"Would you stop worrying, you're the one who taught me how to drive stick, anyway."

"Precisely, and that's why I remember how gear-challenged you are. But, no worries, I trust you... Here, take my cell phone, just in case. Be careful, don't get too lost and you know... just take care of the Jeep. I'll call you before my last class in case we should meet somewhere else, I can probably get Maria to lift me." He talked at her like a protective father.

"Maria can lift you where?" She walked up to them and leaned into the passenger side door reaching over and dropping her hand on his thigh.

Pacey's eyes shifted from one woman to the other, from Joey's bright and genuine smile to Maria's. Jesus Christ, they were actually smiling at each other. "Um, I'm lending Jo my car for the day and just in case she doesn't make it here in time I thought maybe..." Again his eyes went back and forth. "Maybe you could drive me home, or something?"

Maria winked at Joey. "Oh, I don't know Pacey..." Her mouth curved into a malicious grin. "What's in it for me?"

This was really too much to deal with.

Pacey knew for damn sure that he wasn't slick enough to play this out, so he leaned over and gave Jo a quick hug, grabbed his knapsack from the backseat and went for the car door without a word. Safe outside the vehicle, knowing full well that his ears were burning from the flush that spread across his cheeks, he took Maria's outstretched hand and waved back at Joey.

"Catch ya later, Potter."

And she laughed.

They watched her drive away with only one snag to his poor clutch on the way out of the parking lot. He cringed and Maria slid an arm around his waist.

"Your precious car will be fine, Pacey..." She said, shaking her head with incredulity. "What is it about men and their automobiles?" Maria said more to the air than to him.

"Well, they're like our women. We take good care of them, keep them running smooth, the last thing we want is someone else behind the wheel." He smiled at her evilly, his comfort level rising with every foot further away from the school Joey got. This was not going to be easy by any stretch.

Maria whacked him upside the head and pulled him towards the school.

"You're just bad, Pacey Witter."

"And?" His head angled innocently.

He held the door for her to enter and followed her into the crowded hall. "And, nothing... I like it." She turned into his arms and planted a kiss on his lips. "You're late for class." She said as the bell rang punctuating her sentence.

* * * * * *

As his first class ended and he would have to go to the gym, he wondered about Michael Guerin and how they were going to be able to keep to their own sides of the school. Pacey didn't think that he really had the energy to go another round with him this morning. Guerin was stronger than Pacey had sized him up and what he'd done to send him half-flying across the Crashdown's kitchen was not something he wanted to meet up with without getting a good night's sleep ahead of time.

He was on his way out of class when he felt a hand on his arm. Turning to the touch, he found Maria, one hand on his bicep, the other curling a finger beckoning him near. Jesus Christ, he'd never had this much play in his entire life.

Her arms circled his waist and her lips touched to his; her tongue slithered beside his and he pulled her closer. He couldn't help it. Pacey Witter was a man of action.

Pacey Witter was also a man of guilt and hormonal bullshit, he realized as soon as his tongue tangled with hers. And he was having a really hard time keeping shit straight at the moment.

"Where are you off to, Pacey?" Her nails raked the still sensitive skin of his forearm and she pulled him against the bright, yellow lockers.

"I have gym." It was the truth, and it was the only thing he could say.

"Skip gym." It was a definitive statement, and something that any other time, he really wouldn't mind doing. But he couldn't stand the idea of going at it with Maria, still all dirty poodle from the night before. The betrayal factor didn't sit all that well either.

"I can't," he murmured, his mouth still nearly attached to hers. "I can't afford another missed class."

Maria pressed her lower half into his and pulled her face away, an exaggerated pout on her lips.

"I thought you were bad. I liked you better bad." The frown that took her lips was almost comical, in an absolutely adorable way.

He was no player, at least not normally, but he couldn't help but take her leads. She seemed to always say something that he would have an answer to. Maybe she and Joey had more in common than he'd thought.

"You've got all wrong, Maria. I'm all good, it's you that's the bad one. Maybe you need to be punished?" He raised an eyebrow at her and started them down the hall toward the locker room.

"Ugh. Go to gym. You need the shower anyway." She kissed him lightly on the lips and shoved him towards the door. He watched her skip away, her short, flouncy skirt bouncing around her.

"Whatever I did to deserve this, thank you..." He whispered to no one listening.

Alex was already at his locker changing when Pacey arrived. Tossing his books into his own, he pulled out the mess of gym clothes and sat beside his friend on the bench.

"Hey, man... what took you so long?" Alex asked innocently, then smirking at him as if he already knew the answer.

"You know women..." Pacey laughed.

Michael stood at the end of the line of lockers, Pacey watched him stare towards him from the corner of his eye. Challenging him.

Damn him, Pacey thought. I've already let him get to me too many times and it just ain't worth it. He started to change his clothes, pulling his shirt off over his head and throwing it into the locker amidst the rest of his crap. Bending over to untie his shoes, he noticed Guerin standing directly in front of him.

Without moving, without even looking up, Pacey grit his teeth. "What?" He asked through clenched jaw.

"I don't like you, Witter."

Pacey untied his other shoe and leaned back on the thin bench. "No shit." He couldn't help but smirk at Michael standing there, that piercing expression on his face and his lips pursed all menacing like. It didn't work.

"You fucking Maria and your back home tart now?" Michael inched closer and Pacey sat completely still, his blood rushing inside his veins and his muscles tightening beneath his skin. "Whose teeth were these?"

Alex got to his feet.

"Come on, this is stupid... You two are not going to get in a fight in the locker room. Get over it, Michael. And Pacey, enough territory pissing. Jeez." He pulled his gym tank on and pushed past them both towards the door.

Pacey kept his eyes locked with Michael's, neither boy willing to back off first. You couldn't see through the cloud of tension between them. Michael's fists balled against his legs and Pacey finally unlocked his eyes.

"Enough, Guerin. Make a fucking move or let me get dressed. I'm not going to stand here and have a staring contest with you. You're a waste of my time." Pacey sat back down and put on his sneakers. "Come to think of it, seems like you're a waste of everybody's time. Certainly a waste of Maria's."

Pacey quirked his eyebrow in the other boy's direction, knowing full well that he was goading him, but feeling overly confident. Amazing what consistent screwing could do for a guy.

His body slammed into the locker and he felt his skin tear against a sharp edge of metal..

And then it was on. Pacey's fist connected with Michael's jaw, his other hand jerking out to clutch at his throat and push back at him and ward off the slightly bigger boys blows. He could feel Michael's anger pulse through them both and countered it with his own.

"Fuck. You." He felt another attack strike his face.

"What? Me too? You ain't got enough fucking going on, Witter?" Another punch landed across Pacey's face and he felt his eye begin to swell, his vision blurring on his left side. Michael was strong, but Pacey was faster. He pushed Guerin to the floor and landed another blow to his face. The cartilage of Michael's nose buckled under his fist as he smashed the knuckles of his other hand into Michael's cheekbone.

As Michael connected another blow to the pit of Pacey's stomach, two sets of arms pulled him away and he was vaguely aware of the crowd that had formed around them and the taste of his own blood running iron against his tongue. He didn't struggle any longer, the loud voice of their gym teacher yelling over the din of their classmates.

Three students held Michael back, his eyes blazing.

"Have you boys had enough?" The instructor released Pacey's arms and shoved him down onto the locker room bench. He walked over to Michael with a threatening look in his eyes. "Go to the dean's office, now!" Michael stared back at him defiantly and the boys holding him let go as he shrugged their hands off him. "Worthless..." He said, shaking his head.

"And you. Trying to prove yourself at the new school?" Pacey shook his head slowly and said nothing. "Get dressed and go to the dean's too. Make it fast, Witter. Nice hickeys, by the way."

Pacey said nothing watching Michael leave the locker room, boiling anger running through him.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Pacey? I mean, shit." Alex sat down next to him and handed him one of his shoes.

"He started it, man. You heard him. He's had it out for me since I got here and he hasn't let up once." Pacey sounded exasperated, his voice strained and his face beginning to swell badly.

"What did you expect? You're sleeping with his girlfriend. And then, to make matters worse, you come in to school with a world of hickeys and scratch marks on your back and change in front of the guy. You had to know he was going to get pissed." Alex looked down at him unsympathetically.

"Dude. She's not his girlfriend." It was the best he could come up with. His eye was throbbing and he was definitely going to look and feel like hell for a good amount of time. If he had any luck left, his nose wasn't broken. The last thing he needed was another broken nose. "Fuck."

"Whatever, Pacey. Is she your girlfriend?"

"I thought you were on my side here..."

"I'm on nobody's side, here. I'm on Maria's side, if I have to choose. I really don't want to have to choose. And I'm not going to say a damn thing about what I'm thinking now... just get out of here, man. Go to the dean, take your suspension, and forget about Michael Guerin. All right?"

Fuck, Alex knew how to make him feel guilty, as if he hadn't already felt guilty enough. It was probably written all over his face. Michael knew, Alex knew... He just needed to make sure that Maria didn't figure any of it out. Fuck.

* * * * *

Word got around this school fast. He hadn't been sitting in the dean's office for more than fifteen minutes, his entire body aching, when Maria and Max Evans each showed up.

Max looked at him crossly, but didn't say a word.

Maria started in immediately.

"Pacey, what were you thinking? Michael could have really hurt you. God..." She seemed concerned, but at the same time, she was definitely pissed. Her voice had raised a couple of octaves and her finger pointed at him admonishingly. "Look at you, you look like hell. What happened?"

"He doesn't look so hot himself." Probably not the best choice of words.

"Great, you're proud of yourself, then? You beat up my ex-boyfriend and now you're feeling pretty good? Jesus Christ, Pacey... You really don't know what you're getting yourself into with Michael. He could have really... He's--" Maria's face was red with anger, her words stilted.

"Enough, Maria." Max's tone was steady, his hand held her arm tight enough that her skin stood out in relief between his fingers.

"Pacey? What actually did happen here?" He looked over Pacey's shoulder through the slatted blinds of the office, speaking in that ridiculous voice of his. Dean Jacobson paced back and forth behind his desk, they could all hear his raised voice berating Michael.

"What are you, everyone's father? We got into an argument, that's it. I'm sure it's nothing you have to worry about." This was such bullshit. Pacey and Max hardly knew each other and he had to sit through him giving him shit too? Who did this guy think he was?

"You're wrong there. Whatever happened here, I am worried about. And Michael is my business. What were you arguing about?" Pacey looked briefly towards Maria, who was busy pacing herself.

"Max, this really is none of your business... This is between Michael and Pacey and I, you know this is about me." She razed her fingertips against Pacey's bruised cheekbone, but stared into the office at Michael.

This was so bad.

The dean swept his hand towards the door and Michael stood, leaving. As the door opened, Pacey stood himself. They met near the door, neither boy allowing the other passage. It really was a pissing contest.

"Witter, get in here! Sit down!" He looked back one more time towards Maria and the two boys, mouthing an apology to her. She nodded back.

The dean held a file in his hand and motioned for the chair before his desk, his face bright red. Pacey sat silently and tried not to meet his eyes, not wanting to act any more resistant than he already had at the door.

"Not your first fight on school grounds, I see." He said, looking over the pages in what was obviously Pacey's records from Capeside. "Two at your last school, is it?"

"There were extenuating circumstances around those, sir..." Pacey mumbled.

"Yes. There always are." He raised an eyebrow and made a skeptical face. "And what happened this time?"

"Nothing, sir. It was a mistake. I'm sorry." Pacey really didn't need another suspension on his record, it was going to be hard enough to get into a decent college considering his mediocre GPA and previous infractions. And this time, he really didn't have honor on his side like he had when he'd had it out with Matt Caufield over the defacement of Joey's mural at Capeside.

"Sorry just doesn't cut it here, Witter."

"I know, sir. I don't know what got into either of us." There was no excuses for this fight, he certainly couldn't turn around and tell him that they were fighting over a girl, although the dean had to know that that was precisely what most teenagers fought about.

"Pacey, I'm going to give you the same punishment that I gave Michael Guerin, three days suspension. And I want to meet with your parents." He noted something in Pacey's paperwork. "You should be ashamed of yourself, the son of the sheriff should not behave this way."

Fuck. He hadn't thought about the school bringing his father into things. They never really had back home. Maybe he could swing it so only his mother came in? John Witter would be beyond livid, they were doing so well staying out of each other's hair since the move to New Mexico. Pacey couldn't really remember the last time they'd even had a conversation.

"Mr. Jacobson, I realize I'm not in the position to make any deals here, but is it at all possible that we could leave my father out of this?" Pacey's tone was humble, his eyes pleading with the dean.

"I don't think so." He shook his head negatively.

"Please, sir. My father and I have a very tenuous relationship and it's been really hard for us since my brother was killed. I promise nothing like this will happen again and I'll do anything else that I can to make up for it. Please. My father doesn't need to know that I screwed up. Again." He really didn't. And Pacey didn't need the barrage of ego-biting arguments that inevitably ended with Pacey's being labeled "worthless piece of shit" and "embarrassment to the Witter name."

Letting Michael get to him had been such a bad idea. And it was getting worse by the minute. He glanced briefly behind him to see the outer office empty. Even Maria had taken off with Michael.

He would have to explain the bruises and black eye that he would inevitably have and he would have to deal with Maria being pissed. And he would have to explain all this shit to Joey, who would probably tease him mercilessly.

"Fine, Mr. Witter. But let me warn you now, and take this extremely seriously, if you so much as talk out of line in class, you will be here in my office again and we will have your family sitting beside you. There will not be a next time, am I making myself clear? You're dismissed for the day, and for the next three. We'll see you back in school on Monday. Make arrangements to have your schoolwork brought to you, you are not dismissed from your class work." The dean was standing, hands firm on the desk, leaning close to Pacey.

* * * * *

Maria waited for him by his locker, her face red with anger.

"Maria..."

"You're an ass, Pacey Witter." Her hands were on his hips and she looked as if she'd been crying.

"I know... I'm sorry. It was really lame and I shouldn't have let him prod me like that, I should have acted more like a man." He took her hands in his, his thumbs running over hers. "I'm really sorry."

"Are you sleeping with her?" Whoa. Maria spoke plainly, her eyes drilling into his, blindsiding him.

He wanted to be able to tell her the truth, but he knew that by admitting his dalliances of the previous evening, he would only ruin what was turning out to be a very good thing. So he lied, he couldn't help himself.

"We've slept together, Maria, before. But not now." He hoped that she would believe him. They'd only been seeing each other for a short time, but he liked her, he liked how they fit together and the way that they'd fallen into each other so perfectly. He liked how she made him feel. "We're friends, and that's it. We've been friends a long time."

"Why am I supposed to believe you?" She turned away from him, a little melodramatically, and he turned her back by her shoulders, folding his arms around her back.

"Because I really like you," He took his voice down to a husky whisper. "And I really like being with you." His lips went instinctively to her smooth throat peppered with the scent of sandalwood and he touched them to her gently. "I don't want to fuck things up between us, Maria." None of those words were lies, he meant every one.

"Michael can't afford this suspension, he's going to be in a lot of trouble." It figured that she'd be more concerned for Guerin than she would be for him. It made sense. Still, he didn't like it one bit and he could feel the jealousy spring up in him.

He let her unwind herself from his arms.

"He should have thought about that before he started in with me, Maria. I was just defending myself. Believe me, after he whacked me at the Crashdown yesterday, the last thing I wanted to do today was get into a fight with him. He started, he hit me first. I had no choice."

Maria backed from him slowly, her eyes wide.

"He hit you yesterday? You didn't say anything..." There was something different about her tone, it shook just slightly.

"In the kitchen, it was nothing." He brought his hands to her face and traced her cheekbones with the sides of his thumbs. "It happened really fast, I didn't even see him move, honestly. Then I was on the other side of the kitchen. I didn't want to make a big deal about it, though. It wasn't worth it then, and it shouldn't have been worth it today. I'm sorry, Maria..."

"We're you suspended, too?" The look still registered in her eyes, she looked frightened but trying to hide it. Pacey studied her face, trying to figure out what lurked behind it and coming up with nothing he could put his finger on. Maybe he was just starting to make things up.

"Yeah... I'm supposed to get out of here now."

"Come on, I'll take you home."

"I don't want you to get in trouble over me, babe. There's been enough bullshit today. I can make it myself." His fingers moved over her beautiful lips, sticky with pale peach lip gloss.

"You don't even have your car, Remember? I want to get out of here myself, it's been a long enough day." She looked around them both, down the long hallway.

"Thanks for this, Maria." She smiled for the first time since he'd left her outside the locker room, brightening the empty school hallway.

"You owe me. In so many ways." She took him at his word, which only made him feel more guilty. But guilt goes away with time. "Come on."

Pacey took Maria's outstretched hand and swung his book bag over his other shoulder, they exited into the warm New Mexico air.