Accidental Squip

Chapter Three

Woah, two updates in one day? That's unthinkable!

As the week went on, the Squip refused to stop trying to help Madison. Madison profusely ignored the Squip, but they had to admit, they were enjoying the contacts and not having to worry about breaking glasses.
    "Madison? We're home!"
    Madison sat up quickly at their mother's voice. Racing downstairs, they gave her a huge bear hug.
    "Woah, someone's excited," her mother laughed, dropping her bags to hug Madison back. Madison just smiled.
    "Hey kiddo!" said their dad, walking in behind his wife. "Do I get a hug?"
    "Sure." Madison grinned and hugged their dad.
    "Wow, you look different. Your glasses are gone," their dad observed.
    "Oh, yeah. I fell down the stairs and my glasses broke," Madison told him. "I got some contacts though, I thought that they would be easier to handle."
    "Lying to your parents? What a naughty child."
    Madison grinned, telling the Squip to shut up. After everyone had said hello and more hugs were exchanged, Madison's parents went to put their things away. Madison took this chance to return to their room. They found the Squip lying on their bed, looking through their laptop. Madison scrambled to snatch it back.
    "Could you stop looking through my things?" they hissed, gently closing the laptop.
    "I'm just learning more about my wonderful host," he said, sitting up.
    "I thought you already know everything about me," Madison muttered, peeking at the laptop to see what the Squip was looking at. He was looking at pictures of Madison when they were younger. Madison cringed.
    "Could you at least not look at my baby pictures?" they asked, closing the laptop again. "They're...they're embarrassing."
"You mean they're when you identified as male," the Squip said.
Madison glared.
"We need to talk about this, Madison. I know you're questioning yourself and as a Squip, it's my job to help you feel more confident."
Madison hugged the laptop to their chest and turned up their nose. "Well I'm perfectly fine how I am, thank you very much. I'll deal with it when I feel like it."
"Whatever you say, Madison."
The Squip grinned (still not a nice grin) and hopped off the bed. The sheets weren't even messed up, as if the Squip had never sat there. Madison sighed, placing their laptop on their desk and went to faceplant into their bed. They attempted to smack the Squip on the arm, but their hand went right through him.
"Jesus..." Madison muttered, ignoring the Squip's cocky expression as they fell on their bed, messing up the blankets.
The room was quiet, the only noise were Madison's parents putting things away. The Squip attempted to speak, but Madison only cut him off whenever he did.
"Madison-"
"I thought I told you to stop trying to help," Madison snapped.
Just then there was a knock on the door. "Madison? We're going out to dinner, you should join us!"
"Sure!"
Madison jumped up from the bed and went to open their door.
"Nononono, you think you're going out to dinner like that?" The Squip demanded.
Madison looked down at the sweats and Middle Borough High School T-shirt they were wearing, then back at the Squip. "Yes, I think I am."
"Wait-" but Madison was already heading down the stairs. The Squip growled, zapping himself downstairs. As a last resort to helping Madison, he blurted;
"At least let me braid your hair!"
Madison stumbled when they realized the Squip had transported downstairs. They fell, which of course, the Squip caught them. Madison didn't appreciate it as much since he looked like Keanu Reeves, and Madison hated when the Squip looked like Keanu Reeves.
"Apologies," the Squip said, glitching out and coming back looking like Eric William Morris.
What do you want?
The Squip sighed. "I told you to let me braid your hair. Didn't you hear me?"
Oh. Umm, ok then. But be quick, my parents we be down soon.
"Sure."
With that, the Squip led Madison to the couch, sat them down, and got to work on their hair, getting it out of their eyes. The Squip finished right as Madison's parents came downstairs. He disappeared, becoming a voice once again.
"Oh, you braided your hair! I didn't know you could do that," Madison's mother gushed, striding over to Madison to inspect the braid.
"Yeah, I obtained the ability when you guys were gone," Madison said, lightly touching the Squip's work. It wasn't a complete lie.
"Except I do it for you, so technically it is a lie."
Oh hush.
"You did a good job, kiddo," Madison's dad said, straightening his shirt. "We can see your eyes now. Especially with those contacts."
Madison smiled. "Thanks."
"Right, enough about hair, let's go to dinner!" their mom announced.
"Ok, mom." Madison laughed at their mom's enthusiasm.

The family ended up going to Brownstone Diner & Pancake Factory, one of Madison's favorite places to eat. Madison got their favorite thing on the entire menu: banana pancakes. One of their favorite songs was called Banana Pancakes (by Jack Johnson), and that was the reason Madison ever got those pancakes when they first came to the Pancake Factory.
"Are you ever going to get something that isn't banana pancakes when we go here?" Madison's dad asked.
Madison shook their head and shoved a forkful of pancake into their mouth.
Their dad shook his head and looked at his wife. "This is your child, Teresa."
Teresa laughed. "Oh, I don't mind. As long as Madison is happy, I'm happy."
Madison swallowed their food and pointed their fork at their father. "Yes. You should be more like mom."
Everyone laughed.
"Supportive parents. That's a good thing."
Madison jumped. Jesus Christ! Don't scare me like that!
"Apologies."
"Hey, what did you get?" Madison asked, looking at the strange thing their parents had ordered for dinner.
"Meatloaf Italiano," their mother answered. "You wanna try it?"
Madison eyed the white melted cheese on the meatloaf. "Is that mozzarella?"
Their mom shrugged. Madison took a piece anyways, chewed it, cringed, and swallowed it. "That's mozzarella." Madison hated mozzarella cheese.
"Oh, sorry honey!"
"Nah, it's okay."
As they ate, Madison's family traded adventures. Their parents did a lot on their trip considering it was for work. Madison told them about their own week, leaving out any details that the Squip had to do with or just changing the story a bit. At the end of their dinner it was already starting to get dark, so they left for home.
At home, Madison made themselves some earl grey tea before heading up to their room and putting on their much worn flannel pajama pants.
"I see now why you don't need me."
Madison was glad they had put their tea on their side table or else tea would have gotten all over the book they were reading, they we so surprised.
"Am I that terrifying?" the Squip joked, sitting down in Madison's desk chair.
Madison breathed and put down their book. "I was really into my book, that's all. What were you saying? Sorry."
The Squip crossed his legs. "I noticed during your dinner with your parents that you have a great relationship with them. That leads to having good things, such as good grades in school, friends you like, and are overall happy with yourself. I understand why you didn't purposely want to get a Squip."
Madison was quiet for a moment. "Are you sad that I don't need you?"
"As a supercomputer, I cannot feel emotions," the Squip said. "I was programmed for a single purpose, which is to make a person's life better. But since you obviously don't care about that, I am not needed. You might as well deactivate me. You mentioned you have Mountain Dew Code Red, correct?"
"Well, yeah." Madison pushed aside their book and blankets so they could sit closer to the Squip. "But that's like killing you. I don't want to kill you."
"You won't be committing murder, Madison-"
"Yeah, I know that," Madison interrupted. "But it's like killing you, and I would probably feel really bad about that. You're a pretty cool guy, you know."
The Squip was silent. Madison was amazed they could have rendered the Squip speechless. Before Madison could say anything else, the Squip said; "Goodnight, Madison," then disappeared.