Chapter Text
"So let me get this straight," Chloe said slowly, lowering the curling wand in her hand, "you've fallen in love in Jeremy and you don't know how to tell him because he recently broke up with Christine and you don't want to burden him..." She put the wand on the side of her drawer and reached for the hair spray. Making eye contact with Michael in the mirror, she sprayed her hair firm and put down the can. "Did I get it all?"
Michael flopped onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling in thought. "Pretty much yeah," he eventually replied.
He hadn't planned on telling anyone initially, Michael was far too closed off to anyone but his best friend to even think about it. But after The Squip nearly took over the whole school he seemed to get roped into a group of friends who had experienced the whole thing together, and this included Chloe. Michael didn't know Chloe very well before the incident other than the fact that she was one of the most popular girls in the year. Her and Brooke used to look down at people like Michael. But now, they all seemed to get along just fine. Chloe and Jake worked out their differences and now were closer than ever, Brooke forgave Jeremy for almost sleeping with her best friend because she now knew about The Squip and all in all everyone was happy.
However, this only made Michael more anxious. It was no secret to him that he had fallen for Jeremy long before the whole ordeal began, it only made the 'Jeremy ignoring thing' worse. But now that they had returned to normal Michael had been feeling a lot more agitated than normal. For the past few years it was easy to hide his feelings behind late night games and gay jokes. But recently, everything felt a little too much for Michael. He was noticing more things about Jeremy, things which he hadn't bothered to notice before. Like his concentration face during a particularly hard game, or his smile and the way his face would light up whenever someone gave him a compliment. It was nice, don't get him wrong, but it was painful.
It wasn't until a few days later that Michael began to notice a change in someone else too; Chloe. Perhaps it was only because they had started to hang out more but there was definitely something going on. She had started to wear a little bit more makeup, more foundation and mascara to be exact. Her smile grew a little wider whenever her best friend joined the conversation, her laugh higher and more girly. She seemed to be finding more excuses to hang out with Brooke alone, which wasn't hard in the first place but still. They were subtle changes, but they weren't subtle enough as Michael had soon caught wind as to what was going on.
As him and Chloe grew closer, she would sometimes invite him round to curl his hair or do his makeup. He didn't even bother to hide his excitement, Michael enjoyed those little bonding moments with Chloe.
A few weeks in, Michael told her he was gay. She asked a lot of questions.
A few days after, Chloe told Michael about her feelings for Brooke. He was far too happy to help.
And here they were, hanging out in Chloe's bedroom on a Tuesday afternoon with the window open and the fan turned on full blast. Michael had had enough after his short phone call with Jeremy that morning, which had made his face blow up like a tomato and his palms sweat like a waterfall. After hanging up the phone, he went straight out the door and texted Chloe to let her know her assistance was needed. She was the only person he would dare tell.
"I don't see the big problem here Mike," she smiled, finishing up her hair for the afternoon. "It's not like Jeremy is homophobic or anything-"
"No that's not it!" Michael butted in, sitting up on the bed he had previously been contemplating what he was doing on. "I know Jer will be cool with me, he's always cool with whatever I do or like but... He's gonna be curious you know?"
"Who wouldn't be?" Chloe joked.
"Exactly! And I know exactly what he'll ask too! He'll ask 'how did you know?' AND IM GOING TO HAVE TO REPLY TO HIM CHLO! What do I do then?" Michael hadn't realised he was shouting until Chloe had to physically shut him up, resulting in a hand over his mouth and a remainder that the bedroom window was indeed still open. She sighed and lifted her hand in favour of reaching for her curler and signalling Michael to turn around. He complied, of course.
"Mike, you need to chill. Ok?" She began, waiting to the wand to reach it's optimum temperature. "Jer is super sweet! He'll understand if you're not ready to tell him why, right?"
Michael thought for a moment, staring at the picture of Chloe, Brooke and Christine on Chloe's picture collage.
"What about him and Christine? He's already got enough to deal with, them breaking up so suddenly and all..." He muttered, pretty much to himself but loud enough for Chloe to hear.
Michael expected the normal encouraging yet not very helpful answer from Chloe... but it never came. All he got was the sound of his hair sizzling on the curler and the sounds of birds chirping outside the house. "Chlo-"
"He broke up with her." She said abruptly, switching off and laying down the curler. Michael turned and looked at her, puzzled.
"I know. He told me."
"Not the whole story, he didn't. I can tell her didn't." Chloe replied, avoiding any eye contact that may occur between them. She was hiding something, Michael could tell that much. Normally he would just drop it, Chloe was one to gossip after all and he didn't want to get into any unnecessary drama. But this time, it was about Jeremy.
"What do you mean." He said, less as a question and more as a statement. Chloe took a moment to raise her head to meet his.
"Okay, this doesn't leave this room but... He broke up with Christine... because he never liked her in the first place." She said slowly, pronouncing every word with precision. She locked eyes with Michael for a moment and a brief sense of confusion must have been detected because before Michael could say anything she continued. "I caught him a few days ago, in the hallway. Christine was walking away from him with slight tears in her eyes so I know what had happened. But he didn't look sad, he looked... guilty I guess is the word I'm looking for."
She adjusted her position on the bed so that she was sat up straight, facing Michael.
"So I cornered him, demanded to know why he had hurt Christine like that. I was willing to punch him, you should have seen me Mike!" She giggled, attempting to lighten the mood a little. It didn't work though, Michael was far too wrapped in the story he was being told to focus on anything else.
"What did he say?" He prompted, eager to continue. Chloe's smile dissipated and she locked eyes with Michael once more.
"He told me how he had realised he didn't like Christine in that way, in a romantic way I mean. He didn't tell me how he knew, he just knew he knew. So he broke it off before he could hurt her anymore." She explained. "But here's the thing Mike. You would think Christine would be devastated yeah? I would be after being told that! But when I called her that night, she said she was never better!"
"W-what?" He stuttered. It was one thing to hear that Jeremy didn't even like Christine, after all they had done throughout the years, but to hear that Christine was doing absolutely fine was absurd. He couldn't understand it.
"Yeah! I know! She started going on about how she was upset at first but after Jeremy told her and explained it to her, now she was excited! She started going on about his play that she liked... can't remember the name now. Something about star-crossed lovers in an unforgiving world... oh I don't know. Anyway, she sounded WAY too excited for having just been dumped... I don't get it Mike..." Chloe started to slow her speech as her story reached its conclusion. Her gaze never once left Michael, who was shifting though an array of emotions. He looked at Chloe who simply shrugged.
"Maybe you should talk to him."