Chapter 4

                                    

                                          


                          
Jeremy's POV
                          
"M-my crush?"Jeremy stuttered.
                          
"Yup," Christine said, sounding pleased with herself.
                          
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. "Nobody," he lied, cheeks burning. No matter what, he could NOT look over at Michael right now.
                          
"Oh, yeah," Christine deadpanned. "I can tell you're being honest by the way you're stuttering, staring at the ground, and- oh my God, you're blushing!" She cracked up, making Jeremy's face even redder.
                          
Touché. Jeremy tried glaring at the theatre-loving girl, but it kind of felt like kicking a puppy, so he dropped that act pretty quickly. (Those sad animal ads on YouTube really got to him, which was something that Michael teased him about relentlessly.) All he could manage to respond with was a feeble "shut up".

                          
Rich snorted. "Great comeback, tall-ath."
                          
He shot a slightly bewildered glance at Rich. The smol boi™ was a snarky person in general, but lately he'd been directing a lot more sarcastic and occasionally hurtful comments at Jeremy specifically. Rich met his gaze and frowned as if to say, What the fuck are you looking at?  Jeremy quickly averted his eyes to the ground. 

                          
"Tell us, Jeremy!" Brooke urged, giving him wide puppy-dog eyes.
                          
Jake nodded. "Yeah, man, we won't judge you."

                          
Jenna had her thumbs hovering above her phone eagerly, waiting to type the gossip and tweet it for the whole world (or at least school) to see, Jeremy assumed.
                          
"Yeah, Jer," a soft voice to his left said. Michael. He smiled at Jeremy reassuringly. "You can trust us."
                          
Jeremy stared helplessly at his crush, his best friend, his everything. Michael, with the golden brown skin and melty chocolate eyes. Michael, who was always there to comfort him or simply be with him, even after Jeremy betrayed him and risked the loss of nearly thirteen years of friendship at the Halloween party. Michael, his player one. His Riend.
                          
Jeremy couldn't bear to lose all of that just because of some extra feelings he had developed for his quirky, adorable best friend. He'd already lost him once when he was Squipped; he wasn't ready to lose him again, not ever.
                          
Chloe was the one to drag Jeremy out of his own little world. "Um, earth to Jeremy?" she scoffed. He blinked a few times and realized that Michael had noticed his staring and was smiling crookedly at him. Blushing, he turned his head towards Chloe. "So, who is this mystery girl?" she prompted, raising an eyebrow.
                          
"Oh, uh- you've probably never heard of-" Jeremy screwed his eyes shut. He needed a name, and fast. So, he said the first one that popped into his head. ". . . Madeline." Jeremy's eyes fluttered open. Immediately, he noticed Jenna typing something furiously on her phone. "And you can't tweet that," he added pointedly. "Or text it. Or -- let anyone else know about it."
                          
Jenna huffed dramatically and dropped her phone on the couch next to her, scowling.
                          
"What?" Chloe's eyes were like saucers.
                          
Racking his brain for something else to say, Jeremy blurted out, "She's French!"

                          
This seemed to push Chloe over the edge. "She is NOT French. She just pretends to be for attention," Chloe seethed, gritting her teeth. Brooke patted her arm, trying to calm her down.
                          
"Wha-?" Oh, right -- there was a popular girl named Madeline at their school. Supposedly she'd had sex with Jake sometime during junior year. How could Jeremy have forgotten that? "No, no, not that Madeline! A different one. We met at, uh -- the arcade."