Butterflies by Adrienne
Pacey led Joey down the trail to the beach, which they had walked the previous night. Hand in hand they ran down the sandy hill onto the shoreline where they took of their shoes and took a romantic stroll in the brilliant sunshine and slightly cooling breeze. Andie watched the pair disappear down the trail to the beach and decided to follow them. Stealthily she crawled across the top edge of the hill to the beach ducking behind bushes and trying to get close enough to hear what they were saying. It was bad enough that they were holding hands, she just hoped there was nothing more going on. "You know we can't keep avoiding everyone." Pacey said swinging Joey's hand. "Sooner or later they're going to have to find out." "Can't it be later?" Joey said smiling while squinting into the sun. "I wish Jo, but we can't hide this. I don't want to hide this. I won’t the climb back up to the top of that damn hill and scream out to the world that I am in love with Joey Potter." "Pacey," she said quietly, "you...you love me?" "Um, well, yah. I just, I didn't mean to tell you like that, I was..." Pacey stuttered. "Pacey. Shut up, I love you too,” she said wrapping her arms around his shoulders and giving him a passionate kiss. Suddenly a loud crashing sound rang out. "Did you just hear branches braking?" Joey asked looking around. "It was probably just a wild animal." Pacey shrugged it off as they continued to walk down the beach. 'Thank goodness they didn't notice me!' Andie breathed a sigh of relief from her sprawled position at the bottom of the hill. In horrific surprise of seeing them kiss she had lost her balance and tumbled down the steep incline into some crackly old bushes. "I can't believe that Joey is hustling my Pacey!" she said angrily to herself after the initial shock had worn off. "Boy are they going to hear a piece of my mind!" she stormed off down the beach ignoring the sharp sticks poking her every which way and the piles of sand in her clothes and hair. "Pacey! Joey!" she called freezing the pair in their tracks. They dropped hands quickly and spun around to see a mangled Andie McPhee who looked like she'd just survived a hurricane. "Andie! What the hell happened to you?!" Joey said in surprise trying not to laugh at the twigs and leaves poking out of her tangled hair. "Oh don't play all sweet with me miss innocent girly-girl from the wrong side of the creek." she said taking a step closer to them. Pacey instinctively took a step in front of Joey. "Andie. Are you sure you're all right? Do you need some help?" Pacey said trying to calm her down. "Pacey how could you do this to me!" she suddenly fell to the ground in a heap and began bawling. "Andie what's wrong? Are you hurt?" Pacey called from his unchanged position near Joey. "Pacey, I, I love you. I know you love me too. Please say you love me too! I know you didn't mean to kiss Joey back there. She just kissed you, right? You couldn't have kissed her back or anything because we're destined to be together and I can't live without out you anymore." she finished standing up, her tears subsiding. "Well, know that that's done, come on Pacey, you may walk me back to camp now." she gave them a disgustingly sweet smile. Pacey and Joey gave each other a look the turned back to Andie. "First off Andie, no I'm not going to walk you back to camp. I'm going to stay here with Joey." he said taking her hand again, "Second, no Andie I am not in love without and no we can't get back together no matter how pitifully you plead your case. And three, you I did mean to kiss Joey and yes we are together so would you please take yourself back to camp and get the nurse to check you out because you don't look so good." he finished turning and walking off down the beach again with Joey. "Pacey, don't you think you were just a tad bit hard on Andie. She is delusional, maybe she didn't know what she was saying." Joey said trying to be compassionate. "She needs to stop dreaming Jo and move on. I have," he said smiled at her. "You know Pacey, she's going to go back to camp and tell everyone about us." Joey said creasing her brow. "Joey? Did you see her! She looks like she just got ran over by a garbage truck and she's going to go tell people that *we* hooked up. They'll lock her up and call her crazy, again." "Pacey. You should try to be at least a little nice. You did just break her heart." "Joey trust me. No one will believe her. She's obviously just emotionally distraught because I rejected her. Whatever she say will just make it look like she's trying to get even." "Well, I guess. Now that we have that settled, do you think we can find somewhere a little more private where we won't be constantly interrupted by our ever nosy friends." "Good idea Jo. Let's head back to camp though and do a little damage control before Dawson and Jen suspect something." "As long as you promise me some one-on-one time later." she smiled. "Can do Potter." BACK AT CAMP- "Dawson! Jen!" a ragged Andie McPhee stumbled her way over to them. "Andie! Are you alright?" Dawson put a concerned hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about me. You'll never guess what I just saw!"