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Paper put down the last complaint, making a mental note that he would have to talk to OJ about it. He took a deep breath in, knowing it was only halfway through the day. As he exhaled, he felt calmer, realizing he didn’t have to worry as much anymore. He wasn’t left alone to run the hotel. He heard the sounds of the TV, the group gathered fighting each other on screen. He lingered behind the couch, watching them for a moment longer. It was nice to see some objects getting along.
“AH-CHOO!” A loud sneeze took Paper by surprise. Who else could it be but Tissues? Apparently, it also surprised Bomb, who died a few seconds after. The game over sound played from the TV, and Paper chose that moment to leave, knowing Soap would be down soon. He didn’t want a repeat of the Christmas party. As he passed Tissues, he put a hand on their shoulder, something he had taken to doing in the past few months. It was a little gesture between them. Neither knew what exactly it meant, but it was nice.
Getting back to his room, Paper found his planner, looking over the list of things that needed to be done. He had done a few, and he knew OJ had taken over the rest. At the time, he had tried to balance it out, but OJ hadn’t let him do any more. It was odd, but maybe OJ felt like he needed to do more, or he felt bad about relying so much on Paper, which frankly was bull(honky).
Anyway, with some free time, he sat down on his bed and grabbed his phone. He didn’t spend much time on it, so it was primarily used for calls. There weren’t many people that he couldn’t just get up and talk to.
Getting an idea, he opened his contact list, scrolling down to M and letting the phone ring. There wasn't a guaranteed chance she would pick up, but she often kept her laptop open, so maybe someone would pick up.
Bow phased through the wall, entering the living room. She was getting sick and tired of Dough's behavior. As she passed, a few of the chairs started to float, glowing pink as a result of Bow's energy. However, she was snapped out of her anger by a quiet repeating sound. It was coming from Marshmallow's laptop. The chairs crashed down behind Bow, and she floated closer. The laptop had been left open to the browser, but an incoming call took over the center of the screen.
“Hey, Marsh! You've got a call!” Bow called. After a moment, she heard Marshmallow yell back to pick it up while she came down. Bow stared at the screen, trying to figure out how to do that.
Paper listened to the phone ring, each ring dashing his hope of reaching Marshmallow. Right before it cut off, the screen turned blue, indicating the call was picked up.
“Yel-lo?” A strange voice came through. It sounded faintly familiar, but nothing could come to mind.
“Hello? Is Marshmallow there?” He spoke while searching his brain for who he was talking to. It gave him a weird sense to hear the voice, but he wasn't sure why. He knew it wasn’t Apple, but who else did Marshmallow live with? As he thought, he heard a faint voice from the phone.
“Who is it?” Marshmallow rushed into the room, having run down from upstairs.
“Idk, some guy.” Bow wasn’t very interested in whoever was calling.
“Did you just say ‘idk’ out loud?” Marshmallow shook her head as she picked up the laptop. “Oh, Paper! Hi, sorry about that.” She smiled seeing her friend’s name on screen. It had been a while since they had talked last.
“Hi Marshmallow! That's fine. At least you picked up!” His cheerful voice came out slightly distorted from her bad laptop, but she had no doubt he was as happy to hear her as she was him. It was a sign he had recovered from his previous state. “How have you been?”
“Doing well over here at the Mansion. How are things at the hotel?”
“It’s a quiet day today. Makes me a little nervous if I’m being honest, but hey, I’ll take it when I can!”
“Oh!” Marshmallow smiled when she remembered the date. “By the way, happy birthday!” There was silence on the other end of the call, and she worried that she had gotten it wrong. After a moment, Paper spoke again, his voice quieter.
“What day is it?”
“November 14th?” Marshmallow got a little nervous, but mentally double-checked herself. She knew she was right.
“Oh. It is my birthday. Well, thank you, Marsh, I completely forgot! I guess I got so caught up in work that I lost track of the date!” He laughed a little, not letting his nervousness about forgetting his own birthday show in his voice. He heard Marshmallow laugh a bit in return, and start talking about something else.
After another half hour of catching up and talking about things going on, they had to hang up. Paper took the phone away from his ear, finding that he had several texts. Though they were all from Pepper. Clicking on them, he read through her entire rant about Salt, reminding himself of the rants from years ago. Those had been negative, but more recent ones were completely positive, and were mostly just Pepper talking about how much she loved Salt. He had to be honest that he did the same thing to her about OJ. Getting to the bottom, he saw the text bubble pop up again, and go away a few times before one more text appeared. It read, ‘btw happy birthday!!’ The same thing Marshmallow had told him but in a text. He smiled, but it faltered when another text popped up.
‘and come down. quickly’
He opened the keyboard, simply texting back two question marks. After getting no response, he got up and opened the door to his room, worried about what was happening downstairs. However, opening the door put him face to face with OJ, who had to take a step back to avoid being smacked with the door.
“Hey, Paper, I need help downstairs, can you come?” He was smiling, knowing what was really happening downstairs.
“Oh, yeah! I was heading down anyway because Pepper texted me about something.” OJ’s expression seemed to tighten a little. It quickly returned to normal as he slipped his hand into Paper’s, locking them together.
“Let’s go then.” Paper smiled, giving OJ’s hand a squeeze, feeling it be reciprocated.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, they entered the main room. Paper was immediately caught off guard. Everything looked so different than how it looked only an hour or so ago. The whole thing was set up like it used to be when they had parties. Almost everyone in the hotel was there too! When they noticed the two standing there, there was a very uncoordinated “Happy birthday” that traveled throughout the room, everyone saying it at different times. Still, the effort got to Paper, and he grinned. He squeezed OJ’s hand and then grabbed his wrist with his other hand. He loosened his squeeze when OJ winced.
“I don’t mean to put you on the spot, but I had to. You’re the best! And congratulations, you’ve aged.” OJ felt Paper’s joy, both in his expression and the way he held onto his arm. Paper shuffled his feet a bit, in an energetic manner, looking around the room.
“Th-Thank you! How much work did this take? In such a short amount of time too?” He spoke quickly, his mind spinning.
Pepper walked up to him. “We wanted to like, celebrate you, and everything you’ve done for us and this hotel.” Paper let go of OJ and instead threw his arms around Pepper. He continued to talk, but it was turning into an unintelligible ramble. Most guests went back to their usual things, recognizing the moment was over. Some stuck around to talk to Paper specifically.
10 minutes later, Paper was holding an empty cup, looking down at it as he grinned from ear to ear. He was snapped out of his trance when he felt an arm hook around his shoulders. Looking up, he recognized Baseball.
“Look at you man, you made it through another year. You’re getting older. Anyway, here.” Baseball handed Paper a small blue note, ink bleeding through the back. He walked away after, going to lean against the wall near the corner. Turning the note over revealed writing on the front.
‘Happy womb day!’ Yeah, Paper didn’t know what he expected. Underneath the text was a drawing of a birthday cake. It obviously took about two minutes to do it, but it was the thought that counted. Smiling again, he looked up and around the room. How had he made so many friends? Even if not everyone there was exactly friendly to him, they were all in a similar situation, and he had made many friends in the room. It really was wonderful.
Slowly, Paper’s smile slipped away as he came to a revelation.
He really was getting old.