The Neighbor Next Door

Errands

OJ didn't get a text back on Tuesday. That was fine. That happens sometimes, too. Though, he wasn't texted back on Wednesday either. Or Thursday, or well... It was a while before he was texted back. Only on Saturday did he decide to send a;

'Are you alright?' text, only to be texted back with something that honestly surprised him.

'do you want to go run errands with me i could use tje company'

OJ really thought about it. The guy doesn't text him for the past few days, only to immediately start with this? It wasn't something he was unhappy about, but... It was clearly odd.

'Let me see if my sister or Fan can watch my kids, I'll get back to you soon', and thankfully, after sending a text TestTube's way, she said Fan would be available for the time being, which gave OJ a chance to text MePhone back with a;

'Yeah, I can come help. Fan is going to watch my kids, hoping he can handle them haha'

'cool, I'll mret u on sidewalk five'

'five pm??'

'five min sry'

And that's how OJ ended up waiting outside for his neighbor to come out, after not having talked like usual for the past few days. It was actually about eight minutes before the guy left his house, OJ waiting patiently on the sidewalk, and glancing up when he heard the door open. As MePhone left his house, the cat scurried out as well, hopping the fence to the backyard.

"Oh-- your cat just..."

"It does that, don't worry, uhm, they're more of an outdoors cat still," MePhone almost speed walked over, a small smile on his face as he adjusted the collar on the shirt he was wearing. This was when OJ actually took a moment to check out the guy's appearance.

MePhone was wearing a very light yellow long sleeved, button up dress shirt. Which wasn't too weird, but he didn't take MePhone as someone who would wear much yellow. Or anything that wasn't blue, really. But it didn't look bad. OJ thought he looked really nice today. But that also raised the question of why he looked so nice. He also had a small purse-like bag he had slung over his shoulder. He definitely looked ready to do... Something. Though, despite this put together appearance today, OJ noticed just how exhausted the guy looked.

"So, what's up?"

"Oh-- well, uh... I need to stop by the bank."

"Oh, okay, well, I can drive if you want, I don't really know if you have a car or not,"

OJ could see MePhone's composure crack at this. It was subtle, but his expression visibly dropped for just a moment before he quickly recovered with a;

"W-well, I figured we could... Walk, that's what I usually do," he let out a nervous chuckle at the end of that.

"You usually walk all the way to town?"

"Well... Yeah? I mean, I could use the exercise anyways, right?" Another awkward laugh, almost like that was an attempt at humor that fell short. OJ could tell the guy was getting increasingly nervous, so he dropped it with a shrug.

"Yeah, okay, we can walk" and he just smiled, hoping that would help the guy feel less nervous.

So the two started their twenty minute long walk into town. Thankfully the area the two lived in was one with a lot of sidewalks, And very friendly to people without cars, so it really wasn't the biggest hassle to have to walk from the residential area to where everything was. Sure, it was faster by car, but that wasn't always an option for everyone, so this was still convenient. The walk was mostly quiet, but after a while, OJ decided to at least try to start a conversation. So he asked the first thing that came to mind;