The Neighbor Next Door

Preparing, excitement

It was Friday when he found time to have another video call with his friends, meaning now he'd finally be able to ask Knife just what he meant last time they all called.

"Keeping us waiting again, I see." Knife started off, not giving the ginger a break for even being a minute late to the call.

"Yeah, yeah. We get it, I'm not Mr. Punctual." OJ rolled his eyes. This got a small laugh from Paper.

"Yeah, I can't believe we won't be able to use that totally real and not just made up nick-name on you anymore."

"Pssh, yeah. Now you'll have to think of something else. What a shame."

"Shouldn't be that hard of a task." Knife just grinned.

And so the conversation went on like normal, checking in on both ends on how things are doing, until OJ once again found himself talking about his neighbors.

"I actually think he's starting to warm up to me, I invited him over to dinner on Monday, actually. I'm really excited to have him again," OJ just smiled.

"You invited him over to dinner?" If the two of them were in a room together, Knife and Paper surely would've exchanged a certain glance, but over a digital call, they both just raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, just a casual thing, what else?" OJ tilted his head a bit, clearly confused.

"Oh I don't know," Knife just let out a small laugh, his tone coy. OJ just furrowed his eyebrows, both in further confusion, and a bit of annoyance. "Why does everyone keep getting all weird when I talk about him?"
"Well, you do seem to enjoy his company," Paper gave a small shrug.

"Yeah, he's a friend. Why wouldn't I?"

"That's not what Paper meant, Gods you're hopeless." Knife just chuckled. "Guess that's just how you are though, no big deal."

"What does that even mean!" OJ raised his hands up, clearly exasperated at the topic, and not getting any clear answers. It was driving him crazy!

"Don't worry, OJ, I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually," Paper added, a bit of teasing in his tone.

It was clear these two weren't going to give him any straight answers, which frustrated OJ, but he wasn't angry with them. He could never really find himself to be angry at his friends often, no matter what happened, which wasn't the best thing in a lot of cases, but when it came to lighthearted stuff like this, it was good.

"Anyways, it's getting late, and I have work really early tomorrow, so I'm hopping off." Knife gave a short nod to the other two, receiving goodbye's and goodnights, though Knife did say one last thing; "Hope your dinner goes well," with a certain, almost mischievous tone to his voice, and a wink of all things, leaving the call before OJ could even say anything. He just sat there baffled, as Paper giggled.

"What the hell was that about?"

"Oh he's just teasing, don't worry about it,"

"Oh come on, can't you tell me or something now that he's gone,"

"Not getting it out of me, I've sworn secrecy." Paper just smiles, also on in all of this, when OJ still wasn't. The ginger just let out a hefty sigh, his posture slumping in defeat.

"Ugh, fine. Whatever, we'll talk about something else because it's starting to drive me crazy."

"Good call,"

...

It was Friday when OJ got a visitor at his door. It was mid-afternoon, and he had just wrapped up work, and headed downstairs to check on the Cherries, who were playing pretend in the backyard. He headed over to the front door, caught very off guard by a woman he didn't recognize standing in front of him. He opened his mouth to give a confused greeting, but the girl spoke first, looking over to her side, and scoffing;
"See, Salt? This was like, the right house. Get over here."