Dude I Think He Likes Me [expensive headphones]

Chapter 21 - ADMIT IT

       "Are you sure you want to do that? It's not a big deal, we can just ignore it." Rich had been watching Michael text Jeremy and read everything. "I need to. I need to put the bitch in her place myself." Michael demanded. He quickly went to text Chloe.

MICHAEL: Hey.

CHLOE: OMG MICHAEL. Did you see Jenna's tweet? That is a big invasion of privacy you need to tell her off ASAP!!

MICHAEL: I know it was you.

CHLOE: What?

MICHAEL: Yeah, we all know that Jenna is too lazy to get anything on her own when it's not at school. Admit it.

CHLOE: You know I'd never do that.

MICHAEL: ADMIT IT!

CHLOE: omg k fine. Yeah it was me. But I didn't know who you were talking about or even who you were with or anything. I just saw you there.

MICHAEL: You liar. I can't believe you. You were the only person I'd go to when I need to talk about my problems when Jeremy was busy with Christine. Why?

CHLOE: I was just doing my job. She was giving me a Forever 21 gift card for it.

MICHAEL: IS A GIFT CARD MORE IMPORTANT THAN MY FEELINGS? YOU MIGHT AS WELL GET A NEW JOB BECAUSE YOU JUST GAVE ME THE BIGGEST PANIC ATTACK I'VE HAD IN MONTHS. THAT MOMENT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE PRIVATE BETWEEN ME AND RICH.

CHLOE: Wait, Rich?

MICHAEL: THAT'S SUPPOSED TO SAY BITCH. IT WAS AUTOCORRECT.

       It was not autocorrect and you know it Michael.

CHLOE: Oh ok. I'm sorry Michael. I didn't want to hurt you at all. Is there any way I could make this up to you?

MICHAEL: Tweet telling everyone it wasn't me. You thought it was me but it turns out that it was someone else. Also a formal apology to me.

CHLOE: Anything for you Mike.

MICHAEL: Don't call me that anymore.

      Michael tossed his phone away from him. He was ready to never touch that thing for a while. "I need to get my mind off of this." He said to Rich. Rich started to think of ideas. He thought of places they could go and things they could do. He didn't really know where Michael went for fun. "Comic book store." Rich said. "What?" Michael got confused.

       "A comic book store. That's where I would usually escape when I couldn't handle my dad. Or at least I did that before I got the squip and I had to go everywhere the squip told me to. I haven't been back there in a while. We can easily wander for hours." Rich suggested. "That would be perfect." Michael said with a forced smile. Because he had been crying so much he wasn't able to smile easily but he did it for Rich.

       The two of them walked out of Michael's front door hand in hand. Before they could even get into Michael's car his phone buzzed with texts from Brooke. "Jesus Christ" Michael said sarcastically.

BROOKE: Hey Michael. I'm so sorry that Chloe did this to you.

MICHAEL: I'm over it. I got her to post a tweet explaining that she was wrong.

BROOKE: Oh, you haven't seen it have you?

MICHAEL: Seen what?

BROOKE: I don't think you want to know.

MICHAEL: Show me.

BROOKE: She posted this and didn't make that tweet...

BROOKE: [ picture of Michael and Rich sitting at the tree ]