Michael jumped onto Jeremy's small bed and swung his legs back and forth. He seemed much more energetic and awake than when he was downstairs. Maybe he was feigning being tired to get out of having to spend any more time playing monopoly with Jeremy's dad. That seemed plausible.

He glanced around Jeremy's room, perhaps trying to remember the last time he had been here. The walls still had that shitty blue dolphin wallpaper that Mr. Heere had put on when Jeremy was a little kid. The floor was carpet and looked as though it hadn't been vacuumed in at least a few weeks and there were crumbs on it from what looked like various snacks.

Jeremy's laptop still had his screen turned on to Skype. Michael had been urging him to try Discord or anything a little more modern and functional, but Jeremy seemed to like the ease of the Skype interface. There was also a bag of half-eaten tostito chips next to the laptop.

"You've been quiet." He finally said.

"Well, uh, I've been busy with...stuff." Jeremy responded.

"Like what?"

"Oh um...I'm volunteering at the library." Well...that was half true. Jeremy did occasionally come to help out at the library after his dad suggested he needed to leave the house more and talk to other people. It went from a weekly thing to a rarely thing.

Michael raised a doubtful eyebrow for a moment, before saying "Oh, that's cool."

Silence. This was more awkward than Jeremy pictured.

"How have you been?" Jeremy asked, desperate to break the tension between the two.

"Pretty good, um..." Michael's words trailed off as his phone vibrated and sent off a few ding sounds. A smile crossed his face as he excitedly typed back to whoever was texting him. "My mom started working for this-" the ding from his phone cut him off again and his eyes darted down to his screen as he began texting.

"Er...what was that? T-That you were saying?" Jeremy said, starting to feel a little uncomfortable and excluded despite the fact that they were the only two in the room.

"Hm? Oh, yeah, my mom started working for this restaurant, y'know that sushi one? Anyway, it mostly means she can bring home free food when they've got leftovers. It's pretty awe-"

Ding. Another text.

Jeremy knew it wasn't any of his business, but this was starting to bother him. "Who keeps texting you?" He asked, it came out sounding more aggressive than he intended.

"Uh..." Michael avoided Jeremy's eyes. "Rich." He said quietly.

"Wait like...Rich Goranski?" Jeremy said, cringing. That was the only Rich he knew but...that would be weird.

"Yes." Michael responded shortly.

"Since when are you friends with Rich?"

Michael shrugged. "For some reason he just started acting really friendly to me on like, the last day of school. I dunno man, but he's actually pretty chill." he smiled softly.

This was way too weird for Jeremy to accept. Rich Goranski, the guy who bullied them all through school, started this whole Squip mess and then made headlines on everyone's twitter page because he burned down someone's house, was suddenly best friends with Michael.

Sure, Rich was technically a victim of the Squip, too. But Jeremy couldn't help but feel angry towards Rich. This was his fault. He was the one who said how amazing and life changing the Squip would be. Well, at least the latter was correct. And not even in a good way.

So you ditched him for me then? Jeremy thought to himself. He ditched Michael, he knew that. But he couldn't have even tried to reach out to him in the past few months? Maybe Jeremy was being bitter and jealous towards nothing, but that angry feeling wouldn't go away.

He attempted to change the subject. "Laser Tag was pretty fun. I kept getting tagged by these bratty kids."

Michael nodded, not really listening as his eyes were still glued to the screen.

"I almost forgot how to play but then I remembered because of when we played back when we were younger." Michael didn't respond. Jeremy sighed. "You wanna do something?"

"Like what?"

"Uh...I dunno. Watch a movie? Play a game?"

Michael was quiet for a moment before nodding, putting his phone down and sliding off the bed to sit on the carpet floor. He leaned against Jeremy's drawer, where there were several foul-smelling loose socks sticking out, different shirts laid out in various shades of blue and red, and one Eminem shirt that read "LOSE YOURSELF" in an edgy font. Michael cringed.

"A movie is fine" He replied.

***

Michael was nearly half asleep while Jeremy struggled to keep his eyes opened. It was almost three in the morning now. There was popcorn on the floor and on their clothes. The credits of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" seemed to scroll endlessly on the laptop screen.

They'd seen the movie multiple times but somehow this time it seemed to be oddly long and the funniest parts weren't as funny as they had remembered. At least for Jeremy.

"Let's get some sleep, dude." Jeremy said, closing his laptop and standing up just to hear every bone in his back crack as he stretched for the first time in almost two hours. 
Michael seemed to have fallen asleep on the carpet floor already with his glasses sliding off his face and popcorn kernelst on his clothes.

Jeremy was somewhat relieved that this meant they wouldn't have to share a bed together so he decided it was best just to let Michael sleep there instead of waking him up.

***

If the sound of the smoke alarm going off and his dad yelling "AH SHIT!" didn't wake Jeremy up, then the sunlight bleeding into his room from his wide opened windows certainly did. He drowsily looked at his phone to see the time was nearly seven thirty in the morning. 

He tiredly climbed out of bed and stumbled downstairs (carefully stepping over Michael, who was still asleep) to see his dad had attempted to cook them breakfast.

"Dad...?" He murmured, looking at what he assumed to be pancakes on the stove. They were almost black. "What's this?"

"Breakfast." Mr. Heere responded, smiling weakly. "I wanted to make you guys breakfast." The smoke alarm went off again, Mr. Heere cursed under his breath and fetched a towel to try and clear the smoke out.

Jeremy couldn't help but laugh. It was kinda nice actually. His dad didn't make food often, they usually had take-out or he'd eat at Michael's house, but he did appreciate his dad's efforts regardless.

The blaring sound of the smoke alarm must have woke Michael up too as he came staggering down the stairs shortly after Jeremy did. "What's up...?" He said sluggishly. 

"My dad's trying to make breakfast for us." Jeremy said with a small smile. 

"Ack" Jeremy's dad scowled as he scraped the black pancakes into the trash can with a disgusted look. "How about we just go to a diner or something?"

"Sure." Both boys agreed simultaneously.

***

"So what can I get you boys?" The waitress asked. She was short and plump and had a very sincere smile. She reminded Jeremy vaguely of Christine.

Jeremy ordered french toast and his dad and Michael both ordered pancakes (Michael's had blueberries), the waitress nodded and walked off towards the kitchen. 
It wasn't a fancy diner. It was a small local one. The kind you'd end up at either one in the morning or at the crack of dawn. It was almost never busy, aside from the few older people, who were "the morning regulars", as the staff liked to call them.

It was the kind of place that no matter who you were with, you'd always feel a sort of humble and homey feel. Jeremy liked that a lot.

"So what were you two up to last night? I could hear music from your door at two am." Mr. Heere said. Not in a "why were you still up" kind of way, but in genuine curiosity.

"Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure." Jeremy said flatly while doodling on the menu. The diner had activities like tic-tac-toe and word searches on adult menus too, because, as the owner once said, "Everyone's still a kid deep down."

"Ah," Mr. Heere responded. "Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves...great actors, great movie."

Jeremy had almost forgotten Keanu Reeves was in that movie, he looked so young and different. Hearing that name made him a bit uneasy though for obvious reasons.

"So...do you still talk to any of your school friends, Jeremy? I haven't really seen you hang out with anyone recently." Mr. Heere asked.

"Hm? Oh yeah, sure..." He said, not really paying attention as he scanned his menu several times to find "Macaroni" on the word search.

"You still talk to that Christine?" 

"Uhm...no" Jeremy replied nervously. "W-Why are you asking...?"

"Just curious." Mr. Heere shrugged. Ugh. Why do parents care so much about their kids' relationships? Sure, Jeremy never told him about how lunch with Christine went but that doesn't give him a reason to be poking in their relationship - er, the relationship they don't really have. Until they go back to school that is.

"So...you're going back to school soon. Next month. Man, this year has been going by quick." Mr. Heere said.

Okay...could his dad read minds or something? Jeremy was starting to get annoyed by this. Couldn't his mind just be left alone for once.

"Yeah, I am."

"You excited?"

Why do all parents ask that. Excited to see Rich and Michael's weird new friendship in real life? Excited to see Christine after basically ignoring her for several months after that awkward "date?" Excited to see all of his fellow students act like everything is perfectly normal?

No. He was not excited at all.

"Uh, yeah. I am excited." He lied, trying to please his dad so he'd shut up.

"Me too." Michael added on. Jeremy had honestly forgotten he was even there.  And why was he excited? He hated school. Maybe he was just trying to answer the question before Mr. Heere bugged him about it next.

"We're gonna have to do back to school shopping." Mr. Heere announced. Both boys simply nodded.

They continued to talk about meaningless conversations until their food arrived. It was just as appetizing as it looked on the menu and they finished it pretty quickly, except for Jeremy who wanted to take his home.

***

It was around eight in the evening now, and Michael had already gone home hours ago. The day had seemed to fly by unusually fast and now Jeremy was left with only his thoughts while lying in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. 

There were some of those little star stickers on his ceiling that used to light up his bedroom as a little kid. Most of them were gone now or just very dull. Only about three still lit up and it didn't make much of a difference. 

There was something weird about his dad acting like...well, a dad now. Not to say he didn't before, but Jeremy had always tried to be independent as his dad wasn't very reliable. After his parents divorced, his dad was a complete mess who couldn't even take care of himself, much less his own kid. 

Jeremy had to walk himself to school because half the time he missed the bus. He had to walk to Michael's house because his dad would never drive him. His dad wouldn't even put on pants. It's not to say he wasn't loved but, there was no effort. The most help his dad ever was was giving him permission if he was allowed to do things or not. He never actually went out to do anything with him.

And now he wants to do stuff like back to school shopping, now he's interested in Jeremy's social life (that doesn't exist anymore), his friendship with Michael. It was almost overwhelming. Maybe he was just trying to show that he cared more but Jeremy couldn't help but feel bothered by it all. 

He just wanted things to be normal again, to go to school and not feel terrible and guilty. To be able to talk to people again without feeling like he ruined everything, even if he did.

He wanted to get better.

(ahhh was this one too long? :0 what do u guys think should happen next? im open to feedback and constructive criticism pls ^ ^)