Just the Two of us- Pacey and Joey story

The beginning of the unknown

“The only difference between falling in love and being in love is that your heart already knows how you feel, but your mind is too stubborn to admit it.”
― Colleen Hoover, Maybe Not

July 4, 2001

It was two in the morning and Joey was sitting on the bathroom floor with her head on the toilet seat. She was scared to move in fear that she would throw up again. Ever since two weeks ago, Joey had been in the bathroom most of the day, and it was the most painful experience of her life. Joey’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by her older sister walking into the room.

“Hey. I brought you some water and crackers.” Bessie whispered as she sat on the floor next to her sister.

“Thanks.”

The two didn’t say anything as Joey took a long sip of her water. “Small sips, Jo. You don’t want to get sick again.” Her sister reminded her as she handed her a cracker. “I hate being sick,” Joey muttered as she put her head on her sister’s shoulder.

“Well, you know you could always go to the doctor.”

“No, I don’t want to.”

“Ok, well if you are just going to sit there then you are going to continue to hate being sick,” Bessie whispered with a chuckle. Joey looked at her and rolled her eyes.  It was quiet for a moment as Joey was trying to find the right words to tell Bessie what was going on.

“I am pregnant.”

Bessie looked over at Joey in shock as she stood. “Excuse me?” She said to her. Joey sighed as she looked down at her feet and chewed her lip while a tear came crawling down her face.

“How long have you known?” Bessie asked her. “About a week,” Joey mumbled. “Is this why you don’t want to go to the doctors?” Bessie asked her. “That and I am still terrified to go. But I have an appointment with them next Tuesday.”

Bessie let out a long sigh as she sat down next to Joey. “Do you know what you are going to do?” She asked Joey. “No. I thought about all my options but they just seem like too much right now.” Joey whispered to her. “Have you told Pacey?” Bessie asked.

“No.”

“Joey you have to tell him.”

“Yeah, I will say hi, Pace. Remember the last time we had sex, oh yeah, you got me pregnant and I can’t bring myself to do abortion so I guess your DNA is stuck with me.”

“ Josephine  Liliana Potter.”

“Well, it’s true,” Joey mumbled with an eye roll. “Look at me, Joey,” Bessie told her in a firm voice. Joey then looked up at her sister. “I know you are scared, and I am doing my best right now to not yell at you over this. However, if you don’t get your butt over to that phone and call Pacey. I will start yelling at you, do you hear me?”

Joey nodded her head at her sister. “What if he doesn’t want to be apart of this?” Joey asked softly.

“Well, if he doesn’t want to be apart of it, then that’s his loss, not yours. But just knowing Pacey, he wouldn’t do that to you. You two may have broken up, but I know you two still love one another and this is his baby. You know when Mom first passed away, you stayed home for days at a time especially after Dad went to jail. You and I refused to even put ourselves in public. Well, one day Pacey came knocking on the door because he felt sorry that his Dad arrested our Dad. You disliked him but I knew by the look on Pacey’s face he wanted to do everything in his power to make things right again. But you refused to let him in, and I know it’s not because you were hating him.

But it was you being you, because Joey, you are the most stubborn human being I have ever met. Even when you were a newborn, I was shocked at how stubborn you were. Now here you are at seventeen, being stubborn on not asking for help so you been sitting here for two weeks in the bathroom refusing to let anyone in. I will allow the bathroom thing because, to be honest, it runs in the family. But what I will not allow you to do is to be stubborn by not going to tell Pacey about this baby because you are refusing to ask for his help, or most of all because you are just too scared. Because I promise you, Joey, you will regret that decision for the rest of your life.”

Joey felt tears coming down even harder than before. She knew Bessie was right about this and she just hoped Pacey would be able to see this as well.