Michael and Jeremy rode in silence in Michael's PT cruiser, seeing as they couldn't really have a conversation without Michael having to look away from the road for too long.

Jeremy had given Michael his adress when they walked out of the school. They pulled up to his house and Jeremy got out. He was still slightly shaking from the memory of the panic attack.

"Hey... are you ok,  dude?" Michael asked, making Jeremy flinch. It was the same thing he said to Jeremy when he was in the bathroom stall.

Michael immediately started panicking. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-" Jeremy held his hands up to stop his apology.

'It's ok, really. Do you wanna come in and play some video games or something?' Jeremy signed, getting a little nervous asking about video games. Not many people were into the kind of video games he liked.

"Calm down, Jeremy. Michael is a nice guy, you have nothing to worry about." The SQUIP said.

'Yeah, you're.... you're right. I shouldn't... I shouldn't be worried.' Jeremy thought.

"Sure, sounds like fun!" Michael said, getting out of his car. "As long as you have Apocalypse of the Damned." Michael added, causing Jeremy to beam.

'You played that game, too?' Jeremy signed, bouncing on his heels.

"Yeah! Wow, I didn't think you'd know what I was talking about!" Michael said, smiling.

Jeremy ran into his house, Michael close behind him, and they both ran to his basement, where he already had the gaming system he'd managed totake with him hooked up to an older tv.

There were two beanbags sitting on the floor, two controllers in front of them; a red one and a blue one.

'I've always wanted to play this two-player.' Jeremy signed, smiling.

All of a sudden, Michael dashed over and grabbed the red controller. "I call player one!" He said, falling onto the beanbag behind him.

Jeremy huffed and sat down on the other beanbag. Michael turned the game on, and they both started playing.

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They'd managed to make it to level nine in a few hours, which was probably because they'd played the levels single player so many times.

Jeremy's dad had come in at one point, and Jeremy avoided the question of why he wasn't wearing pants.

Michael felt something a little off about Jeremy when he asked. He sounded upset... maybe a little agitated. Michael let it slide for now, deciding to ask when Jeremy trusted him more.

Not to mention the fact that Jeremy was pausing a lot during their game, kinda spacing out and having to ask Michael to repeat what he said or start the game over. It was almost like when Rich had the SQUIP...

"Jeremy?" Michael said, catching the smaller boy's attention. "Do... you have a SQUIP?"

'Um...' Jeremy paused, as if thinking. 'Yeeeesss?' He signed, stumbling a little over the symbols.

Michael's eyes widened. "Jeremy, do you have any idea what those things can do?!" He asked, and Jeremy shook his head. "Jeremy, they almost took over our school last year. Those things are dangerous!"

"What!?" A hoarse, sqeaky voice came out of Jeremy's mouth. He covered his mouth in surprise.

'Since when could I talk!?!'

"Since you met Michael." The SQUIP said bluntly.

"Hey, Jer? You ok?" Michael asked, taking off his headphones.

"I-I can... I can talk!" Jeremy stuttered, his voice still hoarse from utter lack of use.

Michael's eyes widened as realization stuck. "I-I can hear!" He said excitedly.

Their eyes locked as they realized what that meant. Slowly, and yet all at once, both of them turned bright red and turned away, Jeremy burying his face in his oversized sweater.