"Michael!" Jeremy called down the hall as soon as he saw his friend's headphone cord trailing out behind the boy. His friend turned around, so as usual he wasn't actually listening to music; Jeremy swore he just wore those things for decoration.
"Whazzup?" Michael did some fancy footwork as he spun around to look Jeremy dead in the eyes, and then started laughing.
"What?" Jeremy asked defensively. "Do I have something in my hair?" Michael couldn't say anything but shake his head. "C'mon, Michael, this isn't very funny."
Michael caught his breath enough to calm himself down before he replied. "Bro, you have a hickey."
Jeremy could feel his face grow a beet red. "Wha-I mean-that is-where?" His voice was weak. Honestly, the only thing he wanted was to sink through the floor.
"Dude," Michael clapped him on the back. "It's all good. When a guy gets a hickey, it's cool. If you were a girl, that's a different story. Rumor has it Elizabeth had ten hickeys and Jenna couldn't stop talking about it until the whole senior year knew." He rolled his eyes. "I'm just jealous of the dude who got to give her those hickeys."
He paused for a moment, probably imagining Elizabeth with ten dudes, before he said, "Anyways, spill! Who gave you that bad boy?"
The two boys started going down the hall towards their lockers as the bell signaling the beginning of fourth period began. Jeremy turned his head sharply to make sure his friend was joking. "Who do you think? Christine…who else would it be?"
"Just checking," Michael ducked, holding his hands up in surrender as Jeremy swung his backpack at him.
As they turned into the hallway that led to Jeremy and Michael's classes, they almost ran into some juniors that were leaning up against the lockers, all of them enamored with one person.
"Yo, what's up?" The cocky boy sauntered over to them and boldly placed himself between the dynamic duo.
"Hey, Rich," Michael shifted a little to the right to allow room for the shorter dude. "We were just on our way to class. Still hitting it with the ladies?"
Rich snorted, "Hell, I don't need a squip to get the bunnies, boys." He smiled before continuing. "All you need is a little self-confidence and a whole lot of swagger. Just watch," and without any more introduction, he veered to the left and placed himself squarely in front of a curvy brunette who was busy applying lipstick in front of a mirror on her locker door.
Jeremy stopped to see what would happen, but Michael kept walking, so he changed his mind and ran to catch up to his friend.
"Didn't you want to see if Rich had 'moves' without a squip?" Jeremy did, and he was slightly disappointed he couldn't laugh at Rich's face when he inevitably slipped and fell on his face. Rich may have become his friend, but Jeremy was slightly sadistic.
Before Michael could respond, Jeremy felt a hand slip into his and he looked down to see the only face he ever liked to look at smiling up at him.
"Christine!" He squeezed her hand. She squeezed back. If you asked Jeremy, there was no feeling like it. If you asked Michael, there was also no feeling like it, except the feeling he was experiencing wasn't good.
"Hey, I thought I'd see you real quick before I went to my study hour." She made a face, indicating how she truly felt about spending 50 minutes straight with Ms. Bradshaw. Jeremy stooped down and kissed her forehead, causing her to wrinkle it more. "I wish you had study hour, too," she whined.
"Me, too. I wish I didn't have to take math at all, honestly. But I've skipped enough classes that I will get detention if I go to study hour with you instead of going to Pre-calc. I'll see you soon, though, Christine."
"Later, Jeremy," Christine smiled, giving her boyfriend a quick peck on the cheek before running down a hallway to the right.
Michael pretended to gag. "You two are absolutely disgusting." Jeremy blushed. "It's a good thing she didn't add to your hickey…" Michael danced out of the way into his classroom while Jeremy swung at him with his backpack. "Ha, missed! See you in an hour, Heere!"
The bell rang just as Michael found his seat near the back right corner of the classroom. There was no assigned seating, but he sat in the same chair every day anyways, because he enjoyed not being near the front. It allowed him to listen to music without the teacher getting too upset. Mr. Hawes was always too busy yelling at the front row students to notice him.
Rich sauntered in, filling the chair right next to Michael.
"Did you do it?" Michael asked.
"Do—what?" Rich looked confused, as though Michael had just asked him what the capital of Uganda was.
"Did you manage to get Mandy to like you?" He figured as much; Mandy had had a crush on Rich ever since he got squipped. It would have taken a very big dumbass to mess with those odds.
"Oh, that was her name? Actually, I didn't hit on her. I was just making a show of it cause I knew Heere was still skeptical of my abilities. I don't like Mandy-or-whatever-her-name-is and I don't ask girls out I am not interested in at least sleeping with."
"How nice." Michael grimaced as he turned, actually trying to pay attention to the teacher for once.
"Hey, if you don't like them, you don't want to waste their time," Rich explained defensively. Michael continued to ignore him. Rich gave up trying to get Michael's attention and settled doodle on the paper he should have been writing notes on for their relatively boring class.