sweat off her face. The weather was still hot.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up. It was Pacey with a glass on water in his hand, wearing a wife beater and dirty pants.

"Take this," he said softly, "and let me do that."

Joey sighed in relief. She stood up and took the water from his hand.  "These stains don't want to be cleaned," she smiled.

"Well, that's what men are here for," he said ironically. "More muscles."

"Yeah, and pretty much nothing else."

"Miss Potter you're hurting me," he said as he started scrubbing the floor making the stains disappear magically. "Are you implying that men are only useful for their physical strength? And that coming from a girls who punched a guy in tenth grade?"

Joey laughed as she remembered the creep she had punched for saying sexist remarks.
Jack, who was passing by, stopped. "What? Why are you laughing about?"

"I don't remember if I've told you that but I'd punched a guy in tenth grade. Pacey just reminded me. I got detention for that."

"And quite strangely the whole gang was in detention that day, remember?" Jen said as she was coming close.

"Well, how can I forget?  Pacey's reason was something that's worth remembering!"

"Hey, stop that! Both of you!  Jeez, when will you stop teasing me about that?  It was three years ago."

"What?" Jack asked, even more curious.

"Well Pacey…" Joey started but stopped when suddenly felt Pacey's arms on her waist dragging her away.

"If you think I'm going to let one more person find out about that you're seriously deluded.  And don't you even think about it," he added looking at Jen.

"Who me?" Jen said making an innocent face.

Joey didn't say anything. How long is this going to last? she thought. For how long am I going to melt every time he puts his arms around me?  This must stop.

Joey shook her head, as if that could shake off the strong feelings she was having for her ex-boyfriend.  Seeing Pacey like this, in these close quarters was driving her nuts.  She saw him now, as Jen was directing him to hang the living room drapes, his back was to her.  She could easily see the muscle definition in his back through the sweat-soaked material of his wife beater.  His skin was tan and glistening and she couldn't believe how much Pacey had bulked up, muscle-wise, over the summer.  Joey sighed.  She had to get out of here...now.

No such luck.  Jen wanted everyone to sit down and have a house meeting.  "Okay.  The place looks great, you guys.  Now we just have a few details to work out.  Everyone is bringing in furniture and such, so we'll be in good shape.  As far as food goes, we should each buy our own and mark what's ours.  Does that sound fair to everyone?"

The group traded glances and generally nodded in agreement.

"Good.  Now we need to get to the important issue...sleeping arrangements."

A wicked smile spread across Drue's face.  "Aw, yeah.  We’re going co-ed, right, Jenny?"

"Okay, ease up, horn dog!  We have a couple of choices.  Obviously, someone will have to room with a member of the opposite sex since we've got 3 rooms.  Does anyone have any suggestions?"

Joey started feeling anxious.  She knew that Pacey would be living here, but she never imagined that she's actually share a room with him!

Jack cleared his voice.  "Well, I for one would feel more comfortable rooming with a girl for...you know, the obvious reasons."

Jen nodded.  "I understand, Jack.  I would be happy to room with you."

Pacey interjected, "You know, Jack, I wouldn't feel weird about sharing a room with you."

For the next 15 minutes, the gang debated over the issue until Andie finally spoke up.  "Alright, I think I have the solution to this situation.  I'll share a room with my brother.  And believe me, I'm getting a deal here.  I mean, Joey, I love you, but you snore!  And Jen, I need my sleep and I imagine that you'll be spending the majority of this school year as a social butterfly."

Jen looked confused.  "Yeah...and?"

"I can't share living space with someone who will undoubtedly be coming in at all hours and keeping me awake with the details of her love life."

"Alright!  So that leaves me and Jen to bedroom 2 and Joey and Pacey in bedroom 3," Drue decided.

"Uhhh, what?  I don't think so.  Why can't you room with Pacey, Drue?" Joey demanded.

"It's okay, Joey.  I think our deluded little friend thinks that his sleaziness passes as charm.  There's no way that Jen would ever want to sleep in the same room as you, Valentine," Pacey grumbled.

A little smirk spread across Drue's face.  "Really? Are you that sure, Witter?  Because I remember..."

"You know what?  Let's just drop it," Jen broke in.  "So we've got the McPhees in one room, me and Sister Snore in another..."

"Hey!" Joey argued.  "When were the dates of the alleged snorings?"

"AND Pacey and Drue in the other bedroom. So do we all agree?" Jen added quickly.

"Sure, okay," the gang agreed.

"Great," Jen sighed with relief.

A half hour later, Joey had gotten cleaned up and was ready to head out for some lunch.  The rest of the group was planning on ordering a pizza.  Pacey didn't want to leave because he was waiting for Doug to arrive with the furniture from the beach house.

"Hey, Jen!  I'll be back in a few hours.  Will you miss me?" Drue called.

"Oh...yeah.  Like that rash I had.  Drive safely," Jen said dryly, barely looking up from the box she was unpacking.

Joey caught up to Drue before he walked out the door.  "Hey, where are you going?" she inquired.

"Since when do you care what I do, Potter?"  Drue noticed the irritated look on her face and proceeded with caution.  "Well, if you must know...I'm going home to get the rest of my things.  It will be a breath-taking experience...hearing my witch of a mother tell me what a bad idea it is.  You know, rooming with this incestuous little group of angsty ex-lovers."

"Can I go with you?"

"Did you hear me, Joey?  I said..."

"I heard you.  I need to go home, too.  I'd like to get a ride with you back to Capeside.  Is that going to be a problem for you?" Joey said, a little too urgently.

Drue face conveyed utter confusion.  "Uh, alright.  Be ready to go in five, okay?"

Joey nodded.  Pacey had noticed the conversation between these two and approached Joey with caution.  "What's going, on?"  Pacey said, nodding towards Drue, who had just walked back towards the kitchen.

"I'm going to Capeside with Drue.  I need to get the last of my boxes and Drue's going home, so..."

Pacey lifted the bottom of his wife-beater and used it to wipe the sweat from his brow.  Joey couldn't stop herself from staring at Pacey's stomach.  A small quiver in her stomach turned into full-on butterflies as she watched him.  "I'm not sure that this is a good idea, Jo.  If you need to go home, I'd be more than happy to take you tomorrow."

"I don't want to wait.  I'd rather go now.  What's your problem?"

"You ready?" Drue suddenly reappeared with a small cooler for the hour-long road trip.

"Let's go," Joey stated, staring defiantly at Pacey.

Pacey gently grabbed Joey's arm as she tried to move past him.  Pacey held her gaze for a moment, but he released her when he realized that he nothing to say.