Fun fact: Michael's cabin layout is the same as the Royale High apartments! Idk why but whenever there's an apartment or dorm described in books, I always imagine it with that layout.

Reviews!

Sleepysparrowhawk: omg this is the nicest review ive ever gotten thank you so much! ppl like you are the main motivation for writing this and I'm so glad you like this story! and thank you for the bleach, it was MUCH needed

mixsii: anything for u bbg

Song: sugar crash by elyotto!

Enjoy!

Chapter 101

Sugar Crash!

You ain't even here to party

Ken in the club tryna pipe a Barbie

I don't wanna go, go, go with the flow

Backbend 'til I touch my toes

"Hey." Michael snapped his fingers twice to signal the barista, a small woman with a blue pixie cut and lots of piercings. He had to raise his voice over that irritating song by something Cat. The barista was new, one he didn't recognize. "Can I get a Coke?"

She gave him a once-over. One of the benefits to being ridiculously tall was that nobody had ever asked to double-check his ID when he was underage. Of course, it wasn't much help when he was six years over the minimum and never ordered anything stronger than espresso. "Sure thing. You want an olive with that?"

"'Course I do." Her tone was heavily sarcastic, but he wouldn't turn down a free garnish.

She rummaged through the cupboards and he turned back to the crowd of young adults dancing and singing along (very badly) in the neon red and pink to the poppy music. He used to be one of them, living it up in the limelight, maybe dancing with someone cute who'd caught his eye and then taking it outside, but now everyone dancing was either underage or someone too drunk to care, and all the people his age were on the outskirts getting drinks and trying to get laid with as little effort as possible.

The lady slid the can down the counter and he took it, wiping the condensation off on the sleeve of his black dress shirt, and popped the tab with a satisfying hiss. He picked it off and chewed on the olive with relish.

Suddenly, a gaggle of laughing girls loaded onto the stools next to him from the dance floor, and he internally groaned. They were all probably twenty-one to the minute, celebrating a birthday in the noisiest way possible. Though to be fair, if Michael wanted peace and quiet on his night off, this was really the worst place he could've gone.

One of the girls, a skinny, curly-haired redhead in a black dress and a white feather boa poked at him, drink in hand. "Hey. Hey. Hey."

He turned to her with a mental roll of his eyes. "Hi."

"I'm Chantelle," she said, eyes glued to his mouth. "I didn't catch your name."

"I didn't throw it."

She laughed, reminding him of a hyena. "You're kinda attractive, mister."

Well, she's forward. "How old are you?"

"Twenny-two. It's my girl Margo's birthday today, right Margy?" She wiggled her fingers at a pretty girl with short straight hair and dark skin who was taking selfies with the other girls. "Anyways, how 'bout you?"

"Twenty-seven." Not much of a gap, not like she was the type of girl to care.

"Wow-ie, older than mostuv the guys here!" She traced the rim of her yellowish drink with her clawlike fingernail, biting her lip. "I don't mind, though."

"Oh." Well, if she wanted the night to go in that direction, he wasn't going to stop her.

"Now, what didja say your name was?"

He stood up, throwing some money on the counter for the barista. "Michael."

She seemed to find that hilarious, her drink teetering in her featherlight grasp. "That was my dog's name! Then he got rabies 'n all, and my ex made me put him down."

Before he could question why on earth she would name a dog Michael, she grabbed his collar and smashed her lips onto his. Um, okay, maybe forward wasn't a strong enough word. But he didn't stop her, and before he knew it they were in his car and he was driving home.

~lll~

I'm probably the only person in the world who gets a hangover without being drunk, Michael thought dizzily as he popped two aspirin, while Chantelle ate a bowl of strawberry yogurt beside him on his bed, wearing pink flannel shorts and a matching white tank top that read Ur Boyfriend Sucks . Apparently she brought a change of clothes in her purse at all times, who knew? He took a sip of his leftover Coke, but it had gone completely flat.

"This yogurt tastes sour," Chantelle complained, tucking a stray curl into her messy bun. "I want honey."

"I don't have honey, honey." He had honey in his cupboard, but there wasn't much left and he wanted to save it for his tea.

"Boo. No offense, but you're kind of lame."

She stuck her puffy lower lip out and Michael wanted to bite it aggressively, but not in a flirty way. "Just eat the yogurt."

She spooned a few more mouthfuls in before throwing the bowl to the floor and letting the creamy pink contents leak onto the dingy white carpet. "I'm boreeeed."

Michael rubbed his throbbing forehead and sighed. "What do you want? I've got to be at work in fifteen." Really, he didn't have any plans for the day, so maybe he'd drive into town and buy something from the weird little shops by the pier. Like chilli pepper gummies, or Korean milk soda.

"I don't knowww," she complained. "I'm just bored."

"Okay, well what do you want me to do abou—mmph!"

So apparently, Chantelle's way of responding to boredom was pulling the hair at the nape of his neck and violently trying to make out with him. Which he wouldn't normally be against if he didn't have a massive ear-ringing headache. He tried to pull away, mumbling "Um, Chantelle—"

"Hey, Michael!" The door slammed open, and Chantelle released her grip. He turned and saw Ruby storming in with a massive laundry hamper. "They delivered your crap to our house and—ugh, gross, oh my God!" She slapped her hands over her eyes and tried to run out the door, but instead smashed right into a wall and fell to the ground. Michael slapped his forehead.

"What the hell? Who's she?!" Chantelle snapped, jumping to her feet. "Is she your girlfriend?"

"She's seventeen!" Michael said at the exact time Ruby yelled, "Ew!"

"I can't believe this! You're dating another redhead, and one who's so much younger than me!" She sniffled, wiping her eyes for false tears. "She's n-not even that pretty! I th-thought we had something, Michael! But I g-guess I was wrong!" And with that, she stormed out with her purse, treading strawberry yogurt all over the floor.

"Nice going, kid." Michael snapped, but his heart wasn't in it.

"To be fair, I think you dodged a bullet with that one." Ruby replied, wincing as she rubbed her nose. She was wearing an oversized white tee with a picture of Totoro on it and gray athletic shorts. "Oww. Hey, does this look bad?" She lifted her hand, revealing her massively swollen, purple nose, a torrent of blood gushing from the right like lipstick applied by someone on a massage chair with Parkinson's during a stage five earthquake.

"Jesus Christ." Michael ran up the mini-stairs and crouched down in front of her to take a look. "How hard did you bang this thing?"

"That's—" Ruby sneezed into her elbow, leaving a smudge of crimson, "—what she said."

"Very funny. You wait here and I'll get the bandages. Don't move, you'll only make it worse." He set off to the bathroom before turning around again. "I mean it."

Moments later, he returned with damp cloths, lotion, and bandages, and handed her the cloth to blow her nose and rub the blood off. She held it to her nose while he squeezed out the cream onto another cloth. "Rub this on."

She pressed it onto her nose and then made a muffled sound of pain. "You didn't tell me it would hurt!"

"It's not supposed to, you're pressing too hard. Here." He took the cloth and gently dabbed it onto the bruised skin, rubbing in small, light circles.

After a few moments, Ruby nodded. "That feels nice."

"See, I told you." He pulled open the tin of How To Train Your Dragon themed bandages and selected two of the largest ones, sticking them over the bridge of her nose. "There you go. You have bandages at home, right?" She gave him a thumbs-up. "Just replace 'em every night before washing your face, and don't touch until it's healed. I used aloe vera, but you can rub any lotion you want on it as long as it doesn't have any fancy chemicals."

"'Kay. Hey, you're pretty good at this."

He gave her a modest shrug. "I got beat up a lot as a kid."

"No, I mean…taking care of another person, or whatever." Ruby said, lowering her gaze.

"Oh." Michael hesitated. "Well, I had a pretty stupid sister, so I, y'know, dealt with nosebleeds a lot."

"Ah, yeah." She was silent for a moment, before jumping to her feet. "Gosh, I could eat a horse right now. I could eat a whole army of horses."

"Don't tell me you want food now, too."

"Yes please, Mikey!"

He bristled. "Don't call me that. That's weird." But she was already wandering into the kitchen, opening up cupboards and frowning judgmentally.

"All you have is tea stuff and ramen!"

"Is that a bad thing?"

She pondered over this. "No, I guess not. Can we have chicken flavour?"

"Well, you're the boss. Apparently." He moved to grab the pink package and read over the ingredients. "Won't your friends be worried about you?"

Ruby, who was perched on a stool like a bat, slumped with her posture akin to a shrimp. "Ugh, please. They're all rotting in bed on their phones, I can't stand being with them today."

"Why didn't you just jump in the ocean or something? You didn't have to be the delivery maid." He got the kettle boiling and took out two bowls, snapping the ramen chunk in half.

"I dunno, I tripped over it on my way out for a run and figured I should just deliver it." Ruby replied, looking sheepish.

Michael snorted. "I think you need to relearn how to walk. If you even learned it in the first place."

"You aren't funny. Do you have any green onions?" When he gave her a look, she sighed. "Okay, sorry, dumb question. You eat your ramen plain?"

"No, Ruby, I like a little herbal tea and honey with my morning beef noodles."

She rolled her eyes. "If you want to be a smartass, you have to actually be smart, 'cause otherwise you're just an ass."

The kettle interrupted them by screaming like it had just been stabbed, and Michael flicked the heat off and poured it into the bowls, dumping the broth in and stirring carefully. "I've got salt, if you want that."

"Oo, salt. Exotic." Ruby replied sarcastically, getting up and looking through the pantry. "Hey, you've got eggs! And they're still good!"

"What do you need eggs for?"

"Haven't you ever made Ponyo soup?"

"The hell is Ponyo soup?"

"It's like…ramen, with an egg and vegetables. Like from the movie, Ponyo?"

"I've literally never heard of that in my life."

"So you had a terrible childhood. Say less."

"You know, I wouldn't blame my terrible childhood on not watching a movie called Ponyo."

Ruby ignored him. "Where's the pots?"

"Under the sink."

She grabbed the pot and filled it with water, placing it on the heat and turning it up to high. She placed an egg into it and boiled it. A few minutes later, she drained the water and ran the egg over cold water, breaking the shell and cutting the egg in half. "Wham bam! Eggs!"

Michael wrinkled his nose, poking at the egg half with his fork. "You sure you cooked this right?"

"'Course I did. I make eggs all the time. Gotta get that protein!" She flexed her arm, making her scars ripple.

He wound the noodles around the fork with a piece of egg and took a bite, chewing thoughtfully.

"Well? What do you think?" Ruby asked, on the edge of her seat.

"Tastes good," Michael said gruffly. "Nice work."

Ruby beamed, and the pair ate their ramen in silence. As he was clearing their dishes, she spoke up. "So you remember when I brought you to that Shadow dimension, and you met all my friends who were trapped there?"

"Yeah?"

Ruby explained the events of the past few days, the people they met, and how they planned to break her friends out of Shadow. "Oh, and get this," she said with a smirk. "The guy who let us in? Katy says he's an old friend of yours."

Michael's face instantly turned suspicious. Obviously she hadn't heard anything bad from this old friend, but that could easily change in the future. "Oh?"

"His name's Jeremy. And apparently my friends were sent by somebody to torment you, but he sent them to me instead."

"Oh my God," he said dismally, almost to himself.

"So? What do you think?" Ruby asked, bouncing in glee.

"Oh my God," he said again. "So he's dead, huh?"

Ruby's expression changed and her eyes were suddenly brimming with sympathy. "I didn't even realize...I'm so sorry."

Michael sighed. "It's okay. We haven't talked in years—we were childhood friends, but drifted apart after shit started going down."

She nodded. "Yeah, totally." Something seemed to change, and she glanced up at him hesitantly. "Hey, is his last name Fitzgerald, by any chance?"

"Uh, yeah, why?"

"Crap." Ruby muttered. "I think…I think he was the day guard that died in the Bite."

"What?" Michael hissed, suddenly defensive. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Sorry, I mean the recent one. It happened two years ago—he forgot his stuff in the Parts & Service room and came back at night, and since my friends hadn't killed for months, when Mangle saw him, she couldn't hold it back anymore. That's why the pizzeria closed, because his friend walked in on it and called the cops."

"Jesus." Michael shook his head. "Well, at least something good came out of it, I guess. Don't know how that place stayed open as long as it did, what if the controversies and all."

They sat in silence for a minute, before Michael broke it. "Well, can you take me to see him?"

"Huh? Really?"

"Yeah, why not? I think it'd be…fun."

Ruby grinned and undid the clasp of a silver necklace that had been hiding under her shirt. A turquoise crystal hung from the tip. "Luckily, I brought this!"

Using her necklace as well as a complimentary lavender perfume bottle from the campsite staff and a dirty cigarette, they made a makeshift summoning circle.

"Well, it's better than nothing." Ruby stood up and cracked her knuckles. "Okay, Spanish word! Aloha!"

Michael stared at her. "That's…not Spanish."

"Oh." She paused. "Uno!"

Nothing happened.

"Gato?" Michael tried, but that didn't work either.

"Dale a tu cuerpo alegría Macarena, que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegría y cosa buena!" Ruby sang as she did the dance.

The door swung open and hit the wall as Chantelle's heels clacked on the floor. "Ugh, I left my feather boa in here. This isn't me coming back to you, Michael! I know my worth! I know—" She halted as she stared at Ruby, frozen mid-macarena, in a pitch-black room with the blinds closed lit only by the flame of a dying cigarette. "You know what? I think I'll just buy a replacement instead." She flounced out of there, vowing to never get drunk at a club again.

Ruby watched her leave, then shrugged. "That was weird. Dale a tu cuerpo alegría, Macarena

Hey Macarena, ay!"

Katy appeared in a woosh. "I'm here!"

"Why didn't you come sooner?" Michael asked.

"I was ignoring you, but then…this happened." She gestured to Ruby, who was lip-synching to the song in her head and dancing along.

"Good point."

And with that, Katy whisked them away to Shadow.

"Ugh, head rush." Michael grumbled, clutching his temples.

"Can't relate," Ruby chirped breezily. "So, over there is Nightmare. He's like, the god of this universe, or whatever."

"Yeah, or whatever." Michael's eyes widened as he stood behind a gigantic, foreboding throne, with the back of a humongous creature to him. "Damn, he's scary-looking."

Nightmare's head snapped all the way around and his red eyes flashed in an ear-splitting grin. "Hello, Michael Afton."

"Aaah…aaaI mean hello!" Michael caught himself, smiling in what he hoped was a pleasant smile and not a slightly terrified grimace.

"Are you in pain, Michael?"

"What? No?"

"Oh. That's good to hear." He paused then turned his head back around. "Jeremy, I believe your friend is here. Why don't you greet him?"

Ruby gave him the double-thumbs-up and went to go sit with her friends. Michael steadied himself. He hadn't seen Jeremy in fourteen years. What would he look like? What would he think of him?

No more time for thoughts. A man stepped forward tentatively from behind the throne, looking just as he remembered.

Michael swallowed. "Hi, Jeremy."

A/N

Woooooo Jeremy! Uhh I have to speed run this bc I'm in a rush lol

Question/Challenge: favourite tea (might have alr asked this lolz) mines green or ginger lemon tea! super yummy

~Ghost