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

Ch54 - BOGO

It had been a while since everything went down with Paige, Brandon and Leaf. They had since patched things up pretty well and life was beginning to return to the relative normal it was used to.

Paige and OJ talked basically nonstop, OJ even talking with Leaf sometimes. He found he had quite a good liking of Paige's admirer too. He was nowhere near "down bad" when it came to him, though. Paige...

Paige was down baaaaaaad.

Paige rolls his eyes with a smile at Leaf's thoughts as he marks another day off his calendar. The Bro Crew's annual gift exchange was happening soon!

Every year on the 15th they would have their own personal gift exchange, separate from Christmas gifts. Every gift exchange had each gift come with a story, some sort of explanation for why they had gotten what they did. They didn't have to be long or anything. They were more about showing your appreciation for the other in a personal way.

Leaf hums. "Hey," he prods.

"Huh?" Paige asks quietly, tilting his head.

"You get a gift for Brandon yet?"

Paige's grip on his marker loosens as he blanches.

What with their fight, Paige hadn't actually gotten Brandon his present yet!

After dressing quickly and taking a short bus ride, Paige flits about nervously in the Barnes and Noble he finds himself in.

"What are you even looking for?" Leaf asks after a while of Paige hovering around in one section.

"Poetry book..." Paige mumbles aloud, trying to grab a book just slightly out of his reach.

"Poetry?" Leaf questions.

"Yeah," Paige sighs, dropping off of his tippy toes. "There's one specifically that Brandon's been eyeing for a while now. He doesn't seem to ever want to buy it, though..."

"Weird," Leaf shrugs. "But if he's read so much of it, won't he be like... mostly done with it?"

Paige grins slyly. "Heh... That's where you're wrong." He's talking quietly, not trying to gain unwanted attention, but not caring enough to not talk aloud. Besides, people mumbled to themselves all the time while trying to find books, didn't they?

As the white haired teen passes by every book on the shelf, he whispers the name of the book aloud. As he trails along, he mumbles a, "No..." or a, "Wrong one..." or even a, "I don't think I remember the Dewey Decimal System as well as I think I do..."

He was really focused on finding the right thing.

Paige finally stops at a set of colorful books.

"Aha!" He smiles wide. "The whole thing!"

"Woah," Leaf breathes. "There's like... six books in there."

"And they're huge," Paige smirks, tucking the collection under his arm. "He'll be set for a while now."

Paige grinned himself all the way home and then some, trying to craft the perfect story in his head the whole while long. Eventually, as he's laying down, he finally nods to himself.

He had it.

"You're kind of unbearable sometimes, you know?" Leaf asks, rolling their eyes.

"Blah, blah," Paige chuckles back. "You're just mad I thought of the perfect thing to say before you did."

"Pfftt," Leaf scoffs. "Yeah, sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night, nerdster."

Paige grins and holds both Patro and Teds close to him. Tomorrow would be the gift exchange. He was so excited.