Synopsis of Four Stories
Written by Tamara Jaron
The ski trip is over and the bus is loading up to leave. Jen and Jack seem to have come to terms with their previous night's indiscretions and their friendship is no worse the wear. However, Jen does wonder what would have happened if they had actually gone through with it.
"What if we had gone through with it?" asks Jen. "What if I hadn't put a stop to our ill-conceived fumblings? What if I'd gotten pregnant and we had to drop out of school senior year to raise our illegitimate love child?"
"Well," replies Jack. "Then there would come a day when we would have to sit down and explain to said love child that mommy and daddy can't have sex unless daddy's thinking about Ryan Phillipe."
"Don't think I wouldn't be thinking about him too," says Jen.
As they get on the bus, Jen runs into the chaperone who has not forgotten her transgressions of the past night. She asks what her punishment will be, but he only responds that he has something far better in store for her. As she tries to talk her way out of it, Jack drags her on the bus.
Drue approaches the bus, late, tired, and not willing to argue with the chaperone. The chaperone is wondering where Joey and Pacey are, and Drue motions to a couple necking on the bus. With their backs to us, they look like Joey and Pacey, so the chaperone gets on the bus and gives the driver the okay to leave. When the two teenagers turn around, however, we realize that it is not Joey and Pacey. Hmm, where are they?
In Pacey and Joey's room, clothes are strewn all about the floor, and two naked bodies lay intertwined on the bed. Joey wakes up and rolls over to look at Pacey. Pacey stretches, smiles at Joey, and kisses her on the shoulder. Joey turns away from him with an unhappy look on her face. The theme song begins to play as Pacey lies awake, looking at Joey and sensing that something is troubling her, meanwhile, Joey looks away, contemplating the repercussions of the night before.
"About Last Night"
Joey and Pacey are at the vending machines.
"I was thinking more along the lines of something that requires silverware, Pacey," says Joey.
"Bus tickets cost money, woman, and you had me pay for that impromptu call to Gretchen, SO, how's coffee and crackers sound?"
"Lovely."
"So, you tell Bessie?" asks Pacey.
"Tell Bessie what?"
"Does the word 'duh' mean anything to you? About last night..."
"Well what exactly was I supposed to say, Pacey? And if you say that I'm a woman now, I will projectile vomit on you."
"Okay. Well what about Gretchen?"
"Yeah. 'Hey Gretchen, sorry I missed the bus back. By the way, your brother deflowered me last night, gotta go.' Do I really strike you as the kind of person who enjoys discussing my boyfriend's sexual prowess with his sister?"
"Okay, point taken, but let me just pose this hypothetical. Let's say that you were the type of person who enjoyed discussing your boyfriend's sexual prowess -- what do you think you might say?"
"About what, about the prowess?" asks Joey.
"Yeah, about the prowess," admits Pacey.
"You know, just when I think you're the antithesis typical male, there you are, dragging your knuckles with the rest of the primates."
"Well, you should never underestimate a primate's desire to hear about his abilities in the sack," jokes Pacey. "Pop tart?"
Joey grabs the pop tart, and Pacey drags her off.
Later:
"Pick one," says Pacey, holding up two fists. Joey picks the right hand.
"Pick the other one," Pacey tries again. Joey smiles and points to the left hand. Pacey opens his hand to reveal chocolate hearts. "I know it's not the most equal of exchanges, virginity for chocolate hearts," he says, "but I thought I should get you something."
"If there were prizes involved, I would have asked for a car," jokes Joey. "Nothing too expensive, you know, just something to tool around in."
"How about the Witter Wagoneer?" asks Pacey.
"The Witter Wagoneer, do I look like some two-bit floozy to you?"
"No you don't"
"No?"
"To tell you the truth," says Pacey, "I don't think you've ever looked more beautiful." Joey is embarrassed.
"You're easy," she says, "because I didn't even get a chance to shower this morning." They kiss.
"Apparently you didn't get a chance to brush your teeth either," says Pacey.
"This from the morning breath monster himself," says Joey, walking away.
"I can do this," says Pacey, pulling her into his arms.
"What?" she asks.
"This. The back and forth. The sweetness and the sarcasm. I can do this for the rest of my life, you know. With you as my partner in irreverence."
"Well, have you ever stopped to think that maybe you're just the first of many, Pace?"
"Oh," he says, letting go of her, "well in that case I guess I just have to be satisfied with being the Neil Armstrong of the bunch." Joey smiles and follows him out to the couch in the lodge. A young couple is making out by the fireplace.
"Typically when couples engage in the sort of activity that we engaged in last night, there's some sort of after-discussion," says Pacey.
"About what?" asks Joey.
"Well, it's a bit like a post-game wrap up."
"I see, you want to know if you were any good."
"Precisely," says Pacey.
"It was very nice," Joey says, hesitantly. Pacey is silent for a moment.
"It was nice?" he asks.
"Yes."
"Just nice, huh?"
"What's wrong with nice?" asks Joey.
"There's nothing wrong with nice. There's nothing wrong with great either. Hell there's nothing particularly offensive about mind-blowing or transcendent..."
"Sorry, Pace," interrupts Joey, "I left my thesaurus at home -- I didn't know I was going to get yelled at for my vocabulary."
"I'm not too worried about your vocabulary," says Pacey munching on some chips.
"You know, maybe nice means everything to me. Maybe nice is all a girl can manage the morning after her first time, because as you know, it's not something I've ever experienced before, so I can't really sit here and honestly say that something is great, or mind-blowing, or transcendent, if I have nothing to compare it to..."
Now it's Pacey's turn to interrupt. "Because," he says, "there are certain benchmarks in the sexual experience."
"What do you mean?" asks Joey.
"You know, there are certain things that happen or don't happen over the course of the evening..."
Joey finally gets it. She says, "Are you asking me if I..."
"Yes!" exclaims Pacey.
"Can we please not talk about that," says Joey.
"Why?"
"Because it's not important."
"Okay, it might not be important to you, but it's really important to me," says Pacey.
"This isn't all about you, you know. You think you're feeling insecure, do you have any idea what it's like to be me this morning?"
"No, I don't understand," says Pacey.
"Of course you don't."
"Well maybe you'd like to enlighten me then."
"Did you ever stop and think that maybe I might be wondering how I measure up?" asks Joey. "How I fit into the picture that includes not only one, but two prior sexual relationships, both of which meant a great deal to you?"
"I didn't even know girls thought like that," admits Pacey.
"Does the word 'duh' mean anything?"
"Joe, you were great!"
"Great?"
"Yes, great. Which is a hell of a lot better than nice."
"That's really beside the point."
"But Joe, you were great! You were fantastic! You were ever glowing adjective under the sun. I want to run out and tell the entire world what I did last night, and who I did it with."
Joey's face drops. "You're not really planning on doing that, are you?" she asks.
"No," he laughs.
"Good."
"Why is that good?" he asks.
"Because it's private and I really want to keep it that way. I really don't want the whole world to know about our sex life."
"I think I get it," says Pacey, "by the whole world, what you really mean is Dawson."
"Why does it have to be about that. Why can't it just be the fact that I don't want to hurt him any more than I already have?"
"Hey, I don't want to hurt him either, I don't, but I do want to be able to have sex with my girlfriend, whom I adore, without having to worry about the soap operatic repercussions of him finding out. Let me ask you one question, Joey. What would you say to him? If he were here right now, what would you tell him?"
"Well I would have to tell him the truth," says Joey, upset by what he is insinuating.
"And you'd do that?" asks Pacey in disbelief.
"Yes, absolutely," she says without hesitation.
"What to know something funny?" asks Pacey. "You haven't touched me."
"What?" asks Joey.
"You haven't touched me all morning. Here I was thinking that sex brought people closer together."
Joey gets up and storms out of the lodge. Pacey, feeling like a jerk, gets up and goes after her. He finds her out on the deck. She is crying.
"You want know why it was so nice Pacey?" she asks. "You probably don't even remember, but there was this thing, there you were above me and you, you brushed my hair over my forehead. It felt really nice, it made me feel safe. Like no matter what, you were going to be there, and you were going to protect me. And years from now, when I look back, I'm really not going to remember the clumsy positioning or the morning-after awkwardness, or whether or not the experience itself met the textbook definition of great sex. I'll remember how sweet you were. How you took me to this brand new place. Pace, I'm glad I had sex. I'm really glad that I had sex with you." Pacey smiles. Joey continues, "Now I really just want to go home," she says, moving in closer, "so we can do it again." They kiss.
"The Big Picture"
Gretchen and Dawson meet Grams at Mr. Brooks' house after the funeral. Grams is going through Brooks' things in the garage. Turns out he's collected all sorts of memorabilia from his movies. Grams wants their help dealing with his personal effects. Dawson doesn't see the point, he is not ready to deal with the pain of loss. Grams tries to console him and tells him he needs closure on the experience. Dawson doesn't think it's the lack of closure that's bothering him. She suggests that he spend some time alone with Mr. Brooks (through his things), and try to sort his feelings out.
He goes back into the garage and Gretchen shares some treasures she's discovered. She picks up an old screenplay, and they trade lines for a scene. Dawson admits that he's angry about how few people showed up for the funeral. Only five total. More importantly, he's upset that He, Gretchen, and Grams were three of the five and they barely knew him. He feels sorry for Mr. Brooks -- feels like he wasted his life and has nothing to show for it. He is afraid that his life may hold the same fate, that he may give up caring just like Mr. Brooks did.
Gretchen reassures him that it won't happen to him. He is not headed down the same path. She also believes that even though Mr. Brooks was stubborn and alone for so long, in the end, he made up for it. He was the one that brought them together and she's thankful for it. Dawson is thankful that he has her around.
He asks if she wouldn't mind leaving him alone for a little while. On her way out, she reminds him about the great guy that Mr. Brooks was, and tells him to remember Mr. Brooks at his best moments.
After she is gone, Dawson starts going through some old posters. He's interrupted when a man walks in. He's an estate lawyer and he's come to make an appointment with Dawson. Looks like Mr. Brooks has put Dawson in his will. He won't say any more until Dawson comes into his office in the afternoon.
"Excess Baggage"
Jen's punishment is a trip to a shrink named Tom Frost. His office is immaculate, modern, and very sterile. He is a young, Deiter-esque man with not too much to say. Jen is very nervous and can't get comfortable sitting down. Instead she decides to stand.
"So how are you today?" asks the shrink.
"Fine," Jen answers, "anything else you'd like to know?"
"Why don't we talk about why you're here."
"Do we have to?"
"Why do you think you need to be here?"
"Actually, I don't think I need to be here," she answers.
"Why are you?" he asks.
"Come on, I'm sure they told you."
"Well, from what I understand, there have been some disciplinary issues."
"Alright, see, I was on this ski trip and a teacher caught me throwing away empty liquor bottles."
"So you were drinking?" he asks.
"Is that bad?"
"It depends why you were doing it."
"See here's the thing, I had just been through this really big ordeal with my best friend Jack. We'd almost slept together but I had the presence of mind to put the kabash on it, which is good because he's a homosex, he's a homosexual," she stumbles. "Which is not healthy. Not him being a homosexual, but sleeping with a homosexual. I keep saying homosexual -- I sound like my grandmother. Gay, I, uh, gay. You could be gay, are you gay?"
"Is that important to you?" asks the shrink.
"Just making conversation."
"Back to the drinking. Why do you think you drink?"
"Well I don't, usually."
"But you do sometimes."
"Yeah. Sometimes. Not like I'm an alcoholic."
"But you like to drink?"
"Yeah, who doesn't?"
The shrink starts to write something down.
"Okay," asks Jen, "what are you writing?"
"I'm taking notes," he answers.
"Do I get a copy?"
"No."
She sits down. "So how long do these things go for?"
"Fifty minutes," he answers.
"Fifty minutes give or take?"
"No, fifty minutes precisely."
"What happens if we did up some really juicy stuff?"
"That's what next week is for."
"Excuse me, but that seems kind of cold. I wonder what it is you do with those extra ten minutes."
"I take a break. Rest up for the next patient."
"You rest? Well, excuse me, but you don't seem to be exerting yourself that much. Where did you go to school?"
"Why is that important to you?" he asks.
"Well, it's not," she answers, "really, actually it's not really important to me at all. I'm just curious. I'm a high school senior -- college on the brain. If you don't want, it's fine with me. Oh Boston," she says, noticing the diploma on the wall, "You know what I think that's kind of crooked, why don't I fix it for you, I don't want you breaking out in a rash." She goes to fix the picture and it falls onto the floor, breaking the frame.
She is apologetic but he is not upset. "Leave it, Jennifer," he says.
She takes a good look at him. "You're a lot younger than I thought you would be," she says. "How old are you? I know, why is it important to me? Forget I asked."
The shrink goes and sits back down. "Why don't we talk about your parents."
"Well, I was a bit of a wild child and my parents, they shipped me off to live with my grandmother."
"How has that been for you?"
"Fine, fine but crappy. I'm over it, honestly. I've dealt with this stuff. So my parents are less than perfect, what am I going to do? I've got my grandmother and my friends -- they help me through all the rough spots. You know, I'm being perfectly honest with you, I don't think I'm the kind of person that benefits from therapy. I feel like I am relatively self aware."
"Well, yes, teenagers often confuse knowledge with wisdom."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asks.
"What do you think it means?"
"I think it means that you think I'm stupid."
"Is that what you heard me say?"
"Yeah, pretty much," she says.
"Well, I'm sorry if you feel like I've offended you."
"Whatever."
He looks at the clock. "Busted," says Jen.
"Excuse me?" he asks.
"I just saw you look at the clock. Am I boring you?"
"Of course not," he says.
"Because if I'm boring you, you should really let me know. You know what, this is not going to work. This is not going to work out."
"What do you mean?" he asks.
"I mean we're not a very good match for each other. You're not a very warm person."
"Is that the kind of relationship you expect from your therapist?"
"I don't know if you've noticed or not, but what we're trying to do here is based around talking and you're not very easy to talk to."
"Well, perhaps that's something we need to work on."
"Perhaps it's something that you should work on," she says.
"Perhaps," he agrees.
"Wow, a victory."
"Is that important to you," he asks. "To win."
"I knew that was coming."
"You didn't answer my question."
"Because there's just another more irritating one looming on the horizon."
He looks hurt. "You should go," he says.
"And I'd like to," answers Jen, "but I can't."
"Of course you can. I'll tell your school that you fulfilled the requirement."
"Really? You're going to do that?"
"Absolutely," he says.
"Alright then," she says, grabbing her things.
"It was good to meet you Jennifer."
"Nice meeting you to," she says as she heads out.
She stops and turns around saying, "Okay, I'm just going to ask. Am I totally screwed up?"
"It's probably too early for me to guess," he says.
"Take care," she says as she grabs the doorknob.
"But," he stops her, "were I to hazard one, I'd say that the smart sarcastic exterior masks a scared and lonely young woman who's relationship with her parents has scarred her in ways she hasn't even begun to process. She has a hard time trusting people -- men especially -- and who can blame her? When parental ties are severed early on like that, it can send a young person searching for love and acceptance in a variety of destructive ways, which may explain her relationship with drugs, alcohol, and a best friend who's homosexuality prevents him from ever really returning your affections. But all that is really just dime store psychobabble. The truth is, we don't know why you're here yet. But I would love to help you find out."
She comes back in, sits on the couch, and begins to tell her story.
"Seems Like Old Times"
Dawson is in line for the movies when Joey runs into him. They've both come to the movies with the intention of getting lost in a crowd. Dawson asks what he missed on the ski trip, and Joey doesn't tell him what happened between her and Pacey. Joey asks if he'd like to go find a place to talk instead of seeing the movie. They head to a diner.
Dawson tells Joey about Mr. Brooks will. Turns out Brooks left him quite a large sum of money. Joey asks him what he plans to do with it, and he's not sure. Pay his college tuition? Make a movie? It just makes him feel strange to think about spending the money of his dead friend.
Dawson stares at Joey for a moment, and she gets uncomfortable.
"What?" she asks.
"You seem different," he says.
"I do?"
"Yeah, you look different, too. Is it your hair or something?"
"No," she says.
"It's not bad different, it's good different. I don't know."
"You want to get out of here," she asks.
They head out to the swingsets by the docks and begin to reminisce about old times. Joey feels bad that she wasn't there for him over the weekend. She thinks she's been a bad friend.
"I've made some big choices, some big decisions," she says. "Sometimes I feel like I'm going to wake up and realize that all there really was was friendship. And if I wasn't any good at that, then where does that leave me?"
"Joe," says Dawson, "you're not a bad friend. I don't get to say it much anymore, but you're my best friend. You always were. No matter where you are, no matter where your life might take you, and no matter who you're with..."
"You'll always have a piece of my heart," finishes Joey.
"Something like that."
"Yeah."
"It doesn't have to be a huge piece," says Dawson.
"Just enough," agrees Joey.
"A tiny piece," says Dawson. They laugh.
They spend the rest of the night together -- as friends.
Back at the movie theater, they say goodnight.
"This may sound silly," says Joey, "but thank you for a lovely night."
"We'll have to do it again sometime."
"Yeah," she agrees.
"Goodnight Joe."
"Goodnight." They both hesitate.
"Dawson."
"Joey."
"You first," says Dawson.
"No, you first," says Joey.
"Did something happen on the ski trip?" he asks.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I have this feeling. This kind of unshakable feeling that something happened, and, it's just a feeling. You don't have to answer me if you don't want to."
"What are you asking me?"
"I'm asking you if you slept with Pacey," says Dawson.
Joey doesn't know what to say. "It's kind of personal, don't you think?"
"It's really personal," he says.
"I mean what if I was to stand here and ask you if you've slept with Gretchen?"
"The answer would be no," he says immediately. "You're right, it's very personal, and it's none of my business, and I apologize. I'm sorry. I guess I want you to know that I'm not holding to anything that we might have said in the past. I want you to live your life and be happy and enjoy everything that goes along with that. And I know that sometimes you make a promise, you mean it at the time, but then life gets in the way and it makes it impossible to keep."
"A couple of years ago if someone were to tell me that we'd be standing here having this conversation, I would have referred them to the nearest asylum. Things aren't exactly turning out the way that I necessarily thought they would. A couple of years ago if you would have asked me who the first person I was going to have sex with was, I would have answered unequivocally, Dawson Leery, that's who. The possibility of sleeping with someone else never even occurred to me. Especially not Pacey."
"So what are you saying Joe?"
Joey prepares herself to tell the truth, but when she looks up into Dawson's scared little puppy dog eyes, she loses her confidence, and the moment is gone.
"No," she says with a big smile on her face. "I have not slept with Pacey."
Dawson is relieved. "Oh, I'm sorry, that was a sigh of relief you just heard."
"Well, goodnight," says Joey.
"Goodnight," says Dawson.
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