I got 3 credit cards in the mail last week, maxed them out in, like, a day. Got lights, cameras, this awesome sound equipment. I'm going completely overboard, but I don't care. I'm talking a mile a minute. I haven't even asked you what brought you to Capeside.
Man. Ha! Being in this room, it just takes me back to a whole other era. When the future was a clean slate for all of us, you know?
Well, the room may have gone back in time, but I think you and I have moved ahead rather nicely. It's about all the obstacles we went through when we were kids. We both ended up doing exactly what we wanted to do.
Well, there was that brief period of time I toyed with the idea of being a rodeo clown, but I guess this'll do. Heh heh.
But you made something of yourself, Pace, and now you're making something out of me.
So they told me you went away for a while.
Let's not be awkward exes, Pacey. I was drying out in Malibu.
Ok. Well, you look great, anyhow.
Clean living, my friend. So, what happened to your job? I know you're not just taking a long lunch break. You're a little too hard-core for that.
Well, I've been reassessing how I allocate my time.
You're thinking about taking a tasty downward spiral? Oh, you'd better quit while you're ahead. You're not cut out for this.
What are you talking about? I could spiral with the best of them. Speaking of... shouldn't you really avoid places like this?
I, um, can't hide from my problems forever. It's kind of how I ended up in rehab in the first place, right?
Well, that's brave of you. But you were always good like that.
Yeah, well, I'll be your personal superhero, ok?
Unless of course you want to spend the rest of your days hiding out in dives like this. What are you hiding from, Pacey?
I'm hiding from the suit, because it's evil. Bad things happen when it's on. I allowed people to believe in me for a second, which was foolish, and now it's really coming back to bite them in the ass.
You know what? This isn't you talking. This is your former self rearing its ugly head. Come on, Pacey. I know moments like these. One path is the harsh reality, and one path is the comfortably numb. But guess what? In the morning, when you're all sobered up, the problem's still gonna be there. Only, now it'll be like a big festering wound, and you'll just be the jerk who sat back and let it get worse.
Well, thanks for not walking on eggshells around me.
It's weird, huh? This room used to be the official meeting place where we'd discuss what happened that day. And now it's just a film set, and I don't even know what happened this year.
Yeah. I was kind of hoping I could just climb up the ladder and... magically fill in all the lost time.
How's that working for you?
Maybe I was gone for too long.
Well, we'll piece it together between the two of us then, right? The lost year of Dawson and Joey.
Not talking to you. Maybe it seemed like it was. And I guess it just... became routine, just another thing that I didn't do. Well, like shooting heroin or driving drunk.
Wow, I'm up there with the dangerous activities.
Or casual sex. Dawson, for so long, you were the only person in the whole world I wanted to be with. Then somehow you became my only one-night stand.
I never meant for it to be like that.
I know. I know. Maybe being in this room makes it easier. Having it set up this way, you know, I'm so familiar, and... seems insane not to talk. And sometimes the hardest things to say are the things that... really matter.
Hmm. Why do you think I've spent years trying to write an entire screenplay about you?
I read it in one sitting.
Ok. I hope you don't think that I gave it to you so that you could just say all the obligatory nice things.
And why would I feel obligated?
Exactly, because if I can't get an honest opinion from the girl who loathes me more than anyone else in the world, who can I trust, right?
You've always been this devilishly clever.
Well... yeah. But... uh, I got--I got-- I wanted you to read it because... well, you're really the only person in the world who can tell me if I got it right this time.
You grew up, Dawson. You grew up. I always wanted to think that you were this hopeless dreamer and I was the adult that escaped. But I didn't escape anything, not really.
Sure you did. You got out of Capeside. Wasn't that the original plan?
Couldn't escape myself, could I? You were right. So much of what I was fighting was growing up. And I figured out this past year that it's hard for me... to talk about sex, to talk about... getting close with someone. And maybe... I'm not supposed to lose myself. Now it's not part of the plan. But then again, I never thought that losing you was part of the plan, either.
I think sometimes... you have to lose somebody completely before you can figure out what they really mean to you. I missed you, Jo.
You got it right this time, Dawson. I missed us.
You don't have to do this.
Sit out here with me. I know you'd rather be in the house with Dawson, so why don't you just go and help him lick his wounds?
Things never change here, do they?
No... because these are the roles we were destined to play.
No, Pace, these are the roles we chose to play. I mean, look at us, sitting out here on this dock in front of the same house we've been haunting for years. We're practically ghosts of our former selves, and honestly, I don't think anyone really remembers what they're mad about anymore.
Mm, I wouldn't be so sure about that.
Pacey, if I wanted to go back into that house, I would've gone a long time ago. Don't you know me at all by now?
Well, I don't want you sitting here feeling sorry for me.
I don't feel sorry for you. I feel for you, Pacey. God, can't you ever tell the difference?
I don't know. [Sighs] I don't know, because you and I have had a very confusing run of things. Especially lately.
Ok. You know, and no matter how much I love you or how long I stay with you, you're only gonna remember the moments when I leave.
Well, you gotta give me that much, because those are pretty much the most painful moments in my life.
That's because you ask for them, Pacey. I'm sorry. You do. Your whole life, you spend so much time expecting the worst that you don't even notice the moments when people are loving you, and, Pacey, people spend a lot of time loving you.
Well... with all due respect, Jo, my best friend just walked away from me, but that's not even the worst of it. The worst thing is he hasn't even really known me for the last 3 years, so please, clarify that for me. How does that qualify me as a man with a support network?
Well, you have a person sitting right here, don't you? But of course, that's not enough. Not until you let it.
In what world do I have you?
Look, just because I don't fit into that... place you want me to doesn't mean there's not a place for me, Pacey. Does it?
Joey, this isn't your fight, anyway.
You're right. You're right. It's not my fight because it's been over for a really long time, Pacey. And it is up to you to make it right.
I don't know how to make it right.
Well, you're gonna have to figure it out. You know, that's the thing about ghosts. They say that... they don't leave until they're at peace with what they left undone.
