“Do you want the long or short version?” the voice asks. There’s an impression in Paige’s mind that they don’t really want to do the long version, but…
“Long..?” Paige mumbles aloud.
“In your head, Paige,” they remind.
“Oh,” Paige thinks. “Right.”
“There you go.” Paige can almost see a slight smile blossom in his mind’s eye, but it disappears as soon as a sigh rings in his head. “I guess we should start with basics, huh?” the voice chuckles a bit.
“That would be nice,” Paige nods.
“Okay.” Another sigh. “Well, hi. I’m Leaf,” they introduce.
“Um.” Paige thinks smartly. “Hi? I-I’m Paige?”
“I think I already knew that,” the voice—Leaf laughs. It’s a little weird having someone else laugh in his head.
“Oh.” Paige doesn’t know what else to say.
“Alright. Let’s see, then.” If Paige thinks hard enough, he can see Leaf holding a finger to his chin, though the whole image is a bit fuzzy. He doesn’t even know how he knows it’s Leaf, but he does. “I guess I start with who I am?”
“Sure,” Paige nods again. “It would… definitely help me understand what you’re… doing in my head?” He feels awkward as he says it, unsure. He doesn’t know what’s happening at all, let alone what Leaf really was. But if they were willing to explain…
“I’m… I guess the best way to explain it would be I’m part of you. A… different part. I’m someone you’re not, because you needed me during hard times when being you just wasn’t enough.”
“...Being me wasn’t enough…?” Paige echos. “What does that mean…?”
“...Let’s do it this way,” Leaf says. “How much do you remember about your dad?”
Immediately Paige frowns, body posture tightening. “I… I don’t want to think about him,” Paige replies, a bit shaky.
“You don’t have to,” Leaf soothes. “Just give me an estimate. A little? A lot?”
Paige is silent for a long moment, combing through his memories. All he gets is flashes of this and that, shouting, things shattering… but nothing concrete.
“...A little,” he finally says. “Why?”
“You have me to thank for that,” Leaf huffs with a smirk. Paige doesn’t know how he knows they’re smirking, but he does. “I remember those things. A whole lot more than you do. A whole lot clearer.”
“...Why?” Paige asks again, confused. “Why would you do that?”
Leaf shrugs. “It’s what I’m here for.”
+++
True to James’ word, Paige is discharged the next day. Thick bandages are still wrapped around his arm. He’s been instructed to sink bathe for the rest of the week, careful of his wrappings. Replace them on Thursday. Remove them on Saturday.
It’s all great and dandy, but Paige is barely listening to the doctor as he lists the instructions off. Instead, he’s stuck in his own head, face blank.
“There’s a lot of stuff I don’t remember a lot of the time,” Paige is saying. “Is that your fault too?”
“Ouch,” Leaf chuckles. “My fault huh?”
Paige jolts a bit. “No, no! I-I didn’t mean it like that! I—”
“Paige?” Quinn pouts, laying a hand on their child’s. “Are you cold, sweetie?”
“I-I…” Paige stutters, unprepared to be pulled back into the real world.
“Repeat.” Leaf instructs. “I’m just a little chilly.”
“I-I’m just a little chilly!” Paige echos. “It’s always a couple degrees too low in hospitals, y’know? Haha…!”
“You’re bombing.”
“You’re the one who told me to say that!”
“Not that last part.”
“You are really not helping your case here,” Paige groans.
“I’ll win it in the end,” Leaf smirks, crossing their arms. They’re… floating? How are they—
“How are you floating.” Paige says more than asks, dumbfounded. “How can I even see you floating?”
“Beats me,” Leaf shrugs. “But it’s cool, isn’t it?”
“...It is,” Paige admits.
“Don’t worry,” Quinn smiles. “We’ll be leaving in a second.”
“Okay!” Paige smiles awkwardly. He absently twiddles his fingers. “I really want to go home.”
“Oh, you guys can leave now, actually,” James smiles. “I’ve told you all the things you need to do, so you’re free to go.” He looks at Paige. “Just make sure you get a lot of rest, alright?”
“Alright,” Paige nods. “I will.”
“C’mon, sweetie,” Quinn says, standing and holding a hand out. “Let’s get you home.”
+++
Paige is quiet on the way home, pensive. He’s now extremely aware of the person hitching a ride with him. It doesn’t make him… uncomfortable, per say. Just…
“It’s not something you expected,” Leaf supplies.
Paige jolts. “Ah!” He shakes his head. “You have gotta give me some sort of warning before you talk! It’s not exactly easy to get used to this, you know!”
“Excuse me for trying to help,” Leaf huffs, rolling their eyes. “But I don’t know how you expect me to warn you.”
“Um…” Paige thinks. “I… don’t know either,” he admits after a moment.
“You’ll just have to get used to it I guess,” Leaf says.
“I guess.”
“Paige?” Quinn asks.
“Huh?” he blinks, coming back into reality.
“You’re quiet. Everything okay?”
“Um…”
“Just tired,” Leaf says.
“Yeah… I’m just tired,” Paige repeats diligently.
“That’s understandable,” Quinn pouts. “You went through quite a lot these past couple of days!”
“Yeah…” Paige mumbles. He neglects to mention he doesn’t remember the majority of it.
They pass by the Aguja household, almost home. It pulls at something inside of Paige, and he asks, “Can Brandon come over?”
“Of course,” Quinn answers. “I’m sure he really wants to see you.”
Paige is escorted to his room by his mom and put to bed once they get home. He’s not tired, quite the opposite actually, but he doesn’t really feel like sitting up right now either.
“I’ll let Brandon know he can come over, okay?” Quinn smiles a bit pensively. “I’ll just send him up when he gets here.”
“Okay,” Paige mumbles. “Thanks.”
“No problem, sweetie.” And with that, Quinn is gone.
Left alone with his thoughts, Paige lets his mind wander. What was he supposed to do with himself, knowing that he seemingly knows nothing?
“That’s not true,” Leaf says. “You know plenty.”
“That’s not what I mean,” Paige says aloud quietly. “I can’t remember anything for the past week, Leaf.”
“Eh,” the other shrugs. “You ain’t miss much.”
“But I missed it in the first place!” Paige cries. “I’m used to missing minutes, even a couple of hours, but a week? I’m—I’m freaking out!”
“Okay.” Leaf sighs. “I’ll ask this time.”
“Ask what?” Paige breathes, trying to control his outburst.
“Do you want me to take over for a minute so you can calm down?”
“I…” Paige starts, petering off. Instead, he starts a new sentence shortly after. “You can just do that?”
“How do you think you came to in the middle of a conversation earlier?”
“...”
“I don’t have to,” Leaf supplies. “I just thought—”
There’s a knock at the door. “Paige?” It’s Brandon. “Can I come in?”
“Yeah!” Paige calls. Slowly the door opens, revealing the hooded form of his best friend. He has on his red comfort hoodie. His hands are stuffed into the pockets and he doesn’t look directly at Paige.
This is a bit worrisome.
“Hey man,” he waves, “You uh… you feel alright?”
“Brandon…” Paige frowns. “Are you alright?”
Brandon blinks and looks at Paige in honest now. “Me?” he asks, incredulous. “Bro, you just had a blood transfusion. After getting clawed by that baddie from school. Which you apparently don’t remember,” he lists off. “I think I come second in this line of questioning right now.”
“Oh,” Paige says lamely. “That’s… that’s fair, I guess.”
“It is,” Brandon nods. His hood falls off with the motion. “Now, like I asked earlier, you feel okay?”
“I… I guess,” Paige sighs. “Honestly, the transfusion stuff isn’t even what’s bothering me the most right now.”
“What could be occupying casa de Paige more than his hospital visit?” Brandon quips, making the air feel a bit more familiar.
Time to throw it away again.
“I… um…” Paige tries, shaking his head. He grasps Teds tightly in his hands. “Do you… do you ever have people speak to you in your head?”
“Huh?” Brandon asks at the same time Leaf goes, “What.”
“What?” Paige thinks back. “I can’t not tell Brandon about you! He’s practically my brother!”
“I just… don’t think it’s the best idea,” Leaf mumbles. “Not right now, at least.”
“Why?”
“Look.”
Paige blinks back into reality. In front of him still stands Brandon, but he’s going on quite the face journey. Finally, his expression settles on pure confusion.
“I…” he starts, looking Paige up and down. “Are you messing with me right now?”
“What?” Paige breathes, disbelieving.
“You’re messing with me,” Brandon repeats. “O-or you’re still getting those meds out of your system or something, right?”
“Brandon,” Paige frowns sadly, “I’m being serious. There’s someone else in here. The week I don’t remember? They do. The person you were hanging out with? That was them taking over for me.”
Brandon frowns now, looking away again. “You’re talking nonsense,” he insists. “Voices can’t…” he starts, only to stop and shake his head. “You’re talking nonsense,” he repeats.
“Brandon…” Paige warbles.
“I’ll come back when you can think straight,” Brandon says, turning around suddenly. “Bye.”
“Brandon, wait!” Paige cries out, holding a hand out.
But Brandon doesn’t listen. He hikes his hood back up and leaves, gently closing the door behind him.
“...That’s why,” Leaf sighs.
“But…” Paige mumbles. “Why didn’t he…?”
“Believe you?” Leaf supplies. Paige simply nods. “I don’t know. But something told me he wouldn’t take the news lightly.”
“Did you say something bad to him!?” Paige suddenly cries, scared. Had Leaf irreparably ruined his and Brandon’s relationship while he was out?
“Calm down,” Leaf says, rolling their eyes. “I barely talked to him.”
“Oh,” Paige sighs. “Good. But then… nothing else I can think of explains his reaction…”
“Imagine being in his shoes right now,” Leaf shrugs. “It’s a lot.”
“It’s a lot for me too!” Paige shouts shakily. Then, holding himself, he repeats it a lot quieter. “It’s a lot for me too…”
“...We’ll talk to him again soon,” Leaf promises. “Maybe you both just need some time to process things for right now.”
“...Yeah,” Paige says blandly. “Maybe.”
“Lay back down,” Leaf instructs. “Get some shuteye. We’ll try again tomorrow, okay?”
“...Okay.”
Paige wakes up the next day groggy, eyes sticking together.
He’d had a horrible night. Dream after dream of him and Brandon falling out, each worse than the last.
“Br’ndon…” Paige mumbles, feeling for his phone. “G’tta call Br’ndon…”
“How’s about you wake up first?” Leaf offers. “So you can actually say things?”
“D’n’t be mean t’ me…” Paige yawns, rubbing his eyes. “I c’n…” He clears his throat. “I can talk just fine.”
“What time is it even?” Leaf asks. “He might still be in school.”
“Lemme check…” Paige says, finally getting his phone. “It’s 4.”
“Ah. He should be home then.”
“Yeah,” Paige nods. “Let’s call him.”
“Hold on,” Leaf says, stopping Paige right before he can hit the call button.
“Huh?” Paige blinks. “How did you…?”
“Don’t worry about it right now,” Leaf says, shaking his head. “Before you call, do you even know what you’re gonna say?”
“Well, honestly? I was gonna see if he wanted to talk to you so we could prove we were telling the truth…”
“Without telling me first!?”
“Sorry! I—I thought you’d be fine with it!” Paige defends. “Besides, you’re kind of the reason I’m in this mess. I think you can apologize for it at least.”
“Ugh. I didn’t even say anything.”
“That’s the issue!” Paige stresses, pressing down on Brandon’s number. “Now, we’re calling Brandon and you’re gonna say sorry, okay?”
“...”
“Okay?” Paige stresses.
“Okay!” Leaf huffs, holding up his hands and rolling his eyes. “Okay.”
The two sit in silence now, watching the phone ring. And ring. And ring. Until—
“Heyo! Iiiiit’s Brandon!” crackles from the receiver. “I’m supes busy right now, so—”
Paige groans and hangs up. “Great,” he laments. “Now he won’t even answer my calls.”
“....Maybe he just missed it?” Leaf offers weakly. “Try again.”
So, he does. And again, “Heyo! Iiiiit’s Bra—”
Click!
“...Maybe he missed that one too?” Leaf actually sounds a bit worried. “One more time. C’mon.”
Paige isn’t very hopeful when he tries again. In fact, when the receiver starts suddenly reciting the voice message again, way before it should, Paige is about ready to throw his phone at the wall.
Instead, he drops it, despair filling him.
“He doesn’t want to talk to me!” Paige wails. “You messed it all up!”
“I didn’t do shit!” Leaf defends.
“I know!” Paige shouts. “That’s the problem!”
“Look, I’m not happy Brandon’s not picking up either, you know!” Leaf huffs. “Believe it or not, I know he’s like a brother to you, ‘cause he’s like one to me too!” Leaf gives the feeling of looking away. “I care about him too.”
Paige is quiet for a moment. Then, quietly, he mumbles, “...It’s okay.” He sighs. “Let’s see if we can think of some other way to talk to him.”
Paige absently picks up his phone and clicks it off of its current display, navigating to his contact list. “Is there anyone else we can ask for help?”
“You plan on telling someone else about me?” Leaf asks, a scoff in his voice. “Look how well that’s gone so far.”
“What else am I supposed to do?” Paige asks the open air. “Brandon won’t even pick up his phone for me, Leaf! I have to talk to someone to get help!”
Leaf is quiet. He’s giving off steaming vibes, but Paige simply sends them right back. He could be angry too.
Finally, after what feels like an anger battle for Who’s Most Angriest, Leaf sighs. “Let’s call Bro,” he says. “Isn’t Brandon like, always with him?”
“Oh!” Paige gasps happily, moving to Bro’s contact with one hand and gently slapping his head with the other. “Bro! Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?”
“For your sake I won’t answer that,” Leaf chuckles.
“Oh, shut your mouth,” Paige huffs back, tapping on Bro’s number.
There’s a tense moment where the phone rings, waiting to be picked up. And, just as Paige is about to give up—”H-ello?”
“Bro?” Paige asks, perking up. “You picked up!”
“Y-eah, man,” Bro chuckles. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“Well…” Paige pouts. “I thought maybe… If I thought to call you for help, maybe Brandon had beaten me to the punch…”
“Brandy?” Bro asks. “Wh-what’s Br-andy gotta do w-with th-at?”
“Um,” Paige says.
“Nice going, dummy,” Leaf groans, fac palming. “You’ve backed yourself into the ‘I hear voices!’ corner again.”
“Oh, be quiet!” Paige huffs.
“Huh?” Bro gasps. “Wh-wh-wh—”
“No!” Paige gasps back. “Not—not you, Bro! I was talking to Leaf!”
“L-eaf?”
Paige’s face blanches. “Um!” he panics. “Um!!”
“P-aige?” Bro asks, sounding a bit worried. “Y-ou good?”
“Leaf… Leaf is…”
“Help!” Paige thinks.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know! Talk—talk for me!”
“I—”
“Paige?” Bro asks again. “Dude, a-re you okay?”
“Great!” Leaf squeaks, talking for Paige. “I’m fine!”
“I don’t sound like that…” Paige pouts.
“I’m doing my best!” Leaf huffs back.
“Y-you sound weird…” Bro mumbles.
With a clearing of his throat, Leaf laughs and turns his voice an octave lower, closer to Paige’s voice. “Sorry! Something… something was stuck in my throat!”
“Okay…” Bro says, sounding unconvinced. “W-ell, what’s up? Y-you s-aid this had somethi-ng to do with B-Brandy?”
“Yeah! We—I need your help with that,” Leaf says. “I… think I made Brandon mad and now he won’t answer my calls.”
“What?” Bro gasps. “N-no way. You two are fighting?”
“I wouldn’t call it much of a fight…” Leaf sighs. “But yeah, he won’t pick up.”
“Do y-ou know why?” Bro asks. “L-like did you s-say something to h-im that he mi-ght’ve taken th-e wrong way?”
“Um…” Leaf mumbles pensively. “Something like that.”
“Can you… t-ell me what it is?”
“Ummm…” Leaf hums. “I… Well you see… I… Um!”
“You’re bombing,” Paige deadpans.
“You do it then, smart for brains!”
“Wh—” Paige starts, only to finish out loud, “—At?”
“What?” Bro asks. “Are y-ou breaking up?” There’s a noise from the other end of the receiver. “M-might be me.”
“Oh, um!” Paige shakes his head. “I—no, um…” He’s got no options. He’s just gotta suck it up and tell Bro. “What I told Brandon was kind of… a lot,” he stresses.
“Hit me,” Bro insists.
“Okay… well, I’ll just say it to you how I said it to him.” Paige takes a deep breath. “Do you… ever hear voices talk to you? Like, in your head?”
“Oh yeah,” Bro replies unceremoniously, only to then immediately go, “I—I mean—”
Paige, however, isn’t hearing Bro anymore. “You do!?” he shouts into the receiver. “Then I’m not just going crazy or anything? Other people can hear people in their head too?”
“I… I-I-I…” Bro stutters, worse than normal. Then, a sigh. “Yeah. They can.”
Paige blinks. All of a sudden, Bro’s tone had taken on a different tone, no longer mumbling or stuttering.
“Bro?” he asks, furrowing his brows.
“Alex,” the other person introduces. “I guess there’s no need to hide it if you get it anyways.”
“Get it?” Paige repeats, confused. “Get what?”
“The voices,” Bro… Alex says. “I happen to be one of them that Bro can hear.”
“Oh!” Paige gasps. “Really?”
“Really.”
“Woah…” Paige breathes. “Oh! Does… does that mean you can help me?”
“Of course, buddy!” Alex(?) says. Their voice is a little higher suddenly. “I’m Maxine by the way!”
“There’s two of you?” Paige gasps.
“Three, actually,” Maxine(?) chuckles. his voice is a bit lower, but not as low as Bro’s. “Patty,” she introduces.
“H-hi!” Paige greets, a little overwhelmed. Three other people in your head… Paige thinks, worried for Bro. That can’t be easy…
“It’s hard enough with just us two,” Leaf comments. “Four of them in total must be a clusterfuck sometimes.”
“Yeah…”
“So,” Patty continues, “What’re we supposed to do to help you and Bran-Bran make up?”
“Um…” Paige thinks about it. “I don’t know…”
“I have an idea,” Leaf says outloud. Patty doesn’t comment on the sudden lower voice or the sudden change of heart.
“Yeah?” she asks instead.
“You could talk some sense into him,” Leaf offers. “You two are thick as thieves, ain’t you?”
“W-we are,” Bro says. “I can s-see what I c-an do for y-you, b-ut I don’t—I don’t kn-ow if it’ll do anything.”
“I guess that’s all we can ask for,” Leaf sighs.
“Sh-sh-should I… call him now?”
“Please!” Paige yelps. “I can’t stand knowing he thinks I was lying to him!”
“Al-alright,” Bro says. “I’ll—I’ll talk to him. Call—call you back w-when I’m done?”
“Please,” Paige begs. “And—and thank you!”
“No—no prob,” Bro says. And with that, the line goes dead.
Paige falls back onto his pillow, exhausted and with a slight headache.
“Ugh…” he groans.
“Sorry,” Leaf apologizes. “Probably my fault for popping in so much.”
“‘Sokay,” Paige mumbles. “I’ll be fine. I just… I just hope Bro can help us out.”
“Yeah,” Leaf sighs. “Me too.”
Paige wakes up around 12. His phone is ringing.
He reaches out and grabs it, rubbing his eyes before reading the caller ID.
It was Brandon!
Paige scrambles to answer. “Hello!?” he shouts. “Brandon?”
“Hey man,” Brandon greets. He sounds… sad? “Um… can I come over? I wanna talk.”
“Of course!” Paige says immediately.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Leaf asks.
“YES,” Paige thinks back. “I am not about to stop Brandon from visiting after last night! Maybe he’ll actually want to talk to me and I can fix everything!”
“...Maybe.”
“Cool,” Brandon says. “I’ll be over in a bit, okay?” And with that, the line goes dead.
+++
Paige waits downstairs on the couch, staring at the door. When it finally clicks and opens, Paige jumps up.
“Hey,” Brandon waves, shuffling in. “Hope I didn’t take too long.”
“No way!” Paige smiles hopefully. “I… I’m happy you came at all!”
“Yeah. About that,” Brandon says, looking away and rubbing the back of his neck. “I… I came to apologize for yesterday.”
“Does that mean you believe me now?” Paige gasps. “A-about the person in my head? About Leaf?”
“Is that their name?” Brandon asks. “The one who you swapped with? Leaf?”
Paige nods, eyes watery. “Oh my gosh, Brandon. I’m so happy.” He sniffs. “I thought I had messed up our relationship forever…”
“What?” Brandon gasps. “Dude, no, don’t cry.” He sits next to Paige on the couch and gives him a side hug. “It was my fault. I’m the one who didn’t believe you.” He squeezes Paige’s shoulder. “It was a misunderstanding, dude. And I am so sorry about it.” He pulls away to look Paige in the eye. “I’ll listen to whatever you gotta say about this from now on, okay? Trust.”
“Trust,” Paige smiles. “So, would you like to meet Leaf properly? There’s something they want to say to you.”
“What.”
“You’ve gotta say sorry!” Paige insists.
“Oh my god. Fine. Whatever.”
“Yeah,” Brandon says. “I’d love to hear whatever they’ve got to say.”
Paige nods and then promptly checks out of reality, moving out of the driver’s seat. “Go on,” he motions, looking at Leaf. “Your turn.”
Leaf groans but complies, blinking into reality. “Um,” he says in his voice. “Hi.”
“You’re Leaf I guess, right?”
“Yeah,” the other answers. “That’s me.” He sighs. “I’m sorry. About blowing you off for a week. I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s…” Brandon murmurs, one cheek filled with air. “It’s… alright.”
Leaf sighs. “Look, I know you’re probably really upset at me right now. ‘Cause you think some stranger you don’t know took over for your best friend for a week and busted shit up.”
“Don’t swear!”
Leaf suppresses the want to roll their eyes. “I understand how that’s… a lot to take in at once.” They look off to the side and grab their arm with one hand. “But… you do know me. Better than you probably think.”
“What do you mean?” Brandon asks, looking genuinely interested. It makes Leaf’s heart lighten just a bit.
“Well, you see…”
Leaf explains about when the three of them were young, Leaf and Paige would switch out a lot. There were times when Leaf was there that Brandon would be none the wiser, even if someone could straight up tell him. About how when Paige got mean all of a sudden, that was them, not Paige. About how Paige could seemingly go from looking like he was about to fall asleep to being full of energy. That was the two of them swapping with one another.
Leaf even tells Brandon about the fight.
“Did they ever talk about my awesome final hit?” they smirk. “It was an uppercut.”
“An…” Brandon’s eyes widen. “No way. There’s no way… you couldn’t have used Bad Brandon’s signature uppercut.” He shakes his head. “No way.”
“Yes way,” Leaf nods. “I could never forget that. You saved us so many times with that move.”
Brandon is quiet for a long time after that, gears in his head almost visibly turning.
“...I really do know you,” he says finally, “I remember like, all those times you mentioned. And… and you know about Bad Brandon.” His face contorts. “God damnit. I’m… I’m so sorry for freaking out so badly yesterday.”
“Eh,” Leaf shrugs. “I can’t say I really understand why you immediately jumped to conclusions, but I can understand the actions.”
Brandon bites his lip. “I… I thought you were making fun of me.”
“Making fun of you?” Paige pushes in, voice returning to its natural tone. “Brandon, why would we be making fun of you?”
Brandon sighs. “How do I look as an older brother telling you about all my issues, huh?” he chuckles a bit.
“Like someone who trusts me to help?” Paige pouts. “Brandon, I tell you everything. It… honestly makes me a little upset that there’s something wrong with you and I haven’t heard about it yet.”
“Oh…” Brandon breathes. “I… I hadn’t thought about it like that.”
“Well?” Paige prods, bumping into Brandon. “What’s eating you? You can tell me anything, Brandon. You know that.”
“Yeah…” Brandon smiles a small smile. “I guess I do, huh?” He leans against Paige with a heavy sigh. “You can’t freak out when I tell you this, okay?”
“Okay,” Paige nods. “Go on.”
“Paige…” Brandon mumbles. “Have you ever wanted to kill yourself?”
“...What?” Paige asks, cold fear shooting through him. He turns towards Brandon, grabbing its shoulders and shaking it a bit. “Brandon? What did you just say?”
“You promised you wouldn’t freak outtt,” Brandon pouts. “Really, it’s not that big a deal.”
“Brandon, you just told me you feel like… you feel like…” Paige is so upset. He shakes his head. “You just told me what you told me! That’s a really big deal!”
“I never do anything about it,” Brandon says flatly. “So it’s fine as long as I stay alive, isn’t it?”
“It’s not!” Paige wails. He pushes into the other, holding him tight. “Brandon, that’s not okay at all! Not at all!”
Brandon slumps into the touch, sighing. “See?” it mumbles. “I knew there was no way you’d ever feel the same. You’re way too good a person for something like that.” It grows more limp. “I’m the bad one. I’m Bad Brandon. I’m—”
“My brother!” Paige cries, holding even tighter. “You’re my brother and my best friend and I don’t want to hear you say one more bad thing about yourself!”
Brandon quiets immediately. It’s like that for a moment, just quiet, and then slowly it brings its arms up and hugs Paige back.
The two of them sit there for a long time, just holding one another. It’s silent.
That is, until Brandon starts sniffling.
Paige pulls back a bit, only to be pulled back in, hug now crushing him a bit.
“I’m-I’m-I’m sorry,” Brandon cries. “I didn’t—I didn’t wanna—I thought you’d think I was crazy if I told you and you were making fun of me because you found out on your own somehow and that you’d hate me and—and—”
“I could never hate you Brandon! Ever!”
Brandon shakes its head. “I thought—when you said y-you heard voices, I didn’t—You’re so good. A-and the thought that you—you could feel like I do sometimes… it was too much.”
Paige sighs. “I should have explained better…”
“I should’ve listened to you!” Brandon says, sounding upset with itself. “I should’ve stood there and made sure you were okay and listened and—and—” Its tears have grown angry as it pulls back and rubs furiously at its face with its arm. “I shouldn’t have made it about me!”
Paige can’t think of a response, utterly speechless.
“Let me see if I can do something,” Leaf thinks at Paige.
“Like what?”
“...You won’t say yes if I tell you,” Leaf frowns. “But trust me, I think it’ll help.”
“...Okay.”
Leaf slips into the front seat and carefully reaches out for Brandon. “Hey,” they mumble. “It’s… It’s okay, man.”
Brandon doesn’t respond, staring down at its lap.
Leaf sighs. “Look, it’s Leaf.” That causes Brandon to glance up at least. “Yeah, hi. Me again.”
Brandon blinks slowly, clearly trying to fight back more tears.
“I…” Leaf bites his lip.
“Don’t freak out,” Leaf thinks.
“Huh?” Paige blinks, confused.
“Just trust me.”
“Um,” Leaf starts awkwardly. “You’re okay. I know what you’re going through.”
“What?” Brandon asks, sounding scared at the same time Paige thinks, “What?” in the same tone.
“Paige and me… we may share the same body but we don’t share the same emotions on everything.” Leaf explains. “I can’t stand some of the stuff Paige likes sometimes, but he doesn’t like the fact that I swear or fight.” They look off to the side. “I’m sure now that he’s hearing this, he doesn’t like knowing I’ve wanted to kill myself before either.”
“Why?” Brandon asks.
“You remember Mack?” Leaf chuckles humorlessly.
“Oh,” Brandon breathes. “...Yeah. I guess that makes a lot of sense, then.”
“Yeah,” Leaf agrees.
The two are silent for a long moment. Then—
“This is stupid,” Leaf groans, rolling his eyes.
“What?” Brandon laughs, caught off guard.
“This is stupid,” Leaf repeats. “Like, okay! We all said some wack shit! Misunderstandings were had! We both wanted to die!” Leaf lists off, sneering. “So what! Sitting here wallowing isn’t gonna help any of us right now.” They breathe deeply after their speech. “Why don’t we just, I don’t know, get over this?”
“Yeah?” Brandon chuckles. “You want us to just drive over this bump in the road and keep it moving? Like we didn’t just pour our souls out?”
“Yes!” Leaf laughs. “So we rolled over something! So what? We can feel bad about it for the rest of our lives, or we can accept that it happened, feel sad for a minute and then move on!”
“I don’t know if it’s that easy…” Paige mumbles.
Leaf ignores him, choosing to stare at Brandon instead. He holds a hand out. “C’mon. These feelings suck. Let’s do something else.”
Brandon looks down hard at Leaf’s hand for a couple of seconds. It seems to be thinking hard about the offer.
Then, he sighs and slaps the other’s hand with his own, grabbing the other’s curled fingers with his own at the end of the low five. “Alright, man. Let’s move on.”
+++
After washing up to get the rest of the tears out of their eyes, the three of them get some popcorn in the microwave. They now find themself with a huge bowl of the stuff between the two of them while they watch Finding Nemo on the TV. It was Paige’s favorite movie.
Paige snuggles up in one of the two blankets he brought from upstairs. He got one for Brandon as well. Paige’s was covered in decals of teddy bears. Brandon’s had several different My Little Pony characters plastered on it.
“Go back!” Paige shouts at the TV. “Nemooo! Go back!”
Brandon laughs at the other. “You’ve seen this movie how many times now?”
“37 and counting,” Paige smiles. “But it’s like I’m watching it for the first time every time!”
“You’re adorable,” Brandon teases.
“Oh, shut up!” Paige laughs, hitting him lightly with his fists..
Once the movie ends and Paige is crying crocodile tears, the two of them switch over to Toy Story 2. This one was Brandon’s favorite movie.
“Woody, no!” Brandon pleads. “You can’t leave Andy!”
Paige ribs Brandon. “Who’s adorable now?”
“Oh, shut up!” Brandon laughs back.
Finally, the three of them put on Ratatouille. This one? This one was Leaf’s favorite movie.
“Remy, Remy,” he mumbles. “You can’t leave the soup, Remy. You have to fix the soup, Remy. Remy.”
Brandon is fighting back laughter.
“I’ll destroy you with this pillow if you laugh at me right now,” Leaf threatens, but it’s all hot air.
Brandon ends up laughing anyways.
The TV browser puts on whatever random Disney movie it wants after Ratatouille ends, the three teenagers choosing to talk over it instead.
“I didn’t know Ratatat Tat was your favorite movie, Leaf,” Brandom smiles. “I just thought Paige had this random secret love of it in middle school.”
“Nope,” Leaf grins. “All me. I like animal movies.”
“That’s good to know,” Brandon nods. “You got any other likes I thought were Paige’s but were actually yours?”
“A couple.”
+++
When Leaf yawns awake, they’ve got a sunbeam in their eyes. They shield their face with a hand, making the person next to them groan awake as well.
“Ugh…” Brandon yawns. “What time is it…?”
“Morning,” Leaf grumbles. “We must’ve fallen asleep last night…”
“Yeah…”
“Oh!” says a voice from behind them. “You’re finally awake!”
The two of them turn to see Quinn’s bright face. “I was just coming to check on you!” she says.
“Hi Mom,” Leaf yawns, not trying to fix their voice. “Did we fall asleep watching TV?”
“You must have,” she laughs. “They two of you were knocked out when I got home. You looked so peaceful, and I know you two have been having a little spat for a while now, so I didn’t wanna bother you.” She smiles wide, clapping her hands together. “It’s so nice to see you two doing something together again. Min and I were starting to worry!”
“Aw, we’re alright Auntie Quinn,” Brandon assures. “We hugged and made up last night.”
“Oh, I’m so glad,” Quinn says, going around the couch and grabbing them both by the arm. “Now up! You two have quite the mess to clean up!”
Leaf looks down as he’s pulled up. It’s true, they did make quite a mess. The remains of their popcorn and bowl lay upturned on the floor. The wrappers from the candies they ended up sneaking in are scattered everywhere too. And they had snuck in a lot of candy.
Leaf sucks his teeth. “Damn. We should’ve put the bowl on the table…”
“Paige?” Quinn blinks. “Did you just swear?”
“Um.” Leaf says smartly. “I, uh…”
“Oh, don’t get all scared,” Quinn laughs, ribbing her son. “You know I don’t care about that sort of thing.”
Oh thank god, Leaf thinks to himself.
“It just surprised me, is all,” Quinn continued. “I never hear you swear!”
“Heh heh…” Leaf chuckles awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Guess I’m just growing up a little more.”
“Heehee, I guess,” Quinn teases. “Hurry up and clean though, sweeties. Or your breakfast’ll get cold.”
“Breakfast?” Brandon asks, bent over with a handful of wrappers. “What did you make?”
“Pancakes!” Quinn smiles.
“Hell yeah!” Leaf cheers, no longer afraid to speak naturally. The other two just laugh freely at them.
At some point between cleaning and eating, Paige had woken up and taken over.
“Oh, I can take these bandages off today, can’t I Mom?”
“Oh! You can!” she smiles. “Here, I’ll go get the scissors.” She excuses herself to grab them.
“If your arm’s all better, does that mean you can go to school on Monday?” Brandon asks, mouth full of pancake.
“I guess so,” Paige says, finger to his chin. “I missed the tests on Friday so I’ll have to make them up then…”
Brandon chokes a bit. “WE HAD TESTS ON FRIDAY?” he gasps.
“Looks like we’ll both be in the doghouse, huh?” Paige laughs.
“I’m back!” Quinn announces, scissors in hand. “Hold out your arm, sweetie.”
Taking off the bandages turns out to be an unceremonious thing. They come off without trouble and when Paige moves his arm around, he feels fine.
“I think I’m better!” he smiles, throwing up a peace sign.
“Wonderful!” Quinn claps at the same time Brandon goes, “Awesome, dude!”
The rest of breakfast is a lot quieter, everyone more or less in their own heads as they eat.
“Do we have to tell Mom?” Paige thinks. “Do you think she’d freak out like Brandon did?”
“I don’t know,” Leaf sighs. “Both Bro and Brandon already know. Maybe it’s best we keep that number of people low.”
“If you think so…” Paige mumbles back.
Quinn finishes before the other two. “Too slow!” she smiles. “Last one’s gotta clean the dishes!” She stands and power walks to the sink, placing her plate in first. “Heehee! Looks like Mama’s won!”
“We’re not even done yet, Auntie Quinn!” Brandon pouts.
Quinn chuckles. “Oh, I’m just playing around. I’ll clean them when I get back if you want.”
“Get back?” Paige asks after swallowing a bite. “Where are you going?”
“Welll…” Quinn smiles wryly, “Not to name names, but some little devils raided the pantry last night.”
The two teens look away immediately, both blushing.
Quinn laughs. “Oh, don’t worry. Yesterday was important to you two. I’ll let it slide this time.” She moves over to the two of them and gives both of them a kiss on the forehead. “You two stick around while I’m gone, will you? I might have a surprise for you if you do!”
“A surprise?” Brandon gasps. “Does doing the dishes raise the probability of getting that surprise?”
Quinn blinks. And then, “Yes!” she claps. “That was absolutely my idea from the start! Yep!”
Paige laughs. “We’ll do the dishes, Mom. Don’t worry about it.”
“Aww, my sweet book of Paiges,” she coos. “Thanks sweetie! I’ll be back!” She waves and then is off.
Once the door opens and closes, Paige looks back over at Brandon.
“Hey, Brandon…” he starts, a bit shy.
“Yeah man?” Brandon asks after finishing his last pancake.
“Do you think you could… stick with me on Monday?” He looks away for a second. “I’m… I’m a little afraid about what it might be like when I get back. The last thing I did was fight a kid apparently, so…”
“They’re the one who broke Kevin’s leg!” Leaf sys angrily.
“Huh!?” Paige gasps.
“What?” Brandon blinks. “Did Leaf say something?”
“The kid they fought! They were the one who broke Kevin’s leg!”
“Ohh…” Brandon breathes. “That adds up a bit better.”
“What do you mean?” Paige asks.
“Well, Leaf doesn’t seem like the type of person to just attack someone for no reason.”
“Appreciate it,” Leaf smirks.
“You do seem like the type to do it out of a sense of justice, though,” Brandon adds.
Leaf pouts, but doesn’t fight the accusation.
“It makes more sense as to why that set you off. You and Kevin used to be super close.”
“Yeah…” Leaf sighs. “It was just so sudden. It scared Paige so much that he kind of pulled back so much for the first time in a while. And I was able to fill the spot for the first time in forever.”
“I see…” Brandon nods. “Well, just reason or not, people are gonna probably try and bombard you with questions on Monday.” He throws up a peace sign. “So yeah, I’ll stick with you for as much as I can! Bet!”
Leaf smirks. “Bet.”
On Monday, Paige has the first normal day he's had in quite some time.
For almost the entirety of yesterday, Leaf spent time in the driver’s seat. Them and Brandon had decided to get to know each other a little better, so Paige mostly slept.
But now Paige was ready to be here and present.
Him and Brandon rode to school together, having a great time to boot. One time after a really hard laugh, he catches his mom’s reflection in the rear view mirror. She’s smiling so wide it must hurt.
Paige mimics her, equally as happy.
“Have a good day, sweeties!” Quinn waves after they arrive at the school. “And good luck with your tests!”
“Thanks, Mom!” Paige says at the same time as Brandon says, “Thanks, Tía Quinn!”
She drives off shortly after, leaving the two teens to enter the building with the rest of the students.
They don’t get far into the school before they hear a, “Paige!” and the sound of running.
The two teens spin around, only for Paige to immediately be encased in a soft hug.
“Oh!” he smiles. “Hello, OJ!”
“Hello!” OJ smiles too, pulling back. “Sorry for the sudden hug, I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever!”
Paige laughs. “It has been a good minute!”
“It’s actually been about a week!” OJ corrects with a kind smile.
Paige doesn’t have it in him to explain what he meant, melting a little bit at how… OJ the other was.
“It has!” he laughs instead. “It’s really good to see you again.”
“Likewise!”
“Oh, dude,” Brandon says suddenly. “Your shoe’s untied.”
“Oh no!” Paige gasps. “Hold on, I’ll fix it right now.”
He bends down and sets to work. Above him though, he can see Brandon and OJ move closer together. It sounds like they’re saying something, but with all the racket in the hallway, it’s impossible to tell what they’re talking about. By the time Paige has stood back up, they’re back to their original positions.
“Were you two talking about something?” he asks, head tilted.
“No!” OJ says a little too quickly for it to be the truth. Brandon rolls his eyes.
“I was trying to see if he’d give me some pointers on the test.” he pouts. “But no dice. Right, OJ?” he asks, ribbing the other.
“Um!” OJ starts, stiff. “Y-yes! That’s exactly what we were talking about!”
Paige hums. “It’s probably best we don’t cheat anyways,” he says sagely.
“Maybe for you, buddy,” Brandon laughs. “But for me? Oh boy, I could use any help I can get.”
“And you won’t be getting it from me!” OJ giggles. “Ah, but the bell should be ringing soon. I’ll see you all a bit later, yes?”
“Yep!” Paige smiles. “I think we only get about 2 hours to finish…”
“We get about 3, actually,” Brandon corrects. “Our IEP’s, remember?”
“Oh yeah!” Paige nods. “I still don’t know why I have one of those…”
“Eh, who cares?” Brandon shrugs. “More time, less problems, right?”
“I guess so!” Paige nods.
The bell rings.
“Oh, we gotta get to steppin’,” Brandon says, grabbing Paige’s hand. “See you, OJ. We’ll catch up later!”
“See you! Good luck with your tests!” OJ waves.
“Thanks!” both test takers wave back.
Off to the races, then!
+++
Paige walks into Algebra 2 still bogged down by test answers and leaves with a clearer mind. Math was always the same, always an easy pattern to spot, so it helped Paige calm down.
It’s lunchtime now, and Paige is honestly a little wary of entering the place.
“You’ll be fine,” Leaf assures, but it’s passive. “Just go in.”
“What if it’s not fine though?” Paige frets. “What if someone starts asking me questions? What if someone tries to fight me? What it—”
Paige is suddenly surprised by A Brotherly Pat On The Back attacking him. “Hey!” Brandon greets.
Paige coughs. “H-ey, Brandon.”
“You ready for lunch?”
Paige nods. …And then shakes his head. “No…” he mumbles. “I’m… I’m honestly kind of scared.”
“Psh!” Brandon laughs. “You’ve got nothing to worry about! Not when your mans is here for you!”
Paige laughs. “Yeah! You’re right!”
“Alright then!” Brandon grins. “Let’s go!” He pulls the both of them into the lunchroom, bursting through the doors with force.
Fortunately for the two of them, everyone else was too busy doing their own things to really notice or care.
“See?” Brandon says with a confident grin. “You’re fine!”
“I’m fine!” Paige repeats with a small laugh.
“Hell yeah! Now, let’s go get somethin’ to eat and chill with the Crew.”
“Yeah!”
The two do just that, lining up and collecting their lunches of tater tots and going to their table.
“H-ey,” Bro greets at the same time Sue says, “Hello you two.”
“Heyo!” Brandon smiles. “Good to see you here today, Sue.”
“Oh?” they hum, eyebrow raising. “And why are we so nice today?”
“Can’t a guy just be happy to see his friend?” Brandon pouts, sitting down along with Paige.
“I suppose,” Sue shrugs. “But I’m watching you, Aguja.”
Paige laughs as Brandon scoffs and rolls his eyes. Same old Sue!
“Here,” Brandon says, ignoring his food in favor of his backpack for a bit. He rummages around until—”Aha!”
“Aha?” Bro asks for the whole table.
Brandon lifts back up with a neatly folded piece of paper in his hands. It’s a nice pastel orange. “Mail’s here!” Brandon grins.
“Ohmygosh!” Paige gasps, proceeding to choke on his tater tot a bit.
Brandon laughs and pats him on the back. “Don’t go dying on me, man! I’d never hear the end of it if he found out I was the reason behind The Death of Paige Woods!” Brandon holds his hands out like he’s reciting the name of a movie or something. It would be endearing if Paige wasn’t still currently coughing up a storm.
After a bit more light pounding of his chest and a gulp of 1% milk, Paige is finally able to accept and read the note from his secret admirer.
The note reads:
“Hello again, Paige! As tests are over, I thought it would be a good time to start writing to you again. I hope my absence has made your heart grow fonder! ♥
Here’s your fun fact of the day: did you know that when you look into your partner’s eyes, your heartbeat and breathing will sync up? It's called interpersonal synchronization. It sounds like something I’d love to try out with you!
(P.S.
I wanted to write something a bit more poetic, but I was afraid it’d come off as phony. Do you like poetry? Should I break out my best for you next time? Please let me know! ♥)”
Paige’s face is red when he finally finishes the note. The handwriting is noticeably higher quality now, like upgrading from scraps of paper and pencils to special sheets of paper and pen did some Cinderella type magic to it.
In fact… it seemed a little familiar…
“Good one today, huh buddy?” Brandon ribs, popping a tot in his mouth. It makes Paige lose his train of thought.
“Are you still reading through my mail?” Paige deadpans.
“You betcha!” Brandon says with a snot nosed grin.
Paige groans. Bro laughs. Sue tries to hold back a snicker, but they’re doing a horrible job of it.
Yep, Paige smiles. Everything’s back to normal. Thank goodness.
+++
When Paige gets home, he does his nightly routine before sitting down at his desk and getting to work. He does all his homework first, making sure it’s out of the way, before sighing and thinking about what he was going to say to his secret admirer after so long.
He grabs a pretty pen he likes (it writes in a nice pink color!) and a light blue and white striped piece of paper before writing down:
“I don’t know much about poetry, but I do like it a lot! I feel like I don’t really have it in me to make it, but I like reading them like they’re little songs. :) So yes, please lay anything you’ve got out on the table! I’m excited to see what you can make for little old me, heehee!
(P.S.
Speaking of music, do you have a favorite genre? I really like pop! Michael Jackson is one of my favorite artists! It’s hard to beat The King, you know!)”
There. Hopefully that was a good start to this whole thing again.
Paige slips the note into his bookbag before climbing into bed and holding Teds tightly, falling into a deep sleep soon after.
+++
Paige is ready to accept the new note on Tuesday, waiting for Brandon to pull it out, when suddenly something smacks him hard upside the back of his head.
“OW!” Paige shouts, turning around.
Oh.
It’s PB and his gang.
PB was one of the more ruthless bullies at Ingenious High, oftentimes bothering people for just existing. The Bro Crew rarely crossed paths with PB, so to see him now, after having been hit by him, was quite the surprise.
“Um…” Paige mumbles, scared.
“Hey!” Bro shouts as Brandon rights himself. “Wh-what do you think y-you’re doing?”
“Oh, look at Mr. Stutter over here,” PB laughs. Bro closes in on himself. “Sorry, but I’m not here for you today.” He looks down at Paige. “Nah, I’m here for this pipsqueak.”
“...Pipsqueak…?” Paige squeaks.
“What’s the big idea, ya big palooka?” Brandon yells, standing up and pushing PB back. Brandon’s short, but stocky. The push has more force than he probably wanted, forcing the other to trip over his own laces and fall flat on his butt. His friends didn’t even try to help.
“Oof!” he groans. “Ugh! What the fuck!?”
Brandon steps closer, looming over PB. “You think it’s funny to hit people for, what exactly?”
“For—help me up, you idiots!” PB spreads his arms out and his two cronies pull him up. He quickly snatches his arms away and dusts himself off. Now he’s the one looming over Brandon, but he doesn’t even flinch.
“I’m waiting for an answer,” Brandon frowns, hands on his hips. “‘Cause let me tell you, I’m not exactly a fan of people hurting my best friend for no good reason.” He pushes one sleeve up and closes his fist. “At all.”
“Brandon, don’t!” Paige wails. “It’s okay, really!”
“No it’s not, Paige!” Brandon says, sounding extremely upset. “I’m not about to stand by and watch you get hurt by some jerkass with issues!”
“Jerkass?” PB laughs. “Do you know who I am?”
“No,” Brandon shrugs. “And I don’t care.”
“Well, you’re gonna in a second!” PB assures, getting into Brandon’s face. “I’m your number one nightmare, fucker. I’m gonna be the last thing you think about at night and the first thing you never want to see again in the morning. I’m—”
“Peewee!” a voice breaks in.
Everyone blinks. Then, they turn to look at PB, and then the source of the voice.
It’s Lucy Lulu.
“...Peewee?” one of the goons repeats, only to get hit in the face by PB.
“Shut the fuck up!” he demands, pointing at Lucy afterwards. “And who the hell do you think you’re supposed to be?”
“I’m Lucy!” Lucy grins. “Lulu! Lucy Lulu! And you’re Peewee! Peewee Butter Amber Jones!”
PB flushes immediately and covers his face.
Brandon meanwhile, is laughing up a fit. “P—Peewee?” He looks out of breath. “Butter Amber? God damn, did your parents hate you! Haha!”
“Ugh!” PB groans. “What the fuck ever! Shu! Lacie! Let’s get the hell out of here.”
“On it Boss!” Shu says as Lacie nods and says, “You got it, Boss!”
In a flash the group of meanies is gone, each of them grumbling something under their breaths.
Brandon sighs once they’re completely gone, pulling his sleeve back down and slumping a bit. “Ugh. Thanks, Lucy.”
“No problem! Dunno what I did, but I’m always happy to help!” She smiles and rocks back and forth on the heels of her rainboots.
“Is there a reason you’re here, Lucy?” Sue asks as Brandon takes his seat again. “Not that you’re not welcome, it’s just I don’t see you around this part of the cafeteria much.”
Lucy beams. “Yeah, actually! I’ve been tasked with finding out about the hottest gossip in this school in ages!”
“A-and h-ow are we su-supposed to help w-with that?” Bro asks, unimpressed. “W-e don’t really d-do gossip.”
“Oh, that’s easy!” Lucy laughs. “You are the drama!”
“What.” all four members of the Bro Crew ask in unison.
“Haha yep!” Lucy moves over to Paige and wraps her entire arm around his neck. “Our little Paigey, head of the school’s newspaper!” She then mock whispers to him, “Nice to see you’re back, by the way!”
“Wh-huh?” Paige blinks.
“Oh, you know!” Lucy giggles. “When you went all ‘we don’t talk much do we?’ on me?”
“What?” Paige asks, completely confused. “What does that have to do with me being head of the newspaper or whatever?”
“Oh, thaaaaat,” Lucy chuckles. “Yeah, you’re being interviewed! Right now! By me!”
“Interviewed?” Brandon asks. “Why?”
“Duh!” Lucy smiles. “‘Cause Paige fought the scariest kid in the whole school—and won!”
“I—I won?” Paige blinks, pointing to himself. “What do you mean, I won?”
“Psh, don’t act like you don’t remember that slick uppercut!” Lucy laughs. “It was so cool! So mimicable!”
“Bad Brandon’s uppercut…” Brandon mumbles next to Paige, sounding very upset.
“But, that’s not why I’m here,” Lucy says, shaking her head. “Nope! Nuh uh!” She stuffs a hand in one of her hair puffs and pulls out… a microphone?
“Now, Paige!” she says, focusing on him. All of a sudden, the lights feel like they spotlight on Paige specifically. “Tell me! Tell the whole school! You’re a weak kinda guy, no offense.”
“Um…” Paige mumbles, wriggling nervously. “N-none taken…?”
Lucy nods. “Right, right. But you kicked butt last week! So, how’d ya do it?” She pushes the microphone closer to Paige’s face. “How’d ya beat The Yin Yang Cutter?”
“Th-th-the…?” Paige stutters. “I—”
Sue slams their hands on the table, standing up. Everyone’s attention is turned to them, blessedly leaving Paige time to catch his breath.
“I think Paige is a bit too tired to answer questions today,” they say with a flat tone and a stony face. “But you know who would be a great candidate to interview?”
“Who?” Lucy smiles.
“Nick A. Lass,” Sue smiles back. “I’m sure you’ll find him over in his corner with Barret.” They point over to a darker section of the cafeteria.
“Will he have info on the fight?” Lucy asks, putting a finger to her lip. “‘Cause I’m only tryin’ to get stuff about that…”
“I’m almost certain he will,” Sue says, shoulder twitching a bit. “And he loves to be interviewed, so you’ll have all the cooperation you need.”
“Oh, okay! Thanks, Sue!” And with that, she skips off towards the others.
A collective sigh breaks out over the remaining students. “What the hell was that…” Brandon grumbles.
“I wish I knew…” Paige pouts.
“N-nice s-save back there,” Bro says, giving Sue a thumbs up.
“No problem,” Sue shrugs. “There’s no stopping Lucy Lulu once she starts, so the next best thing is to divert her.”
“Do you think Nick will be okay with it?” Paige asks.
“Oh, trust me,” Sue says, rolling their eyes. “He’ll love it.”
A whoop comes from the area Nick and Barret stay everyday, as if ready to prove Sue’s point immediately.
“See?” they grin. “He loves it.”
“Heh, good ol’ Sue,” Brandon chuckles, going into his bookbag again. “Y’know, in all that confusion, I never got to give you your note today, Paige.”
“Oh my gosh!” Paige gasps. “I nearly forgot myself!”
Brandon laughs as he hands it over, punctuating it with a Brotherly Pat On The Back. “Never change, Paige.”
Paige giggles himself, flipping over the note after it’s passed over to him.
The note reads:
“Oh! Yes, I’m quite fond of Mr. Jackson as well! Did you know it’s rumored that he worked on the Sonic 3 and Knuckles soundtrack? It’s a fun fact I love a lot!
But, as requested, here’s some poetry, just for you. ♥
Dearest Paige of Cups,
Your smile brightens the day
Your laughter makes the stars shine
And for many a time,
Everything about you has made my heart alight with love
There’s a gathering on the morrow,
With festivities and hijinks aplenty
Care to meet me during the biggest shindig of the city? ♥
(P.S.
In case that was too flowery… shall we meet at the Halloween party? You’ll know me when you see me, I’m sure.”
Paige gasps. “Oh my goodness… he’ll be at the Halloween party tomorrow!”
Bro and Sue’s eyes widen a bit as they both grin, happy for their friend. Meanwhile Brandon smirks.
“Heh. I knew telling him that adding the plaintext would make sure you got it.”
“Brandooooooon!” Paige pouts immediately, hitting him with weak fists. “Stop going through my maaaaaaiilll!”
The rest of the Bro Crew laugh at the antics. By the time the bell is close to ringing, everyone’s done with their food and are ready to go to their next classes.
“Oh, but I’m so, so excited!” Paige says for the umpteenth time since he got the note. “I just have to go! I do!”
“Well, make sure you pick out a good costume!” Brandon grins, giving a thumbs up. “You wouldn’t wanna be in an anime costume or something, would you?”
Sue chokes on their strawberry milk.
Brandon casts a sly grin over at them as they recover. “I resent that,” is all they say, patting their mouth with a napkin.
Bro and Brandon laugh hard, Paige refrains, but he’s having a hard time at trying to keep it that way. Instead, he tries to think about tomorrow. Oh, what should he wear? He hadn’t really done trick or treating in a while, preferring just to buy the candy and stay at home, so would he have to buy something? What would be best? What would show off his honest truth?
“Your bear onesie,” Leaf offers.
“Huh?” Paige thinks. “Those are pajamas, though!”
“I know,” Leaf replies, rolling his eyes. “You’ll be needing them, considering you won’t be going to the party.”
Paige’s face falls.
The bell rings.
The Bro Crew say their goodbyes for now.
Paige is rooted in place, disbelief filling him.
“What do you mean, I can’t go?” he asks, starting to move with the remains of the crowd. “I’m finally about to meet the one who wrote all these wonderful notes!” He feels desperation fill him. “I have to go!”
“I’m not fighting you on this, Paige,” Leaf says, sounding firm. “You’re in no shape to go to a party that’ll probably have spiked food and drinks and drunk kids everywhere.”
“I’m in perfect shape!” Paige frowns. Which class was he going to again?
“Paige,” Leaf stresses. “We are not going to an unsupervised party.”
“And why not?” Paige bites back. “We’ll be 17 in a couple months! We’re practically grown ups!”
“You don’t actually believe that,” Leaf says, rolling his eyes. “You just wanna see your little loverboy.”
“I—” Paige starts.
“Would be lying if you said otherwise,” Leaf finishes for him.
Paige is silent. He somehow finds his way to his Social Studies class, only processing that he’s there as he’s sitting down. “When did I…”
“You’re welcome,” Leaf huffs. “Paige, do you know what would happen if you went to that party and there was alcohol there?”
“Not drink it?” he answers honestly. “I don’t want to drink alcohol.”
Leaf sighs. “Look, school is really not the place to talk about this,” he says. “If you really wanna know, I’ll tell you later.”
“What?” Paige frowns. “No! If it’s that serious, tell me now!”
Leaf doesn’t reply.
Paige grips his pencil tightly. Ugh! he groans to himself. What the heck!!
Paige sits on his bed dejectedly, curled up with Teds, recounting the end of the day prior.
“It’s later,” Paige had said to Leaf once they were home. “What’s so important it had to wait until we got home?”
“Don’t be so pouty,” Leaf had scoffed. “Are you sure you wanna know? I don’t think it’s the lame excuse you think it is.”
“Just tell me. It can’t be any worse than you teasing me with not knowing.”
“Fine.” Leaf looked away, eyes downcast. “Mack… drank a lot.”
Paige had frowned. “Okay…?” he said pensively. “What’s that got to do with anything? I don’t even remember that. So, it’s not like seeing someone drinking is gonna set me off or anything.”
“But it might set me off, Paige!” Leaf wailed. “Think about it. I haven’t been here in what feels like ages. If you’ve been around drinkers just fine, that’s great for you! But the last time I smelled alcohol it was next to our head on the wall!”
In the present, Paige curls up tighter.
“I don’t know what I’ll do if I get all wacked out in a place full of strangers and loud music and…” Leaf was starting to hyperventilate, causing Paige to do the same. “I don’t like not knowing what I’m capable of, Paige! What if I do something more than hide? We were small and helpless when we were young, but now I have the power to fight back!” Leaf was holding himself now. “What if I do something that’s dangerous? I already fought someone, what’s stopping me from doing it again!?”
+++
“Hey,” Leaf thinks. “Stop thinking about that. It’s over.”
“I just feel like a jerk…” Paige frowns sadly. “I didn’t mean to get you all worked up…”
“It’s over,” Leaf stresses. “Just let it be over.”
Paige hums and looks downwards, still thinking about it anyways.
In the past, Leaf still wasn’t done with his rant. “And then there’s you!” he had continued. “You’ve got people on your ass who want to fight you! Because of me!” He took a deep breath, clearly fighting back tears. “I’m supposed to be here to help you! But I can’t do that if I’m freaking the fuck out and you’re being forced into a fight and you’re probably drunk because there’s no way every drink at that place isn’t going to be spiked, and—”
“Leaf!” Paige had yelled, worry in his eyes.
“What?” Leaf had grumbled, still holding back tears.
“I-I’m sorry…” Paige had apologized. “I didn’t think about it like that at all…”
“No,” Leaf had huffed sadly, “You didn’t.”
“We… we don’t have to go,” Paige had sighed. “I wanted to meet my admirer really bad, but not if it’s gonna make you feel so awful.” He had glanced at his hands, turning them around slowly. “Besides, you’re probably right. I don’t know how to fight and I wouldn’t ask you to do it for me again, especially if you’re already panicking so bad.”
Leaf had loosened his hold on himself a bit. “...Really?”
“Really,” Paige assured. “I’ll just… I’ll tell the Crew and stay home, I guess.”
“...Thanks,” Leaf said quietly.
“Of course, Lee,” Paige waved off. “Don’t mention it.”
“...Lee?” Leaf had asked. “Is—is that supposed to be me?”
“Do you not like it?” Paige had asked. “I don’t have to—”
“Do what you want,” Leaf huffed.
Paige had smiled a bit then, letting the subject drop.
+++
“Are you really okay with Lee?” Paige asks in the present.
“I thought I told you to let it be over,” Leaf groans. “But like I said, do what you want.”
Paige smiles a bit, only to frown again as he looks down in his hands. In one is Teds, in the other his phone. The thing is lit up to his messages, where he had informed everyone he wouldn’t be able to go. He hadn’t said much more than Sorry, I don’t feel well, which wasn’t technically a lie? He hoped Sue wouldn’t read it as one, at least. They really hated liars.
“Ugh…” Paige sighs. “I wish we could’ve gone…”
“Sorry,” Leaf mumbles. “I just…”
“No, I get it,” Paige assures, but he’s still a bit sad. “It’s not worth all the bad stuff. Besides,” the boy perks up a bit. “I’m sure if I tell him sorry that we couldn’t make it, he’ll understand. He seems like the kind of person, you know?”
“I guess so.”
Paige sighs dreamily. “Oh, but it would’ve been so cool to meet him…” he mumbles with hands clasped together. “I wonder if I’ll get another chance to see him so soon…”
Leaf chuckles. “Who knows? Maybe he’ll end up coming to you.”
“Haha!” Paige laughs. “Wouldn’t that be great!”
Suddenly, there’s a knock on Paige’s door.
“Mom?” he asks loudly. “You can come in!”
There’s a moment of silence before the door creaks open. It’s not his mom that greets him though. It’s…
“Sonic the Hedgehog!?” Paige gasps.
Sonic (!?) laughs as he moves in, several others following him. These guys don’t have their faces covered by a blue hood, so Paige is immediately able to recognize them.
“Brandon!” he smiles wide. “And Bro! And Sue!”
Brandon is dressed as an angel, Bro as Mario, and Sue… Sue looks like they’re just wearing an outfit they’d normally wear and glasses?
“Trick or treat!” they all shout in unison, everyone sticking their bags out. A closer look shows they’re actually convenience store bags, and they’re filled with snacks!
“Aw, guys!” Paige smiles. “Did you bring these for me before going to the party?”
Brandon laughs. “Dude, this is the party now!”
“Huh?” Paige asks, tilting his head.
“It w-was all—it was all S-Sonic’s idea,” Bro explains, chuckling. “You sh-ould probably take y-our hood off now, b-by the way.”
“Oh!” Sonic (?) gasps. “Yes, I suppose the initial shock is over now, isn’t it?”
Paige furrows his brows. That sounded like…
Sonic pulls his hood back to reveal none other than…
“Oh! OJ!” Paige laughs. “I should’ve known it was you!”
OJ laughs a bit awkwardly. “I’m surprised you didn’t know me when you saw me! Haha!”
“I guess that’s fair,” Paige laughs. “I don’t think I know a bigger Sonic fan than you!”
OJ smiles shyly, looking away. Had Paige said something weird?
Before he can ask, Brandon flops down next to him on his bed. “I got the candy!” he beams. “I even got a whole lotta white kitkats!”
“Woah!” Paige gasps, immediately diving into the bag. It’s true, while there’s other candies spread out in the pile, the majority of it is white kitkats. “My favorites!”
Bro pulls over the chair from Paige’s desk and sits. “I got p-popcorn and st-stuff.”
Sue sits on the floor, back against the bed frame. “I got chips,” they say with a small smile, presenting the bag to Paige up on his bed. There’s a wide assortment of big and small bags of all types of chips inside.
OJ looks around, looking a bit panicked, before also taking a seat on the floor, back against the dresser Paige’s TV was on top of. “And I acquired drinks!” He holds up two bags of 2 liters. They each have 3 whole bottles in them…!?
“OJ!?” Paige gasps right before he takes a bite of his kitkat. “Aren’t those heavy!?”
“Oh?” OJ blinks. “No, they’re not so heavy.”
“You must be really strong…” Paige says, absolutely not swooning a bit.
OJ laughs. “I carry groceries for my moms a lot,” he explains. “I guess I just naturally got used to holding heavy stuff?”
“Aw, what?” Brandon pouts, tapping at his phone. “I do that all the time too! Why don't I get super strength?”
“You’re too busy running inside to get any stronger, silly!” Paige ribs. “You’re pretty fast, though.”
“Oh, did you also do Track and Field at some point, Brandon?” OJ asks, sitting criss-cross applesauce and holding his ankles.
“Track and—My man, are you telling me you run run?”
“Oh, not anymore.” OJ thinks, putting a finger to his chin. “I did that and dance a while ago, when I was 12 and 5 respectively.”
“Y-ou did d-dance at 5?” Bro blinks.
“Oh, not for long. I won that one dance award and put up my competitive tap shoes.” OJ smiles. “It was fun! I still tap every so often, but just for me.”
“That’s really cool, actually,” Sue grins. “I didn’t know that about you.”
“It’s not something I mention very often, to be fair!” OJ laughs. “But looks like you’ve something new to add to that big filing system worth of a brain you have, hm?”
“I do,” Sue nods.
“Filing cabinet?” Brandon asks, confused.
“Sue is rather smart, if you haven’t noticed.”
“Really?” Brandon smirks looking down at them. “I never noticed on account of them using that big brain of theirs to make fun of me.”
“9.23.2020,” Sue says without missing a beat.
“SEE?” Brandon wails, causing the others to laugh. Even Sue chuckles a bit. “You’re all the worst,” he groans. He turns back to his phone, tapping at it more. “But whatever, let’s get this party started!”
Music suddenly blasts from his phone, starting with Kesha’s Your Love Is My Drug.
Bro smiles. “H-e loves this song.”
“I do!” Brandon smiles, jumping up. “C’mon, Bart. Dance with me!”
Bro laughs and stands, replacing the chair at Paige’s desk so they have more space. They dance together awkwardly, but it’s clear they’re having fun.
“Heehee!” Paige laughs. “I’m glad you’re already having fun! Here, I’ll go pop the popcorn and get bowls and cups for everyone!”
Sue stands up. “I’ll help.”
“Oh, should I help too?” OJ asks, getting up as well.
“You can unbag everything if you don’t mind,” Sue says quickly. “Me and Paige should be able to handle everything else.”
“Ah, alright!” OJ nods. “I’ll get started on that, then.”
Paige grabs a box of popcorn and follows Sue out of his room and downstairs to the kitchen.
After a bit of quiet humming from Paige, Sue breaks the speaking silence. “Paige,” they say.
“Hm?” Paige turns to them, putting down some of the bowls he got. “What’s up?”
“Be honest with me.”
“I always try to be!”
Sue bites their lip before continuing. “Why didn’t you actually go to the party?”
“Huh?” Paige blinks. “I… wasn’t feeling well.”
“Your eye, Paige.”
Shoot! “Um…” Paige laughs nervously. “I…”
“WHAT DO WE DO?” Paige thinks urgently. “I can’t lie to Sue! They’ll know!”
“I… don’t know Sue very well,” Leaf admits. “What’ll happen if we lie?”
“They’ll get really mad at me…” Paige frowns. “And then they’ll probably just keep asking until we fess up, anyways.”
“Mm…” Leaf groans. “Here, let me deal with this. Maybe I can do it.”
“Okay…” Paige mumbles, giving up the control just enough to let Leaf in. “But don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”
Leaf rolls his eyes before slipping into reality.
Sue is staring at him.
“Um,” he blinks.
“You left me for a second there,” Sue informs. “Were you trying to think of a way to lie without lying?” They frown. “Paige…”
“I wasn’t,” Leaf assures. It’s not a lie, Leaf wasn’t thinking of a way to lie to them. “I’m… I just zoned out. Just like I always do.”
“Hm,” is all that Sue says. They cross their hands behind their back. “Alright then. Care to tell me the truth?” Their expression turns sad. “You were so excited to meet your secret admirer. You looked even more excited then you did when you first started getting the notes, even.” Their gaze turns steely again. “So tell me, what actually happened?”
“Like I said, I wasn’t feeling well.”
“Then how come you’re feeling fine now?” Sue presses.
“I… got better?”
“...Your red eye just twitched.” Sue frowns. “Paige, you never twitch your red eye when you lie. It’s always your blue eye.” They bend over and stare at him so scrutinizingly it almost hurts. “...What’s the reason for that?”
“I’m going to die,” Leaf thinks direly. “Help.”
“I don’t know what to do either…” Paige thinks back.
“Fuck…” Leaf whispers aloud under his breath.
Sue blinks and backs away. “Paige,” they say flatly. “You just swore. You don’t swear.”
“I—I meant f-freak! God—Gosh darn it!” Leaf swings his arm in a hook like motion in front of himself. “Just a slip of the tongue! Silly me!” He puts both of his hands on top of his head and pushes out his tongue, a hopeful smile on his face.
Sue stares silently.
“We bombed,” Paige despairs.
“Okay yeah. We bombed.”
“Should we just tell them? They’ll probably put two and two together eventually at this point.”
“Ugh. Fine.”
“Okay,” Leaf breathes aloud, dropping his hands. “If I tell you this, you can’t tell anyone else.”
“Noted,” Sue nods.
“And you can’t freak out.”
“I never freak out.”
“Okay then. Here goes.” Leaf takes a deep breath before saying plainly, “I… am not Paige.”
“Evidently,” Sue nods, getting closer. “But if you’re not Paige, who are you? And what have you done with my friend?”
“Calm down!” Leaf begs, pulling his hands up to shield himself. “I-I’m Leaf. And I haven’t done anything to Paige. He’s right here, look.” He looks upwards. “Paige, say something!”
“Um—!” Paige jolts, having suddenly been pushed back into the front. “S-something!”
Sue blinks. “Paige?”
“I-I um…” Paige says awkwardly, looking off to the side. “I-I don’t wanna lie to you.”
“Then don’t,” Sue says plainly. “What’s happening right now?”
Paige sighs, giving up the ghost. “I… think I’ve got some explaining to do.”
Paige and Sue have sat down at the kitchen table facing each other. Paige is pointed towards the outside backyard doors and Sue is pointed towards the stairs.
“This is… a bit complicated to explain.” Paige mumbles, fists curled up in his lap.
“Try me,” Sue says, sitting straight up in their chair.
“Okay, um… Leaf is… like, a part of me?”
“A part of you,” Sue repeats. “But not you?”
“Exactly.”
“Elaborate,” Sue says after humming. “I don’t think I quite get it, and I want to understand entirely.”
“Well… okay. I think Leaf would be a better explainer than me, though.”
“Then I’d like to hear what they have to say.”
Paige nods pensively and lets Leaf slip in. “Hey,” he greets lazily, slouching immediately. “Sorry for lying to you or whatever. I hear you don’t like it much.”
Sue blinks. “...Leaf, I assume?”
“You assume correctly.” They don’t try to disguise their voice. “So, okay. Not to like, dump everything on you, but it’s the reason I’m here, so…” Leaf leaves the unsaid question in the air. You sure you wanna know this?
Silently, Sue nods.
“Alright, you asked for it.” Leaf bends over and clasps their hands together, looking away. “We had a sh—we had a bad childhood,” they quickly correct. “He needed someone to help him, and I was what came of that.”
“So you were here to… protect Paige from his father?”
“How do you know about that?” Leaf frowns, staring at Sue. “Did Paige tell you?”
“He mentioned it offhand once.”
“Oh.” Leaf huffs. “Right. Well, yeah. Daddy Dearest is the reason I exist, I guess.”
“So you were here to deal with him.”
“Yeah.”
“Mackerel is dead, though,” Sue points out. “So why are you here now?”
“Ouch,” Leaf laughs. “Rude, much?”
“Sorry that I don’t take kindly to those who ruin my friend’s night.” Sue says deadpanned. “I’m guessing you’re the real reason Paige stayed home tonight, aren’t you?”
“Little Mx. Detective aren’t we?” Leaf chuckles, putting his hands up. “You got me. I don’t see why you needed to know this though.” He pulls his legs into the chair and lays on them, twisting his hands in front of them. “I don’t really need to explain anything else to you either. But you’ll just bother Paige if I don’t so…”
Leaf sighs. “Daddy Dearest drank like a sailor. I knew there’d be spiked punch or whatever at that party, and I…” They pause for a moment, looking away. “I didn’t want Paige to get in trouble.”
Paige holds his breath. It wasn’t technically a lie, so maybe it would pass the test?
Sue stares hard at them hard before glancing away. “Sorry,” they apologize. “I think I stepped over a boundary.”
“Eh,” Leaf shrugs. “Paige gave me permission, and I don’t really mind explaining what happened to us. It’s whatever if you know.” They slump forward though, face growing serious. “You better keep everything in that little filing cabinet of yours, though. There’s no point in keeping it a secret if everyone knows And we need it to be secret so they don’t freak out like Brandon did.” He sighs. “We didn’t even tell M—Quinn yet,” he coughs.
“...I see,” Sue nods. “I’ll keep it to myself.”
Suddenly, Sue straightens. “What’s that?” they ask, pointing towards the stairs.
Leaf blinks, turning to look behind themself. If there was anything there before, it’s gone now. “I dunno. Maybe you’re seeing stuff.”
Sue immediately pulls their hands inwards, churning them together, face upset and eyes flicking everywhere.
“Aw shit,” Leaf thinks. “Did I say something fucked up?”
“Um…” Paige thinks back. “I don’t know. But they seem really upset, so maybe let me help them?”
“Yeah, sure.” Leaf and Paige swap again, Paige moving over to Sue and placing a hand on their shoulder.
Sue jolts. “Yes?” they sputter.
“You alright?” Paige smiles awkwardly. “I um… You… left me for a second there.”
Maybe it’s the fact that Paige mimicked them from earlier, or maybe it’s the tension finally getting to them, but Sue barks out a laugh. “I’m fine,” they assure. “I’m fine.” They stand up. “Come on, we forgot we were supposed to be getting stuff for everyone.”
“Oh!” Paige gasps. “We did! Maybe OJ should’ve come down to help us after all…”
As if on cue, OJ announces his arrival with heavy steps down the stairs. “Hello, hello!” he smiles. “I came to check on you two! You’ve been gone for quite some time.”
“We got sidetracked,” Sue answers. “You can help us back up now if you want to, though. We’ll only need one trip that way.”
“Oh, okay!” OJ grins. “I can carry whatever!”
+++
Aside from the hiccup in the kitchen, the party is fun! They all dance to music and bring the Wii upstairs to play games and everyone has a great time. When it’s time to go, everyone reveals they planned on making this a sleepover!
Paige was so, so excited. His closest friends all spending a night together! It was all he could ask for. Besides, if he’s to believe his admirer, he’s going to try and get them to meet up again soon! So, really, it wasn’t that bad of a trade off.
Paige sits at his desk now, kicking his legs. With everyone else comfortably asleep on the floor, it was time to write tomorrow’s note.
Paige’s note reads:
“Sorry I couldn’t make it to the party last night! I wasn’t really feeling 100% and I thought it might be too overwhelming. Sounds kinda lame, I know, but it’s the truth.
Oh, but! The Sonic fact was really fun! I don’t think I’ve heard that before, which is surprising! My friend OJ knows so much about Sonic, you’d think it would’ve been mentioned by now! Heehee! I passed on the knowledge to him when I saw him again and he loved knowing it!
(P.S.
Your poetry is wonderful! Do you have any other fun talents?)”
“There…” Paige nods. “That should be good!”
Carefully Paige picks around his friends to get to his bookbag. But, as he’s slipping the paper into this bag, someone stirs.
“Paige?” OJ asks, lifting and rubbing one of his eyes. “Is something th’ matter?”
“Oh, it’s nothing,” Paige says quietly, though it’s very clear he’s excited. “I just finished writing my note to my secret admirer!” He’s grinning so hard.
OJ squints, looking like he’s thinking. “But I…” He quickly shakes his head. “Oh, right!” he laughs quietly. “It nearly slipped my mind that you were getting notes.”
“It’s still so exciting to me!” Paige squeaks. “Oh, OJ… he’s so kind and wonderful… Funny and thoughtful too!”
“I’d hope so,” OJ smiles. “I’m sure… he wants to be the best for you.”
“Heehee!” Paige giggles, blushing and pushing his hands to his cheeks. “Oh, but I’m sorry to keep you up with this. You can go back to sleep!”
“You can tell me anything, Paige,” OJ says in the kindest voice Paige has ever heard. “I’ll always love to listen.”
Paige’s face turns completely red, but no longer for his admirer.
“Um!” he blinks. “I—I have to—I have to use the bathroom!”
In a quick sprint, Paige leaves the room as quietly as he can, dashing to the bathroom and closing the door behind him.
“Ohh my good—oh my god,” Paige breaths.
“You bombed it!” Leaf laughs. “You like that guy or something? ‘Cause you’re gonna need a looot of glue to fix this one.”
Paige pushes his hands into his closed eyes. “Oh. My god.”
“Aw, look at you!” Leaf chuckles. “Leveling up in vocab!”
“Leaf,” Paige growls lowly. “Please shut up.”
“Huh?”
“Shut up,” Paige repeats, stressing it. “I just messed that up so bad. I’m falling for him so badly, but my admirer is also holding my heart—”
“Cheesy,” Leaf comments.
“Shut up!” Paige shushes again. “I don’t know what to do!” he laments. “I—”
The sound of footsteps fills the hallway. Someone was coming.
Paige clears his throat and says, “Occupied! I’ll be out in a minute!”
The footsteps stop for a moment before starting up again and getting quieter.
“Oh thank goodness,” Paige sighs. “Oh, my god.”
Eventually, at some point Paige manages to get back into his room without waking anybody up this time. OJ had gone back to sleep too, so slipping into his bed was much easier than he was afraid it’d be.
Paige is banging his head lightly with his hands. Ughhhh… I can’t believe I blew that so badly!
“It could’ve been worse,” Leaf shrugs. “I’m sure he doesn’t actually care about that.”
“That’s almost worse!” Paige pouts.
“Ugh. There’s no winning with you, is there?”
Paige doesn’t reply, just whining. Soon, he frets himself to sleep.
When Paige blinks awake the next morning, the beams of sun in his eyes are the culprits. That was odd, though. Paige usually kept his blinds closed.
Sitting up, he sees none other than OJ sitting at his desk.
“OJ?” Paige yawns, causing the other to yelp. “Oh! I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“I-it’s quite alright,” OJ breathes. “Sorry if I woke you.”
“No, no,” Paige shakes his head. “The sun got in my eyes.”
“Ah…” OJ smiles awkwardly. “That… would still be my fault. I always open my blinds in the morning by habit.”
“Oh, it’s alright,” Paige waves off playfully. “I’m up now.” He looks down at the others, still knocked out. Sue is curled around a stuffed bunny while Brandon and Bro were sleeping with one held by the other. “It looks like the same can’t be said for everyone else, though.”
“It is rather early,” OJ comments. “Ah, but let me finish what I was doing so I can get out of your way. I’m almost done.”
“You can take your time,” Paige says, stretching. “I don’t use my desk in the morning, really.” He jumps up and moves over to OJ. “Whatcha doing, though?”
“Ah!” OJ gasps, covering his station with his whole upper body. “It’s—it’s a secret!” he panics. “My—my secret diary!”
“Oh!” Paige gasps, pulling back. “Sorry! I didn’t know!”
OJ sighs heavily. “It’s quite alright.” He looks off to the side, a wry smile on his face. “It’s not like you’d know it just by seeing it.”
Paige hums. “I guess so. Unless it said ‘OJ’s Diary’ in big text, I would’ve probably thought it was one of my old books.”
OJ’s face drops for just a moment, smile forced. It’s almost like hearing that scared him.
It’s a good thing he didn’t get to see anything about it! He would’ve hated to upset OJ for something like that.
“Oh, don’t worry! I didn’t see anything, honest!” Paige promises.
…Well, that was only mostly true. No, he hadn’t seen the contents, but he did see the cover. It was a nice pastel orange embroidered leather. It looked like it would feel good to rub his hand against.
But, surely OJ had only meant the contents. Surely.
+++
The Crew go to school the next day, having brought their uniforms with them for the sleepover. It’s a surprise to Quinn in the morning, and there’s barely enough space for them all in the SUV. They manage, though. Sue sits in the front while Paige, OJ, Brandon and Bro are squished together in the back.
When the kids all pile out of the car, Quinn wishes them all a good day and they all thank them in varying ways.
“Note,” Brandon requests as the small group disperses into the crowd.
Paige rifles through his bag for a moment before producing the note. “Here we go!”
“Nice,” Brandon smirks, snapping it up. “See you at lunch?”
Paige nods. “See you at lunch!”
+++
With his classes being ones he can keep to himself and let his mind wander, Paige does just that. He thinks about his admirer. He thinks about OJ. He thinks about the way his heart was fighting over the two of them.
Lunch comes faster than Paige is ready for. When Brandon hands him his note, it’s like he’s blinking back into reality for the first time since that morning.
“Letter for Paige!” Brandon smiles, holding it over… just to snatch it back. “Only, Paige,” he stresses quietly, seriously, almost pulling his Scary Face.
Paige gulps. “I-I’m Paige,” he reaffirms.
Brandon’s smile is back on his face in a flash. “Then here you go, playa!” He hands the note over in earnest now.
Paige blinks, but doesn’t comment. It was weird, but he pushes it away, choosing to focus on it later. Right now…
Today’s note reads:
“It’s quite alright. In the end, I ended up leaving early and having my own fun with some friends of mine. It’s quite sad we couldn’t meet up just yet, but know I’ll be thinking of a better way for us to meet until it happens.
I do have some other talents though, yes. I can dance fairly well and I know several languages! One of them is Russian. :)
I also can sing okay, I guess? I don’t think it’s all that, but my mothers say I’m talented, and who am I to disbelieve them?
(P.S.
Here’s a fun fact: I’ve been thinking fondly of you for almost a year now. I’m glad my sudden burst of bravery to start writing you these notes has made us closer than before!)
…Closer than before? What could that mean?
+++
When he gets home later, Paige writes his note. It reads:
“Can I ask what kind of dance? Just curious! I’ve never danced before in my life, not really. Just for fun. You know.!
Also, I tried to write you a poem this time, since it only felt fair to learn something you’re into, right? So I thought really hard about this. Here it goes!
Violets and roses,
I’m not too good at proses
But with you in mind,
I think I’m capable of anything with enough time!
I think I’m falling for you,
I really, really do
You’ve got my heart caught,
I get dizzy at your thought!
I hope we’ll meet face to face soon,
I’m sure your voice will be my favorite tune
So I don’t feel like a fool,
When I say that meeting you will be way past cool!
(P.S.
Don’t laugh when you get this!I tried my best! ;_;!)”
He smiles down at his note. “Way past cool…” he mumbles. Wasn’t that the one phrase OJ used to say all the time way back when?
“Cheeeeesyyyy,” Leaf says, sticking out his tongue and derailing Paige’s train of thought. “But I guess it’s perfect for your loverboy. You’re great and all, Paige, but you gotta admit you’re a bit of a nerd.”
“I’m not a nerd…” Paige pouts, neatly folding his blue and white paper. “I’m just a guy.”
“A guy who’s a nerd,” Leaf chuckles. “It’s not bad being a nerd, by the way. But you are very much a nerd.”
Paige sighs and lets the conversation drop. If he didn’t encourage this, then it wouldn’t continue.
“Aw, you’re ignoring me?” Leaf pouts, crossing their arms. “Yeah, alright. I can ignore you too.”
“Who’s pouty now?” Paige smirks humourlessly.
“Whatever.”
Rolling his eyes, Paige puts his note in his bag and turns on his TV to a music station. It’s only about 8, so there was no reason to go to sleep so early. He had suddenly had this burst of energy that allowed him to stay up past 6 or 7 for most days. He could even make it to 10 at this point!
But, lazily, he falls back on his bed and reaches for his phone, looking for someone to message. Brandon was always available, but he was acting a little weird earlier… better just wait to see if he comes to him first. There was Sue and Bro too, but the former was always busy watching something and forgetting to text back, and the other would fall asleep mid sentence without warning.
So, realistically, that only left OJ. Paige remembers him mentioning offhand that his curfew wasn’t until 10, so he was probably awake. Doing what, Paige couldn’t guess, but probably going down some rabbit hole online. He remembered OJ doing that a lot when they used to hang out a lot too.
OJ it was, then.
Paiges: Hello OJ!
Paiges: I hope i didn’t wake you! I was just wondering if you were free to talk!
There. That was enough not to bother but enough to get attention, wasn’t it? Oh, what did those articles on double texting say again…?
As Paige is panic-googling information, his phone dings.
hyaku% oj: Evening, Paige! It’s quite late for you, isn’t it? Unless your sleeping habits have suddenly changed, I remember you usually falling asleep around 6. It was the same when you came over too.
hyaku% oj: But listen to me, rambling about something weird. Excuse that, please.
hyaku% oj: I’m free to talk though, yes! I was just. Going over some old homework.
Old homework? Who goes over old homework? Silly OJ, always being so honest. It was so endearing.
Paiges: Oh? Whats the assignment?
Paige doesn’t wait long before the response.
hyaku% oj: Old language homeworks. I’ve told you I can speak multiple languages before surely? In fact, I feel like I’ve told you this recently. But perhaps not. I can get kind of scatterbrained, haha!
hyaku% oj: That being said, if you’d like to waste some time away with company, we can call while I practice.
hyaku% oj: We could also talk! I’m not opposed to that at all. I can put the homework away for the night.
Paiges: Oh, we can call while you practice!
Paiges: That sounds like fun! :)!
hyaku% oj: Alright then. I’ll call you in about a minute.
And, in exactly 60 seconds after the message is sent, Paige’s phone rings.
“Hello?” Paige asks.
“Hello! OJ greets. “Or, bonsoir.”
“Bonsoir?” Paige repeats.
“Good evening,” OJ translates. “It’s French, one of the languages I know.”
“Ohh…” Paige nods. “Yeah, that makes sense. You strike me as someone who would want to learn French.”
“Do I?” OJ laughs.
“You do!” Paige laughs back.
The two of them go back and forth like this for a while, before Paige quiets and lets OJ study. It’s not like he can understand OJ, so he just hums quietly to the music coming from the TV.
Then, at some point, the curiosity that’s been gnawing at him since the call started finally snaps. “OJ, could you say something to me in French?”
OJ stops in the middle of repeating some phrases. “Oh? Like what?”
Paige shrugs. “Anything.”
“Shall I recite a poem I like, then?”
“Sure!”
OJ is quiet for a moment, tapping away at what must be his keyboard. Then, he takes a deep breath and starts.
“L'eau qui caresse le rivage,
La rose qui s'ouvre au zéphir,
Le vent qui rit sous le feuillage,
Tout dit qu'aimer est un plaisir.
De deux amants l'égale flamme
Sait doublement les rendre heureux.
Les indifférents n'ont qu'une âme ;
Mais lorsqu'on aime, on en a deux.”
Paige’s face is really warm for no reason whatsoever. “Wow… I don’t have any idea what any of that meant, but it sounded like it meant something beautiful!”
OJ laughs. “It’s a bit of a mouthful, honestly. I always get some of the parts mixed up and have to look it up to make sure I’m getting it right.”
“Aw, c’mon! You know three languages, I think you deserve some slack for mixing up some of them.”
“Four,” OJ corrects.
“Oh?” Paige blinks. “What’s the other one?”
“It’s—” OJ cuts off abruptly. “It’s—the—Zelda language!” His laugh is a little awkward. “Um, but it’s late, isn’t it?”
Paige pulls his phone away, looking at the time. It’s 8:47.
“Oh geez, it is getting kind of late,” Paige nods. “We should get to sleep soon, shouldn’t we?”
“We should,” OJ agrees. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow? There’s something I wanted to ask you in person.”
“Oh, sure!” Paige smiles. “Before or after?”
“After, if that’s alright. It would make things move smoother depending on your choice!”
“Ooh, a choices game!” Paige laughs. “I’m excited to hear what it is!”
“I’m excited to ask it!” OJ’s smile is evident in his voice. “Tomorrow, then?”
“Yep! Goodnight, OJ!”
“Goodnight, Paige.”
Their phones click off and Paige settles properly into bed, holding Teds.
But before Paige can fully fall asleep, his mom knocks on the door.
Spinning around with a small groan, he shouts, “Come in!”
Quinn pushes in, a soft smile on their face. “Hello, sweetie.”
“Hi, Mom,” Paige grins sleepily. “Did you want something?”
“Not really,” she shrugs, walking over and sitting on his bed. “I normally check in on you around this time.”
“You do?” Paige blinks.
“I do,” Quinn nods. “You’re normally fast asleep, but I still like checking in.”
“Mom…” Paige smiles, heart swelling. He gives her a strong hug. “I love you!”
Quinn laughs, holding him back. “I love you too, honey! But what’s all this?”
“It’s just been a weird couple of days,” Paige sighs, pulling back. “I don’t even know how to explain it. Everything… everyone… it’s all just… weird.” He pushes back into his mom weakly. “But you’re… the same. You always do this. Just to check in on me.” Had Paige’s voice grown wobbly? “I-I don’t know… It got to me, I guess.”
“You’re the sweetest book of Paiges in the world,” Quinn coos, pulling her son into her lap and hugging him tightly, kissing his cheeks back and forth. “I love you soooo much!”
Paige laughs, pulling away without actually doing it. “Moooom! Stopppp!”
“Nope!” she giggles, stopping anyways. “I do, though. It’s so sweet that you’d start to cry over something like that.”
“I didn’t—!” Paige starts, only to sniff. “...Okay. Maybe I did start crying a bit.”
“And that’s perfectly okay, honey.” Quinn squeezes him again, “It warms my heart to know you’re so caring. No matter what, you never lose that, okay?’
Paige nods slowly. “...Can I hug you again?”
Instead of saying something, Quinn simply opens their arms.
Paige pushes in immediately, sighing.
“...”
Paige blinks inside, looking at a hovering Leaf. He looks upset in a weird, wanting sort of way. It doesn’t take Paige long to put two and two together.
“C’mon,” he thinks. “Get over here.”
Leaf bites his lip for a long second, before floating over and joining the hug’s sensation and sharing it with Paige.
The immediate weight Paige feels lift off of his heart is almost painful.
On Friday the usual song and dance is performed, the swapping of notes being an automatic highlight of Paige’s day.
Today’s note reads:
“You did spectacularly, Paige! Poetry is tied to one’s heart. So, no matter how it may seem to you, I see the effort put into it and appreciate it for all it is.
Not to mention, you wrote it for me. Not to be shallow, but I think I’d like it regardless of anything anyways. ♥
That aside, I used to ballroom dance. It was fun, swaying my partner around, being in sync with them. I do so think doing the same with you would send my heart aflutter unlike anything else so far. You have quite the effect on me, you know! ♥
(P.S.
I was thinking offhandedly today, if you turned into a Pokemon, which one do you think you would be and why? Would my saying Charmander be boring? Because I think I can see some Cyndaquil in me. The roster being mostly only starters sure does make things a bit more difficult, no?
As for why… Fire types always intrigued me. I like their drive! I like how kind they are, despite their power to destroy so easily. And I specifically like how laid back Cyndaquil is, so yes! I think I’d prefer being one of them rather than a Charmander.)”
Paige blushes at the beginning of the note, suddenly feeling embarrassed as he remembers his silly little poem. If he had liked it though….. well then….!
Paige giggles to himself. Butterflies are filling his stomach rather fast!
When he gathers himself, he turns to Brandon, ready for his daily quip, but instead of looking sly, there’s a look on his face that was… almost relieved?
“Brandon, what’s up?” he asks, concerned. “You have a weird look on your face…”
Brandon blinks away expression and smirks like he normally does, giving a thumbs up. “Yeah, man! I’m good, I’m good. I just… I got lost in thought is all.”
“Oh, okay.” Paige has no reason to not believe the other, but he can feel his eyebrows furrow as he looks away. Why did he feel like Brandon wasn’t telling him everything?
+++
“OJ!” Paige waves. He was beside the exit doors, waiting for the other. “Over here!”
OJ quickly finds the source that is Paige and walks over in a mostly straight line, weaving through the steadily thinning crowd. “Hello, Paige!” he greets kindly. “I hope your day was well.”
“It was!” Paige grins, clasping his hands together. “I got another note!” he whispers as loud as he can. “And it was so nice! I loved it!”
“I’m really glad to hear that,” OJ says, an expression Paige can’t quite place covering his face. It’s gone before Paige can comment on it, though. “May I ask you to accompany me outside?” he offers instead, holding out a hand.
Paige looks down at the hand and blinks for a second before his face breaks out in an awkward grin and grows really hot. Was he supposed to hold OJ’s hand? They used to do it all the time in the years before, but not since Paige had started having his little crush. Now it felt different.
OJ didn’t even know… It felt like lying in a way.
“Oh for the love of god,” Leaf huffs. “Take his hand or I’ll take it for you.”
Paige snaps up OJ’s hand immediately.
“Sure!” he laughs, strained. He starts walking, taking the lead even though he didn’t know where he was really supposed to be going. “You—you had a question to ask me, right?”
OJ looks concerned for a moment before shaking his head a bit. “Yes, I did.” He speeds up just a bit, effortlessly taking the lead for the two of them now. “If it’s not too much, there’s this place I wanted to visit with you.”
“Me?” Paige asks. “How come?”
“Ah…” OJ looks away shyly. “I just thought you’d like it.”
The hand in Paige’s twitches a bit, squeezing it. It’s an innocent gesture, but it sends Paige into an immediate tizzy.
Quickly he tries to remember the frankly silly amount of teen crush articles he had gone through a while back. What did it mean if someone you like squeezed your hand again?
“I’m—I’d love to go!” Paige says, a wide but shy smile on his face. “What—where is it?”
“Rather close to my house, actually,” OJ responds. “You probably saw it when we passed it in the RV without even knowing it.”
“Well now I can’t wait to see what it is!” Paige laughs.
“It’s just a couple of blocks this way.” OJ points up the sidewalk. “So we’ll be there soon.”
“Awesome!”
On the way there, the two catch up with one another a bit, mostly surrounding their school activities. Paige does his best to sound like he actually remembers the majority of his classes.
Other than that, the conversation wanders to games and cartoons (“You simply must see this one old cartoon, it’s called The Life and Times of Juniper Lee!”) and Paige simply enjoys OJ’s company. They’re having a great time, both trading facts and jokes and jabs. For a moment, it feels like they’d never stopped hanging out as much as they did in the past.
Then, OJ takes a sudden turn, cutting off Paige mid sentence. “Woah!” he gasps. “OJ, where are we going?”
“Oh, we’re here actually.” A bit of walking leaves the two of them staring at a thick bunch of ironically thin vines. They must have been here for ages.
“Um, OJ…” Paige mumbles. “This is a wall of plants.”
OJ laughs so hard he doubles over a bit.
Paige frowns a little. “Wh—I don’t get the joke…?”
OJ catches his breath soon after, wiping his eyes. “Sorry! Sorry!” he gasps. “I—I’m so sorry.”
“What was so funny?”
OJ shakes his head, a smile on his face. “It was unfair of me to assume you would just know. But I’ve been coming here so often, I suppose I just accepted it as common knowledge.”
Paige furrows his brows, putting one finger to his chin. “So… what… what is it, exactly?
”Here,” OJ says, grabbing one end of the vines. “I’ll show you!”
And, with one fell swoop, OJ pulls back the curtain of vines.
Past them is a small but flourishing patch of grass, wildflowers everywhere. It’s mostly surrounded by buildings, but there’s places you can clearly see through them, showing the bright sky ahead. The place is clearly unkempt, but it’s almost… methodical in a way? Like it was being carefully taken care of to only look a bit bad and not a lot bad.
And, smack dab in the middle of the place is a pair of swings. The bar holding them up is broken with sharp ends, suggesting that there used to be more to the set. But there’s no other proof, just that one thing. The swing’s chains, which should probably look shiny, instead look like black tar, strongly holding onto each other.
Leading up to the swings is a plank of wood, flanked by small fences. The wood then goes around and under the swings, also being blocked on all sides by wooden fencing. It’s a perfect little patio set up seemingly in the middle of a random small lot in the back of some buildings.
“Woah…” Paige breathes.
“Do you like it?” OJ asks, hands clasped together in front of his chest. “I found this place during summer vacation. I then spent time fixing it up as much as I could, making the road to and from the swingset easier to traverse, as well as reinforcing the swings themselves. I spread a couple of quick growing seeds around after that, hoping it would up the atmosphere.” He looks extremely proud of his work. “Everything else is completely natural, that mostly being the amount of grass that was already here, as well as the unaltered swingset.”
“OJ…” Paige gasps. “That’s so incredible! How did you…?”
“Ma likes cars, but he also likes carpentry,” OJ chuckles. “What’s that one saying? Apples not falling so far from the tree?”
“This is so cool, OJ!” Paige grins, jumping over and giving him a hug. “You’re so cool!”
OJ starts laughing in an odd kind of way, starting and stopping every second. He honestly sounds a bit embarrassed. He was always so humble!
Paige lets go of OJ and holds one of his hands instead. “Can we sit on the swings together? I haven’t swung on a swing in what feels like forever.”
“O-of course,” OJ stutters, looking down shyly.
Paige tilts his head a bit, looking down too. Only then does he realize that he’s the one who started to hold OJ’s hand this time, which makes him think of the sudden hug he gave OJ just a moment ago as well.
He has the sudden urge to pull away, scared that he’s crossing boundaries they haven’t reestablished yet, but…
OJ hasn’t pulled away once.
So maybe it was okay?
Paige lets his hopefulness win, pulling OJ towards the swings. When they get there, they both take a seat, looking out at the sky.
They swing lightly, Paige smiling wide. It’s peaceful, even though the only thing that fills the air is the wind.
“Ah, Paige,” OJ says after a couple of minutes. “There’s actually something else I wanted to ask you.”
“Oh, okay!” Paige smiles brightly, turning towards the other. “Hit me.”
OJ nods, a small smile of his own showing. “Well, tomorrow happens to be the last day of the extended season for Luna Park. And my cousin has the uncanny ability to find sales and deals for anything in the world for some reason. I asked if there were any for the park, and they were able to get me two fairly cheap band deals.”
“Band?” Paige blinks.
“Oh, it’s a newer system than the old park. You know how you used to have to pay admission?”
“I guess,” Paige says. “I never really went to Brooklyn growing up, so I think I’ve only gone to Coney Island once or twice.”
“Ah,” Orville nods. “We go fairly often, so it’s unsurprising you wouldn’t know of the updates. That being said, the bands are like… they allow you to ride a certain amount of rides for a certain amount of credits instead of buying tickets to every ride. It comes out cheaper, somehow. I’ve never really cared to do the math… but now that I think of it…”
Paige smiles softly. OJ was so cute when he rambled. And he always found a way to get on some type of tangent no matter what. It was so charming!
“Ah, anyways,” OJ says, shaking his head. “I acquired these tickets for a quarter of the usual price, which is good since the normal price shoots up during the extended season. So, to make a long story short, I was wondering if you would like to go to the park with me tomorrow…?”
Paige gasps happily, huge smile breaking out over his face. “I’d love to!”
Paige sits on the side of the sidewalk, waiting to see the Squeeze’s colorful RV to pop into view. He hums to himself and fidgets with his backpack, bright smile on his face.
He was dressed in one of his favorite light blue hoodies and a dark green shirt with a lighter strip going across it. His pants were a plain denim and his sneakers white. It was an all around general outfit.
But Paige had wanted to bring a bit of flourish to this… meet up? Hang out? D… d…
Paige shakes his head.
Whatever this was, he wanted to look a little better than he would normally. For absolutely no reason, of course.
What brought the ensemble to a higher level were the accessories, his rare Eevee bag being one of them. The other was a cute brown teddy bear hat on top of his head. He hoped it wasn’t too childish… it was one of his favorite hats!
Paige doesn’t have to long for the cool RV to make its appearance. He stands as it gets closer. It rolls up and stops right beside him.
“Hey, kiddo!” Dani greets. “C’mon, get in!”
Paige nods brightly, opening the back of the car, only to be greeted by OJ, hand outstretched.
“Ah, you got to it before I did,” OJ chuckles. “Well, that’s quite alright. Come,” he flips his hand palm up. “Let me help you in.”
As opposed to Paige’s basic casual wear, OJ seems to be almost in business casual. He’s got a dark brown cloth coat on, a light red shirt under it and a cozy looking dull orange scarf on. His pants are nice black slacks and he’s got on a light brown over the shoulder bag.
From this angle, OJ is taller than Paige. The way he holds himself is so… Paige can’t even describe it. But either way, it’s making his face really warm.
“O-okay!” Paige blinks with a dumb smile. He takes the other’s hand and lets himself get effortlessly pulled into the RV. “Strong…” he mumbles.
“Hm?” OJ asks, crossing over his lap to close the door behind the other. “What was that?”
Paige was going to explode.
“Nothing!” he says quickly. “I just… was thinking outloud is all!”
“Ah, alright.” OJ smiles.
“So!” Dani claps. “What’s the plan again, kids?”
“You drive us to the Pizzaria where we all share a three way split pizza,” Orville starts.
“Then we take a couple of trains to get to Brooklyn,” Paige continues.
“And then we can be tourists for a bit,” OJ jokes.
Paige laughs and ribs him. “We’ll miss the rest of the trains to the park if we do that!”
“Joking!” OJ laughs back. “But yes, we take a few more trains to get to Coney—”
“Conely?” Dani breaks in, a grin in her voice.
OJ chuckles. “Conely Island.” He glances over at Paige with a sly face. “And then we can be tourists for a minute or two, surely?”
Paige laughs and nods. “Of course! We can do whatever we want when we make it to the park.”
“Excellent,” OJ says, a self assured smile on his face.
The ride to the pizzeria isn’t too terribly long, and soon the four of them are eating their shared pizza. Paige actually finishes his slices this time (“Sorry about leaving a mess last time, Mr. Antonio.”) and then, the two teenagers bid the adult Squeeze’s goodbye. They make their way to the nearest train station on foot, as they would be going from now on.
“I haven’t been on the train in a while…” Paige murmurs as they buy metrocards for the day. “I don’t even think I was a teenager yet.”
“That is quite some time,” OJ blinks. “But worry not, I know these stations and stops like the back of my hand. We shouldn’t get lost as long as we stay on course.”
“You know all the stops?” Paige gasps. “Like, all of the Bronx or all of the boroughs?”
OJ looks away humbly. “All of the boroughs,” he confirms.
“Woah!” Paige smiles. “That’s amazing!” OJ just rubs the back of his neck shyly.
“The next train will be arriving soon,” announces over the intercom.
“Oh, we should probably get upstairs,” OJ says, grabbing Paige’s hand. Paige lets OJ take him up the stairs, him holding onto the rail.
“Train now arriving,” drones the announcer again. And, true to their word, there’s a train pulling in. People shuffle in and out, the pair of them snaking their way in with OJ at the lead.
“Good thing we were just in time!” Paige says as they both take a seat.
“Now we just transfer a couple of stops from here, which will take us to Brooklyn,” OJ rattles off, curling a finger with the other with each thing he says, “And then we transfer twice more. And then we should be there!”
“Yippie!” Paige cheers quietly as not to disturb the other riders. “So, did you bring anything to do? We’ve got a lot of waiting to do!”
“I actually brought an activity I thought both of us could do,” OJ smiles, reaching into his bag. He pulls out a fairly large iPad and opens it up with his finger. “Have you ever heard of a game called Flow Free?”
“The little bridges game, right?” Paige asks. “Where none of them can cross each other?”
“Exactly.” OJ navigates to a folder on the second page before opening up none other than Flow Free.
“Oh, cool!” Paige smiles. “I think I might remember some of these, actually.”
“Perhaps,” OJ smirks. “But not the ones I have.”
True to his word, OJ taps on a button that was not there for Paige when he played forever ago. “What’s this?” he asks, leaning over on the other to get a better view.
OJ chuckles. “This is all the DLC that came out in the years since you’ve last played,” he informs. “So many stages have been added! That’ll get us from here, to the park and back, I can assure you.”
“Awesome!” Paige grins. “So, how are we gonna do this? Back and forth with each round?”
“Mmm… I had an idea that might be a bit more fun,” OJ says slyly.
“Oh?”
“We can do that, but also keep score.”
Paige tilts his head. “What do you mean? Won’t we have the same score by default?”
“Not if we give up and let the other try after getting frustrated,” OJ suggests. “I’ve done it before with my moms with other games.”
“Ohh…” Paige nods, then stops. “But, wait. You’ve had these for way longer than me! You probably know all the answers!”
“I don’t, actually.” OJ scrolls for a little bit before he gets to a page that is only a bit lit up. “I come back to this game very rarely, so I’ve only really completed a couple of the new ones.” He turns to Paige. “We should have plenty of them left.”
“Oh, okay!” Paige nods again, fully getting it this time. “We can keep score in the notes app with little tally marks!”
“Oh, I love tally marking,” OJ sighs. “Can I do it for us both?”
Paige has to stifle a giggle. He knew OJ liked doing the tally marks. That’s why he suggested them in the first place, he knew OJ would be happy to do them.
Ah… he was so cute when excited like this.
Paige blinks and quickly rubs at his face a bit, trying to get the blush he knew that was there to calm down. He couldn’t be getting all air headed about OJ now! They were on a… They were hanging out!!
Paige gets it off of his mind by playing the game with OJ, transferring trains when they needed to. Before they knew it, the announcer is droning over the intercom, “Coney Island, last stop, Coney Island.”
“Oh!” Paige smiles, lifting up from leaning over on OJ to see his progress in the level. “We’re here!”
The walk to the park proper is made with oohs and aahs from Paige as he takes in all the changes from when he was last here. The place had gotten quite the facelift since forever ago, pretty mosaics showing the new rides all over the walls. The boardwalk was mostly the same, but it was the park itself that was the interesting place.
“Here we are, Paige!” OJ grinned. “Luna Park!”
+++
The two teens enter the park proper, getting a lay of the land. While Paige looks up and around, OJ glances up and down from the scenery to a map.
“Alright…” he mumbles. “I think I can tell where mostly everything in this area is…”
“Ooh!” Paige gasps, grabbing OJ’s arm and shaking him slightly with one hand, pointing with the other. “OJ, look, look! That carnie game has Pokemon as prizes!”
“Carnie…?” OJ repeats, sounding confused as Paige jumps up and down.
“Can we play? Oh my gosh, I remember when I was little and too short to play… but I can play now!” He keeps rambling. “The prizes were so big to me then! And then—and then I would get on the frog hoppy ride and I would be so pumped up! Because it just kinda threw you up and down, you know? And then I—”
“Paige!” OJ laughs, putting the map away. “While I would be remiss to stop you from continuing, we can walk and talk, no?” He smiles brightly. “After all, how am I supposed to win you a prize by just standing here?”
“You’re going to win me a prize?” Paige gasps. He moves his hand down and grabs OJ’s. “Oh my gosh, c’mon then! What if they run out?”
OJ giggles as the two rush to the game, one of the dart throwing games.
“Step right up, step right up!” the person manning the booth says. “Care to try your luck?”
“Yes!” Orville nods, clapping his hands together. “How much for a round?”
“Three bucks, kiddo.”
“Huh?” Paige questions, lifting up his banded wrist. “Didn’t you say we exchange points for stuff?”
“Ah, yes,” OJ says, handing the booth handler the money, “But these games are technically not a part of the park itself. They’re their own and require money to play.”
“Ohh…” Paige looks off to the side, a bit snide. “Sounds like a con.”
OJ bursts into a laugh, nearly dropping his acquired darts. “Paige! Don’t say that in front of the handler!”
“Oh ho ho!” the handler laughs. “Worry not, kiddo. I’ve been called way worse.”
“If you say so, sir,” OJ says, still a hint of apology in his voice. With that, OJ places the three darts side by side as he tries to aim his throw with the fourth one. He tosses it after a moment of just staring, throwing his whole arm in an arc sideways.
It’s a swing and a miss.
“Aw!” Paige pouts. “Try again!”
OJ nods and does.
Swing and a miss.
And then, twice more, swing and a miss.
“Ouch,” the handler laughs. “Wanna try again?”
“Hmph,” OJ huffs, digging out some more cash. “Give me two more rounds.”
“Oh! Not feeling very lucky, are we?”
OJ shakes his hand. “Two more rounds,” he pouts. “I’m trying to earn something for Paige, here. It just makes more sense to have left over if I want something else, no?”
The handler shrugs. “Whatever you say, kid.” They hand over the darts.
“You know, it’s okay if you can’t win something for me,” Paige says honestly. “I’m just happy to be here with you, so I don’t mind if we just ride some rides and call it a day!”
OJ smiles at Paige, but then gets serious. “I told you I would win this for you, and I intend to keep my word.” He takes a deep breath and lines up for the shot.
And whiffs five times in a row.
“UGH!” he groans, stomping into the ground and shoving his hands in his hair. He scrubs at it as he stomps, growling all the way.
“Hey, it’s ok!” Paige says, holding his arms up in a placating manner. “Really, if it’s a money thing, I can pay you back what you lost. It’s only like 10 dollars, right?”
“It’s not the money!” OJ huffs, crossing his arms and looking away. “I really wanted to win you something…” he grumbles. “I’m usually so good at these…”
“Maybe I can try?” Paige says, looking down at the single dart left. “You have one more play left.”
“Be my guest,” OJ sighs. “Maybe you’ll have some better luck.”
Paige nods with determination. He picks up the dart, aims, and throws.
POP!
“Woah-ho!” the booth manager whoops, ringing a loud bell. “We’ve got a winner here, folks!”
Paige smiles wide. “Oh, cool!” He turns to OJ. “OJ, I won!”
“I see!” OJ says, dumbfounded. “And in one throw, too!”
“Which prize do you want, kiddo?” the manager asks, picking up a long stick and pointing at the many, many plushies that hung on top of the booth.
“Oh, um…” He looks over them all, then looks back at OJ. “You choose!”
“Me?” OJ blinks, pointing to himself.
“Yes! It was your round, after all.”
OJ stares for a minute before his face melts. “Oh Paige, you’re just the kindest aren’t you?” Paige’s smile turns shy as he rubs the back of his neck, giggling a bit. But OJ shakes his head. “No, it was your win. I insist you choose a prize for yourself.”
“Okay…” Paige drones temptingly. “If you’re suuuure….”
OJ nods. “I’m sure.”
“Okay, then!” Paige grins. “That one, please!” he says, pointing to a more hidden one in the corner.
The manager fishes it out. “This weird gray dog?” they ask as confirmation.
“Yep!”
“Oh, there’s no way…” OJ gasps.
“Oh hey!” the manger laughs as he hands the shiny Eevee plushie over. “The thing matches your backpack!”
“It does!” Paige nods happily.
“That’s incredible, Paige!” OJ congratulates. “I didn’t even notice this back there!”
“Heehee!” Paige giggles. “Even I can have a sharp eye sometimes!”
“And you would’ve given that up for something of my choosing?” OJ asks, wonder in his voice.
Paige shrugs. “It’s just a plushie. It makes me happy having it, yeah, but I don’t know. I think seeing you happy would be an equal trade.”
OJ’s grin is shy as he looks away.
“Hey, kiddo,” the handler butts in, “You want a free shot?”
“Huh?” Paige blinks, turning to them. “Why?”
“You’re the first one I seen this whoooole year make a good shot, let alone popping a balloon. I’d think my boss wouldn’t be too upset if I lended you one.” They smile and cover half of their face, mock whispering. “I’ll even let ya get a second prize if you can hit it twice in a row!”
“Then OJ can get a prize after all!” Paige claps happily.
“Oh, you really don’t have to…” OJ says kindly. “We can go.”
“But it’s free!” Paige argues. “I might as well try, right?”
OJ sighs. “Yes, I suppose. But don’t gets discouraged if you—”
“Winner!!”
OJ blinks.
“Okay!” Paige smiles wide and turns to OJ. “Which one do you want now?”
“I-I…” OJ breathes. “Ah…”
“OJ?” Paige blinks, pulling into himself. Did he make OJ feel bad by winning twice in a row? “Are you okay?”
“Yes!” OJ gasps, shaking his head. “Yes, yes, I’m quite fine. I just… was surprised! Even when I win at this game, it normally takes me a good couple of shots between wins!”
“I guess I’m just lucky!” Paige grins, giving a peace sign. “Now c’mon! Pick one, pick one!”
“Okay, okay!” OJ laughs, releasing the tension. “Um… let’s see…” He looks over all the plushies like Paige had just done a minute ago before gasping and pointing. “That one, please!”
“This weird blue one?” the handler asks, tapping at the Cyndaquil hanging up.
“Yes, please!”
“Here you go, kiddo.” They hand the plush to OJ and he smiles before looking Paige in the eyes.
“You know, Paige,” he starts, hugging the plush to his chest, “I always did think I could see some Cyndaquil in me.”
Paige’s smile becomes slightly strained and confused. Why did that sound so familiar…?
……Ah!
Paige’s eyes widen.
That was exactly what his secret admirer had said on his last note!!
OJ’s smile softens.
Paige’s face heats up beyond belief.
There was no way.
There was no way that OJ was…!!!