The Neighbor Next Door

Support System

MePhone used most of his energy on Sunday night trying his damned hardest to clean up his living room. Despite being exhausted, he needed to get this done. He had to make the first move, and try to reach out, otherwise he wasn't going to get any help. And with that, the last thing he wanted was to be embarrassed by how messy it was around the house. Sure, it wasn't as messy as it used to be, but there was always just a small, constant air of untidiness that seemed to grow as months passed. The last time he had truly cleaned felt like such a long time ago, really. So he was doing it all now. He didn't even have to do much, it never being the biggest problem he faced, not having any reason to make any messes usually unless he was trying to write stuff down, and even then that was usually at his desk, in his room. He had a bin in there for that, though. Even if most of the crumpled up papers ended up on the floor-- the point was, it was hardly ever the living room that looked the dirtiest. Though doing a 'deep clean' like this also involved vacuuming. Which he hated a lot. But he'd do it anyways, because he had to make sure everything looked presentable.

Through all this cleaning, he didn't even think about the pictures hung up on the wall, a detail he had mostly gotten so used to, it just felt like something that was always there. Not a problem at all. If he were conscious enough of the fact they existed, of course he'd hide them for the time being, so OJ couldn't see them when he came over the next day, but it really did just slip his mind.

So he pulled the vacuum out of the laundry room to get that dealt with, and promptly passed out on the couch for the night after that was done, and after letting the cat back in. Anything else that needed to be done could be a tomorrow issue, because he was tired tonight, and needed to be fully mentally functional for tomorrow-- which meant full rest was essential. It wasn't like he was coming over early in the morning-- no, he was set to come over after he was done with his work call, but MePhone knew he was going to need some time to mentally prepare himself for being open. Like at all. It was a difficult thing, and he couldn't back down now. He was still scared, but surely this needed to be done. He didn't expect OJ to magically solve all of his problems, though. That would just be so silly, and unrealistic. MePhone knew he was going to have to do most of the hard work himself, but... He was so tired of trying, and failing to do all of that alone. He was so desperate for a support system. OJ seemed like someone who might be able to help with that. If not himself, he could probably recommend... something. Hopefully.

MePhone was anxious, but still hopeful when he managed to fully doze off for the night.

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A terrible night to dream, really. The details weren't important-- another one MePhone would rather forget as soon as possible, and not fester over, but it left him waking up with a sour mood. Which of course, was just a bad way to start his day. It felt silly, really, but he'd just shake it off eventually-- hopefully before OJ came over. The morning beyond this was slow. MePhone went ahead and brushed his hair, changing his outfit to something casual for the day, a t-shirt and shorts. He couldn't go wrong with that. Today, beyond being a feelings day, was going to be casual. Hopefully. So now all he could do was wait. Which sucked, because he had woken up a lot earlier than usual, meaning he had an uncomfortable amount of time to kill, in which he knew he'd have to keep finding small distractions or something to make sure he didn't fester, or stew in his shitty emotions. He couldn't do that today. He had to be normal.

So he found himself in the kitchen, doing the best distraction he knew, which was baking. Almost not on purpose, he ended up just making a plain batch of simple-bake peanut butter based cookies he had ordered last time he did online shopping out of curiosity. Something without chocolate, just in case he wanted to offer any to OJ while he was over, to help things be less tense, or awkward, or bad. People liked baked goods. Or at least, that's always what television told him. He liked what he baked usually, and those kids of OJ's also seemed to like the scratch cookies he made a while back too, so... MePhone at least didn't doubt his skills when it came to baking. That was one thing he was usually confident about. Not 'win at one of those baking competition shows he tends to binge occasionally' level confident, but still pretty happy with his skill level.