Richard wasn't nearly as lucky the next few days during school. Apparently people were becoming aware of his little crush and the teasing became almost unbearable.

He'd been called "fag" at least ten times every day for a week... And that's at the least, since he stopped counting after a while.

His locker had been adorned in sticky notes with excruciatingly homophobic comments on them.

He pulled them off and threw them into the nearest trash can in annoyance. He let his hair fall in his face as he grabbed his stuff out of his locker and left school, frustration evident in his expression.

***

He slammed his bedroom door and sighed, falling to the floor and finally letting the tears fall from his blue eyes down his freckled cheeks and eventually to the floor.

"Thtupid fucking cruthh..." The sobs escaped him slowly as he curled into a ball of emotional stress.

Not even a few minutes after he began sobbing, he heard banging at the door. His father was drunk again.

"Richard you f-fuckin' bitch...shut up!! With your s-stupid shitty s-sobs!" Richard had held his breath until his father either left or passed out, and sighed afterwards.

He couldn't do this. He couldn't do this shit anymore. He couldn't live without his mother and his brother, he didn't want to live with his father, and he didn't want to live with the homophobic peers he shared a school with.

He sat up and gently opened the door, making sure his father wasn't upstairs. He wasn't, good.

Richard went into the bathroom and locked the door, ignoring the tears that were clouding his already crappy vision.

"C'mon, where the f-fuck i-ith it?" He rummaged through the mirror cabinet and sighed in defeat. He'd be stuck in hell for another day.

He unlocked the door and went back to his room, collapsing on the bed and just sobbed into it, the only thought stopping him being the memory of the week prior...the memory of Michael.

If only Richard could talk to him decently, maybe they'd be friends, and maybe he'd finally be happy for once, instead of sobbing on his bed, longing for his family.

About an hour passed. Two maybe...he couldn't remember, but he heard his phone going off.

He picked it up and realized it was his brother, Randy, calling. Finally, something good.

"Richie, you okay? You look like you've been... crying..." Randh whispered, his voice automatically helping Richard feel better. "What's wrong bro?"

"I-It'th thtupid."

"C'mon, tell me. I'm alone, my roommate is asleep." Richard rolled his eyes, knowing that Randy was talking about his boyfriend Alec.

"F-Fine...tho I thorta found out I wath bithexual, and I have a crush on thith boy, and people f-found out and...and I've been called fag a-all week..." He began crying again and Randy would've hugged him had he been there.

"I've been there..."

"I jutht don't wanna g-go back Monday. I don't wanna go b-back at all ath the gay lother who hateth himthself...and I'm altho a c-crybaby...if only I had confidenthe..."

"Wait, confidence?...gimme a sec." Randy put the phone down and Richard heard him waking his boyfriend up. "I'm putting you on speaker bro."

"Okay." After a second, Richard could hear Alec and Randy both.

"So you said you wanted confidence right?"

"Y-Yeah. I jutht want people to like me...and the ability to talk to people..."

"I think I can help." Alec spoke softly, his voice reminding Richard of Michael.

"How?"

"There's this guy at the Payless shoes store at the mall near Middleborough. This guy is selling these pills, called Squips. Basically you take one, and it'll help you with what you want!"

"No way."

"Way! I used to be a straight D student. We're at Harvard now! The Squip did that."

"W-Wait really? How!?"

"Alec said it's a computer. It's like a hologram, right?"

"Yeah. It talks to you, almost like telepathy. It's really useful, if you want a confidence boost it should help. It's four hundred dollars by the way."

"Thankth...I'll check the mall tomorrow."

"Talk to you soon little bro?"

"You k-know it." Richard ended the call and sighed. He was gonna become somebody he could love. And maybe he'd get to finally talk to Michael like a normal person...maybe...

***

Richard entered the Payless, his four hundred in his hand, and he faked looking arounkaaqd the store as he was trying to spot the man selling the Squips.

Eventually he spotted a creepy man in a dark hoodie and assumed that would be the guy. He walked over, obviously intimidated.

"E-Excuthe me...a-are you thelling Thquipth?" He whispered and the man pulled his sunglasses down and his eyes seemed to spark bright blue for a second.

"You brought the money?"

"Four h-hundred, right?" Richard held the money(which he'd luckily gotten from Randy before he left for college)out and the man nodded, taking it and putting it in his hoodie pocket after making sure it was four hundred dollars.

He went to a shelf and got a pair of lady's running shoes, handing the box to Richard.

"Wait i-ith it in here?"

"Yeah. Now, just so we're clear, this is untested, most likely illegal technology. I don't know what you'll do with it or what it'll do to you but I'm not responsible." Richard gulped at that last sentence before letting the man continue. "I'll say this, take with Mountain Dew, that activates it. And no refunds, all sales are final."

Richard left the store, having shoved the box into his backpack so people wouldn't see but they didn't work.

"Oh my God, first he gets a crush on the headphone loser and now he's buying lady shoes. He really is gay." Richard turned around to see one of the tallest girls he knew staring down at him. "Brooke!!"

"Y-You're right. He's so gay." Brooke Lohst muttered, almost in guilt.

Richard bit his lip and sighed, ignoring them and walking out of the mall and back home, glad it wasn't too long of a walk.

He smiled as he held the pill in his hand. He was gonna be awesome.