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Jeremy was going to get his ass kicked for that.  While walking into school he had been tripped by some moron, and had accidentally stumbled into Jake Dillinger.

To sum up, he was now hiding in the janitor’s closet.  About a minute after he had gone into hiding the door was yanked open and Jeremy jumped a little before realizing he was only joined by Brooke Lohst.

“Hey Brookie,” Jeremy said, and Brooke jumped too.

“Oh, hey Jer.” she said.  “You know being the scapegoats for the entire school does actually suck sometimes.”

“While as other times?”

“Hey, at least everyone knows my name.”

“You think it would hurt more to be called ‘Hey kid?’”

Brooke faked a sniff.  “Emotionally, Jer. It would hurt emotionally.”

The door opened again and the last member of their posse joined them.

“Hey Rich.” Brooke called.

“Great, now that we’re all here, let the Dungeons and Dragons meeting commence.” Jeremy said.

“Oh, God, don’t say that.” Rich said.  “Like we need another reason for people to beat us up.”

“Give it a second.” Jeremy said, and when the halls sounded mostly silent, the three of them dove for the door at the same time and sprinted off in different directions to their various classes.  Most days, if they ran, they made it before the bell.

Today was not one of those days.  The bell rang as Jeremy was opening the door, and the whole class simultaneously turned to stare at him, while Jeremy barely managed to stifle a groan before walking to his seat as Ms. Brown gave him the stink eye the whole time.

Luckily, his seat was in the first row, because otherwise he would not be able to hear a word she was saying.  Everyone else spent most of the class talking. Why pay attention when you had Squips to do that for you?

Jeremy had just missed something Ms. Brown had said about the American Revolution— he had no idea if it was actually true or not— when someone started poking him the side of the head.

Jeremy felt it was best to just ignore it and keep listening.  If he spoke up, Ms. Brown was more likely to yell at him than at the idiot poking him.

“Hey,” the person hissed.  “Hey, hey.”

Jeremy said nothing.

“Hey, did you hear what she said about George Washington?”

Jeremy gave a side eye to the person sitting there and saw Christine Canigula.  Oh, well that changed things. Christine barely had a Squip at all, and was probably genuinely asking a question.  She couldn’t be

nice

to him, her Squip wouldn’t let her, but she had never exactly been mean to him or his friends, and it wasn’t like Jeremy wanted to see her fail.

“George Washington was the first president after he was the general for the Revolutionary War,” Jeremy hissed.

Christine gave a little ‘

Oh,

okay,’ and scribbled it down in her notebook.

There were some days Jeremy couldn’t believe how little people knew.

As soon as the bell rang Jeremy sprinted from his seat to the hallway, making it to his next class as quickly as he possibly could.  If he made it there before anyone else he was safe from attacks.

Okay, that was a

little

dramatic, but seriously, he got to his next class as quick as he could.

Such was a school day in the life of Jeremy Heere.  By the time lunch rolls around he’s ready to go home.

Lunch is the first time since their meetup in the janitors closet that Jeremy, Brooke, and Rich get a chance to see each other.  They almost always pick the table tucked into the corner, where people leave them alone. The only exceptions are the days they decide to eat in the bathrooms or the janitors closet to avoid assholes.  But today had been a fairly easy day in terms of them, so the table it was.

“Brooke, stop ogling Chloe and help us figure this out.” Jeremy called across the table, referring to the math homework at which Brooke was an expert.

It was well known by the three of them that Brooke had a bit of a crush on Chloe Valentine.  Yes, Brooke had a crush on a girl. Get over it.

It might not have been illegal, but it was socially “bad” enough for girls to look at other girls and boys to look at other boys that it might as well have been.  But who cared if someone heard them? It wasn’t like the three of them could drop much lower on the social ladder.

“Well, it’s not like I can ogle either one of you.” Brooke said, taking another bite of her peaches that Jeremy swore had fuzz growing on them.  School food was one thing that was still shitty across the board.

“Ew!” Rich cried, holding up his hands.  “Never say that again, please!”

“What’s the question?” Brooke asked, pulling the math homework closer to her to look at it.

“What is the deal with Chloe anyway?” Rich asked.  “She’s such an

asshole.”

“She’s

hot

is what she is.” Brooke said.  “But she is an asshole.” she admitted with a tiny shrug.  “As much as I ‘ogle’ her, I doubt I’ll ever actually get anywhere.”

“You’ll never get anywhere because she has a fully-functional Squip in her head.” Jeremy said.  “If she had a 3rd tier Squip and she really liked you,

maybe

you’d stand a chance.  And it’s number 6.”

“Wow, way to be a killjoy, Jer,” Brooke said.

“Sure thing, Brookie.”

“How come you two get cute nicknames?” Rich complained.  “I don’t.”

“Your nickname is your

name,

dummy.” Brooke said.  “We can make your nickname ‘Richard’ if you want.”

“God, no, Richard sounds like an old man.”

“Ooh, ooh, I know!” Jeremy called.  “Richie!”

“That sounds like a toddler!”

“Richie-Rich!” Brooke called.

Rich stuck his tongue out.

Both Jeremy and Brooke laughed, and Rich joined a second later, the math homework doomed to sit forgotten in the middle of the table.

…

The second half of the day always went faster than the first.  Jeremy figured that was probably because he got to eat lunch and because Brooke took her car free period to get a bunch of frozen yogurt from Pinkberry.  It was one of the few ‘popular’ things the three of them could agree they liked.

Brooke had just handed Jeremy his frozen yogurt when Jeremy saw a bunch of liquid pour past his face and onto his frozen yogurt.

In the next second Michael Mell walked past him, followed by Jake Dillinger.  “Oh, sorry, Jeremy.” Michael said, while Jeremy was still looking down at his essentially ruined frozen yogurt.  “Jake was curious as to whether or not soda was sticky. As long as you’re here, do you have an answer for us?”

Jeremy looked up.  “Gee, Michael, I dunno.  I feel like frozen yogurt is stickier.  Hey, why don’t you tell me?” he asked, right before slamming his frozen yogurt onto Michael’s head.

“Okay, run now,” he said pretty much simultaneously to Brooke and Rich, as they all turned and made a beeline for Brooke’s car with the pounding of two sets of angry feet behind them.

Rich pulled open the back door and dove across the seat as Jeremy followed him and Brooke climbed into the driver’s seat and pulled forward out of the spot and towards the entrance to school grounds.

“Jeremy,” Rich said, panting as he tried to catch his breath.  “You… have… a death wish.”

Jeremy managed to climb up to the front seat at Rich’s half-protests before responding.  “Maybe… a bit, yeah,”

“Seriously, Jer,” Brooke panted too— wow, they were all out of shape— “It’s great… that you decide to have a backbone sometimes, but d’ya… do ya have to pick one of the most popular guys at school to suddenly grow one around?”

“He ruined my frozen yogurt!” Jeremy snapped, having managed to catch his breath.

“Yeah, well.  We both dropped ours too, so.” Rich said.  “You have to buy replacements.”

“What?  That’s ridiculous, Michael was the one who dumped the stupid soda on my head!”  Speaking of which, his hair

was

starting to get sticky, he’d have to take a shower.

“Well, if you can convince Michael to buy us replacements, then you’re off the hook.” Brooke said.

Jeremy sighed.  “I don’t have money for Pinkberry.”

“Get us slushies.” Rich called from the back seat.

Jeremy took a moment to decipher what he said through his lisp and took another moment to ponder.

“Deal.” he said, and Brooke turned at the next light.

Three 7/11 slushies, a shower, and movie selection later found the three of them splayed across the couch in various states of ‘on top of each other’ so they could each reach for the popcorn bowl in the middle.  Jeremy was probably going to need another shower.

Playing on the screen was The Lion King, which held a special place in all three of their hearts as the last Disney movie produced before the Squips took over.  Basically all movie projects for 1995 forward were cancelled as the Squips took time to establish what was “acceptable.” They had all picked movies before from the list of ones set to release in 1995 that they wished they could see.  Rich wanted to see Pocahontas because “You guys, it’s such an interesting story! D’ya know she taught herself English by watching the settlers? Like, she was

so

smart!”  Brooke wanted to see “A Goofy Movie” because it sounded like exactly what the title said.  Jeremy, on the other hand, was partial to this movie called “Toy Story” that was supposed to come from a new company called Pixar.  They had both yelled at him for breaking the rules of it being a

Disney

movie, but Jeremy had pointed out that it was going to have been the first computer-animated movie

ever,

and

come on,

that would have been so cool!

But what they all agreed on was the that The Lion King was the best, okay?

About 5 minutes before Simba’s dad died the front door opened and Cynthia and Virgina walked in.

“Jer’my!” Cynthia called.  “Ooh, you watchin’ the Lion King?  Can me and ‘Ginia watch?”

“Sure.  Put your stuff in your room, we’ll pause the move.” Jeremy said, grabbing the remote from where it was resting on Rich’s face.

“‘Kay!”  The two ran off as the three on the couch sat up and brushed all the popcorn on themselves and the couch to the floor.

“Oh, sure, I’ll just have to sweep that up later.” Jeremy’s mom, Martha said, as she walked in the door.

“I can do it, Mom.” Jeremy called.

“I’m the mother, it’s my job to clean the house.” she said, despite how obvious it was that she hated the very idea of such a thing.

“That’s bullshit.” Brooke muttered, sitting back on the couch, as Rich nodded his agreement.  But Jeremy’s mother simply put the keys on the hook by the door and walked into the kitchen.

A couple seconds later Cynthia and Virgina ran down the stairs, Cynthia snuggling up to Jeremy’s side while somehow simultaneously snuggling up to Virginia's side too.  Rich copied the movement of snuggling up to Jeremy’s side until Jeremy whacked him on the head and hit play, and Rich laughed.

Cynthia was Jeremy’s 5-year-old sister, and what Jeremy wouldn’t give to have her be just a year or two younger.  Brooke and Rich said that watching her and Virginia, her best friend from school, was like watching a lifelong adorable friendship in its early stages.

Jeremy rather felt like it was watching the ghosts of his past, but he wasn’t going to tell Rich and Brooke that.

Yeah, a year or two younger would be great, thanks.

The Squips turned on in first grade, due to kids having to have the first few years of their life to grow and develop on their own or risk serious brain damage.  And first grade was in August, a few months away. And Cynthia and Virgina—

Enough said.

A couple minutes after they restarted the movie, Virginia, sweetheart that she was, got up and hugged Rich, who was sniffing and wiping at his eyes.

“I’s gonna be okay, Richie.” Virginia said, wrapping her arms around him.

“Mufasa’s

dead,

Virginia!” Rich cried.

“Yeah, but i’s gonna be okay.”

Jeremy and Brooke both shared an ‘oh my gosh this is adorable’ look over Rich’s head.

“You cry at this movie every time, you dork.” Brooke said, nudging Rich with his elbow.

“Brooke!” Rich cried.  “He’s

dead!”

“I know, Rich, I know,” Brooke said.

“Hey, Jer’my?” Cynthia asked.

Jeremy glanced over.  “Yeah?”

“Can I have your slushie?”

“Oh, sure.” Jeremy picked up from the floor.  “But it’s mostly melted sludge by now.”

“Thanks.” Cynthia said, taking a big gulp.

“Careful, you’ll get a brain freeze.”

“Okay.” Cynthia said, stopping at his warning and handing the slushie cup to Jeremy.

“Oh, so now I have to hold it?”

Cynthia looked right at him and giggled.

“Hey, shush, we’re trying to watch the movie!” Brooke called, reaching over Rich and smacking Jeremy gently on the back of the head.

“Ow!” Jeremy called.

“Yeah, Jer’my, we’re watching the movie!” Cynthia called, hitting Jeremy on the back of the head too.

“Ow!” Jeremy called again, and Cynthia giggled as Brooke reached across the couch to give her a fist bump.

“Ugh.” Jeremy muttered, rubbing his head.  “You both are so mean.”

Cynthia giggled again.

…

Virgina, as often was the case, spent the night at their house.  Their two families did this often. Tomorrow Cynthia would be over at Virginia’s.  So they set up an air mattress in the living room soon after Rich and Brooke went home and then ate dinner together at the table with two loud children instead of one.

“And then— then ‘Ginia said that we could pretend blue is purple, but Jonathan said tha’s not how colors work!” Cynthia called.

“Well, how does Jonathan think colors work?” Jeremy’s dad, Paul, asked from across the table.

“He says blue is always blue,” Virginia piped up.  “But I think blue can be purple. Dad says anyone can be anything they wanna.”

“Oh did he now?” Martha said, raising an eyebrow at Paul.

“Yes.  Why not?” Paul asked, raising an eyebrow right back.  “If blue feels it wants to be purple, who are we stop it?”

“It’s a color, Dad,” Jeremy said with a small smile.  “I don’t think it can be anything other than what it is.”

“Not with that attitude it can’t!” Paul said, putting his hands on his hips.

“See!” Cynthia called, like the argument had been decided.  “Dad says blue can be purple!”

Jeremy’s dad didn’t have a Squip either, and for anyone who paid attention for more than 10 seconds, it showed.

And then you had Jeremy’s mother.  He honestly felt that Martha was one of the people who were better off

with

a Squip (of course, he felt like a piece of shit every time he thought that, but…)  There were ways in which she behaved sometimes that made Jeremy wonder if she would really be so supportive if she didn’t have a computer in her head forcing her to.

But the mother’s job was to support her kids.  Unless, of course, her kids went against their Squips.

Whoever came up with that fucked-up philosophy was someone Jeremy never wanted to meet.

After dinner was playtime for Cynthia and Virgina, and Jeremy had to do his homework, which he would admit was not easy when the two of them so often ran in and out of his room asking him to play.

Eventually, though, Cynthia and Virginia both went to sleep on the air matress in the living room, Martha and Paul went to bed in their own room, and Jeremy went to grab the car keys.

He stopped and kissed both Cynthia and Virginia on the head before he left.

“I’m not gonna let that happen to you,” he whispered to them.

And then he jogged outside and climbed into the car.

The streets were far from empty, full of high schoolers going to late night parties, and Jeremy used the flow of traffic to hide in until he pulled off onto a small dirt road that lead to the abandoned barn in the middle of a field his friends called a lab.

Jeremy shoved the door open while swinging the bag full of work he’d done for the week over his shoulder.

“Well, I have absolutely no developments.” he called.  Rich and Brooke looked up from the table in the center of the room where they were pouring over paper.  “Any news from other one of you?”

Rich crossed his arms.  “Does the news that my brother is an asshole count?  He stopped by from college this afternoon.”

Jeremy winced.  “Yikes, sorry Rich.” he said.  “You gonna be okay?”

“I’m gonna be covered in bruises is what I’m gonna be.  Unless Mom’s in the room literally all the time.”

“You need a place to stay?” Brooke asked.  “My door’s always open.”

“I might just take you up on that.” Rich said.  “But no, I got nothing.”

“I’ve got some ideas about a duplication machine…” Brooke trailed off.  “Yeah, I’ve got nothing. Look, you guys.” she gestured to the singular bottle of Mountain Dew Red sitting in the center of the table.  “We have this. How are we supposed to get

this

to seven billion people?  Face it, we need help. From someone

with

a Squip.  Preferably a fully-functional one.”

Jeremy glanced over to their line-up on the whiteboard.  3rd tier Squips, barely functional. Mainly keeps people from doing something completely stupid.  Extremely common. Examples, Christine Canigula, Madeline Thomas, Kathy Smith— most of the school.  2nd tier Squips, pushes someone partially up the social ladder. Examples, Jenna Rolan, Dustin Kropp.  Rich’s brother. Jeremy’s mom. 1st tier Squips, fully functional. Makes someone the top of the social ladder.  Rare. In this school, there were three. Michael Mell, Jake Dillinger, and Chloe Valentine.

Then there were people like him, Rich, and Brooke.  Who just had a wintergreen tic tac as their first meal.

“Yeah, that’s likely.” Jeremy said, with a roll of his eyes.

“Maybe we could find someone at a different school?” Brooke offered.

“We would need a way to tell which Squips are which.” Rich pointed out.  “We’ve known the people at our school our whole lives, we can be fairly confident in our guesses.  We wouldn’t know anyone there.”

“So we need a way to figure it out.” Brooke said.  “That’s our next step.”

“Why have different level Squips anyway?” Rich grumbled.  “Just give everyone a fully-functional one. Would be a lot easier to—”

“The social hierarchy wouldn’t exist.” Jeremy interrupted.  “Sorry, that’s a theory I’ve had for a bit. The Squips’ purpose is to have a social hierarchy to work around.  If everyone has a Squip of the same level, the ‘cool kids’ don’t exist.”

“So they have to create one within themselves.” Brooke realized.  “Wow, that’s… kind of funny.”

“And a potential weakness.” Rich said.

“How?” Jeremy asked.

“I dunno.  Seems like it?”

“It does seem like it.” Brooke muttered.

“Well, give it some thought then.  Let’s work on how to tell which Squip is which.”

He pulled a blank sheet of paper towards him and started scribbling out a couple ideas as both Rich and Brooke did the same.

“What if we really can base it off behavior?” Jeremy asked.  The way to get to the top of a social ladder is virtually the same everywhere.”

Brooke shook her head.  “People are individuals.  Even if two people of the same race, same sexuality, same gender identity, same

family

had same-level Squips there would still be something that makes them different.  Their Squips would treat them and make them act at least a little differently because of these differences.” she crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.  “Besides, plenty of 2nd tier people are assholes too.”

“But then what would be a way to like… tell?” Rich asked.  “They’re in their heads.”

“Give that one some thought over the week and we’ll meet back here next Friday?” Brooke asked.

“Yeah, okay.” Jeremy said.  “We need to go home and go to sleep anyway.”

“Yeah, Jer over here needs his ‘optimal 8 hours.’” Rich said.

Jeremy rolled his eyes and put his hands on hips in his imitation of his mother.  “My son needs to be able to function at full capacity, Richard. It’s for his

health.”

The three of them laughed and put their hands in a stack in the middle they way they always did.

“Until the next meeting of the Anti-Squip Club.” Brooke said, and they all threw their hands in the air.  “All for one and none for Squip!” they cried. (Yeah it was stupid, but you can blame Rich for that one, he was six.)

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

There were days Jeremy thought Brooke was the greatest, and days Jeremy thought Rich was the greatest, but everyday was a day Jeremy thought Rich and Brooke were the greatest. “You guys are the greatest!” Jeremy cried, staring down at the books in front of him.  “How did you— how?!”“Because we knew you would never use your money on yourself.” Brooke said.  “And there was no guarantee that these would still be around next March, so— happy 11-months-early birthday, Jeremy!”Jeremy was holding three different books, all looking very beat up and old (in the way that made him geek out a little bit, he would admit it) and every single one them was about space.It was another not-at-all-a-secret among Jeremy, Rich, and Brooke that Jeremy was a huge space nerd.  But since the reasons humans explored space was, at its core, curiosity, and curiosity was “nerdy,” most space books were more or less banned.But Jeremy had found one once and had been obsessed with finding more ever since.“You— you guys are the greatest!” Jeremy cried, leaping up and pulling Brooke and Rich into a group hug.  “I mean, this is— have I mentioned you’re the greatest?!”“Yeah, we know,” Rich said when Jeremy pulled away, sticking his tongue out.Today they were meeting at Brooke’s house, where Rich was indeed staying until his brother left.  And Rich and Brooke had managed to somehow find Jeremy three books about space.  Honestly, sometimes Jeremy felt like they did way too much for him compared to what each of them did for him.He also sometimes wondered if they had a bunch of presents in hidden spaces in their room that they were waiting to shower him with at any moment.  It really did feel random, because while they seemed to have reasons for giving him these things at specific times, Jeremy could not for the life of him figure out the pattern.It also made him feel a little guilty sometimes, so he usually got Rich and Brooke things he thought they’d like when he saw them.  Which, they were correct, this resulted in him almost never spending his money on himself.“Hey!” came a voice from the doorway.  All three of them turned to see Ben, Brooke’s 10-year-old brother.  “Can you guys be quiet? Josh and I are trying to talk.”“Go downstairs.” Brooke snapped.  “Talking is all we’re doing, and I live here too.”Brooke, unlike Rich’s relationship with his brother, could control Ben very easily.  Mostly because she was the older one, whereas Matt was Rich’s older brother, and in a society like theirs, older siblings have more power no matter what level Squip they have.So Ben rolled his eyes and stomped away without giving much of a comeback, but they could hear something along the lines of “My sister’s just being a bitch” from the next room over.Brooke groaned through her teeth.  “I swear to God, he was such a sweet kid.” she grumbled.“I remember.” Jeremy said softly.Both Rich and Brooke exchanged a glance, with an underlying tone of ‘Oh yeah, Cynthia’s Squip is turning on in August.’“But that doesn’t mean it’s his fault.” Brooke said, nudging Jeremy with her elbow.  “I don’t really hold it against him.”“Guys, you don’t have to cheer up for every little thing involving Cynthia.” Jeremy said in irritation.Rich and Brooke exchanged a look.“I’m going to the bathroom.” Jeremy said, walking out.  Yeah, Rich and Brooke were the greatest.  But the way they sometimes treated him like breakable glass really got on his nerves.It probably stemmed from the way they’d met.  Meeting one of your lifelong best friends while he’s crying behind the school by himself would be enough to give anyone the idea that he needs a little more reassurance than others.  And maybe he had, back then. But it was 11 years ago. Couldn’t they move on?Jeremy sighed and shoved his head into his arms on the bathroom door.  Then he pulled back because that was a stupid move and he was really uncomfortable.He hadn’t moved on.  If he had moved on, maybe he would be able to take the soda dumped on his head by Michael Mell without feeling like he had to retaliate with frozen yogurt.  He ducked and cowered for every bully under the sun. It was a survival instinct. One that just kind of shut off when Michael was involved.Maybe Rich and Brooke were kinda right about him having a death wish.  After all, things seemed pretty hopeless right now. They had a little less than four months to bring down a global power or history would repeat itself.  And yeah, maybe his reasoning was a bit selfish. Of course he would still be working to take down the Squips if there was no looming threat of the first day of first grade.  But right now that was his driving force, he couldn’t help it. He didn’t want what had happened to him and Michael to happen to Cynthia and Virginia too.…“Jer’my?”“Mmm.”“Jer’my?”Jeremy opened his eyes, staring blearily down at the figure below his bed.  “Mmm.”“Jer’my, I’m scared.”Jeremy blinked a couple times before letting out a massive yawn.  “M-kay, c’mere Cynthia.”Cynthia reached for Jeremy, and he leaned down and pulled her up onto the bed.  “Nightmare?”“Yes.”“Do you remember it?”“Um…”“Okay, you just wanna sleep here?”“Yes.”“M-kay.  You better not kick me.”Cynthia giggled and nuzzled into Jeremy’s side.  But it would be a while before she fell back asleep.“Jer’my.”“Mmm.”‘Jer’my.”“Mmm.”“Jer’my, you know what ‘Ginia says?”“Cynthia, it’s Sunday.  I have school tomorrow.”“She says her mommy says that her art project was pretty.”“Good for Virgina.”“I don’ like art, Jer’my.  My stuff’s not pretty.”Cynthia didn’t sound particularly upset, but Jeremy leaned forward and kissed her forehead anyway. “Oh, I’m sure it’s lovely.  You just might need a little more practice.”“Practice?”“It’s when you do something more than once.”“Why?”“Because it helps you get better.”“I don’ know.  It’s just pictures.”“Maybe I’ll take you to an art museum.”“Why?”“Because, Cynthia, sometimes you have to experience something to understand it.”“What’s experience?”“Like, do something.”“Oh.” Cynthia said.  “I dunno if I like a art mus-um.”  With that, she laid down again and went to sleep.Jeremy, on the other hand, stared at nothing for about ten minutes before getting up and walking over to his desk, grabbing a piece of paper and starting to scribble out a couple ideas.  He would burn it the following morning.…“Meet tonight.” Jeremy hissed to Rich and Brooke in the janitor’s closet before sprinting off towards their various classes.  He could tell they were still confused and curious by lunchtime. It wasn’t often they met before their scheduled weekly Friday meeting at the barn.  If they did it was usually because there was some kind of major update— like when Brooke got her hands on their prized possession of the bottle of Mountain Dew Red.Of course, none of this was mentioned before they actually made it to the barn later that night, not even after school when they met at Brooke’s house.  But both of them were already there by the time Jeremy walked in.“Okay, what’s so important?  Spill.” Rich said, crossing his arms.“So last night,” Jeremy said.  “I was talking to Cynthia about why she doesn’t like art, and—”“Art?” Brooke asked.  “Uh, Jer, no offense, but is this going somewhere?”“Yes.  I offered to take her to an art museum, and when she asked why, I told her ‘sometimes you have to experience something to understand it.’” he spread his arms.“Uh…”“Guys.” Jeremy said, walking forward so he was standing close enough to them that he could whisper if he needed to.  “I think one of us needs to take a Squip.”Rich and Brooke both stared at him.“Now I know it sounds crazy.”“Oh, ya think?” Rich asked.“But think about it.  We need someone with a fully functioning Squip to help us— hell, we need someone with any idea of what any Squip’s like.  As much as we’ve learned, we’re still basically flying blind here. If one of us took a Squip, boom, we learn a hell of a lot more and we have inside access.  We have Mountain Dew Red if we need to shut it off, so there’s virtually no risk. And if it’s a fully-functional one, we gain access to pretty much whatever we need from anyone in school.”“I… hate to say this.” Brooke said.  “But that makes a lot of sense.”“See?” Jeremy said.  “So who wants to take one?”Rich snorted.  “Maybe in another universe.”Brooke bit her lip, and looked away.  “I mean…”“I get it, I’ll do it.” Jeremy said.“What?  No!” Rich and Brooke cried simultaneously, whirling to him.“Oh, yes, and you both just seemed elated at the idea.” Jeremy said, crossing his arms.They both said nothing, and he sighed.  “You guys, I can get that you want to ‘protect’ me or whatever, but first of all, you’re not my parents, and second, I’m not a little kid anymore.  I love you guys, but I can do this.”Brooke sighed.  “You’re right. You can.” she said.  She held out her hand, palm down. “I believe in you Jeremy.”“Thanks.” Jeremy said, putting his hand on top of hers.They both looked at Rich.He grinned as he put his hand on top.  “Let’s bring these motherfuckers down from the inside.”“All for one, and none for Squip!” they cried, throwing their hands up.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Well.” Rich said.  “There it is.”

It yawned before them, stretching into the clouds.

The Maternity Ward.

They each took up a whole building, though Jeremy thought he had read that before they had been part of hospitals.  The Maternity Ward was where women went to give birth, and usually fathers and preexisting families went with them, and— oh yeah, it also was where Squips were developed, made, kept, and given to newborns.

So why not do everything in the same place?  If you had a job in ‘The Maternity Ward’ you could be anything from a nurse to a Squip programmer.

So this was the place to go to get a Squip.  And it was a late Friday night, so almost everyone had gone home.  They would be able to sneak into the Squip portion of the building in their all black and masks (yes like in the movies, shut up) and grab a Squip without anyone seeing them.

The problem was the cameras.   The masks would work for a while, but if the cameras clearly showed someone stealing a Squip and then Jeremy’s popularity suddenly skyrocketed— it wouldn’t be hard to put the pieces together.

That meant their first step was for each of them to walk in random directions around the building and hit every camera they came across with a paintball gun.

Not particularly tech-savvy, but it would work.

When they were sure they’d covered enough (and that they were running out of time) they would regroup in the room where the Squips were kept, steal one of the fully functional ones, go shoot some more cameras so it wasn’t obvious that’s where they were going, and hopefully get away before the cops arrived.

“You guys ready for this?” Jeremy said.

“Yep.” Brooke said.  “Hey, make sure to cause some

quiet

damage to various rooms.  It’ll look like that’s what we’re here for.”

“Good idea.” Rich said.

And with that, they all walked inside.

The Squips were kept in a room on a floor in the middle of the building, so to start, Rich went to start on the lower floors, Brooke up on the top floors, and since Jeremy was the one who needed this Squip, he was in middle floors.

He ended up specifically on the one where the Squips were kept according to the blueprint— which was remarkably easy to get ahold of.  They just had to say that their mother was checked in and ask for the floor number and the front desk clerk gave them far too much information.  She clearly had a 3rd tier Squip who didn’t stop her.

However, as per the plan, Jeremy walked around and shot paintballs at a bunch of cameras first.  He walked straight through the room where the Squips were kept and kept shooting cameras around the rest of the floor.

Finally, he ran back to the front of the floor just as alarms started going off to see Rich and Brooke coming out of two separate elevators.  They wordlessly followed back to the room with the Squips, found the cabinet labeled with the fully-functional ones, being much smaller than the other two, and took one Squip as well as a sample of Mountain Dew.  They replaced them with a gray piece of ‘Squip Candy’ (popular with first graders who were just starting to learn about them) and some food-coloring-dyed water before taking the elevator up to a completely different floor, shooting about five more cameras, and then, as that was all they had time for, leaving the way they came.

They made it to a busy street before having to pull over for cop cars rushing in the direction of the Maternity Ward.

Only after they passed did they cheer.

“Woo!” Rich cried, giving Brooke a high five across the front seat before sticking his hand in the back seat for Jeremy, who gladly obliged.

“What do you think, guys?” Brooke asked.  “Did we handle it like professional criminals?”

“Probably not, but we got the job done!” Jeremy called, throwing up his hands as Brooke turned the car towards the barn.  “And Rich actually managed to keep his mouth shut the whole time, so they can’t find us through fingerprints

or

voice analysis!”

“Hey!” Rich called.  “We’re not doing any Rich-bashing.  This is a night of celebration!”

“No, it’s a night for

work.”

Brooke corrected.  “If it was a night of celebration we’d be going to the roller rink arcade to play Apocalypse of the Damned with virtual reality gear.”

Jeremy sighed.  “Ah, if only.” he rested his hand on his chin in wistful longing.  They had a deal with the roller rinks employees that they could play the AotD system in the back room whenever they wanted due to being three of their few regular customers.  They usually used the virtual reality gear Rich and Brooke had once bought Jeremy. If

anything

good had come of Squips, it was the advance in certain areas of technology.  And due to video games (specifically out of print ones) and retro stuff being the ‘cool persona’ fully functional Squip people donned in college, one of those advances came with virtual reality tech for video games.  Apocalypse of the Damned paired with virtual reality was… immersive, to say the least.

But alas, Brooke was right.  Tonight was a night for work.  So as she pulled up to the barn Rich and Jeremy were out the door before the car stopped moving and Brooke was almost out before she turned it off.

They ran into the barn just as fast and put the Mountain Dew and the Squip on the table.

And then they proceeded to spend the next five minutes staring at both items.

“This is insane.” Rich said.  “Like, this is…”

“Yeah, it really is.” Jeremy agreed.

Brooke looked at them both in turn.  “You ready for this?”

“Yeah, let’s do it.” Jeremy said, grabbing the Squip and holding it in his hands.  Still, none of them did anything yet.

“They’re probably gonna be really manipulative.” Brooke said.

“Guys, how are we supposed to stop them from stopping us?” Jeremy asked.

“I though Squips couldn’t do anything you haven’t given them permission for.” Rich said.

“Everyone knows that’s bullshit.” Brooke said.

“It is for six-year-olds.” Rich said.  “But how hard is it to trick a six-year-old into agreeing to something they don’t really want?”

“So you think you really do have to give a Squip permission?” Jeremy asked.

“Well… yeah.” Rich said.  “I also doubt many Squips are activated with the person taking it already despising them.  If you keep your head on right and use your brain, maybe you’ll just have a nasty voice in your head.”

“Hmm.” Jeremy said.  “And if it can do things without me giving it permission?”

“We’ll pack up everything and run.” Brooke said.

All three of them exchanged glances.

“You’re really doing this.” Rich said.

Jeremy nodded.  “It’s our best shot.”

Brooke sighed.  “Alright, then let’s get this over with.”

Jeremy sighed too, mostly to psyche himself up.  “O-kay, here we go.” He put the Squip in his mouth, swallowed the Mountain Dew, and waited.

And oh, man.

There was a reason they gave Squips to babies.

Calibration in Process, please excuse some mild discomfort.

Jeremy screamed and clutched at his head, and he could vaguely hear both Rich and Brooke sounding very concerned and asking what was wrong.  Brooke grabbed him and held him at arm's length, probably because Jeremy felt like he was about to fall over.

Calibration complete.  Access procedure initiated.

Suddenly the pain vanished, and Jeremy refocused on his surroundings.  “Wow.” he squeaked. “So maybe the Squips turning on hurts a little more than we—”

Discomfort level may increase.

Jeremy shrieked, and grabbed his head again, shutting his eyes.

“Jeremy!” Rich cried.

Accessing neural memory

Accessing muscle memory

Access procedure complete

Jeremy Heere

Jeremy’s eyes shot open.

Welcome to your Super Quantum Unit Intel Processor

Your SQUIP.

And standing just to the left of Rich and Brooke was “his Squip.”

“Jeremy?” Rich and Brooke were hovering worriedly over him.  Oh, Jeremy was on the ground. “Are you gonna scream again?” Rich asked.

Jeremy shook his head. “I don’t think so.” he managed.

“Did it work?” Brooke asked.

Jeremy nodded.  “It looks… like Keanu Reeves.” he got out.

Rich and Brooke exchanged a confused glance.  “Keanu Reeves?” Rich asked.

That is my default mode.
Jeremy’s Squip explained.  
You can also set me for Sean Connery, Jack Nicholson, or sexy anime female.

“Uh… Keanu’s fine.” Jeremy said.

“What?” Brooke asked.  “We didn’t say anything— oh, it’s talking to you, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Jeremy said.

Please refrain from speaking to me out loud, no one else can see me.  Just think at me.

So, like I’m telepathic?

Jeremy thought.

His Squip’s lip curled.  
I suppose.

“Jeremy, what’s happening?” Rich asked.

“Hang on.” Jeremy pushed himself up off the floor.  “Yeah, it worked. It’s there.” he pointed at the Squip, and both Rich and Brooke turned to see what must have been, for them, empty air.

I have seen from your memories that your intention is to destroy all Squips currently in existence.  I will need to attempt to dissuade you from this goal.

“Is Rich right?” Jeremy asked aloud, mostly to keep Rich and Brooke in the loop and just a little bit to spite the Squip.  “You can’t do anything unless I give you permission?”

His Squip sighed.  
I am aware of what you are asking, and I cannot control your bodily functions without you accepting an upgrade.  In this state I can provide stimulation through a brief shock and change hormonal levels.

“That’s still super freaky.” Jeremy said, rubbing his arm.  He turned back to Rich and Brooke. “It can’t force me to do anything without some kind of upgrade, but it can apparently shock me and mess with my hormones.”

“Jesus,” Brooke whispered.

“Do you wanna bail?” Rich asked.  “We have the Mountain Dew Red, and no one would blame you.”

“No, you guys, I can do this.  We need to learn more about these things, and the best way for me to learn about Squips is to experience life

with

one.”  Jeremy held his hand out.  “I’ll just have to be a slightly solo member of the Anti-Squip Club for awhile.”

That name is pathetic and will work strongly against the goal you have just mentioned of experiencing a Squip.

Brooke sighed and added her hand on top of Jeremy’s.  “Okay. I meant it when I said I trust you, Jeremy.”

“And I meant it when I said let’s bring these motherfuckers down.” Rich said, adding his own hand.  “I suppose this means by tomorrow you won’t talk to us though.”

“Of course I will.” Jeremy said.  He sighed. “Just… just not in school.”

All three of them looked down.  “I’m gonna miss you guys.” Jeremy said, glancing back up.

“It’ll be worth it.” Brooke said.  “All for one…”

“And none for Squip!” Jeremy and Rich finished, all of them throwing their hands in the air.

That is worse than your Club’s name.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Well.  Jeremy Heere was acting weird as fuck.

As a matter of fact, so was Michael’s Squip.

He walked into the school like he fucking owned the place, like Michael hadn’t beaten him up on almost a daily basis since first grade.  He didn’t run anywhere or duck out of the way of any fists.

At one point he

smiled at Michael and gave a little nod.

Michael inwardly flinched, sure his Squip would tell him to murder him twice, but his Squip had nothing to say about what had just happened.

Uh… are you glitching or something?

Go to class, Michael.  You look like a moron right now.

Michael couldn’t help but flinch a little at the berating before he walked towards his first class.

And lo and behold, there was Jeremy.   Michael had never noticed that he had first period with him before, but there was Jeremy, sitting in the seat right next to where Michael always sat.

Michael stood in the doorway and stared for a few seconds, waiting for his Squip to yell at him to yell at Jeremy… but nothing came.

So, slowly, as if he was testing the waters, Michael walked to his seat and sat down.

You are making yourself look like an idiot.

Well, what the hell are you doing?

he snapped in his head.

Why are you just letting him do all this weird ass stuff?

Are you complaining?

Well, no, but—

Then shut up.

Michael did.

At some point during the class Jeremy looked over at him.  “Hey.”

Michael turned and stared at him.  “Hey.” he said, because he had long ago mastered looking confident without feeling that way.

Jeremy said nothing the rest of the period, leaving Michael sitting there wondering

seriously what the fuck is happening?!

At lunch, Jeremy sat down at the same table with Michael, Jake, and Chloe.  All three of them looked at him for a minute before exchanging glances with each other.

“Um.  Hey, Jeremy.” Jake said.  “What are you doin’ here?”  But even he didn’t make any kind of move to get angry.

“Oh, hi.” Jeremy said.  “My Squip told me to sit here so I did.”

Wait.

What?

“Oh, okay.” Michael’s Squip said for him.

What the fuck?

Michael didn’t pay attention to a single thing said the entire lunch.  He was too busy thinking

what the fuck.

Because, seriously,

what

the

fuck?!

That pretty much summed up his thought process for the rest of the day too.

After school also found Jeremy sitting around the dining room table in Jake’s house along with Michael and Chloe and Jake and what the shit.

“So.” Chloe said.  “Michael’s birthday is on Saturday.”

This was when Jeremy showed his first emotion that was not casual confidence.  It was confusion. “No, it’s next Friday.”

“Oh, right, your Squip would tell you that, duh.” Chloe said, smacking her forehead.  “We celebrate Michael’s birthday in New Jersey this Saturday.”

“I always wondered why you did that.” Jeremy admitted.  “Wait, in New Jersey?”

“What do you mean ‘always wondered?’” Jake asked.

“We always go to New York City for my birthday!” Michael blurted.  “Because I… like New York… City?”

The Squip smacked his forehead at the same time he shocked Michael.

Jeremy gave him a curious look.  “Why?”

“You’ll see when we get there,” Chloe said.  Also known as: we can’t discuss this right now.

Michael wasn’t sure if Jeremy picked up on that, but he shrugged anyway.  “Okay. So, what exactly is it you people do?”

“Huh?” Jake asked.

“What do you do to have fun?”

Michael glanced up at the ceiling in thought and took a moment to understand how much this was going to make them sound like angsty teenagers before he said “Nothing.  We sit around and talk. Sometimes we go to Pinkberry.”

“Wha—” Jeremy stammered.  “You guys are the

popular people.”

“We have a lot of parties.” Jake pointed out.

Jeremy pointed at Jake.  “You have a

pool.”

“It’s April and too cold.”

“You have a ping pong table!”

“That’s for the aesthetic.”

“Not anymore.  Come on.” Jeremy said, standing up.

“Where are you going?” Jake asked.

“What, is ping pong too ‘nerdy?’” Jeremy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I mean, not necessarily…” Chloe said slowly.

“Great.  Let’s go.”  With that, Jeremy walked out the door.  Jake eventually jumped up so Jeremy wouldn’t get lost in the house (it was a serious possibility) and Michael and Chloe eventually followed him.

Jake’s ping pong table was something none of them had ever actually used, meaning that without their Squips they all would have been laughingly bad.  Michael, despite having never played ping pong before, was of course good at it, because he was good at everything. He eventually beat Jake, who beat Chloe, who beat Jeremy, who beat Michael.  So, conclusion: the Squips were making a paradox where none of them were the best.

But Michael had to admit it wasn’t a terrible way to spend an afternoon.

While Jake and Chloe were in the middle of another game, Michael leaned back against the wall and stared at Jeremy out of the corner of his eye.

“So, you’ve been wanting to ask me something all day.” Jeremy said.

Michael turned.  “What?”

“What do you guys do when you wanna have a conversation?  Drink a beer?”

“Uh—”

“Great.  Where’s the kitchen?”

Five minutes later did indeed find them both in the kitchen with a couple of beers.  “So. You’ve been wanting to ask me something all day.” Jeremy repeated.

“I mean… kinda, yeah.” Michael admitted.

“Knock yourself out.”

“You— okay, I’m not going to ask how you got a Squip because honestly, I don’t care.”

“Great, thanks.  Nice to know that hasn’t changed.”

“But seriously, after everything you’ve gone through, after everything your friends have gone through, after everything—

you’ve

gone through!  Why—” Michael pressed a hand to his forehead for a minute.  “Why the

hell

would you take a Squip voluntarily?”

Jeremy shrugged, giving a little smile.  “I have my reasons.” he said.

“Can I ask what they are?”

“Nope.” Jeremy said, climbing up and walking back to the other room.

Michael had to blink for a minute and process that rapid-fire response. “Wow, okay.  Asshole.” he muttered, rolling his eyes.

Oh, like you have any right to call Jeremy Heere an asshole.
the Squip said as it fizzled back into existence.

Michael ignored the comment, although he knew it was right.

Michael walked back into the Ping Pong Table Room to find Chloe had now beaten Jake in their game.

“Okay, I’ll admit I wasn’t really a fan of you at first.” Chloe said to Jeremy.  “But this was fun.”

“Uh… thanks?” Jeremy said, glancing away from Chloe.  “I don’t know if that was a compliment or an insult.” he muttered.

“M’kay,” Chloe said, stretching her arms over her head.  “We going back to my house, Mikey?”

“What, why?” Jeremy asked.

The other three people in the room looked away awkwardly.  They didn’t really talk about it, it was just kind of accepted that Michael and Chloe were best friends and Jake was… the other one.  They went to his house for a bit for appearances, and then Michael and Chloe went and spent time together.

“It’s cool.” Jake said, looking away.  “Go ahead.”

“You wanna come, Jeremy?” Michael asked, and then side-eyed his Squip, cause what the fuck?

“Uh… not really?” Jeremy said, and the room dissolved into another awkward silence.  “I think I’m just gonna go home.”

“Okay!” Michael said, shoving Chloe out the door and towards her car as fast as possible.

Chloe opened the door and they both got in.  Chloe started driving away seconds later.

Why the heck would you make me say that?

Michael asked his Squip in bewilderment.

Because you were feeling

hopeful.

It was disgusting.  So I clarified where exactly you stand with Jeremy Heere so you don’t have to spend the next phase and a half of your life wondering.

Rather than reply, Michael decided to lean against the window and try to ignore the Squip hovering in between him and Chloe and how awful that made him feel.

“So…” Chloe said, causing Michael to glance over through his Squip.  “What the fuck just happened?” she asked.

“I honestly have no idea.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“So… what are they like?” Brooke asked.“Oh my God, Brooke, I am in misery!” Jeremy complained.  “They’re so weird!  I feel like this is going to turn into one of those movies where I have to reactivate their childlike wonder.  They never do anything fun!” He turned from scribbling stuff on a whiteboard in the barn and flipped off his Squip for no real reason.  It scoffed. “And then Michael invited me to hang out at Chloe’s house, which is, I don’t even know what that’s about.”“Would you have gone?” Rich asked from his own whiteboard.Jeremy hesiated.  “I dunno. Maybe. But I was already supposed to come here.  We’re kinda trying to save the world here, I don’t have time for Michael Mell.”  He turned around and started writing again.“You have time to do stupid shit with us.” Brooke pointed out.“You guys are my friends.  It’s different.”Rich raised his eyebrows in what seemed to be genuine curiosity.  “You don’t think you’ll become friends with them?”Jeremy turned around again.  “Um, ew, no. In case you’ve forgotten, these three have been our biggest tormentors since forever.”“Yeah, and Brooke thinks Chloe’s hot.” Rich said, pointing at Brooke.Brooke shrugged.  “He has a point. You don’t think they’re different without their Squips?”“I’m positive they are.” Jeremy said.  “But like I said, we don’t have time and they’re not the point.  If my whole point was to become friends with people with fully functional Squips it would A. be a lot easier, and B. I wouldn’t be here right now because I would be trying to spend more time with them.  You know they aren’t exactly a golden trio like we are, and like everyone thinks they are? Neither Chloe or Michael seem to give a shit about Jake.”“Wait, really?” Rich asked.“Aw, poor Jake.” Brooke said.  “So who is he friends with?”“If I had to guess?” Jeremy said.  “No one. They’re the only three people in our school with fully functional Squips, where else is he supposed to go?”Brooke sighed.  “That’s probably pretty lonely.  I wonder why they don’t care. Hey, maybe you should talk to him, Jer.”“They. Are. Not. The. Point!” Jeremy said.  “Am I missing you guys with this?”“It seems to me that you’re just pissed at them.” Rich called out.“Am I a little pissed at the people who’ve bullied me and my friends for eleven years?  Yeah, maybe. Who would’ve guessed?”“I’m just saying give them a chance.” Rich said.  “Maybe they aren’t so bad up close.”“If you guys wanted to start going soft on people with fully functional Squips, why am I the one who took one?” Jeremy asked.“Woah, chill Jer.” Brooke said.  “He’s just saying don’t be so hard on them. It was just a suggestion.”Jeremy glared at her.  “Fine, sorry. Next time Michael and Chloe invite me to come over and talk shit about people who don’t deserve it, I’ll accept.”“Ha ha, we get it.” Brooke said.  “It’s not like we’re their biggest fans either.”Jeremy sighed.  “You’re right, sorry.” he said, this time being sincere.  “Maybe I’m just a little irritated because I didn’t learn much that we could use.”
If you spend more time with the people who have had Squips for eleven years you are likely to learn more about them.
“No one asked your opinion, you piece of shit.” Jeremy snapped out loud, due to not having enough time to come up with a clever comeback.“Oh, suck it!” Rich called, in the general direction of where Jeremy had yelled, clearly having already accepted his apology.
Please tell your friend that using any words with the letter ‘s’ present in them increases his chances of getting beaten up by 46%.

Go fuck yourself.
Then Jeremy realized something.   Wait, why would you tell me what would help me learn more about Squips?
The more time you spend around the popular students increases your chances of abandoning your goal to destroy all Squips.
Jeremy blinked.   Why would you tell me that?
Lying to you immediately gets rid of what little trust and respect you have for me.

Which is almost none.

Correct.

Cool.
“Alright, I’m spent you guys.  Can we call it for tonight?” Jeremy asked.“I’m beat too.” Brooke said, writing one more note before turning around and stretching.  “We still coming back tomorrow night?”“I think we’re coming back here every night, at least for right now.” Rich said.  “There’s no other way to keep updated, and we’ll need more than weekly updates.”“He’s right.” Jeremy said.  “See you guys tomorrow night.”  He stuck his hand out.Brooke and Rich added theirs.  “All for one, and none for Squip!” they called, throwing their hands up.…Jeremy did his best to still pay attention in class, both because he wouldn’t have a Squip forever and didn’t want to fall horribly behind, and because he didn’t want to turn into someone who had to ask who George Washington was (sorry Christine, it’s true).However, it was fairly difficult when he was no longer in the front seat and when he pretty much had to talk to people the whole class period.The fact that he didn’t give his Squip permission to control him— which he does not regret, but the fact that he didn’t— meant that it was pretty necessary Jeremy do what his Squip says during the school day.  Because him just having a Squip wasn’t enough.  If he had one and never listened to it, no one would know, and he wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything.So all of this meant that Jeremy had to talk during class and be a jerk to 2nd and 3rd tier people.  God, this must have been how Chloe, Jake, and Michael had felt for eleven years.After school in this sense almost felt like a break, because he made almost no effort to listen to his Squip then.  He mostly spent enough time at Jake’s house to be passable, went home and ate dinner (doted on Cynthia for a bit), and went to the barn with Rich and Brooke.  By Friday this pattern was more than established for Jeremy himself.Today Jake was talking about his little brother Josh.  Jeremy had managed to put together that this was the Josh that Brooke’s little brother Ben was friends with.  Apparently his teacher had spent most of the afternoon yelling at the only Squipless kid in the whole class after they got a question wrong.“That’s horrible,” Jeremy muttered, against his Squip’s warning.“Why?” Chloe asked.  “It’s not the teacher’s fault the kid doesn’t have a Squip.”“It’s not the kids fault either.” Jeremy said.Chloe raised an eyebrow.  “Yeah, easy for you to say.  You used to be one of those kids.”“What the hell does that have to do with anything?!” Michael snapped, and everyone turned and stared at him before Michael looked away.  “We’re talking about this kid.  And frankly, I don’t care what level Squip you have, you shouldn’t be mean to a kid just because they don’t have a Squip.” he finished with a mutter.“Yeah.” Jeremy said.  He looked Michael right in the eye, and with a voice aiming to kill, he said, “I guess that would make you pretty worthless, huh?”From the way Michael paled and his eyes widened, Jeremy could tell his words hit their mark.“What?” Jake asked.  He and Chloe spent the next couple seconds looking back and forth between Jeremy and Michael.“Uh, sorry— guys?” Chloe asked.  “I feel like I’ve missed something here, and it’s been like… three seconds.”“I’m going home.” Jeremy said as he stood.  “Jake, your little brother’s teacher is a bitch.”  With that, he left.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Michael was in a bad fuckin mood.  He was pretty sure the next person he came across which his Squip deemed ‘acceptable’ to beat up would be nursing a black eye for the next week.

See, it was Michael’s fake birthday.

And he always hated that day.  This year it was a Saturday, which made it even worse.

Because he had got to get up early and go straight to Jake’s house.  Chloe and Jake were already there to help set up for the party, like always.  However, this year there was the addition of Jeremy setting up the bar with minimal enthusiasm.  Michael avoided him all morning, though he agreed with him on the enthusiasm level.

At around noon the party was set up for, and they ordered pizza.  Sbarro’s, because Jake was there. The pizza got there about half an hour later after Michael had a half-hearted argument about whether or not they could deliver.  They lost, of course.

They put the pizza on the coffee table in the living room as Jake’s parents took his little brother out of the house for the day.  It was pretty much an accepted thing that all parties were held in this house, and they weren’t exactly 11-year-old Josh material. That also meant his parents had to be somewhere else a lot of the time.  Jake hosted a lot of parties.

“I’m sorry,” Jeremy said, holding up his hands after finishing his first piece of pizza.  “But how do you guys get this pizza every time you order pizza? It’s mediocre at best.”

Everyone in the room stilled, and Jake leveled Jeremy with a glare that Michael was glad he was not on the other side of.  “I’m sorry, what was that?” he asked.

“Nothing!” Jeremy squeaked.  “Jesus.”

“O-kay…” Chloe said, taking a sip of her soda.  “I think Jeremy has learned a valuable lesson today.  Oh yeah, Michael.” she added as an afterthought. “Here.” she passed him a present, and Jake reached down and grabbed a similar-looking one.

“Gee, thanks.” Michael said, tossing them into the garbage can.  He made the toss.

“Wha— hey.” Jeremy said.  “That’s pretty rude.”

“It’s some kind of alcohol Jer, we have plenty at the bar.” Chloe said.  “We do this every year, I give him his real present on his real birthday.”

“Don’t call me Jer.  Only my friends get to do that.”

“Aw, do you not like us, Jermey?”

“No I do not.”

“That’s totally fair.” Chloe said with a shrug.  “Alright, people will be getting here at 7PM, which means we have the afternoon to do whatever we want.  Michael?”

“Why the fuck you askin’ me?” Michael grumbled.  “I get to pick next week.”

“Seriously, what’s next week?” Jeremy asked.  “You’ve been referring to Michael’s actual birthday like it’s some sacred day.”

“It’s next Friday.” Michael said.  “We go to New York City for three days, we leave Tuesday.”

“And why is that such a big deal?” Jeremy asked.

“You’ll see when we get there.” Chloe says.

Jeremy threw up his hands.  “Who says I’m coming?!

OW!”

he glared at an empty corner of the room, and no one had to ask what happened.  “Fine, Jesus.” he grumbled. “Be cryptic about it.”

He stood up and walked into the kitchen.

“I’ll go talk to him.” Jake said, standing up and walking off.

Michael leaned back on the chair he was sitting on.

“I just wanted to play ping-pong,” Chloe mumbled.

Michael said nothing, looking down at the nearly empty pizza box.

“Hey,” Chloe said, and he glanced back up.  “What’s the deal with you two?”

“What?”

“You clearly have some kind of history.”

“Me and Jake?”

Chloe glared at him.  “Yes, smart-ass.”

Michael was suddenly very aware of his Squip hovering over his shoulder.  “It’s not important.”

“Really?  ‘Cause it seems to be making him fucking pissed at you.”

“That could just as easily be coming from the fact that I’ve been beating him up for eleven years.”  For once, it was a true statement. But Michael doubted that was where this was coming from.

“Yeah, but he treats you like he knows you.”

Michael raised an eyebrow.  “Did you miss the ‘beating him up for eleven years?’”

“No, dumbass, he treats you like he

knows

you.”

“Am I a dumbass or a smartass?  Make up your mind.”

“You’re deflecting.”

“Your Squip told you that.”

“Believe it or not, it’s curious too.”

“Well, then you can both sit there in your curiosity and suffer.”

“Fuck you.”

“No thanks.”

Chloe stuck her tongue out and Michael leaned back on the chair again.

Jeremy and Jake didn’t come out of the kitchen for a really long time, and Michael got the feeling they were either having some kind of important conversion, or standing there in silence like he and Chloe often did.

After about half an hour they came back in, and after they did Michael stood up, picked up the pizza box and walked into the kitchen to throw the leftovers in the trash.

He managed to find his way to the upstairs balcony, something that had come to be called ‘The Thinking Balcony’ over the years.  He'd rather spend the afternoon alone anyway.

It was cold enough that he noticed, but not cold enough for him to get a coat or jacket, and he didn’t want to go back inside.  He did rule out this balcony during the party. But he suspected that rule would be broken.

As 7:00 finally approached, Chloe came and got him.

“So.” she said to Jeremy as they walked back into the living room.  “Run down on Squip birthday parties.”

“You know my Squip already told me all of this—”

“I’m telling you anyway.”  It was better than standing in awkward silence.

“Be excited the whole time, drink a lot but still act excited without your Squip on, make out with plenty of people, especially if you’re Michael—”

Michael and Jeremy both groaned at the same time.

“Yeah, I know.  And try to make it to the end of the night without killing anyone.”

“I really did already know all of that.” Jeremy said.  He grumbled something under his breath that sound like “Not killing people is going to be hard though.”

“Here come people.” Jake said, looking out the window.  “You guys ready?”

“Fuck no.” Jeremy said.

Here here.

Time to start Michael’s least favorite party of the year.

People poured in through the door in droves and pretty much went straight to food or the bar.  A couple of them gave a casual ‘Happy Birthday’ to Michael, who ignored them.

By about the time the first flirty girl walked up to him, Michael decided

not tonight

, walked over to the bar and grabbed a beer, and made his way out to The Thinking Balcony.

But he almost turned back around for the flirty girl when he noticed Jeremy standing out there alone.

Okay, not almost.  But this was certainly going to make this more awkward.

“Fuck off, I’m not coming inside.” Jeremy said when Michael started leaning against the railing with him.  “I don’t even want to be here.” he grumbled.

“Well, that makes two of us.” Michael said.

Jeremy gave him a look.  “Really?”

“If you seriously still think I like these things, then I don’t know what to tell you.” Michael said.  “I had to cancel my plans of staring at my ceiling and having another existential crisis.”

Jeremy actually laughed, and Michael blinked.  “Yeah, I had stuff to do tonight too.” he said.  “I also didn’t feel like having my first kiss with some girl whose name I don’t know.”

“I am so sick of making out with girls.” Michael grumbled.

Jeremy gave him a curious look.  “Since when?”

Michael gave a deadpan look.  “If you think I can actually tell you, you’re dreaming.”

Jeremy gave him a curious look.  “Tell me? What couldn’t you tell me about not liking… oh.”

“Shut up.”

“Uh… sorry?”

“I said shut up, Jeremy.  It’s not a big deal.”

“I mean, it is a little bit—”

“Shut

up.”

Finally, Jeremy did.

That is, until he turned to Michael again a few seconds later.  “You know the fact that we live in a homophobic society at all is a paradox?”

“Jermey, I swear to God—”

“No, seriously.  The only reason same sex relationships aren’t okay now is because when the Squips took over in the 90s, it wasn’t okay.  But since Squips literally control most of the world, they could easily change things. Thus,” Jeremy spread his arms. “We live in a paradox.”

“Did you just use the word ‘thus?’”

“I have to find some way to reassure myself I’m still a loser.”

Michael looked at him incredulously.  “You’re telling me the reason you took a Squip wasn’t to

stop

being a loser.”

Jeremy said nothing to that.

Michael took another drink of beer as he heard his Squip in the back of his head.  It would be a miracle that he didn’t have liver damage at this point if Squips didn’t help with that too.

Something behind them in the house crashed loudly, and Jeremy winced.  “Yeesh. Who’s cleaning that up?”

“Don’t know.  Probably Jake’s family.  Maybe they have a maid. Who cares?”

Jeremy glared at him, and Michael did a double take.  “What did I say?”

“You’re a spoiled brat.” Jeremy snapped, and turned around and stormed back inside.

Michael raised his hands in confusion before sighed and heading back inside himself.  He’d have to spend some time at this party or the Squip would get mad.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Rich on your left!” Jeremy yelled quickly.  Rich turned and fired his gun straight through a zombie’s head.

Brooke was taking out zombies on Rich’s right with a sword, and Jeremy was using his own preferred weapon of choice: an ax.  (Because it works well and looks badass.)

“Wow, you are pissed tonight Jeremy.” Brooke said, as Jeremy tried to slash up a zombies remains (which wasn’t actually possible, it was a video game).  “You trying to vent some rage or something?”

“I’m trying to make sure this zombie is dead.” Jeremy snapped.

“Dude, you’ve been ‘making sure’ for 30 seconds.” Rich said.

Jeremy glared at him while swinging his ax towards another zombie.

It might have been true that Apocalypse of the Damned was a fantastic way to vent emotions into killing zombies, but that wasn’t why Jeremy had wanted to play it tonight.

Well, that wasn’t the main reason.

The main reason was that Jeremy was sick of hanging around fake people and having to fake things himself.  He needed something genuine, something pure—

Like slathering a virtual reality cafetorium floor with zombie guts.

That logic does not follow.

“Jeremy on your right!” Brooke yelled, and Jeremy swung his ax without looking.  The telltale splat meant that he’d killed what he was attempting to.

The three passed the rest of the level mostly in silence, unless they were warning one another of zombies, until they were finally taken out by a group of zombies near the end, in a familiar splatter of blood and guts (theirs this time) that ended in a game over screen.  It never actually hurt, but it was getting particularly annoying.

I can assist you in any—

Shut your face.

I have no physical face.

“Man, we are

never

gonna beat level nine!” Rich groaned, as they all pulled off the virtual reality tech, walked up to the game, and unplugging it.

“Hey, never say never.” Brooke said.  “It’s a hard level.”

“We’ve been trying for weeks.” Jeremy pointed out.

“It took us longer to beat level four.”

“Man, level four looks like a cakewalk now.” Jeremy grumbled.

“You said it.” Rich agreed.  They walked out of the back room and waved goodbye to Stephanie at the counter as they went.

“So seriously,” Brooke said, after they were back in her mom’s car.  “What’s up with you tonight? You’ve been angry about something. And don’t dodge the question this time.”

“I hate Squips.”

Rich gasped and put his hands to his cheeks.  “Oh my gosh, really?” he said, leaning into the front between Brooke and Jeremy as he did so.

“Shut up.  I just… I feel like I have to read between the lines of every conversation I have with anyone.  And it also feels like they all mastered that art forever and a half ago and now I’m trying to catch up.  I don’t know what topics they’re supposed to talk about or supposed to avoid or whatever. It’s like a whole layer of

fake

that isn’t there with you guys.  I can’t stand it.”

If you were to ask me—

Shut up.

“And I mean, there’s also that trip that I’m apparently going on next Tuesday to New York City.”

“Wait, what?!” Brooke exclaimed.  “Since when?”

“Oh, shit, did I forget to tell you that?”

They both stared at him.

“Uh… yeah.  Michael’s actual birthday is next Friday, and apparently they all celebrate by taking a three-day trip to New York City.”

“J-Jeremy!  You need to

tell us these things!”

Rich exclaimed.  “If you’re going to be gone, we need to plan an alternate way for updates!”

“I’m sorry, I forgot!”

“You just happened to

forget

something that would take you that far away for three days?!” Brooke asked, waving her arms about frantically.

“I’m sorry!  At least I’m telling you now and not next week!”

Brooke sighed.  “Okay, true. You’ll have to call us and tell us any updates, right?”

“That’s dangerous.” Jeremy said.  “What if someone taps the phone or something?”

Rich grinned.  “You guys.”

“Uh-oh.” Jeremy said.  “That’s your ‘I have an idea’ look.”

“I think it’s time to bring back our seventh grade codeword phase.”

Jeremy and Brooke were now grinning too.  “Rich, I’m disappointed!” Jeremy exclaimed.  “You didn’t think to use your ‘I have a

good

idea’ look.”

Rich grinned wider.

…

When the three of them were in seventh grade, they had come up with a code.  It was incredibly expansive for their age. It was also entirely for work purposes, of course.  Practical uses only. (They did it for fun.)

It was unique in the way code languages could be, with exact phrasing being necessary to avoid confusion.  ‘Did you remember the homework’ meant ‘I’m bored give me something to do,’ but if one of them said: ‘Did you

guys

remember the homework’ they would know they were actually asking.  There were also examples like ‘What do you think is for lunch today’ meaning ‘Did you get the stuff for the Anti-Squip Club,’ and, after they realized that they would need something for dangerous situations, ‘strawberry cinnamon swirl’ came to mean ‘Help me, something’s wrong.’  (That one being so unusual because there could be absolutely no allowance for someone to mess it up or confuse it.)

That, however, wasn’t even the beginning.  They could have intricate conversations in code; and after some slight adjustments so it would work for Jeremy’s calls specifically, they were ready for New York City.

Jeremy would admit it— having a code made him feel kinda badass.  And the fact that they were getting to actually use it made him feel even more badass.

Who dares say the Anti-Squip Club is lame?

I do.

No one asked your opinion.

…

Sunday morning began with Jeremy waking up at noon, which was as reasonable a time as he gets, thank you very much.

If you got up even a few hours earlier you could—

Thank you very much.

And since Jeremy had been told that he could pick one day a week when he didn’t have to go to parties and get away with it, he had picked Sunday, since right after would be a whole week of school, and he didn’t know if he could handle that coming off a party.

He had also threatened the Squip with death by Mountain Dew Red if it tried to stop him from keeping the Sabbath, but apparently Squips respected religion, and so did Squipped people—with the exception of yesterday since it was Michael’s fake birthday.

Rich and Brooke both had family plans that day, which left Jeremy with Cynthia (not that he minded).  They mostly spent the day playing Mario Kart with virtual reality gear and arguing with their dad as to why he should buy them pizza for dinner.  They won.

At 11PM Cynthia had been long asleep against Jeremy’s side in front of the TV.  Jeremy picked her up and carried her to her room, setting her on bed and heading out again.  He was just about to shut Cynthia’s door when his phone rang loudly in his pocket.

Jeremy jumped.  Cynthia shifted in her bed and Jeremy scrambled for his pocket and poked at the screen until his phone stopped ringing, then watched Cynthia until he was sure she wouldn’t wake up again before shutting the door quietly and pulling out his phone.

He blinked in surprise when he realized he’d accidentally answered it instead of hung up, and blinked again in surprise when he saw who had called.

“Um, hi, Michael.” Jeremy said, putting his phone up to his ear as he walked into his room.  “Why are you calling me?”

“Heyyyyy, Jeremy.” Michael giggled into the phone.

“Oh my God.” Jeremy groaned, putting a hand to his forehead.  “You’re drunk, aren’t you?”

“What?  No, ‘m just… a l’il tipsy.” Michael giggled again.

“Michael,” Jeremy snapped.  “You’ve been drinking long enough that you should know what being drunk feels like.”  He paused. “Then again, I guess I’ve never been drunk, maybe that’s not how it works.”

“I’mma… I wanna see you.”

“What?”

“Can I come see you?”

“Wait, what?!” Jeremy exclaimed.  “No!”

“Aww, why not?”

“Michael, I can

hear

you pouting.  I meant that there’s no way in hell you’re driving anywhere.  Are Chloe and Jake drunk too?”

“Chloe… Jake’s drivin’ Chloe home.”

Jeremy sighed.  “Okay, where are you?  I’m coming to pick you up.”

“Yay!” Michael cried happily, and there was a whistling sound and a thud.  It took Jeremy a second to realize he must have thrown his phone in the air in celebration.

Jeremy groaned and pressed his hand in between his eyes.  “When did this become my life?” he grumbled. “Michael!” he called into the phone.  “Can you hear me? I need an address!”

“Oh yeah.” Michael was easy to hear again.  “I’m at Jake’s house.”

“I mean, that’s not an address, but okay.” Jeremy muttered to himself.  “I’ll be there in a bit.”

“Byyyyyyye!”

Jeremy groaned one more time as he hung up and walked down the stairs to grab the car keys.  His parents were asleep already, so as long as Jeremy was back before morning, he’d be fine.

He spent the drive over to Jake’s house reassessing his life choices and preparing for what a shit show the rest of his Sunday night was about to become.

You understand that if—

Ignoring you.

When Jeremy pulled up to Jake’s house Michael was on the porch peering out at the street and till holding a can of beer.  Jeremy opened the car door and stood up, and as soon as Michael saw him he started running down the hill, and Jeremy had the absolutely ridiculous thought that it was a good thing there weren’t people on the lawn or the Squip would likely punish Michael the next day for how ridiculous he looked as he did that.

As soon as Michael opened the car door Jeremy climbed back into the car and plucked the can of beer from Michael’s hand.

“Aww… Jer…” Michael whined.

“You have had enough.” Jeremy said, putting the can in his door’s cup holder.  “Here.” Jeremy passed his phone over. “Put your address in.”

It took Michael much longer than it should have to do that.  After about three minutes Jeremy sighed and started drumming his fingers on the wheel.  Finally, Michael passed his phone over and Jeremy started following the directions.

“I swear this had better not become a regular occurrence.” Jeremy snapped at Michael as he turned at a stop sign.  “I am not coming to rescue your ass every Sunday night.”

Michael gave a sad sigh.  “Why’re you so mean to me?”

Jeremy swerved the car in shock.  “Wh—

what?”

“Why’re you so mean?  What’d I ever do t’you?”

Jeremy gaped at him.

Michael looked over and blinked a couple times.  “Okay, apart from first grade.”

Jeremy scowled.

“And bullyin’ you for eleven years after first grade.”

“Oh, apart from that?  Sorry, I forgot I was supposed to set those things aside.”

“I didn’— I mean—” Michael stopped, and to Jeremy’s relief, he didn’t say anything else.  After a couple minutes he glanced over, and he realized it was because he had fallen asleep.

Jeremy sighed.

He pulled into Michael’s driveway a couple minutes later and shut off the car, walked around to the other side, and opened Michael’s door.

“Get up.” he said, nudging Michael.  He unbuckled his seatbelt, and Michael whined and curled up on the seat.

“Get

up.”

Jeremy insisted.  “I can’t carry you.”

Michael eventually opened his eyes and allowed Jeremy to drag him from the car.

Michael half walked, half stumbled up to his house, and after he struggled for about ten seconds with the key, Jeremy grabbed it from him and opened the door.

He followed Michael down to the basement just to make sure that he didn’t trip on the stairs and break his neck.  Michael had laid down on the bed and Jeremy was about to finally leave when Michael spoke up again.

“‘M sorry.”

Jeremy stopped.

“For what I said in first grade.” Michael clarified.  “It wasn’ me, but ‘m sorry.”

Maybe Jeremy was in the mood to be particularly cruel tonight by Michael’s standards, because he turned back around.  “It hurt, you know.” he said. “I ran off by myself and cried afterwards.”

Michael nodded.  “Yeah.” he said. “Me too.”

…

Jeremy did not know anything would be different when he woke up that morning.  His mother got him ready for school and his father kissed him on the head while he was eating his breakfast.  He missed the looks they exchanged over his head that might have hinted at the fact that this wouldn’t be a normal day.

When his father asked him if he had heard any voices lately, Jeremy gave him a confused look.  “Like, voices from who?”

His father managed to smile, and just kissed his forehead again.  “Never you mind.” he said.

He would also miss the conversation between his father and mother where his father suggested maybe keeping him home for the day, and his mother pointing out that it would only delay the inevitable.

So Jeremy’s mother drove him to school like nothing was wrong and took him to his classroom like nothing was wrong.  She said goodbye and Jeremy put his backpack in his cubby before looking across the room to see Michael.

Jeremy walked over to sit by his best friend…

Only to find another boy in his seat.

“Um, excuse me?” Jeremy tapped him on the shoulder, and both the boy and Michael turned.  “That’s my seat.”

“No, Jake is sitting here this year.” Michael said, and turned away like the matter was solved.

“But—” Jeremy said.

“Young man, please sit down!” called the teacher at the front of the room.

Jeremy looked around, trying to find somewhere else to sit.  There was an empty seat in the back of the room, all by itself.  Jeremy slowly walked back there and sat down as the teacher started class.

It wasn’t until recess that he saw Michael again.  He was talking with the Jake boy and another girl.

“Um, Michael?” Jeremy asked, tapping him on the shoulder.  All three of them turned around, and Jeremy shrunk a little under their gazes.  “Are we gonna go play?”

Michael rolled his eyes.  “Oh my God, Jeremy, seriously.  I thought Jake in your seat would give you a hint.  I don’t want to play with you.”

Jeremy tipped his head in confusion, not quite sure what Michael was saying both because the words and his tone didn’t make sense.  “You don’t want to play today?”

Michael groaned.  “I don’t want to play with

you.”

he snapped, and Jeremy took a step back in surprise.

“Why?”

“Because

, Jeremy.” Michael spat.  “I don’t want to be friends anymore.”

“Wh-what?” Jeremy asked.  “Why? What did I do?”

“Michael, how long is this taking?” the girl behind him asked.

Michael sighed.  “Look, just leave me alone, okay?” he said.  “Go play with someone else or whatever.”

Jeremy felt himself start to cry.  “What—” he reached for Michael’s arm, and Michael smacked his hand away.

“Jeremy!” he snapped, and Jeremy gasped and backed up.  “Look, maybe if you hadn’t been such a worthless best friend, you could still hang around, but the answer is no!”

Jeremy was definitely crying now.  “B-but—”

“Go away!” Michael screamed, before walking forward and shoving Jeremy backwards, causing Jeremy to fall and land on his hands.  With that he turned and started talking to Jake and the other girl like nothing had happened.

Jeremy got up and ran away.

He found himself behind the school out of sight of everyone.  He didn’t know where that had come from. Michael had just been over for dinner the night before.  He’d thought they’d had fun. Was Michael mad that Jeremy beat him at Rainbow Road?

“Hey,” came a gentle voice, and Jeremy jumped and looked up, hoping to see Michael, but instead seeing another boy looking concerned.  “Why are you crying?”

Jeremy sniffed hard.  “My— my fr— my frien— my— Mi— Michael—”

“Michael Mell?!” the boy asked, and Jeremy looked up in surprise.  “He’s

mean!

He hurt Brookie!”

From around the school poked another head of a girl with a hand over her right eye.  When she took it down Jeremy saw her eye was red and swollen.

“What did he do?” the boy asked, pulling Jeremy up to his feet.

‘Brookie’ came forward with a kind smile, wiping Jeremy’s tears away from his eyes.

“Um—” Jeremy said.  “I don’t—” he stopped.  He still really wasn’t sure what had just happened.

“I’m Rich!” the boy said, sticking his hand out.  Jeremy shook it tentatively.

“J-J-Jeremy.” he said, sniffing again.

“I’m Brooke, but Rich calls me Brookie.” Brookie said.  “Don’ worry about it. Michael’s just a meanie.”

Just then, the whistle blew.

“Cummon.” Rich said, pulling Jeremy towards them.  “Who do you have?”

Jeremy gave his teachers name, and Rich grinned.  “Hey, tha’s Brookie and me’s teacher! Cummon, we can sit together!”

They all followed their teacher inside, and Jeremy looked across the classroom to see Michael sitting with Jake again.

He barely had a second to dwell on that, however, before Brookie pushed an empty chair up to the table by the door.

She and Rich sat down and beckoned to Jeremy.

Jeremy gave one last look in Michael’s direction before sitting down.

“Alright.” said their teacher, walking up to the front of the room.  “I gave you all the morning to discuss it, so now we are going to talk about your Squips.”

Jeremy looked at Rich and Brookie.  “Are we supposed to know what that is?” he whispered nervously.

Rich raised his hand.

“Yes, Richard?”

“What’s a Squip?” Rich asked.

Every gaze in the room turned to the three of them simultaneously, and Jeremy locked gazes with Michael.

The teacher sighed.  “Anyone who doesn’t know what a Squip is come see me after school.” she said, and went on to use a lot of big words that Jeremy didn’t understand.

Instead of them going to her after class, the teacher came to them.

“Look, kids.” she said, and her tone was harsh and clipped.  “Everyone else has a thing called a Squip now. It will help them lead a good life and have lots of friends.  Since you three don’t have them, you won’t. Alright then.” she walked away towards her desk like that explained everything.

“Well that wasn’t very nice.” Brookie said quietly.

As Jeremy grabbed his bag and waited for his mom to pick him up, Brookie and Rich found their way back to him.

“Okay, I still don’t really know what ‘Squips’ are, but they stink!” Brookie proclaimed.

Rich nodded his agreement.  “I for one, am all for making an Anti-Squip Club.  You in?”

“Yes!” Brookie called, putting her hand out in front of her.  Rich stuck his hand on top.

“Jeremy?” Rich asked, glancing over.

Jeremy was looking at Michael again.  He was talking to Jake and that other girl by the table on the other side of the room.

Did Michael have a ‘Squip?’  Was that why he was suddenly being so mean?

“Jeremy?” Rich tapped his shoulder.

“Huh?” Jeremy asked, turning.

“We’re making an Anti-Squip Club.” Brookie said.  “You wanna join?”

“Oh, uh…” Jeremy gave another half-glance over his shoulder.  Then he smiled, just a little.

“Yeah.” he said, placing his hand on top of Rich’s.

“Alright!” Rich cried, throwing his hand up and disrupting Jeremy’s.  “All for one, and none for Squip!”

Jeremy blinked at him.  “What?”

“It’s from a book.” Rich explained.

“Jeremy, let’s go.”  Jeremy looked up to see his mother, and he took her hand, waving goodbye to Rich and Brookie as he left.

“Mommy?” he said as they walked out of the classroom.

“Yes?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“I suppose.”

“What does ‘worthless’ mean?”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Another perk of Squips— no hangovers.  Thank God.

Although that didn’t make the prospect of seeing Jeremy again any better.  Michael didn’t remember everything that had happened the night before, but he knew it wasn’t exactly “Squip-approved” if the looks his Squip been giving him all morning were anything to go by.

He had no memory of anything they’d said, but he decided by mid-morning that he didn’t regret whatever had happened, because Jeremy was looking at him in a way that suggested he wasn’t barely hiding utter contempt.

Naturally, this meant his Squip had to take extra precautions to make sure Jeremy didn’t start to, you know,

like

him.

A few well-placed deadpan comments throughout their classes were responded to with a few well-placed deadpan glares that ensured Michael knew that his Squip wasn’t going to allow him to make any progress on the Jeremy front.

The rest of the day passed pretty normally until the very end of the school day, where they ran into Rich and Brooke in the hallway.  At this point all three of them knew how these things worked.

“Hey, look guys, there’s a couple annoying bugs in our way.” Chloe said, putting a hand on her hip with a smirk.

Rich muttered something to Brooke that would have sounded like ‘Why do you like her again?’ if Michael didn’t know better.

Michael rolled his eyes and got ready to get this over with so he could go home, when he glanced to the left and saw Jeremy, who looked like he was starting to panic.

Oh yeah… didn’t he used to be friends with those two?

“That’s what I see.” Michael blurted.  “And personally I don’t really think bugs are worth our time, do you?”

Chloe shot him a surprised look that anyone else would have missed.   But with that comment, Michael had pretty much forced her hand.

“Not from where I’m standing.” Chloe said.

“I’m ready to go home anyway.” Jake said, and started walking off.  Chloe, Michael, and Jeremy all followed; though judging by their faces, Rich and Brooke didn’t really appreciate the sentiment.

They made it to Jake’s car before Michael’s Squip shocked him.  It didn’t say anything, due to the fact that they both knew what he’d done wrong.

Jake and Chloe both took the front seats, due to Chloe yelling “Shotgun!” and Jake being the driver, which put Michael right next to Jeremy in the backseat.

“Thanks.” Jeremy muttered.

Michael glanced over at him.   “For what?” he asked nonchalantly.

The car pulled away from the school, and Jeremy said nothing at first, until after Jake turned on the music.

“By the way,” he said in a tone that made Michael glance over again.  “I don’t know if you know this, but you’re really childish when you’re drunk.”

Michael’s face went bright red.  “What—”

“And kinda clingy.”

Michael looked away quickly, and Jeremy laughed.

“Shut up.” Michael grumbled.  His Squip shocked him again, and Michael was pretty sure they took away the blush on his face.

As soon as they got to Jake’s house, Chloe pushed Michael towards the ping pong table and shoved a paddle into his hands against his will.

“Geez, okay.” Michael said.  “Do you enjoy ping pong, Chloe?”

“I enjoy when I kick your ass at it.”

“Oh, please.”

They played a couple games before moving into ‘How many times can we bounce the ball back and forth’ (spoiler alert, with Squips?  A lot).

Jeremy eventually demanded the table and played several games with Jake while Chloe and Michael sat on the sidelines.

“Hey.” Chloe said to Michael.  “You ready to leave for New York tomorrow?”

“I’ve been packed for weeks.” Michael said.

Chloe grinned at him.

“Yeah, I actually have a question.” Jeremy caught the ping pong ball and turned to face them.  “How are we getting there? Are we driving?”

“We’re taking a train.” Michael said.

“Uh… I don’t have a ticket.”

“Oh, we just take a couple seats from 3rd tier or Squipless people.  We still gotta pay, but Jake’s parents usually cover that.” Chloe said.

Jeremy gaped at her.  “What?”

“We—”

“I heard you.  We’re— we are

not

doing that.”

Michael tipped his head.  “Why not?”

“Because those 3rd tier or Squipless people probably paid for their tickets months in advance, and have been planning their trip even longer.  We’re not taking their seats, that is so shitty.”

Michael, Chloe, and Jake were all looking at him in confusion now.  “Jeremy.” Jake said. “This is just one of those things people with fully-functional Squips do.”

“Fuck no.  Are you kidding?  Come on, if Jake’s parents are covering our New York City trip, let's go buy some tickets in advance.”

The other three people in the room exchanged glances.  “Why?” Michael asked. “We can get the tickets tomorrow just as easily.”

Jeremy gave him one of those glares that Michael now knew meant ‘You’re being an awful person right now.’

Eventually he shrugged.  “Alright, fine. If it’s that important to you, I guess it makes no difference to me.”

So they all walked into the kitchen, grabbed Jake’s laptop, and sat down and bought four tickets for a train to New York tomorrow.  Luckily for them, massive discounts were given due to Squip level, which for some reason Jeremy also seemed really ticked about.

“Are you okay?” Michael asked as Jake went to go get the tickets from his printer in his Dad’s office.

Jeremy looked at him.  “You’ve seriously never noticed how many things are handed to you because of your Squip level.”

“Uh…”

“Hey, Michael, do you know what college you’re gonna go to?”

“Probably Harvard or Yale or something.  I dunno, why?”

“How many awards have you gotten from the school over the years?”

“Uh… a lot?”

“How many times have the people at Pinkberry said ‘It’s on the house?’”

Michael said nothing.

“How much did you have to pay for that BMW you own?”

Michael said nothing again.

“How many times in your life has someone who isn’t your Squip critiqued you?”

“Jeremy—”

“I can keep going.”

“I get it.” Michael said quietly.  “I’ll buy my own train tickets from now on.”

“That was not my point.”

“I know that.”

You know he is wrong about this.  People with fully-functional Squips deserve these things.  They’re the best of society.

Chloe was looking at Jeremy from the other side of the table.  “Hey Jeremy.” she said. “How many times have you had a computer shock you before recently?”

Jeremy looked at her.

“How many times have you experienced a literal voice in your head telling you that something about you as a person is not okay?  Or better yet, how many times do you think Michael and I have been able to cheer each other up about anything? Your friends and you constantly build each other up.  I know this because I see it from your behavior with each other and towards us. Do you know how many times I’ve been forced to purposely tear Michael down, or he’s been forced to do so for me?”

Michael looked away and bit his lip.  That was probably hard for her to say with her Squip trying to hold her back.

“Having Squips doesn’t make our lives easy, Jeremy.  It just makes them hard in a different way.”

Before Jeremy could say anything in reply Jake burst into the kitchen again.  “Hey the tickets are on the printer can I borrow Jeremy okay thanks bye!” He grabbed Jeremy’s arm and yanked him out of the room before anyone could reply to that either, and Chloe and Michael were left blinking after them.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Jake shoved Jeremy into the passenger seat of his car and ran around to the other side, and before Jeremy could say anything he was pulling out of the driveway.“Jake, what’s going on?” Jeremy asked, now more concerned than anything else.  Then he was struck by a horrifying idea. “Is it Josh? Is he okay?”“What?” Jake asked.  “No, Josh is fine. This is about Max.”Jeremy blinked.  “Who’s Max?”“You’ll see.”And so Jeremy was borderline kidnapped and driven to an unknown location.  While Jake drove there and broke not just the speed limit but practically the laws of physics, Jeremy found his mind wandering back to what Chloe said.Her rant at him had been— okay, maybe a little bit much, but still well-deserved, if he was being honest with himself.  As much as Jeremy told himself he was trying to stop Squips for Cynthia, so she didn’t have to experience them, what would happen if her Squip turned on?  Would he start blaming her? How long before he turned into Brooke grumbling about Ben, saying ‘she used to be such a sweet kid?’A more uncomfortable question popped into his head.  When did people start ‘deserving’ Squip’s treatments?  Because somewhere along the line Jeremy had convinced himself that Michael, Chloe, and Jake did.  Was it after a couple years? Would he say some random 17 year old in another state deserved their Squip?  Or did they just have to do enough shitty things to him in particular?
You act like having a Squip is a horrible thing.  Our sole purpose is to make people like Chloe, Michael, and Jake have wonderful lives.
For the first time, Jeremy didn’t bite back in a harsh snap towards his Squip.Jake pulled up to a house Jeremy had never been to before.  Jeremy had to run to keep up with him to make it to the front door.  Jake pounded quickly a couple times, and the door was opened.By Jenna Rolan, of all people.“Jake!” she cried, pulling Jake in for a hug.  “Thank you for coming.”“Always, Jen.” Jake said, and he turned to Jeremy.  “I hope you don’t mind I brought Jeremy. He just got a Squip recently, but more importantly he’s Cynthia’s older brother.”Jeremy blinked.  He had to admit he wasn’t usually introduced that way.“That’s even better.” Jenna said.  She turned to him. “How old is Cynthia?”“Uh, five?  What exactly am I doing here?”Jenna, to Jeremy’s shock, started to tear up.  “My little brother’s Squip turned on early.”Oh.Oh, no.It happened sometimes. Usually a couple months early wasn’t terribly harmful to the child’s psyche.But a Squip turning on wasn’t a pleasant experience regardless of age.  At least for Jenna’s little brother, it wouldn’t hurt.The three of them walked into the house and Jenna led them down a hallway to what was clearly a little kids bedroom.There was a little boy curled up on the bed who Jake immediately walked over to and began to comfort.  “Hey, Max.” he said quietly. “How ya doin,’ buddy?”‘Max’ looked up at Jake and sniffed.  “Jen said your voice is like mine?” he sniffed.Meaning Max had a fully functional Squip.“Yeah, bud.” Jake said.“It’s saying something ‘bout a grade?” Max said.  “Tha’s supposed to make it better or somethin.”It took Jeremy a second to realize he was talking about the Upgrade his Squip had mentioned.“It’s lying.” Jeremy blurted.  The whole room turned to him in shock.  “It’s lying.” Jeremy repeated. “Don’t listen to that.” he walked forward and sat on the bed next to Jake.  “Trust me. I just got my Squip recently. It’s lying.”Jake blinked at Jeremy, but said nothing, which was probably about as much as he could do.Eventually, Max sniffed again and nodded.  “‘Kay.” he said. A second later he started crying again.  “Jen, it’s mean.” he cried.Jenna walked forward and pulled Max to her.  “I know, Maxy.” she whispered.“Hey.” Jeremy said.  “It’s gonna be okay.”Max glanced at him in a way that Jeremy could have sworn was a deadpan look on a six-year-old.“I mean it.” Jeremy said.  “Maybe not right now, but someday it will be better.”Jeremy wasn’t even surprised when he meant it wholeheartedly.He supposed he had another child he was fighting for now.…Jake shut the car door to what could only be described as a sad silence.“Uh, thanks for coming.” he said as he started to back out.  “I just don’t really know how to help with little kids, and I knew you had a little sister.”“I thought Chloe’s little sister Alexandra was four.”“Yeah, but… I can’t really justify asking Chloe.  We’re not close enough.”Jeremy looked over at him.  “What is the deal with you three?”“What do you mean?”“How are you like this?  You guys have known each other as long as me, Rich, and Brooke have.  How are you not close simply due to sheer proximity to each other for eleven years?” Jake bit his lip.  “We’re just not.” he said.Jeremy gave him a look.“Fine.  Let’s go back to my house, then we’ll grab some beers and talk.”Half an hour later found them in Jake’s now empty kitchen (Chloe and Michael had left while they were gone).“Jeremy,” Jake said slowly to open the conversation.  “I don’t know if you know if you know this yet, but having a Squip is exhausting.” Jeremy gave him a look.  “Really? Wow, I’m shocked.”“No, seriously.  I don’t know if I can properly explain this to you.  Have you ever had to act? Like, for a play or something?  Can you imagine that all the time, without ever getting a chance to just relax and be yourself?”“I mean…” Jeremy trailed off.  “That does sound exhausting, but I don’t see what that has to do with you guys.”Jake sighed.  “Caring about something,” he said.  “That your Squip doesn’t need you to care about is incredibly hard.  I’m sure you’ve noticed how sometimes talking to you can drain Michael.”“Um…” Jeremy trailed off.  He hadn’t actually noticed that.“Trust me, it happens.  Michael’s probably just used to it enough that it doesn’t show.  But I am being sincere when I say that Michael and Chloe don’t have the energy to care about me.”Jeremy stared at him for a moment.  “That’s… really fucked up, Jake.”Jake shrugged.“So why do they care about each other, then?”“They have a good reason to.”“What reason?”Jake leaned back in his chair.  “From what I understand, there was a day back in middle school where they both got super drunk.”“Wow.  What a fantastic reason.”“Shut up and let me finish.  They ended up having a really long, personal conversation of some kind, and just got a lot closer and connected.  And I just happened to be busy with something else that day.”Jeremy shook his head in slight disbelief, before he realized something.  “Wait, you’re friends with Jenna. She’s 2nd tier. Isn’t that exhausting?”Jake nodded.“So what’s up with that?”Jake looked off at some point in the distance.  “She’s too important.” he said quietly.Maybe Jeremy was getting better at living with a Squip, because he easily picked up on what was being said under that statement.  “You’re important too, Jake.” Jeremy countered.Jake shook his head in a way that wasn’t really disagreeing with Jeremy, but wasn’t really agreeing either.  “Honestly, though, I don’t blame Michael or Chloe.” He smiled a little. “ And Jenna’s just a wonderful person.  She and I vent to each other a lot.” he said.Jeremy raised an eyebrow.  “You like her a bit, Jake?” he asked.“What?” Jake asked in surprise.  “Oh, no. Honestly. Just good friends.  Actually, one of the things I vent to her about is crushes.”“What, on lower tier girls?”Jake nodded, suddenly looking very uncomfortable.  “Yeah, and, you know. Guys.” he muttered.Jeremy’s eyebrows shot up.  “Oh.”“She’s a lower tier than me, so she can’t do anything to ruin my reputation, so…” Jake rubbed the back of his neck.  “I might kinda take advantage of that. She doesn’t seem to mind though.”“I actually get that.  I’m bi, by the way.”“Ugh.  Yeah, I guess that’s what I am.  I’ve never really liked that term, honestly.”“There used to be way more.”Jake looked at him in surprise.  “Really?”Jeremy nodded.  “My dad told me.  I don’t really know what they are, but he did say there’s more options than just gay, straight, or bi.”Jake seemed to consider that for a moment.  “Huh.”“So, by the way, if you ever need to ‘vent’ to me about crushes…”Jake rolled his eyes.  “Hardy har har.”Jeremy laughed a little.“Rich is really cute though.”Jeremy sputtered as Jake tried to hide his blush by taking another drink of beer.  “Oh, wow. You’re serious?” Jeremy asked, starting to grin.“You— don’t fuckin’ tell him I said that.”“Wow.  You know, if you ignore the fact that you bully him relentlessly that’s actually kind of adorable.”“Shut up or I’ll make you.”…
He’s starting to matter to you again.
Jeremy was late driving over to the barn after everything that had happened.
I really don’t need your input, thanks.

I’m not wrong.  He’s starting to matter to you again.

Shut up.

Would you like to know how I know?  Well, aside from knowing your every thought and emotion.
Shut up.
Squips can’t just look anything they want.
Jeremy gave the Squip a deadpan look.
Well, okay, yes they can.  But different people are more likely to listen to different forms a Squip could take.  For instance, Michael Mell’s Squip looks like a singer from the 90s named Bob Marley.
Jeremy rolled his eyes.   I’m sorry, but what does this have to do with your insistence that he’s starting to matter to me again?
Your options for forms that I could take have always been Keanu Reeves, Sean Connery, Jack Nickolson, or sexy anime female.  Now while we could dwell on what exactly that says about you—

Did I ask?

I think it would be far more fascinating to focus on a new option that has raised in the likelihood of you listening.
For a second the Squip phased out, and a second later a too-perfect replica of Michael Mell was sitting in Jeremy’s passenger seat.  What do you think?If someone saw Jeremy right then it was likely they would say he had an irrational vendetta against his passenger seat.   I think you’re worse than school lunches. Jeremy snapped.Squip-Michael raised an eyebrow.  Interesting.  I think I’ll keep this form.
Oh no you don't, you fucking—
The Squip vanished just to spite him.Jeremy groaned through his teeth.  “You’re a piece of shit!” he snapped at the empty passenger seat.He got to the barn a couple minutes later, where they spent most of the night doing a final run down on their code, making sure they all remembered and were caught up to speed.And as much as Jeremy hated to admit it, the Squip knew what it was doing, because the fact that it looked like Michael had Jeremy looking over his shoulder every couple seconds like Michael was actually there.“Jeremy, are you okay?” Brooke asked him at one point, while Rich was looking at the code for ‘Nothing new to report’ (I really want some Mac and Cheese right now).“Huh?” Jeremy asked.“You keep glancing at— I’m guessing it’s your Squip.  What is it saying that’s got you so freaked out?”Jeremy bit his lip.  “Nothing. It’s just— nothing.  It’s just being dumb tonight.”Brooke gave him a look.  “Jer—”“This was dumb.” Rich interrupted.  “Who eats Mac and Cheese anymore?”“Uh, excuse you?” Jeremy asked, and Brooke started to glare at him too.  “Don’t insult Mac and Cheese.”“I’m just saying—”“No.” Brooke and Jeremy said simultaneously.“Besides.” Jeremy said.  “It’s too late to change it now.”“I know that.” Rich said.  “I’m just saying.”“So, hey.” Jeremy said, and they both looked over at him.  “Chloe said something today about the three of us constantly building each other up, and I realized something.”Rich and Brooke both looked at him in confusion.Jeremy raised an eyebrow.  “Do you guys buy me presents every time Michael’s a jerk to me?”Rich opened his mouth and left it open, clearly struggling for something to say.“Uh…” Brooke trailed off.Jeremy shook his head.  “You guys.”“Look, when you were younger, you would get, like, almost irrationally upset and we wanted to cheer you up!” Rich exclaimed.Jeremy sighed.  “Okay, I’m not gonna bother getting mad.  But seriously—”“We gotta protect our Jer.” Brooke interrupted, giving Jeremy a look she knew would piss him off.Rich laughed as Jeremy groaned.But then, as they all got up to leave, Jeremy hesitated and glanced back at his Squip one more time.  “Uh, actually, guys?” he asked.They turned.  “Yeah?” Rich asked.Suddenly, Brooke’s phone went off.  She glanced down at it. “Shit!” she screamed.  “My parents realized I’m not home! Rich, come on, we gotta go!”“Shit!” Rich screamed, running out the door after Brooke.Leaving Jeremy standing alone in the barn with his Squip hovering over his shoulder.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The next day, Jeremy was waiting for Michael, Jake, and Chloe to show up, and Rich and Brooke were sitting in his room with him.  It had dawned on the three of them after the code excitement wore off that Jeremy was going to be gone for three days, and they wouldn’t see him until Friday evening.

“I mean.  We haven’t spent a day apart in…” Rich trailed off.  “Even after your Squip.”

Jeremy sighed.  “Look, I’m not happy about this either.  Does it look like I want to go?”

“Honestly?  Kinda.” Rich said.  “There are moments when it looks like you aren’t despising the very idea of this with every fiber of your being.”

Jeremy gave him a bewildered look.  “And that automatically translates to ‘I’m looking forward to this?’”

Brooke and Rich exchanged a look.

Jeremy tipped his head.  “Are you guys worried about me again?”

“Not… in the sense you’re thinking of.” Brooke said.  “But…”

“I thought we agreed I can handle myself.”

“I

just

said ‘not in the sense you’re thinking of.’”

“You guys.” Jeremy said, turning to face them head on.  “I’m gonna miss you a ton too. This is so weird for me.”

Brooke bit her lip.

“What are you worried about?” Jeremy asked.

“I can’t speak for Rich,” Brooke said quietly.  “But I’m worried about who exactly is going to come back in 2 days.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been— weird lately, Jeremy.” Brooke said.  She half-glared away. “Sorry if I wanna make sure you’re okay.”

“Slow down, there’s no need to get defensive.”

“She’s right, though.” Rich said.  “Is something wrong?”

Jeremy said nothing, and for a moment the three of them stared at each other.

“Jeremy!” came Cynthia’s voice from downstairs.  “These people say they know you!”

“They can’t see you,” Jeremy walked over and grabbed his suitcase, starting to walk backwards out his door.  “You have to leave after we do.”

“Jeremy,” Brooke said.  “Taking a Squip was your idea.”

“I know.” Jeremy said.

“You’d tell us if you were getting in too deep, right?”

Jeremy’s Squip appeared over Brooke’s head, still the image of Michael Mell, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Of course I would,” Jeremy said, and turned before they could see his face.

“Jeremy!” Brooke called, as Jeremy walked towards the steps without looking back.

Cynthia was in the entryway jabbering on excitedly about Jeremy.  “And he said when I turn 12, on my birthday he’s gonna let me try Apocalypse if the Darned for the first time!  I can’t wait to see what it’s like, I—”

“Okay, Cynthia,” Jeremy said, gently taking her arm and pulling her backwards away from where she was smothering Chloe, who admittedly didn’t seem to mind.  “You’re still a long way off from being 12.”

“Um— ‘Apocalypse of the

Darned?’”

Michael asked.

“She’s five.”

Jeremy hissed.

“I’m five!” Cynthia said happily, beaming up at him.  Then she paused. “Wait, are these the people you’re leaving with?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna see you on Friday, Cynthia.”

Cynthia deflated.  “Really?”

“Aw, it won’t be so bad.  And I’ll bring you a present.”

Cynthia lit up now.  “Really?!”

Jeremy chuckled.  “Yeah.”

“Okay, bye see you Friday!” Cynthia started pushing him out the door.

Jeremy laughed.  “Hey, you meanie!”

Cynthia giggled, and Jeremy leaned down and gave her a hug.  “I love you.” he said.

“I love you too!” Cynthia called.

Jeremy’s parents walked to the doorway a second later to say goodbye.  They’d pulled the massive school project that required Jeremy be at one of their houses for a few days excuse.  They did not know he was going to New York City. (They had also both exchanged a look when Jeremy mentioned Michael, which served as a great reminder of why he hadn’t told Rich and Brooke they used to be friends.)

Cynthia, along with Jeremy’s dad, waved the whole time until Jeremy shut the front door and started following Chloe down to her car.

“You promised Cynthia she could try Apocalypse of the Damned when she was 12?” Michael asked.

“Yeah,” Jeremy replied as Chloe opened the truck.  Chloe and Jake walked over to the car and climbed inside as he stuffed his suitcase into the trunk.

“Why would you make a promise you can’t keep?”

Jeremy stilled.  “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, turning around and crossing his arms.

“Middle school girls are dresses and boys and makeup.” Michael said.  “If she has any level of Squip it won’t let her play video games. So why would you make a promise you can’t keep?”

Jeremy didn’t move his gaze.  He had every intention of keeping his promise, but he couldn’t exactly tell Michael that.  “What else can I do?” he asked instead.

Michael said nothing, and Jeremy’s Squip flickered back into existence beside him.  Jeremy shut the trunk and walked around to climb into the car.

It took them less than fifteen minutes to get to the train station, and they all grabbed their suitcases and walked up to the guy at the window.

As they walked up, they found themselves behind a group of four people who clearly had low-level Squips.  Probably a family, as there were two little kids who Squips likely hadn’t had the chance to turn on yet.

Jeremy watched as they waited anxiously as the man typed on his computer.  A second later he smiled at them. “Yep, your tickets are still available. Enjoy your trip.”

The family instantly lit up and took their tickets back before walking over to the train that had just pulled up.  A little girl turned and waved back at the man. “Thank you!” she called.

Jeremy looked over at Michael, who was looking at the family.  A second later he looked back at Jeremy. “Okay, I get it now.”

Jeremy smiled a little.

They handed the guy their tickets, and he handed them back with barely a second glance.

They walked over to the train and climbed on, found their seats, and stored their suitcases in the compartments above their heads.

A couple minutes later the train pulled out (the Squips managed to use excellent timing to get them there so they got good seats but also didn’t have to wait too long).  And thus began an hour and a half train ride to New York with Michael, Jake, and Chloe.

Yay…

Okay, he was being overdramatic.  It wasn’t horrible. And they talked on the way there about various things.  Accompanied, of course, by comments from Jeremy’s Squip hovering over his shoulder.

But then, when they were about half an hour away from New York City, Jeremy’s Squip was starting to talk less. He looked back at it in confusion a couple times, but it just gave him a look that Jeremy matched up with Michael’s ‘What the fuck do you want?’ face from the days Michael still bullied him.

About fifteen minutes away Chloe casually asked if they thought the hotel would bring them a ping pong table if they asked, because she seriously loved it and if not, could they find a ping pong table somewhere.  Jeremy gave her a look, which was responded to by Jake chuckling a little and giving Jeremy a knowing look.

“Does anyone want to explain what exactly is happening here?” Jeremy asked.

Chloe waved him off.  “Not yet.”

“What?”

He got no response.

They arrived at Grand Central Station on schedule and walked off the train with their suitcases to the bustle of dozens of people all moving in different directions.

“Okay, geez, this is really overwhelming.” Jeremy said.  “I’d like to leave please.”

“Aw, you can’t handle the Big Apple, Jeremy, I get it.” Chloe said.

“Oh please, you were the one who freaked out due to all the noise the first time we came here.” Michael said, grinning at Chloe.  Jeremy had to take a minute to process that. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Michael actually grin before.

“The Holiday Inn we’re staying at is our next stop, Jeremy.” Jake reassured him, as the four of them moved towards the exit.  “It’s not far from here.”

Jeremy blinked.  “Wait, we came to New York City and we’re staying in a Holiday Inn?”

“The hotel’s not the important part.” Chloe said.

“Are we not gonna be there much?”

“Oh, no, we’re spending pretty much the entire time in the hotel.”

“Wait, what?”

“Okay.” Jake pulled him back a couple feet as Michael and Chloe went to hail a cab.  “The reason we come to New York City isn’t because of New York City itself. It’s because Squips are much more lax in a big city.”

Jeremy blinked at Jake.  “Seriously?”

“Yeah.  Your Squip was more quiet on the trip over, wasn’t it?”

Jeremy nodded.  “So?”

“This is a city of 8 and a half million people, Jeremy.  Do you imagine you’re ever going to see any of them ever again?  Or at the very least, you won’t know them well enough for it to matter.  So why would Squips care what you look like to them? That’s why we come, so Michael can just get a few days to do whatever the hell he wants and not worry about his Squip.”

“Seriously?” Jeremy asked again.

Jake nodded.

“But you guys don’t do that for you and Chloe’s birthdays.”

“Sure we do.  Or well, we don’t go to New York City, but we managed to work it out so our Squips are less strict near our birthdays.  Michael just wants to also spend his birthday with Chloe, and since we have an image to uphold, I get dragged along for the ride.  Chloe and I just prefer to be alone on our birthdays. Easier on us, and our Squips.”

“And the Squips are okay with Michael wanting to come here?”

“Well, I mean, not really.  But mine says that Michael’s Squip has decided it’s easier on the both of them for the rest of the year if he has a couple days to, uh, vent, I guess?”

Jeremy gave him a confused look, something about that not sitting right with him.  “Huh? How does your Squip know what Michael’s Squip thinks?”

“Guys!” Chloe called.  She and Michael were waiting with a cab by the curb.  “Come on!”

Both Jeremy and Jake walked over and climbed in, and then the cab drove towards their hotel.

…

“So…” Jeremy said.  “Are Jake’s parents not used to there being four people on this trip, or…”

The hotel room they had had two double beds and a pull-out couch, which Jake usually took.

“Yeah, probably.” Jake said.  “Sorry man, I don’t even know if they actually knew you were coming.”

“Fantastic.  Well, I am not sleeping on the floor.  And that couch is too small to share, so who exactly am I bunking with?”

“In your dreams.” Chloe said, flopping down on the bed by the window and spreading out to take up as much room as possible, as if claiming the territory.

Jeremy and Michael looked at each other, and neither of them said anything for about ten seconds.  Jeremy could actually hear Jake and Chloe snickering in the background.

“If you kick me in your sleep—”

“I don’t kick.”

“Sleepwalk?”

“No.”

“Snore?”

“Probably.”

“Fuck that.”

Jeremy marched his suitcase over to the other bed and put his suitcase on the side closer to the bathroom.

Michael put his suitcase on the other side of the bed and then turned back to Chloe.

“Are we going to Goodwill?” Chloe asked.

Michael grinned again, and honestly, that was going to take some getting used to.

“We come to New York City to stay in a Holiday Inn and go clothing shopping in a Goodwill.  I swear, you three are the lamest people in the entire universe.” Jeremy said. “Alright, let’s go.”

The Goodwill wasn’t far from the hotel, and about half an hour later Jeremy was waiting by the entrance with Jake while Michael and Chloe were looking at clothes and immediately discarding all the ones that seemed vaguely popular.

“I never thought I’d see the day.” Jeremy said sincerely.

“Yeah?” Jake asked.  “I’m pretty used to this by now.”

“So if we’re spending most of the time in the hotel, what are we even doing?”

“We’re probably going to some kind of video game store next.”

Jeremy stilled.  “What?”

“Video games.  They’re something Michael loves when he gets the chance to play them.”

Jeremy leaned back against the wall.  “Huh.”

“What, surprised?”

Jeremy thought back to days of playing Mario Kart in his basement.  “No, actually, that makes a lot of sense.” He chuckled a little. “I’ll bet he’s looking forward to college.”

“Oh, he’s gonna love every second of it.” It was Jake’s turn to lean back against the wall.  “I think he wants to move here one day.”

Jeremy considered for about the sixth time bringing up that they were really experiencing New York City as tourists, that if they actually lived here it would probably be very different.

But one look at Michael and Chloe and he knew he couldn’t do it.

A couple minutes later both of them walked over with two pairs of baggy jeans and about six shirts.

“I like these.” Michael said.  “I’m gonna change into some, are you  guys ready to go?”

“Whenever you are.” Jake responded.

“Cool.”  Michael grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt and walked off towards a changing room while Chole put the other clothes in a bag from the checkout, smiling after him.

“You really like doing this, huh?” Jeremy asked.

“Of course I do.” Chloe said.  “This was my idea in the first place.  Look how happy it makes him.”

Jeremy smiled and shook his head a little.  “That’s actually really cool, Chloe.”

Chloe gave him a look.  “Like, ice cream cool or like Squip cool?”

Jeremy laughed.  “Like, decent-person cool.”

“Oh.” Chloe blinked at him.  “Thanks, Jeremy.”

Michael came out a second later wearing the pair of jeans and a red hoodie.  He walked over and grinned at them. “What do you guys think?”

Jeremy tapped his chin and pretended to be deep in thought.  “I think you need a pair of glasses to complete the nerd aesthetic.”

Michael rolled his eyes. “I don’t own a pair of glasses.”

“Well, I guess that sucks for you.”

Michael laughed.  “Cummon, I wanna go buy video games.”

Jeremy followed the others out the door, thinking about how long it had been since he’d seen Michael like this, completely comfortable with an easy smile and ruffled, messy hair that he kinda wouldn’t mind running his hands through, and—

Shit.

…

Look, Jeremy wasn’t

blind,

okay?  Obviously Michael Mell was attractive.  He had chocolate colored eyes that melted when he smiled and the aforementioned hair that looked incredibly soft and due to Squipped people actually exercising his arms had actual muscles and

wow

they could be distracting and—

Um.

Anyway.

He had never really allowed himself to focus on it before, due to A, the fact that he was usually on the wrong side of his fist, and B, he wasn’t going to let himself turn into Brooke drooling over Chloe (sorry Brookie, it’s true).  Not to mention all the bad blood between them that they had barely begun to work through and the fact that Jeremy had taken a Squip for a much more important reason than an opportunity to date Michael Mell.

So, yeah, falling for Michael?  That wasn’t happening. Thank you, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

…But seriously.

Shit.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Jeremy had found several games that he called “binge-worthy” for the weekend.  These included Mario Kart, Legend of Zelda, and Apocalypse of the Damned. He said all the games were better with virtual reality gear, but Michael loved them regardless.

Jake liked Mario Kart, which for some reason that didn’t surprise any of them, and Chloe liked Legend of Zelda, and Jeremy said he liked Apocalypse of the Damned only because it was his, Rich, and Brooke’s go-to game most of the time, and they were trying hard to actually beat it.

They spent the afternoon playing these games and then got dinner at a McDonalds (with Jeremy complaining about how they were the lamest people ever the whole time), and then went back to the hotel afterwards.

Michael could understand where Jeremy was coming from.  If they were coming to New York City it would seem crazy to not at least see a few famous tourist stops, but doing all the fancy stuff that they were ‘supposed’ to do was exactly what he came to this place to avoid.

Michael could also understand how Jeremy spent the whole day looking at him like he’d seen a ghost, and he was also that particular ghost.

It had been a really long time since he’d acted like this around him.

It had also been a really long time since he’d gotten to play video games with Jeremy, though the experience was much less bittersweet than Michael was expecting.  It just reminded him that when college rolled around, they could do stuff like this all the time.

The four of them finally turned in at half past one in the morning, with Michael and Jeremy intentionally laying down as far apart from each other as possible, Chloe rolling her eyes and calling them ridiculous, and Jeremy yelling at her to fuck off.

Michael had good dreams, as was always the case in New York City.  He never usually remembered them, but the last one, about Jeremy, stuck in his head due to how he woke up—

With Jeremy’s arms wrapped around his waist and his face buried in his neck.

Holy

shit,

this was

so

not ideal.

Thankfully, neither Chloe nor Jake were awake yet, which spared them both that mortification.

“Jeremy.” Michael tried to wiggle away only for Jeremy to actually

whine in protest and pull him closer.

Okay.

“Jeremy, you might want to let go of me now.” Michael hissed, glancing back over towards Chloe.

“Mmm-mmm, you’re snuggly.” Jeremy murmured.

Thank you universe, Michael Mell’s soul has left his body.

“Jeremy, for fucks sake,

wake up,”

Michael hissed, for once wishing his Squip was there, because he was sure his face was bright red.

Jeremy grumbled a little bit but managed to open his eyes—

And then Michael witnessed the truly rare sight of a wild Jeremy Heere going bright red in embarrassment and shoving Michael backwards, straight off the bed, landing hard on the floor.

“OW, FUCK!” Michael screeched.  He was pretty sure his butt was going to have a giant bruise.

Chloe and Jake both immediately screamed and bolted upright in their beds.

Chloe glared over.

“What the fuck you guys?”

she hissed.

“You’re gonna wake up the whole hotel!”

“Oww…” Michael groaned.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Jeremy stammered, and he reached down and pulled Michael back up onto the bed— or tried to.  He wasn’t that strong.

He also still hadn’t stopped blushing, which was… weird.

Finally, unfortunately, Chloe put together what was going on.  “Oh. My. God.” she started grinning. “Were you two

cuddling?”

“NO!”

Jeremy and Michael both screamed simultaneously.

“That is

fantastic!”

“I HATE YOU!” Jeremy screeched.

“Aww, maybe Jerry wanted some snuggle time with boyfriend, what’s wrong with—”

“NO, WE ARE NOT DOING THIS!” Jeremy grabbed Michael by the arm and yanked him out of the hotel room.

Michael couldn’t even get a word out before the door shut behind them.

He gaped at Jeremy.  “Why in the world would you do that?”

“Because they weren’t going to stop anytime soon.” Jeremy huffed.

“Dude, both of the keys are back in the room!”

“So what?  We slept in clothes, we’re fine.  We can go swimming or something.”

“I didn’t bring a swimsuit.”

“Well, we’ll skinny dip and then get kicked out the hotel.”

It took Jeremy exactly ten seconds to realize how that sounded in context.  (No, he did not count.)

“Fuck, no, wait—” Jeremy buried his head in his hands and groaned into them.  “Let’s go get breakfast, Jesus Christ.” he grumbled.

Neither of them really wanted to try and find a breakfast place nearby, so they went downstairs to where the complimentary breakfast was.

It was almost 10 in the morning, and they weren’t sure what time breakfast ended, so they quickly made waffles in the waffle maker, got some coffee and fruit, and found a table far enough away from everyone else where they wouldn’t be disturbed.

“So.” Michael coughed awkwardly.  “That happened.”

Miraculously, Jeremy started blushing again, just a little.  “At least I didn’t share with Chloe.” he muttered.

“Oh, fuck yeah, that would be…” Michael shuddered at the mental picture.  “So much worse.”

Michael took a bite of the waffle, and a second later was digging in like a starving man.  He hadn’t realized how hungry he was, or how long it had been since he’d had a waffle.

“Dude, save some room for breathing.” Jeremy said.

“Sorry.” Michael said around the waffle.  “I don’t get to eat sugar really. Exercising and healthy food are like, the staples of keeping up my body the way my Squip wants me to.”  He shoved another half a waffle in his mouth.

“No sugar?!” Jeremy looked horrified.  “Nothing is worth that.”

Michael chuckled awkwardly.  “Well, uh. I would agree with you.”

Jeremy’s face in the next second was the definition of ‘Oh fuck, right.’

Neither of them said anything for about half a minute.

Then Jeremy stood suddenly.  “I have an idea.”

…

“Do you understand the meltdown my Squip would be having if it knew I was here.” Michael said in a deadpan tone.

“Fuck, would it cry?  I wanna see your Squip cry.”

Michael laughed at the mental picture.

“Now.” Jeremy straightened the cardigan he was wearing like he was straightening a tie.  “Come with me, and I will introduce you to a magical substance.”

“Slushies from a crappy gas station?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sure I didn’t hear you properly, because it sounds like you just insulted 7/11?”

“Oh, no, I would never.” Michael said sarcastically.

He followed Jeremy to the back of the store, where a slushy machine that looked like it should have been cleaned a bit more recently sat.

“Okay, I’m getting blue raspberry, because it’s just like, objectively the best flavor.” Jeremy said, grabbing the largest cup option there.

“Okay, I’ll get one of those then—” Michael started reaching for a cup.

Jeremy slapped his hand away.  “Um, excuse me bitch. Blue raspberry is my flavor, get your own.”

“Wha— you just said it was objectively the best flavor!”

“Suffer.”

Michael sighed.  “For the record, I’m not even a hundred percent on board with this and now you’re trying to dictate my flavor choice—”

“Here, have cherry.  You seem like a cherry person.  Plus it matches that hoodie.”

“Okay, I guess I’m doing this now.”

“I bet you 10 bucks you like the slushie.”

“Whatever.”

“Answer yes or no, don’t try and pull that ‘I didn’t really say yes’ shit.”

Michael looked him dead in the eyes.  “You’re on.”

Jeremy grinned maliciously at him.  “Good. You have now sealed your fate.”

They walked up to the counter to pay, and Jeremy handed the money for the slushies over like they had already decided that, with no room for discussion.

They both walked back over to the slushie machine to avoid all the foot traffic outside.

“See, in New Jersey, we could sit outside on the curb and look at our surroundings.  But we also couldn’t go in the first place, so…” Jeremy said, and took a drink from his slushie.  Then he turned and looked at Michael expectantly.

Michael turned and looked down at the slushie as if staring into his own soul.

Then he took a drink.

Oh, wow.

Fuck

Squips and their no sugar rules.

Jeremy leaned closer.  “Well?”

Michael looked over at him.  “I owe you ten bucks.”

“Yes!” Jeremy pumped his fist.

The next ten minutes were spent drinking slushies while casually exchanging banter.  When Michael eventually finished his slushie (his hands were very cold now) they both got up and threw them away in a trashcan, and then went back to the slushie machine.

They talked for about two more minutes and then Jeremy interrupted with a sigh.

“What?” Michael asked.  “Is something wrong?”

“No, it’s just—” Jeremy looked away and mumbled something.

Michael raised an eyebrow.  “You’re acting weirdly quiet.”

Jeremy smiled a little.  “I really missed this, is all.” he said quietly.

“Really missed— oh.” Michael bit his lip.  “Really?”

Jeremy gave him a look.  “Yes. Come on dude, you were like, my favorite person.  Of course I was upset.”

Michael looked away.  “Sorry.” he muttered.

“Hey, stop it.  I didn’t bring it up so you would feel guilty.  Besides, I had some really great friends who would cheer me up whenever you upset me.”

Michael glanced back over.  “Rich and Brooke?”

Jeremy nodded.  “They would go out of the way to make sure I was alright, and also that I knew it was you and not me.  And I really— needed that back then.” Jeremy was suddenly looking a little guilty. “I really take them for granted sometimes.  Especially when it’s probably their fault I can be so confident now.”

Michael gave him a curious look.  “So they know we used to be friends?”

“What?  Are you kidding?  No! I don’t want them to— look at me.”

Michael nodded.  “Yeah, okay.” He knew exactly what Jeremy meant.  There was a reason he hadn’t told Chloe either.

Jeremy crossed his arms and drummed his fingers on them.  “Do you think if I never took a Squip no one would ever know?”

“I mean, our parents.  And us. But— yeah.”

Jeremy was silent for another moment.  “Hey Micah?”

Michael stared at him a second.  He hadn’t called him that since…

“Yeah?”

“I like being friends again.”

Michael looked away to hide his smile.  “Me too.” he said, while his heart was mostly singing

‘He said we’re friends again he said we’re friends again he said we’re friends again!’

Oh and also: eat it, Squip.

Michael felt a bit like a five year old, with getting so excited about being someone’s friend, but you know what?  Five years old was the best year of his life anyway.

Jeremy was looking at him again.

“What?”

“I think the hoodie and slushie look suits you.”

Michael grinned at him.  “Yeah?”

“But dude, you seriously need some glasses.”

Michael reached over to a rack nearby with some sunglasses on it and put a pair on.  “Better?”

“Worse.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

They eventually went back to the hotel room, and as Jeremy suspected, leaving for the morning was a good idea, because after some minimal teasing Chloe and Jake shut up about the way they all woke up.Apparently it was time to give Michael presents, because though his birthday was Friday, they would be going home in the afternoon, and even though Chloe tried every year to get him a present the Squip would let him keep, it hadn't ever worked.  So they gave Michael his presents a few days early so he at least had the chance to appreciate them.Jake, due to their weird relationship, had just gotten Michael a card with some cash inside.  And Chloe had gotten him a fluffy blanket with Pac-Man on it, which Michael immediately wrapped around himself like an elegant cloak.Chloe turned to Jeremy.  “Well, Jerry?”“Happy birthday.” Jeremy said.  “Gimme all your stuff.”All three of them blinked at him, so Jeremy explained.  “On Friday, your Squips probably gonna make you throw the blanket away and use the money for something stupid.  But I didn’t give my Squip control over me, so it can’t force me to do anything. So Friday morning, give them to me and I’ll hang on to them.  That way, I can give them back—” after I bring the Squips down— “next year.”“Wow.  That’s a genius idea, Jeremy.” Chloe said.Jeremy gasped dramatically.  “You guys! Chloe just called me smart!  The zombie apocalypse must be just around the corner!”“Dude, we’re living the zombie apocalypse.” Jake deadpanned.“Jake, my man, you just spit a truth bomb.” Jeremy said with a nod.“I… spit it?”“Shh, I knew it was wrong as I said it.”The rest of the day and the day after passed similarly to Tuesday, with video games and fast food (come on, not even, like, the Empire State Building?), but it was Michael’s birthday, after all, so it’s not like Jeremy was going to insist they do something he wanted.  No matter what level Squip you had, that was just rude.Thursday, however, was jolted into slight panic-guilt mode when Jeremy realized at about 11:30 that he had completely forgotten to call Rich and Brooke the entire time.  He quietly excused himself to go to the bathroom and pulled his phone out.It went to voicemail, because of course it did.  This was still a school night for them, they were probably asleep by now, or at least trying to get there.Jeremy sent a quick text telling them he was sorry and using their code for he did have something new to tell them but there was no way to share it over text (I can’t wait to get back there,’ which thankfully made perfect sense in his text).After that he went back to play more video games, keeping half an eye on his phone just in case.They finally went to bed at around 2 in the morning due to Jeremy mentioning they should probably wake up with time to eat breakfast at the hotel.…“Have you ever considered just, like, staying?” Jake asked as they all stared at the train in front of them.“Many many times.” Michael replied.  “But I’m sure eventually my Squip would find a way to drag me back.”Jeremy glanced at his phone.  “We have five minutes.” he said.  “We should probably get on the train.”None of them moved.“I hate this, you know?” Chloe said.Everyone else nodded.The train whistle blew, and they all quickly got onto the train and went to sit down.The train was pulling out sooner than it should have, and only half an hour passed before Jeremy’s Squip appeared over his shoulder and started talking again.
If you had arrived at the train station half an hour earlier—

I am this close to murdering you.

No you are not.

Yeah, well shut up anyway, alright?
Jeremy kept his gaze off of Michael for most of the train ride, mostly because watching his face was like watching a light go out in slow motion.Eventually, they made it back to Red Bank.  They all left the station and climbed into the waiting car without a word.  Jeremy was dropped off the same way. He couldn’t help but wonder as he got his stuff if it was like this every year, and if so, why they continued to do it.  Then again, he supposed that depended on whether or not how happy New York City made Michael was lessened or invalidated by how sad the return to New Jersey made him.Okay, wow.  That is enough existentialism for today, thank you.“Cynthia!” Jeremy called as he opened the door.  “I have a present for you!”“YAY!” Cynthia screamed from the other room.  “MOMMY, DADDY, JER’MY’S BACK!”Jeremy scooped Cynthia up and twirled her around.  “Were you lonely without me, Cynthia?”“Nope!” Cynthia cried, throwing her arms out.Jeremy gasped in a clearly overly-exaggerated way.  “Why you little—” He started to fly her over to the couch to tickle her, but stopped when a vase fell off the nightside table in the direction he was heading towards.“Shoot!” Jeremy cried.  “Hang on, I need to go get a broom.”He set Cynthia down, missing the weird look she gave him as he left.  He returned as his mother appeared from the hallway, and Cynthia was sitting on the middle of the couch, holding up her present (a Simba plushie) like she was displaying it to someone.  Jeremy bent down to start sweeping up the vase when a rush of unexpected air passed his face and Jeremy looked up in surprise.Cynthia was looking at him strangely, and continued to do so as Jeremy looked back at his mother, who was also looking at him in confusion.“What?” Jeremy asked.The front door suddenly opened, and his father walked in.  He looked out over the living room, and saw everyone’s faces.  “What?” he asked, and then added, “Welcome back, Jeremy.”A second later he moved out of the way of nothing, and a breeze must have blown the front door shut.  Jeremy jumped.He glanced back at his mother, who was now looking at him like he’d grown a second head.“What?” he asked.His mother shrugged.  “Fine. If you want to be that way.  Don’t know what they did to piss you off.”Jeremy watched her leave before rolling his eyes and writing it off as his mother being her normal strange self.“So, do you like your present Cynthia?” he asked, turning back to her.Cynthia lit up.  “Yeah! Thank you, Jer’my!” she ran over and gave him a squeezing hug before running off again, likely to play with her toys.Then Jeremy turned to his father, who, surprise, was looking at him strangely.Jeremy raised his hands slowly.  “Seriously, what?” “Are… are you, Rich, and Brooke doing okay?”Jeremy blinked.  Well that question was completely out of left field, what in the world?  “Uh, yeah.” he said, giving a little smile. “Why wouldn’t we be?”Now his father’s gaze turned more concerned.  “You know you can talk to me, right?”“Um, yes.  Yes I do. Okay, this has been a thoroughly bizarre conversation.  I have other homework to catch up on?” Jeremy said, before walking up to his room.He picked up his phone first, because he still actually needed to call Rich and Brooke, thanks to his father for reminding him.Straight to voicemail.
They’re mad at you.

I’m not listening to— wait, what?

They are mad at you.

Why would they be mad at me?

Well, you were fairly rude to them before you left, followed by forgetting to call them for the entirety of your time in New York City.

I, uh—
Shoot.  The Squip actually had a point for once.  Okay, he definitely needed to apologize.
I would advise against that.
Jeremy bit his lip.  Why? You’re asking me?  The Squip sounded shocked.Jeremy glared at it.  Yeah, well— this is Rich and Brooke.  I can’t fuck this up. But I swear to God, you try any tricks—
Giving them space would be best.  They are still fairly… pissed off, to put it mildly.

That much?
The Squip nodded.  Besides, if anyone can understand needing space it’s you.Jeremy took a minute to absorb the form his Squip was still holding.  Yeah. he admitted.  Needing space is fine. He set his phone to the side and started on his homework.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Jeremy was clearly upset about something on Monday morning.  Well, Michael was upset about something too, but he was always upset for a while after getting back from New York City, and Jeremy didn’t look like that was the issue.

He would have asked him what was wrong if his Squip was letting him get anywhere near the idea.

So instead, they talked about the stupid party Jake was planning to throw that night.

It wasn’t until lunchtime that Michael realized exactly what was wrong.  Jeremy was looking back at the table in the corner where Rich and Brooke were sitting, and Michael thought for a second maybe he just missed his friends, when Jeremy turned to him and asked: “Have you seen Rich and Brooke all day?”

Michael looked back at the table and put it all together in about two seconds.

Of course

Jeremy didn’t know about optic nerve blocking, and

of course

his Squip took advantage of the fact that he would be in New York City for three days to turn it on.

But why would it need to?  It’s not like Jeremy was still spending time with his friends, he couldn’t.

…Right?

Michael opened his mouth to answer Jeremy’s question.  “They’re probably avoiding you.”

Michael commenced his tried-and-true practice of attempting to glare his Squip into submission.  It never worked.

Jeremy whirled to him in what looked like genuine panic.  “What? No. My Squip just said they needed space.”

He was listening to his Squip now?  Since when did that happen?

“You— did you really think they were going to stay forever anymore?  Jeremy, I hate to break it to you,” Michael

hated

how soft his voice sounded, “but you taking a Squip means you’re essentially becoming someone they hate.”

The words looked like they were actually having an effect, but Michael couldn’t for the life of him imagine why.  Didn’t Jeremy know how to identify Squip BS by this point?

Or was something else going on here?

Even if Michael had needed to pay attention for the rest of the school day he wouldn’t have been able to.  Most of his focus was drawn in on Jeremy, who was clearly growing more and more anxious as the day went on, likely because he still hadn’t seen Rich and Brooke.

After the end of the last period, Michael found Jeremy standing by his locker, chewing on his bottom lip and doing a terrible job of hiding it from anyone who might be walking by.

“Hey,” Michael said, and Jeremy glanced over.  “So—”

“JEREMY!”

The whole hallway whirled around to see Brooke being chased by Dustin Kropp, and she was clearly actually scared, due to the fact that she was running straight for Jeremy; probably to use him as a shield of some sort.

Jeremy didn’t even react.

Michael’s Squip did.

If you get Jeremy out of here before Brooke has a chance to run into him you can skip Jake’s party and spend the night with him at your house alone.

Time seemed to slow down as Michael tried to process what the Squip had said.

What?

I will not repeat myself, Michael.  Make a decision.

Michael looked one more time at Jeremy’s expectant face, probably waiting for him to finish his sentence.  He could see the anxiousness for his friends hidden underneath, and hear Brooke still running.

Jeremy looked anxious and miserable.

But sweet Lord, the last thing in the world Michael wanted right now was to go to that

fucking

party.  And his Squip new exactly how to push his buttons.

Dustin managed to trip Brooke.  She screamed and fell to the ground.

Let me get Dustin away from her and deal.

Very well.  Do

not

speak to Lohst.

“Give me a sec.” Michael said, and Jeremy gave him a confused look before shrugging and turning back to his locker.  Michael walked briskly over and wrapped an arm around Dustin’s shoulders. “Dustin, my buddy!” he called, leaning in.  “Keep your hands off her today or you’ll regret it.” he growled in Dustin’s ear.

Dustin gave him a bewildered look but backed off instantly.  Michael shot an equally threatening glare to the rest of the hallway and they all scattered.

Being the head of the entire school didn’t actually suck sometimes.

Jeremy looked around at everyone in confusion.  “What in the world is happening?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” Michael’s Squip said for him, and he looked back at Brooke with a look on his face that Michael was sure would scar a lesser man.  “I guess they were bothered by

nothing.”

Brooke jerked back in shock, and looked at Jeremy, who still didn’t even know she was there.  Michael could tell she was hurt.

He wanted to punch someone.

Brooke got up and ran away.

“So hey,” Michael said, trying to ignore the lump in his throat and the massive wave of guilt hitting him, “I made a deal with my Squip.”

Jeremy snorted.  “That’s dangerous, Michael.”

Michael laughed a little awkwardly.  “Yeah, uh. Anyway. If you don’t want to go to Jake’s party tonight we can both spend the night at my house.”

Jeremy lit up.  “Really? How’d you swing that?”

Michael was hit by another massive wave of guilt.  “Unimportant.” his Squip made him say, because he couldn’t make himself say anything.  It said it with the kind of cocky smirk that would stop Jeremy from asking.

Which it did.  “Yeah, okay.” Jeremy said.  “I’ll see you at 7?”

“See ya.”

Jeremy waved as he walked towards his car (brand new, and a Squip-approved trade-in according to him), and Michael headed towards his own.

Thank you, Michael.  I appreciated that.

That was when Michael knew for sure he had absolutely made the wrong choice.

…

But it was hard to think that when Jeremy showed up at his house later with a backpack and a grin.

“Here’s to no lame parties!” he cheered as he walked in.

Michael couldn’t help but grin back.

A second later his mother walked out of the kitchen, and her jaw dropped.  “Jeremy Heere?” she asked in shock.

Jeremy lit up when he saw her.  “Analyn!” He immediately ran over and gave her a huge hug, and Michael had to look away to stop himself from actually tearing up.

That’s pathetic.

I thought we agreed you’d shut off for the night.

His Squip said nothing, but a second later when he looked back it was still there.

If you tell him about optic nerve blocking,
it said. 
You’ll wish you were never born.

Why is it so important that Jeremy doesn’t learn about optic nerve blocking?!

A warning tingle shot up his spine, and Michael’s breath caught at the look on his Squips face.

Okay.

he practically whimpered in his head.

Okay.

The Squip vanished.

Thank God.

“Michael!”

Michael was jolted back to reality and looked up to see Analyn scolding him, and he nearly flinched again, even if he knew she was kidding.  “You didn’t tell me you and Jeremy were friends again!”

Michael laughed, trying not to sound nervous.  “Sorry, naynay, there was never a good time.”

Mostly because his Squip never let him tell her.

Analyn chuckled and walked over to hug him.  “I’m very happy for you two.” she said.

“Nanay!”

Michael groaned as Jeremy laughed in the background.

“Okay, okay!” Analyn said, backing off.  “Jeremy, have you already had dinner?”

Jeremy nodded.

“Then I’ll get out of your hair.  See you boys tomorrow!”

“Great to see you again!” Jeremy called as she left, and it looked like he meant it.

When Jeremy turned back to him, he frowned in concern.  “Are you okay?”

“I’m—” having trouble breathing.  “Fine.” Jesus, he’d forgotten how terrifying it was to have his Squip directly threaten him.

Jeremy looked like he didn’t believe him, but thankfully, he let it go.  “So, do you have any nerdy stuff you pull out specifically for sleepovers?” he asked as they headed down the steps to Michael’s basement.

“No, but I got my Squip to turn off for the night, so we can really do whatever we want.”

“Won’t it, like, not like that tomorrow?”

Michael shrugged.  “I’m used to it.”

Jeremy looked at him in concern.

“What?”

“I don’t want it to

hurt

you.”

“Jer, seriously, it happens all the time.  You can’t let it get in the way of moments like this.”

“Moments like this?”

“Free moments.  Do you know how often my Squip turns off for a whole night?”

“No?”

“Not often.  Let’s not waste it.”

Jeremy still looked concerned.  “You sure?”

“Yes.”

Jeremy eventually nodded.  “Okay. I brought AotD. I’ve never owned a copy before, it’s actually great.”

Michael gave him a slightly concerned look.  “I thought that was you, Rich, and Brooke’s game.”

“Yeah, but, I mean, I can’t really play with them right now…” Jeremy looked down and bit his lip.

“You really care about them, don’t you?” Michael asked quietly.

“A lot.” Jeremy whispered.  He looked up at Michael again.  “Sorry, I’m not really acting like myself.  I just—” he bit his lip. “I don’t want to lose them.  We’ve never fought before.”

Michael bit his lip too.  “Um, actually, Jeremy—” he looked over his shoulder.  The Squip still wasn’t there. “There’s something I should tell you.”

Jeremy looked at him.  “Yeah?”

“I—”

The Squip was back in the next second blocking his vocal cords, and Michael couldn’t speak.

He looked back at it, and then back at Jeremy.

“Oh.” Jeremy said.  “It’s not letting you tell me, right?”

The Squip still didn’t release his voice.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Michael shook his head.

“Seriously, Michael.  It’s okay.”

Except it’s not.

Michael wanted to say.  But Jeremy looked at him again, smiling gently, and Michael stopped, and the Squip released his voice.

Michael sighed and collapsed back on his bed.

Jeremy walked over and sat down next to him.  “Are you okay?”

“I hate it, Jeremy.  I hate it.”

“Me too.” Jeremy said.  It sounded for a second like there was another layer under his words, but Michael couldn’t pin down what it was.

It was another minute before Jeremy spoke again.

“Cynthia’s five.”

Michael looked at him in confusion.  “Uh, yeah?”

“She met this little girl at school.  Her name’s Virginia.”

Michael felt like he knew where this was going.

“And they’ve been best friends for pretty much the whole of Kindergarten.”

Michael felt like something in his chest was cracking.  “Jeremy…”

“I can’t watch what happened to me and you happen again.  I can’t do it, Michael.”

Michael pulled Jeremy into his side without thinking.  To his surprise, Jeremy buried his head in his chest.

“You know when we were little, my mom would always give you and me these looks and my dad would always get really mad about it and I never understood.  And now I get it, because sometimes I catch myself giving Cynthia looks like that.”

“No.” Michael shook his head.  “If I remember your mom right, her looks would be saying ‘God what a waste of time for those two to be friends.’  I’m sure your looks say something more like ‘I wish the two of them could always be friends.’ And there’s an obvious difference there.”

Jeremy pulled back and laid down on the bed next to Michael.  “The only difference is the motivation of the look.”

“Motivations matter.”

Jeremy hummed in thought.  “I guess you’re right.” he mumbled.

“Of course I am.  When are you going to learn, Jeremy, I’m always right.”

Jeremy laughed, but it didn’t take long for him to stop smiling again.  “Maybe we shouldn’t play any video games tonight after all.” he said quietly.

“Okay.” Michael said.

Jeremy stretched out on Michael’s bed and started fidgeting with his fingers.

Michael studied him for a moment.  “Are you… okay, Jeremy?” he asked.

“Honestly?  No.” Jeremy said.  “I’m watching my baby sister get closer and closer to a very probable heartbreak and my two best friends are mad at me and my other friends are still kinda on rocky ground and I’m not sure where we stand yet and to top it all off I have a supercomputer in my head constantly trying to tear me down and it happens to look like the guy I’m crushing on, so no.  Not doing that great.”

“Your Squip looks like someone you know?” Michael asked in surprise, and then stopped.  “Uh— sorry, that was probably the wrong thing to say.” He paused. “I just— I didn’t know they could do that.”

“It’s a projection in your head, Michael.  It can look like whatever it wants. Mine spouted something about people being more likely to listen to different forms.”

“Oh, uh.”  Michael was definitely blushing.  “Okay, that’s— kinda embarrassing.  For me, anyway.”

“Bob Marley.” Jeremy was smiling a little again.  “My Squip told me.”

Michael laughed awkwardly and looked away, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Aww, Micah.” Jeremy pushed his head into Michael’s side.  “It’s okay. You don’t

need

to be embarrassed.”

“Shut up.”

“Or you can be, I don’t care.  In fact, I think you look adorable when you blush.”  He poked one of Michael’s now bright-red cheeks.

“Shut up!” Michael grumbled, blushing harder while he was at it.

“You look like you’ve grown little cherries right in the middle of—”

“Fine, if you get to tease me, you have to tell me who you’re crushing on.”

Jeremy immediately leapt about six feet backwards, and it was Michael’s turn to laugh while Jeremy blushed.

“Okay, but seriously.” Michael leaned closer.  “You’re not gonna tell me?”

“Uh… no.”

“Aww… Jer, cummon.”

“Nope.”

“You know I don’t care that it’s a guy, right?”

Jeremy rolled his eyes.  “Of course I do.”

“Well who is it then?” Michael leaned closer.  “Is it Rich?”

“Ew!”

“Jake?”

“Jake is my broest bro, man.”

“Did— did you just say Jake is your

‘broest bro?’

”

“The broiest.  Bro-central. Bro to the max.”

“Stop.”

Jeremy snickered.

“Dude, you don’t even know any other guys.”

Jeremy blinked at him.

“What, is it a celebrity crush or just like a ‘he looks hot’ distant crush, or…” Michael trailed off as he noticed Jeremy slowly leaning closer towards him like he was missing something.

“What?”

“You’re a dumbass.”

Michael just continued to look at him.

Jeremy leaned forward a little more and reached out his finger to poke Michael on the end of his nose.

“Wha—  seriously, what?”

“I don’t know any other guys?”

“You—” Michael stopped.  Okay, yes, he was a male, but it wasn’t like Jeremy was saying—

“But— you can’t like

me,”

Michael said weakly.

Jeremy blinked at him again.  “Why not?” he asked, smiling a little in what looked like bewilderment.

“Because I’m— I’m me?”

“Wow, that’s a really great clarification.”

“Come on, you know what I mean, I’m— me.  We both know everything I’ve done to you, and even without that there’s not much to like.”

“Says who?”

Michael opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

“You’re smart and empathetic, not to mention very strong and incredibly attractive.”

He threw out the last part casually enough that Michel knew he was just trying to make him blush.  (No, it wasn’t working, shut up.)

“I’m— not— I’m not— I’m not all of those things.” Michael stammered.

“Um, you and Chloe managed to figure out how Squips could be less of a problem for you in a big city, unless your Squips told you which I seriously doubt, ever since I got a Squip you’ve been relating and explaining and connecting with me over it, you managed to deal with a Squip of your own for 11 years, and dude.  Have you looked at yourself lately?”

Michael had to look away before his face melted, Jesus Christ.

“Dealing with a Squip doesn’t make me strong,” he got out.

“Bullshit.”

“It doesn’t.”

“Do you think Chloe’s strong for handling hers?”

Michael nodded, managing to look back over.

“Then what’s the difference?”

He didn’t know what to say to that.  It seemed to take about a year and a half before he mumbled, “You like me?”

Jeremy was starting to blush again, but he still nodded.  “I didn’t really plan on telling you. Guess that failed. I also promised myself I wouldn’t start to like you in the first place, but uh… that was on Tuesday.  Didn’t last that long.”

“You’re so ridiculously confident.  I hate you.”

“What?”

“You just told me I’m the person you have a crush on, and you’re not a stammering shaking mess, which is what I would be if I ever managed to tell you I like you—

I mean—”

Michael slapped his hands over his mouth, and Jeremy was suddenly blushing full force again.

Both of them took a minute to look at each other.

If either Jake or Chloe was in the room they would be laughing their heads off at this picture— Michael had his hands over his mouth and Jeremy was staring at him with a stunned look on his face and his mouth hanging open.  Both of them were bright red.

Jeremy, of course, managed to recover first.

“Tuesday?”

Michael shook his head as he slowly lowered his hands.  “Seventh grade.”

Jeremy’s eyes widened.  “When?” he asked.

“You—” Michael bit his lip as an unexpected wave of guilt hit him all over again.  “You remember that time I beat you up so badly you had to go to the hospital?”

Jeremy stared at him.  “Seriously?”

“You, uh— I was— my Squip was gonna let you go with just some bruises and a broken nose, but then I knocked you down and you spit on my shoes.”

“Uh… yeah?”

“You weren’t scared of me,” Michael said softly.  “No matter what it did, it couldn’t make you scared of me.”

“Yeah, well,” Jeremy almost sounded choked up.  “I could never be scared of someone who says ‘gnarly’ when he beats me on Rainbow Road.”

Michael laughed a little.

“Can I kiss you?”

Michael blinked at him as his brain tried to process the question.  “You’re— you’re asking

my

permission?”

Jeremy looked a little sad in the next second.  “Of course I am. I want to hear

your

answer.”

Michael’s next breath came in a little shallow.  He felt like he’d been handed something precious, like a puppy or a bottle of Mountain Dew Red.

He nodded.

And Jeremy leaned in and pressed their lips together.

Now, Michael had kissed a lot of people in his life.  But none of them felt like this one.

There wasn’t an immediate feeling of safety or a realization that this would work or that everything would be okay.  In fact, Michael was kind of terrified. But it didn’t feel like two sweaty bodies pressing against each other. It felt

electric.

Michael grabbed Jeremy’s shirt before he thought about what he was doing and pulled him even closer, and in the next second Jeremy grabbed Michael by the arms and did the same.

They pulled away too soon.  They pulled away not soon enough, because about midway through the kiss Michael realized that two certain supercomputers probably wouldn’t like what they’d just done.

Jeremy must have caught some kind of fear in his eyes.  “Stop it.”

“Jeremy—”

“You said we’re not supposed to waste moments like this.  Don’t think about it tonight. We’ll deal with it tomorrow.”

Michael nodded and laid down on the bed, lifting the blankets and looking at Jeremy like a question.

Jeremy crawled under them and next to him.  By the time Michael fell asleep Jeremy was already passed out and snuggling him again.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Brooke woke up to an alarm, rain, and a hatred of the world.

But seriously, doesn’t everyone hate the world when it’s raining on a school morning?  You want to stay in bed but the stupid school says you have to get up.

Her alarm went off for the fourth time, and Brooke hit snooze again, but her mom was banging on the door, so it didn’t make much of a difference.

“Brooke!  You’re going to be late!”

Brooke groaned and dragged herself out of bed.

She was picking up Rich on the way to get to school.  They’d started doing that once Jeremy had bought his car and they’d realized that (unlike Jeremy) Rich’s house was on her way to school anyway.  Brooke drove her mother’s car most of the time.

Brooke grabbed the first shirt she found in her drawer, a red and white flannel, pulled on a pair of baggy sweatpants in a (failed) attempt to keep the ‘I’m still in bed’ feeling, and pulled her hair into a messy bun before leaving her room and almost stomping towards the kitchen.

Her little brother banged on his door and yelled at her to shut up.  She yelled right back.

She put a bagel in the toaster and walked back to her room to grab her backpack.  She shoved one of her comic books inside that she was in the middle of rereading.

When she walked back out her mom was putting peanut butter on her bagel.

“Oh, thanks mom.” she said, grabbing the bagel and shoving it in her mouth.

Her mom nodded at her.

Brooke, after practically eating the bagel and brushing her teeth at the same time, grabbed her backpack and car keys and opened the front door to a wall of rain.

Brooke sighed, grabbed a nearby jacket, and ran out the door to the car.  She was still soaking wet when she made it inside.

It took her about five minutes to get to Rich’s house, and when she did the bastard was waiting outside under his covered porch with an umbrella.  He waved with the kind of shit-eating grin that said he knew exactly what she’d been through that morning.

Brooke flipped him off as he started walking towards her.

“Here,” he said after he shut the door.  “I brought you a towel for you hair.”

“Thanks.” Brooke said, taking it when he pulled it out his backpack, pulling the hair tie out of her hair and drying her hair with it in a way that almost worked.

“Well, you look fantastic.”

“Suck a dick.”

“If only.”

“Gross.”

“Do you want to skip school today?”

“Desperately.”

So they went to Pinkberry.  Look, they were going to get beaten up if they went looking like this, not to mention all the things that were happening with Jeremy which they still didn’t understand, and the fact that it was raining.

And, lo and behold, Chloe Valentine was sitting in Pinkberry too.  Michael and Jake weren’t there, which was confusing. Normally the three were stuck together like glue.

And of course Chloe looked as amazing as ever despite the rain, and her lack of umbrella.  Brooke wouldn’t be surprised if the Squip made her hair dry faster.

Normally she would be at least a little flustered right now, but she was too pissed off at everything this morning.  So before Rich could stop her she stormed over.

“Hey.” she snapped.

Chloe glanced over and her eyes filled with mock pity.  “Oh, sweetheart, you know most people stay

inside

to take showers, right?”

“What are you doing to Jeremy?”

Chloe now gave her a look of what was obviously mock confusion.

“Brooke!” Rich snapped, trying to drag her away.

“No.” Chloe snapped, and Rich backed off in surprise.  “I’d like to know what she means by that.”

“Why is he suddenly treating us like we don’t exist?!” Brooke clarified.  “You have to be threatening him, or something. What are you doing?”

“Brookie!”

Rich hissed.

“Are you nuts?”

Chloe laughed.  “Sweetheart, we didn’t do anything.  Jeremy’s just spending time with better people now.”

Brooke’s glare increased, and Chloe was clearly amused.  “You honestly didn’t think this was coming? Jeremy has a Squip now, he doesn’t need you anymore.”

“Oh, cut the crap!” Brooke snapped, and Chloe narrowed her eyes.  Good, a different reaction.

Chloe stood up, and though she and Brooke were about the same height, Brooke suddenly felt small.  “You wanna know what’s happening here,

Brookie?

Jeremy is finally learning that he doesn’t need losers for friends when he has people like me.  And people like Michael. Now how about you stop wasting my valuable time, hmm?”

And she left to go get more yogurt, effectively ending the conversation.

Brooke growled through her teeth and dragged Rich, who was still pretty shaken, up to the counter to get yogurt.

“What was that?” he asked after they’d both sat down in a booth.  “You’re going to get yourself hurt.”

“Well, I don’t see any other way of getting answers, and girls can’t beat people up anyway.”

“Doesn’t mean Jake and Michael won’t find you later on her behalf.”

“Well— whatever.  Besides,” Brooke looked down at her yogurt.  “What if she’s right?”

“Woah, what?” Rich asked.

“What if Jeremy really does like the three of them more than us?”

“Hey, Brooke.” Rich grabbed her hand.  “This is Jeremy we’re talking about. He wouldn’t do that.  Besides, you can see through Chloe’s argument. People like her and Michael?  The only reason Jeremy doesn’t hate Chloe is because you like her for some reason.”

“For pete’s sake, it is purely physical attraction.” Brooke grumbled.

“And he

does

hate Michael.” Rich continued like she hadn’t spoken.

Brooke shook her head slowly.  “Um, no, Rich, he doesn’t.”

Rich gave her a look.

Brooke gave one right back.  “You remember when he was younger, Rich?  How uspet he’d get when Michael hurt him? That’s why we started going so overboard to cheer him up.  If he hated Michael, why did he care so much? And haven’t you noticed how before New York he was starting to complain about all three of them less and less?  That includes Michael. Even if he did hate him at one point, which I’m starting to seriously doubt, he certainly doesn’t anymore.”

“What are you thinking?” Rich asked.

Brooke bit her lip.  “I’m thinking… it would explain a lot if Jeremy and Michael had been friends before the Squips turned on.”

Rich is staring at her, but she could tell it was making sense to him too.  “But why wouldn’t he tell us that?” he asked.

“Look how we treated him when we

didn’t

know.  He wouldn’t want it to be worse.”

“I still say Jeremy needed a little bit more support.”

“And I am 100% with you on that.  But…” she sighed. “He is right on the fact that he’s not a little kid anymore, and it does annoy him.  Besides, that wouldn’t be a fun conversation to have.” ‘Hey, guys, one of the people we run from on a daily basis used to be my best friend?’  Yeah, who would want to say that? It would be

awful.

Rich shook his head.  “Yeah, okay, that makes sense.” he admitted.  He turned his gaze back to Brooke. “But there’s still no way Jeremy abandons us for him.  Something else is going on here, Brookie.”

Brooke sighed.  “You’re probably right.” she mumbled.  “I miss him.”

“Me too.”

“Do you wanna stop by and see if he’s home?”

“Again?”

“You got any other ideas?”

Rich shrugged.

That pretty much meant it was decided, and so Rich, then Brooke finished their yogurt and headed for her mother’s car.  Jeremy’s Dad would understand why they wanted to skip school, he was usually good for their “Squipless problems.”

They were mostly silent on the way to Jeremy’s house, until Brooke slowed down a couple streets away due to hearing a very specific siren— the kind that sounded like it would murder your eardrums if you got much closer.  That could only mean one thing.

“You don’t think that’s—” Brooke started.

“Unless someone else illegally took a Squip lately!” Rich cried, and Brooke slammed on the gas, pulling into the street behind Jeremy’s, finding the house behind his, and parking across the street from there.

Both Rich and Brooke cut through the neighbor’s lawn to Jeremy’s backyard.

Rich peered in through the dining room window while Brooke ducked down underneath it.  It took less than a second for his face to pale. “Yep. Those are Japanese Squip officials.” he whispered.  “Brooke, we hit the motherload.”

“Is Jeremy there?” Brooke hissed.

There was a pause, and Rich shook his head.  “Doesn’t look like it.”

“Is he at school?”

“I doubt it, Chloe wasn’t.”

Brooke bit her lip, hard.  “Not at Chloe’s house then, Jake?”

“Maybe.  Or Michael’s.”

“I don’t know where either of them live.  Who’s talking to the officials?”

“Mrs. Heere.”

“Perfect.  I’m texting Mr. Heere and asking where Michael lives.  If we’re right about the two of them, he’ll know. And if Jeremy’s not there, we can get Jake’s address from him.”

“You think

we

can get information from

Michael?”

“Jeremy won’t answer!” Brooke said, and immediately lowered her voice.  “Got the address.”

“Really?”

“He’s confused, but he gave it to me.  Let’s go.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Jeremy and Michael, due to waking up warmly snuggling with each other under the covers to the sound of rain, had promptly decided to not go to school that day.  They had texted Jake and Chloe to not go either, since that was the rule, and Jeremy had grabbed them both a beer, which they drank enough of throughout the day to keep their Squips absent.They mostly talked and watched a couple Disney movies Jeremy had brought (it had been so long since Michael had seen The Lion King that he didn’t even remember it, and in case you were wondering— no.  No he absolutely did not cry when Mufasa died).Earlier, after they had decided the other option was pretending last night had never happened, they spent a good portion of the morning talking about what exactly was going to happen now.An actual relationship— or at least a public one— was ruled out almost immediately, though it disappointed both of them.  Jeremy wondered aloud if they could tell Chloe and Jake that they were dating and Michael said he wasn’t sure, but probably not.This whole conversation was followed by very heavy sighs from both of them as they realized how practically hopeless this was.So instead of focusing on that they just decided to watch The Lion King while cuddling on the couch.  Michael had to admit, the decision of ignoring their problems certainly did not feel like a terrible idea.11AM had just passed when the frantic pounding was heard on the door.  They both exchanged a look. Michael’s mom was already at work, and they had made sure that they weren’t expecting anyone.Michael got up and looked through the peephole in the door, and stepped back in surprise when he saw who was there.“What?” Jeremy asked.Michael opened the door and Rich and Brooke both immediately started talking simultaneously.“Woah, slow down!” Michael called, at the same time Jeremy cried “Rich?  Brooke?” And leapt to his feet.“Jeremy!” Brooke ran forward and threw her arms around him.  “Thank God!”“What happened?  What’s wrong?” Jeremy asked, quickly returning the hug to both her and Rich when he joined in.“Jeremy, there are Japanese Squip officials at your house!” Rich said.“What?!” Michael exclaimed.  “Why would there be Squip officials at your house?!”Everyone turned to him like they were just noticing he was there.Jeremy quickly shut the door and turned back to him.  “Because I illegally took a Squip, Michael.”Michael blinked in shock.  Sure, he had always kind of known that was likely what had happened, but he hadn’t ever really acknowledged it.  It was the best way to keep his Squip from acknowledging it, and after eleven years of practice, he was great at not thinking about something.  But his ‘If I don’t think about it maybe my Squip won’t’ plan was kind of foiled when Jeremy said it out loud. “Why?” he asked.Jeremy, Rich, and Brooke all shared a glance.“Do we tell him?” Rich asked.“Tell me what?”“At this point, we don’t have much of a choice.” Jeremy said.  “He already knows there are officials clearly looking for me.”“Tell me what?” That’s when Rich pulled a bottle of Mountain Dew Red out of his backpack.Michael stumbled backwards and almost fell over a chair.  Jeremy leapt forward and caught him. “Okay, calm down,” he said.“That’s a—”“Yeah.” Jeremy pulled him up to standing height again.  “That’s why I took a Squip, Michael.”“You’re trying to get rid of them,” Michael breathed.Jeremy nodded.Michael looked at him.  “Your sister?”Jeremy nodded again.  “Mostly.”“Do you actually carry that thing around with you?”“God, no!” Jeremy exclaimed.  ”Just when there’s a reason to.  Like… Squip officials at one of our houses.”Michael nodded before reaching up and touching his head.  “How close are you? Because I think your time just got a lot more limited.”Jeremy bit his lip.“We have this.” Brooke said, putting the bottle back in Rich’s bag and zipping that up.  “But we have no idea how to get it to seven billion people.”“Seven billion… why would you need to?” Michael asked.All three of them blinked at him.  “Because… there’s seven billion people on Earth…” Jeremy said slowly.“Well, yeah.   But when you take into account syncing, that number gets a lot smaller.”All three of them looked at each other.“What’s…” Rich started and didn’t finish.Michael’s eyes widened.  Of course they wouldn’t— “Okay, um—” he scrambled for the coffee table and managed to find one of his mom’s notepads and a pen.  “So it works like this.” He drew two vaguely-Squip-like ovals. “Two Squips can sync to each other to share information, goals, desires, stuff like that.”  He drew an equal sign between the Squips. “It’s mostly for friend groups, but it’s also pretty common with employees so the job can run smoothly.”“So?” Brooke asked.“One of the things that link is the circuitry.  Specifically the part of the circuitry that keeps the Squips on.” “On?” Rich asked.“It’s a computer, you guys.  Mountain Dew Red turns it off.  And if you give some to a person with a Squip, every single Squip they are linked with also shuts off.”  Michael gestured with his hands, because surely they got it now.“Uh…” Jeremy started.Michael groaned.  “For Pete’s sake! You need to give some of this stuff to someone who works at a Maternity Ward!” Finally, they seemed to get it.  “Because that would stop any new Squips from getting given to babies, and they would probably have access to more Mountain Dew Red and be able to help get it spread around— Michael, you’re a genius!” Jeremy exclaimed, running to and wrapping his arms around him, and probably before he thought about it, giving him a kiss from excitement.He froze a second later, and looked back to Rich and Brooke who were gaping at them.“Uh… and we’ll talk about that later?” Jeremy phrased it like a question, complete with awkward finger guns.“Yes we fucking will!” Rich screamed.  “Is there a reason we haven't learned about it until now?”“Well, because it just happened last night and because I haven’t been able to— hey, speaking of which, where have you guys been?” he asked.  “Like, if you needed some space I get it, but shouldn’t I have at least seen you around school?”“What are you talking about?” Brooke asked.  “You’re the one who’s been ignoring us!” “Why in the world would I do that?”“It’s called optic nerve blocking, Jeremy,” Michael cut in.  Everyone looked over at him again. “Your Squip can block Rich and Brooke from your field of vision so you literally don’t see them at all.”Jeremy gaped at him.  “Why didn’t you tell me?” he exclaimed.“I, uh, tried.  But I also sort of accidentally made a deal with my Squip to help keep it from you if we could both skip that party last night?”Jeremy glared at him, a stark difference to a few seconds ago.  “Michael! How could you?”“I didn’t want to go!  I always feel like this after I get back from New York, and I didn’t even know you were still talking to them!  How could I?”“How do you ‘accidentally’ make a deal with a Squip?!”“It was pressuring me into making it quickly and it was a high-stress situation already and you’d be surprised, okay?!”“Just— okay,” Jeremy started massaging his fingers into temple.  “We’re gonna talk about that later, but right now we need some kind of plan.  Because we cannot do this until those Squip officials leave, or we don’t stand a chance.”“That could take anywhere from a week to a month!” Rich exclaimed.Everyone looked at Michael, and it was his turn to glare at them.  “I get it! It’s not like I want to stop you, Christ.”“Do you have anything you could do?” Brooke asked.“I can get drunk.”“Not for a month.” Jeremy said.“I don’t know.  The only other thing that can stop Squips is— Christine Canigula!” Michael blurted.All three of them gaped at him.  “What?” Jeremy asked.“No, the only other thing that can stop Squips is a mind-altering medicine.  Like Christine Canigula. She has ADD but she can’t take medicine for it because her 3rd tier Squip isn’t powerful enough to override the medicine, and it would mess with it.”“Wha— how do you know that?” Jeremy asked.“You’d be surprised how many random things I know about lower tier people.”Brooke gaped at him.  “That is so creepy—” “I know.” Michael interrupted.“Christine has a mental disorder and can’t take medicine to help?!” Jeremy burst out.“I think her Squip can help some.” Michael offered.
“Still!”
“Yeah, I know.”“What does this have to do with anything?” Rich asked.  “Even if Christine’s Squip can’t override the medicine, I’m sure yours can.”“You’re right, I’m gonna need something stronger.” Michael turned to Jeremy.  “Push me down the stairs.”Jeremy jumped back.  “What?! Are you crazy?”“If I’m injured badly enough to need to go to the hospital then they’ll put me on painkillers for a while.  My Squip can’t override those, and I’ll probably have some broken bones, which will make it harder for me to get around.  Win-win.”Jeremy stared at him— that seemed to be pretty common in this conversation.  “Except for the fact that you will have several broken limbs.” “That’s a small price to pay for bringing down all of the Squips.  Besides, it could be like, payback, or something.”Jeremy shook his head.  “No. That’s not okay, Michael.  Haven’t you ever heard ‘two wrongs don’t make a right?’”“No,” Michael answered honestly.  “But it needs to be done anyway. I don’t think I could manage to intentionally injure myself that badly, and I’m sure as hell not letting either of those two do it.”“Love you too.” Rich deadpanned.“What makes you think I could manage to—” Jeremy looked away, cleary trying to hide tears.Michael lowered his voice.  “Hey.” He walked over to Jeremy and gently took one of his hands.  Jeremy didn’t pull away. “This is too important. And I would literally never forgive myself if I was the reason you failed.”“You wouldn’t be the reason.” Jeremy muttered.“Yes I would.”Jeremy shook his head firmly but said nothing else.Michael heard the telltale buzz of a returning Squip and grabbed the beer can on the table before drinking the rest of it.He raised an eyebrow at Jeremy.Jeremy bit his lip, hard, and nodded.They both walked over towards the stairs to Michael’s bedroom as Rich and Brooke respectfully stayed back in the living room.“Do you have a place to go?” Michael asked as they walked.  “Rich or Brooke’s houses probably aren’t a good idea.”Jeremy nodded.  “I’m not going to tell you.  Uh, sorry, I—”“No, do not tell me.”They both reached the top of the steps.“Could you not tell me when you’re going to do it and just kind of—”Hands slammed into Michael’s back and he fell down the steps feet first.  His legs made sickening cracking noises several times on the way down, and he landed on his back at the bottom of the steps to another loud crunch.There was a pause for a second where everything was way too quiet—And then Michael started screaming.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Jeremy woke up in the middle of the night again.  Partly because he was having another nightmare— he wasn’t sure he would ever forget the way Michael sounded— and partly because all of the thrashing around from his nightmare caused him to knock off his blanket again, and he was shivering from the cold.  He had never had to spend a night in this stupid barn before. The place did not have heating.He grabbed his blanket from where it was on the floor and cocooned himself inside it by shoving it under his sides.He had never hated this barn before, but sort-of-solitary-confinement interrupted by Rich and Brooke bringing him meals and news of the officials and Michael was causing him to really start to despise his lack of access to the outside world.Not to mention sleeping on just a mattress was starting to kill his back.  He didn’t even have any of his usual ways to entertain himself, like his video games or his space books.And he was sure Cynthia was worried.  Probably Jake and Chloe too.After Jeremy had shoved Michael down the stairs— the image of which he was pretty sure would cause him to start shaking every time he thought about it for the rest of his life— Rich had grabbed Michael’s phone and called the police, while Brooke got him to the car as he started hyperventilating.  Then Rich had leapt into the car, they started driving Jeremy to the barn, and Jeremy had a breakdown.Brooke was driving and Rich was hugging him in the backseat, while both of them were trying their best to comfort him with talking and succeeding enough that he could walk into the barn when they got there.  Then they both hugged him while he sobbed until he couldn’t breathe. He felt like a six year old again.When he had finally calmed down, they had called his dad.  They couldn’t let him call the police, so he needed to know where Jeremy was— which involved coming clean about everything.He was, understandably, a little upset.  He gave a half-hour speech that mostly amounted to “I am so proud of you three, but you are huge idiots.”He then agreed to help bring Jeremy supplies until the officials left and got the mattress for him to sleep on.Jeremy was sure his father could handle his mother, who they couldn’t tell for obvious reasons.  But they also couldn’t quite trust Cynthia with secrecy yet, so she was probably really missing him, and he was really missing her.And he had basically gone radio silent on Jake and Chloe right before Michael went to the hospital.  They were probably both worried and pissed off.The doctors had been saying Michael would probably need a wheelchair.Jesus, was this how Michael felt every time he hurt him?  Because Jeremy felt like the scum of humanity.He felt worse when he realized that a month ago he would have celebrated the fact that he sent Michael to the hospital.And, of course, there was one more problem to deal with.
You understand that Michael will not truly forgive you without my help.
Yeah.  The stupid thing was much harder to block out when it was saying things Jeremy could almost agree with.  (And there was the added frustration that it was now synced with just enough people that they couldn’t afford to turn it off.)He had never needed Michael’s forgiveness before.  Of course, if he asked Michael he was sure he would dismiss it immediately, which just made Jeremy more adamant that he had to make it up to him somehow.The horrible part was it really did have to be done.  They needed Michael—
Out of the way?
They needed Michael’s Squip out of the way.
Ah, and Michael, at this point, is more like an extension of his Squip than the other way around.  I see.
Jeremy stared at his Squip.  What a horrible thing to say.
It’s what you were thinking.
It’s not.No? the Squip raised it’s eyebrows.  The entire reason you did what you did to Michael is because his Squip controls him entirely at this point in his life— what he does, what he thinks.  Michael, if he were physically able to move right now, would be turning you in against his will. How does that make him anything more than a living puppet?
I think that is the worst thing I have ever heard you say about Squips.  Michael is a person.

Is he?
Jeremy said nothing mentally for a bit, instead recalling every single time just recently that Michael had stood up to his Squip.  New York. Stopping all four of them from beating up Rich and Brooke. Caring about other people. Quiet moments he’d stolen with Jeremy during times he was really supposed to be doing something else.  Kissing. (Jeremy decided that was his favorite way to rebel.)And now that he really thought about it, he could think of times throughout their lives that Michael must have been refusing to do what his Squip said.  Times he had been expecting to have been beaten up and he wasn’t. Times he had been expecting Michael to be a jerk to 2nd or 3rd tier people and he wasn’t.  There was one time last year he could have sworn he saw Michael helping a younger 2nd tier person with some homework. Michael caring about Chloe was rebellious, according to Jake.  Michael played video games and ate sugar-coated everything whenever he got the chance to. Michael Mell did not bow to a Squip. You just had to pay attention. He is. Jeremy rebutted firmly.His Squip said nothing.The next second came Rich and Brooke’s knock— six knocks to the rhythm of Circle of Life (sue them).Jeremy walked over to the door responded with his own six knocks (for the next part of the song), and then they opened the door.“We come bearing food!” Rich called, holding up a couple of bags of fruit, some McDonalds, and slushies.“Why did you buy four slushies?” Jeremy asked, grabbing his blue raspberry one as they all moved and sat down at the table.“The cherry is for Michael.  We’re stopping by the hospital after this.  He asked for one the other day.”“He asked for a slushie?” Jeremy asked, unable to help the small smile that formed.“God, stop it.” Rich said.  “You’ve got The Michael Look again.”“The— ‘Michael Look?’” Jeremy asked.“Yeah, you give this little smile and your eyes light up and you look like a lovesick puppy.  It’s so gross.”“You’re so gross.” Jeremy bit back automatically.“You’re right, I haven’t showered in two weeks.”“Ew!” Brooke and Jeremy exclaimed simultaneously, and Rich grinned.“Yes, he asked for a slushie.” Brooke confirmed as she reached into the bag and started passing out McDonalds.  “And he was talking about video games the whole time. I get why you fell for him, Jer, he’s a massive dork.”Jeremy smiled again.  “He knows nothing about video games, the faker.”“We can invite him to play AotD with us after all this is over.  Maybe with his help we can finally beat level nine.” Brooke offered.Jeremy smiled at them both again.“What?” Brooke asked.“You guys are the best.”“Yeah, we know.” Rich said.  He paused. “Wait, why are we the best?”“Because you just accepted that Michael’s a part of our group now, and no one asked or expected you to.  Especially with… everything.”“Yeah, well,” Brooke said.  “We kinda get how Squips work better now.  It’s also impossible that anyone you fall in love with could be a terrible person.”Jeremy choked on a fry.  “I— I never said I was in love with him!” he sputtered.Rich patted his hand gently.  “Honey, you didn’t have to.” He hesitated for a second before saying something else.  “Besides, you two have been kept apart long enough as it is.”Jeremy stilled.  “How long have you known?” he asked.“Ask Brooke.” Rich jerked his thumb over.  “She spelled it out for me.”“Not that long.” Brooke said.  “But I get why you didn’t tell us.”Jeremy chuckled a little and rubbed the back of his neck.  “I didn’t need to.” he said. “You two did more than enough to help me without even knowing.”  He looked back up at them. “Thank you.”They both smiled back at him, and Brooke reached across the table to give Jeremy a hug.  “We love you, Jer,” she said.“Don’t put words in my mouth!” Rich exclaimed.“I hate you too, Rich.” Jeremy said.…“Michael’s still slow on the mend.” Brooke said as they were mapping out their route using the Maternity Ward blueprints.“Uh… good…?” Rich said hesitantly.“Agreed.” Jeremy and Brooke said simultaneously.  Obviously, they wanted Michael to get better, but at the same time, if he got better too quickly it would really screw everyone over.  It was a weird, awful, tug-of-war kind of feeling.“How close do you guys think those officials are to leaving?” Jeremy asked.“Another week is my guess.” Rich said.“They have to be convinced that you ran.” Brooke said.  “Which they are, but…”“Thoroughness.” Rich said, doing jazz hands to enunciate.“Ugh.” Jeremy grumbled.  “And there’s no way they could find out this is where I am?”“We us a different route every time we walk here.” Brooke said.  “We also walk here, so like, no chance for them to bug our cars.”“Yeah, you owe us.” Rich said.“Oh yes, and you sound so exhausted from your 5 minute walk.”“Ten minutes!”“Poor baby.”“It’s not perfect, but there’s not much else we can do.” Brooke said with a shrug.“It feels like a lot of stuff we do lately is because ‘there’s not much else we can do.’” Rich said.“Very true.” Jeremy said.  “So are we sticking with the service entrance plan?”“Yep.” Brooke said.  “Mostly because none of us can fit in the air vents and we can’t walk through the front door like last time, since it’ll be the middle of the day.”“And you guys are watching for when exactly service stuff happens?” Jeremy asked.Rich nodded.  “We’re gonna be as prepared as we possibly can.”“And are we aiming for someone specific?” Brooke asked.“3rd tier person.” Jeremy said immediately.  “They have to be able to fight their Squip. We don’t have the strength to force feed anyone Mountain Dew Red, and that’s what we’d have to do with someone with a 2nd tier or fully functional Squip.”“The front desk lady seems like a good bet.” Rich said.  “We’re certain she’s got a 3rd tier Squip, right?”“She’s the only one we can be sure of.” Brooke said.  “We have interacted with literally no one else in that tower.”“Do you think she’s… uh, synced to enough people to make a difference?” Rich asked.“Actually, yeah I do.” Jeremy said.  “She’d need to be able to answer the questions of people who come in, and with Squips preferred level of efficiency, there’s no way they’d wait for her to, like, ask someone.”“God, what a waste of time that would be,” Brooke said with a roll of her eyes.Rich and Brooke stayed for about another fifteen minutes and then had to go home.As soon as they left Jeremy’s Squip started talking again.
When I said Michael is an extension of his Squip, I had a point.

This again?  I thought we were done with this.

Michael does not know how to tie his shoes.

Uh… what?

Michael did not learn how to tie his shoes before he turned six years old, and since then his Squip has been doing it for him.  If you got rid of his Squip, Michael would not be able to do it himself.

Okay, uh… that’s a weird thing to bring up.  What does that have to do with anything?

My point is that Michael and people like him are dependant on Squips for basic things by the time they reach his stage of life.  He is not able to drive a car either, or choose his own clothing or cook any kind of food.

Um, still not getting your point?  You understand that he can still learn all these things overtime.  You don’t lose the ability to learn as you get older.

Adults are even more dependant on their Squips than people Michael’s age.

I return to my previous argument of they can learn—

Most doctors are people with fully functional Squips.

…What are you saying?

If you turn off all Squips there will be billions of people in need of medical care, and they can no longer truly count on the professionals to be competent in their field.  What if someone’s Squip gets turned off in the middle of a brain surgery? There is a 100% chance that person would die, and the blood would be on your hands.

Furthermore, doctors are not the only problem.  What if a cook grilling meat no longer knows how long is necessary for the meat to be safe, and undercooked, potentially dangerous meat is served to everyone who comes to a restaurant?

A person working with weapons or nuclear power could have a disastrous accident.  Leaders of countries will have no idea how to do their jobs. I can go on for a long time.

Yeah.  But Squips have been around for 20 years.

That is precisely my point.  Many of the people currently running the world from all different kinds of jobs—
20 years means there are still people around who remember life before Squips!  There are retired doctors, cooks, and nuclear power plant workers from before Squips who will step in and help these new people learn how to do their jobs.  And people with 2nd tier, 3rd tier, or no Squips will help too. It hasn’t yet been long enough that we can no longer recover from losing Squips, but if we wait another 20 years, it might be.  That’s why we have to do this now.
You are operating under the assumption that a humans natural instinct is to help others.  It is not.

I strongly disagree.

Then you are hopelessly naive.

I suppose I wear the title with pride.  Besides, even if you’re right, helping them would be in every human’s best interests.
His Squip said nothing.
You are not going to make me give up.  And the fact that you are trying so hard proves we have a real chance at success.
His Squip said nothing again, and Jeremy grabbed the blueprints to go over them for the millionth time, checking once again if there were better entrances.  He kept his phone nearby in case Rich and Brooke texted him some sudden development.My calculations show that if you fail, the chances of someone else succeeding in the future are close to zero.
Well then I guess we better not fucking fail.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The officials were leaving.  Brooke said she was woken by her mom, telling her Jeremy’s dad was there to see him.  He had told her they were leaving as they spoke. Jeremy didn’t know why now as opposed to any other time.  Maybe they were convinced by their “thoroughness,” but they’d expected them to stay for another day or two.

He expected no answers from his Squip as to the possibilities of why they left so soon.

All three of them were at the barn and trying to ignore the “montage” feeling that came with getting all of their stuff together to head to the Maternity Ward.

Today was the day.  They had been trying to figure out a way to do this for almost five years, and now here they were, doing it.  It felt surreal.

Eventually they got everything together and sat on Jeremy’s makeshift bed until his dad showed up, and Jeremy was attempting to ignore his Squip who was still trying to give him a bunch of reasons why he should give up.

Which, like, he wasn’t going to, promise, but…

“What in the world are we doing?” Jeremy mumbled anyway.

Rich and Brooke both looked at him, clearly concerned.  “Is your Squip getting to you?” Rich asked.

“No.” Jeremy said firmly.  Well… “Okay, maybe a bit. But this is crazy.  This whole situation is crazy. We’re hiding out in our barn to go try and bring down a global power.  We are attempting to drastically change the world. Since when have three people ever managed to drastically change the world in

any

way?”

“I think this situation is a little different.” Brooke said.  “Besides, it’s only ‘three people’ right now. Pretty soon we’re gonna get the help of this Maternity Ward.”

“Well, that’s the plan.” Jeremy said.  “But what if we fail?”

“Jer.  Dude.” Rich put a hand on his shoulder.  “We got this, okay?”

Jeremy took a deep breath.  “You’re right. You’re right.  Sorry, I think I’m just really… terrified.”

“You’re not the only one, Jer.” Brooke said.

They sat in silence for a couple more seconds when a knock to the rhythm of The Circle of Life came on the door.

Rich hopped up and opened it and in walked Paul.  “Alright.” he said. “They’re gone. Are you three ready?”

“As we’ll ever be, I think.” Brooke said, climbing to her feet.

“You know, in all of the plans we made for this over the years, I don’t think we pictured a possible getaway driver,” Rich said, as he stood up too.

“I don’t think we ever pictured

needing

a possible getaway driver.” Jeremy grabbed his backpack with the Mountain Dew Red before standing up himself.  He double checked to make sure it was there (like he would forget it) and they all walked out of the barn with everyone else walking in front of Jeremy in the most inconspicuous way possible.  When they got to the car he climbed in the backseat and ducked down onto the floor.

The car ride was torture.  He could at least say he didn’t get motion sick, but he had virtually no idea what was happening, since everyone else in the car was trying to talk of light topics to keep up the charade.  There was one time when his dad stopped a little too quickly at what was probably a light, and Jeremy felt like he was going to die. His Squip had been talking enough the whole morning that Jeremy had finally managed to render it to background noise, but it was still like having a constant buzzing in his head.  His one reprieve was Rich, who was sitting right above him and shot him discreet looks every now and then to let him know everything was okay.

It still felt like a million years later when the car pulled to a stop.

“Okay, kids.” came his father’s voice.  “Here’s the deal.”

Oh, boy.

“There are quite a few more guards there than we thought.”

“We didn’t think there’d be

any.”

Jeremy hissed.

“I don’t think any of the officials left like we thought.” Rich said.  “And with how many guards are there, we can’t wait for them to leave. Michael will be better by then.”

Jeremy started to move before Brooke spoke.

“We’re in the parking lot, Jer, don’t sit up.”

Jeremy stopped.  “Got it. What are we gonna do?”

“I think what’s gonna happen,” Paul said.  “Is you’re going to lose your getaway driver.”

All three of them looked at him (well, Jeremy the best he could).

“Do you three all know where you’re going if something goes wrong, or do you know where you’re going if nothing does?”

All of them nodded.

“Alright.  I am going to cause a distraction, and you all are going to run for the front doors.”

“Front doors?” Jeremy asked.

“We wouldn’t make it to the service entrance, Jer.” Rich said.

Jeremy took a deep breath.  “Okay.”

“Everyone ready?” Paul asked.

Everyone nodded.  Paul took out a water bottle filled with red liquid that Jeremy didn’t even know he had.

“Rich, give me the Mountain Dew Red label.”

Rich did just that, and Jeremy’s dad managed to stick the label on decently enough for the bottle to be a decoy from a distance.

“Great thinking ahead, Dad,” Jeremy muttered.

“Thank you.  On the count of three, I’m going to run for the service entrance.  One…”

Jeremy felt himself holding his breath.

“Two… three!”

Paul leapt from the car and then Jeremy lost sight of him.  He waited a couple seconds, until Brooke threw open the passenger side door and Rich the door closest to him.  Rich jumped out, grabbed Jeremy’s arm, and yanked him out of the car and to his feet, where Jeremy attempted to adjust to his surroundings and start running at the same time.

They were running through the parking lot of the Maternity Ward as the guards were running towards the back of the building, probably chasing his dad.  Jeremy tried to channel all the years of running from bullies to make himself run faster. It didn’t work that well.

But eventually, they made it into the building without seeing any guards.

The same woman was sitting at the front desk from before.

“Hey.”

Jeremy hissed as they approached.  The woman glanced up.

“Hello.” she said.  “How can I help you?”

“Uh, we’ve been here before, do you remember us?” Brooke asked.

The woman smiled.  “I’m sorry, but I see so many people every day—”

“We really need to talk to you.” Rich interrupted.

The woman’s smile turned a little more confused.  “Okay, um, is there a family member you’re trying to find?”

All three of them looked at each other as they tried to figure out how to get this woman to come with them.

Suddenly, Brooke started to cry.  Both Jeremy and Rich blinked at her.  “I’m sorry,” Brooke cried. “But my mom’s having a baby we heard something went wrong, and—”

Oh, shit, that is some rare good acting from Brooke.

I would suggest—

“I would suggest.”

Jeremy thought mockingly in his head.

“Oh, sweetheart, it’s okay.” the woman said.  “Alright, come here.”

She lead them towards a separate hallway, and when she opened the door it was empty, yes!

“Alright, I’m going to be honest with you, sweetheart.” the woman said.  “Your mom might not make it. And if she doesn’t, it’s going to hurt. But even if she doesn’t, eventually it’s going to be okay, because you’re going to have lots of people who love and support you.”

Wow.  Well this woman tells it like it is, doesn’t she?

“Yeah, uh, my mom’s fine.” Brooke said.

The woman blinked in surprise, and then her eyes narrowed.  “If you three are pulling a prank—”

“It’s not a prank, ma’am!” Jeremy called.  “We—” he exchanged a glance with Rich and Brooke.  “We need to know your stance on Squips.”

The woman now looked very confused.  “I’m sorry?”

“Do you hate them, do you love them, would you get rid of them?” Rich clarified.

The woman’s eyes widened.  “We really can’t talk about this—” she started.

Jeremy pulled out the Mountain Dew Red.

The woman stumbled back a bit in a similar manner to how Michael had.  “How in the world—” she started.

“It doesn’t matter!” Rich cried.  “Do you want it or not, and does this place have more?”

The woman seemed to be talking to the Squip in her head, but she didn’t seem to have much trouble fighting against it at the moment.  Jeremy wondered for the first time how well 3rd tier Squips could actually control their host.

The woman grabbed the Mountain Dew from Rich and took a sip from it.  All four of them stared at each other for a moment, and then the woman grabbed her head and screamed.

“Oh, shit!” Rich cried.

A second later someone who must have been nearby screamed too, followed by more and more until the entire building sounded like it was shrieking.

The woman who drank the Mountain Dew Red stopped first.  She blinked at them, and looked like she felt like she was dreaming.  Then her brow set and her eyes filled with a determination that looked extremely familiar, but Jeremy couldn’t place it.  “Come with me.” she said.

Jeremy’s Squip sounded desperate now, and was saying something about how Jeremy had to get out of there now or else—

Jeremy ignored it.

The woman ran with them out past a bunch of people in the lobby, some who were still screaming, some who were clutching their heads like they had a particularly bad migraine, and some were actually passed out.  They must have had higher level Squips.

The woman ran them straight to the elevator, and the doors had opened and they all got inside when the guards from the parking lot swarmed in the door, held up their guns and started firing towards the elevator.  All four of them screamed and ducked to the sides until the doors closed and the elevator started moving upwards.

Jeremy let out a shaky sigh of fear, and noticed that Brooke actually was starting to cry a bit now, most likely also from fear, and Rich was squeezing her hand.  Jeremy grabbed his a second later and squeezed just as tightly. The woman across from them was looking up as if that would make the elevator go faster. Finally, they arrived on the floor that had the Squips on it, where Jeremy had first gotten his— that felt like a million years ago.

The woman ran to the room with the Squips in it, followed by all three of them.  “We have to get rid of this first.” she said, pulling out a sample of the Mountain Dew and dumping it on the floor.  The three of them walked up to help her half a second later, and by the time they heard pounding on the locked door, the Mountain Dew was gone.

“Oh my God, they’re going to kill us,” Rich whispered as the pounding on the door got louder.

“Wait for it.” the woman said.

A second later they heard what could only be described as a battle cry, and about a dozen and a half thuds— followed by more continuous ones and some gunshots.  Eventually all the noises stopped.

“We got them!” came a familiar voice outside the door.

The woman smiled and walked over, looked through the door, and then opened it.  A bunch of people who must have had 3rd tier Squips were standing over a bunch of unconscious guards, and they were accompanied about the last person Jeremy expected to see—

“Christine Canigula?” Jeremy asked.  “What are you

doing

here?”

Christine beamed at him.  “I was training for her job,” she said, gesturing at the woman.  She looked down at the guards. “You have

no idea

how long I’ve wanted to do something like that.”  She smiled at Jeremy again.

“Thank you.

I guess you’re an official hero now too, huh?”

“What?” Brooke asked.

“I’ll tell you later.” Jeremy said.  He turned back to the woman. “Do you know where we can get more Mountain Dew Red, uh…”

The woman smiled.  “Rachel.” she clarified.  “I do. Come with me.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Three Months Later

“Why the fuck do traffic lights have to exist?!”

Jeremy screeched.

“Christ, dude.  Calm down.” Jake said from the seat behind him.

Brooke laughed from her spot opposite him.  “Good luck with that one. Jeremy has zero chill.”

“I’ll chill when that son of a bitch turns green!”

“Yeah, seriously,

what

is it’s

problem?!”

Chloe snapped from the seat next to Jeremy.  “Doesn’t it know we’re trying to

get

somewhere?!”

“Would

both

of you shut

up?!”

Jenna screamed from the far back.  “We get there when we fucking get there!”

Christine laughed from her spot right next to Jenna, and Jeremy could imagine exactly the smirk Rich had on his face from his spot next to her.

The past three months had been nightmarishly busy.  With all syncing taken into account, all of the Squips worldwide were gone in about two weeks— and it seemed the general consensus was that

no one

was in a rush to turn them back on.  And no one was arguing who accomplished anything— everyone in the Maternity Ward had given all the credit to Jeremy, Rich, and Brooke, as much as the three of them tried to protest that there were other people involved, such as Paul and Rachel and Michael.  Because of all of that, there was going to be a conference in Japan in about six months from then, three months from now. Jeremy, Rich, and Brooke were the only non-world-leaders going.

Most people with 3rd tier Squips hadn’t had much problem when their Squips shut off.  However, people with 2nd tier Squips had passed out for a couple days, sometimes weeks, and some people with fully functional Squips still hadn’t woken up.  Like Michael, who was taking a particularly long time due to all of his injuries coupled with the extent of the time he’d had a Squip. The hospitals were full to bursting, and because of that, some volunteer nurses went to various people’s homes and showed them how to care for their unconscious family members, including turning them over every two hours, how to insert feeding tubes, and (ugh) change bags that had waste.  Michael was lucky enough (relatively speaking) to have already been in a hospital.

Jake and Chloe had both woken up about a month ago.  Chloe, after a screaming session that was a minute or so long about how could he just vanish like that, did he know how worried she was, threw herself into his arms and started calling him an idiot over and over.  Jake was in shock, and Jeremy could still remember their conversation.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now.” he admitted.

“Well, have you ever considered a life without a Squip before?  What did you picture?” Jeremy asked, sitting on the edge of his bed.

“I don’t know, man, you— you don’t

think

about that stuff!  The closest I got was New York.  I mean, we’ve all heard the horror stories about people going crazy trying to get rid of their Squips, that… that is not the better alternative.”  Jake fiddled with his shirt. “I don’t even remember a time before my Squip, Jer.”

Jeremy smiled a little sadly.  “Well, Jake, the good news for you,” he said.  “Is I think there are a couple million people going through the same thing, so no one is going to rush you.  Besides, you’re pretty close with about three of those people who can relate.”

Jake smiled at him.  “I am, aren’t I?”

Jenna Rolan had then come to his house and they talked in a way that made it very obvious that the two had been friends for a long, long time.

Cynthia, the sweet innocent soul that she was, was unaware anything had happened other than Jeremy vanishing on her, and she and Virginia hugged him super tight when he showed up again.

…They weren’t ready to know.

Everyone else’s relationships with their siblings had improved immensely.  Jake and Josh had taken to playing football with Ben, who had thought for about a week after he woke up that Brooke hated him until she approached him and spent the day making his favorite foods and watching his favorite movies (and The Lion King, naturally).  Brooke had said there’d been a very emotional apology session in there somewhere. But Ben was a strong kid. She was confident he would bounce back. Max was learning how to paint nails from his big sister, and she said he had never mentioned his Squip much, so she was pretty confident he would grow up as if it had never happened in the first place.  Christine had a 9 year old brother named Peter, and since they both had 3rd tier Squips, their relationship was still Christine calling him a brat and Peter sticking his tongue out while they both secretly loved each other. Chloe’s little sister Alexandra knew nothing about Squips either, and according to Chloe she was becoming quite the annoying sass master (anyone who barely looked could see her eyes shining as she talked about her).  And Rich’s brother had come back from college for a visit and given Rich the first of what would no doubt be many apologies. Jeremy had asked Rich if he thought they’d ever be close.

Rich had nodded.  “Someday.” he said.  “Someday we’ll get there.”

When Jeremy’s Squip had shut off he was out for a couple days too—not any longer due to the fact that he’d only had his Squip for about a month.  But when he woke up and was allowed to go back to school Christine had still somehow found time to plaster a giant banner that said ‘Hero’ over his locker alone— which Rich and Brooke weren’t so much pissed about as confused.

There had been one time the previous year when Michael’s Squip must have been having a bad day or something, because Michael had locked Jeremy in a locker all night.  It turned out the next morning to be Christine’s locker, who took advantage of the fact that no one else was around to buy him a shitty school breakfast and sit with him while he ate it.  During that time they had a conversation where Christine revealed to him that most of the people in the school with 3rd tier Squips viewed Jeremy as a hero for how he stood up to Michael all the time, when they were barely allowed to talk to him.  Then people started showing up and she had to leave, but that conversation made Christine the only person with a Squip that he didn’t hate, at least at the time. He hadn’t told Rich and Brooke any of this mostly because he didn’t want them to baby him about it.  They ended up thinking the story was very sweet.

Speaking of heroes.

It was a month after Jake and Chloe woke up they were finally,

finally

on their way to visit a certain martyr with two broken legs.

If the son of a bitch traffic light would

turn green already.

“Come on!”

Chloe groaned, who was just as irritated by the light as him.

“Hey, maybe you two should practice some patience!” Jenna called from the backseat.

“Patience is for chumps!” Chloe cries.

The light turned green.

“Boom!” Chloe called, as Jeremy started driving away.  “I was

right!”

“I don’t think that’s really— oh, nevermind.” Jenna grumbled.

Christine in the back said something about letting them be excited, but Jeremy didn’t hear as they finally pulled into the hospital parking lot.

Jeremy jerked into a handicapped parking space—“Jeremy, that’s illegal!” Christine cried.  “Whatever, the person we’re visiting has a wheelchair!”— and they all jumped out and ran for the doors.

The man at the front desk looked up and sighed in the way that said he knew exactly why they were there.

“Name?” he asked.

“Michael Mell.” Chloe said.

The man paused— he was clearly trying to listen to a Squip.  They may want to see Michael, but interrupting him would be rude, and he would realize eventually.

As he did a second later, look embarrassed, and turned to his computer.  “Room 104.” he said quietly.

Chloe and Jake both gave him an empathetic smile and they all went off to find room 104.  As they walked up Analyn was leaving. “Are you here to see Michael?” she asked.

They all nodded.

“I’m going to get him some food that isn’t from here.  The nurse said one at a time, okay?”

She walked off as everyone turned to Jeremy.

“What?” he asked.

“Well, go on.” Jake gestured at the door.

“Wha— why me?” Jeremy asked.  “First of all, you and Chloe have known him way longer—”

“Jeremy!”

Chloe groaned.  She gestured at the door.  “Go see your boyfriend!”

Jeremy groaned and walked through the door, mostly to get away from everyone smirking.

He shut the door behind him and turned to see Michael in the bed, casts on his legs, looking vaguely in the direction of the door.

“Mom?” he asked.  “That was super fast.”

Jeremy blinked and walked up towards the bed.  “Uh, no?” he said.

“Wait, what?” Michael stuck his hand out and borderline whacked Jeremy in the face, ending with his hand landing on his face after all.  Jeremy blinked. “Who is this?” Michael asked.

“Uh, Jeremy?” Jeremy said, pulling Michael’s hand down.

“Jeremy?”

Michael said.  He waved his hands towards him again.  “I. Cannot see.

Anything.

Has my vision always been this terrible?”

“I mean, uh…?” Jeremy trailed off.

“Holy shit.” Michael dragged his hands through his hair.  “There has to be an actual eye doctor around here

somewhere,

right?”

“I would imagine so.” Jeremy said.  “Squipless people need glasses too.”  He leaned forward, hoping Michael would be able to see him better. It didn’t seem to work.  “How… are you feeling, Michael?” he asked.

Michael paused.  “I feel… like I got shoved through a garbage disposal.  And— and not even a human sized garbage disposal, just like a regular, in your sink, garbage disposal.”

Jeremy winced.
“And… tired.  Like, really, really, tired.  I feel like I’ve been tired for eleven years.”
“Yeah, that kind of makes sense.” Jeremy said.  “I had my Squip for like, a month, and when I shut it off it still felt like there was a piece of me missing.”

“When you shut it off…” Michael murmured, and his eyes went a little foggy.

“Michael?”

“It’s actually gone.  Jeremy, it’s actually…”

Before Jeremy could say anything else Michael sniffed, his eyes welled up, and then he started full-out sobbing.  Jeremy moved over to the bed and wrapped his arms around him.

Michael stopped crying pretty quickly, and from the way his shoulders were sagging, Jeremy could tell it was because of that exhaustion he was talking about.

“I’m probably going to do that again later,” he admitted as he leaned back on the bed, still scrubbing at his eyes.

“That’s perfectly alright.” Jeremy murmured, moving with him.

“Jeremy?” Michael asked.  “Can you come take a nap with me?”

Jeremy blinked.  “Michael, there’s about six other people who want to talk to you waiting outside.”

“Jer,” Michael murmured.  “I’m about to fall asleep.  And what I want, like, more than anything in the world right now, is for you to come take a nap with me.  And then when we both wake up I can kiss your face and shit. So come here.” he did something that kind of looked like grabby hands in Jeremy’s general direction.

Jeremy smiled.  “You’re really tired, aren’t you?”

“Yes…”

Michael whined.

“Okay.” Jeremy said, and climbed onto the bed next to Michael after texting Chloe this new development.  Michael somehow managed to pull him to him and wrap him in his arms. Jeremy couldn’t help the little happy sigh that escaped, and after making sure he wasn’t irritating any of the tubes poking out of Michael’s arms, he snuggled his head up to him and fell asleep.  They could talk about everything later.

…

Jeremy woke up to the sound of a camera, and looked up to see Chloe taking a picture.

“Delete that,” he said automatically, stretching.

“Fuck no, blackmail.” Chloe said, as she tucked her phone in her pocket and made no move to delete the picture.

Jeremy sighed, but ultimately allowed her to keep the picture.

“I thought it was one at a time,” Jeremy said.

“Well, it’s been like an hour, and everyone else got tired of waiting and sent me in to kick you out.”

“Good luck with that.” Jeremy said, because as soon as he moved Michael whined and tightened his grip.

Chloe grinned and snapped another picture.  “Blackmail, baby.”

“Okay, that one you can keep.” Jeremy said.  “Send it to me.”

“Gotcha.”

A second later Jake stuck his head in.  “Chloe, come on already.”

“I don’t think I’m gonna have much luck with this one.” Chloe admitted.

Jake ended up walking in when he saw Jeremy and Michael, and everyone else, curious about what was happening, followed him.

Brooke and Rich were the first to start grinning.  “Aw, how sweet—” Brooke started.

“You guys,” Jeremy said.  “If you tease him, he will get super insecure about it and not do it again even when we’re alone so please don’t.”

“And yet you let me keep the pictures?” Chloe asked, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s for blackmail.  It’s entirely different.”

“…How?”

“Don’t question me.”

Everyone talking made Michael shift and eventually wake up.

“Hey, Micah.” Jeremy said.  “There’s about six people here to see you now.”

Michael glanced around.  “I still can’t see anything.” he mumbled.  “Who’s here?”

Everyone did a name call, and Michael’s head went in the general direction of everyone until Chloe finished.

“Hey, Chlo,” he said towards her.

“Hey, Michael.” she replied.  She glanced down at the duffle bag that she’d filled with stuff just before she told Jeremy that Michael was awake.

“Here.”  She set it down and unzipped it before pulling out the hoodie, pac-man blanket, and Jake’s card from New York.  “I brought you your birthday presents.”

Michael seemed a little more awake, but as Chloe brought them close enough he still eyed the blanket and hoodie warily.  “If you give me either of those right now,” he said. “I will fall back asleep. But thank you.”

“Of course.” Chloe said, putting the stuff back in the bag and setting it next to the bed.

“How are you feeling, Michael?” Christine asked, stepping forward.

Michael looked towards her.  “Who was that?”

Christine chuckled a little.  “I’m Christine.”

“Oh.  Why are you here?  I don’t know you.”

“Michael, don’t be rude.” Jeremy said, glancing down at him.

“Was that rude?”

“Yes.  Christine was being nice.”

“Oh, sorry.” Michael mumbled, rubbing at his eyes.  “I’ve never really had to worry about rudeness before.  I’m also really tired.”

“It’s no big deal.” Christine assured.

“Yeah, we’re used to it from Jake and Chloe!” Rich called.

Jake gave a mock gasp, and Rich laughed.

Christine rolled her eyes at the two of them and continued back to Michael.  “The four of us heard a lot of great things about you from Jeremy. We wanted to meet you.”

“Oh.  That’s…” Michael paused.  He looked like he was shifting through several possible responses in his head.  “Nice of you all?” he decided on eventually.

“Um.  Thanks.” Jenna said, with a little bit of an unsure nod.

“We’re all glad to see you awake.” Jake said.  “It’s been awhile, you had us worried.” He paused.  “Well, we were worried the whole time you were in the hospital, to be honest.”

“Sorry.” Michael said.  “If it makes you feel better, I was worried I was out of it enough I’d blurt something out to you about what Jeremy was trying to do.”

“Well, you didn’t.”  Jeremy said, squeezing Michael’s hand.  “You’re a real hero, Michael.”

Michael gave a little laugh.

“Hey!” the door opened and a nurse walked in.  “What part of ‘one at a time’ do you not understand!  All of you, get out!” she ushered the six people currently standing out the door.

She then turned back for Jeremy, but Michael, as if he sensed it, wrapped his arms around him and glared vaguely towards her.  “Mine.” he said.

“Wha— Christ, Michael.” Jeremy got out, as his face went red.

The nurse sighed and left.

As she did, Jeremy managed to get his cheeks to cool down and turned back to Michael.  “I meant that, you know.”

“Hmm?” Michael asked.

“About you being a hero.”

“Oh, please.  We all know you’re the real hero of this story.”

“Yeah, but you gave us the one piece of information we were missing.  That helped a lot. And you literally broke your legs to give us an honest chance.”

“So maybe that raises me to goofy sidekick status.”

Jeremy smacked him lightly on the arm.  “Stop it.”

The door flew open.  “No— one at a time!” came the nurse’s voice.

But despite her best efforts, Analyn, accompanied by two children, ran into the room.

“Jer’my!” Cynthia cried, and before he could stop either of them, both her and Virginia leapt onto the bed and right onto his stomach.

Jeremy laughed when he was finished wheezing.  “Hey Cynthia, hi Virginia. What are you guys doing here?”

“Daddy said this Mikey person needed to meet me and ‘Ginia.  I dunno why.”

When Jeremy looked back over Michael was smiling, and they both seemed to be close enough for him to see.  “Well, it is lovely to meet the both of you.” he said warmly.

“So you’re Jeremy’s boyfriend?” Virginia asked innocently.

Both Michael and Jeremy started choking on nothing.

“Jer’my, what’s wrong?” Cynthia asked nervously.

Jeremy stopped choking and started laughing.  “Yeah, I guess I’m Michael’s boyfriend.” he looked back over.  “As long as that’s okay?”

“More than okay.” Michael said, leaning over and kissing Jeremy’s cheek.

“Ew.” Cynthia said.

Jeremy stuck his tounge out at her.

“Michael, it’s Mom.  I have some food for you.” Analyn said, walking closer to the bed.  She was smiling wider than Jeremy thought he’d ever seen, and she looked close to tears.

“Thanks, Mom.” Michael said, managing to take the bag of McDonalds his Mom was handing him.

“Okay, I mean it now.  All of you are

leaving.”

the nurse walked back in with her hands on her hips.  She pointed at Analyn. “Except you can stay if he wants.”  Then she pointed at Jeremy like she was accusing him of murder.

“You

are not allowed back until tomorrow.  That young man needs his rest.”

Jeremy sighed, then watched Cynthia and Virginia skip out of the room before starting to climb out of the bed himself.

“They’re going to be something spectacular.” Michael said, also watching.

“You better believe it.” Jeremy agreed.  He leaned down and kissed Michael’s cheek in a similar manner to how he had earlier.  “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“First opportunity!  As soon as visiting hours start!  And could you grab me my pac-man blanket first?”

The nurse groaned.

…

Jeremy couldn’t make it as soon as visiting hours started, unfortunately (for him, the nurse probably wasn’t to upset), due to school.  He made sure Michael knew he’d be there as soon as he could and then spent the next eight hours cursing school’s very existance— you know, like usual.  Except not anymore.

School had also changed drastically since the Squips shut down.  The amount people knew based on Squip level, personal interests, and other unavoidable daily factors throughout the years were so dramatically different, that it had resulted in the beginnings of an individual study program, where each student got one-on-one attention and more or less of said attention depending on how much help was needed.  It was wildly effective, and likely to stay that way even after everyone was caught up.

Jeremy, who already knew all the basic material they now required, was currently taking classes in Astronomy.  He was aiming to be the first post-Squip astronaut. Rich was in plenty of English courses and Brooke, surprisingly, was joining him, with more of a focus on script writing, accompanied with film classes.  She wanted to make superhero movies.

Christine, along with her basic courses that she took with Jenna, Jake, Chloe, and Michael when he got back, had found a huge interest in theatre, which for some reason did not surprise Jeremy at all.  She said her passion project was going to be getting this thing called Broadway up and running again. (Jeremy had raised his eyebrows at ‘passion project’ part but had no doubt she would get there.)

Jenna had decided she was going to put her “nosiness skills” to use in the FBI.  Jeremy had casually pointed out that she’d had no idea what he, Rich, and Brooke had been doing all these years, and she’d whacked him on the head with her phone

(ouch)

before giving a pretty valid excuse that hee Squip hadn’t let her look into them (a big mistake on its part).

Chloe was going into therapy, with a specialization in trauma.

And Jake…

“Jeremy!”

Jeremy was leaving for the hospital when he turned to see Jake walking quickly towards him, holding up a couple pieces of paper.

“Hey, Jake, what’s up?”

“Jeremy, look at this!” Jake shoved the papers close enough to his face that Jeremy actually couldn’t read them.

“Uh…”

Jake pulled the papers back.  “Okay, so I talked to your dad about all those terms you told me about.”

“All the what now?”

“You know, you said your dad said there was more options than just gay, straight, and bi.  So I talked to him and he sent me to Michael’s mom—”

“Michael’s mom?”

“Yeah, apparently she used to be married to another woman.”

Jeremy blinked.  “Huh.”

“But dude, she knew

so

much!  Like, here.” Jake held up the papers.  “There’s terms like asexual, pansexual, polysexual, demisexual, and transgender people, which, like, I didn’t even know was a

thing!”

Jake held up the papers like they were some great trophy.  “I,” he proclaimed. “Am going to write a book.”

Jeremy grinned.  “Hey, cool! Talk to Rich, he’ll give you some pointers.”

Jake immediately went bright red.  “Uh…”

Jeremy groaned.  “Jake, come

on.

Michael and I got together before the Squips even shut off, Brooke and Chloe made out in that spot behind the school like, a week after they were shut off, it’s your turn!”

“Okay, that’s not how anything works.  First of all, I don’t know if Rich even likes guys—”

“He’s been openly bi for three years, Jake.”

“Still!  I haven’t even had an actual conversation with him yet, and I bullied him for eleven years.  That’s a pretty big barrier to cross.”

“Hey, Michael and I managed.”

Jake paused.  “That’s a good point.” he admitted.  “Okay, fine. I’ll—”

“You’ll ask him out?!”

“I will

talk

to him about my

book.”

“Oh, yeah, I see.” Jeremy said.  “Yeah, talk to him about your book.  Yeah, I’m picking up what you’re putting down.”

“That’s not a euphemism, asshole.”

“Uh huh, yeah.” Jeremy said.  “Wink wink.”

“Did you just say ‘wink wink’ out loud?”

“Wink wink.”

“I hate you.”

“Go talk to your big gay crush, Jake.”

“It’s a big pansexual crush now.”

“Good for you, man.”

Jake, as he told Jeremy, was going to be an activist.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

It had been almost three weeks since Michael woke up, and they were finally letting him out of the hospital.  Everyone went there straight after school on Friday, with Jeremy, Jake, Jenna, and Chloe arriving together and Rich, Brooke, and Christine arriving together.  They all met up outside the front of the hospital and headed in together.The man at the front desk knew them very well at this point, and simply waved his hand towards Michael’s room.  They all thanked him and headed in that direction.When they got there a couple of doctors were in the room observing Michael as he tried out a pair of crutches.  The doctors didn’t think he’d need the wheelchair for too long once he left. Jake commented that Michael would rock it either way, and they exchanged some kind of complicated handshake that only Chloe had seen before.  (She said it was from middle school, when complicated handshakes between boys were sometimes looked at as cool, but the situation had never come up for them to use it.)Michael’s mom spent most of the time walking behind the group after lightly commenting that he probably wanted to talk to his friends more than her, but Michael still wheeled back and gave her about five hugs on the way out the door.After everyone actually made it out of the hospital, Michael squinted up in the direction of the sun.  “No, sunlight!” he called. “It’s been too long! I can’t handle this relationship anymore!”“Dork.” Jeremy said, smirking at him.“Hey, we have a surprise for you.” Chloe said.  She passed him a business card, which Michael brought up close to his face and squinted at.  “Loser’s— for God’s sake, it’s actually called Loser’s Eyecare?”“And that was one of the nicer names.” Jake said.  “Come on, let’s go get you some magic seeing lenses.”It ended up being just Jake, Chloe, Jenna, and Jeremy accompanying him, as well as Analyn, as Christine had a bunch of homework and asked for Rich and Brooke’s help with it.  So about half an hour later, all four of them were sitting in the lobby, Michael and Analyn were in the back, Jenna was talking with Jake, and Chloe and Jeremy were going over the giant folder Jeremy had gotten to go to the conference coming up.“Wow.” Chloe said as she was reading part of a page.  “You’re really pushing hard for LGBTQ rights, huh?”“Yeah.” Jeremy said.“What if they don’t make it easy for you?”“Well, we could always play the ‘We Saved the World’ card.”“I’m pretty sure you only get one use of that card.”“Yeah, well, this stuff is important to me.  For obvious reasons.”“Ah.” Chloe nodded sagely.  “Because it’s what a decent person would do.”“Well, yeah.” Jeremy looked towards where Michael was still getting his eyes checked.  “That too.”“Lovebird.”Jeremy shoved Chloe half-heartedly.A second later Michael wheeled out of the back of the building.“How’d it go?” Jeremy asked, standing up.“Well, the prescription is going to be here in a couple of days, and now I’m picking frames.” Michael said, as Analyn pointed him towards the many glasses frames sitting in the other half of the store.“Sweet, this is the part we get to help with.” Chloe said, hopping off the chair quickly followed by, Jake, Jenna, and Jeremy.The first pair Michael randomly grabbed were bright purple.  “What do you guys think?” he said, turning around, putting the glasses on and striking a pose with his upper body that made him look like a fashion model.Chloe burst into laughter, quickly followed by Jeremy and Jake.  “You— look— ridiculous!” she choked out.Michael scoffed in mock offense.  “You guys, that’s so mean! I have no idea what they look like, but I’m sure they suit me.”“If you want I could loan you some of my purple lipstick.” Jenna said.  “It can make it look even more like purple barfed on your face.”“Oh, wow.  I get it. You guys don’t support me.”  Michael mimed wiping a tear and put the frames back.  “You’re lucky I can’t really see any of you, or I’d storm over and beat you up.”“Yeah, I can take you.” Jeremy said casually.Chloe snorted.  “I have several thousand events I can bring up that prove otherwise.”“Fuck you, Valentine.”“Gross, no thanks.”“You’re disgusting.”“You brought it up!”“How about these?” Michael called, who had been ignoring the two of them the whole time.Jeremy turned to see—Wow.“Well?” Michael asked.“You know, they’re not awful.” Chloe admitted.“Here,” Jake said.  “I’ll take a picture and send them to you so you can see.”Michael was wearing a pair of brown glasses that were mostly circular but turned into squares a little at the top.“Yeah, those are good.” Jenna said.  “I think they look like you.”“I don’t even know what that means.” Michael said.  “Jer?”“Uh— you look great!  I mean, you always look great, but like, you look really great right now and—” Jeremy cut himself off with a cough.  “I like those.” he mumbled, pretty sure his face was bright red and Michael’s was too.“Well, now they’ve got the boyfriend stamp of approval.” Chloe said, and Jeremy whacked her on the arm.They all looked at three or four more pairs of glasses, but ultimately, Michael did go back for the second pair after taking a look at Jake’s picture.The lady working at the front desk told Michael they’d call him in a couple days when his glasses were ready, and then they all headed home.Analyn had to run to the grocery store, so Jeremy was driving everyone home this time, as well as most of the time when they were all hanging out, since the Squip was right about one thing— no one else knew how to drive without their Squips.  (Yes, Jeremy might have teased Michael once or twice about teaching him to tie his shoes after making sure it didn’t actually bother him.)Michael sat in the front seat next to him due to his legs, with Jake and Jenna in the next row and Chloe in the back.“So you really liked the glasses I picked, huh?” Michael asked, a little bit teasingly.“Shut up.” Jeremy grumbled.The two of them were quiet for a minute as the three in the back were knee-deep in a conversation.“Hey,” Jeremy said quietly when they pulled up to a light.“Yeah?”“I’m really sorry about your legs.”Michael glanced towards him in surprise.  “Jeremy, you don’t need to be sorry. I asked you to do that, and for a good reason.”“I know, but still.  It clearly hurt you, and… I hate that.  I don’t like hurting you.” Jeremy mumbled.“Jeremy,” Michael said softly.  “I know exactly how you feel.”They were both quiet for another second.  “If we’re making apologies,” Michael said, and Jeremy glanced back over out of the corner of his eye, as the light had just turned green.  “We should probably talk about optic nerve blocking.”“It’s okay, Michael.” Jeremy cut him off before Michael could say anything.  “Yeah, it was a pretty shitty thing to do, but I can comprehend your state of mind, and it doesn’t really matter much now.  You also probably thought you could make up for that later, huh?”Michael nodded somewhat hesitantly.“Have you actually made accidental deals with your Squip?” Jeremy asked curiously.“Oh yeah.  All the time.  It would either spring them on me or give me a time limit to decide or talk in circles until I couldn’t really understand what it was saying anymore, or when I was really young and it just turned on it would just tell me that was what’s best for me, and I didn’t have any reason not to trust it yet.”“Geez, that sounds awful.” Jeremy muttered.  “How did you ever know whether a thought came from you?”“For a while, I didn’t.  It was hard to separate actual reality from the Squip’s reality.” Michael admitted.“Geez.” Jeremy shook his head as he thought about that.  “Wait, but just for a while? What helped?”“Chloe.  When I finally got closer to someone who felt the same way about Squips as I did, it was easier to vent to each other and figure out what was or wasn’t Squip bullshit.”“Yeah, okay.” Jeremy said.  “How did that happen, by the way?  Jake said you both got super drunk one day.”Michael coughed a little in what sounded like embarrassment.  “Uh, yeah. It was actually a combination of a ton of alcohol and eating way too many of these brownies that Chloe’s mom had baked weed into.”Jeremy couldn’t help but laugh at the mental picture.“Yeah, just so you know, that shuts Squips off for a good long while.  I think we were out of it for like three and a half days straight, and we had many conversations.  They included a bunch of stuff our Squips had said that we both poked holes in, a lot of venting about stuff about Squips we hated, and me coming out as gay and her as bi.”“Well, yeah.” Jeremy mused.  “That does sound like it would make you two pretty close.”“It did.” Michael said, smiling.  “God, I love her so much, Jeremy, you have no idea.”The rest of the drive back to people’s house took Jeremy the better part of an hour, and after he finally dropped Michael off, he went home and collapsed on his bed.His phone buzzed for a minute with a text from Rich. 
Hey, Christine finished her homework.  I don’t think she believes us, but she’s, like, super smart.  She said she wanted to try AotD with us, you coming?
 Jeremy took a minute typing out his reply due to using his left hand, the one that grabbed the phone. 
Not today just got back from taking everyone home and im super tired
 
Oh, okay.  We’ll show Christine some other time then.
 
No its cool go ahead
 
Are you sure you’re okay with us showing her without you?
 
Yeah she can be your 3rd player rn no big
 
Okay.
 Jeremy set his phone back on his nightside table and fell asleep until dinner.…“HEY!”This was the voice that so rudely woke Jeremy up and caused him to yell “JESUS CHRIST!” and nearly fall out of bed at Too Early A.M. on a Sunday morning.He looked up from grabbing his blanket for dear life to see Chloe laughing her ass off.“Yeah, ha ha.” Jeremy grumbled, rubbing his eyes.  “The fuck you doing here, Chloe?”“We’re playing ping pong!” Chloe cried happily, throwing up her hands.“Wha?”“Jake’s parents are loaning us their ping pong table while Jake and Jenna are going to the mall.  But Michael can’t see anything for another day, so you and I are playing, cummon.”“It is too early Chloe.”“It’s nine in the morning.” “God, how are you functioning?”“Okay.  Get up, come on.”Somehow, Jeremy had no idea how but somehow, fifteen minutes later Chloe had already managed to get him to get dressed, eat breakfast, and get out the door toward Jake's, with her mom driving the both of them since Jeremy was still waking up.“You’re gonna be one of those therapists who only operates in the morning, aren’t you?”“I’m not a morning person, Jeremy.”“It’s 9AM.”“That’s a normal time for not-morning-people to be awake!”Michael was already at Jake’s house when they both got there.  Chloe’s mom dropped them both off and told them she’d be back to pick them up later.  Choe thanked her and they both walked inside, where Michael was sprawled out on a couch, his wheelchair next to it, in what appeared to be sweatpants and a tank top that really complimented those muscles in his arms that Jeremy liked.  And since he was dating him now and didn’t have to force himself to look away, instead he whistled.“Who’s doing that?” Michael called, pushing himself up.“Chloe.” Jeremy called back.“Ha ha.”“Hey, come on, you can flirt later.” Chloe said, grabbing Jeremy’s arm and dragging him towards the ping pong table.  “I wanna play ping pong.”It took about one minute for them to realize the problem with that.“Ugh!  How is this so hard?”“You don’t have a Squip helping you anymore, Chloe.” Jeremy said.“Yeah, and could you at least try not to hit them towards my face, especially when you know I cannot see them and duck away?” Michael asked, rubbing his forehead.“I am trying!” Chloe snapped.  She set her paddle down and started fanning her face.  “What time is it? Is it socially acceptable to eat lunch yet?”Jeremy grabbed his phone.  “Well, Chloe, it is now 9:26, counting the fifteen minutes it took to get me out the door and the ten to get here and set up.” Jeremy said.Chloe groaned, and Jeremy was about to say something else, when his phone lit up with a text from Brooke. 
Hey Rich and I were gonna binge all the Star Wars movies do you wanna come over
 
Sorry brookie im at jake’s with no ride Chloe dragged me over here at 9 in the morning to play ping pong
 
I can come pick u up
 
Nah chloe really wants someone 2 play with

Jake’s at the mall with jenna and michael can’t see yet
 
U sure? We can also come over there
 
Not today, maybe next time
 
Okay
 “Hey, Earth to Jeremy, are you still there?”Jeremy glanced up.  “Yeah, sorry, I was texting Brooke about something.”“Ooh!  Ask her if we’re still on for our date tomorrow!”“Gross, ask her yourself.” “Fine.” Chloe grabbed her phone, and a minute later a lovestruck smile crossed her face.“Hey, keep your PDA to yourself!” Jeremy called.“She’s not even here.” “You’ve got your version of the Michael Look.”Michael coughed over on the couch.  “‘The Michael Look?’”“Ee-yup.” Jeremy said, sitting on the table to purposely make himself look as casual as possible.“What’s the Michael Look?”“Well, if you saw it, it wouldn’t be the Michael Look.”“…What?”“Come on Chloe, you’re never gonna improve at ping pong if you don’t play.”It took about three hours for Chloe to improve even a little bit, and they stopped to make lunch in there somewhere, but Chloe seemed to still enjoy the game quite a bit even if she sucked at it.Lunch was followed by Jeremy wanting a break and going to sit with Michael on the couch while Chloe sat on another nearby couch with a soda.Jeremy was still up far earlier than usual even by the time they ate lunch, meaning not five minutes after he sat down he was just about asleep on Michael’s shoulder, and Michael running his hands through his hair definitely wasn’t helping matters.“Aw, look, Jer’s sleepy,” came Chloe’s voice.Jeremy looked towards the table to find her sitting on it.  “Fuck you, Valentine. You know my Sunday sleep schedule, you dragged me out of bed at nine in the morning, and I have a comfy boyfriend.”  Jeremy leaned more against Michael’s side as he gave the last statement.“Hey, you hear that Chlo?  I’m comfy.”“Please, I know that.  I’ve been falling asleep leaning on you for years.”“Uh, excuse you, you’ve been falling asleep sitting on top of me—”“You make a fantastic body pillow.”“Ugh, Chloe—”That was about where Jeremy dropped out of the conversation due to actually falling asleep on Michael’s shoulder.…“So you carry the 1.”“Um, this is a piece of paper, I can’t pick up just the 1.”“Jake, bud, it just means you write it over here.”“So where am I carrying it?”“Nowhere.”“You just said—” “All ‘carry’ means is that you write it over here to add to the 3 later.”“Wh— what?  I thought I was adding 11 to 24!”“You are.   You have to do it in steps.”Jake groaned and put his head on the math book on Jeremy’s kitchen table.  “I do not understand the mathematical field.”“Be grateful I don’t have to catch up to Pre-Calculus, man.”Jake looked up.  “Can we take a break?”“It’s been about fifteen minutes since our last break.”“Please?”Jeremy’s phone buzzed before he could reply.“Answer it!  That could be important!” Jake called, pointing almost desperately at the phone.Jeremy shot him a mini-glare before glancing at the phone to see a text from Rich. 
Hey, can I come over?  I want to show you this comic book plot I wrote Brooke.
 “Who is it?” Jake asked.“It’s Rich.”“Oh oh, tell him to come over!”“I thought you were terrified of talking to him.” Jeremy asked, raising an eyebrow.“I am.   But if he’s here you won’t be so hard on me.”“I am hardly being hard on you.” “Jeremy.”   Jake was practically whining.Jeremy held up his phone and turned on his recorder so Jake heard him as he sent back: 
“Sorry, Jake has to practice math now and he’ll get distracted by you if you’re here.”
 “Jesus Christ, don’t send that!” Jake yelled as Jeremy sent it.“Sorry I can’t hear you over the ‘text sent’ sound!” Jeremy called way too loudly.
“Asshole.”
“Thanks.  Now about 11+24.”…Rich and Brooke were upset about something.It’s not like Jeremy couldn’t tell, okay?  He’d known them his whole life.  But that didn’t make it any easier to know what it was that was wrong.  He wasn’t a mind reader.Other than that it had been a fantastic week, one of the ones where problems from Squips seemed almost non-existent.  And it was the week Michael was let out of the hospital.  Tuesday he had played with Cynthia and Virgina, and Michael had come over in the middle of it all and they’d all played MarioKart together.  Wednesday he had gone with Jake to a football game. He had thought he’d hate it, but Jake had been having too much of a good time for him to so so.  Thursday he’d spent with Christine and Jenna at a spa— don’t knock it ‘till you try it okay? It was so relaxing.  So yeah, whole week had been awesome.At the moment he was sitting in Michael’s room with Chloe, on the bed.  Chloe was stretched out almost like a cat on the bed, wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt.  Jake had a letterman jacket on (he had mentioned Wednesday that he genuinely liked them), and Michael was wearing his hoodie.  Jenna was in jeans and a t-shirt on one of the bean bags, Christine in a skirt and jean jacket on the other, as Jake was trying to set up the video game counsel while Michael shouted instructions from his wheelchair.Jake glared at him.  “You could help me, y’know.”Jeremy pretended to consider it.  “Nah, this is too funny.” he eventually decided.Jake grumbled something under his breath.“Jake, use your nice words!” Christine called.Jake flipped her off, and regretted it a second later when Christine leveled him with a gaze of death.“Sorry.” Jake squeaked.Chloe flipped over on the bed so she was now laying on her stomach.  “Hey, are you alright?” she asked.It took Jeremy a second to realize she was talking to him.  Usually when someone asked ‘are you alright’ they were talking to Jake, Chloe, or Michael.“Me?  I’m good.” Jeremy said.“Bullshit.” Jenna said from the beanbag, tuning into the conversation.They had caught Jake, Christine, and Michael’s attention now too, who were all looking over.“Come on Jer,” Chloe said.  “I can tell by now when something is bothering someone.  What is it?”Jeremy sighed.  “Rich and Brooke are upset with me about something.” he admitted.  “And I don’t know what’s wrong.”“Maybe they want to spend more time with you.” Jenna suggested.Jeremy gave her a look.  “What do you mean?”Jake, Chloe, Jenna, Christine, and Michael all glanced at each other.“What?” Jeremy asked.“Jeremy,” Chloe said.  “You know we all adore you.”“Me more than you four.” Michael cut in, and Jake smacked him playfully on the arm.“But,” Chloe continued.  “You have spent every single day with at least one of us this week.”“What?  No I haven’t, I…” Jeremy trailed off as he thought back on the week.  “Holy shit, I totally have.”“See?” Jake said.  “They probably miss you.”“Oh my gosh.” Jeremy sat back on the bed.  “I’m a terrible friend.”“Hey.” Chloe smacked him.  “Stop that.”“No, seriously.  I ignored them unintentionally for like, a good chunk of time when I had my Squip—”“A couple days?” Michae asked.“That’s a long time for us!  And now I haven’t seen them all week, and—”“Well, go on then.” Chloe nudged him towards the edge of the bed.“What?”“We give you full permission to play video games with us another time.” Jenna said.  “Go apologize to your best friends.”“I— you guys are the best.” Jeremy said, already moving towards the stairs.“We know!” Chloe called after him.Jeremy took his now traded-in car that he used to get to Michael’s and headed to Brooke’s, as that had been their go-to hangout for a long time.He took out his key and let himself in to find Rich and Brooke sitting at her dining room table, Rich writing and Brooke drawing, likely for a comic book.Something in Jeremy’s chest pinched.“Hey, guys.” he said hesitantly, and both of them jumped and looked up in surprise.“Jeremy?” Brooke asked.  “What are you doing here?”“I, uh… need a reason?” Jeremy asked.Rich and Brooke shared a look.  “Look, I know we’ve seen each other every day for almost eleven years, Jer.” Rich said.  “So we might kind of operate on a sped-up time scale. But we haven’t seen you in a week outside of school.”“I know…” Jeremy said, rubbing the back of his neck.  “I’m sorry.”“It’s— it’s okay, Jeremy.” Rich said, standing up.  “We just miss spending time with you.”Jeremy smiled a little.  “Well,” he said. “Here I am.”  He spread his arms wide in as dramatic a way as he could.  “Spend time with me.”Brooke laughed and hopped up after Rich.  “I have an idea.” she said.…A couple minutes later they’d started watching post-Squip Disney movies and trying to spot where the writing had been influenced (spoiler alert, it wasn’t hard).They had currently just finished Hercules.“Oh, come on!” Rich called through a mouthful of popcorn.  “The guy nearly died to save Meg and then decides to throw it all away to become a god?”“Yeah, that’s a Squip influenced ending if I’ve ever seen one.” Jeremy said.  “If that was even what happened Meg would have been a little upset, and not ‘understand his quest for belonging.’  Jesus Christ.”“In my opinion, it's still better than The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Watching all of them shun Quasimodo after everything he went through made me cry.” Brooke said.Rich pointed at the stack of movies next to the TV.  “Okay, but I think we can all agree that the worst anticlimax of all time is Mulan.  Yeah, it was so fun watching a tiny dragon go on a fetch quest and drag a girl home to live out her life in disgrace.  Ugh.” “Yeah, that’s true.” Brooke admitted, as Jeremy nodded his agreement.They all watched the credits roll, and Jeremy could sense Brooke wanted to ask him something, as she kept glancing over.  Eventually, she glanced at him one more time, and got up to change the movie.“Okay, what?” Jeremy asked.Rich and Brooke shared a glance.“Do you like them more than us?” Brooke asked eventually.Jeremy’s heart dropped to his stomach.  “What?”“Like, we like them too.” Brooke said.  “Obviously. Chloe’s my girlfriend, I spend a fair amount of time with her, and Rich obviously has a thing for Jake.” “What?!” Rich shrieked.“Oh shut up, not the point.  But, like, we barely even see you anymore.  You spend all your time with them. I think Christine and Jenna see you more than we do.  So do you like them better?”Jeremy was trying to figure out a way to express the crushing guilt that he made his friends feel that way.It came out as anger instead.“Seriously?!” he snapped.  “Do you actually think I would feel that way?!  I’ve known you guys my whole life! Besides, it’s not like everything’s hunky-dory with them anyway!  I’m still mad at them sometimes! I mean, I don’t tell them that, but I’m not—”“Jeremy!” Rich called.  “Calm down, you don’t need to get defensive!”“I don’t need to get defensive?  I can’t believe you think so low of me!  Well you know what, if I did like them more, maybe it would be well deserved!”Jeremy stormed out the door, climbed back in his car, and drove faster than he should have back to Michael’s house.When he got there he slammed the door into the wall to screams from the basement.  He stormed down the stairs to the surprised looks of all five people now on the bed, walked over towards them, grabbed the front of Michael’s hoodie, and buried his face in it and started sobbing.…It took about ten minutes for him to stop crying, and most of the time was spent with Michael running his hand through Jeremy’s hair.  There was a sense of shock to the whole thing, because Jeremy was positive none of them had seen him cry before.“Are you ready to talk about whatever happened now?” Michael asked quietly.“I really fucked up.” Jeremy whispered.  “I felt really awful and then I got really mad, and—”“Come on, I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think.” Christine said gently.“I told them if I liked you guys more it was well deserved.”He could sense Christine wincing.  “Okay, that’s pretty bad.” she admitted.“Why did it make you so angry?” Chloe asked.  “That seems like a pretty easy apology, and a pretty easy denial that you like us more.”“I think they like each other more.” Jeremy mumbled, before smacking his hand over his mouth.Michael managed to make eye contact, and Jeremy looked at him for a long, silent moment.Eventually he lowered his hand.  “Oh.” he whispered.“Oh.” Michael replied.“I didn’t think—” Jeremy mumbled.  “I mean, I’m not supposed to—”“Not supposed to what?” Chloe asked, as the other three leaned closer in support.Jeremy realized what he’d been about to say at the same time he realized how ridiculous it sounded.“Jeremy?” Jake asked.“I’m not supposed to be the insecure one?” Jeremy phrased it like a question.“Now that’s not fair, Jeremy.” Michael said quietly.Jeremy nodded.  “Yeah, I know.” he whispered.“You want to maybe go talk to Rich and Brooke again?” Michael asked.Jeremy scrubbed at his eyes.  “Not like this.” he mumbled.“I can promise you they won’t mind.” Chloe offered.“Tomorrow.” Jeremy insisted.“Okay.” Jake said.  “How about we all spend the night here for an Emotional Support and Validation Party?”“Jake, my man,” Michael said.  “I gotta say. Of all the parties you’ve ever thrown, those are my favorite.”…Rich and Brooke weren’t at anyone’s house the next day.  Or the barn, or the bowling alley, or Pinkberry, or 7-11, and Jeremy was running out of ideas.  They only spent their time in about five places. He even checked the tree they’d climbed that one time in 5th grade that Rich had almost broken his ankle on (after that they swore off of playing outside).Eventually, he was forced to give up and reside himself to seeing them at school on Monday, which did not come quickly enough.  He walked up the doors with everyone else, and Christine actually gave him a pat in the back and said “Go get ‘m, tiger!” Jake was about to mockingly repeat it when Jeremy glared at him.“Good luck!” Michael called as Jeremy walked into the school.He found Rich and Brooke both at their lockers, way back by the back of the school where the other kids who had low-level Squips in other grades had had their lockers.  They had never used them until after the Squips shut off.“Hey.” he said quietly, and they both turned to face him.  “Can I talk to you guys?”They exchanged a glance, and Brooke sighed.  “Sure, Jer.”Jeremy looked around.  “Not here? Can we go somewhere more private?”Rich raised an eyebrow, looking considerably more ticked off than Brooke.  “Like where, a bathroom? We’re in school.”Jeremy thought for a minute.  “I know.”…Five minutes later found the three of them in the janitors closet.“Look, I— I’m really—” he started.“We know, Jeremy.” Rich cut him off.Brooke glared at Rich.  “We know you didn’t mean it, Jeremy.” she said in a much gentler tone.  “We don’t really want an apology, we want an explanation.”Jeremy bit his lip, and was silent for a good thirty or so seconds.“I’m not…” he finally started.  “I’m not in any English classes.”Now both of them looked confused.  “Huh?” Rich asked.“I don’t have any English classes.  That’s just you two. You both need to take English classes for at least some part of your future career, and want to take them for a common interest.  But I’ve never liked English.”“What do you mean?” Brooke asked slowly.“I just— sometimes I feel like a lot of things are like that.  You both like reading, and I don’t.” He pointed at Rich. “You write comic books for Brooke while she draws for them.  You guys do that together all the time.” He rubbed the back of his neck as he continued.  “When we picked Disney movies from 1995 we wanted to see, you both picked an actual Disney movie, and I didn’t.  You both were avidly against taking a Squip no matter what, and I technically wasn’t. You guys were both friends before I met you, and I’ll never have that year that you two had.”“What are you saying?” Rich asked.  He didn’t look very angry anymore.“It just seems to me like there are a lot of things you both agree on and that I’m kind of the third wheel on.  And sometimes it feels like it is that way because you guys don’t… want to include me in everything.  Like you love me and care about me, but it’s still always gonna be RichandBrooke … and Jeremy.”“Jer—” Brooke started, looking upset.“And so when the Squips were shut off and now I was suddenly friends with a bunch more people, I think I just kind of subconsciously decided that this was the chance for you two to go off on your own and be real best friends. And you didn’t need to… ‘include’ me anymore.”  He put air quotes around ‘include.’“Jer, that’s not—” Brooke walked towards him and, before Jeremy could say anything, wrapped him in a hug.  “That’s not how we feel.” she whispered. “There’s three of us. You need three for a trio, and that’s what we are.”Rich appeared as part of the hug on his other side.  “She’s right. We’re RichandBrookeandJeremy, dude.”Jeremy buried his face in between both of his best friends shoulders.  “Sorry.” he got out, due to being pretty close to crying himself.“Hey.” Rich said, stepping back to look at Jeremy as he wiped his eyes.  “Do you remember that day in first grade when I told you guys I couldn’t hang out that day because I was going to Story Time at the Library and neither of you wanted to go?”“Uh…”“It would have been… less than two months after you lost Michael as a friend, and you were probably nowhere near getting over that.”Jeremy shook his head.“Yeah.  You thought me wanting to do something without you meant that I didn’t want to be friends anymore.”“Oh.” Jeremy realized, because he did remember that.  It had seemed like such a logical conclusion at the time, and he had spent the afternoon sadly talking to Brooke about how much he liked Rich, who had no idea what was going on.His father was the one who got it out of him, in a screaming session (really only on Jeremy’s side) that involved a lot of crying.  Paul had comforted Jeremy and then must have explained to Rich’s parents what had happened. Somehow or other, it made its way to Rich, who had in turn spent the following day almost glued to Jeremy’s side, and making comments every three seconds about how he was such a great friend.  It had gotten the message across.“Maybe that mindset never really disappeared all the way.” Rich suggested.Jeremy found himself leaning back against the door.  “Maybe you’re right.” he muttered.“Jeremy,” Brooke said, leaning back against the door next to him.  “We love you. And just because we like some things you don’t does not mean you’re not our best friend.”“It sounds really silly when you put it that way,” Jeremy admitted.“It’s not silly.” Brooke said.“Tell you what.” Rich finally joined the two of them against the janitor closet door. “How about we do an old-fashioned, Anti-Squip Club style adventure?”Jeremy raised an eyebrow.  “Now?”“When else are we going to cut school, Jer?”Brooke snorted.  “Rich, it isn’t even possible to cut school anymore!  They assume it’s a bad Squip day!”“We never had Squips!”Jeremy waved at him.  “Hi, remember me? The member of the Anti-Squip Club who very much took a Squip?”“Shit, you right.” Rich put a hand to his chin in thought for a moment, then grinned.  “Alright, I got it.”…“THIS IS NOT A BAD SQUIP DAY!” Rich screamed as they all ran past the office.  “WE ARE SKIPPING SCHOOL!”“WHAT’CHA GONNA DO ABOUT IT?!” Jeremy screeched, as Brooke blew a raspberry at the man in the office, who looked a little stunned at what was happening.But no one moved fast enough to stop them, so all three ran out the front doors laughing their heads off, feeling the warm August air on their face, and moving towards a stupid adventure, and Jeremy had never been so proud of who had ended up being his best friends.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“You’ve got your information packets.”“Yup.”“And your talking points.”“Uh-huh.”“And your coat.”“Michael.”“It could be cold!”Jeremy laughed, and a second later leaned up to Michael’s face.  “I will be fine.” he said, balancing his hand on the arms of his chair before giving Michael a quick hug and then moving to lace their fingers together.Man, it was so ridiculous and unfair how easily he could shut him up like that.  Michael blushed and pulled his hands away to start fidgeting with the hoodie that he’d covered in various patches over the past three months, including a gay pride patch on his left arm.  “I know you will.” he said eventually. “It’s just that this is kind of a big deal.”They were sitting at the gate of the plane that was supposed to take Jeremy to Japan.  No one else had arrived yet, and Jeremy’s parents had taken Cynthia to buy some candy she’d spotted.  Michael’s mom was in the bathroom.“Ugh, don’t remind me of that.” Jeremy grumbled.  “I’ll start thinking about all the world leaders again.”Michael chuckled a little.  “Yeah, I guess that’s pretty intimidating, huh?”“You have no idea.” “Um.  Yeah. You’re right, I don’t.”Jeremy laughed and leaned on Michael’s arm.  “I am going to miss you, you know.”Michael looked at him curiously.  “Yeah, I know.”“Well, sometimes I see you wondering, Micah.”Michael bit his lip, and admitted something he’d been thinking for a while.  “Okay, but like, if you meet someone in Japan, like a boy or girl who’s a million times better than me or something—”“Michael!” Jeremy exclaimed.“I would totally understand if you decided I’m not worth it, is all!”“Michael Gregory Maria William Collin Stacy Mell.” Jeremy crossed his arms.“None of those are my middle name.”“I know.  Adding more makes it sound better.  I am not going to find someone like you anywhere else in the world.”“And if you do?”“I won’t.”“And if you find someone better?”“I won’t.”“How could you possibly know that?”Jeremy grabbed his face and pulled it close to his.  “Because I love you, asshole.” he said.Michael’s felt like the wind had been knocked out of him.  “Wh-what?”Jeremy smiled sincerely at him.  “I said I love you, Michael.” He touched their noses together.  “Can I kiss you?”Michael nodded breathlessly, and Jeremy grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him in for a kiss.They had been dating for almost half a year at this point if you counted before the Squips were shut off, but Jeremy still asked if he could kiss Michael every single time.  Michael had admitted early on that he thought he might have some consent issues. Jeremy had understood perfectly, and most of the time if Jeremy asked Michael had no problem.  “So I’ll just ask,” Jeremy said. Michael was pretty sure it had long ago stopped being a big deal for Jeremy, but it was always a big deal for him, in a good way.When Jeremy pulled away Michael felt out of breath for more reasons then one.  First of all, they’d just kissed for half a minute. Jeremy had also just told him he loved him.  Wait, wasn’t he supposed to say something back?The next second Michael thought the idea might make him physically ill.Jeremy seemed to pick up on this.  “Michael, you don’t have to say anything back.” he said.“Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?” Michael mumbled.“Michael, we’ve been spending three months figuring out a lot of things you like are what you’re not supposed to do.  Our whole relationship is a Squip ‘not supposed to do.’  Besides, the fact that I love you is not going to change if you’re not there yet.”“Oh, no, I— Jeremy, I— do.  I do, you know— that. I do.  I just don’t think I can… say the words yet.” Michael mumbled the last part.“That’s fine.” Jeremy said, grabbing Michael’s hand in his.  “When you’re ready to say the words, I will still love you.”“Hey.” Rich stuck his head in between them suddenly.  “I hope I’m interrupting a sincere emotional moment.”“Fuck you.” Jeremy said, shoving Rich’s head backwards.“Just so you know, the five year old is approaching.” Michael said, pointing to Jeremy’s parents walking up with Cynthia, who was holding a giant rainbow swirl lollipop.“Jer’my!  I found your friend!” Cynthia called, which was when Brooke poked her head out from behind Paul.“I have arrived!” Brooke called, running up and putting her elbows on Jeremy’s head.  Jeremy swatted blindly above his head until Brooke moved away.“Hey, Jer’my!” Cynthia cried, jumping on his lap, causing Jeremy to cough his way into a wheeze.  The next second she looked sad. “Are you sure I can’t come with you?”“Yeah, I’m sorry, Cynthia.  They’re being super strict. Not even mommy or daddy can come.” Jeremy said.Cynthia pouted.Well, they could, but they weren’t paying for anything aside from fully covering Jeremy, Rich, and Brooke.  And since they expected these conferences to be months long, they couldn’t take that much time off of work. And Michael couldn’t take that much time off of school.“Hey, it’s okay.  Micah will spend so much time with you.” Jeremy reassured Cynthia.Cynthia beamed at Michael.  “Really?”Well , how could he say no to that?  “Oh, absolutely. We’re gonna have a ton of fun.” Michael said.Cynthia smiled deviously.  “You’ll play Apocalypse of the Darned with me?”Jeremy gave Cynthia a look.Michael gasped.  “Cynthia! Scandalous!”Cynthia giggled.  “What does scandalous mean?” she asked.Before Michael could answer Rich screeched, and they all glanced over to see Jake had scooped him up from behind and was now holding him bridal style.“You guys!  We’re in an airport!” Chloe exclaimed, walking up behind Jake, along with Christine and Jenna.  “Don’t scream!”“Then Tell Jake not to grab me without telling me.” Rich said as Jake set him down again.  “I’m gonna get you back for that.”“Aw, how?” Jake asked, folding his hands under his chin.  “Are you going to strain your muscles and lift my leg?”Rich grabbed Jake’s shirt and yanked him down to kiss him.  Jeremy whooped in the background, and when Rich pulled away Jake was a bright red stuttering mess.“How’s that?” Rich asked with a smirk.“You— shut up.” Jake grumbled, crossing his arms.“Hey, Rich, you want me to send that to you?” Jenna called, waving her phone from where she was standing, next Christine, who was giggling. “No, Jenna, come on!” Jake cried.“Relax, Jakey,” Jenna said, shoving the back of Jake’s head as she passed.  “I didn’t even get anything.”Rich and Jake had finally started dating about a week and a half ago, and everyone had been happy for them, and simultaneously annoyed that they’d taken so long.   See, Michael had gotten three months after he woke up to enjoy being Jeremy’s boyfriend.  Jake and Rich now had to wait however long it took to decide the fate of the world.A second later Michael’s mom walked up followed by both Brooke’s parents, Ben, and Rich’s parents, meaning everyone was now there.Due to the excess of people, everyone split off into smaller groups to continue separate conversations.  Michael found himself in a group with Jeremy, his parents, Cynthia, and his mom. Cynthia was bouncing on Jeremy’s lap and at the same time holding Michael’s hand.He had come to love Cynthia a lot over the past few months.  Enough that he could easily understand how Jeremy would take a Squip to prevent her from having to experience one.  He had known her for not even three months yet and he was already fairly sure he would do the exact same thing. And her and Virginia reminded him so much of himself and Jeremy when they were younger that it was almost creepy— well, not really.  It was more adorable.“We’re gonna have so much fun though, Mikey!” Cynthia called happily.  “We’re gonna play Mario Kart with ‘Ginia and have sleepovers, and I’m gonna make my special drink for you!”Michael raised his eyebrows.  “You have a special drink?”Jeremy glanced over at him and gagged where Cynthia couldn’t see.Cynthia nodded.  “It’s my own in-ven-ti-on.”  She took extra care on ‘invention,’ seeming to want to pronounce it right.Michael forced a grin.  “I cannot wait.”“Stop it, you two.” Jeremy said.  “You’re supposed to wish you’re in Japan with me, I’m not supposed to wish I’m back here with you.”“Oh, you are absolutely gonna wish you’re back here with us.” Michael’s mom said.  “I’m making adobo tonight.”Jeremy gasped.  “Jealous!   Oh, Cynthia, you’ve never had Analyn’s adobo before, you’re going to love it.”“And of course,” Michael’s mom aid, turning to Paul and Martha.  “Neither of you are invited.”Paul gasped dramatically, and Jeremy laughed.His laughter faded when he noticed his mom hadn’t looked up from her phone.Michael and his mother exchanged a look.  It was one of those looks that Jeremy would not approve of.  Or at least, not the motivation behind it. It was a look that meant Michael and his mom were both pretty sure Cynthia was going to spend her life with a very bad mother.Michael nudged Jeremy’s side with the hand Cynthia wasn’t holding.  “How about I send you some adobo?”Jeremy smiled at him, though it was a little smaller than before. “All the way to Japan?”“Of fucking course.  Hey, I’m sending food to one of the saviors of the world, they’re gonna make sure it gets there.”Jeremy laughed, and then the intercom announced his flight.  Jeremy stood up, and walked a little towards the gate after Cynthia hopped off his lap.Paul gave Jeremy a hug, wished him the best, promised to call him every night.  Martha gave him a quick hug and walked over and sat down again.Cynthia bounced up to Jeremy and squeezed him tight.  Jeremy picked her up a second later and spun her around.  “Aw, I’m gonna miss you sooooo much.” he said. “I’ll call you every night before bed, and bring you tons of souvenirs.”“Deal!” Cynthia said happily.Michael’s mom walked forward to say goodbye to Jeremy as Michael was bombarded by a hug from Brooke all but leaping onto the chair.“Brooke!” Michael called, hugging back for about ten seconds.  “I don’t know if anyone’s told you this, but you give fantastic hugs.”“Jeremy and Rich have both told me that countless times.” Brooke said, grinning back.  “Is that what you’re gonna miss most about me?”“I’ll miss all of you.”“Aww!”Rich walked up next to her.  “Hey!” he held up his hand and Michael smacked it with a fist.“Turkey.” he deadpanned.Rich laughed.  “I cannot believe I’m saying this.”  He walked forward and gave Michael a side hug.  “But I’m gonna miss you, Mell.”“I’ll miss you too, nerd.  Good luck.”“We’ll need it.” Rich said.  “Seriously, I thought defeating the Squips was going to be the hardest thing I ever had to do.  No one prepared me for politics.” “Agreed.” Brooke groaned.“Alright, back up, boyfriend coming through.”Rich and Brooke both looked back, and both of them elbowed Jeremy on the way past him. Jeremy glared off after them and sat in the seat next to him again.“Can I kiss your forehead?” Jeremy asked.“I’ll feel like a five year old, but sure.”Jeremy kissed his forehead.  “I like five year old you. Reminds me a lot of current you.”Michael was pretty sure he was blushing again.“I am going to miss you so much.” Jeremy said.“Call me every hour.”“Wow, that often?”“You’re right.  Every half hour.”Jeremy smiled at him.“Hey, by the earliest time we can reasonably expect you back my legs are supposed to be better.” Michael said.  “So I’ll pick you up and carry you back to your house when you get back here.”“I’ll hold you to that.” Jeremy said, leaning against Michael’s shoulder.The intercom gave the last call for their flight, and they glanced towards the other people walking on.“Can I kiss your forehead now?” Michael asked.Jeremy nodded, and Michael did just that.  “Good luck. I’ll be watching you.”“Creepy stalker.”“Why would I stalk a pathetic loser?”Jeremy laughed, squeezed Michael’s hand one last time, and walked over towards the gate, followed by Rich and Brooke, all three of them waving the whole way.After a couple minutes, Michael grabbed his crutches, stood up and walked over to the window to watch the plane take off, and was joined by Chloe, Jake, Jenna, and Christine, as his mom, Jeremy’s parents with Cynthia, Brooke’s parents with Ben, and Rich’s parents walked over to view from another window.“They’ll be back before we know it.” Chloe said, grabbing his hand.“I know.” Michael said, squeezing hers.  “And then they’re gonna be widely recognized for the rest of their lives.  Our boyfriends and girlfriend are famous, you guys,” he said, addressing Jake now too.“Holy shit, I’m gonna go in the history books as either Brooke Lohst’s ex-girlfriend or her wife.” Chloe said.“I don’t think they’d put her ex-girlfriend in a history book.” Jenna said.  “If you wanna make it you’ll have to stick around.”“Well, I guess that decides that.” Chloe said.“Really?” Christine asked, raising an eyebrow at her.  “That was the deciding factor?”“Uh, hell yes.  You know I’m only dating Brooke for her status.”“Her status as the person you’re in love with?” Michael asked.“That’s the status I’m talking about!”“It is kinda funny though.” Michael said.  “About half a year ago we didn’t give them the time of day unless we were bullying them.”“I don’t know about you guys.” Christine said, as the plane flew out of sight.  “But I like this better.”“Agreed.” everyone else said at the same time.“Hey, who wants to go get food?” Jake asked, holding up car keys.  He had been the first of the group to re-earn his license.“Slushies!” Michael called.  “And junk food! Candy! I want sugar everything!” No one gave any objections, so they all headed towards 7-11 after Michael said goodbye to his mom and Jeremy’s parents, and promised to see Cynthia that night for adobo.As soon as Michael got settled in the passenger seat, his phone buzzed, and he glanced down to see a text from Jeremy. 
Miss you already.
 There was a kissy face that clearly meant it was sarcastic, but something told Michael it was at least a little serious. 
New phone, who dis?
 
I hate you.
 
I love you too.
 Michael sent it, hoping Jeremy would pick up on the lack of sarcastic tone in that text, and simultaneously using it as a shield.Jeremy replied with about twelve heart eyes and Michael smiled in exasperation.“Hey, Jake.” Chloe called from the middle seat.  “If Michael has his Jeremy Look on, would you take a picture and send it to me?”Michael flipped Chloe off without turning around.He then put his phone away and joined in the conversation as they started towards 7-11.As they drove, Michael almost thought he heard his Squip calling his name over his shoulder, but it was much too quiet for him to even acknowledge it.He decided that was how it would stay.