"Oh come on Jeremy!"
"Michael, you can't simply ask me if you can spend the night, you have to inform me first."
"Michael Mell, don't you dare give me those puppy eyes!"
The two boys sat across from each other at a small rectangular table within a busy food court. (It was Michael's wise idea to go to the mall after another tiresome week at school inhope to perhaps to unwind and prepare for the upcoming week. ) Whenever they first arrive, they went to the nearest Gamestop to get the newApocalypse of the Damngame, (they finally beat the first one during one school night last year while attempting to study for their physics test. Although, the next day they both got failing grades from the lack of studying, the completion of the game made up for it.)
After that, they went to Spencer's as Jeremy wanted to buy new shirts to add to his closet.
While there, he bought three new shirts, Michael on the other hand, simply went to the back of the store and got a bag filled with discontinued sodas such asCrystal PepsiandMountain Dew Redjust to name a few. (Although, it's been months and people have forgotten about the event, he could never be sure whenever another squip-apocalypse could happen again. So as.a result, he always stocks up on the discounted red beverage as he rather be safe than sorry.)
Finally, after what seemed like hours of window shopping, they decided to crash at the food court as their feet were hurting like hell, not to mention, they were getting quiet hungry. Jeremy got a small strawberry frozen yogurt from a localPinkberrykiosk, while Michael got a cherry slushie and a couple of sushi rolls from a convenient store within the mall. (Who knew having a convenience store within the mall would be an outrageous idea, yet so…convenient.) Once they got to their table, they proceeded to set all of their belongings underneath the counter and finally sat down within the metal chairs.
Which brings us to now:
"Michael, I said no to the puppy eyes!" The Burnett said stifling a chuckle, as he used his plastic spoon to gester at the other boy's eyes. Michael sighed as he realized that his plan wasn't working. "Oh come on Heere," he whined as he leaned back into the metal chair, "you'rekilling me! Look! I mean-" he immediately sat up, "what happened to the good old days whenever we were in middle school? I didn't even have toask! I could simply go up to your front door one day, knock on it, wherever your dad would open the door, I would simply walk passed him while informing him that I was spending the night, and badabing, badaboom, I'm now living within your residence without you or your dad ever caring."
"But that was back in middle school."
"So?"
"We're in our final year of highschool Michael.We're seniors." And with that, Jeremy took his spoon, scooped up a dollop of yogurt and plopped the spoon into his mouth. "Yet our friendship hasn't changed." Michael said as he took a sip of his slushie. Jeremy took the spoon out of his mouth and placed it back into the yogurt, "Yeah, well, I'm just busy with school that's all. I can't always have you at my house distracting me from doing my homework. Do you know how much homework I have this week Michael? Three! Three fucking calculus papers! And don't you dare get me started on that class!"
Michael sat down his drink, "Jeremy, Jeremy, my sweet innocent Jeremy. You don't have to stress out about the homework- ''well yeah I do, I have a C average in that class and I cannot afford it going any lower-''hush."Michael said as he reached over the table and placed one hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Listen, do you honestly think teachers put effort into their homework?...Jeremy Heere don't you dare answer the question.. The obvious answer is no, no they don't. They put all their efforts into making and preparing their plans for us which leads to them to resorting to Google for our homework. Simply type in the first answer of your homework page, or the name, and there you go, you have access to the answers."
"But what if Google doesn't have the answers?" Jeremy said while pushing Michael's arm away. "Then you either have three options, one: simply keep looking, you know, the first page of Google is not guaranteed toalwayshave the thing you're looking for. Second: simply look up all your answers separately. Three: simply do the work, or cheat off one of your classmates."
Holy shit, he does have a point.
Jeremy stared down at the table and sighed. "fine, I guess you can spend the night this weekend. However, I'll text you whenever I'm ready for you to come over, I haveother stuffI need to attend to.."
"It's okay dude, I get it, you have to shower, clean up your room, and possibly you have to masturbate-"
"Ah, ah, ah! No ,nope, no!" Jeremy squealed reaching over the table to quiet Michael. "We do not say them-wordin public!" Michael nodded as Jeremy slowly began to sit back down. (His face was a light shade of pink.) He then proceeded to look around in the hope that nobody heard Michael or even his little outburst. (It looks like nobody did, thank God.)
Michael scoffed as he crossed his arms. "whatever you say bro, and hey, I think you should eat your froyo, it's big time melting…"
Jeremy looked down to see that his frozen yogurt was now indeed melted. The pink liquid was overflowing out of the paper cup and was forming a large puddle underneath on the table.. "Oh shit." Jeremy cussed under his breath as he rapidly pulled multiple napkins out of the dispenser and proceeded to clean his mess up. He then placed all of the wadded up napkins at the edge of the table as he grabbed the cup full of melted yogurt and downed it like a shot of alcohol. He then slammed the empty paper cup on the table whenever he was done and stared Michael straight in the face.
A small grin formed on Michael's face. "Are you done?" Yeah." "Good, clean up your face dude, you have pink everywhere." Jeremy reached for another napkin and proceeded to wipe his face while Michael grabbed all of their trash and threw it into the nearby trash bin. When returning to the table, Michael simply scooted his chair in and pulled out his phone. It was 5:45. "Hey," he said to the burnette, "my show starts in twenty minutes so are you ready to go? I mean, I can record it-" "No, I'm ready." Jeremy responded standing up and following suit. They spent a good hour and a half at the mall and his dad was possibly wondering where he's been at. Michael shrugged placing his phone back into his pocket. "Alright then." And with that, both boys headed towards the nearest exit and into the parking lot towards Michael's car.
The ride home was somewhat..relaxing to say the least.
Jeremy rolled down his window as he allowed the fresh Autumn breeze hit his face while looking at the cars passing by. Michael, on the other hand, simply blasted hisBob MarleyC.D. at and sang along with it for everyone to hear no matter if they liked it or not.
Jeremy had to admit that he loved being the one in the passenger's seat rather than being the actual one driving. There was simply just something relaxing about it. He could feel himself dozing off as his vision began to get blurry and he was yawning quite frequently now. He laid all the way back into the car seat and closed his eyes. And before he knew it, he felt himself slip into unconsciousness.
After a good ten minutes, they finally arrived at his house.
Michael parked the car in the driveway and turned to see his best friend, who was completely knocked out.
A soft smile grazed his face. (God he's so cute whenever he's asleep.)
Deep down, he honestly did not want to wake him up, however, every good thing must come to an end eventually.
"Hey Jeremy," Michael said gently nudging the boy, "we're here." Jeremy slowly raised his head and blinked rapidly as he proceeded to get accustomed back to reality. "Already?" He mumbled while facing Michael. The teen nodded in response, "yup, now come on buddy, you gotta go home."
Jeremy let out a mix between a grunt and a yawn as he unbuckled his seatbelt and reached towards the back for his bags, including his backpack, and hopped out of the car carrying multiple bags. While making his way towards the front door, he could hear Michael yelling "Don't forget to call or text me!" just loud enough for him to hear as he proceeded to back out of the driveway and drive off. Jeremy set his bags down on the porch and muttered a small "yeah, yeah, I know…" to himself before pulling out the house keys out of his pocket and began unlocking the front door.
Once unlocked, he grabbed all of his belongings and pushed the door all the way open using his foot and dropped everything besides the wall before closing the door.
"Dad, I'm home." He called out.. No response. Well, perhaps he wasn't simply home at the moment. ( That should have been the obvious answer at first, as there was no car in the driveway and the door was locked.)
He sighed as he took his shoes off and made his way towards the kitchen. Although he was planning to take a nap, he wanted to grab a bottle of water quickly before heading upstairs as he was quite thirsty at the moment. He stood in front of the fridge with one hand out in front ready to grab the handle to open it, but before he could a small, yellow sticky note on the fridge caught his eye.
He peeled it off from the top of the fridge and proceeded to read it out loud:
JEREMY. I AM CURRENTLY OUT OF TOWN FOR A BUSINESS MEETING AND I WILL NOT BE BACK UNTIL A FEW DAYS. I SERIOUSLY DON'T KNOW WHEN I'M COMING HOME. I BOUGHT SOME EXTRA GROCERIES JUST IN CASE AND IF YOU NEED A RIDE TO SCHOOL OR SOMEWHERE, JUST ASK YOUR FRIEND MICHAEL OR SIMPLY JUST WALK. I LOVE YOU. -DAD
Jeremy set the note down on the counter smiling. (Woo-hoo! Now he definitely has to tell Michael that he could spend the night..but it can wait, he's quite tired at the moment and he needed a nap.) He went opened the fridge and grabbed a water bottle before quickly shutting it. He made his way towards the stairs and towards his room.
He was at the top of the staircase whenever he froze. He looked into his room and noticed something odd. There's appears to be someone, or something, laying on top of his bed.
He could feel his heart racing.
"Could this be an exchange student?" Jeremy wonder to himself, "Or, maybe a new roommate Dad didn't tell me about.." "It can't be a murderer or someone dangerous,can it?" he felt a lump in his throat as his grip on the water bottle became more fierce and strain. He took a death breath and stealthily towards his room. He grabbed onto his door frame and peaked within his room. "If worse comes to worst," he thought, "at least I have a water bottle to defend himself with."
He took a deep breath before he proceeded to enter his room.
Jeremy slowly made his way towards his bed and proceeded to lean against the bed's headboard and looked down at the stranger. (While up close, most of his fears and concerns seemed to disappear as he realized that the unexpected intruder didn't appear that harmful or even frightening. (Well, he's still anintruderthat mysteriously got intohishouse, but he honestly felt like he could protect himself if he ever got into a fight.)
The stranger, who Jeremy could now identify as a male around his age, was laying down on his side in the middle of the bed. He reckoned that he was possibly as shorter than he was. He had black semi-curly hair and pale skin with freckles. He was wearing a blue t-shirt with a matching black jacket, black jeans, and white tennis shoes. He also realized that around his neck, wrists, and under his eyes there appears to be blue...veins? Tattoos? Scars? Whatever they were, they were in the shape of computer circuits. (Nonetheless, they weren't noticeable from afar, as you had to be extremely close up as they appear to be washed out or faded.)
Jeremy was getting strange feeling of Deja vu, like he has seen this person Somewhere before in his life.
Jeremy quickly shook off the feeling as he knelt down to the boy's eye level and sighed. "Ok, ok," he said quietly, "you possibly have to be either an exchange student, or even a new roommate dad hasn't told me about." Jeremy said to the figure while setting down his water bottle on the carpet floor. "Although, you're welcome to stay here at the Heere's residence, I must inform you that you're sleeping on my bed, in my room. I have no problem with that, but come on, you're taking the whole entire bed!" he stood back up and clasped his hands together. "So, I'll ask you to please, move over so I can sleep."
No response.
(Well, he is asleep.. What did you expect Jeremy response?)
Jeremy sighed as he then proceeded to try various other methods to move the boy from his bed such as. But not limited to: nudging him, sort of shaking him, and screaming a little bit. However to no avail, the boy wouldn't move or budge.
(Damn he's knocked out cold.)
Jeremy sighed in defeat as he realized that nothing was going to wake this boy up and he has to possibly sleep around him as he's too tired to put up a fight. He murmured a small "fine, you win." Before dropping his whole entire body down on the bed which caused the boy to roll off the bed and fall onto the floor.
"Ah, fuck!-"
Jeremy's eyes shot wide open.That voice.
He went to the other edge of the bed to see the boy sitting on the floor, rubbing his head while he winced in pain. "Ow, what the fuck was that fo-" The stranger looked up at Jeremy and then froze, like a deer within headlights. His eyes were wide with both disbelief and shock.
Blue. His eyes were electric blue. No Humans' eyes were supposed to be that blue.
"J-Jeremy, Jeremy Heere? Is that you?-" The individual questioned.
Then all the pieces clicked within his brain clicked.
No, it can't be! It's all coming back to him now. his eyes, the now identifiable circuits, his voice, albeit higher pitch and more human like…
It was the Squip.
"Squip?!" Jeremy squealed frantically getting off of his bed and backing away towards a wall, "What are you doing here?! We got rid of you, how can you be back!" "I don't know why I'm back Jeremy!" The squip said in a slightly panicked voice, "I'm wondering the same thing."
"No, I can't have you back! You did more harm than good! Why are you back?! I tried to forget about you!"
Indeed he did, ever since the horrific play incident, Jeremy tried to forget about the Squip as best that he could whether it be from consuming small doses of Mountain Dew Red everyday since the school play, or by avoiding the green beverage all together. And in the end, it ended up working, he forgot about the Squip completely. But now it's back, andworsethan ever.
While Jeremy slowly made his way back to his bed, Squip remained seated on the carpet floor gripping his legs as the were in pain.
God everything was hurting. Not only does he have a massive headache and honestly felt like shit, both of his legs felt numb as he could feel the sensation of pins and needles throughout them.
(Who knew being human was such a fucking painful experience? The pain could almost be compared to the time where he was shut off for good. But he wasn't shut off for good, now he's human. Why was he even human? What kind of twisted hell is this?...)
The Squip snapped back to reality as he could hear Jeremy sigh. "I think the best option for both of us would be if you would just leave and we'll never have to meet ever again." he quietly said as he sat on the edge of the bed facing the Squip.
He can't be seriousright? Like, that sounds like a decent plan but there's so much shit wrong with it.
For starters, he couldn't walk, or even barely move as his legs were in excruciating pain. Second, he's only been human for five minutes and he simply thinks of kicking him out into the world already? Not gonna happen. Although he knows about being human, due to his large variety of knowledge, he never actuallyexperiencedbeinghumanbefore.
"Um, Jeremy..About your plan…"
"What? And why are still sitting down?"
"I, I can'tgetup."
He can't be serious.
"You can't be serious" Jeremy scoffed.
"I am beingveryserious Jeremiah, my legs are inexcruciatingpain and I don't think that I would be able to stand up, nonetheless be able to walk…"
Well, that goes to his plan of kicking out the Squip... but now what?
He never had to deal with this sort of problem until now. He couldn't simply go to Google for this situation either. He couldn't google:Hey, my once now supercomputer is human and won't leave my residence.What shall I do?The boy sighed as he thought of other options however, he was quickly interrupted as he felt his phone vibrate within his cardigan pocket. He pulled it out and saw it was a text from Michael reminding him to contact him to know if he could spend the night..
Michael. That's it!
He quickly unlocked his phone as he went to Michael's contact and proceeded to press the call button as he placed the phone against his ear. "What are you doing? Who are you calling?" The squip asked. Jeremy simply ignored the question and waited for Michael to pick up the phone. Eventually after ten seconds, Michael answered the phone.
"Hey Michael!"
Michael?!
His eyes widen. At this moment, the Squip felt something that he has never experienced before within his programming: fear.
He knew Jeremy wouldn't harm him no matter what as he's considered to be a laid back person and wouldn't even consider harming a person even if his life depended on it. Michael, however, was different.
He wasn't Jeremy.
He honestly didn't fear Michael back whenever he was a supercomputer,hellhe almost pity and loathed the boy in some way, but now he wasn't a supercomputer.He was human. He can now be seen and heard by everybody instead of being a projection and voice Jeremy himself could hear and interact with.
(Could he be feeling fear and terror, and possibly remorse, of what he did due to the fact that he now that he had human emotions?)
"Jeremy please, Considered what you're doing! You don't have to do this.". (Oh God, now he's pleading for his life.)Jeremy simply ignored the Squip's plead as he continued talking to Michael.
"Um, Listen I have a slight problem...Yes, you can spend the night, but please listen to me."
"No, it's not a girl problem.. Hey! It's not that type of problem either! Just listen to me please! Look, you remember Junior year and the wholeSquipthing right? Well, it's kind of back, and worse than ever…" "So that's why I called you as I can't handle the situation myself-aaaand he hung up."
Jeremy put his phone back into his pocket and stood up. "Well, I figure that he'll be here in about five minutes…."
(He guessed that he could ask the Squip some questions to pass the time and to also get some input into the current situation.)
He looked down at the Squip.
"Soo, why are you acting so strange?"
"What do you mean by strange?"
"Like, you're not acting like yourself," Jeremy utter a small chuckle, " whenever you were my Squip, you were all witty and snobby as you thought you were the shit, but now you're sort of agitated and withdrawn.."
The Squip grew flustered, a light blue glow spread across his face. He cleared his voice, "Well Jeremiah, let me remind you,I'm human, that's not normal for Squips!"
"Okay geez, I was just asking...So, you honestly don't know how you got this way?"
"No, no I don't. All I remember is that horrid night whenever you drank Red Mountain Dew and deactivated me. Don't you know how painful deactivating is Jeremy? It's like the closest equivalent to physical pain a Squip can experience. After you deactivated me, everything went dark. I expected to be left alone within the darkness just by myself with my own thoughts to keep me company, but no. Here I am. Trapped within a body of a human. A teenager to be more exact."
"Well, that was worth a shot. I was hoping for a more reasonable answer, but I guess we're both in the dark on the matter…"
"So, another question, what's your deal with Michael?"
"what?"
"You were all panicky and jittery whenever I called Michael to come over. You used to hate him, you always said that he was a terrible friend and influence, now you're scared of him."
"I am not scared of him!"
A lie
"Are you sure? I mean you sort of begged for your life a little
while ago-"
"Yes! I'm sure!"
Yet indeed another lie.