#because joey needed a finished love confession and it upset me that we didn't get one | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hepaidattention · 8 months

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I wrote this little love confession for some of my own oc's in my own original story, and I realized how much it felt like Pacey and Joey, so changed the names and changed some of the dialogue about their past and thought I'd share. I imagine it was Joey's final love confession to Pacey, the one that finally brought them together for the finale.

"What're you doing here, Joey?" He yawned and looked at her with his furrowed brow and sleepy set gaze. His hair was standing up in weird ways on his scalp and there was an indent on his forehead that she assumed came from whatever he had fallen asleep on. She smiled, seeing his disheveled appearance. It made her think back to when they were young, the old high school days. Pacey was notorious for falling asleep just about anywhere, and by the looks of his fully clothed but sleepy exterior, that hadn't changed a bit.

"Well, I … I needed to talk to you."

"Okay," his hands moved from his hips up to cross over his chest. It was the body's way of telling her he was defensive, he was protecting himself from more harm. "And this couldn't have waited till, I don't know, maybe daylight?"

His words without emotion sounded harsh, but the deep sarcasm he coated them with, and the slightest curve of a smirk on the corner of his mouth, told her otherwise. She let out a shaky breath and said, "No, it couldn't. Because I realized something tonight, and if I don't say it now, well… honestly I might never say it. And I really, really want to say it. I don't want to run anymore."

"Okay," he said slowly, "then say it," and that was all he said. He seemed weary, like he almost didn't want to know what she had to say, in case what she had to say might hurt him even more.

"Okay." She glanced inside the restaurant, hoping he would invite her in and she could spill her guts to him in the centralized heated building, but he didn't budge. He just stood there, waiting. So, here went nothing. "I realized today that fate is a real bitch."

Pacey’s brow furrowed into an even deeper V shape than before, “Who? Are we talkin' Fate Blanchard? 'Cause Jo, I’m pretty sure this could’ve-”

“No, not Fate Blanchard - god I haven't thought of her since high school, but she was a real bitch - but no. No, I mean like fate and destiny, like the universe and the cosmic powers that have a say in who we are, and where we are, and who … who we end up with.”

Pacey didn’t seem phased, but his lack of expression said everything. “Go on,” he nodded.

“The thing is, no matter how many years went by of me I trying to move on and you apparently yearning over me in silence,”

“I did not yearn -”

“Ah ah,” she pressed her finger to his lips, “I’m talkin’ right now, Witter.” He nodded, wordlessly, and she lowered her hand and continued, “I realized that even though all those years in high school went by where I may not have loved you, or at least didn't know it yet, and all those years of us broken up and trying to find someone else to replace what we had, I think there was always a part of me that always knew - and not in a conscious way, but in a ‘fate has this all mapped out if I like it or not’ way. Because I realized tonight, as I was lying on my bed and staring at the ceiling for answers, that in every relationship I have ever been in - no matter how much I loved them, there was always something missing, you know? I mean I even had this great epic love with Dawson, and no matter how much I wanted to say that he was my soulmate or my other half - I always had this piece in me that didn’t feel complete. It was like this missing puzzle piece, and no matter how hard I tried forcing all these other pieces to fit, the puzzle wasn’t complete until I found the right one. That made me so incredibly mad too, because I mean, he's my soulmate, you know? We understood each other in ways I have never known anyone to understand me. He was the person I had been looking my whole life for - and the moment I got it, I wanted to punch someone because it wasn’t what it was supposed to be. That piece was still missing and it made me want to scream. And then…” she hesitated, letting out an irate huff of air before continuing. “And then you come strolling into my peripheral again, and you stand there and you call me names and tease me and ... and you take care of me despite your idiot ways, and I suddenly remembered what we felt like. No matter how much I despised you in high school, no matter how much of my heart you shattered when you broke up with me, and no matter how much I convinced myself I had moved on, you walked back into my life with that stupid smirk on your face, and you called me Jo, and suddenly … that missing piece of the puzzle just … fit. I realized it always had.” Joey had tears stinging her eyes now, her words getting choked on by the sobs she was holding back in her throat.

“Jo,” Pacey started, his arms unfolding, his body language speaking much louder than his words.

“No, don’t, not yet.” She put out a hand and took in a deep breath, letting it out with much stronger endurance. “I’m not done, okay? So, I realized tonight that fate is a bitch, because it was fate herself that did this to me. Because it was fate who never allowed me to quite love anyone the way that I … that I stupidly and hopelessly love you. And that’s not me saying that I’ve always loved you because, hell - despite my middle school crush on you, and my relapse of feelings junior and senior year, I never hated anyone more than I hated you in our freshman year of high school. But all that’s to say that ... that before I even knew what destiny and fate and the cosmos and whatever other chaos it had in store for me, the fates knew, and they knew that one day I’d be standing here, in your doorway, confessing my embarrassingly pathetic love for you, and fate knew that no matter how hard I might try to love someone more or the same as I love you, it wouldn’t let me, it wouldn’t let me even before I ever loved you. Because fate knew that you were my forever - and in a weird loopy, twisty, all jumbled-up way that fate works, before I even knew it, my heart knew it, too. I could devote my life to many people, but there was only one person who was supposed to be my always and forever and it’s … it’s you, Pacey. And the bitch that fate is, thinking she never let me be happy until I saw it, because she had already checked my heart out for a guy I never imagined I’d ever love. And I just, I realized, staring at my ceiling tonight, grappling at what I was going to say to you, I realized that fate was actually on my side - because if I could see my fate in some kind of linear line that only us mere mortals can comprehend, like following a string that got detangled and finally was straight shot to my end, I realized that at the end of the line, it would be you, always. A straight shot to my forever, and that means rather than fate not allowing me to feel love the way I wanted to - she instead was saving my whole heart for the most amazing love of my life.” She was crying again, but it was silent tears. She let out a shaky laugh and brushed a stray tear from her cheek, suddenly feeling embarrassed under the gaze of Pacey's serious eyes. “So, that’s it. I love you, and I don’t appreciate you setting me free or whatever crap you were trying to pull today because I don't want to be set free, okay? You're my forever, Pace.”

“Can I speak now?” he said with a glint of tears in his eyes, a warm smile beginning to cover his lips.

“Depends,” she wiped at her eyes and laughed at herself, “what are you going to say?”

Pacey took a step forward, cupping her face in his hands in one brisk movement. He used his thumb to brush away another stray tear from her eyes and looked down at her, grinning. “Nothing.”

Pacey didn’t take any more time to waste the space between them. He kissed her, hard and passionately, but also sweet and tenderly. Joey’s hands tangled in his hair, and Pacey dipped her a little, breaking their kiss from the giggling that was replaced between them. He lifted her back up and pushed some hair from her face, his thumb grazing her cheek and his eyes searching her endlessly.

“You’ve gotta say something,” she whispered to him, merely because they were that close, a whisper was all she needed to be heard.

“You’re right,” he smiled, kissed her again, and then pulled back to say, “I can’t believe you had a crush on me in middle school,”

Joey’s eyes rolled back in her head, “You know what? I take it all back,”

“No, no, no, but c’mon Jo, middle school? That’s… that’s pretty embarrassing.”

“You’re a dick,” she said, despite the beaming grin she couldn’t seem to wipe off her face, no matter how hard she tried.

“Yeah, but you love me, so…” he bragged. She scoffed and pushed him away a little in a teasing shove. He pulled her back in within seconds and said, “And you're it. I never doubted for a second you were the love of my life. You're it for me, darlin'.”

“Yeah?” she sounded a little more pathetic than she would have liked.

“Please, you already know I love you, Potter. I’ve been in love with you since freshman year of high school.”

“Oh my god, freshman year?” she said with great sarcasm and an even greater smile, “Wow, now that’s embarrassing, Pace.”

“Yeah, well,” he wrapped his arms securely around her, settling himself where it finally felt whole. That missing piece Joey talked about, was finally back in place, where it belonged. “Can’t really fight destiny, now can you?”

“No,” she ran a hand through his hair, her other arm securely wrapped around him. “You really can’t. But I wouldn’t want to, even if I could.”

Pacey intertwined their fingers together, tugging her inside the restaurant as he said, “Couldn’t say it better myself.”

And the rest is history.

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