"It's a long story, but I'm at Middle Borough High School in New Jersey, and we're going to need enough ambulances to hold around thirty kids."

"We're on our way, Sir." The lady said through the phone. I sigh, and hang up on her, pulling Jeremy closer.

- One Week Later-

"Jeremy Heere?" My eyes snapped open and I run to the front desk, to the nurse, the same nurse who had interrupted me and Rich the week before, Miss Hansen, who was calling me.

"Yes, Hi," I say to her, leaning over the counter. "Is everything alright?"

Miss Hansen glances up from her paperwork, "Are you family?"

"Um, no, but I'm the closest to him besides his dad, but he is getting me coffee," I say, leaning more over the counter, "Is he okay?"

"Yes, He is awake," She says, typing something into her computer, "You may visit him now."

"Thank you, Miss Hansen, Have a wonderful day," I say quickly before running towards the room he was in.

"No judgment, totally bi now," Rich said to a red-faced Jeremy.

"I'm sure some special someone will be thrilled to have you, Rich," I say, taking a seat in the chairs between their beds.

He smiles, and I almost laugh, "You think?" He blushes. I chuckle and I close his curtains.

I rolled my eyes and look back at Jeremy, whose face was going back to its natural color, "Hey, What happened? All I remember is that noise..."

I smile, "Aw, Man, It was amazing!" I scoot my chair closer, "They were communicating with each other, they were linked, which means if you consider the kind of high-frequency sonic disturbance that will wipe the whole system-" I say, almost yelling, but am interrupted.

"Michael, Michael," He says, holding his head, "My head... Still hurts..."

"Oh, right," I say, scratching my head, "Uh, turns out, you didn't need to destroy every SQUIP, just one, then the rest..." I start miming explosions and SQUIP's screaming.

We sat there in silence before he decided to speak up, "I don't get it, After everything I did, you were still there for me. Why?"

"I can't take all the credit."

He looks confused, "Then who?"

Without warning, Mr. Heere walks through the open door, "Jeremy, you okay?"

"Dad!" He smiles, "Actually, I'm great!"

"I'm glad," He says, pulling over a chair, "Because you're grounded. You're gonna see some serious changes, young man."

Jeremy starts laughing and Mr. Heere looks somewhat offended. "What?"

"Dad," Jeremy saying, calming down, "You're wearing pants."

"Don't look so surprised, I'm your father, and I wear the pants around here now," He exclaims, strictly, "let's get down to business, who is this Christine person and why am I hearing about her from him?"

Jeremy sighed and looked down before saying, "Doesn't matter, after what I did I'd be lucky if she wanted to go to the same school as me."

I roll my eyes and burst into laughter, and Jeremy glares at me, "what?"

"It's reassuring, he still knows nothing about girls".

"Okay, Jeremy," Mr. Heere scoots his hair closer to the bed, "Listen, you gotta buy her a rose, then compliment her."

"Maybe say you appreciate that she's smart?" I say in my very expert (gay) opinion.

Out of nowhere Rich rips the curtain around his bed open, "Nah, Man, You tell her that thhe exciteth you thexually!" He raises his eyebrows.

"Trust us we know how this is going to play out," I say, smiling.

"Just follow our advice," Mr. Heere adds, "It will go fine.

-One Day Later-

I enter the school to see Jeremy standing at his locker surrounded by Jake, Chloe, and Brook.

"Don't get caught up on her skin!" Chloe giggled, holding hands with Brook, "She probably thinks

That acne is hot!"

"Just tell me If you need some dope advice." Jake pats him on the back encouragingly, and I laugh, announcing my presence.

"What's banging?" I questioned, taking a sip of my Slurpee.

"Just giving Jerry some advice about Christine," Chloe says, smirking at Jeremy's bright red face,

"He's a little nervous." Brook stage-whispered to me before Jeremy lightly shoved her. "Shut up!"

I notice something on the side of my eye, and turn to see Christine, "There she is, Go get her."

"Jerry," Chloe says, shoving Jeremy in her direction, "It'll go perfectly, don't worry!"

"You've got this, man!" Jake yells as Jeremy runs and waves toward Christine. Chloe and Brook quickly bid us goodbye, so I wave as they walk away.

"Michael?" Jake muttered. I turn toward him, "Yes?" "Can we talk?"

"Of course," I say, and he sighs, starting to slowly move down the hallways on his crutches, so I follow, "What's up?"

"You're gay, Right?" I glance at my pride patch, "As straight as a rainbow," I respond, "Why?"

He hesitates slightly, slightly muttering under his breath, "I can trust you." I wait, not wanting to rush him.

After a few moments he questions, "How... How did you... know?"

"Imagine how you feel about girls, and put that feeling for guys. Guys are hot. Girls are not."

"And if you think both are hot?"

"That's debatable." I say, "some say that would mean you're bi, but you could just be open minded. If you would like to date both, then you would be bi. There is also pan, which is when you don't care about gender, you would date any gender."

"I'm pan." He says without a moment's hesitation.

"Oh," I say, slightly surprised, "Is there anyone you have your e-" I'm suddenly cut off by my phone ringing. Looking at the screen, its Jeremy contact "Can I get this?" He nods, so I answer..

"Hey, Jer. How'd it go?"

"Your basement., apocalypse of the damned. weed. Now." He hangs up and my eyes widen. Jake sees me and panics, "Is everything okay?"

"I need to go," I rush, "can you take notes for me?"

"Umm, yeah. Text me later?"

"Later," I confirm. "Bye."

He doesn't even have time to answer before I've run out of high school. I hop into my P.T. cruiser and pull out of the parking lot, driving as fast as I can to my house.

When I arrived I quickly jump out of the car and run up to the door, which was unlocked. I opened it, and walked in, remembering to lock it. I ran down to the basement, where I heard a boy crying.

"Jeremy?" I noticed him crying on his bean bag. "Are you okay?"

He didn't answer so I sat in my beanbag, glancing at him before grabbing the controllers. I threw one onto his lap, and just look at him, not trying to pressure him into talking, but still curious.

After a few minutes, I move on and press the start button. We sit in silence as the game starts up, then press start.

"Player One," I mutter.

"Player Two," He responds, quietly.

We play in silence, sometimes muttering stuff like "Zombie." or "Watch out."

"She isn't interested." He says after around twenty minutes.

"Sorry?" I glance at him in confusion.

"Christine is Aro/Ace." He.says, dying in the game. I pause it and turn to him, "I'm being an asshole, aren't I?"

"What do you mean?

"She doesn't want to date anyone, and I'm upset about it. I don't have a right to be sad."

"Jeremy, don't be stupid. You've been in love with her for years. You can be upset, you just force it. You need to accept it"

"I don't want to talk about it, Michael." He sighs, looking down, "I just want to get high and play apocalypse of the damned."

I roll my eyes at him, "I can't believe I'm saying this, Jeremy, but no. I think we do need to talk." He looks up at me, sadly, "not high," I add.

He groans, falling backward into his bean bag. "Michael." he whines, "I don't want to talk about Chri-"

"I'm not talking about Christine."

He props himself up on his elbows, "Then wha-" realization dawns on his face, "oh."

"Yeah."

"Michael, It was the SQUI-"

"I'm also not talking about the SQUIP." I say, leaning back into his beanbag, "Last time we were here, you made a promise, you said even after you got the SQUIP you wouldn't be to cool for m... video games. You broke that promise in about an hour, a personal record for you."

"Michael, I swear, It was the SQUIP."

"No, you knew." I said, "The SQUIP may have told you to do that, but he sure didn't force you too."

"You don't know that." He glares at me.

"Actually, Jer, I do, you see, in the past week, when you had been asleep, I've spent a lot of time with Rich, who had had a SQUIP since freshman year," I say, glaring back. "I know a lot about them now. SQUIP's are manipulative, they get inside your head, no pun intended, they can hurt you, but can't force you to do something. They can control your body, but not for a long time, only a few minutes, you made that decision on your own."

"Mic-"

"Optic nerve blocking," I cross my arms. "I know what that is now, It blocks the connection of certain colors and shapes that the retina sends to the optic nerves, in your case, me."

Jeremy looks at me like I've gone insane, I continue "if I remember correctly, you made the choice to do that on your own."

"I do-"

"And you know whats just hilarious about this whole situation? Even after you had done all this stuff, you still haven't apologized once."

"Michael, I apologized at the pl-"

"No, Jeremy. You said sorry for yourself. You said sorry for selfish reasons, to get rid of it." I raise my voice, "I had to ask."

"The SQUIP was stopping me, Michael, You know this."

"See? You haven't apologized."

"I already did."

"For yourself." I yell, "I'm asking for you to apologize for me."

"Alright, Michael, That's enough. You're being selfish." His face was bright red with anger, "I'm going home. Tell me when you're ready to apologize."

I watched as he left, pulling out a blunt to light when I heard the front door shut.

"That went well."

ooo

word count:1628 words

ayyyyyyyy, i'm heere, i'm late, but i'm here.

please let me know how you felt about this chapter. feedback is appreciated!!

-madi <3

july 7 2019