Upgrade (Boyf riends)

Am I ready?

Michael's Pov
"Ok, here we are. Payless." Jenna starts.

As we walk in, an employee calls out to us. "Hello, welcome to Payless, how may I help you?"

"Hey! I came to do the, um," she looks around and a bright red flier catches her eye. "job interview!" Jenna stammers.

"Then, right this way." The worker says, pushing Jenna towards the back near an office.

Jenna glances back at me, mouthing "get the squip."

I nod in agreement and start looking around. In the corner of the store, there's a room labeled "STORAGE" that I choose to go inside of.

Thankfully, it's unlocked. The room is dimly lit and fairly of small, with multiple shelves lining it's walls. I rummage though the contents on top of the shelves and search piles of things.

I start to hear footsteps, causing me to speed up my search. Trinkets and papers fly everywhere until I find it. A blueish-gray shoebox with duct tape covering its lid.

I took the box and shake it gently.

It sounds like there are pills in here, but I won't know until I look.

The sound of footsteps approached the door again, interrupting my thoughts and giving me a signal that it's about time to take my leave.

I hide the box behind my back and start heading out. Contrary to that sounding like something out of a cartoon, it actually works.

Though it's the middle of the day, it doesn't seem like a lot of people are here anyway.

Grabbing a bag from behind the counter, I quickly stick the box inside.

I text Jenna that we can leave the store. Shortly after, she emerges from the office where she was getting "interviewed."

She runs out after thanking the interviewer. I think she might've actually gotten the job.

"Did you get it?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure." I say, looking down at the bag.

"Mission accomplished!" She says, earning a few glares. "So, should we head back to your place to try it out?"

"Sure!"

•••

All I could think about during the ride back was the squip. Earlier I had peeked in the box to make sure that the pills were actually inside, and they were.

It all just feels too good to be true.

I know that if this works, Jeremy still might not want to be friends with me.

At least this way he'll have to acknowledge my existence.

"Hey, you ok?" Jenna asks. She seems to notice me stuck in thought.

"Yeah, just thinking."

"You're worries about what's going to happen when you take the squip and how it'll affect you, aren't you?"

Silence fills the car. I look down into my lap.

"Look Michael, though I've really only known you for a few days, I feel like we've been friends from the beginning of time. You are a great person, I doubt that the squip will change you." She says.

I smile to return her kindness.

"Thanks Jenna."  I say. We pull up in my driveway and exit.

I unlock the door and walk inside, Jenna following close behind me.

"My parents aren't home, so we can do whatever." I lead her to my room, putting down the bag of squips. Going down to my fridge, I grab a Mountain Dew.

I go back up to my room and open the door. Jenna's lying down on my bed, reading one of my books.

"You like reading?"

"Yeah. I feel like when I read, the book takes me to a different world."

I grab the bag of squips and sit next to her, Mountain Dew still in hand. She puts down the book and sits up to face me.

"You sure you're ready?" She asks, whispering.

"Yeah." I open the box again, with a note slipping out. It read:

Squip, next generation.
Because of a new formula, squips no longer have a painful effect when being activated. This new process however, does add at least 10 hours to activation.

It's good it won't hurt least it won't hurt.

Jenna read the note over my shoulder. She let out a sigh of relief after glancing over those words.

I open the box and take out a pill. Cracking open my soda and fading away all negative thoughts, I swallow the pill.

It's not really special, it just feels like I downed an Advil.

"You good Micheal?"

"Yeah. So, do you wanna watch a movie?"

I feel like the budding friendship between Michael and Jenna is amazing, but it's also just platonic.

I'm going to be adding a lot of references, so enjoy!

Thanks for sticking around!
-Triple_A