"I, um…" Jeremy freezes, frantically trying to think up an excuse. He can't exactly admit the truth without sounding insensitive. And lying without the help of the Squip will just send him down a rabbit-hole of fibbing that he'll never be able to climb out of. In the end, he decides to tell a half-truth; something believable, but nothing incriminating.

"I wasn't feeling like myself. You know, with all the stress of school, and… you know…" He searches for an end to the sentence, but fails to come up with anything.

Brooke responds without missing a beat. "Eminem, right? Oh my God, are you still upset about that?" She lightly traces her hand up and down Jeremy's arm. It's incredibly distracting.

Still, this is something Jeremy can work with. Taking a deep breath, and, hoping for the best, he says, "Right! Yeah, I've been a fan of him for as long as I can remember."

Michael pipes up behind him, clearly confused. "What? You never-" But he's quickly cut off as Jeremy stomps down on his foot. Ouch. It's not that his foot hurts much, but the fact that Jeremy would actively try to shut him up using violence hurts far more.

Jeremy spits out the first thing to enter his mind. "I never thought something like that could happen. He was so… young." Eminem was like, kind of young, right? Young enough to still have a rap career, at the very least. Old people can't rap, especially old white people. But that's beside the point. Brooke is eating this up, her eyes filled with a look of pity.

"Oh, you poor thing! Well, maaaaaybe some frozen yogurt would make you feel better. You called a raincheck last time, right? I'll pay." Brooke sympathetically leans her head on Jeremy's arm, almost nuzzling him. She smells strongly of a floral perfume and mint. This only makes it harder for Jeremy to focus. "I was supposed to go with Chloe, but she kiiiinda abandoned me."

"Jeremy…" Michael gives him a look, as if to say, 'Don't you dare waste our one hang-out sesh on this girl you hardly know.' This is the first time they've been able to spend time together in what feels like forever, and not even an hour in Jeremy is already drooling over some girl he only really got to know in the last week, if at all.

Shifting his gaze between Brooke and Michael, Jeremy tries to find a solution that would appease both parties. He doesn't want to throw away his shot with Brooke, but he can't just leave Michael, either. "Well, I um… I'm kind of…"

"Kind of?" Brooke's tone is almost accusatory.

The teen gulps. Decision time. He can always hang out with Brooke some other time, right? The Squip might not let him see Michael again, at least not for a while. Surely Brooke will understand a guy wanting to hang out with his friends, right? Quietly, he finishes the sentence. "kind of… busy. Right now."

"Busy?" She stares at him, shooting a quick glance at Michael. Sure, she doesn't know the latter that well, but he could tag along, too. She isn't heartless enough to make him ditch his friend, or at least, that's what she's trying to imply. Chloe wouldn't like to see her hang around such a loser, but Chloe left her, so she can fuck right off with her judgmental opinions. Of course, Brooke would never say something like that out loud, but dropping hints is almost an artform to her.

Jeremy is completely oblivious to the implications behind any of this. As far as he can tell, Brooke is trying to make a serious move on him, and having another person around would be a no-go. "Yeah. Busy."

The girl pauses for a few moments, trying to think of a response. Most of all, she feels sort of left out. She isn't sure why Jeremy is so against spending any time with her, especially after he showed so much interest in her before. Was he leading her on? Did he get bored of her? Did he find another girl? Chloe, maybe? Whatever it is, she can't tell. "Look, if you don't want to hang out with me, you can just say so. I can tell you're trying not to hurt my feelings, but I don't want to play any games."

"No, Brooke, I wasn't-" Jeremy stumbles over his words.

"Jeremy, it's fine. Just- just don't waste my time, okay?" She turns away from him, then pauses, half-expecting the boy to run up and kiss her or monologue about how much she means to him, or something. She's seen it in tons of romcoms, so it must be like that in real life, right?

Jeremy stays rooted in place. Almost tearful, Brooke grabs her bags and storms away, muttering something under her breath.

Right on cue, the Squip emerges from the crowd, a ghost of a smile on his lips. "Boy, did you royally mess that one up. Not so easy on your own, now, is it?"

The taller teen is absolutely dumbstruck at his own level of incompetence. 'What should I do, then?'

The Squip nonchalantly strolls around Jeremy in a circle, despite not having actual, physical feet. "Well, if you want to go after her and leave Michael behind, I could-"

'No. Out of the question,' Jeremy says, a look of determination on his face.

The Squip has a sour expression on his face. "Fine. Let her go. Just don't expect things to go so well with Christine."

Jeremy mentally throws his hands in the air, in exasperation. 'I have time. I'll be able to figure something out.'

"Then you might want to get thinking, because she will not forget about this so easily." With an angry huff, the bot goes back to examining data.

Jeremy is so absorbed in the conversation, he hardly notices when Michael grabs onto his shoulder and shakes him lightly. "Come on, dude. Let's hit up Subway."

Still a bit concerned, Jeremy follows Michael to the nearby sandwich store. After ordering their food, Jeremy a simple ham and cheese sandwich, and Michael a meatball sub, the teens sit down at a slightly dirty two-person table.

Through a mouthful of meatballs, Michael tries to make some simple conversation with his friend. "You shouldn't even worry about her, Jer. I thought you had a thing for Christine, anyway. What ever happened to that?"

"It's… Squip stuff," Jeremy says, half-hiding behind his sandwich.

Michael furrows his eyebrows. "That doesn't sound like a good thing, you know. You've had a crush on Christine for, what, five years? I mean, I'd be kind of relieved if you didn't like her anymore, but then you'd be like a whole different person."

"It's not that I don't like her, but this Squip sort of messes with my head someti-"

"You know I can hear you, right?" Shit. The Squip looms over the teen, his eyes shooting daggers.

Fear pierces Jeremy's chest. "Can we talk about something else?"

Michael pauses for a moment, just as concerned as ever, but eventually complies. "Um, sure! Sooo, what albums did you get?"

"On your right."

"On my right?" Jeremy says, momentarily forgetting to speak using his mind instead of his mouth.

"Is that a band? I've never heard of them before…" Michael then sees a figure walking by Jeremy from over his shoulder. He sighs deeply, then engrosses himself in eating his sandwich.

"Talk to her. That's all I'm telling you. Good luck." Again, the Squip fades away, leaving Jeremy with only his own voice in his head.

Jeremy turns his head to the right. Just a few feet in front of him, a girl wearing a patterned skater dress and a thick scarf walks by, carrying mostly-full bags from various book stores.

Christine.

She stumbles, her bags flying on all directions as she skids a few inches on the linoleum floor. She cries out with a sharp 'Oh, dear!' and attempts to get back on her feet. Jeremy can't help but wonder if the Squip had something to do with that, but honestly, it doesn't really matter.

Jeremy could help her. Sure, he doesn't want to leave Michael out in the cold, but Christine is an entirely different ballpark than Brooke. A different planet, even.

This is his chance.

Maybe he can finally have Christine.