GAME OVER: a Be More Chill fic

Level 15

Jeremy rang the doorbell. Everything felt too familiar, and yet so foreign, like walking around town at midnight. It was surreal.

Since that morning, all he could think about was the Mountain Dew Red he had tucked away in his backpack. He'd gone home, taken it out, and stared at it for nearly half an hour, almost drinking it at least a dozen times. But he just couldn't bring himself to do it yet.

He was about to ring again, when he heard footsteps approach.

"Jeremy?" Michael opened the door, noticeably confused and a little out of breath from running upstairs. "You know you don't have to do that, you've been barging in like you own the place for years. Come in."

Jeremy followed him to the basement, shrugging off his winter coat. He told himself he shouldn't be so anxious -- it was just Michael. It was just the basement; this was normal, he did this all the time. But he couldn't ignore the dread pooling in his stomach. He remembered the Squip.

I have to do this alone, okay?

"I'll stay out of your way," the Squip replied, and vanished.

Michael turned, walking backwards for a moment, and flashed him a grin. "So, how does Apocalypse of the Damned II sound?"

Jeremy relaxed a bit, relieved. "Sounds perfect." Only Michael could put him at ease so effortlessly.

They made it past the first few levels this time without interruption, and with almost as much enthusiasm as old times. They both seemed to be holding back a bit though, walking on eggshells around each other.

Half an hour later, the Squip reappeared.

Dude, what the hell?

"Jeremy, listen to me," he urged. "Eventually during this conversation, Michael is going to ask you if I am here, or mention it in some way. It is imperative to your relationship that you do not tell the truth."

You want me to lie to him? Again?

Michael suddenly cleared his throat and paused the game, speaking at the screen and the floor rather than Jeremy. "Jer... we're pretending this isn't weird. Neither of us have closure on the whole thing, so... can we talk about it?" Michael finally looked up at Jeremy. His eyes were pleading. All he wanted was an explanation, and Jeremy couldn't deny him that.

Jeremy's face went red as he nodded, the way it did when he was nervous. "Do you wanna go first?"

"Oh. Uh... what do you want to know?" Michael tossed his game controller aside and stretched deeply with a tiny groan, his stomach peeking out from under his hoodie. Jeremy's face flushed a little bit darker.

He ignored it. "Uh... tell me about what happened with Brooke. I want to catch up."

"Well, there's not much to catch up on," he admitted. He popped his fingers one by one. "Pretty much what happened was, we went on two dates, and on the second one I kissed her. Not to be cliche or anything, but... it felt wrong. I can't really explain how. I've thought I was bi since forever ago, but kissing a girl just... wasn't right. So now I'm identifying as gay. I told Brooke, and she's a little sad that we broke up but she's doing okay. And, uh, that's that," Michael concluded. He looked at Jeremy with narrowed eyes, thoughtful, then spoke very deliberately. "Boys are really, really cute."

That was Jeremy's breaking point. He turned away, coughing, attempting to hide his blush. "Yes, they are," he laughed nervously. Stop looking at me like that, Mell, I'm trying to get over you.