Stumbling
Category: Slash
Need to Know: Two months have passed since the episode “A Lonely Place”. To remind you, that was the one with Jen and Audrey getting advice about their relationships from a lame rock group, Joey stalking the Professor in a movie theatre with Dawson’s assistance, and Jack talking to Pacey about the essence of Audrey while at a gay bar. How much of that is important to this story, you’ll have to wait and see.
Feedback: Send it to milburncreek@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: I don’t own the characters nor would I ever want to. I’m trying to make as much sense of season 5 as I can and this is all I could come up with :)
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Pacey opened his eyes, trying to figure out where he ended up. He knew he’d had a long night drinking; that was quickly confirmed by the room swirling in four different directions. It wasn’t the closet he referred to as an apartment nor was it small enough to be Audrey’s dorm room. Not that he really wanted to set foot in that room anytime soon anyway.
When he finally regained some focus, he realized he was on the couch in the living room of the townhouse. Also, he was surprised to see Jack sitting in a lounge chair.
“Is it morning yet?” Pacey mumbled.
Jack stretched out his arms trying to wake himself up. “It’s three a.m.”
Pacey struggled to get up. He settled against the couch back, holding his head steady. “How’d I end up here?”
“You came over here looking to talk to Jen. She couldn’t understand a word you were slurring so she ordered you to stay here.”
“She’s not worried about Grams finding me?”
“That’s why I’m with you. Jen thought I should make sure that you get your ass out of here by morning. After all, why should she ruin a chance at spoiling her streak of days having sex with Dawson because of you?”
Pacey glanced up at the ceiling, ever thankful he couldn’t see up to the attic from here. “You realize I will probably have a bad hangover tomorrow. Did I really deserve that image to go on top of that?”
“It is if you want that over-the-top effect,” Jack replied shrewdly. “I’m told that was your goal of the evening."
"Oh yeah, that definitely became the objective, once I found out the night was a disaster.” Pacey sighed loudly, then crashed back down against the arm of the chair.
Jack stood up and headed for the kitchen. He snagged two cans of soda from the fridge, then returned to the living room. Pacey accepted the soda, though not quite ready to get back into an upright position. "How bad could it have been?" As soon as the words came out, he regretted asking that. He sat back down in the chair and pulled back the tab, waiting for an answer.
Pacey's eyes clouded over as he stared down at the tab on the can. "Let's see, where shall I began? When did the evening become a disaster? Was it the moment that Joey informed me Audrey was on a date with someone else? No, maybe it was when I actually saw who passed for date-worthy. It could have been when Audrey said she should thank me for introducing them. Any of those three could have been worthy of a lousy evening. I wasn't quite as important to her as I imagined."
"I thought Audrey was crazy about you. She couldn't keep her hands to herself."
"Well, she still can't,” Pacey scoffed as he opened the can and took a sip, his throat thankful for the cold soda after all that alcohol. "She didn't even feel the slightest bit of remorse about having me catch her in the act. I didn't introduce them with the intent of playing fucking matchmaker."
"Maybe you'd better explain what you did to enable this."
Rather than answer that question, Pacey placed the can on the coffee table and rolled off the couch into a sitting position on the floor. "The thing is, Audrey and I never really had a relationship. It was all about sex and everyone involved knew it. So it shouldn't bother me as much as it does. And given that was the type of relationship we had, I thought it was pretty damn cool when we were talking about sexual fantasies and she said she'd been curious about making out with a girl. Let's face it, there's just something about two girls together that is such a turn-on."
"If you say so,” Jack shrugged, not quite sure where he was heading with this.
Pacey chuckled as he realized the mistake, "Wrong person. Anyway, so I brought in my neighbor Carla. Audrey was kind of nervous about it so it kind of turned into a threesome instead.” Jack blinked twice, not sure he'd heard him correctly. "and um... well, let's just say it was a night that was more successful than any of us could have imagined. Obviously, it was way too successful."
Jack dropped the can on the table, surprised "You mean Audrey..."
"Wanted to do a little more experimentation?" Pacey finished, "Yup, you could say that. You could also bet that Joey followed me down to that restaurant and was taking in the whole scene as if she and I never dated. I'm honestly not sure who I'm more mad at, Audrey or Joey."
"Maybe she wanted to get in the middle of a catfight." Pacey gave him a pained look. "Sorry, it's just hard to ignore the fact that all three ladies there...” Jack tried to hold back a giggle.
Pacey raised his arms in defeat. "Yeah, I know. They've all had a taste of Pacey Witter." He groaned then took a pillow from the couch and buried his head.
“I was going for something a little less crude but that fits as well.” Jack slunk down from the chair to the floor, to be close to eye-level with Pacey. Well, for now, because Pacey appeared ready to fall back to sleep at any moment. “So, the question is, what are you planning to do now?”
“I don’t know. Does staying drunk work?” He moved the pillow onto the couch, anxious for an answer.
“How would I know?”
Pacey let out a low chuckle. “You seriously expect me to believe that you’d be the naïve one here? Remember, I’ve seen you drunk and desperate. Or did you forget about that frat fight I rescued you from?”
Jack shifted the soda can from one hand to the other, not sure if it was worth trying to have a discussion with him. “Um, no, I recall. I’m not an expert on drunken behavior.”
“Was it just a brotherhood thing or you still get drunk? Are you on a first-name basis with the bartender at that place you took me to?”
“I have been there since,” Jack replied cautiously. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“I bet you never called that food critic either.”
“Why should I have? After all, he thought I was already dating someone. You.”
“Not the point at all. You would have liked the idea of me actually being your boyfriend, instead of just pretending for that guy. Because, as much as you wanted me to believe you don’t think I’m that hot, you enjoyed that moment.”
Jack stared up at the ceiling in disbelief. “The critic guy was just looking for some young nubile guy to jerk him off. I was doing you a favor!”
Pacey mumbled something too low and garbled to understand before getting back up on the couch. He placed the pillow behind his head and tried to settle back into slumber.
Jack strained to hear his words but he couldn’t make them out. “What was that?”
He turned on his side so he could look directly at Jack. “I said I wouldn’t have minded being your boyfriend for real. Better than trying to rejuvenate a doomed relationship with a stereotypical fantasy.”
“I can’t tell how intoxicated you still are so I’m just going to assume you’re talking nonsense.” Jack scooted over to the front of the couch. “Now, the next time I have to wake you up, you have to be ready to get out of here in ten minutes flat.” He covered Pacey with a blanket, then tapped him on the forehead. “Get to sleep.”
Jack tried to back away but Pacey got a grip of his wrist. “Listen to me. I know you think what I just said is ridiculous. I’m not kidding.” Jack looked straight into that piercing stare. “Someday, I’ll realize you’re the one I’ve wanted all along. There will be none of these girls in which I try to live out stupid porn films. Or worse, stupid, highly romantic classic films from the Dawson Leery collection. They’ll just be this. Moments like this, not based on ideals, just emotions.”
Pacey raised his head from the pillow as he pulled Jack closer, eager to show how much he meant those words. But as soon as he tried to move his face closer, Jack pulled away, astounded by what just almost happened.
“Jack…”
Jack stood up quickly, brushing his hands on his sweatpants. “You really need to get to sleep. So I’m just going to let you do that.”
Pacey gave him a quizzical look. He would have argued but was too tired and disoriented to figure out what went wrong. Instead, he gave in and was soon fast asleep.
Jack tried to fall asleep but his mind was racing. The last five minutes seemed too bizarre to have actually taken place. Unable to decipher what had happened, he opted instead to watch his friend sleep, hoping that Pacey had no clue how much he had enjoyed that.
Part 2
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