——Y/n (Your) POV!——
I stared at Eric in shock.
"It KILLS you?!" I asked him gain in shock. "How? Why?" I kept asking.
Eric awkwardly rubbed his arm. "Mountain Dew Red contains a chemical that can terminate a vital part of my infrastructure which will immediately lead to my deactivation." Eric looked at Michael who was just looking at me with the Mountain Dew in his hand for me to take. "Whether I like it or not."
"Y/n? What are you waiting for?" Michael asked. Michael tried a different approach, he smile at me and relaxed his posture. "The taste is really good if that's what you're wondering. So it's a win win!" He said.
I shook my head. "No thanks Michael, I'm fine." I declined.
Michael furrowed his eyebrows. "Why? It will help you, Jeremy, everyone who has a Squip! We could even give it to Rich!" He exclaimed.
I nervously looked to Eric. His expression was terrified, as if he didn't know what my next move would be. "Nah, Michael, I just, Uh, that drink is like 20 years old or something!" I attempted to save myself. "It's probably all old and dusty..." I nervously giggled.
"Do you really want this computer in your brain forever?" Michael said, coming close to dropping it.
I stared at him firmly. "Michael, I don't know about Jeremy's Squip, or Rich's Squip, or anyone else's, but what I know, is that mine is different." I lightly pushed Michael to make it seem like my words had more meaning. "He cares about me, and worries about me."
Michael's voice turned a little angry, but his expression change as if he was worried and about to cry. "But what about how he harmed you, huh? What about all those scars on your arm?" He demanded.
I shook my head in shame. "Eric didn't do that to me-"
"Yes he did!"
"No he didn't!"
"Than who-"
"I DID!" I yelled, tears pushing at my eyes. "I hurt myself! Is that what you wanted to hear?!" I threw my head back up to glare at him.
Michael stared at me. His mouth slightly open, and his eyes wide. His breathing went uneven and he kept glancing back at my arms and my face.
"You..." he took a step towards me and held my face in his hands. "Hurt yourself?" He asked for confirmation. I shamefully nodded. "W-why? Why would you do that?"
I looked up at him. Tears were about to spill from my eyes, my lip was trembling and I could tell my hands were shaking. "I- I- just-"
"Yo! Shady headphone guy! Get your hands off my girl!" Jake yelled at Michael. Michael quickly removed his hands form my cheeks. From an outsider's perspective, it would seem like he was doing that as him trying to put moves on me, but he and I both know he's too gay for that.
Michael backed away from me a bit. "Sorry, I guess...?"
Jake pushed Michael's chest. "You better be sorry. Y/n is my girl and my girl only, you better stay away from her you headphone creep." Jake insulted.
Michael glared at him. "Since when did she become your property? I'm fairly certain she never became 'yours'." Michael defended. "Also, I'm not trying to date your girlfriend, I just had to talk to her."
Jake glared back at Michael. "Talking doesn't require touching you creep." Jake changed his expression to a sneer smirk. "Wait, are you gay or something?" Jake asked in amusement.
Michael's facial expression totally changed. His cheeks went a mild pink as his eyes widened. "I... uh..." He stammered.
Jake put his hand over his mouth and laughed. "Ha!" He yelled out. "GAAAAAAY!" Typically everyone would start laughing with him, but, they all stayed quiet and just stared at him. Jake looked back at his group. "What?" He asked.
"Jake, what's so funny about being gay? Gay people can be nice too." Brooke said in a slightly annoyed tone.
"W-what?" I for sure thought they were all going to start making fun of Michael!
"They're not laughing, because of you." Eric said.
I glanced at him. "What? How? Why?"
"You've hung around them so much to the point where your kind attitude has grown on them." Eric said. "Which makes sense," Eric looked up at me and smiled. "Your affection is, in a way, contagious."
I smiled at Eric's words.
"Yeah man, that's not cool." Rich stood. Jake backed up away from Michael.
Jake looked at me. "Y/n? Come on..."
I shook my head. "Michael's actually a good friend of mine, and if he's gay and that bothers you, then you and I are going to have a problem." I established.
Jake looked back at the group in desperation, but they weren't going to help him at all. Jake finally backed down. "Whatever." Jake glared daggers at Michael. "Listen geek, if you even thought you were coming to my party- think again." Then he walked away a steaming mess.
"Well that happened." Chloe shrugged. She immediately turned her attention to Michael. "Yo, headphones kid- what's your name?"
"Michael-"
"Yeah, Michael, are you actually gay?" She blankly asked.
Michael stared at her. "Uh, I guess I can see guys as kinda attractive..." He nervously admitted.
Chloe, Brooke and Rich all smiled at him. "That's really cool! Are you open about it?" Rich asked.
I could tell that Michael was about to melt into a pool of gay. "Uh, not really... I'm not to comfortable talking about this, okay?" He tried to stop it.
Rich nodded. "Yeah man, that's totally cool." He said. "No shame here, we're not dangerous snakes or anything."
Chloe smirked. "The actually snake is Jenna Roland- be wary of her if anything." Chloe rolled her eyes. Michael nervously rubbed his arm. "Alright, come on Y/n, I'm hungry." She said.
I nodded and followed them as they walked away. I turned around for a second. "Hey Mika, can we talk after school?" I asked.
Michael nodded with a smile. "I'd like that..." Michael said. I smiled at him and followed the group, leaving him behind.
"That was kinda uncool of Jake." Chloe said, typing away on her phone. Chloe turned to me. "So, sis, you gonna break up with him for going off at you friend?" She asked.
I glanced off to see Eric fiddling with his tie, he obviously didn't enjoy this conversation. "No, it's fine. As long as he apologizes, that is." I ruled. They all nodded in agreement.
Brooke abruptly waved. "Jeremy!!!" She called for him. I instantly got nervous knowing that his Squip is with him.
Jeremy turned around and smiled at our group. He walked over and said hello. I didn't see Keanu anywhere... "Hey guys, lunch?" He asked. We all nodded and made our way down to the cafeteria. I tried to avoid Jeremy just incase his Squip would pop up and ruin my self esteem for the like, third time. But, alas, Jeremy made his way next to me and began talking to me. "So... How's it going?" He attempted to start a conversation.
I shrugged at him as I glanced in his direction. "It's going fine." I blankly answered.
"How's Eric?"
"Peachy." He sounded very annoyed and unamused.
Jeremy slowly nodded. "How are your classes going?" He attempted conversion again, but he should really just stop...
I looked at him properly. "Jeremy, what to you want?" I asked him back.
Jeremy looked a little startled that just straight up asked him that. "Uh..." He stammered. "I just wanna have one of my friend back, ever since the Squips, you and I have drifts away from each other." He said.
I scoffed at him. "Really? 'Drifted apart'?" I slightly laughed. "That's hardly what I'd call it. You completely abandoned Michael and I at your first chance." I rubbed my arm, the scars were getting kinda itchy, I definitely need new bandages. "The only reason you're talking with me right now is the fact that I've also grown popularity, you snobbish pig." I said.
Jeremy looks at me in a hurt way. "You... You seriously think that of me?" He asked.
"I don't have any reason not to."
Jeremy looked back at the rest of the group, they were a couple steps ahead of us. Jeremy looked at me but then glanced at the floor. "He's off right now." He said.
I looked at him. "What?"
"He's temporarily shut off. I needed some head space." He said, running his hand through his hair. "Plus, he keeps going off at me to 'Upgrade'. Like, what does that even mean?"
I shrugged. "How should I know?"
"Well," he looked at Eric. "I was hoping he would know..." Jeremy said.
"Why would you think I would do anything for you? I'm bound to Y/n's wishes, not yours." Eric said. I gave him a small smile, and looked back at Jeremy.
"He's not wrong- plus, why would I help you? You've been nothing but a jerk to me." I informed him.
Jeremy looked up at me, desperately. "Come on, my Squip made me do all of those things. It really hurt me when he told me that he was nerve blocking you and Michael. Plus, I don't want him to hurt me..." Jeremy said.
I looked at him. "Nerve blocking?" I looked at Eric. "What's that?"
"Er," He hesitated. "It's when a Squip blocks something or someone from your field of vision..." He answered. Eric floated in front of Jeremy as we continued to walk. "Now, Jeremy, I have a few questions to ask you." He began.
Jeremy looked at him in a confused way. "What?"
"Just answer my questions." Eric stated. "Now, when you said that your Squip keeps telling you to Upgrade, what does he mean by it?"
Jeremy shrugged. "How should I know? I've assumed that he meant it in a way that I should just focus working my way up higher on the popularity ladder." He said.
Eric chose his next words more carefully. "When you brought up Optic Nerve Blocking, has he done it, and to who?"
"Yeah, he originally blocked Y/n and Michael, but he's letting me see Y/n now that she's popular." Jeremy rubbed his arm. "Although he still blocks Michael even though I wanna see him again..."
"Lie." Eric flatly said.
"What?" Jermey said.
"You just lied. You're heart rate went up and your muscles tensed." Eric explained. Eric gave a good long stare at Jeremy. "You're allowing your Squip to Nerve Block Michael, aren't you?" Eric accused.
Jeremy's eyes widened. "What kind of monster would do that?"
Eric let out a small sigh. "You apparently." Eric rolled his eyes.
"I would never." He whined.
"Quit lying." Eric glared at Jeremy and crossed his arms.
"I'm not lying."
I gave Jeremy a long stare. "Jeremy. Stop talking, you're just digging yourself a deeper hole." I stopped him before he could say anything and sped up my walking to catch up to the others. "So, where are we gonna eat?" I asked the group.
Chloe smiled at me. "I was thinking that since we have all have a free period after this, we should go to Starbucks or something!" She suggested. Brooke lightly clapped her hands and the idea, and so we left for SB.
Eric floated next to me. "Jake is going to apologize to you later today." Eric informed.
"Good. He was being a jackass." I mentally rolled my eyes.
Eric's tone in voice changed. "He's only apologizing because of you, not because he's actually sorry." I didn't know how to take that information. I was going to say something but Eric spoke again. "Y/n, I'm saying this because I care about you, but by the way Jake's heat rate doesn't change, or how he doesn't care about what you think, it's abundantly clear to me that he only wants to get in your pants." He said with worry in his voice. The group and I stepped outside and began to walk to the Starbucks that was a block or two away.
I smiled up at him. "I'm glad you more concerned about me, but I'm fine. Most guys are just like that." I said. "At this point I'm use to it."
Eric furrowed his brows. "But your partner should treat you like you're their world, not like some trophy to just show off. They should care and respect you." Eric said. "All that Jake has done is continue to check our other women, show you off to his guy friends, and completely disrespect you and your friends." Eric stopped floating next to me and just started walking.
I glanced at him. "It's fine Eric. Nobody's perfect."
"You're perfect..." Eric mumbled.
"What?"
Eric's head snapped towards me. His face was bright blue with his signature blush. "Don't worry about it!" He quickly said.
"Mhm..." I muffled aloud.
Chloe turned around to me. "Did you say something?" She asked.
I looked up at her and smiled. "Ah, not really, just slightly humming to myself." I laughed.
Chloe smiled. "Me too! I do that all the time!" She giggled.
We all stepped inside the Starbucks and got our orders. We sat around and chatted until it was 12:55. Class started at 1 and it's about a 15 minute walk back, but we didn't care if we were late or not. I had Spanish next and I really don't like that class.
~Time Squip~
"Y/n! Come on! Let me drive you home!" Brooke whined as we stepped into the school's parking lot.
I waved at her. "No!" I giggled. "I can walk home! I'm meeting up with a friend anyway!" I called back as I began to slowly back away from her car.
"Please?!" She begged.
I laughed at how childish she was acting. "Maybe tomorrow!" I turned around. "Bye!"
I heard Brooke letting out a defeated groan, and then her car driving away. I took a deep breath- and walked in the opposite direction of my house. But that's just because I wasn't going to my house.
I walked for about 10 to 15 minutes or so before arriving at his house. I walked to the backyard and slid into the basement through his window like I had done many times before. I then proceeded to sit on his couch and drink some soda that I found in his mini fridge.
Michale finally walked down the stairs and lightly chuckled at my presence. "I should have guessed you were already here." Michael laughed. Michael sat down on the couch next to me. "So, what do you wanna talk about?" He asked me.
"Is there just any way that you can understand that Eric is a good person- er, supercomputer?" I asked. Michael looked down at his hands and back up at me. "I get it if you don't want to I just still really want to be your friend. I don't want to lose you..." I said.
Michael smiled at me. "I don't see why not." He then furrowed his brows. "I still don't completely trust him nor Jeremy's Squip."
I laughed and rolled my eyes. "That makes two of us! Minus the not trusting my Squip- I just totally don't trust Jeremy's Squip." I pointed my thumb at Eric who was sitting on the floor by my legs. "Neither does Eric, here."
Michael looked at where I pointed. "Can I... Can I see him again?"
As if on cue, Eric materialized, still in his computer form, so he still had the Electric blue tint to him. "Hello Michael..." Eric cautiously began. "Can you and I start over again?"