Author's Notes:

I finally got to see "High Fidelity" last night, which was so much better than I'd even expected reading the transcripts of it. Toby was so cute, hehehe.

Anyway, so many reviews! Big giant thank-yous to StorytellerD, radiance x, Anne, uname, degrassifreak87, and jbutton. I'm loving all the Toby!love and all the encouraging words. Reviews make me squee. Thank you all!

Also, for those of you who don't live in Canada or any other regions where they have Tim Hortons – Tims is a doughnut shop, kind of similar to (and superior to!) Dunkin Donuts. Just fyi, as a Tims is the setting of this chapter.

And hey, speaking of Tim – Tim the adorable Degrassi boy (and not the hockey-playing restauranteur) – chapter 4 featuring Tim, Toby, and Mrs Kerwin, will be here soon. In the meantime, here's chapter 3. Enjoy!


"Around the Sun"

(Chapter 3)

From what I knew of Paige – which was, admittedly, not very much then – I was expecting we'd go to one of those edgy fancy coffee places. So I was really surprised when we pulled into the parking lot of a Tim Hortons.

She must have mistaken my surprised look for one of disapproval, because she frowned and asked, "Oh, is this all right? Next to the Dot, their coffee's the best."

"Sure. Tims is great," I said. I hadn't been here in years – not since the day Jay shoved me inside a locker and Rick came to let me out, asked to apologise over a latté like it was his fault that I was an unpopular geek, and it might have been, but wasn't unpopular better than invisible?

"Um. Hon?" Paige said, and I realized I'd been caught daydreaming.

"Sorry!" I got out of the car, followed her into the restaurant. It was mostly empty; a university student was probably studying for finals at a table full of textbooks and an elderly gentleman sipped coffee while working on a crossword puzzle.

Paige ordered her coffee, then asked "Split me a box of Timbits?" The fresh doughnut smell was damnably irresistible. I knew I'd probably regret it, but I nodded my head.

"Sure," I said, reaching for my wallet. "And a large coffee, extra cream?"

"My treat," she told me, and then grinned at the surprised look on my face.

"I forget not everyone's as cheap as JT,"I told her, taking my coffee from the counter, leading the way to a corner table. She sat down and began picking through the assortment of miniature doughnuts.

And then a silence fell. I awkwardly took a sip of my too-hot coffee and promptly burnt my tongue. Failing to find a more interesting topic of information, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "You're, um, going to Banting in the fall, right?"

Paige laughed, but it was a tired world-weary sort of laughter – enough to make it clear that this was not on her list of things she felt like talking about. "Yeah. Go Banting." Her voice was devoid of enthusiasm.

"It's a really good school. One of the best in the country."

"Harvard of the North. Yeah. I know." She picked up a powdered-sugar doughnut and began picking it to pieces. "And up until last week, I'd have thought Banting was all I ever wanted. If that isn't a new way to spell irony, I don't know what is. I somehow managed to ruin, oh, everything, like something out of Craig's stupid song about things turning to dust."

"I'm…sorry?" I offered, softly.

"This whole year, when I was making plans…I was always picturing her there with me. Even before we were dating, isn't that crazy? I kept imagining having her to come home to; we'd have an apartment and when things went wrong she'd be there to cheer me up and make me forget whatever it was I'd be worrying about. Only now I'm all alone. I've never been this alone. It sucks." She spent a moment staring at her powdered-sugar covered fingers, then looked up at me, managed a smile. "Toby, hon, I'm sorry to dump all this on you," she said. Her voice had gone from sulky and pensive back to something bright and false and much more typically Paige. "I mean, I don't really know you, even."

"It's easier to spill your guts to a stranger. No consequences for the truth," I told her. It's true, though; Kate gets a new shrink every six months and I put stuff in my webjournal I'd never be able to tell my friends. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah?" She abandoned the remains of her doughnut and reached for her coffee.

"The last time I saw you, at the yearbook table, you seemed pretty happy." Happy was, actually kind of an understatement. She seemed thrilled to death with her newfound freedom. "What happened?"

"What happened? I came to my senses. The adrenaline rush wore off. Marco's graduation party, and the dancing and." She shrugged, while wiping her sticky fingers on a napkin. "Can I ask you something?"

"I guess that's fair."

"You just seemed a little too excited about my freedom to date, hon. You've never seemed interested in me before. JT, yeah, vintage grade nine JT – which, by the way, is never a good inspiration for your pick-up lines – but not you. Is it the kissing girls thing or…?"

"Oh!" I said, with a nervous laugh. I was panicking, I needed a minute to stall, so I grabbed one of the donuts and took a bite, thinking while my mouth was too full to talk. But even after the highly-caloric sacrifice, all I could come up with was the truth. It was scary as hell, but I guess I thought she deserved some honesty back. "I, um…" pause, swallow, "I guess I just wanted you to know I supported you, cause I know how hard it is, wanting to date guys and girls." My heart was racing; somehow, subconsciously, I was waiting for her to point and laugh or something. Even though it would have been highly hypocritical. I'd only outed myself twice before, once to Kate and once to my friendslist, and let me tell you, it's a lot easier in writing.

She didn't laugh. Actually, she gave me this wide-eyed look, leaned across the table and whispered, "Wait, Toby, you're bi?"

I nodded.

Paige grinned, then. "I can't believe it. Well, maybe I can, but hon, why didn't you tell anyone?"

"No-one ever asked," I said, which was true enough. People don't take bisexuality seriously, especially not when you're sixteen, and the very last thing I needed was being accused of being one hundred percent fake again. All the other times I'd tried to stand out had had disastrous consequences; if there's anything I've learned in my years at Degrassi, it's that it's really a whole lot safer to be invisible. "I guess we're even," I added, looking up at her with a half-smile. "Spilling our guts, that is."

She was still smiling. "Toby, we're so even."

Somehow? From then on, Paige and I were friends. Maybe having that kind of common ground makes forming friendships easier.

We talked until midnight, when the restaurant closed, and then Paige drove me home.