miscellanea {be more chill oneshots}

The Simple Task Of Holding Hands

Spirits in my room,
Friend or foe?
Felt it in my youth,
Feel it when I'm old.

Michael Mell was special. Not in the way everyone is, he was actually special. It was a bad kind of special according to him, but according to his best friend, Jeremy Heere, he was the best kind of special.

"Why not?" Jeremy made exaggerated hand gestures to express his frustration. "Because!" Michael exclaimed in an exasperated tone as he focused on the screen in front of him, smashing as many buttons as he could on his controller.

"That's not an answer and you know it," Jeremy pointed at Michael with one hand as the other rested on his hip, like and angry mother. "So what, Jere? I don't want to sign up for the stupid fucking play, okay? Just get over it." He continued shooting the zombies that appeared on his screen.

Jeremy rubbed his forehead and sighed. "Please, Micha," his voice turned soft and melancholic. "For me?" Michael let out a shaky breath and paused the game. He turned to look at his best friend with tired eyes and let a small smile graze his lips.

They stared into each other's eyes with goofy grins for a moment before Bagel, Michael's dog, ran into the room panting and barking. She stopped in front of Jeremy and laid down, the freckled boy looked down and gave her a fond smile as she stuck out her tongue.

"I miss my dog Dido, he was the best." Jeremy's expression turned grim.

Michael wanted to hug him, but he kept his distance and said, "Hey, it's okay, Bagel loves you more than me if that makes you feel better." Jeremy grinned and let out a small puff of air, he looked up at Michael feeling himself lightly blush.

"You know what? I'll sign up for the play, but only for tech and you can't change my mind."

"Yes! Dude! Thank you! God, you're the best!" Michael giggled at Jeremy's excitement, glad that he had been the one to paint such a beautiful smile on the handsome boy, he grabbed his controller once again and continued playing.

After he signed up for tech he befriended an energetic ball of love called Christine and she introduced him to her friends. Michael had gotten along with them just fine and he was glad to have other friends besides Jeremy. However, the latter was not as thrilled, he'd started drifting apart from Michael and he couldn't help but wonder if he'd be missed.

Jeremy stopped hanging out with Michael little by little.

Michael was too invested in other relationships to notice. For example, he now had Rich, a short boy with a lisp that loved making innuendos and telling dumb jokes.

Rich was someone Michael could kiss and hold hands with, he made Michael blush and giggle. They dated for a year or two and then broke up, Jeremy was long gone by then. The two boys remained friends and Michael had no problem befriending Rich's new boyfriend, Jake. He fit right into the squad.

It had been eight years since Michael had last seen Jeremy. The group of friends had gone off to different colleges but they soon reunited, still as close as ever, and decided to rent an apartment together. They were technically neighbours since Chloe, Christine and Brooke lived in one apartment and Jake, Rich and Michael lived in another one, but that didn't stop them from constantly having sleepovers, even though they were twenty four years old.

"Hey, so, here's a crazy idea, let's try using a Ouija board," Rich said as he sat down next to Jake holding a wooden board and planchette.

"No way, there's no fucking way I'm doing this shit," Brooke refused while shaking her head. "Ditto," said Christine, "I don't know about you guys, but I do believe in ghosts and I feel like we shouldn't bother them, y'know?"