When It's Time

Chapter Three

A/N: The SQUIP's speech is capitalised like in the book

A week went by and it was Friday night again. The time people let their hair down, have some fun and socialise, which meant sitting in Michael's basement playing AotD.

"Hey Jer, Rich just messaged me, something about needing me at his right now. He's got some news or something, do you wanna go on a bit of an adventure?"

Jeremy rubbed his eyes, "No, I'll stay here but you should go. I'm pretty tired so...well yeah, you should go."

Michael smiled, "You look pretty tired. Try get some sleep, I'll be back in like an hour hopefully." He ruffled Jeremy's hair and grabbed his keys.

"Bye!"

"See you in a bit."

Jeremy set his controller down and turned the TV off, looking around the basement forlornly. It was actually pretty boring when Michael wasn't around. The space seemed so empty.

He walked over to Michael's working desk and sat in the swivel chair. Michael had his laptop and PC open to the sound editing program he used and his headphones were plugged in. Jeremy laughed to himself. Considering the cost of the sound system in here you would think Michael would use it. His Ukulele was sitting atop his keyboard and the desk was covered with loose paper, empty slushy containers and god knows what else. The only things that were neat were the photos of him and Jeremy taped on the wall and his guitars. Michael had three guitars; two electric and one acoustic but he was saving up for another one. He also owned an electric keyboard and a drum kit (he refused to use an electric kit, he always said it didn't feel as genuine when he wasn't annoying the neighbours). He could also play trumpet but he left it at school so it was there for band rehearsal on Thursdays.

Thinking about it now, Jeremy hadn't heard Michael sing in ages. He was still getting lessons as far as Jeremy knew but he rarely performed, he got too nervous for it to be a positive experience and afterwards he was always paranoid about what he should have done better. He hadn't played any of his compositions since before the SQUIP either. Maybe he really wasn't comfortable with Jeremy and things were worse than what he thought.

It freaked Jeremy out that he had almost forgotten how amazing his friend was. How talented and how smart he was until now when he was sitting alone in the basement picking at his cardigan because he was getting worked up and letting his thoughts spiral out of control because he was probably insane and couldn't cope without Michael.

OH, YOUR MOST DEFINITELY INSANE. DON'T LET ME INTERUPT YOU THOUGH, IT'S INCREDIBLY AMUSING WATCHING YOU IMPLODE AND DRAG MICHAEL DOWN WITH YOU.

Jeremy groaned. Not now, he'd been quiet for almost a week. He glared at the SUIP who was currently leaning against the bathroom door on the left side of the room, examining his cuticles.

"What do you want?" He demanded.

SO RUDE.

The SQUIP shook its head in disapproval and Jeremy rolled his eyes before setting his throbbing head down on the desk.

TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, NOTHING. I'M BORED. I WATHCED THAT STAR WARS SAGA YOU RECOMMENDED BUT IT DIDN'T LIVE UP TO YOUR ENTHUSIASM ABOUT IT I'M AFRAID. SO, I WATCHED THEM ALL SIMULTANIOUSLY AND THAT WAS A BIT MORE INTERESTING BUT IT STILL WAN'T WONDERFUL.

"Is that all you have to say because I actually want to get some sleep now."

WELL I HAVE A FULL REVIEW OF EACH SCENE IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HEAR TH-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

The SQUIP looked so genuinely hurt by Jeremy pulling a bottle of Mountain Dew Red out of Michael's mini fridge that he almost felt bad about taking a swig and seeing his company vanish into a cloud of pixels.