SOS by Glory, Girl Writer.pdf - Dawson's Creek Fandom Wiki

Oh, for just a minute, she was so tempted. She was so close. She almost dropped the
bags and threw her arms around him and buried her head in his shoulder and poured
her heart into his light leather jacket . . . no, no, I don't want to go . . . get me out of here .
. . take me to the boat . . . tell Dawson I can't go . . . She could actually feel the leather
on her cheek, Jack's hand on the back of her neck, how they would stand like that for ten
minutes before they moved again. She saw herself running down the dock toward the
new boat, just like she once had toward True Love. In her imagination, she found him
working or eating or drinking, and he looked up and saw her, and she ran over and
tumbled into him, kissed him, apologized for everything, ran her thumbs over his
cheekbones, breathed him in like oxygen.
And then she felt herself drop back into her own life, and felt the rough luggage strap in
her palm. "Sure, yes. I'm sure."
Jack had seen her go. He'd watched her eyes soften briefly, and then he'd seen the
rapid-fire blinking when she came back. Whatever had happened, though, it was over.
There was nothing to do now but take her to the airport.
***
At the gate, Dawson was already waiting with his parents. When Joey got there, he
hugged her warmly and excitedly, entirely oblivious to how close she'd come to turning
back over and over again in the last week. Jack watched from a few steps away as
Dawson prattled about the plane, the seats, the in-flight movie, the weather, and
apparently whatever else ran into his head on the endless circular reel of small talk he
always had handy at times like this. When Jen approached, she came to Jack first.
"She doesn't look too good," she muttered, watching Joey feign interest in Gale's
endless last-minute instructions.
"You should have seen her when I picked her up," Jack said, leaning against a post.
"I've never seen such a blank stare in my life."
"I can't believe Dawson can't tell how unhappy she is," Jen whispered, shaking her
head. "He's normally a little dense, but this is ridiculous."
"He doesn't want to know. I talked to him the other day, and he's convinced this is a
whole new start for them."
Jen's head snapped around to face Jack. "He wants to get back together with her? I
thought they had a deal. The whole platonic apartment-share thing."
"Yeah, well . . . " Jack raised his eyebrows. "Dawson missed a meeting on that
particular deal."
"I know you went to see Pacey," she said, a little guiltily. "I did, too."
"Apparently we had equally good luck, given that he's not here."