Athazagoraphobia (Squip x Jeremy)

16. You're Invisible When You're Sad

"Who the hell is this?" Mr. Heere shouted, floor shaking with the weight of his footsteps.

Squip jumped up, extending a hand, "Eri, er, Jason?"

"Jason?" he narrowed his eyes, looking past Squip and at his son, raising an eyebrow. 

Jeremy's face had gone red and he hid his face in his hands, shaking visibly. He brought his knees to his chest, only his greasy hair showing. Squip looked from him to Mr. Heere, debating the options. Go comfort Jeremy? Talk to Mr. Heere?

Before he had the chance to run the probabilities, Jeremy jumped up, tears pouring from his eyes and running out of the room, slamming the door behind him. He didn't know where he was going, or what he was going to do, but he had to get out of there. They said they loved him, hell Squip hadn't even given him that, but they kept ruining everything. Squip ruined everything, his dad ruined everything. 

He'd been a fool to think he could be happy. 

He'd ruined that too when he got Squip the first time, now he'd brought him back just to fall into his little maze of mind games. He wiped his eyes, running through the streets with no clear idea of where he was going. 

No one noticed him as he ran, no one gave him a second glance. 

He was invisible. 

Clocks tick, phones ring, the world carries on like mad, but no body sees a thing. 

He spotted a local park, surrounded by tall buildings, a tiny patch of Earth in the middle of a bustling city, invisible to most people. Like him. 

Whispering behind their hands. Lost for kind words to say. Nobody understands...

"And everyone goes away." he collapsed onto a bench, wiping his red puffy eyes, trying to calm himself. 

He messed up. He never should have opened his big mouth, should have thrown Squip into a pool of Mountain Dew Red the moment he came back. Except he'd fallen for his lies. His stupid lies. He's made a fool of himself. "Fuck," he echoed, staring at his hands. 

What was he going to do? 

You're invisible when you're me.

He slid off the bench, wandering down an unmarked path, sparse trees dotting his way. He'd never been here before. A few people walked along the grass, but none paid any attention to Jeremy. No one noticed that he was even there. Because he was invisible. 

He sighed, eventually he'd have to face Squip and his father, might as well not delay the inevitable. 

-_-_-_-_-

The hooded Squip watched Michael and Rich closely as Rich leaned toward Michael's mouth, a few inches from kissing him when it spoke. "You're not doing it right."

Rich glared at him, "Shut up or I'll Kermit suicide."

"That was a terrible joke." his Squip deadpanned. 

Michael held up a hand, "Wait... So under that hood is... Kermit?"

Rich nodded, "It was either that or sexy anime female."

Michael laughed, leaning towards Rich and pecking his lips, grinning at him. Rich smiled back, looking at his Squip with a triumphant expression, "This is why I got rid of you?"

Then why did you want me back? it whispered in his head, leaving Michael oblivious to what it had said.

Their lips had just touched again when the words registered in his head. "Shit!" he shouted, jumping off the couch.

"What?" Michael asked, "do I have bad breath or something?"

"No, no it's not you, bro. Tall ass!"

"Huh?"

"Ugh, Jeremy dude!"

Michael's eyes widened, "Oh shit!"

"That's what I thought, c'mon, we gotta save ourselves a hopeless nerd."

"I'm a hopeless nerd," Michael said, frowning.

"An adorable nerd," Rich said, pecking his cheek before charging up the stairs, calling down to his... boyfriend?... who followed after him, "when this is done we can all get stoned in your basement."

His Squip began yelling in his head about drugs but Rich shut it down, not wanting to deal with the annoying presence. He added "get Mountain Dew Red" to his list of things to do. Make it a double dose, Jeremy's Squip might needed to be taught a lesson as well. 

Michael caught up with him, huffing slightly as they dashed out of Michael's house, his mothers calling after them. 

Oh they'd be so proud that he'd caught someone like Rich, Michael mused, eyeing the short guy's heavily muscled arms. He licked his lips almost unconsciously. "So where are they?" Rich called out.

"Probably his house, fucking. Because no needs Michael," he said breathlessly. 

Rich reached over and slapped his arm, glaring at him. 

Eventually they reached Jeremy's house. Michael skidded to a halt the door, bending over to catch his breath. He huffed while Rich had barely broken a sweat. He laughed at Michael, shaking his head before ringing the doorbell. 

From somewhere inside the house a voice called "COME IN!"

They did, met with Squip running to meet them, face falling when he realized who it was. "Damnit!" he scowled, turning away.

"What?" Michael folded his arms, "didn't wanna see us?"

"No," Squip said watching as Mr. Heere entered the room.

"Oh hey Michael, other guy," he looked quizzically at Rich, "don't suppose you've seen Jeremy?"

Both shook their heads, "We thought he'd be here."

Squip sighed, running a hand down the side of his face, "Well he's not, obviously."

"Hey!" Rich pointed at Squip, "maybe if you'd been a better boyfriend and listened to us we wouldn't be in this fucking conversation."

Squip furrowed his brows, "Didn't you have a lisp?"

Rich growled, "Yes. I do. My Squip got rid of it."

Mr. Heere looked between them, "Squip? What does he mean, Jason?"

"Nothing," Squip said, glaring at the two boys threateningly. 

They both nodded mutely, gulping at the venomous stare. Squip turned to Mr. Heere, "We need to find your son before he does something stupid," he looked at Michael and Rich, "I may dislike you, but we can both agree that Jeremy is important to us, so how about we put our differences aside for a moment and help each other find him."

Rich glanced at Michael who nodded, breaking into a grin as he extended his hand toward Squip, "Will do, now let's go find my player-two!"

-_-_-_-_-

I'm going to try to update this every other Friday, maybe even every Friday if I have the time. 

Hope you enjoy it. 

I listened to Beetlejuice recently, AMAZING musical and this chapter is inspired by it, I did directly use the lyrics even though I usually go more indirectly, but oh well.