Not requested.

Mentions of Pickle x Knife and Test Tube x Lightbulb.

Plot: Paper, upset, tired, and drunk after a big party, talks to OJ, revealing some interesting things to OJ.

Hurt comfort

It had been a very VERY eventful day and evening, as Paper and OJ spent the day sleeping, which was a rarity for them to do (sleep in the day and sleep for more than 5 hours at a time). and the entire night partying with all the season 3, season 2, season 1, and hosts of Inanimate Insanity. Hell, even Taco showed up and was actually accepted by almost everyone for once, even Paper and OJ forgave her.

Pickle and Knife haven't forgiven her though. Pickle because of what had happened during season 1 and Knife because of his boyfriend. The two, when they heard the news, decided to skip the party instead of make a scene.

Paper took the party as a opportunity to try alcohol. Even though he was 22, he hadn't ever wanted to try the tiniest sip of alcohol. OJ, on the other hand, occasionally had a drink or two. He is also 22 (two weeks older than Paper) in this story.

OJ wasn't paying attention and was dealing with some party-related-work, with Paintbrush, who didn't want to get drunk or accidentally cause a scene, Knife, who wasn't attending the party (mentioned above), and Pickle, who also wasn't attending the party (also mentioned above), helping him.

Paintbrush was in charge of keeping everyone under control, considering Lightbulb could get crazy drunk crazy fast, and could easily influence other inhabitants, like Paper, who Lightbulb was friends with, Test Tube, who Lightbulb was dating, and Fan, who Lightbulb was friends with, easily.

Pickle and Knife were there to deal with some event ideas and party ideas, as OJ was finally, for the first time since he started the hotel, not worried about money, so he now had a new main worry, and you probably know who it was...Paper.

Right below the hotel's money issues was Paper's several issues, which OJ didn't like saying, discussing, or thinking about, as he knew it made Paper incredibly uncomfortable and it also made him upset. 

Paper's "several issues" include...scoliosis, depression, anxiety, and finally...his overwhelming kindness, which several contestants, including Baseball, Nickel, and Trophy, have used to their own advantage before.

Paper felt bad that OJ would worry about his issues, so he tried to ignore his issues and appear "better", even though he truly wasn't that much better than he was five years ago. He didn't tell anyone, not even Pickle, who was, technically, considering Paper and OJ was dating, his best friend.

For all Pickle knew, he was better. For all Knife knew, he was better. For all OJ knew, he was better. For all anyone knew, except for himself, he was better. Even Test Tube, who did yearly psychological reviews on everyone, thought he was better.

Paper could be a terrible liar, but he can also be a good liar, it depends on the circumstances. If the lie could ruin someone's day/week/month/year/life, he'll keep it well hidden. If the lie could possibly shake up something temporarily, he'll keep it somewhat open.

MePhone was going all out on the party, buying over $2,000 worth of drinks and lights for the party, which OJ was allowed to keep if there was any drinks leftover and any lights still working, which was something MePhone was not expecting to last, as he thought the drunk contestants would accidentally sleep on/start a fire with/unplug/destroy/pour beer down them.

Paper was worried a fire was going to start or he was going to have a panic attack due to the overwhelming partying, drinking, smoking (Trophy, Nickel, and Knife), and "smoking" (weed) (Nickel, Baseball, Pickle, Knife, and, surprisingly, Trophy and Cheesy).

Eventually, after hour two of partying, Paper disappeared from the party without nobody noticing and went to the second floor, somewhat upset that OJ, even after Paper invited him, didn't show up and instead did hotel work.

So, being fragile and having just been extremely disappointed, Paper went to the most abandoned floor, the fourth floor, which only guests would ever live on, to cry privately, somewhat embarrassed, extremely disappointed (like said above), and somewhat relived, which surprised him.

Paper wished someone, like Knife or Pickle, would walk to the fourth floor for any reason and hear him and help him, but that never happened, even when Paper waited for two hours. Paper couldn't be disappointed at that.

Eventually, after giving up of the "someone walking on the fourth floor" idea, he wanted to send OJ a text message, but couldn't, so he decided, instead of actually confronting his problems, to go down to the party and drink HEAVILY.

He knew alcoholism was a bad thing, but he thought it wouldn't hurt to relieve himself once, right? Nothing could possibly happen that would reveal the things he, so desperately, wanted no one to find out...right?

Paper, within the span of thirty minutes, drank nine whiskeys, which he hated drinking, but did it to forget about everything, and was the drunkest person in the room. Paper, in his drunken state, fell asleep in a storage closet, only to be quickly woken up by someone who he couldn't see properly, but he knew they were tall and had big bushy hair.

[OJ's POV]

Paintbrush went out to grab some storage supplies, leaving the three of us to think of new ideas for an "after party", which was kind of hard when the party was already big and expansive. We were interrupted by the sound of Paintbrush dragging someone through a secret office door which accessed my bedroom, which I shared with Paper.

Paintbrush walked out, closed the door, and told me, "You have a friend waiting for you on the floor", before sitting back down. I went inside of my room and saw Paper, who was either very high or very drunk, stumbling towards a nearby chair.

I chuckled and shut the office door, which Paintbrush had forgotten to close, and went over to Paper while the three of them thought of ideas outside. The walls in the room were very thick, so I wasn't worried about anyone overhearing anything.

Paper had been crying, which was obvious since his eyes were incredibly red, so I went to ask him what was wrong, getting a sad drunken response of, "My *hic* boyfriend stood *hic* me up..."

That's when I realized one thing, that Paper couldn't see me properly or recognize my voice, meaning he was incredibly drunk, and remembered another, which was that I was supposed to spend my evening with Paper, and had accidentally forgotten about it.

I felt immediately terrible, knowing that Paper was still incredibly fragile with emotions, so I tried to take advantage of his drunken state to see if I could learn anything, which was somewhat wrong, I admit, but I knew it could possibly help Paper with something, anything. Paper was, at this moment in time, my number one worry.

After minutes of talking, Paper started talking about he stuff he "didn't want my *hic* boyfriend finding out", which including some depressing things about stress and depression, which made me realized Paper had been lying for years.

Paper eventually fell asleep after an hour of talking, which was exactly when the party started dying down, so I decided to leave the hotel in the hands of the three people currently thinking of ideas without me, and fell asleep cuddling Paper.

I woke up ten hours later with Paper remarking about the evening, leaving out the part about him crying for several hours, which Trophy and Cheesy overheard briefly while they were going to do pot on the fourth floor.

I spent the day sleeping next to Paper, trying to figure out if I should let him know what he told me or if I should keep it a secret until the far future. I eventually decided to write a note and go do some hotel work.

Five hours passed and I went back to the note to see a new, longer one, written by Paper, which talked about those issues and how sorry he was for lying, which I wasn't worried about. Paper was asleep by the time I was back, so I would have to wait until morning to talk to him.

I couldn't wait for the morning...