——Y/n (Your) POV!——
The three of us exited Chloe's car and walked over to the door. Brooke knocked and we waited until someone opened the door.
"Hey, guys!" Rich's voice called as he opened the door for us. The music was incredibly loud, I could barely hear myself think, and to top it all off, everyone was there. The house was packed with attendants, it would be literally impossible to find anyone else- okay wow that music is too loud...
"Here," Eric said. "I turned down the music, no one will notice, but it is quieter."
He was right. I could hear my thoughts again, and I was able to hear that Brooke was actually talking to me. "Hey Y/n, do you know if Jeremy's here or not?" She asked.
I shook my head. "I've been here for as long as you have Babes," I answered.
Brooke looked disappointed, but it's it like I could really do anything about it.
"So, Eric, can you tell me what I can do here?" I asked him as I began to walk away from our little group.
Eric rubbed his chin. "You can go and find Jake or anyone else, talk with people, but I will have to ask that you not to drink." I nodded and walked over towards the kitchen. People were taking shots and were crowding around this one guy who pierced a hole through the bottom on a beer can and was chugging it. "It's called shotgunning."
I walked over to the food and picked up a couple of chips that were just laying in a big bowl. I tried to make my way back into the main living room, but I bumped into so many people on the way there that my shoulders hurt by the time I got to the living room.
In the living room, that's where the music was originally coming from, so naturally, people were dancing and spilling drinking on each other. I looked around and noticed Christine, who was dressed up as a princess, sitting on a couch. I smiled to myself and sat down next to her.
"Hey, Christine, right?" I asked, although I knew very well who this was. I remember Jeremy never if being able to stand or sit still whenever she was around. Plus he would always tell us about her.
"Y/n, I would recommend creating a bond with this girl, she's extremely intelligent, plus, you and she have a lot in common."
She weakly smiled at me. "Yeah, you're obviously Y/n, right?"
I nodded. "Yeah, how'd you know?" I asked.
Christine laughed. "Seriously? You're literally in one of the most popular cliques in school, everyone kinda knows you." She said with a giddy smile.
I laughed and scratched the back of my head. "Yeah, I suppose there is that," I sighed. I glanced back at Christine to see that her face had dropped. "You okay?" I asked.
She looked up at me. "Well, Jake had invited me to come but, I haven't seen him..." Her voice sounded disappointed.
I pat her back. "I'm sure he-" I realized what she said. "Wait- I'm sorry what?"
Christine looked at the ground. "I think Jake stood me up tonight..." She said.
I looked at her in confusion. "Uh, Christine, Jake is my boyfriend. Are you saying he asked you out?" I asked,
Christine's eyes widened as she waved her hands frantically. "Wait- No no! I'm sure not!" She answered. "Although I didn't know he was your boyfriend..." she claimed as she slowly scratched the back of her neck.
A smiler at her, I really like Christine, she's just a big theaters nerd like I am, but I did change the subject. "You're in a play right now, right?" I asked.
She nodded. "Yeah, the play is actually in 2 days! We're doing A Midsummers Night's Dream- althoughwe'redoingitwithzombies- and I'm playing Puck! So I'm really excited!" She exclaimed. "I just love theater and plays- rehearsal is my favorite part though!"
I grinned at her enthusiasm. "I've always wanted to do theater, although I can never sign up in time because it's hardly ever advertised," I explained. "There's always just one really small poster..."
Christine leaned in closer. "I know right! I think it's just pure luck that I see the sign-up sheets!" She loudly exclaimed.
I sighed and relaxingly leaned my hand back onto the couch. "So," I began. "Have you seen anyone else you know around here?" I asked.
Christine rubbed her chin. "I think I saw Jeremy from rehearsal right before you sat down next to me, but he went straight to Brooke so I couldn't say hi."
My ears perked up. "Oh, so he is here?" Christine shrugged. "Oh, well, to be honest, this party's kind of boring..." I said.
Christine nodded. "I wouldn't say boring more of, bland? I guess you and I aren't the parting kinds." She lightly chuckled. Abruptly she shot up off the couch and did a twirl. "Oh! You're a theater person, right?" I nodded. "Notice anything about my costume?"
I looked at her costume up and down. "Wait- are you dressed as Juliet?" I asked her.
She nodded excessively. "Yeah! It's the same costume that I wore am for the show-"
"EVERYONE! JEREMY AND CHLOE ARE HAVING HOT SEX IN JAKE'S PARENTS ROOM!" Someone yelled. Christine and I looked at each other in confusion as everyone else around us abruptly stopped what they were doing to go see Jeremy and Chloe. We shrugged at each other and followed.
I'd actually already been to Jake's house before, so I already knew where his parent's room was. So while everyone else was frantically running everywhere trying to find it, I just walked right up to the door and pressed my ear to it. It just sounded like they were talking. Everyone noticed what I was doing and crowed around the same door.
"JEREMY! I KNOW YOU'RE NOT HAVING SEX ON MY PARENT'S BED!" Jake yelled as he ran past all of us and banged on the door harshly with his fists.
"JEREMY AND I ARE HAVING SEX! AND IT'S SO HOT AND SEXUAL THAT HE'S BETTER THAN YOU!" Chloe's voice called out, then Chloe started to moan loudly,
I could hear Jeremy stutter. "N-NO! She's lying! We're not having sex!" He yelled.
I felt a brush on my left arm, I looked over to see Brooke looking at the door wide-eyed. Tears were so obviously pushing at her eyes. I could see her mumbling something, but everyone around us was screaming and yelling so loudly that I could hear her. I went to hug and comfort her, but she ran through and away from the crowd before I could. I looked around at me Jake was still pounding at the door. I turned back and tried to chase after Brooke.
The crowd gathered around the door was incredibly large and dense, so it was difficult just to slip by them, but I eventually did. I tried to look around the house for Brooke but she wasn't anywhere. "Eric, are you able to see where she is?" I asked him.
Eric materialized in front of me. "I'm afraid not, I can only see the locations of where other Squip hosts and hostess are." He said.
I nodded and continued looking for Brooke, but my mind wondered. "Eric?" I looked up at him.
"Still here." He smiled at me.
I fidgeted with my costume's jacket. "Did Chloe actually have sex with Jeremy...?" I asked again.
Eric paused. "No... Chloe got jealous of Jeremy and Brooke's 'relationship' and tried to have sex with Jeremy, coming fairly close to sexually assaulting him."
"Why in the world would she do that...?"
"Jealousy is an incredibly strong emotion," Eric sighed. "I would know..." He mumbled that last part, but I chose to not to ask what he said. I continued to look around although the lingering smell of alcohol just grew stronger, and started to make me get a little nauseous. "Y/n, go to the bathroom and grab a glass of water. The air in there fairly fresh,"
I put my hand on my stomach and ran for the bathroom. I could feel puke slowly arise, but I quickly swallowed it before it could forcefully leave my mouth. Eric and I rummaged around until he found a cup to drink out of. I sat on the sink's counter and slowly drank the water.
But then the shower curtain was pulled back. "AH!" I yelled, being startled at this abrupt motion. "Wait- Michael?"
Michael sat up in the tub. "Hey." He nonchalantly greeted.
I slowed my breathing down. "Mika, how- how'd you get in? I thought you weren't invited." I said.
"I wasn't," Michael stood up from the tub. "I got in using this clever disguise." He said. He revealed himself to just have put on some kind of homemade trash costume. I smiled at him but didn't say anything. "You're speechless, Squip got your tongue?"
I glanced at Eric. He shook his head. "No, I'm just glad you're here, this party is bland- well, sort of."
Michael took his costume off and stood next to me. "What do you mean bland- Wait- What did Jeremy do this time?" He asked.
I rolled my eyes. "He managed to accidentally make everyone here at this party think that he and Chloe were having sex on Jake's parent's bed," I explained. Michael nodded.
"Sounds like Jeremy, although I blame him Squip 100% for that." Michael began. Michael turned his whole body toward me. "Speaking of which, I'm assuming your Squip is here and listening to everything we're saying right now, right?"
I saw Eric shake his head. "Tell him that I'm turned off, if you tell him that I'm here then he'll restrict his own words." He said.
"No, he's turned off right now." I lied.
Michael looked off. "Good." Michael grabbed my shoulders. "Listen-"
Michael was abruptly cut off by the bathroom door slamming. Michael and I jerked our heads towards where the sound emitted. "Jeremy?"
Jeremy has his back pressed up against the door in a panic, but when he saw us, his back relaxed and his breathing settled. "Y/n? Michael? Oh god, I'm."
Michael looked at the both of us. "You know, I was actually thinking about this moment, about what I was going to say to you both," Michael took a small piece of paper out of his pack pocket and briefly scanned what it said. "I had this- really pissed off monologue. An epic journey through 12 years of friendship." Michael crumbled the paper and angrily put it back in his pocket. He looked back up at Jeremy just to see him smiling. "What?"
Jeremy snapped out of his strange trance. "No, it's just- it's just really great to see you, man..." He lazily smiled as he rubbed his own arm.
Michael squinted at Jeremy but softened his glare when he looked at me. "Well, it won't be, when you hear what I found out." He said.
Jeremy and I looked at him strangely. "Found out? About what?" Jeremy asked.
Michael jerked his eyebrows up and poked in between his forehead and temples.
I questioned him. "How? There's nothing on the internet-"
"Which is weird right?" He interrupted me. "I mean; what's not on the internet? So I started asking around- and finally, this guy I play Warcraft with told me his brother went from a straight D student, to a freshman at Harvard." Michael paused and looked at the two of us. "Do you know where he is now?" He asked us.
Eric visibility tensed up. "Really happy and successful?" Jeremy suggested.
Michael looked to the ground and back up us. "He's in a mental hospital." My eyes widened. I looked at Eric, his jaw was clenched. "Totally lost it."
"He was an earlier model..." Eric's voice suggested that he felt hurt and that Michael's simple words were cutting deep. "We hadn't worked out bugs yet- please don't think that we'd now make you go crazy- please Y/n..." Eric looked at me in desperation.
Before I could say anything Jeremy rudely replied. "Alright, I don't see what that has to do with me nor Y/n's Sq-"
"Think man!" Michael loudly exclaimed. "We're talking- an insanely powerful supercomputer- you think it's primary function is to get you laid?" Michael got closer to Jeremy. "Who made them?" He shifted over to me. "How did they end up in a high school?" Michael turned around and threw his arms high up into the air, and yelled. "In New Jersey?!"
"Everything is legal in New-"
"Don't even fucking start-"
"Of all possible applications for such a mind-blowingly advanced technology," Michael turned to me and pointed. "You ever wonder what it's doing inside you?"
Jeremy looked like he was genuinely getting worried, but he suddenly laughed. "Pfft, and I thought Chloe was jealous." Jeremy scoffed. Okay, that ticked me off. Michael is trying to be serious and Jeremy thinks that this is some kind of joke.
Michael's face glared at Jeremy. "I'm honestly asking-"
Jeremy's tone of voice got cocky. "Oh really? It's- I think that you're just pissed that I have one and you don't."
Michael rolled his eye, along with me, to completely honest. "Come on." He groaned.
"You know- maybe I got lucky? Is that so weird?" Jeremy declared. "I mean, with my history? I'd say the universe owed me one- and look- I don't know about your friend's brother's- whatever- but, if you're telling me that the Squip made him go crazy-"
Michael got closet to Jeremy's face. "The Squip didn't make him go crazy..."
Jeremy smirked at that answer. "Alright, then there you go-"
Michael grabbed Jeremy's shoulders and forced him to look directly into his eyes. "HE WENT CRAZY TRYING TO GET IT OUT!"
Silence wafted over the bathroom. The tension was thick. I wanted to say something, but I didn't know what. I felt so useless, so unnecessary. I understand what Michael's saying, but he needs to take into account that not all Squips are like that anymore.
Jeremy scrunched up his face looked rudely looked away and pushed Michael's hands off of him. "Well- then I got nothing to worry 'bout- why would I want that?" Jeremy tried to walk away from the two of us but Michael and I jerked ourselves in front of the door. After all of that disrespectful shit that he'd been throwing at Michael, he didn't deserve to leave just like that. "C'mon guys, move it," Jeremy said.
Michael glared at him. "Or you'll what?" He asked, with some remaining confidence.
Jeremy pushed his face right in front of Michael's and glared at him. I could see visibly Michael tense up. Michael may be confident in what he's trying to do, but the was that Jeremy looked at Michael, the way that he glared and kept just disregarding everything he said and caring so little about it, that's not Jeremy anymore. "Get out of my way," the power and intimidation have taken over his mindset. "Loser."
Just like that, Michael began to shiver and stepped away from the door. But I wouldn't budge. Jeremy turned to me. "You are such a dick." I scowled. "Michael cares so much about you, and give little to no shit about it. He's been here for you, for 12 whole fucking years. And what you give in return is you acting- no- being a piece of shit to this kind person. The least you could do is try to reason with him, but you only care about yourself," I scolded. Jeremy glared at me and pushed me out of the way with ease due to him being much stronger than I. His Squip has probably been making him work out now.
Jeremy opened the door and scoffed at Michael and me, and left, closing the door behind him. Michael pressed him back against the door and I watched him slide down to the floor. Michael started twitching and shaking as he pressed his face into his knees.
He was crying.
I bent down to my knees and hesitantly opened my arms up for him to hug me. Michael looked up from his knees. Tears were rolling down his cheeks quickly, his breathing was so uneven and he devolved the hiccups. Michael lunged at me and hugged me incredibly tight.
Seeing him like this forced tears to pushed at my eyes, and I was crying with him. Eric joined in on our hug, although I don't think Michael noticed right away, he was too busy crying, but when he finally realized that someone else was hugging him, he slowly brought his head up to look at Eric.
Eric was tangible but wasn't in his human form. He looked at Michael and rubbed his back with a genuinely sympathetic smile. I don't think Michael knew how to react at first because he just stared at Eric, but he eventually went in to hug Eric too.
Michael hiccuped. "I'm sorry..." He breathed out. "I'm so sorry..."
Eric smiled and grabbed my hand, I saw his cheeks blush a bit. "It's alright... everything is fine. We can all sort this out." Eric reassured as he looked back down at Michael.
Michael opened his mouth to say something else again but the door was then aggressively banged on. "Hello? Some of us have to pee!" A feminine voice called out in anger.
And in a great moment of word association (hehe), Michael yelled back; "I'm having my period!" In a slightly higher voice.
There was a pause. "Take your time honey..." The voice said and then walked away.
I laughed aloud and leaned on Eric's shoulder. Michael brought the two of us into another group hug, I could feel my warm tears stream down my face. I looked towards Eric, he was smiling at me, Eric opened his mouth to say something to me, but all he did is close his mouth and look away as his face slowly grew a larger blush.
Michael gasped, trying to calm his breathing. "I'm such a loser..." He mumbled under his breath. "I'm just Michael in the bathroom at a party..." He slightly sang to himself as he tried to choke back his tears.
I rubbed his back and slightly chuckled and the tears continued to roll down my face. "Trust me, Michael, every party will end up with a couple of people crying in the bathroom. That's just how it is," I said. "Parties are just places to make your life worse. We think they'll go great and you'll have a great time when in reality we just continue to hide our fears and insecurities with sex, alcohol, and insults." I said. I sat up and rummaged around the sink's floor cabinet. Brooke told me that there's always going to be a large stash of beers in the bathroom, you just need to know where to look, and knowing Jake, he'd pick the easiest place to access.
I saw that half of the beers were already opened and empty. Michael lazily raised his hand. "My bad, I had nothing to do while I waited in here," he chuckled. I grabbed two and handed one to Michael. I was about to pop it open but I look at Eric as if asking for permission.
Eric smiled wider. "It's fine, I'm currently tangible so all it will do is make me also get as drunk or sober as you are." He almost laughed. I nodded and took a swing of the magically open beer.
"You know, as much as I like Brooke, and Chloe, and Rich, and all of those guys," I listed. "You're never truly close friend with someone until you're crying on a bathroom floor with them," I said.
Michael raised his beer. "A-fuckin'-men." Michael and I continued to drink, but I stopped when Michael starting singing to himself again. "I'm just Michael, who's a loner, so he must be a stoner, rides a PT cruiser... God, I'm such a loser." I could hear his voice break down.
I hugged him again and spoke up. "Michael, you are not a loser, you're better, you're a geek. You're weird. You're strange and unusual- but what's so bad about that?" I asked. "Who cares? If Jeremy judges you for it then too bad for him, he just lost the best friend he had. Just move on and find some real friends. I'm sure that there are so many people who will love to be friends with you- like Rich! I think you and him would actually be competitively good friends." I prompted.
Michael went quiet for a moment. He sighed and leaned on my shoulder and poked my forehead with his finger and Eric's with the lip of his beer bottle. "I already found two real friends- even if one isn't technology real." Michael laughed.
"Hey! I'm real!" Eric established while partially laughing. "I'm just a computer! I'm like a normal friend, but 86.826999% better. Plus I won't leave you for "better" friends or for popularity." He said, doing finger quotes when saying the word 'better'.
"Aw, thanks, you..." I stammered, trying to think of another name for Eric.
"Floppy disk," Michael said.
"Floppy disk." I agreed.
"Floppy disk?" Eric laughed.
"Floppy disk," I smirked.
The three of us laughed and continued to talk with each other. We chatted about how to emotionally deal with Jeremy and what's going to happen next, but in the middle of our conversation, Eric's eyes widened. "We need to leave." He ruled as he took Michael and my arms and pulled us up off the ground.
"What? Why?" Michael and I both asked. Eric opened the door and began to pull the two of us out of the house.
"I'll explain later! Just go!" He yelled. Michael and I looked at each other worrying and quickly walked out the front door. Michael led me to his car, but we were abruptly stopped by a small man with a baguette in his hand and a mask resting on the top of his head.
"Do you guys have any Mountain Red dew?!" Rich frantically asked.
Michael looked at him confusingly. "Not currently on me-"
Rich turned to me. "What about you? It's like regular Mountain Dew- but red!"
I shook my head. "No, sorry Rich- wait, why?"
"Don't worry about it!" He yelled and ran off like some kind of chaotic pixie. Eric broke our focus and pushed us to Michael's car.
Eric unlocked Michael's car and pushed Michael and me in the back. He glitched into the front seat and drove off before Michael and I could properly buckle in. "Where are we going?" I asked as I finally clamped in.
Eric looked back at us. "I'm taking you both home," Eric said. Michael looked at the clock on the radio station and mildly panicked.
"Uh," Michael stuttered. "It's 12:57... My moms will be pissed if I come home late again, can you just, um, can I sleepover at your house?" Michael asked. "They won't notice if not home."
Eric looked back at the road, although I didn't think he needed to. "I suppose," he said through his teeth.
Michael smirked. "What? Am I going to interrupt your and Y/n's alone time?~" Michael sarcastically asked.
Eric's face visibly glowed electric blue. "What? Why would you think that?" He asked back, avoiding the question.
Michael's smirk grew. "Aw, our little floppy disk here wants to spend time with Y/n,~" He teased.
Okay, now it was my turn to blush. I felt my cheeks warm up. I kicked Michael's leg and glared at him. "Shut it, you!" I scowled at him. "We have the power to just drop you off and have you walk back to your house- so don't test us!"
Michael laughed and nervously put his hands up. "Okay okay!"
I heard Eric grumble to himself as he drove, Michael continued to giggle to himself so I was just left to only look out the window at the houses we passed by. After a while, I started getting tired at looking at the houses so I rested my eyes for a bit so it could stop screaming pictures at my brain.
Eric chuckled, "That's one way to put it I suppose," He laughed.
Michael's ears perked up. "What?"
I opened my eyes. "Y/n just mentally described sight as her eyes screaming pictures at her brain," Eric explained.
Michael laughed. "Yep, that's too accurate." He agreed.
My mind began to wonder, but I quickly caught myself and spoke up. "Hey, Eric, you said you would tell us why we left, so, care to share?" I asked.
Eric slightly turned his head towards us again. "It's better to explain when we get home." He said.
I slowly nodded and looked out the window again. I noticed a blinking red and blue light in the distance, and something that appeared to be a long red truck rush down a street that we came off of a little while ago. I thought it was odd but was too tired to think of what it was and what it was doing there.
After a minute or two of driving, Eric finally pulled the car into my house's driveway, and we all stepped out. I led Eric and Michael to my back door and let them in with the house key I always keep on me.
"Actually, before we go in," Eric glitched into what looked to be in a black and white striped suit with a dark green tie. "Since it was a Halloween costume party." He said.
I looked at Michael. "What about you?" I asked him.
"What about me?" He asked back. "Your parents know me, it'll be fine."
I shrugged and we all stepped into the house. I looked to see my mom and dad both still sitting on the couch. "Hello dad, mom," I greeted.
"Hello hun," My mom looked behind me to see Eric and Michael. "Two men home this time? Wow, nice going!" She winked.
I rolled my eyes. "Is it alright if these two spend the night? Uh, Michael got locked out of his house and... Um... Eric lost his house keys at the party so they don't have anywhere to sleep tonight."
My dad jokingly glared at Eric and Michael. "I don't want to walk in and see you guys touching my daughter." He ruled. "But yes, dear, you can bring the air mattress into your room for them to sleep on."
I smiled. "Thanks, dad!" I smiled and walked up to my room with the two of them trailing behind me.
Eric pat my shoulder. "That was some smooth lying.~" He teased. I swat my hand at Eric and forced Michael and Eric to set of the air mattresses. If they want a comfortable sleep in my house then they're gonna provide it.
"So," Michael flopped onto his claimed air mattress and turned to Eric who glitched out of his suit and into his black hoodie. "Care to explain why you pushed us out of there so quickly?" He asked.
Eric rubbed his arm and gave himself a moment to compose himself. "So, the was that my Quantum Processor works is that it will predict multiple plausible futures that will affect my hostess life, and so us Squips will have to use that information and mold it into something that will help them," He explained. "And so, when I was reviewing multiple futures, there was more than a 75% chance of an undesirable outcome..." He said.
I moved my hand in a circular motion. "Which was...?"
Eric looked at me and blushed. "I don't want you hurt, or worse- dead." He said. "So please understand my choice of action to evacuate the area..."
I grew nervous. "Eric?"
"Oh god, what happened?" Michael frantically asked, sitting up nervously.
Eric walked closer to me and Michael. "There was a 75% chance that Rich Goranski would light a fire as an attempt to rid himself of his Squip." Eric said. "And by the look of those fire trucks that had passed us earlier, that was indeed the correct future."
A/N
Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Or/and all of those things!
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Word Count: 4615
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