be less oblivious

prologue

-Jeremy pov-

He had woken up in a hospital bed, not understanding or completely remembering what had happened at the play. All he knew for sure was that his head hurt. A lot.

"hello?" he called out, still not able to see his surroundings due to the harsh light and his sleepy eyes.

He tried to sit up, not yet knowing that his body hurt like hell.

"OW!" he cried out. He repeated the word a few times under his breath until he was cut of by a familiar voice; "feels like you're missing a part of yourself doesn't it?" the voice lisped

He turned his head looking for the source of the sound. Jeremy widened his eyes in disbelief,

"... Rich?"

The boy gave him a crooked smile before he flinched, clearly in pain.

"hurts like a motherfucker too" he announced, "be honest. What are they saying about me at school?" Jeremy looked down not wanting to meet his eyes. "it's that bad?"

he looked up with a careful expression on his face "sorry man..."

"no, it doesn't matter!" Rich sighed "I'm finally free of that shiny happy hivemind. From now on! The ladies are going to know the real Richard Goranski." he declared. Rich looked out in the room for a second as he realized; "and the dudes... oh my god I'm totally bi!" he said the word as if it was one he had known was him for forever, but he had never spoken out loud before. He looked up at Jeremy like he was extremely proud of that realization.

Jeremy looked at him for a second and then he shook his head trying to remember what had happened at the play. He suddenly looked up at Rich, confused, "wait. Your squip is gone? But how?"

"ask your buddy. The anti-social headphones kid. He's been by like a TON... what is he your... boyfriend or?"

Jeremy stared at the boy looking absolutely terrified. "just curious! No judgment, I'm totally bi now!" Rich hushed.

"I'm sure some special someone will be thrilled to have you Rich." A voice noted behind Jeremy.

Rich looked completely comfortable with this, as if the person had been standing there for a while, "why thank you." He said, wiggling his eyebrows playfully.

Jeremy turned around to find his best friend standing by the side of his bed, gaping at Rich, his eyes squinting at him as if he was trying to figure out if he was seriously flirting with him.

"what happened?" he asked Michael, "All I remember is that noise" he said putting his hand to his head.

"oh man it was AMAZING! They were communicating with each other, they were linked. Which means; if you consider the kind of high frequency... "he started to explain excitedly like he always did when he was super passionate about something. That's something that Jeremy would normally love. He liked it when his friend got all exited because of something nerdy, but today, he had a headache.

"Michael, Michael, Michael. My head still hurts."

Michael looked to the floor, going red. He tended to get overly exited like this. "oh right. Uhm." He quickly thought of a way to explain it to Jeremy without making him faint from dizziness, "turns out you didn't have to destroy every squip! Just one! And the rest," he started making explosion-like sounds, illustrating with his hands. After he was done he looked up with a giant smile on his face. Jeremy looked at him absently. Michael was smiling. After all he had done to him, there he was, at the side of his bed in a hospital grinning down at him as if nothing had happened.