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: Holy crap, am I updating? I think I am. Ladies and gentleman, hell has just frozen over.

Ashley, 2-19-06

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

…

"Wait, so Sarah is married?"

"Yeah, but she's a notorious cheater. The more guys she sleeps with, the happier she is."

"What about Amber?"

"She's married too, but her and her husband are rumored to be into swinging, so if you're interested…"

"Uh no, thanks," Spinner said, shifting uncomfortably. Paige laughed. "So what happened this morning?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, taking a sip of her coffee. Spinner raised an eyebrow.

"While I'm not the brightest crayon in the box," Spinner paused so that Paige could snort, "I do know that usually when a woman is crying hysterically, something's wrong."

Paige was about to tell Gavin to mind his own beeswax, when he noticed something, or rather someone, over her shoulder. Paige turned around to see who he was looking at, only to find a petite redhead wearing all black.

"Ellie? What're you doing here?" Spinner called out, standing up from his seat. The girl rolled her eyes and pointed to her coffee cup.

"Oh, I thought people went to coffee shops to drink coffee, my mistake," Ellie said sarcastically. Ellie, finally realizing Spinner was not alone, raised her eyebrow at Paige.

"Oh! Uh, Paige this Ellie, Ellie this is Paige, my new boss," he said, in the most professional voice he could muster.

"It's nice to meet you," Paige said, shaking Ellie's hand. "Gavin's told me a lot about you."

"Vicious lie, I'm sure," Ellie said, sending a mock glare to Spinner. Spinner laughed and pulled her onto his lap.

And for a minute, the threesome remained silent. There was a lot of tension in the room, though Paige wasn't sure why. She'd only known this girl for a few minutes, and anyone who could put up with Gavin for over ten years had to be some kind of superhero. She had no reason to hate Ellie.

'Well I have no reason to like her either,' Paige reasoned to herself. And as Ellie started to play with Spinner's hair, she found herself not liking Ellie just a little bit more.

"Well, I think we better head out," Paige suddenly exclaimed, making the other two jump. "Wouldn't want you to be late on your first day." Spinner nodded, and he and Ellie stood up.

"I'll see you when I get home," he told her, pulling her in for a hug. She gave him a peck on the lips, then headed to another table. Paige felt a strange sensation in the pit of her stomach.

'Definitely no reason to like her,' Paige thought, a scowl on her face.

After they gathered their things, the twosome exited the café and took a right.

"So, uh, you and Ellie seem close," Paige observed, trying to get some more information on the situation, though she wasn't sure why she cared.

"Yeah," Spinner said nonchalantly. "I love her." Paige's eyes got wide as she stared at Spinner.

"You love her? Well then why aren't you two, you know…together?" Spinner shrugged.

"She doesn't feel the same way." Paige snorted.

"It sure seems like she feels the same way," she exclaimed, still not sure why she was being so nosy about this. "Gavin, she was all over you!"

"She's had a rough couple of months and I've been there for her," Spinner said, shrugging again. "I know she loves me, just not the way I love her. It's okay, though. She knows I'm here if she ever needs some lovin'." He winked and Paige rolled her eyes.

"So basically, whenever she's feeling shitty she'll act like your girlfriend, but after that, she only wants to be friends?" Paige questioned, not sure where she was going with this.

"Yeah, basically," Spinner replied. Paige scoffed.

"I can't believe you let her do that to you."

"Look, she's not doing anything wrong, okay? Just because she doesn't feel the same way about me doesn't mean we can't be close. If anything, it makes me feel better. When I told her I loved her, she could've packed her bags and left, but she didn't. It's not her fault she doesn't feel the same way. People can't choose who they love, Paige…I mean, Ms. Michalchuk."

As Spinner concluded his little rant, Paige found herself speechless. For the few hours she had known him, Paige thought Gavin to be an extremely horny, dense guy who didn't know left from right. She had never expected him to come up with something so deep. And before she could come up with any kind of retort, they found themselves at the doors to the main entrance.

"Here we are," Spinner said, holding the door open for Paige, a gesture that did not go unnoticed.

They both showed their identification cards to the person at the front desk and proceeded to make their way to the elevator. As they were walking, Paige noticed Mrs. Mench headed right towards them. Try as she might to ignore it, Paige couldn't help but squirm under the glare of the menacing woman. She opened her mouth to say something, anything that might impress her boss, but she was interrupted.

"Good morning, Mrs. Mench," Spinner said cheerfully. "You look awesome, blue is definitely your color." Paige's jaw dropped as she saw something she thought would never happen: Mrs. Mench blushed.

"Oh Mr. Mason, you don't have to try and make the old lady feel pretty," Mrs. Mench said in a voice much huskier than Paige remembered it being.

"Old lady? How old are you? Twenty? Twenty-five?"

"Oh, stop," Mrs. Mench giggled. Paige couldn't suppress her shudder at the awful sound. "Well, I must be going. It was nice running into you."

"Have a good day, ma'am," Spinner waved a goodbye. Paige coughed as the woman practically swooned right in front of them.

"Mr. Mason," Mrs. Mench said, giving him a smile. She looked sharply at Paige, giving her a curt nod. "Ms. Michalchuk."

And with that, the woman continued walking down the hallway, but not before giving Spinner one last smile. Paige found herself staring at her boss's retreating back in disbelief. As soon as the woman was out of eyesight, Paige punched Spinner in the stomach.

"Oof!" Spinner exclaimed. He bent over and coughed a bit. "What the hell was that for?"

"You made me look like a complete idiot in front of my boss!" Paige said angrily, trying to keep her voice down. "She was practically drooling all over you while I stood there looking like a total jackass!" Spinner stayed silent for a moment, before breaking into a smile.

"Oh I get it," he said, with a bit of mischief in his tone. "You're jealous."

"Excuse me? Jealous? Of what?"

"Well, Mrs. Mench does look pretty good for her age…" he trailed off.

"Oh no. There is no way you are suggesting Mrs. Mench of all people is better looking than me," Paige said, shaking her head. "No way."

"Hey, you said it, not me," Spinner laughed. Paige huffed and stomped her way to the elevator, a giggling Spinner following her.

When the elevator finally reached their floor, the two stepped in. Paige continued her ritual of pressing the button labeled eight three times before resuming her spot against the wall. The two settled into a comfortable silence. She couldn't explain it, but whenever she was around him, she felt at ease. Sure they teased each other and sometimes he made her want to pound his head against a brick wall, but she felt comfortable around him.

However, the silence was not to last, as her cell phone rang just as they reached level 2.

"Hello?"

"Hey beautiful."

Paige felt a surge of emotions. Anger, joy, anger, happiness, anger…well, mostly just anger. She wasn't about to forget how awful her morning had started.

"Noah? Is that you?" Paige snapped, her voice sharp. "Sorry, it's just we haven't spoken in so long, I can barely recognize your voice."

"Very funny babe," Noah replied, sounding very distracted. "Listen, it's chaos over here. I leave these knuckleheads for one week and everything goes down the toilet. I won't be home until late." Spinner raised a confused eyebrow as Paige growled.

"Oh, hey, don't worry about it. It's not like we're engaged and about to start a life together or anything. Here's an idea, why don't you move to Singapore. I'm sure we'd see as much of each other then as we do now," Paige practically barked into her phone. Spinner cautiously waved a hand in front of her face.

"Uh, Paige, we're here…" he said, pointing to the now opened doors of the elevator.

"Shut up, Gavin!" Paige screamed, not paying one bit of attention to the woman who just entered the elevator. Spinner watched in horror as the woman pressed the button labeled seventy-five. This was going to be a long ride.

"Paige, honey, you're not making any sense," Noah said on the other end of the phone.

"Oh, I'm not making any sense? I'm not making any sense? You hear that Gavin, I'm not making any sense!" Paige cried. Spinner, fearing for his life a little, smiled and nodded. "I'll tell you what doesn't make sense, Noah dear. The fact that we've been engaged for almost five months now and we've probably only been together two whole days out of those five months. Now tell me something, Noah. Does that make any fucking sense?"

And with that, Paige snapped her phone shut. She ignored the looks she was getting from both Spinner and the anonymous woman in the elevator, choosing instead to focus on chewing her nails.

"Are…are you okay?" Spinner asked tentatively. Paige pondered this for a moment.

'Of course I'm not okay, you idiot. I just got into a huge argument with my future husband. How okay do you think I am?' Paige thought to herself, but couldn't bring herself to say it out loud. Because it just wasn't true.

"I'm…" she searched for the right words, "…better." And it was the truth. She felt strangely peaceful, despite the fact that she had just shouted at the top of her lungs to her fiancé. At this, Spinner flashed her a smile, which Paige returned.

A few minutes of silence later, the elevator finally reached floor seventy-five. The anonymous woman scrambled out of the contraption, no doubt wanting to get away from the crazed blonde and her goofy sidekick. As she made her way out, Spinner continued with tradition and pressed the button labeled eight three times.

"So what's your favorite color?" Spinner asked, breaking the silence.

"What?" Paige asked back, not sounding very interested.

"It's going to be a long way down, we might as well get to know each other a little better," he explained, taking a seat on the floor. "So what's your favorite color?" Paige rolled her eyes, but eventually complied, taking a seat across from Spinner.

"Blue. My favorite color is blue," she said.

"Orange," he replied. He motioned for her to go on. "Okay, now you ask a question." Paige chewed on her lip.

"Um…favorite food?"

"Pizza," he answered immediately. "You?"

"Sushi."

"Gross!" Spinner exclaimed, making a face.

"Says the man who ate Chinese food that had been sitting out all night," Paige retorted, rolling her eyes.

"Whatever. Favorite movie?"

"'Now, Voyager.'"

"'The Parent Trap.'" Paige gave him a funny look and he shrugged. "I think twins are funny." Paige laughed.

"Favorite scent?"

"Um, the scent of air?" Spinner shrugged again. Paige kicked him.

"C'mon, be serious."

"Fine," he sighed. "I like the smell of winter."

"Mine is vanilla of course."

"Of course," Spinner said, mimicking a valley girl and flipping his nonexistent hair. "Favorite drink?"

"Uh, mimosa."

"Vodka martini," he replied, to which Paige raised her eyebrows. "What? They make me feel rich and important." Paige couldn't suppress a giggle.

"Alright, favorite band?"

"Sex Pistols."

"Journey," Paige replied, and this time it was Spinner who began giggling. "What? What's wrong with Journey?"

"N-nothing," he said, but he didn't stop laughing. "Favorite place to have sex?" Paige rolled her eyes.

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"Yeah, I would actually," he replied, but Paige remained silent. "Well I know what mine is. See, at my apartment, we have this balcony. Grab a couple blankets, get comfy, have some fun, and fall asleep under the stars. And if you wake up early enough, you might catch the sunset. The view is breathtaking, it makes you feel so peaceful. Like everything at that very moment is perfect."

They sat in silence as Paige pondered this. One minute he would act like a complete fool, the next he'd be waxing poetry about love and sunsets. Maybe he wasn't as bad as she thought he was.

"Which helps when you kick them out," Spinner continued, interrupting her thoughts. "It's like, sure it was a one night stand, but hey, at least you get this view." Paige stared at him in disbelief.

"You're an ass," she said, standing up from her position on the floor.

And at that very moment, the elevator dinged once again as it had reached level eight. Paige gathered up her things and walked out of the elevator, leaving her companion behind without a second glance.

"What? What'd I say?" he called out to her. Rolling his eyes, Spinner stood up, deciding that he best just follow.

…

A/N: Big thanks to the reviewers!