After All, I'm Your Secret Admirer~!!

Ch51 - Pickup

-a/n-

hi again :P

-end a/n-

The days amble by slowly after the two teens make up. Both Sue's birthday and Quinceañera have passed by the time Paige can fully start to say the tension between the two of them has waned to a much more comfortable degree. It was only about a week to be fair, but it was still a whole week.

Paige and Brandon were such an inseparable bond for their whole lives that even just that one week of awkwardness was agonizing.

But! It was over now! It was over and even though Leaf hadn't talked to him in a while, things were normal and everything was fine.

And, because everything was fine, Paige could finally relax enough to think about OJ again.

"Finally going back to your little crush?" echos in Paige's head and he gasps, fumbling with his phone.

"Leaf!" he yelps aloud, only to shake his head and say it again in his mind. "Leaf! Where have you been?!"

"Around," the other answers dismissively. "Don't worry about it."

"But..." Paige frowns. "Didn't we agree we'd work on this together? Being better with each other?"

Leaf inhales deeply before sighing. "Yeah. Yeah, we did. Ugh." They run a hand down their face. "Look, I'll tell you later, okay? I don't wanna ruin your little..." They clear their throat. "I mean, I don't wanna mess with your mood. You were about to call nerd boy, weren't you?"

Paige blushes a bit. "Don't call him that," he mumbles, focusing on his phone again. As accused, the contact information for OJ is on the screen once it lights back up.

"Go on, then," Leaf says, making a shooing motion. "Don't let me stop you."

"If you're sure..."

"I'm sure."

Paige pouts a bit, but lets it go with a small sigh. He had to trust in Leaf if this was going to work. They would tell him what was bothering them later, he knew they would.

With that filed away, Paige taps on the call button and places the phone flush to his ear. It rings just a few times before—

"Paige!" OJ greets, sounding happy. "Hello, hello!"

"Hi, OJ!" Paige greets back, a big smile quickly finding its way onto his face. "How are you?"

"Swell!" OJ says. "Me and my mothers are about to go to a restaurant! It's quite an event, as both of them think they can out cook any Michelin chef, so we rarely go out!" His voice grows hushed, but it's got a playful undertone to it. "Between you and me though, I think that Outback does steak just a mite better than either of them."

"I heard that, you traitor!" Paige hears in the distance, a hearty laugh from OJ following behind it.

"Oops! It seems I've been caught in my mutiny!"

"You sure have!" comes from the receiver, a lot closer this time. Paige can tell it's Dani. "And y'know what mutinous little dudes get?"

"Ma, please!" OJ giggles, "I'm on the phone with Paige!"

"Oh? Hi, Paige!" Dani greets.

"Oh, hold on," OJ snorts. The audio quality has a noticeable shift in it before he goes on to say, "Okay, you're on speaker now."

"Hi, Dani!" Paige grins.

"Hi, Paige!" Dani says again. "You're lucky, you get to hear me giving your pal Orv the noogie of his life!"

"You're going to what?" OJ gasps.

"I'm gonna getcha!" Dani replies easily.

And then the call is filled with the sound of parent and child laughing. The idea of what it must look like on the other side has Paige laughing himself.

OJ was always so fun to talk to, no matter what. Ohh, Paige was simply smitten.

"Out!" Paige finally hears through laughs. "Go get ready!"

"You're not my dad!" Dani chuckles. "I'm your dad!"

"Gooo!!" OJ playfully whines. "I'm going to starve to death and it'll be all your fault because you were too busy terrorizing me to get ready!"

"Oh, you and your theatrics!" Dani shouts, getting further away. "Fine, fine, I'm goin'! Bye, Paige!"

"Oh, bye Dani!" Paige manages before he hears the door close.

OJ sighs heavily, but it's clear he's happy. "Sorry about all of that, Paige. My mom can get rather... boisterous at times."

"It's okay! Don't worry about it."

"So, did you need me for something?" OJ asks. "Or was this simply a call to call?"

"Oh! Um..." Paige deflates a bit. His original plan had been to call and just talk with OJ all day, or maybe even come over to visit! But if he had plans already...

"Paige?" OJ questions, sounding a bit worried. "Did we disconnect?"

"Oh, no!" Paige says quickly. "I just—I just thought I'd call to say hi. I—You were on my mind."

There's a beat of silence before OJ goes, "...Was I?"

Paige can feel his face heat up a bit. "Um!" he fumbles. "You... you were!" He almost leaves it at that before realizing that maybe that was a little... weird of him. He barrels on, "So I thought I'd just call you real quick! See what was going on with you, y'know?"

"Ahh," OJ hums. "That's very kind of you, Paige. I really appreciate it."

Paige giggles a bit, unprepared for the remark. "I-it's nothing," he says shyly. "But, um! I don't wanna hold you up! So I'll talk to you later?"

"Sounds like a plan." There's a bit of shuffling from the other's end before he goes, "Pull your phone back."

Paige blinks but does as instructed, gasping happily once he sees his screen. There sits OJ at his desk, a neat smile on his face. Paige scrambles to activate his own camera, managing to somehow almost drop his phone three different times in the process. His camera was on for two of them.

"You okay?" OJ asks, clearly fighting back a laugh as Paige finally gets a solid grip on his phone.

"I'm good!" Paige grins. "But um, what's—why are we on camera?"

"I just wanted to wave you goodbye!" OJ says gleefully.

"Oh!" Paige's smile widens. "Heehee! You're so silly, OJ! I'll talk to you later!" he waves.

OJ waves back easily with a simple, "See you!" before picking his phone up to end the call. Right before he does though, Paige can swear he sees the other look directly at him before winking. Before he can even think to say something, the line drops.

Paige stares at the screen until it dims, where he can then see his face's ruby red reflection.

"This boy's got you down bad, huh?" Leaf chuckles.

Paige opens and closes his mouth without actually saying anything back, just sputtering a bit. Leaf laughs openly at their brother now, causing Paige to shake his head and groan a bit.

"Oh, be quiet!" he pouts, but it's playful. Leaf smiles easily at him and Paige smiles back.

This was a nice moment.

Before Paige can dwell on it for long though, his phone starts ringing.

"Oh!" the teen blinks, looking at the name that lit up his screen. "...Kevin?"

He picks up.

"Hey-hey! You picked up!" Kevin says, sounding relieved.

"I did!" Paige nods with a frown. "Are you okay? You don't normally call..."

"Who, me?" Kevin laughs airily. "I'm—I'm good, man! I just, um..." He trails off, only to sigh a sigh so tired it only makes Paige worry more. "Look, uh... I..." The teen trails off once again before clearing his throat. "I... Are you free right now?"