Title: Beautiful Oblivion

Rating: PG-13 for language and themes

Characters: Paige, Spinner, Terri, Ashley…(pretty much everyone, eventually)

Pairings: Paige/Spinner, not sure about any other pairings

Summary: Major AU. As a fashion columnist for a very popular magazine, Paige Michalchuk is all about business. But her world is turned upside down when she meets her new party boy secretary, Gavin 'Spinner' Mason.

Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me. Don't sue.

A/N: Er…wow, it's been forever since I updated! Well, I'm hitting a brick wall in trying to rewrite chapter two of 'Glory Fades', so I'll try this. Well, read and enjoy!

[ Ashley, 8-?-04 ]

WARNING: THIS STORY IS ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, SO THE THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN DEGRASSI THE SERIES MAY NOT HAVE HAPPENED IN THIS STORY

"Noah, honey? I'm home," Paige said tiredly, stepping into her apartment. She set her paperwork on the kitchen table and took off her coat, hanging it on the rack. When she heard a muffled reply, she promptly slipped off her shoes and flopped onto the couch. She closed her eyes and buried her face into the couch cushion.

"Hey babe, I missed you! I just got back an hour ago," her fiancée said upon walking out of their bedroom. He leaned down and gave Paige a quick peck on the cheek, before heading over to the kitchen.

"How was your trip?"

"Eh, nothing special. How was work?"

"Well," she took her face out of the couch cushion to reply, "my boss still hates me, Terri quit, and now I have an immature little asshole for a secretary. So I'm going to go with horrible." Noah laughed.

"Sorry I asked," he said. "So, what would you like for dinner? I'll make whatever you want." Paige smiled to herself.

"Would you kill me if I said I wanted left-over Chinese food?"

"Left-over Chinese it is," Noah chuckled.

"But I may take you up on that offer in the future," Paige called from the couch, making Noah laugh once again. Normally, she would have gotten up to help him, especially considering she hadn't seen him in a week, but today she was just too tired. Work had drained all the energy out of her system and just walking was difficult.

'God, figures that the day Noah comes back proves to be the worst day in the history of bad days,' Paige thought to herself, mindlessly drawing patterns on the carpet with her finger. 'I don't know how I'm going to survive work from now on. I can't believe Terri even brought Gavin near me. She should know that I have high standards, and anyone with half a brain would know that he certainly doesn't meet them. And it doesn't help that half the girls in my office think he's some sort of Sex God. As if.'

Before she could further ponder the matter, the sound of someone singing caught her attention. She looked over the top of the couch and into the kitchen, where she found Noah singing to the tune of Journey's 'Open Arms.' As she watched him, she couldn't help but smile at her soon to be husband.

When they met, Paige knew it was love at first sight, as cliché as it sounded. It wasn't just physical attraction, although Paige had to admit it was hard to ignore his chiseled features, hard body, and perfect smile. As good as he looked, the electricity that ran through her body the minute they locked eyes was even better.

From there on out, the two had dated for nearly two years before getting engaged. Her parents had been completely against it, citing that at 27, he was too old for her, and she was entirely too yound to get married. In her heart, she somewhat agreed with them. She was only 22, and plus, both of their work schedules combined made it difficult to see each other often. But with one look at the 14K diamond ring on her finger, her brain told her otherwise and she pushed her doubts aside. Besides, now that he was back from that trip, they would be able to spend more quality time together.

"Paige, dinner's ready!" Noah called from the kitchen. She groaned and sat up slowly. She stretched her back and made her way into the kitchen. On the table, next to her paperwork, was a steaming plate filled with fried rice, Kung Pao chicken, and egg rolls.

Paige heard her stomach grumble and remembered she had skipped lunch. One look at the plate and it took all she had not to shove her face into the food. Instead, she slowly walked over to the table and sat down, putting a napkin on her lap and snapping the chop sticks apart. Before she could dig in, she heard Noah walk up behind her.

"Night, Paige," he said, kissing the top of her head. He started walking towards their bedroom, but before he could get any further, Paige pulled him back by tugging on his t-shirt.

"You're not going to eat?" she asked. Noah shook his head.

"No, I already ate on the plane," he yawned. "Besides, I am dead tired, all I want to do is sleep."

"Well, alright," she said with a frown. She pulled him down for a kiss. "I love you."

"Love you, too, babe," he said with a smile. He gave her another quick kiss before leaving to the bedroom. Paige sighed.

'So much for quality time together,' she thought to herself.

Paige ate almost everything on the plate, stopping only when she felt she would explode if she ate anymore. She placed her dish in the sink, making a note to herself to clean it up in the morning. With another sigh, Paige placed her elbows on the counter and stared at her ring finger.

'Maybe Mom is right, maybe getting married is a bad idea,' she thought, watching the light reflect off the diamond. 'No. Don't even think it, Paige. Alright, so we barely talked after not seeing each other for a week, so what? We were tired. We'll talk in the morning. We'll have coffee and eggs and bacon and we'll catch up and everything will be great. Just great.'

Deciding that she was too tired to think, Paige headed to the bedroom to get some sleep. But on her way out of the kitchen, she spotted a fortune cookie sitting on the counter.

'That's funny, I thought I threw all of these away,' she thought with a raised eyebrow. Paige, the cynic that she was, thought fortune cookies were nothing but a pile of crap. She didn't believe in them and thought anyone that did was an idiot. With that theory in mind, she took one look at the cookies and threw them away without a second thought. 'I guess I forgot one.'

She picked the cookie off the counter and glared at it. She considered throwing it away, but with a shrug, she tore open the wrapper. She broke open the cookie and took the slip of paper out.

'There appear to be many clouds, but they'll pass. Sun will shine soon enough.

Lucky Numbers: 2, 17, 21, 25, 32'

Paige stared at the piece of paper for a few moments before rolling her eyes and throwing the cookie and the fortune into the wastebasket. She walked towards her bedroom, deciding sleep was more important than some stupid fortune.

…

Paige cringed as the boisterous beeping of her alarm clock sounded right into her ear. With a groan, she reached over to her nightstand and turned the annoying device off. With heavy eyes, she noted that she was alone in bed, the spot next to her vacant. Figuring Noah was in the kitchen, Paige yawned and headed to the bathroom to take a shower.

When she finished up, she emerged from the bathroom in a pink robe with her hair wrapped in a towel. She put on a pair of purple slippers and headed to the kitchen.

"Morning, honey. I was thinking we could have-," Paige started, but when she looked up, the kitchen was empty. She walked over to the kitchen table where a piece of paper and pen sat. Paige grabbed the piece of paper and read it.

Paige,

I had to leave early for work this morning, sorry I didn't tell you last night, it must've slipped my mind. I would've woken you up to say goodbye, but you looked too cute sleeping. I'll see you later tonight, I'll call if I'm going to be late. Love you, babe.

Noah.

Paige took in a deep breath and slammed the piece of paper on the table. If last night wasn't the last straw, this morning was. With tears in her eyes, Paige had every intention of taking off her beloved engagement ring and throwing it out the window. And she would have, had it not been for the person knocking at her door.

'What the hell? Who would come over at 6 o'clock in the morning,' Paige thought to herself, forgetting her frustrations for just a moment. Her eyes lit up as a thought came into her mind. 'Maybe it's Noah. Maybe he decided we needed to have breakfast together. Or maybe he's taking the day off so we can spend the whole day together.'

With that in mind, Paige practically ran to the door. She unlocked the door and with a huge smile plastered on her face, she swung the door open.

"Morning, Paige. Oh, I mean Ms. Michalchuk, sorry."

For a few seconds, all Paige could do was stare. And when she could stare no more, she just started to cry. With the notion that Noah was at the door, added to who really was at the door, she couldn't stop the tears from cascading down her face. She slammed the door shut and crumpled onto the floor, sobbing.

On the other side of the door, Spinner was left staring at the green door of his boss's apartment. He turned the doorknob, opening the door tentatively, and took a peek inside.

"Um, Ms. Michalchuk? You there?" he asked, scanning the room. He heard a sob and looked at the floor, finding his boss curled into a ball crying. He dropped his backpack and rushed over to her. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

Paige took her head out of her arms and stared at her secretary. She had only known the boy for less than 24 hours and he was already the source of all her problems. If it weren't for him, work wouldn't have been so bad. And if work wouldn't have been so bad, she could've spent more time with Noah. And if she would've spent more time with Noah, she wouldn't be on the floor crying. She glared at Spinner.

"No I'm not okay! Do I look like I'm okay?" she asked with a snarl, her sadness shifting into anger.

"Er…no, actually, you looked pretty pissed," Spinner replied with a smirk. Paige stood up and narrowed her eyes at Spinner.

"What the hell do you think you're doing here? And how in the hell did you find out where I live?"

"Well," Spinner stood up as well, "I got your address from Terri, and I got to thinking, since I'm your secretary and all, maybe we should have breakfast together." Paige raised her eyebrows at him.

"I thought I told you yesterday," she crossed her arms over her chest, "I already have a boyfriend."

"Oh no, no. It's nothing like that," he said. "I'm not talking about a date or anything. We'll just have a cup of coffee, talk about business, you know. So how's about it?" Paige scoffed.

"No way!" Spinner grabbed her by her shoulders and looked at her with pleading eyes.

"Come on, you have to come with me! I mean, I just started the job, I don't know my way around, I don't know anyone…" he rambled on. Paige rolled her eyes.

"Gavin, practically all the girls in our office introduced themselves to you yesterday." Spinner let out an annoyed sigh.

"Fine, but I need to know which ones are single and which ones are married, you know, that kind of stuff," he said. Paige laughed.

"So that's what you meant by business?"

Spinner, ignoring her remark, continued, "And plus, you could tell me what you're so mad about. I always listen to Ellie when she's upset, even if she thinks I'm not listening." With a sigh, Paige looked up at the man who had been the cause of so many problems.

"You really want to go out to breakfast?" He nodded and she rolled her eyes. "Fine, we'll go." Spinner smiled.

"Great!" They stood there awkwardly for a few moments, before Paige spoke up.

"Well?"

"Well what?" Spinner asked.

"Are we going to go or not?" Paige asked. He laughed.

"I didn't think you'd want to go out like that," he pointed to her ensemble, "but whatever." Paige could feel her face burning with embarrassment.

"I'll be right back," she said, turning around quickly and heading to her bedroom, not wanting her secretary to see her beet red face.

She did her makeup and dried her hair in a hurry, then headed to her closet to pick out an outfit. She opted for a black, mock wrap day dress and black leather pumps. With one last look at the full-length mirror, she walked out of her bedroom and into the kitchen.

"Hey, where'd you get this Chinese food? It's really good," she heard Spinner say from the sink. Paige scrunched up her nose in disgust as she saw Spinner leaning over the sink, eating whatever she left on her plate from the night before.

"Okay, ew. That's been sitting out all night," she said incredulously, not believing what she was seeing. Spinner shrugged.

"Your point?"

"That's definitely gross," she said with a hint of distaste. Spinner laughed and walked over to the door, picking up his discarded backpack and slinging it over his arm.

"Ready to go?"

"Yeah, I just have to get my coat and briefcase," she replied and Spinner waited at the door. "Oh, are we taking your car, or did you come here by a cab?"

"No, and no." Paige returned, coat on and briefcase in hand, and raised an eyebrow at Spinner.

"Then how did you get here?"

"I came on my skateboard," he turned around so Paige could see the skateboard attached to his backpack. She glared at him.

"God, I hate you." Spinner just smirked and opened the door. Paige moved to go out first, but Spinner stood in her way.

"Woah, hold on a second," he walked out into the hallway. "Beauty before the beast." And with that he laughed and ran down the hallway. Paige took a minute to compose herself before running after him.

"You are so going to die for that!"

I'd like to give a HUGE (so HUGE, I have to capitalize HUGE) thank you to all of the reviewers. You guys rock it to the max. I don't know when the next chapter will be out, but hopefully it'll be soon. Until then, farewell kiddies.

[Ashley, 8-?-04]