Time Out

From Candypedia
Time Out
Chapter108 of 127 (list of chapters)
PublishedMay 11, 2020 (2020-05-11)
Page count26
Major charactersAbbey, Paulo, Daisy, Mike
Minor charactersLucy, David, Sue, Amaya, Katie, Stacy, Gym teacher (High School), Roseville High School principal
LocationsRoseville High School
Collected inVolume Seven
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Daisy talks Paulo into doing the unthinkable: apologizing to Abbey. One rejected apology and one spiked volleyball later, he and Abbey are stuck on a couch outside the principal’s office, and years of bad blood come pouring out.

Synopsis

Homeroom starts pleasantly enough, with Abbey and Mike chatting away before the bell. Abbey’s mood curdles the moment Daisy and Paulo walk in laughing together, and he tells Mike it’s not exactly Daisy he has the problem with.[1] When Paulo interrupts Daisy’s morning chat with a jab at Abbey’s expense, Abbey moves to another seat entirely, telling Paulo he’ll never fool him into thinking he’s a decent person.[2]

Paulo spends lunch making amends with the wrong person. He turns up at Daisy’s table with a sprinkle-covered chocolate pudding, having “Only had to climb over three freshmen!” to get it, and promises to keep his trap shut around Abbey.[3] Daisy is glad to hear it, but gently points out that Abbey is the one who deserves an apology, and it has to come from Paulo.[4] Paulo groans and agrees to try.[5]

During gym class, the students pair off to practice volleyball serves, and Paulo decides to approach Abbey. He swoops in with sparkles and relentless forced friendliness, then blurts out an actual apology for being a bad friend when none of it lands.[6][7] Abbey refuses, then accuses Paulo of lining Daisy up as his “next little conquest.”[8] Paulo snaps and spikes the volleyball into the back of Abbey’s head, prompting the gym teacher to bellow both boys off to the principal’s office.[9][10]

In the waiting room, Paulo demands to know whether Abbey will ever apologize for going nuts on him months ago. Abbey erupts at the question.[11] He tells Paulo that people merely put up with him and talk behind his back all the time. “NOBODY REALLY LIKES YOU.”[12] Abbey rages that standing up for himself has cost him everyone’s sympathy, while people expect so much of him and so little of Paulo.[13][14]

Paulo, turned away, answers quietly: “At least your mother fucking loved you.”[14] Abbey starts to explode, then sees that Paulo is silently crying.[15] His mother called him “a fucking mistake,” Paulo says. She never visited after he moved to Roseville, never called, never sent so much as a birthday card.[15] She’s in Maraschino, close enough that he could go looking, but he can’t see the point.[16] When Abbey hesitantly reaches out to comfort the sobbing Paulo, he gets his hand swatted away.[17]

After a long silence, Abbey asks, genuinely baffled, how a mother could not want to talk to her own son.[18] He struggles for words, puts a hand on Paulo’s shoulder, and finally tells him he’s sorry.[19] The principal interrupts them when she bursts in mid-scold. She sees Abbey comforting Paulo and softens: “Oh, should I give you boys some space?”[19]

Back in the gym, Daisy is floored to see the boys stroll in together, teasing each other about the throw.[20] They’re not friends or anything, Paulo tells her, but they talked it out, and Abbey even covered for him at the principal’s office.[21] Daisy, delighted, invites him to get participation credit with her.[22]

Character dynamics

Paulo, surrounded by sparkles, links arms with a startled Abbey and flashes a huge friendly grin.
Paulo’s idea of an olive branch comes with sparkles.
  • Abbey and Paulo: Abbey and Paulo begin the day openly hostile and end it with an uneasy, workable truce. Abbey is convinced that Paulo is an abuser people merely put up with, while Paulo sees Abbey as a hypocrite who never answered for attacking him months earlier.[12][11] After Paulo describes how his mother treated him, Abbey stops berating him and tries to offer comfort. He gives Paulo the apology he had sworn he would never make, covers for him in front of the principal, and later trades playful insults with him.[19][21] Paulo sums up where they stand: “I don’t think we’re friends or anything, but.. You know.”[21]
  • Daisy and Paulo: Daisy calls Paulo out when he goes too far, and he listens to her. Her stern scolding makes him backpedal mid-joke, and her lunchtime advice convinces him to apologize to Abbey.[2][4] Paulo brings her a pudding to make up for the morning, and Daisy is delighted when his talk with Abbey goes well. She ends the day by inviting him to partner up with her.[3][22]
  • Abbey and Daisy: The exes still treat each other gently. Daisy spends the morning worrying over Abbey and dotes on his sore head when he comes back from the office,[23][20] while Abbey softens when she speaks to him and reassures her about her upcoming class speech.[24] Although they broke up in Love Again, Daisy continues to look out for him.[25]

Trivia & observations

Abbey's hand trembles as it hovers over Paulo, who is hunched over crying into his hands.
Abbey has no idea how to comfort Paulo, but he tries anyway.
  • The gym teacher calls Abbey by his full first name, Abraham, when ordering the pair to the principal’s office.[10]
  • Abbey’s “that stunt he pulled with your phone” refers to Paulo confiscating Mike’s phone in High Expectations, as Veronica confirmed in a Tumblr ask.[1][26] She added that Mike only vents about Paulo to Abbey or Sue when he’s looking for validation of his negative feelings.
  • The pudding is a returned favor. Back in High Expectations, it was Daisy setting an identical sprinkle-covered pudding cup in front of Paulo.[3][27]
  • Veronica notes that the only earlier remotely amicable scene between Abbey and Paulo she could recall was the summer vacation arc. There, Paulo gave Abbey a gay VHS as an early birthday present, mostly to make fun of him.[7]
  • The sister who would mind Mike joining Jasmine’s lunch table is never named on-panel. Veronica’s commentary identifies her as Haley.[1]
  • Veronica says the breakdown sequence “always makes me cry.” Paulo has bottled this up for years, she notes, doesn’t talk about it even with his closest friends, and copes with petty dead-mom jokes instead.[17]
  • Veronica’s commentary on the final page notes the chapter “ends so warmly, colour-wise, like a lovely creamsicle.”[22]

Related chapters

  • Mother’s Day: A young Paulo mentions that his mom is in Maraschino, and a flashback shows Rose Muir belittling his dad and walking out on the family. Time Out is the first time the teenage Paulo talks about any of it on-panel.
  • Guest of Honor: The assault Paulo brings up in the waiting room happened at the convention, where Abbey followed him into a restroom, pinned him against a stall, and warned him away from Daisy. In Time Out, Abbey’s “next little conquest” accusation shows that he still distrusts Paulo’s intentions toward her.
  • Fuel Economy: A few chapters later, Abbey tells Paulo that he still owes him an apology for threatening and assaulting him, then gives it. Paulo admits that Daisy put him up to the volleyball-class apology, but insists he meant it all the same.
  • New Year’s Resolution: Paulo works up the nerve to actually look for his mother. He searches for her online and finds her in Maraschino, happily raising a new daughter.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 2
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 4
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 6
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 7
  5. ↑ Chapter 108: Time Out, page 8
  6. ↑ Chapter 108: Time Out, page 9
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 10
  8. ↑ Chapter 108: Time Out, page 11
  9. ↑ Chapter 108: Time Out, page 12
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 13
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 15
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 16
  13. ↑ Chapter 108: Time Out, page 17
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 18
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 19
  16. ↑ Chapter 108: Time Out, page 20
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 21
  18. ↑ Chapter 108: Time Out, page 22
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 23
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 24
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 25
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 26
  23. ↑ Chapter 108: Time Out, page 5
  24. ↑ Chapter 108: Time Out, page 3
  25. ↑ Chapter 95: Love Again, page 17
  26. ↑ “Ask response on the phone incident Abbey mentions”. 2026-01-11.
  27. ↑ Chapter 100: High Expectations, page 3
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