Michaels POV  (Every chapter will be the other person's POV unless i do other wise like 3rd person or i'm just like nah bro screw the rules| TW !! swears, slurs)

Past          Present

I dragged Jeremy to his porch before I slipped on my signature hoodie. He looked at me, obviously confused.

"Dude, what the hell?" He asked. "You mentioned slushies-" I started before he cut me off. 

"No, no, I know why you became sonic for 2.5 seconds, I'm asking why the hell you're putting that on?" I must've looked pretty hurt.

 "Not that I don't like the sweater or anything! But the weather feels like it's in triple digits or some shit out here.." He was right about that. He was already drenched in sweat from being outside for around 30 seconds. 

"I just... just.. I don't know," I lied. I knew exactly why I put it on. He looked concerned. "It's just, I don't want my best friend spontaneously bursting into flames, y'know?" I reached out to put my hand on his shoulder, then pulled back, knowing it wouldn't make him any colder. 

"I'll be fine, don't worry Jer," I started walking in the direction of the mall, then stopped when  noticed he wasn't following me. "C-c-c'mon! Let's go!" I teased him. He caught up with me pretty quickly.

"How are you not sweating like nobody's business right now?" He asked me. "A better question is, why are you so concerned?" "I'm not! It's just.." He looked like he was about to say something much more serious than what he did. "Are you like, an alien or a superhero or something?"

I bit back a few  responses that may or may not contain some brutally murdered memes.

"Have you been reading those science fiction novels again? I told you, they make you paranoid that everyone you know is a robot, or that we're all just some simulation cast by another species, or-"

"No!! That's Rich's thing, remember?" 

"Actually, I remember pretty well that in  eighth  grade during science class, you took a magnet and put it against me to see if it would stick because you were convinced I was a robot," I retorted. His face turned red. "That was eighth grade!"

I went on to list a plethora of stupid shit he's done in the past because of science fiction, many of the things being after eighth grade.

"Okay! Fine! You win!" He said, sounding annoyed.  It was starting to get pretty damn warm in my hoodie.

We walked and talked together some more, side by side.

I pulled out my phone to check the time.  It was maybe 5:50 AM or so. After I checked I went back into my contacts and tried not to snicker when I read Necromemer.

We normally had it as Player1 and Player2, but that year on April fools we decided to change them, but we weren't allowed to know what the other person had put. 

I changed his to Edgelordmcnugget. Who knows what he changed mine to? I just hoped it wasn't anything too bad.

I turned off my phone. No new texts, obviously. Who the hell is up at 6 AM on the last day of school? Wait.. Bad question.

"FAGS!" Someone across the street yelled. (that hurt to type :( ). I was shocked back to reality when I heard that. I looked at Jeremy in confusion. How can you read our backpacks from that far away? Then I realized the actual reason why. I jerked my hand back from holding Jeremy's. How did that happen?

".." He looked at me, hurt. I looked over to the other side of the street. I could see whoever or whatever they were was laughing and pointing with a group of other  people. Apparently assholes got up pretty early too. I raised both of my hands and doubled flipped them off. I then grabbed Jeremy's  hand again and walked normally like nothing happened, partially dragging him along.

"M.. Michael?" He asked me, looking surprised. "What is it, Jer?" I asked nonchalantly. "Our hands...?" "What?" He lifted his hand up up, lifting mine too. "Oh, ah.. shit, sorry," I said, moving it back to disconnect with his. He looked reluctant but let me do it.  That comment looked like it really had hurt him.

"Do you get called that often?" I asked him.  "N-no! No.." He squeaked. "Do you?"

 I laughed. "No shit man! What with a patch like this," I gestured to the rainbow patch on my shoulder, "At this point I'm sorta desensitized by the word, y'know? Like how you say a word a so many times it stops sounding like a word at all?" 

He looked even more concerned than before. I could feel myself starting to sweat like a waterfall, even more so than before. "Let's just keep going, 'kay?" I started to speed up. "We're almost there."

We continued to walk there in silence, the tension in the air so thick you could cut it with a knife. He kept looking at me like he wanted to say something but didn't know how to phrase it. At least, that's what I assumed it was. I tended to look like that when I couldn't find the words to explain something or could never find the right time to say something.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of awkward silence, we made it to the mall. I rushed inside and darted towards the arcade. He followed me, not as quickly. "Get over here, Heere!"I called.

Jeremy run-walked to the arcade. I could see the tiny games and consoles shop out of the corner of my eye.  I remembered the day we found out about that little shop.

(Past will be in 3rd person)

The boys had just came to the arcade on a random Saturday. They were expecting it to be  regular ol' day at the arcade, the usual retro games and such, but they noticed there was a space that looked pretty different from the last time they had been there.

They went over to check it out. It had turned out to be a small consoles and games shop!  They scanned the room around, looking for anything  they didn't have yet. 
Later they ended up buying a Zelda game, they paid for it together.

(Smol time skip brought to you by my creativity, aka no one)

Jeremy was playing the game while Michael talked to him and joked, most of them being bad puns that still made Jeremy laugh. And not even a pity laugh. An actual laugh, be it a snort or whatever.

Somewhere along the lines the subject of Link and elves had come up. Michael studied Jeremy , looking at his thin and tall frame, fluffy hair and  sort of  pointed nose. "Y'know, you could totally pass for an elf, Jer," he randomly commented. "If you were a bit blonder, you could totally pass for Link."

"Pfftt. Sure." He scoffed, rolling his eyes. "No! Really, let's go get you a Link costume and you'll see!"  "Oh yeah, sure. I'm totally Alfheim material." Jeremy joked. ( he was currently reading Norse mythology, he had slowly been reading all the mythologies. Last month it was Egyptian. Michael guessed Greek was next on his list.

"Translate that to English," Michael told him. "World of the light elves!" Jeremy huffed. "Light elves, you're telling me there's more than  one type of elf?"

"How racist!" Jeremy exclaimed in mock offense. "Technically, yes. For example you'd be a svartalf." Michael knit his eyebrows together.  "Very funny, Jer."

"Wha..?" Jeremy stared at him blankly. "Like fart elves exist!" Michael scoffed.

"No, no, no,no,no,no,no,no,no. S V A R T." He pronounced it slowly.

"What kind of elf is that?"

"Dark elf, but technically they're dwarves-" Michael smiled faintly. "Dwarves. So that's why I'm a fart elf or whatever?" Jeremy's face turned pink.

"Maybe? But if it makes you hate me any less, they're taller than regular dwarves."

"How tall?"

"... 5 feet?"

"Suck a dick."

"Regular dwarves are around 2 or 3 feet.."

"Ah. So we've established what Rich would be." Jeremy snorted.

"So anything special here or just regular gaming?" He asked me. "Well, I wouldn't call it regular, but, yeah, c'mon," I said, dragging him to the Pacman game.

(Time skip brought to you by my laziness)

After we had a solid hour or so of just randomly going to and playing different machines, we took a break at the 711 nearby. After quickly ordering  we sat down at a table. Jeremy looked as if he was about to say something when he started to twitch. He cringed and slumped down. "Are you okay?!" I asked him worriedly.

"Get out of my head you loudmouth mint flavoured floppy disk!" He grumbled, then relaxed as he stopped twitching.  I tried not to laugh at the insult and looked at him, scared. "So the mountain dew didn't work..?"

He shook his head. "Guess not.." He sighed. "It's not controlling you though.. right?"

"No, but it's saying horrible things. Things I hoped I would never hear again."

"What is it saying?"

"I.. I.. I can't tell you.. I just can't, alright?"

I frowned. "I can take it, Jer."

"N..No, I don't want to. I dont- care about you, loser." His tone suddenly shifted, becoming monotone and emotionless, almost like.. a computer. His eyes somehow became bluer, and he grabbed my wrist, digging his nails into the fabric so hard he would've pierced it if he had longer  nails. I could still feel them through the fabric though,  and it hurt like hell since he was almost reopening old scars. I looked him riht in the eyes as I tried not to wince in pain. His now cyan eyes were glassy and wet, like he was about to cry.

He's trying to fight back. I realized too late as vapor trails faintly glowed around his eyes. Think fast Michael! Do something! Help him! Anything!  Thoughts raced around my head at top speed. I reached towards my backpack before he could.. no, it could grab my other hand. I tried to unzip it with one hand, though annoying, I manged to do it and grab the mountain dew red.

I put it between my legs under the table and unscrewed the cap on it, all while Jeremy's other hand tried desperately to grab at my own. I tossed the cap away and grabbed the bottle. I could feel my other wrist almost bleeding.

I tried my best to get just a drop in his mouth but to no avail. There was plan b. I could try plan b. But plan b sucked major dick. And plan b might make him hate me. Well, it was either he hated me forever or he loses control and ends up squipping the entire town. Plan b it is, then.  I pretended to drink the mountain dew,  swalling my saliva to make it seem like I was chugging it.

"You see this, Jeremy? He's a moron. An idiot. Look at him. He fucking gave up so easily. What a loser you hang out with."  The words came out of Jeremy's mouth, but they didn't sound like him at all. The voice kept ragging on about how terrible and awful I was, but I tried my hardest to pay it no mind. I tossed the bottle away to go be free with its cap.

I pulled Jeremy's face closer to mine, my mouth full of mountain dew red.

Then I kissed him.

did you expect that??? yeah, you probably did.