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Paige couldn’t believe it. OJ? The one person he was already crushing hard on? He was Paige’s secret admirer!?
“L-let’s go ride something!” he yelps suddenly, surprising even himself. “I-I mean, no use just standing around, right?” He pulls off his bag and slips in his Eevee plushie before putting it back on. “Daylight only lasts so long in November!”
“When you’re right, you’re right, Paige,” OJ nods with a cute smile, opening his bag. He gently places the Cyndaquil into it, zipping it so it was secure. “I’m ready to ride whatever you wish!”
The two teens make their way from one end of the park to the other, riding everything that piqued either of their interests. Neither of them would really call one another thrill seekers, but for whatever reason, they were both drawn to higher thrill rides the whole way through.
On one ride, The Tickler, OJ leans over on Paige after the two of them have been flung back and forth and squeaks, “Kyaa—!” Paige freezes for a moment, not ready for OJ to be on him. But he recovers before the other can and retaliates by holding him closer.
By the time they climb off of that ride, both of them look as red as tomatoes.
At some point, the sun begins her descent and the two decide it’s time to get a small snack before going on a few more rides and going home. As Paige sits on a bench to take a breather, OJ gets on line for them to get a couple of overpriced hot dogs.
Finally alone with his thoughts, Paige rocks back and forth a bit, legs pulled onto the bench with him. Does he know I know? he wonders. Do we just… pretend like neither of us know? I don’t want to push him if he’s not ready… but then why would he have said that? It was a direct quote! …But still… Maybe I should keep acting like I don’t know…
Paige’s train of thought is interrupted by OJ sitting down next to him, handing him a small hot dog. “Here you are, Paige!” he smiles wide.”I made sure they didn’t put ketchup on it for you.”
“You remembered?” Paige blinks, taking the food. “Thank you!”
“Of course,” OJ shrugs. “It’s no problem.”
The two of them eat in relative silence, sitting rather close to each other. Paige takes longer than OJ to finish, so once the other does, he stretches out. When he puts his hands back down, one of them lands on top of Paige’s.
They stay like that until Paige finishes eating. He takes a really long time to finish for some reason.
The pair ride a couple more rides until the sun is really starting to lose her shine. It’s time to go.
“So,” OJ says, taking out his Cyndaquil plush from its confinement, “How did you enjoy Luna Park after all this time?”
Paige follows along, freeing his Eevee and smiling. “It was great!” he grins, jumping a bit. “There were so many new rides from the last time I was here!”
“The park sees steady maintenance,” OJ nods, holding his plush to his chest. “It’s unsurprising, but exciting, isn’t it? There could be any new ride there next season for all we know!”
“That is exciting!” Paige agrees. “Can we go again?”
OJ’s expression grows a little odd, but he replaces it with a soft smile after. “Of course, Paige. I’d love to do anything with you.”
Wow! Was it suddenly really warm in here? Or was it just Paige’s face?
“Um!” he starts awkwardly. “What—what should we name them?”
OJ blinks. “Name them?”
“Our Pokemon!” Paige smiles, feeling a little more at ease. OJ would no doubt follow this thread and leave the other one alone until Paige could get home and think about it so hard. But that was for then, and not now.
“Oh!” OJ chuckles. “I don’t know, I rarely name my plushes.”
Paige gasps, “But you have so many!”
“Exactly!” OJ laughs. “I would hate to forget one of their names.”
“Mmm…” Paige pouts. “That’s fair, I guess.”
OJ laughs more as the train pulls into the station.
“Okay, okay, okay,” Paige giggles, taking a seat next to OJ on the train. “But seriously! I think our guys should have matching names! Since we got them at the same place together, you know?”
“Ah… hmm…” OJ twiddles his thumbs. “If you’re certain, I have an idea, but it may not make much sense to you.”
“Tell me!” Paige smiles.
“Well… how about Patro and Achili?” OJ holds up his Cyndaquil. “I’d like Achili for this little guy if that’s alright.”
Paige hums, furrowing his brows. Those names sounded vaguely familiar for one reason or another… he feels like he remembers hearing them in school, but that would make sense. OJ was a bit of a nerd, so he would pick kind of nerdy names for their plushies, wouldn’t he?
“Then Eevee is now Patro!” he grins. “You’re right, I don’t really get what they mean, but you do, don’t you?”
OJ looks away with a wide but shy smile. “I do.”
“Then they’re perfect!” Paige assures, leaning over on the other. It takes the three seconds that he stays there for him to realize, oh. He’s tired.
The teen yawns. “OJ, is it okay if I take a nap? I just realized how much today took out of me…”
“Of course, Paige. Here.” OJ rearranges the two of them so that Paige is comfortably against OJ’s shoulder, using his scarf as a makeshift pillow for the other. “I’ll keep vigil until we have to transfer, alright?”
Paige nods and lets himself become limp against the other, a small smile on his face.
+++
“OJ……” Paige whines as they trudge their way out of the subway station. “I’m so sleepy……”
The current set up is Paige being all but dragged by OJ by the hand as he leads them where they need to go. In their unoccupied hands, each of them hold onto their plushies.
“You sound dead on your feet,” OJ giggles.
“I aaaaammm…” Paige groans.
OJ laughs outright now. “Would you like to stay over, perhaps?” he offers after recovering. “I’m sure my moms wouldn’t mind.”
“Can I?” Paige asks, sobering a little. The sudden prospect of spending more time with OJ after finding out… well, Paige wasn’t about to give that up, was he?
OJ chuckles. “That woke you up a bit.”
“What?” Paige blinks. “Oh, um… I mean…” He coughs and leans all his weight to each of his steps. “Caaaaannnn I…? I’m soooooo sleepyyyyy…”
OJ laughs so hard he snorts, and then blushes and covers his face. “Um!” he squeaks, coughing. “I—I’m the one who invited you, aren’t I?”
“You areeee,” Paige nods slowly.
“Then you’re more than welcome to, silly boy.”
Paige decides to worry about what that does to him later, like tomorrow, or the next day, or 70 years from now.
+++
“Are you all good?” OJ asks as he finishes blowing up the air mattress.
“Yep!” Paige smiles. “I texted Mom everything and she replied with a thumbs up emoji.” He yawns. “Sorry I had to borrow some of your clothes after showering by the way… I didn’t exactly plan on this, heehee.” He rubs the back of his neck shyly.
“It’s quite alright, Paige!” OJ assures, standing up. “I don’t mind at all.”
Paige picks up Patro from where he had left him on top of his bag. “Thanks for blowing up the mattress. I could honestly just sleep standing up right now…”
“Oh, did you forget?” OJ chuckles. “You take my bed. I take the air mattress.”
Paige pouts, but knows he’d just be fighting a losing battle if he were to argue. “Fiiiine…” he laments, walking gingerly over to the bed and sitting. “If you’re sureeeee…”
“I’m just as sure as I was last time, Paige,” OJ giggles.
Paige likes OJ’s giggle.
He blinks. “Um,” he says quietly, shaking his head. “I’m going to fall asleep now, okay?”
“Alright.” OJ has collected the bedding he would need for the mattress and fixed it all up by the time Paige had come back to reality. “Rest well! Goodnight!”
“Goodnight!” Paige says back, rolling over in the bed. Soon there are two clicks in the room, one being the overhead lights being turned off and the other being his desk’s night light being turned on. OJ really didn't like the dark.
Paige holds his stuffed Eeeve close to him as he tries to drift off, but he ends up just laying there. For what feels like hours. The only thing he can hear is his own breathing and OJ’s, but neither is steady.
Oh… that meant OJ was also still awake, didn’t it?
“OJ…?” he calls quietly.
“Yes Paige?” OJ mumbles, lifting up. “Wh’t is it?” He’s rubbing at one of his eyes.
“Oh no, did I wake you up?” Paige despairs. “Nevermind, nevermind.”
“No, I w’sn’t quite asleep yet,” OJ assures. “What is it?”
“Oh… umm…” Paige had not come into this without a plan. He hums a bit shakily. “Um…”
“Oh, are y’u cold?” OJ asks, standing. He leaves Achili on the bed. “Here, I c’n get you s’me more blankets.”
“Um!” Paige says quickly, using that thread as a lifeline. “Actually, I don’t think I need anymore blankets!”
“Oh?” OJ blinks blearily. “Th’n what’s up?”
“Um… actually…” Paige scoops up Patro. “Patro is cold! A-and I’m… sure he could use a companion! For warmth! Y-you know?”
OJ stares at the other, looking a bit confused, until his face clears. “You w’nna sleep with Achili?” he mumbles. “You just had t’ ask.” He picks up his Cyndaquil and hands it over gently, sleepy smile on his face. “Silly.”
Paige was going to explode.
“Actually!” Paige says before he can chicken out, “I don’t think! Achili would like to sleep without you! S-so you! Can sleep here too! I-if you want!”
OJ again takes a moment to process Paige’s words, but jolts once he does. “You want me to sleep with you?”
Paige squeaks. Oh goodness. How was he supposed to answer that? “I-I mean, you can—I can sleep on the air mattress after all!” He’s backpedaling so hard it’s like his life depended on it. “It’s—really, I can—”
OJ giggles, cutting Paige off. “M’ve over,” he says, shooing the other weakly.
Paige blinks and does so, moving towards the back of the bed. Before he knows it, OJ is laying down next to him, holding onto Achili.
“G’night, Paige…” OJ mumbles, snuggling in closer to his stuffed Cyndaquil.
“G-goodnight…!” Paige replies, head swimming. Within minutes, OJ’s breathing has evened out.
Paige’s heart hammers for the rest of the night.
The next day is spent at Paige’s house, playing games, watching TV… doing whatever the two wanted before it’s time for OJ to go back home.
So, here Paige is, Sunday night, sitting at his desk in despair.
We both know! he thinks. What do I write? Do I write in the first place? Oh gosh…
“Is this really worth all this goddamned stress?” Leaf interrupts roughly, rolling their eyes. “If you both know, just walk up to him and tell him. That’s how this thing is supposed to work, isn’t it?”
“...Nnno?” Paige says, unsure. “I… Look, I don’t know! I’m new to this!”
“Well hurry up and make up your mind,” Leaf huffs. “The light is bothering me.”
Paige pouts, upset. Leaf never made things easy for him, did they?
+++
The next morning, Paige shuffles out of his mom’s car, Brandon right behind him.
I didn’t even tell Brandon… Paige thinks to himself. Should I? I normally tell him everything, but he might say I should do something if I do…
“Yo!” Brandon shouts suddenly. “Earth to Major Control!”
“Huh?” Paige asks, blinking out of his thoughts. “Um… what—what is it?”
“I asked for your note, dude.” It’s true, Brandon has his hand out like he normally does when waiting for the notes. “I gotta get to class early, so I wanted to make sure I got it before I bolted.”
“Oh… u-um…” Paige shyly takes out the note he wrote last night and hands it to his brother. “Here…”
Brandon takes the note skeptically. “You alright man?” he asks, putting a hand on Paige’s shoulder. “You’re normally like, super hype about this.”
Paige nods, but it’s a little pathetic. “I’m just… worried about how he’ll take this one, I guess.”
“Psh!” Brandon smirks, ribbing the other. “You’ve been going back and forth strong so far! I’m sure he’ll love it no matter what.” He turns around, shrugging. “Besides, nothing’s changed, right? So you’ll be fine.”
“Right…” Paige mumbles. “Nothing’s changed…”
“That’s what I just said, dude!” Brandon laughs. “But look, I gotta get t’ stepping. I’ll see you later, ‘kay?”
“‘Kay…” Paige waves. And like that, Brandon is gone.
I hope I didn’t screw this up… Paige worries as he slowly follows the crowd into the school.
+++
Paige heads into the cafeteria, chewing his lip. He’s not looking where he’s going, navigating by muscle memory the whole way, so when he gets off of the lunch line, he’s not looking at the table the Crew normally sits at. So when he hears a “Paige!” he’s surprised by whose voice it is.
”Oh!” he perks up. “OJ!”
OJ waves, beckoning Paige over. “Hello, hello!”
Paige rushes over, thoughts dispelled. “Hi!” he beams, sitting down and turning towards the other. “What are you doing here? Isn’t your lunch period after ours?”
“It is,” OJ nods. “But I had an empty period, so I thought I’d come visit everyone today!”
“Oh!” Paige smiles wide. “That’s awesome!”
“We’re all happy to see you too, Paige,” Brandon says with a fake pout. Everyone else laughs, but Paige flushes.
“Ah! Sorry!” he apologizes. “But it’s not everyday OJ’s here, you know? I just got a little turned around.”
“I’m sure you did,” Brandon says not unkindly, but he does roll his eyes. “Here, by the way.” He holds between his pointer and middle fingers the reply note for today.
Paige gasps and glances over at OJ, who is conveniently sipping at juice with his eyes closed. Can I read this with him right here? Paige wonders. Is that weird?
“Go on,” Brandon urges. “Read away. I think today’s is pretty good!”
“Oh, Brandon! Honestly!” Paige pouts, snapping up the note. “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a million times…”
“Yeah, yeah,” Brandon laughs. “Go on, loverboy. Read your note.”
Paige huffs, but opens the note regardless.
Today’s note reads—
Before Paige can properly read it, there’s a loud slam on the table in front of him, an arm shooting between him and Brandon. “What the FUCK is this?” booms a loud voice.
Oh.
It’s PB again.
“What the fuck is what, asshole?” Brandon immediately frowns. “You interrupting our wonderful second-rate-bully-free lunch?”
PB growls and points down at what he placed on the table. “This,” he stresses. “What the fuck is this.”
Paige blinks and slowly looks down at what it is, which happens to be the school newspaper. On it in big letters is the headline: PAIGE IS A FIGHTING MASTER? The Yin Yang Cutter’s Response!
“Um,” is all Paige can say.
“Is that all you can say?” PB laughs humorlessly. He then grabs Paige by the collar and lifts him a bit. “Get up you little twerp. I never got the chance to beat you up last time.”
“Hold on,” Brandon says, shooting up and grabbing the hand that holds Paige. “First, put my friend down. Second, what the hell does this have to do with you anyways? You just trying to find reason to fight?” He rolls up his sleeve. “‘Cause I can fight if you just want to fight.”
“Brandon—” Paige tries, only to be cut off by PB.
“That kid you beat up is my cousin,” he spits. “Not that I actually give a shit, but I’m not about to let his reputation ruin mine.”
“S-so you’re going to fight me?” Paige squeaks.
“So I’m going to fight you,” PB replies, unkind smile on his face.
“No,” Brandon says, removing PB’s hand from Paige’s collar and pushing him back, “You’re going to fight me.”
“No,” says a third player, throwing their hat into the ring, “I think he’ll be fighting me.”
Paige blinks as OJ stands, pushing Brandon back down. “OJ…?”
“Aww, are you his little boyfriend or something?” PB sneers mockingly, then takes a closer look at OJ. “Wait a sec. Aren’t you that one nerd everyone smart hates?” Paige frowns at the remark. Did OJ have problems with other bullies? “Pfft. You think you’re gonna beat me with what, some math facts or some shit?”
OJ carefully steps over to the other, a cool look on his face. Paige panics. “OJ, no! You don’t have to—”
“Nah,” PB says, drawing himself up. “He does now.”
OJ and PB stand only inches away from each other, an intense staredown happening. OJ doesn’t seem the slightest bit scared, even though PB is at least a foot or two taller than him.
And then PB swings first.
…And OJ deflects him like it’s nothing…!?
“What the—” PB groans and throws another punch, only for that to get blocked as well. “What the fuck!?”
OJ’s expression is neat and put together, a small smile on his face. “What? Did you not take martial arts as well?” He tuts. “I assumed someone who wanted to fight would actually know how.”
“Martial—are you fucking kidding me?” PB sounds completely dumbstruck.
“I’m not,” OJ says, shaking his head. “But I am done with this fight.”
“Wh—AUGH!!”
OJ does what can only be described as a turnaround, grabbing one of PB’s still outstretched arms and twisting with his whole weight, pulling the older skinny teen with him. OJ spins on an axis, taking PB from off his feet to being slammed on the floor with a loud thump.
“Oh my gosh,” Paige gasps as OJ dusts his hands off. “OJ, are you okay?”
“Quite fine, Paige,” OJ smiles. “I don’t take kindly to bullies, is all.”
“That was so cool!” Brandon cheers. “Did you really take martial arts?”
OJ nods along with Sue. “Orville took some classes around 3rd grade if I recall correctly.” They smile wryly. “I knew this fight would be open and shut.”
“Woah…” Bro breathes. “H-how did you know th-at?”
Sue shrugs. “He told me once.”
“And WHAT is going on over here?” booms a voice suddenly.
Uh oh.
It was the Lunch Squad.
Ms. Meredith storms over, Mr. Memphis and Mr. Merlyn right behind her.
“I-it was that insane kid!” one of PB’s lackeys accuse, pointing at OJ. “He threw PB down on the ground for no reason!”
“Literally a lie,” Brandon breaks in, only to be cut off by the other lackey.
“Is not! It was completely unprompted violence!” they shout.
“B-but…” Paige mumbles.
“It’s—it’s—” Bro tries. “That’s—it’s—they’re—”
Sue places a hand on theirs and gives a steely gaze to Ms. Meredith. “Peewee decided to fight Paige, and Orville stood up for him.” They raise an eyebrow. “Surely you’re going to punish the right party?”
Ms. Meredith shivers, frowning. “I will be doing whatever I want to do, Ms. Cruz.”
Sue frowns, but says nothing more.
“Hmph!” Ms. Meredith huffs, snatching up OJ’s hand and PB’s right after his two lackeys help him up. “Both of you will be receiving punishments for fighting on school grounds.” She turns to Mr. Memphis. “Memphis, watch this area while I’m gone.” He nods and she then turns to Mr. Merlyn. “Merlyn you…” she falters. “You do whatever you want.” He also nods and then the three of them break away, OJ and PB in tow with Ms. Meredith.
“Oh no…” Paige frowns, upset. “OJ got in trouble because of me…”
“Orville will be fine,” Sue assures. “As far as I know, he’s got no offenses prior to this, so Mr. Parlett will most likely just let him off with a warning.”
“Do you really think so?” Paige asks, worried.
“I do,” Sue nods.
+++
Paige and OJ text all night. It turns out Sue was right, OJ only got a slap on the wrist while PB was suspended for a couple of weeks.
Paiges: You really didn’t have to do that for me you know! I’m sorry I made you…
hyaku% oj: It’s quite alright, Paige. You didn’t make me do anything, I assure you. I simply did what I thought was best at the moment. If someone was going to fight you, I wasn’t going to sit back and watch it happen. After all, it’s you we’re talking about. I don’t mind a bit of fighting for you.
Paige tries really hard not to let his blushing distract him.
The two go back and forth until it’s time to sleep. Paige sighs heavily as he curls up under his bedding with Teds.
Well, he thinks, With PB gone, at least tomorrow can’t be any worse than today was.
Still, he worries. He worries and worries until he falls into a fitful sleep.
+++
Tomorrow is worse.
Paige goes through the motions of waking up, getting dressed, eating, going to school with Brandon… Everything is fine for all of that.
And then he steps inside of the school. Almost immediately giggles fill the air, causing Paige’s anxiety to spike. He wasn’t a stranger to laughs being thrown his way, but this seemed almost concentrated. He could almost swear people were staring and pointing at him.
“Jeez,” Brandon huffs. “What’s with everyone today?”
Paige’s phone rings. He blinks and checks the caller ID.
It’s Bro.
“Hello?” Paige answers, worried. “You don’t usually call, Bro. Is something wrong?”
“Don’t—don’t—d-don’t—” Bro stutters, groaning after. He takes a deep breath before managing to get out, “Don’t go to your locker.”
Paige furrows his brows and stops, causing Brandon to stop too. They were close to it by now, they only needed to turn the corner. “Why? I’m almost there.”
“Just don’t,” Bro stresses. “Not right now.”
“But…”
“Paige!” Bro shouts. “Do not! Go! To your locker!”
“O-okay!” he yelps. “I won’t!”
“Good.” With that, Bro hangs up.
“What was all that about?” Brandon asks. “And what aren’t you doing?”
Paige sighs. “I don’t know… Bro called and told me not to go to my locker…” He bites his lip. “But my books are in there…”
“Maybe there’s someone there waiting to fight you or something?” Brandon suggests, making Paige gulp. “B-but maybe not!” he backpedals. “Look, I’ll go with you. Whatever’s there can’t be so bad, right?”
Paige hums as Brandon takes his hand and starts to pull him to his locker. The closer they get, the more the crowd concentrates. In fact, it all seems to be surrounding… his locker?
“Alright!” Brandon shouts as they reach the outskirts of it, completely cut off by the amount of students around it, “Anyone who wants to get the snot beat out of them is welcome to stay! Everyone else, get the hell out!”
Brandon’s patented Scary Face is on when he says it, forcing a majority of the crowd to immediately dissipate. There’s a couple of stragglers, but Brandon jukes at them and they rush away. There’s only one left, who’s taping something… to Paige’s… locker…
Oh.
Paige’s locker is covered in notes.
“What the hell is this?” Brandon frowns, stomping on the ground next to the outlier, who scrambles away once they realize they’re being threatened. Brandon stares at the many pieces of paper stuck to Paige’s locker and blanches.
“Paige,” he breathes. “Paige, leave.”
“What?” Paige asks, breath starting to speed up. First Bro and now Brandon? What was this all about? “Brandon, what—”
“Paige, leave.” Brandon stresses, taking out his phone. He takes a picture of the locker before looking back at the other. “Please. You don’t want to see these.”
Paige is really upset, but he’s honestly too scared to actually read what’s on any of the notes now. So he bites his lip hard before nodding. “Can you… get me my books?”
“Yeah man,” Brandon says, still distracted by his phone. “No problem. Just wait in front of your class, alright? I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Okay…”
Paige stares a little longer before turning around and walking away.
Just what did any of those notes say? And why were they so bad nobody wanted him to see them?
…And why was everyone else so interested in them?
Paige’s head is hazy for the rest of the beginning of school. No matter what, he can’t get his mind off of all the stuff that was plastered all over his locker. What did it say? Why was it so horrible? Why did the whole school seem to be in on a joke he wasn’t?
When Paige leaves his fourth period class, he doesn’t even think twice about it as he heads to his locker. His head is so full of whys that he just lets himself follow his natural route to the lunchroom, where he always passes by his locker.
It’s not until he’s at it proper does he notice something.
All of the notes that were taped to the locker earlier have been replaced by one single neat note. It says, “I cleaned up that atrocious mess for you.” In a small circle under it is a smiley face. At the bottom, it’s signed S.S..
Paige plucks the note off of his locker to see it’s actually folded. He flips it over to read:
“P.S. If you have even the slightest inkling of who may have done this, please report them to the principal immediately.”
Paige blinks.
“Always need someone to clean up after you, huh Paige?” Leaf snickers., causing Paige to frown again.
“Can you please be nice to me?” he pleads. “Things are kind of scary for me right now!”
Leaf blows a small raspberry. “I’m sorry, do you want somebody to hold your hand?”
“Ugh!” Paige stomps his foot and whines. “I don’t know what your issue is, but I can’t deal with it and everything else right now!”
“Whatever,” Leaf says, rolling their eyes. “I’ll go and die then, I guess.”
“What?” Paige gasps.
…There’s no response.
“Leaf?”
Nothing.
Paige sighs. Leaf just kind of talked like that, didn’t they? He was sure they were okay.
Maybe.
Hopefully.
+++
“Paige,” Sue says as the teen approaches the lunch table he shared with his friends. There’s an urgent tone in their voice. “We know who committed the crime.”
“Crime?” he asks, sitting down and looking around. “Also, where’s Brandon?”
“He-he’s at th-e Dean’s,” Bro answers.
“What!?” Paige gasps. “Why!?”
“He’s reporting what happened to you.” Sue lifts an eyebrow. “You know. The crime.”
Paige squints. “...You mean the notes on my locker earlier?”
“Yeah,” Bro nods. “It was… i-it was…” They shake their head. “I—I’m just glad you d-didn’t see any of th-at.”
“Could it really have been that bad?” Paige asks with a small laugh in his voice as he opens his milk box.
Sue and Bro stare very seriously at Paige.
“...I guess it could have,” he frowns, taking a sip.
“Hey guys!” says a voice Paige is happy to hear. “Ya boy’s back!”
“Brandon!” Paige smiles, turning to the other as he approaches. “Hi!”
“Hey man,” Brandon grins, giving the other a Brotherly Pat On The Back. Paige only coughs a little bit. “You doin’ alright?”
“Yeah, I’m okay!” he nods. “My locker was cleaned up by someone!”
“Oh for real?” Brandon blinks. “Who?”
Paige shuffles around and pulls the note out of his pocket. “Here, look. They left this.”
The whole Crew looks at the note, passing it around. Sue holds onto it and stares at it hard. “I recognize this handwriting too.”
“Too?” Paige blinks.
“Ah, that’s right, you weren’t here,” Sue mumbles. “Brandon reported the notes because I was able to parse the handwriting of a couple of them.” They frown deeply. “It was PB and his lackeys again.”
“Again?” Paige laments. “What did I ever do to that guy to deserve this?”
“I-I th-ink he’s just like that,” Bro sighs.
“I guess…” Paige mumbles dejectedly. But then, he gasps suddenly. “Oh no! I never got to read O—” He coughs. “I-I never got to read my note from yesterday!”
“You also never gave me a new one, so I don’t have one for you today,” Brandon informs. “Might as well pretend like yesterday’s was today’s, I guess.”
Paige nods and digs out the note from where he had haphazardly shoved it into his bag the day before. He smooths it out once he’s got it.
Yesterday’s note reads:
“Perhaps a meet up should happen sooner than later then, hm? I tend to be a lot more verbose in the flesh, but I’m always happy to talk to you, should you be willing to listen. Though, something tells me I might already know how you feel on the matter. ♥
(P.S.
I’m glad you had a fun time recently! I can only imagine what going on those rides with your friend was like, but I hope to experience the same with you at some point… maybe even next year? Heehee!)”
Paige’s day has been pretty bad so far, but the note makes his heart swell. OJ could pretend like they didn’t both know for as long as he wanted. Paige was more than happy to play this game with him!
+++
When Paige gets home, his mom is absent as usual. Her job kept her busy during the week, and sometimes during the weekends.
But honestly? Today was for the best. Because Paige tosses his bag down and sits down angrily on his bed, crossing his arms. “Okay,” he frowns. “Leaf, what’s happening with you right now? You’ve been so mean to me recently, and I don’t get it!”
Leaf does not respond.
“Leaf!”
“God, what? What?” they growl. “What the hell do you want?”
“I want you to stop being so distant!” Paige shouts, curling up. “You said you came here to protect me… but you’ve been nothing but mean for like the past couple of weeks now!”
“Hmph.” Leaf huffs. “You don’t actually care.”
“Why in the world would you think that?” Paige pouts. “I’m literally trying to get you to open up to me right now!”
“......”
“Leaf,” Paige pleads. “Please.”
Leaf sighs heavily. “Look, me and Brandon had an… argument.”
“What? When?”
“That Sunday after we watched those movies.”
“Oh…” Paige frowns. “I was asleep for most of that day…”
“Yeah.” Leaf frowns. “So I said something fucking stupid. And he left.”
“Okay?” Paige says. “But you apologized right?”
Leaf is silent.
“Leaf,” Paige despairs. “You didn’t apologize?”
“Oh, I’m sorry!” Leaf laughs. “You’ve been sooooo busy with your little boytoy I don’t think I ever found the time!”
“Boyt—” Paige flushes. “Do you have something against OJ or something too?”
“I don’t care about that nerd.” Leaf says, rolling their eyes.
“Hey!”
“Oh, be quiet. You’ve literally called him a nerd before.”
“Yeah, but…”
“But nothing.”
Paige groans. “Look, this doesn’t matter right now! You’ve gotta apologize to Brandon right now!”
“Are you out of your mind?” Leaf frowns. “He’ll probably just tell me he wants me to die and then I’ll do something stupid again and you’ll be even more mad at me and I’ll just have to kill myself—”
“Wait, wait, wait!” Paige says, waving his hands in front of him. “None of that is gonna happen! You just have to say sorry and everything will be okay!”
“It won’t,” Leaf says sternly. “And I’ll show you.”
Paige opens his mouth to ask what Leaf means, but then he’s suddenly not in control of his body. He watches as an angry Leaf finds his phone on the bed and dials Brandon’s number.
“Ayo!” Brandon greets as he picks up. “What’s up, dude?”
“I’m sorry,” Leaf says roughly. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
Brandon is quiet for a moment before laughing. “Dude, what’re you talking about? Said what?”
“Last week,” Leaf continues. Their voice hasn’t gotten any less scratchier. It’s like they’re purposefully pushing it to be like that.
“...Paige?” Brandon asks warily.
“Leaf,” the teen sighs.
Brandon immediately scoffs. “You sure have some fucking nerve.” His tone has changed viscerally. “What, Paige ‘asleep’ again or something? You gonna try and get more info out of me? Huh?”
Leaf opens his mouth and makes noises, but they’re definitely not words. Paige can feel how hurt Leaf feels. It’s almost overwhelming.
“Oh, speechless, are we?” Brandon huffs with a laugh. “Cat got your goddamned tongue? ‘Cause it didn’t seem to have anything when you pulled that cheap trick.”
“I said I was sorry!” Leaf shouts.
“Over the phone?” Brandon asks. “Out of nowhere? Probably without Paige’s permission? Over a week later?” He laughs, but it doesn’t sound quite right. “Leaf, you’re a goddamned piece of work.”
“I—”
“Heyyyy.” Brandon’s voice has lost all emotion, becoming bland. “Do me a favor?”
“O-okay?”
Brandon’s voice is sharp when he speaks again. “Don’t fucking call me again. In fact, don’t even talk to me. I don’t ever wanna hear your voice again.”
And with that, the line goes dead.
Leaf listens as the line beeps, signifying the end of the call. Their head is filled with static of all kinds. Thick, thick layers upon layers of static.
Something comes over them. Some want. Some need.
“L-Leaf?” Paige asks, worry in his voice. “Are… are you okay?”
They can’t help it. Leaf laughs. And laughs. And laughs.
“What the FUCK do you think?” they finally spit. “What the fuck do you really and truly think I feel like right now?”
“Um.”
“Yeah. Um.”
Leaf breathes heavily, clutching their head. “Why the fuck did I say anything,” they mumble. “I should’ve kept my fucking mouth shut like I was doing. But no!” Leaf laughs. “I had to hurry up and apologize or some shit, right? Because that would fix everything?”
“Leaf…” Paige warbles. “That’s not fair…”
“Oh, shut the fuck up!” Leaf stomps their foot to punctuate it. “I’m sick of this shit! I come back just to help you and I’m treated like a fucking villain because, what? I expect people to act like how I know they do?”
“You didn’t come back for me,” Paige says, a little mad. “You came back for Kevin.”
“Because your ass wouldn’t have done anything!” Leaf shouts back. “I had to do it!”
“Why? Kevin didn’t ask you for help.”
“Ugh!!!” Leaf pulls their hands out of their hair and holds themself, clawing at their arms. It doesn’t do any damage through the hoodie they're still wearing, but it makes them feel better anyways. “You’re the worst! I do something that you’d never do! I get revenge for one of our best friends! I try to learn one thing and I piss off our other best friend so much he wants me dead!” They fall down on their bed and push their hands into their eyes. “It’s not fucking fair!!”
“Leaf…” Paige mumbles.
“And now!” Leaf shouts, sniffling, “Now, I have you all mad at me! What the fuck am I then? What good am I?” They laugh humorlessly. “Nothing. Fucking garbage.” They fall down sideways on the bed. “I need to be thrown away.”
“No you don’t!” Paige cries. “You just… you just need to calm down a bit…”
“Calm down?” Leaf laughs, blubbery. “You want—you want me to calm down?” They sniff. “I’ll show you what makes me fucking calm.”
The teen rises, vitriol and rage and just plain anger flowing throughout their bloodstream. It was like they could physically feel themself heating up.
Blood boiling, they stomp into Quinn’s room and then her bathroom, an odd smile pulling at their face.
“Leaf?” Paige asks quietly. “What are we doing here?”
“Oh?” Leaf says kindly. “Did I not tell you?” Their voice gains its natural edge again as they spit, “I’m showing you what makes me calm!”
Leaf laughs maniacally as they open the cabinet where their mom kept her razors to shave with.
“Leaf!” Paige shouts. “What are you doing!?”
Leaf pulls out a box of brand new razors and takes one out. “You know exactly what I’m doing,” he scoffs.
He goes to roll up his sleeve, but suddenly, he can’t seem to move.
“You’re not—I’m not gonna let you do that!!” Paige shouts, dropping the thing along with the rest of the box into the sink. He’s making the both of them tremble. “Leaf! Wh-what the heck!!”
“Whatever,” Leaf huffs, angry. “What the fuck ever.”
“No, not what the eff ever!” Paige yells, scrambling back into his room. “Leaf, you were about to—you—” He breathes heavily. “You—!”
“Get over it,” Leaf says, rolling their eyes. They use all their power to hide how mad and upset and hurt and pained they feel. If Paige wanted to be mad at them, then he could be mad at a husk.
“I—No!” Paige curls into a ball on the floor, back against his bed. “I can’t let you do this anymore, Leaf!”
“Do what? Protect you and our friends?”
“You haven’t done any ‘protecting’ in ages! You just tried to hurt us!!”
“It wouldn’t have hurt you,” Leaf says nonchalantly. “Big baby. Unlike you, I know how to take a bit of pain.” They snort. “Not like I didn’t suffer the worst from Mack or anything.”
Paige’s whole body becomes limp as he sighs. “I’m not going to take this from you,” he says quietly. “You can’t come in here out of nowhere, hurt my friends and family and me and expect me to just deal with you.”
Leaf laughs. “Oh, I’m something to deal with now, huh?” Their tone becomes like steel, but there’s still a challenging smile in it. “Then deal with me.”
Leaf knows they have nothing to worry about. Paige is too scared to do anything. Ever. Even if he could do something, there was no way—
“F-fine…” Paige says pensively. “Fine. You… you asked for this.”
The teen clasps his hands together and strains for a moment. Leaf doesn’t know what that’s supposed to do, but it’s obviously not doing anythi—
…was that the sound of something cartoonishly falling?
Leaf looks up just in time to see a bottomless red cage fall overtop of them, bars plentiful and tight together. They blink.
“...What.”
“I—I can’t trust you!” Paige cries as Leaf grabs at a bar and begins to shake with rage. “What if I fall asleep and I wake up in the hospital again because of you!? I—I can’t—!”
“Oh so what, you’re gonna cage me? Cage me for forever or until you need me again or some shit?” Leaf laughs. They laugh and laugh and laugh. “Okay. Fine. Cage me.” They sit and turn away from Paige, crossing their arms. “See if I fucking care.”
“...I’m sorry,” Paige says quietly.
Leaf does not respond.
“Honey…? Honey, wake up…!”
Paige yawns as he’s gently rocked awake feeling completely drained. “Mm… hi?” he asks, rubbing an eye.
He’s then suddenly being held in a crushing hug by none other than his mom. “Oh my god, you’re alright,” they breathe. “Oh, I was so worried…” They run a hand down the back of his head and keep it there, holding Paige impossibly tighter. “Oh, sweetie…”
“M-Mom…?” Paige struggles out. “What’s—what’s wrong…?”
Quinn loosens their grip a bit, enough for Paige to be able to breathe again. “Baby,” they warble, tears in their eyes. “Promise me you’ll never do anything like this again, okay? Please.”
“Mom, what are you talking about?” Paige questions, worried. “You’re starting to scare me…”
“You?” Quinn gasps, pulling back and looking their son in the eyes. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!” They rub at their eyes. “I come home and my brand new box of razors is open and all over the sink. Then I come into your room to check on you, and you’re passed out on the floor!”
Paige furrows his eyebrows, trying to remember what he was doing on the floor in the first place. And why his mom was worried over a box of razors that he didn’t even—
Oh.
It all comes flooding back.
Everything that happened after he had come home, everything that was said since he had come home. And…
He looks within himself to see Leaf still caged, on the floor and breathing evenly, asleep.
Paige remembers everything that had been done after he came home.
“Baby?” Quinn asks, moving a hand to hold his cheek. “Promise me if things ever get that bad again, you’ll tell me first, okay? You’ll tell me and we’ll work it out, okay?” They hold him close again. “You never have to do anything like that again.”
“Mom, Mom, calm down…” He pushes away from them lightly. “I’m okay, I’m okay. I didn’t—I didn’t do anything.” He pulls away enough to take his hoodie off and roll up his sleeves. “Look, see? I didn’t—I wouldn’t…”
“Then… why were all my razors scattered everywhere in my bathroom? And why were you on the floor in a heap?”
“I…” Paige bites his lip. How the heck was he supposed to explain his way out of this one? “I-I….”
“Paige, honey,” Quinn smiles, water still in their eyes, “If you even have ideas of doing that, you come and tell me first. Okay? You can tell me anything.”
“But…” That’s not…
“No but’s!” Quinn swallows their child in another hug. “Please, baby. I don’t know what I’d do if I came home and I had lost you.”
“I…” Paige sighs. Maybe he ought to just let this go for now. He could try and explain properly another time. “Okay, Mom. I-I’m sorry I…”
“No, it’s okay honey,” Quinn is quick to shush. “It’s okay. I’ll clean them up and then we can have dinner together and you can get to sleep on your actual bed, alright?”
“Alright…”
Quinn nods and smiles a watery smile before lifting up and holding out a hand for Paige. He grabs it and his mom lifts him up as well. “I’ll start making something,” his mom starts. “And you can do your nightly routine. By the time you’re done, maybe there’ll still be some stuff to do and we can cook together, okay?”
Paige nods sullenly. “Okay.”
+++
The only word Paige can think of to describe his current situation is despondent. Everything seems far, far away as he moves like a ghost from one room to the next, class after class. Even when he gets to lunch, he stares down blandly at his food, uninterested in eating.
“Paige?” Bro asks suddenly, surprising the teen.
“Huh?” he blinks slowly.
“Y-you alright?” Bro frowns sadly. “Y-ou’ve kind of j-just been staring at y-our food th-is whole time. A-and you h-aven’t said anything s-ince you—since you got here.” He puts a hand on Paige’s shoulder. “I-is there something—something you want t-to talk about…?”
Paige hums slowly, looking off to the side. Sue and Brandon are still in the middle of an animated conversation, talking about who knows what. They’re going so fast, Paige can barely keep up.
“I’m… I’m alright,” Paige lies. “I’m just… tired.”
Bro doesn’t look convinced, but Brandon asks him something and he gets distracted, answering before turning back to Paige. “L-look… I know—I know that—that the past couple of days haven’t—-haven’t been…” Bro bites his lip. “They’ve kind—they’ve kind of been shit for you, huh?”
Despite himself, Paige lets out a small laugh. Bro rarely swore, so it was always a bit funny to hear them do it. “It… has,” he agrees. “But really, I’m fine.”
Bro stares at Paige for what feels like forever. And then they say, “I-if you’re sure, Paige.” They then return to the conversation at hand, but Paige can feel their gaze on him for the rest of the lunch period.
+++
Thursday and Friday are a repeat of Wednesday, Paige blearily walking through his life. But on Friday, lunch is a bit different.
While he had spent the other two days “resting his eyes” until the bell rung, this time when he sits down at the table, everyone is pensive in one way or another, all twitchy.
“Hi…?” he greets warily. “What’s um… what’s up guys?”
“Dude,” Brandon says stiffly, “What’s up with you?”
“Nothing,” Paige answers for what must be the umpeenth time in the past couple of days.”I’m fine. Just tired.”
Brandon stares long and hard at Paige. Then, with a certain tone in his voice quietly goes, “You are Paige, right?”
“What?” Paige blinks. “Of course I am,” he waves off, putting his head down and huffing humourlessly. “Heh… who else would I be?”
He can’t help it. After just a second of silence, he giggles. He giggles and giggles, tickled so deeply. Who else would I be? he asked, as if everyone currently here wouldn’t know the answer to that question.
Of course, there’s no way they’d know what had happened, but maybe that was for the best.
“Mm…” Brandon hums, but he doesn’t press. “Well, you know… you uh…” He mumbles to himself a bit before continuing, “You haven’t given me a note in a while!” He gently ribs Paige. “Don’t you wanna write up another one so I can go back to delivering them? I don’t wanna lose my job, haha!”
Paige stares blandly at Brandon, blinking slowly. “Maybe,” is all he says.
“Paige,” Sue speaks up, sounding serious as they thump the table a bit. “You have to tell us what’s wrong if we’re to help.”
“Nothing’s wrong!” Paige snaps, only to gasp at himself. He never yells at his friends like that…
Maybe there was something wrong.
It’s not like you deserve the help, though, laughs some voice in his head. The worst part? It sounds like his own voice and not Leaf’s, which is extremely distressing.
Suddenly, Paige stands up. “I don’t feel well,” he says tightly. “I’m going to see Ms. Tiseu.”
“Paige, wait—” Sue tries.
Paige ignores them. “Bye, guys.” He takes his untouched food tray and pushes it in front of Brandon, a silent offering. He then turns and leaves off to the nurse’s office.
+++
Paige makes up a story about him slipping and hitting his head in the hallway,citing it as the reason he needed to go home as soon as possible. Ms. Tiseu knows about how fragile Paige can be, so it’s a good enough lie to get his aunt to come pick him up and take him home.
“Mijo…” Carmen frowns as he buckles the teen in. “You’ve got to be more careful… We don’t want to see you in the hospital again anytime soon, okay?”
“Okay, Aunt Carmen,” Paige nods slowly. “Can we go home now?”
“Of course, sweetie.” He kisses the top of Paige’s head and goes to the front of the car, getting in and pulling off soon after.
Paige dozes as they drive, head swimming. He feels nauseous, but he can’t place the exact reason why.
This was awful.
Ping!
Paige blinks up at his bedroom’s ceiling as his phone’s text tone goes off. At first, he decides not to answer it, but then it goes off again.
Ping!
And again.
Ping! Ping!
And finally, Paige just gets frustrated enough to check the thing.
There’s several different texts. One is from Brandon, a simple “here for u” having been sent. Another is from Sue, a gif that says “GWS” is in bright, light up letters. Next to it is a small drawing of a plain faced Sue with a thumbs up.
That one, admittedly, makes Paige smile a bit.
Then there are two from OJ.
They read, “Paige, I was informed earlier today that you aren’t having the best of times recently. Is that why you haven’t texted in a bit? I of course have no issue with texting less, but if it’s because you’re not feeling well, I’d like to know so maybe I could help?”
The second one goes on to say, “I don’t mean to pry, of course, but I worry about you. You’re one of my dear friends and you mean a lot to me. Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you, alright? Anything at all. I’ll text you later to check in, but feel free to tell me if you’d rather be left alone for right now. I will absolutely respect your wishes.”
Ugh. Now even OJ knew something was wrong. At this point, the whole school would know something was wrong with him. And then it’d get out that he had another person in his head. And he’d be treated like some sort of roadside attraction, people coming up to him and begging to see Leaf, telling him they’d pay him and everything to just do it once! Just do it once!...
…Paige realizes he’s shaking. When did that happen?
+++
The next day, Quinn stays home. “I thought we could make pancakes and watch your favorite movie today!” she grins after he wakes up around 2 in the afternoon. “I did think you would’ve gotten up sooner, but that’s alright. We can have pancakes whenever!”
Paige actually smiles a bit, his mom’s happiness being infectious. “Alright,” he yawns. “Let’s make pancakes.”
Quinn jumps up off of the couch and claps her hands, rubbing them together. “Alright! Mother-son bonding time a-go-go!”
She’s so full of life and vigor, it restores some of Paige’s. He’s smiling passively, happy at the thought he and his mom get the chance to do something together for the first time in what feels like forever.
But then, once they get to the kitchen, all of the wind in Quinn’s sails dry up. “Um,” she giggles. “Paige, sweetie?”
“Yeah, Mom?”
“We don’t have any pancake mix.”
Paige can’t help it. He bursts out into a laugh. “Mom!” he giggles, “How long have you been up?”
“Since around 10…” she answers shyly.
“And you didn’t think to check if we had mix this whole time?” He’s honestly laughing the hardest he’s laughed in a hot minute now. “Silly!”
“Oh, c’mon!” she laughs along with him. “Give you Mama a break, will ya? I just got so, so—” she ruffles her kid’s hair, “—soooo excited to make some pancakes with my little man I forgot!”
Paige swats her hand away weakly, big grin on his face. “Mooom!” he giggles.
Quinn giggles back, and then she sighs. “It’s good to see you happy again, kiddo.” Her smile turns sad. “You were really starting to worry me there.”
Paige sobers a bit, looking away. “I’m alright, Mom,” he assures. “It’s just been a rough couple of days.”
Quinn’s expression grows knowing for a second, and then she sighs. “Yeah. I know, buddy. We can talk about it after the pancakes, alright?”
Paige is a bit confused, but nods anyways. He’s not entirely sure what Quinn means, but he’s very curious to find out.
“Okay then!” Quinn claps. “I’m gonna go run to Family Dollar and get us some pancake mix!” She exits the kitchen and calls behind her. “I’ll be back in like, two shimmies of a dog’s tail or whatever!”
Paige laughs quietly. “Okay!” he calls back.
The door closes and locks a second later, and Paige sighs, slumping. What was he supposed to do about all this? It looked like he was gonna have to tell his mom about Leaf before he was ready and he didn’t even have a single person to talk about it with. Brandon was furious with Leaf, Sue was great and all, but they weren’t the best when it came to emotions, there’s no way he was going to tell OJ, and Bro—
Wait! Bro! That was it!
Paige rushes upstairs for his phone and almost calls Bro straight away, but catches himself. Bro didn’t like it when you called without texting, so he quickly shoots him a, “Can we call? It’s important”.
It only takes a moment before, “ya” shows up on his screen, and then it’s being lit up with the call interface. Paige picks up immediately.
“Bro,” Paige breathes, “I-I need help.”
“O-okay,” Bro says “With what?”
“You—you know… u-um…” How did Paige even begin to describe what was happening with him? “You know how—how there’s—You know Leaf, right?”
“Y-yeah,” Bro confirms. “We t-talked to them that—that one time, r-remember?”
“Oh, right,” Paige sighs. “Sorry, I—It’s—Something happened. With Leaf.”
“S-something… bad?” Bro asks.
“Something bad,” Paige nods.
“...Is it—is it okay if s-someone else talks for m-me?”
“Of course, Bro. Just let me know who it is.
“A-alright. G-give me a second.”
A couple of moments pass before the person on the other end of the line clears their throat. “Hii Paige!” they greet. “It’s Maxine.”
“Hello, Maxine,” Paige greets back. “U-um… Bro said you could help?”
“Tell me what’s poppin’, girly-pop,” Maxine says, playful tone in his voice.
“Um… okay…” Paige bites his lip. “So Leaf did something… something dangerous. With my body.”
“Dangerous how?” Maxine asks.
“H-he was going to hurt us.”
“Oh shit,” Maxine gasps. “Paige, buddy, you alright?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine. I-it was a couple days ago now.”
“Is that why you’ve been all down in the dumps?”
Paige’s mouth becomes a flat line. “Y-yeah. I guess so.”
“Okay,” Maxine sighs, “Okay. So, he did something dangerous. What did you do about that?”
“I… kind of… locked him up…?”
“What.”
Paige groans. “What else was I supposed to do!? I—I don’t know what he would’ve done when I wasn’t looking! And he’s been hurting people physically and emotionally, and—”
“Okay, okay, buddy.” Maxine cuts off, sounding a bit overwhelmed.
“Sorry,” Paige mumbles.
“No, look, it’s okay.” Maxine pauses and then hums. “Well, no. It’s not okay. You shouldn’t just be locking Leaf away. That’s never gonna solve nothing!”
“But—!”
“Look, Paiges. You wanted our advice, right?”
“Um… yes…?”
“Well, the council has decided. You gotta find some way to make everything livable in there for the both of you.” Maxine sighs. “I mean, if you’re like, scared for your life, maybe try to find some way to let him out without letting him take control?”
“I don’t know if I can do that…”
“Well, okay. How about this: you let Leaf out with the caveat that if he tries something again he’s grounded or whatever.”
“Grounded?”
“You’ll… have to lock him up for a bit more, I guess.” Maxine doesn’t sound very happy about his suggestion, but it also sounds like he doesn’t have any other ideas either. “Look, we can workshop the grounding. Let’s just get him out for right now, okay?”
“Okay,” Paige nods.
“You gonna do it right now? You want us to stay on the line?”
Paige is about to say yes, but the sound of the front door opening catches him off guard. “Oh, Mom’s home actually. But I won’t forget about Leaf. Mom wanted to talk to me about something, so I’ll let him out after that?”
“Sounds like a plan, nerd.”
“Nerd…?”
“Call back if you need help, ‘kay?”
“Um… okay.”
“Ciao!” The phone beeps, signifying the call’s end.
Paige sighs before lightly slapping his cheeks, pepping himself up.
Make and have pancakes with his mom, watch Finding Nemo, talk about something, let Leaf out.
Alright. He could do this.
+++
“Okay, kiddo,” Quinn says, turning the TV down. They had finished their pancakes some time ago and Finding Nemo just finished playing in full. “It’s time we get down to brass tax.”
“Brass tax?” Paige asks.
Quinn sighs. “You know the school calls me if something happens with you, right?”
“Okay?” Paige says, furrowing his brows. “But nothing’s happened.”
“Paige,” Quinn says, putting a hand on his shoulder, “Baby, what happened to you is no joke.”
“No, seriously Mom,” Paige frowns. “Nothing happened?”
Quinn looks really upset. “You got hatecrimed, Paige!”
Paige blinks a couple times and hard. “I… What?”
Hatecrimed…?
What in the world—
“Mom, what in the world are you talking about?”
“Paige, do you not remember seeing your locker covered in those horrible notes a couple of days ago?”
“N—oh!” Paige jolts. “The notes on my locker! I… I never got to read them. Everyone told me to stay away from them. By the time I was able to see them, they were gone.”
Quinn sighs in relief. “You never even saw them?” Paige shakes his head and Quinn lets out a laugh. “Oh my god, you never even saw them!”
“Mom?”
Quinn moves over and hugs her son, only to noogie him gently. “You’re something else, Paige. Even when bad things happen to you, good people are always around to help you, aren't they?” She looks at Paige with love. “My lucky book of Paiges.”
Paige thinks of all the many, many things that were going on in his life right now, and chuckles awkwardly. He wouldn’t exactly call himself lucky but… No need to upset his mom with that right now.
“I love you too, Mom,” he says with a small smile. “But… if I never saw them, was it really a hatecrime?”
Quinn frowns. “Of course it is!” she says loudly. “Paige, it was a targeted attack against you!”
“Yeah, but…”
“No but’s!” Quinn says, shaking her head. “You know what, we should sue. Teach the little so-and-so who did this to you to take responsibility for his actions.”
“Sue?” Paige repeats, confused. “Mom, we don’t have to sue anybody over this, really.”
“But we should! It’s despicable what they did to you. Even if you didn’t see the notes, they still affected you, didn’t they?”
Paige opens his mouth but then pauses, thinking. There was the fact he was anxiety ridden the whole rest of that day. And how awful it felt to have people laughing at him. And how alienated he’d felt after the fact.
“...Yeah,” he finally says. “It did.”
“Then they shouldn’t get away with hurting you like that,” Quinn frowns.
“But, Mom, think about it. The amount of money, the amount of time, the amount of police and reporters and everything…” Paige shivers. “I don’t wanna go through that anymore than you would.”
Quinn tries and fails to come up with some sort of rebuttal, but ultimately gives up. “You’re right,” she sighs. “And I don’t wanna do anything that would upset you.” She pats his head. “I’m sorry, buddy.”
“It’s okay, Mom,” Paige reassures, leaning into the touch. “I’ll be okay.”
“I know you’ll be,” Quinn smiles. “I know you’ll be.”
+++
After that, Paige goes to school on Monday feeling… not happy, per say, but not freaking out either. He’s able to pay attention to his classes a bit and actually answers some questions correctly. And best of all, lunch would be returning to normal.
Why? Well, because Paige had written a note to be ferried off to OJ last night. He’d given it to Brandon this morning before they split up and now he was almost guaranteed to be getting one back.
So, when he sits down at the Bro Crew’s usual table, he’s pretty excited. “Hey guys!” he greets.
“You got well soon,” Sue smiles.
Paige laughs. “Something like that,” he says. “Oh, but!” He turns to his brother. “Brandon! Did I get a note? Did I get a note?”
Brandon laughs. “You did, king! Calm down!” He digs through his bag before pulling out the note, handing it over to Paige, who reads it with a dumb look on his face.
Things continue on for about two weeks like this. Knowing notes fly back and forth as Paige and OJ play a silly game neither of them really needed to. Because of this, there’s a calm throughout the entire Bro Crew, Paige included. Things were finally starting to go well for him again.
It’s not until Paige’s mind wanders to Leaf one night does he realize—
He had never let Leaf out!
“Oh, shoot!” he swears, closing his eyes and looking inside himself. What he sees makes him gasp hard and start shivering.
Leaf is curled up and trembling in the cage, but it’s not how Paige left it. Instead, it’s shrunk down on them, leaving barely enough space to get up. Inside of it is a cold snowstorm, heavy snow covering the ground and Leaf’s tattered clothing.
Paige doesn’t know how or why that happened to it, but he shakes his head. Now wasn’t the time to dwell on it, now was the time for action.
Again, Paige clasps his hands together and thinks and wills really hard for something to happen. It takes a moment of straining, but the sound of the storm soon clears up. When Paige looks again, Leaf is still on the ground and covered in snow, but the cage and clouds are all gone.
“Leaf!” Paige cries, running over to him. He pushes away the snow on top of him. “Leaf, wake up!”
Leaf’s eyes are shut tight as they shiver and shake. “C-c-c-old…” they chitter.
“Um! Um!” Paige thinks hard about a green blanket covering Leaf, and when the other moves under him, he looks to find they’re now starting to clutch at that exact blanket.
“H-h-hel-p…” Leaf all but begs. Paige nods and takes the blanket, wrapping it around the other. “Th-anks…” they cough once the deed is done.
“Leaf, what happened here while I was gone?”
Leaf chuckles a bit, but it devolves into a cough. “I started—I started th-inking. A-about everything I’d done.” They cuddle up closer to their blanket. “A-and I thought, ‘wow, I-I d-eserve to go to h-ell, h-huh?’”
“But? Th-the snowstorm…?”
“Your hell m-might be hot, b-but not mine,” Leaf laughs a bit painfully, looking away. “It’s s-so cold…”
“Leaf…” Paige is so distraught. He didn’t know ignoring Leaf like this, by accident or not, would make something like this happen.
“Can you—c-can you do that m-magic shit w-with like, a-a space heater or s-something?”
“Oh!” Paige gasps. “Y-yeah!”
Paige does his magic thing as requested, popping a fireplace into the dark room. It lights it up a bit, but not enough to see any sort of walls yet.
“Yess…” Leaf hisses, pushing out his hands. “F-fuck yes.”
Paige sits there quietly as Leaf warms up steadily, thinking hard. This was all his fault. He was supposed to have let Leaf out weeks ago. He can’t believe he forgot!
“H-hey,” Leaf grins. “Shut th-e fuck up w-ith that.”
“What?” Paige blinks.
“Y-you forgot,” he sighs, “So what? I—I deserved th-at, I think.” Paige opens his mouth, but Leaf shushes him. “I-I did!” he asserts. “I did—I did you s-so bad.”
Paige is quiet. They’re right, they were pretty awful to Paige for a while there. But stil…
“Maybe you deserved something, but not this.”
“S-sure, man,” Leaf says, tossing an arm up. “Wh-whatever you say. C-an you get in bed and get under the covers n-now?”
“Oh!” Paige jolts up in reality, shivering. Oh, he didn’t like that he was a bit cold.
He slips under his bedsheets and holds on to Teds, warming up immediately. “Is this better?” he asks.
“Y-yeah,” Leaf nods.
Paige sighs. “We’re gonna have to talk about this.”
“...Yeah,” Leaf says again. “Just… g-give me a bit.”
Paige nods back, and does just that.
After what feels like a minute too long, Leaf sighs.
“Okay,” they murmur, “Let’s talk.”
“I… don’t know where to start…” Paige mumbles. “I guess I should apologize first…”
“For what?”
“I left you locked up for weeks!” Paige frowns. “I didn’t mean to, but I did! I’m sorry…”
“It’s whatever.” Leaf shrugs, still cozy under their blanket, though now they’re sat up. “Like I said, I deserved it.”
“But…”
“Paige,” Leaf sighs. “I almost seriously hurt us. …I almost seriously hurt you.”
“Yeah but…” Paige is quiet for a moment before frowning. “No… no, that was pretty bad of you.”
“Exactly.” Leaf groans and lets their head fall forward. “I keep doing stupid shit…”
Paige hums with worry, but doesn’t actually say anything. He keeps nervously twitching and playing with his hands.
“What.”
“C-can I ask what the… the snow storm and small cage were all about?” Paige asks pensively. “Sorry, it just keeps weighing on me. I thought I left way more room for you in there…”
Leaf looks off to the side. “I wasn’t kidding before. The idea of the cold is worse to me than heat. So when I kept doing all that thinking, it was just… I was so convinced I had to go to hell. And I guess it manifested as whatever I thought hell would be.”
“Oh…” Paige furrows his eyebrows. “And the cage?”
Leaf breathes heavily, eyes stinging. “...I don’t like small spaces.”
“I’m sorry…” Paige apologies again. “I shouldn’t have—”
“You should have,” Leaf stresses. “I… I can’t say I know if I would’ve done anything. That scares me, Paige. I don’t like being afraid of myself.”
“I’m—”
“Say sorry one more time and this talk is over.” Leaf huffs. Then, his expression falls. “See! I just… I just say stupid shit without thinking about it!”
“Well… we can work on it, can’t we?” Paige says hopefully. “I know sometimes I don’t know what to say to people. We can work on it together!”
“Work on it…” Leaf mumbles. “...I guess.”
“See!” Paige smiles. “You’re already doing great!”
Leaf blinks. “I… guess so.” They curl up a bit. “But I wouldn’t have if you didn’t leave me in there.”
“Leaf…” Paige mumbles. “There had to have been some other way…”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s done now.” They sigh. “Thank god.”
“We still have to talk about where we’re gonna go from here,” Paige reminds the other. “‘Cause I don’t wanna lock you away anymore! You’re not… you’re not a villain, Leaf. You’re someone who came to my rescue when I needed it the most. How could you be a villain?”
“I fought that kid just ‘cause I wanted to see them hurt.” Leaf says without missing a beat.
“But you did it out of the love and justice in your heart!” Paige rebuts. “You wouldn’t have done anything if you didn’t love Kevin or you didn’t have the want to see things be righted!” Paige calms down a bit. “Sure it’s not the way I would’ve handled it, but you didn’t know a different way. So, actually, doing what you did shows how good you are!”
Leaf is silent.
“Leaf?”
“I don’t…” The teen sniffs. “I…”
Paige gives a small smile. “It’s okay if you need a minute.”
Suddenly, there’s a knock on Paige’s door. “Sweetie? You okay?”
Paige jolts, shooting up. “Mom? You can come in!”
Quinn pushes her way inside with a worried look on her face. “Hi honey,” she greets. “Are you alright? I thought I heard you talking in here…”
“Shit,” Leaf swears. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Paige thinks and then says aloud, “I was um… just trying to think of something to write for one of my school reports! I-it’s this… um…”
Quinn laughs a bit. “You can just say you don’t wanna talk about it, sweetie.” She ruffles his hair. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” She frowns then. “And… I also wanted to tell you the bad news.”
“Bad news?” Paige frowns back. “Mom, is something wrong?”
“Oh, no, no. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” She takes a seat on the bed. “It’s just… I’ll be busy for Thanksgiving…”
“Aw…” Paige deflates. “Are they making you go on one of those trips again?”
“They are,” Quinn confirms. “And since I didn’t go to the last one…”
“I get it,” Paige smiles sadly. “It’s alright. We can just do something the next day, right?”
Quinn gives a sad smile. “They want me to stay until Sunday, honey.”
“But that’s like four days?” Paige blinks.
“I know. I have to make up for the ones I missed.”
“Oh…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll leave you the card and you can get whatever you want, okay?” Quinn’s smile turns more genuine. “You can even order ice cream and eat it whenever you want! I bet cookies and creme for breakfast sounds fun, doesn’t it?”
Paige plays with his hands. “Can’t I just stay with Brandon and Aunt Carmen?”
Quinn looks down at Paige weirdly. “Didn’t you know they went on a trip?”
“A trip?” Paige blinks. “Brandon didn’t tell me about them going on a trip.”
“But… Min told me Brandon told her you said you didn’t want to go…?”
Paige furrows his brows. “I didn’t know about this at all…” Brandon and Paige had been texting over the break like it was nothing. And he hadn’t said a single thing about a trip!
Quinn frowns. “Well, we can talk to him about it when they get back. But you’ll be fine alone for a couple of days, won’t you?”
Paige nods slowly. “I’ll be okay.”
Quinn smiles and hugs her son. “I knew you’d be, honey.” She pulls back and whispers, “Thanks.”
“It’s no problem, Mom.”
Quinn leaves shortly after, leaving the brothers alone.
“Do you think…” Paige whispers, curled up under his blankets. “Do you think Brandon didn’t tell me on purpose…?”
Leaf flattens his mouth into a thin line. “If he did, it was because of me.” He sighs heavily. “He probably didn’t even want to run the risk of seeing me.”
“Leaf, no, I don’t think—”
“You heard that call,” Leaf snaps. “Brandon basically wants me dead and buried now.”
“We just have to talk things out!” Paige says, fatally optimistic. “Brandon and you just got off on the wrong foot! I’m—I’m sure if—”
“It’s not gonna work, Paige,” Leaf says blandly. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to talk to Brandon again.”
Paige frowns, but doesn’t say anything.
“Look, can we talk about this more tomorrow or something?” Leaf asks. “I’m tired. I want to sleep.”
“Okay,” Paige says quietly. “But I’m holding you to it.”
“I bet you are,” Leaf says with a small smile.
Paige smiles back, and Leaf closes their eyes, pushing out contentment.
But truthfully? They were terrified. Fixing things with Brandon would ultimately be impossible. They knew that. But, if it would make Paige happy to at least try to play mediator, they suppose they could try too.
Leaf just hopes whatever happens, he doesn’t snap again.
Paige wakes up the next day feeling extremely exhausted. It takes him a good minute to get up properly, since he chooses to just lay there looking up at the ceiling instead.
“Tomorrow will be the first Thanksgiving I’ve ever had alone…” Paige frowns.
“Is it really all it’s cracked up to be?” Leaf asks. “From what I remember, all it brought was food and alcohol and…” They stop short, shivering. “...It’s not something I think of fondly,” they finish after a moment.
“Yeah, but that was when Dad was here, wasn’t it?” Paige asks. “Thanksgivings after he died became a lot nicer. Me and Mom would play games all day after eating and watch our favorite movies and just spend time together…” He gasps for air. When did his eyes start getting watery? “...I like Thanksgiving.”
“...Sorry,” Leaf mumbles. “I guess it’s important to you.”
“It is,” Paige nods, “But I can also get how it’s not to you.”
There’s no response after that, so Paige assumes Leaf is done talking for right now. He sighs and stands up. Time for the morning routine.
+++
Paige is lazily eating cookies on the couch when his phone springs to life, ringing loudly. It shocks him a bit, making him kick and displace the cookie box on his lap, but he catches them before they go flying everywhere.
He doesn’t check the caller ID, still a little ruffled by the call to begin with. Everyone should be busy today, shouldn’t they?
“H-hello?” Paige answers, moving the cookies to the table.
“Good afternoon, Paige,” OJ greets. “How are you?”
“Oh, OJ!” Paige smiles, kicking his legs a bit. “Hi! I’m okay! How are you?”
“Good, good.” Paige can practically hear the smile in OJ’s voice.
“What’s up?”
“Oh, you know how we shut down on Thanksgiving proper, right?” OJ asks.
“Oh yeah,” Paige nods. OJ and his family would normally turn off all their electronics (except for the TV) on Thanksgiving so they could all spend uninterrupted time together. “You won’t be able to call tomorrow, right?”
“Exactly. So, I wanted to wish you an early happy Thanksgiving!” The sound of a party popper goes off in the background and OJ gasps. “Ma! I asked you not to do that!”
“Sorry, sweets!” echoes from Dani.
OJ sighs. “Honestly…”
“Well, um… I wish you a happy early Thanksgiving too, OJ!” Paige is trying to push everything he can into it, but he feels as though he falters near the end. He chuckles to cover it up, but it comes off as awkward. Oh, gosh darn it.
“Paige?” OJ asks. “Are you quite alright?”
“It’s nothing really…” Paige says with a sigh. “It’s just… tomorrow will be my first Thanksgiving by myself. Mom had to go somewhere and Brandon and Aunt Carmen are on a trip.”
“Oh no!” OJ gasps. “Surely you have someone to celebrate with, no? It’s such a day of togetherness, you don’t deserve to go it alone!”
“What’s happening, Orv?” It sounded like Dani again.
“Paige is going to spend tomorrow alone!” OJ pouts.
“Aw, what? That’s wack.”
“I know…” OJ mumbles.
“Oh, it’s okay!” Paige cuts in. “Really, Mom left me the card so I could get whatever I want! Even ice cream for breakfast!”
“Yes, but still…”
“SAM! C’MERE!” Dani shouts from the other side of the receiver.
“Ma!” OJ shouts back. “Please, I’m still on the phone!”
“Good!” Dani says right back.
“What is it, Dan?” Sam is here now.
“We got room for one more tomorrow?”
“Huh?” Sam asks. “Why?”
“‘Cause we’re gettin’ company! YO PAIGE!”
“Mom! Just take the phone!”
There’s the sound of laughing, shuffling, and then Dani’s voice is a lot clearer. “Hey kid!”
“Um! H-hi, Mrs—I mean, hi Dani.”
“There you go,” he smirks. “Now, I want you to do me a favor.”
“Um… okay?”
“Pack you a change ‘a clothes and get ready to head out.”
Paige blinks. “Change of… why?”
“Why? ‘Cause you’re spendin’ your Thanksgiving with the Squeezes, duh!”
…Huh?
“Are you sure this is okay?” Paige asks as he climbs into the RV and buckles up. The whole Squeeze family is here.
“Of course, Snowy!” Sam singsongs. “You’re always more than welcome over. After all, you’re no stranger to us, and I’d hope we’re no strangers to you!”
“You’re not!” Paige assures. “I just feel bad for crashing your Thanksgiving…”
“Hey now!” Dani calls, pulling off. “I’m the one who invited you, ain’t I?’
“You are…?”
“Alright then!” Dani stops at a red light and turns back towards Paige, giving him a thumbs up. “Then no feeling bad!”
“Ah…” Paige mumbles, unsure if he should apologize or not.
“Just say you won’t anymore,” Leaf supplies.
“I won’t anymore then!” Paige repeats, putting more into it than Leaf did.
“That’s the spirit, Paigey!” Dani cheers, pumping a fist up in the air.
“Paigey…?” Paige echoes with a blink.
“Ma likes making nicknames for others too,” OJ explains. “Though, his are a bit… less creative than Mami’s.”
“Oh, shut up!” Dani laughs.
“Name one person you don’t use a shortened version of their name or just add an -y to,” OJ challenges with one raised eyebrow and a smirk. “Go on.”
“Ummm…” Dani hums. “Uhhmm…”
OJ rolls his eyes and gently ribs Paige, hooking a thumb at his mom. “Get a load of this!” he’s saying without words.
Paige giggles and Dani groans. “Oh, what-ever! It just means I got a name for everyone!”
“Sure, Ma. Whatever you say.”
Paige laughs a little harder, tickled. The way OJ would talk to his parents was so different from the way he would talk to others. It was so funny! He was so funny!
The rest of the ride passes by in a similar fair until they reach the Squeeze household. Everyone climbs out, but then Sam walks around and gets into the driver’s seat.
“Are you going somewhere else, Sam?” Paige asks, tilting his head.
“Yes, my little turtle dove!” Sam smiles wide. “I’ve got to get a couple more ingredients for tomorrow! I forgot some stuff.” She knocks her hand on her head and sticks her tongue out. “My bad!”
“Don’t overbuy!” Dani waves. “You can get three little treats and no more!”
“Yes!” Sam cheers. “Alright! Be back soon, darlings!”
+++
Paige, Dani and Orville talk amongst each other while Sam is away, but it feels more like Dani Quiz Time.
He asks Paige all sorts of questions, from how he’s been since the last time he was here to his favorite color to… the age he learned to tie his shoes?
“I think we were like four,” Leaf supplies for that one.
“Um…” Paige starts, only for OJ to cut him off.
“Ma, honestly?” he laughs. “If you’re running out of questions, we could stop your little pop-up game show and actually do something more than just let the TV run in the background.”
“Psh,” Dani scoffs. “I wasn’t runnin’ outta anything. But sure, let’s do something else.”
“Like what?” Paige asks.
“Do you know how to play chess, Paige?” Dani asks, causing Paige to blanche.
“Ummm…” he mumbles.
Dani laughs. “It’s alright if you don’t! It’s not for everybody.” Then he smirks. “But you know how to play checkers, don’t you?”
“Oh!” Paige smiles and claps his hands together. “Of course!”
“Great!” Dani turns to his son with an odd look on his face. “Orv.”
OJ gets an odd look on his face as well. “Ma.”
“It’s time.”
“Of course.”
Paige blinks. What was happening here?
Suddenly, Dani throws a hand out, pointing in towards the house. “Go, my child!” he shouts with a smile. “ChessCheck time!”
OJ salutes. “Yes sir!”
“Ch—Chess check…?” Paige asks as OJ speedwalks away.
“No, no, no,” Dani tuts, shaking his hands in front of him before putting a hand on Paige’s shoulder from behind. “ChessCheck. Say it with me now.” He pushes his other hand out in a wowing motion. “ChessCheck~”
“Ch—ChessCheck…” Paige tries weakly.
“Again!” Dani laughs. “ChessCheck!”
“Chess—ChessCheck!” Paige says, trying to match Dani’s energy.
“ChessCheck! ChessCheck!” Dani cheers.
“ChessCheck!” Paige laughs, cheering as well.
OJ chooses this time to come back into the room. He’s holding two boxes, one a bit thinner than the other. “One game of ChessCheck, as requested by the lovely man of the house,” he says, bowing slightly.
“What’re those?” Paige asks as OJ places the boxes on the kitchen table. He gets up and follows Dani over there.
“It’s chess,” OJ starts.
“Aaaaand checkers!” Dani finishes.
“Okay…?” Paige says pensively. “I… don’t think I get it.”
“Here, let me explain,” OJ says, beginning to unbox the games. “Normally, both chess and checkers are two player games, yes?”
“Yeah, they are,” Paige nods.
“Right. So, what if you wanted to add a third player in the mix?”
“You couldn’t!”
“And normally, you’d be right. But say I were to do this…” OJ places the two boards next to each other and starts to set them up. “...And you were to sit opposite me with my mother…” Dani quickly pulls a chair over for Paige, sitting down in a separate one after. Paige sits as well. “...And then we played like this?”
Paige tilts his head. “I still don’t get it,” he says honestly. “Are you going to play both games at once or something?”
OJ’s face breaks into a wide grin. “You’re smarter than you give yourself credit for, Paigey!”
Paige flushes immediately while Dani laughs.
“Hey!” he says. “I’ve got a patent on that one! You can’t use it without my permission!”
“Well, do I?” OJ asks, setting the last of the pieces into place.
“Mmmm… Nope!” Dani giggles. OJ blows a raspberry, but lets the subject drop.
“Anyways, you’re spot on the nose, Paige. I intend to play both games at once; chess with my mother and checkers with you!” He smiles. “Hence, ChessCheck!”
“How are you gonna do that?” Paige questions, a little worried. Wouldn’t that be too overwhelming for anybody?
OJ shrugs, but doesn’t lose his smile. “I simply do. It’s easy for me to keep up with both of them for whatever reason. Besides, me and my mothers do this all the time! It’s quite a riot sometimes!”
The teen’s excitement is infectious. Paige loses his worry and nods, ready to be taught. “Let’s play then! What do I do?”
“Like I said, you worry about checkers, Mom will worry about chess, and I will worry about both.” OJ clasps his hands together. “So c’mon then! You two can start for us.”
“You think you can beat our epic tag team? Me and this guy?” Dani grins, holding a fist up to Paige. “We got this! Pound it, little dude!”
Paige smiles and completes the fist bump, cheering. “We got this!”
“And would you like to recount your wins as the second chess player?” OJ asks, setting his chin on folded hands.
“Urk…!”
Paige can’t help it. That’s the second time today OJ caught his mom like that! He laughs, OJ joining him
“Okay, okay you little rascals,” Dani pouts, only to lose it immediately in favor of a big grin. “Let’s play!”
+++
It’s neck and neck. Paige is fighting for his life against OJ, who had beaten his mom several minutes ago. She now sits on the sidelines, cheering her teammate on.
Paige is one piece up from OJ, three to the other’s two. They’ve been playing a game of micromoving, taking deliberate steps to try and avoid one another.
Just as OJ captures two of Paige’s pieces in one fell swoop, leaving the other to despair, the front door opens.
“Daniiii…” Sam whimpers. “I may have gotten more than three little treats…”
“Oh, honestly, Sam,” Dani laughs, turning towards her wife. “You knowI don’t—oh shit.”
Paige places his remaining piece and turns around to look at the door as well, gasping as he does. Sam is pulling in a cart filled to the brim with snacks and sodas and what looks like only a handful of actual ingredients?
“Ahaha…” she laughs weakly, rubbing the back of her head. “Well, you know! We—we were running low on stuff anyways… And I wanted to make sure we had enough to share with everyone…” She looks off to the side and mumbles. “And everything was on sale…”
“Wait, for real?” Dani gasps happily. “Fuck yes. You know I love sales.”
Sam loses her guilty look immediately. “I knew you’d understand, honey!” she smiles. “Now could you help me unload all of this?”
Dani laughs. “Yeah, yeah.” He turns to the teens and smiles. “You two finish your game, we can do this.”
“No, that’s alright. We can help.” Paige turns back to OJ who suddenly has a very sweet smile on his face. “We’re done, after all.”
Paige blinks and looks down at the board. It’s true. somehow, OJ had captured his last piece, leaving only red checkers on the playing field.
“Aw, what?” Paige pouts. “I had you, though!”
OJ chuckles. “You did. But I love to work my way out of hard spots.”
Paige pouts harder.
OJ laughs at him, a sound that Paige finds so lovely he ends up smiling and blushing, looking away. “Let’s go help,” he coughs shyly.
“Let’s!”
+++
Paige and OJ end up doing more than just helping get everything out of the cart. They also help make the dinner, which makes everything go by surprisingly fast. By the time the moon has risen, the oven beeps for a final time, signifying the turkey having been cooled to perfection.
“Alright!” Dani cheers. “Food time!”
Sam gets up from where the four of them were playing Sorry and stretches. “Oh, you’re just happy ‘cause it means you get to finally break out the cider.”
“Guilty as charged!” Dani grins, getting up behind her. “You two can stay here and clean up the board. We’ll call it a tie for now and play again later, ‘kay?”
“Cider?” Leaf asks warily. “Like… alcohol?”
“I don’t know,” Paige replies. “Should I ask?”
“Please.”
“Um, Dani?” Paige asks aloud, “Sam said something about you and cider?”
“Yeah?” Dani nods, moving back to the table with a bottle and opener.
Paige suddenly feels a wave of nausea hit him. “Hurry up and ask,” Leaf hisses, but Paige knows it’s just because they’re scared.
“U-um…” he starts, having to cover his mouth a bit. “Um…”
“You good, kid?” Dani frowns, messing with the cork. “Is something wrong with the cider? You allergic or something? ‘Cause we can get you some soda or something.”
“N-no, it’s… not that. It’s—”
Pop!
The cork goes flying, catching Paige off guard. He jumps, yelping and covering his face.
“Paige?” OJ asks carefully. “Are you alright?”
Paige blinks and pulls his arms down. “Sorry!” he laughs, uneasy. “I-I startle easy!” He vaguely hears the remaining sizzle of the cider in his ears, but it sounds so much louder than he feels like it should.
“Paige,” Leaf stresses.
“Oh, um! But, about the cider! Is it, um… does it have alcohol in it?” He asks like a kid who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar, a little scared to know the answer. Normally he wouldn’t care one way or another, assuming it was for the adults only anyways, but with Leaf here again…
Well, it didn’t hurt to ask regardless.
“Oh this stuff?” Dani laughs, holding the bottle up and shaking it a little. He shimmies some, spinning.. “Well, it’s—”
“Ma, behind you!” OJ yelps, cutting the other off.
“Huh—Ow!”
Sam collides right into her wife and causes a bit of an accident. For Sam, that meant nothing more than spilling a bit of soda from the two cups she was holding. Nothing big.
But for Dani?
She drops the bottle of cider.
It shatters the second it hits the floor with a loud crash!
Paige gasps hard, breath getting caught in his throat. He grabs at it and trembles.
Mack had just finished breaking a bottle over the table right after popping it open and letting it sizzle. He used the newfound weapon to threaten Quinn, who had tears in her eyes. All Paige can remember her saying is, “Please stop. Please stop. Please, please, please.” At some point she had picked him up and started running, and Paige can vaguely see the hazy outlines of what used to be Quinn’s old bedroom.
The door was locked immediately, but that didn’t stop Mack. He banged on the door again and again, even stabbing at it with the glass. He’s shouting, but it all sounds like garbage noise. Quinn is crying, holding onto her son tightly. And Paige? Paige is…
Paige is screaming.
Fuck.
“Paige?” one of the Squeezes asks, but Leaf can’t tell who. Their eyes are shut closed thanks to Paige, who’s stuck in the past. “Paige, buddy, it’s—”
They’re reaching for him. Both Leaf and Paige can feel the sensation of someone coming closer.
“DON’T TOUCH ME!” Paige shouts, holding himself tightly.
“Okay, okay! No touching!” It sounds like Dani, but Leaf is a bit too preoccupied to care whether he’s right or not.
“Paige,” he tries. “Paige, it’s okay. We’re not there anymore. It’s okay.”
Paige’s heavy breathing doesn’t let up, though. Instead, he opens his eyes wildly to take in the current situation. The Squeezes are all standing a good distance from him, all with some sort of worried look on their faces.
“Paige…?” Sam says warily. “Turtle dove, what’s wrong?”
Paige opens his mouth and shakes his head and cries and does anything else but answer.
“Let me in,” Leaf urges. “Let me help.”
“No, no, no, no!” Paige shouts. “Don’t—I—” He’s sobbing. “Dad…” he breathes, curling up on his chair.
“Paige, please—”
Paige sobs again, clutching his head. “No! No! You’re—you’re gonna—no!”
This was not happening. Paige’s senses were too flooded with panic. Leaf doubts anyone would be able to get through to him like this.
So that meant it was time to wait.
Paige stays in the chair for what feels like hours, rocking back and forth. He cries and hiccups and calls out for his mom. Several times does Leaf try to slowly pry control from him, but it just spikes the anxiety and fear in the other each time with no leeway given. So eventually Leaf decides to sit back and hum tuneless songs, unsure what else he could do to help.
Eventually, Paige does calm down. But he’s so exhausted, even Leaf can feel it.
“...G-uys?” Paige tries weakly, tears still streaming down his face. Looking around, he doesn’t see any of the family anymore. “O-OJ?”
Almost immediately the Squeezes flock back into the dining area, causing Paige’s fear to spike again. OJ must notice it, because he quickly goes, “Perhaps only I should be here right now.” His parents share a worried look before nodding and walking away. Once they’re gone, OJ smiles pensively and waves. “Hello, Paige,” he greets. “Can you tell me where you are?”
A million answers bubble to the top of Paige’s head. Here. There. Everywhere. At home. With Mom. With Dad. At your house. With your family. With Leaf. With you.
Ultimately, the teen just shakes his head and points to OJ, seemingly unable to pick from the fuzzy thoughts.
“You’re here at my house, that’s right.” OJ smiles kindly, but there’s sadness in it too. “Can you tell me what just happened?”
Paige’s breath immediately hitches as the sound of shattering replays and reverberates in his head. He whines and clutches his head, shaking it more.
“It’s alright, it’s alright.” OJ moves the slightest bit closer. “My mother dropped a bottle. It broke. Do you remember that?”
Paige nods shakily.
“Is that what scared you?”
Paige nods again, faster this time.
“Do you wish to talk ab—”
Paige shakes his head so hard it starts to make Leaf dizzy.
“Okay, that’s okay.” OJ inches closer and closer until he’s close enough to touch. “Is it okay if I touch you now? I’m certain sitting like this can’t be comfortable, and I’d like to take you to my room if that’s alright.”
“R-room…?” Paige mumbles, still kind of out of it. “Why…?”
“I can turn on my night light and put on soothing music and ultimately help you calm down better in there, I think,” OJ explains. “How does that sound?”
Paige is silent as he thinks. Before long though, he gingerly uncurls and holds his hand out.
“I can take you?” OJ asks carefully, like he’s still afraid the answer might be no. But, Paige nods slowly. OJ gently takes the other’s hand and lifts him up, Paige rising with ease. His legs wobble though.
“Paige?” OJ asks, worry clear in his voice, “Can you get there on your own?”
“Let me help,” Leaf urges, feeling relieved he can finally offer something to the situation. “I’ll just walk for you, okay?”
Paige hums as an answer to the both of them and finally lets up his death grip on the controls, allowing Leaf to walk along with OJ into his room. He’s still breathing weird when he finally takes a seat on the other’s bed.
“Feel free to lay down and cover up if you wish,” OJ smiles tightly. “I’ll turn on soft classical music for you and leave the night light on as promised, okay?”
Paige nods and then begins to climb under the comforter. He’s no longer trembling, but he can’t seem to make his breathing even.
OJ walks around and does whatever he does, Paige’s eyes having slipped closed the moment he was under the covers. Eventually, the music comes on and the buzz of the lamp’s light turns off.
“I think that should be everything,” OJ says from vaguely above them. Paige cracks open his eyes to look at him. “I’ve left water on the table as well as two aspirin should you need them. Me and my mothers will be downstairs, alright? Ah, here also.”
OJ holds out his phone before placing it next to the water. “I’m not sure where your phone is, but I’ve removed the password from mine at the moment. Should you need anything, feel free to navigate to either of my mother’s contacts and call, okay?”
Paige mumbles nothing words, only to clear his throat. “S-sorry…” he croaks. “I don’t… “
“It’s quite alright, Paige.” OJ’s expression looks a bit more relaxed now, probably because Paige is talking again. “Don’t worry about it a bit, alright?”
“B-but…” Paige’s whole body is wracked by a yawn. “But…”
“Rest,” OJ says gently. “It’s alright. All that matters right now is you feeling good again.”
Paige frowns sadly. “I-I… I…” He shakes his head a bit. “I…”
“Don’t push yourself, Paige.” OJ bends down to be level with the other. “Everything is okay. You just need some rest.”
“Mmm…” Paige hums pensively.
OJ reaches out a hand but stops short. “May I…?” he asks politely. Paige nods and OJ places his hand on the other’s shoulder. “If you wish to apologize, do it after you feel better, alright?” He rubs the spot his hand lays gingerly. “Can you do that? For me?”
Paige stares at the other, some big ball of emotions bouncing inside of him like crazy. But he must not have the energy to act upon any of them, because all he does is nod with a small, “Okay.”
OJ smiles fondly and stands again. “We’re right downstairs,” he reminds. “I’ll come back up to check on you every so often, okay?”
Paige sticks out a hand and gives a limp thumbs up, eyes closing again.
“Wonderful. Rest well, Paige.” The sound of the door opening and quietly closing happens shortly after, leaving Paige and Leaf alone.
“Paige?” Leaf tries.
“Sleep,” Paige mumbles. “Talk. L’ter.”
He sounds so tired, so out of it, Leaf relents immediately. “...Okay.”
And so, Paige lays quietly until his breathing finally evens out. Leaf sighs, relieved that that was finally dealt with, only to immediately worry again.
Was that the first time Paige had ever experienced a flashback? He said he didn’t have many memories of Mack before, didn’t he? So why did he remember that so vividly, so suddenly? Even with everything put into place to cause such a bad reaction, shouldn’t it have been Leaf freaking out? Not Paige?
Not knowing is bothering the teen, but with his brother now blessedly asleep, there’s no way to get answers of any kind.
Ugh.
Well, he might as well catch some shut eye too, then.