“You’re crazy.”

 Pacey looked up from the catalog he had been examining and raised an eyebrow.  “I’m crazy?”

 “You are not wearing a red tux to prom.”

 Pacey stuck out his bottom lip, pouting.  “A white one?  With a cane?”

 Joey sat down on his lap, kissing him lightly on the cheek.  “No cane.”

 “A red tie?”

 “Maybe.”

 Pacey had slipped a hand under her shirt and was touching her through her bra.  She sighed, and he smiled.  “Please…”

 “You’re going to have to make it up to me,” she said, her breath catching in her throat as he lightly brushed her nipple.

 “Oh, I plan to.”

 She kissed him fiercely then, her hands running through his hair as her tongue mischievously evaded his.  He groaned, pulling her closer against him.  She pulled back slightly, kissing him on both cheeks and his nose.  “You better.”

 “You are quite the little tease today, Ms. Potter,” Pacey said glibly, sliding his hand down her back.  She shivered and licked his ear, surprising him.  “Josephine!  We are in a public place!  This is the library!”

 “Eh, nobody cares.”  She slid her tongue into his mouth, deliberately placing her hand over the zipper of his jeans.

 “You guys could at least wait until prom night,” Jen Lindley’s amused voice came from behind them.

 They broke apart like lightning had struck nearby.  Joey innocently combed her hand through her hair and adjusted her shirt, while Pacey put a book over his lap.
 

 Jen sat down at their table, enjoying their frustrated expressions.  “So have you heard the big news?” she asked.

 “Hmm?” Joey said absentmindedly, her thoughts still back on Pacey…his hands…his lips…

 “I got into Sarah Lawrence, and I’m accepting them.”

 “Jen! That’s awesome!” Pacey said, pulling her into a fierce hug.  “It’s looking like we’re all going to be driving distance apart.  With Joey at Tufts, Andie at Harvard and me at BU, Jack at NYU and you at Sarah Lawrence…that just leaves--”

 “Dawson,” Joey said softly.

 “Have you talked to Dawson lately?” Jen asked curiously.  “I haven’t been able to pin him down for more than two seconds.  I don’t even know who he’s taking to prom.”

 “He should have heard by now,” Pacey said.  “I wonder why he hasn’t told us…”

 “Actually, since it’s Dawson, he’s probably cooking up some weird way to break the news while filming our reactions…” Jen said hopefully.

 “Or he’s leaving us in suspense,” Joey filled in.

 “Or he’s being over-dramatic…”

 “Or he just didn’t get in where he wanted to go,” Dawson’s voice came from behind them.  They all jumped, Jen nearly falling out of her chair.

 Joey swivelled around to face him.  “What’s up?”

 Dawson sat down in a chair at the other end of the table, nervously playing with the collar of his shirt.  “I’m…I’m conflicted.”

 “Why?” Pacey asked.

 “I didn’t get into USC,” he said slowly.  “And…I guess I never really thought about where else I wanted to go, because none of my other options are looking so good.”

 “What are your other options?” Jen asked.

 “UCLA, UC San Diego, NYU and the California Institute of the Arts,” he said a little blandly.

 “Those are all great places, Dawson,” Joey put in helpfully.

 “Yeah, didn’t Tim Burton go to CalArts?” Jen asked.

 Dawson nodded.  “I just…it’s so far away.”

 “Wasn’t that kind of the idea?  I mean, you only applied to one school on the East Coast,” Jen said.

 “Yeah, but…I was applying during a time when all I wanted to do was run away.  And now…”

 “You’re not so sure you want to run that far,” Pacey finished.

 “Well…yeah!” Dawson said.

 “There’s always NYU,” Jen said softly.

 “True,” Dawson nodded.  “But their film program is really a grad school program.  I probably wouldn’t get to touch a camera until after I graduated.”

 Jen shrugged.  “You should go where you want to most.”

 Dawson nodded.  There was silence as they all thought about their future plans.  Pacey broke it unceremoniously with, “So who are you taking to prom, man?”

 Dawson’s face brightened considerably.  “Um…somebody special.”

 He nudged his friend in the shoulder.  “Well, come on…don’t keep us in suspense…”

 “She’s beautiful…and smart…”

 “Yeah…” Pacey said.  “And I bet she has a great body too, right?”

 “Pacey!” Joey said indignantly.

 “Nobody’s is better than yours, sweetie,” he said, nipping her on the shoulder.

 “Yeah, she’s very hot,” Dawson said, his smile widening.

 “And…” Pacey prompted.

 “And she’s your sister.”

 “Oh, you’re funny.”

 “Don’t touch my hair!” Joey screeched, causing Jen to jump back a couple of feet, still clutching the curling iron.

 “Okay, let’s make our goal not to give Jen an aneurysm,” Jen said a little frostily.  “I was trying to help, Jo.”

 “I don’t need help.”

 “Oh, you need help.  If not with your hair, then definitely with your attitude.”  Jen adjusted the strap of her floor-length black gown, which shimmered slightly with silver.

 Joey crossed her arms across her chest and sighed.  “I don’t know if I can do this.”

 “Joey, it’s senior prom, not your wedding.  Suck it up.  This is going to be fun.”

 “I just have a bad feeling about all this.”

 “Well, stop being a little psychic princess of doom and lighten up,” Jen said, finally getting close enough to Joey to grasp a section of her hair to wrap with the curling iron.  “You have a wonderful, gorgeous boyfriend who I’m sure is going to be incredibly sweet and romantic, dance with you all night and then take you somewhere beautiful to have some mind-blowing sex.”

 “Jennifer!” a voice came from behind them, making Jen jump.

 “I didn’t…I mean, I wasn’t-“ Jen tried to explain nervously.

 “It’s okay, Jenny,” Jack said laughingly, placing a hand on her shoulder.  “You look gorgeous, by the way.”

 Jen threw him a look.  “You’re a bastard.”

 “Yeah, well, I try.”

 “Joey is having a case of cold feet,” Jen explained.

 “Well, Joey’s crazy.”  Jack said, sitting down at her feet and looking up into Joey’s chocolate-brown eyes.   “You’re crazy,” he told her.

 Joey wrung her hands nervously.  “I just think…I don’t know…”

 “Don’t think.”  Jen spun her around, forcing Joey to look in the mirror at her reflection.  Her dress, which was a dark, blood red, hugged every curve in her body.  The neckline was relatively modest, showing only a bit of skin between the thin spaghetti straps.  The back, on the other hand, plunged to slightly above indecent.  A pair of black heels completed the outfit.  Her hair fell to her shoulders in soft waves, and Jen had given her the slightest bit of eyeliner and shadow, highlighting her wide eyes, which looked somewhere between gray and brown in the soft light of Jen’s room.  Despite the somewhat uneasy look in her eyes, she seemed to be glowing.  Even Jen was temporarily struck dumb.

 “God, Joey,” Jack said slowly.

 “You’re beautiful,” Jen finished.

 “Pacey, you look fine,” Dawson said tiredly, as Pacey re-adjusted the lapels of his tux for the fourteenth time.  “Come on, we have to go or we’ll be late.”

 “I know something is going to go wrong, I know it…I’m going to screw it up…” Pacey smoothed over his collar and checked his teeth in the mirror.

 “What the hell are you talking about?  You’re Ferris Bueller, and you’ve got the girl.  C’mon,” Dawson tugged insistently on his sleeve.  “Besides, this is prom for god sakes.  It’s an antiquated, over-hyped kitschfest designed to deprive you of money you should be saving for college.”

 “Thank you, Dawson, for proving yet again that there are no anxieties too great that they can’t be trivialized,” Pacey said sarcastically.

 Dawson was looking out of the front window.  “The limo is here.”

 “Tell him to wait.”

 “He is waiting, stupid.  We’ve got that atrocity for the whole night, remember?” He turned to look at his friend.  “Shouldn’t I be the nervous one?  I’m taking a 23-year old, after all.”

 “You have to promise me something, Dawson,” Pacey said slowly.  “You are not allowed to get any ass tonight.”

 Dawson rolled his eyes.  “I sincerely doubt Gretchen is going to sleep with me.  I think she’s just humoring me coming to this thing.”

 “We Witters are impulsive,” Pacey warned.  “Just do me a favor and give me one less thing to worry about tonight.”

 Dawson smiled mischievously.  “I won’t if you won’t.”

 “They’re going to have to drag the creek to find your body, Dawson.”

 The limo pulled up to Jen’s house, smoothly coming to a halt.  Pacey was attempting nonchalance, while Dawson ran a hand through his hair, adjusted his tie and tried to steady his breathing.

 “Here goes nothing,” he said slowly.  Pacey only nodded.

 They opened the car doors and walked towards the house.  Pacey reached there first, and rang the doorbell.

 Jack answered almost immediately.  Giving them both the once-over, he said to Pacey, “Well, as if I didn’t need another reason to wish you were gay.”

 “Hey, what about me?” Dawson asked indignantly.

 Jack shrugged.  “I don’t like blondes much.”

 Dawson was sputtering something else when Jen descended the stairs, looking like she was trying very hard not to trip in her silver heels.  Both guys drew in their breath, and Jack looked amused.

 “Well, my mouth drops,” Pacey said, repeating what he had said the first time he had sighted Jen, three years before.

 “You look gorgeous,” Dawson added.

 Jen smiled.  “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” she said.

 Both boys looked puzzled, but then Joey emerged.  Her expression was somewhere between excitement and nervousness, and she anxiously smoothed out invisible wrinkles as she came down the stairs.

 “Joey…you look incredible,” Dawson breathed.

 Pacey couldn’t speak.   His eyes travelled over his girlfriend’s face, her shoulders, her hips, and her legs.  When she spun around to show the full extent of her dress, his eyebrows shot up and he pretended to put out a hand to steady himself on a table nearby.

 “Well?” Joey prodded.

 “I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but thank you God,” Pacey said slowly.

 Joey’s lopsided smile finally appeared.  “Don’t thank God,” she said.

 He pulled her to him, his hands drifting down her bare back.  “Mmm-hmm.  Who should I thank, then?” he said into her ear.

 She kissed him lightly, barely brushing his lips, before whispering, “Me.  For not wearing underwear.”

 “Oh, wow.  Wow.”

 Capeside Hotel’s ballroom was decorated considerably more tastefully than they expected, with silver balloons, shimmering stars and streamers.   Some old soul song blasted from the speakers as couples swayed on the dance floor.  Joey clutched Pacey’s hand more tightly as they made their way into the center of it.  She slid her arms around his next and smiled. He returned her smile, relaxing in her embrace.

 “I love you so much, Jo,” he whispered.  She shivered as his breath tickled her ear.

 “I love you too,” she said, and something about the hitch in her breath as she said it convinced him that it was very much true.

 The music shifted, and all of a sudden a familiar melody pulsated through the speakers.

 Joey laughed lightly, and Pacey tightened his arms around her, so they were pressed chest to chest.  “You remember this, Josephine?” he asked jokingly.

 “Oh, only vaguely.”

 “How were my lessons?” he asked.

 “On what?” she asked flippantly.

 He pressed into her, and she gasped slightly.  “On dancing dirty.”

 She brought her hand up to his face, lightly grazing his cheek.  “Excellent, of course.”

 He shrugged.  “Well, I try.”

 “I know.”

 “It feels like it’s been a long time since then,” Pacey said.

 “It has been,” she said.  “Nearly eight months.”

 “What’s going to happen to us, Jo?” he asked suddenly, his eyes darkening with a mixture of fear and sadness.

 She looked at him for a second, her eyes communicating what she could not express, then leaned in to kiss him.  They relaxed in each other’s embrace, and all of the worries and insecurities and fears that had plagued them earlier disappeared.

 “Well, my guess is…” Joey said slowly when they broke apart, “…that you’ll probably need someone to help you study and keep motivated in college.

 Pacey nodded, a smile turning up the sides of his mouth.  “True.  Probably true.”

 “So you want to make a bet?” she asked softly.

 “Sure, why not?  That usually works out pretty well for me.”

 “I bet I’ll be your tutor for a very, very long time.”