Chapter Text
“Wait, wait, wait, let me get this straight,” Michael says, tapping furiously on his controller and cringing at an eleven-year-old screaming with pointless rage. “You expect me to believe that you aren't actually twelve?”
The person with the username i.am.heere squeaks and Michael lets out a short laugh. “I don't see why you even think that!”
“Your voice is pretty high pitched,” he says, but then he shrugs. “You're also pretty good at this game, so I'm guessing you're… fifteen?”
“Well, that's better than twelve at least!” The eleven-year-old on the server shouts again. “If anything, you're the twelve-year-old. Your username is literally weedsocks.”
“I couldn't think of anything better, dude!”
i.am.heere laughs and Michael chews on his lip, focusing more on the game.
“Why'd you even start guessing my age?” the guy asks and they both silently cheer when the kid is booted from the server, along with a few of his “friends”. They're the only two left with voice chat.
“I dunno,” Michael shrugs, ducking away from enemy fire. “Boredom, I guess.”
“Should I try to guess yours too?”
“If you want to, Heere.”
“Okay… weed,” Heere stifles a laugh and continues. “I'd say you're at least fourteen.”
Michael laughs, nearly getting himself killed. “Reasoning?”
“For starters, weedsocks.” Michael may not know who this guy is, but he is not kidding when he says that he could feel the disappointment through the screen. “Secondly, you died not too long ago and you said something along the lines of “This game is fricking bs”, and that is something a thirteen-year-old says.”
“While your arguments are convincing, I'm going to have to break it to you that I'm actually sixteen.”
“Woah, really?” Heere sounds smug. “That's means I'm older than you!”
“Bull shit,” Michael drags on the “l” in bull for longer than needed.
“My birthday was in August. It's September. I'm seventeen while you're still the young age of sixteen.”
“Unbelievable.” He hears a knock on his door and his mom enters, informing him that dinner is done. He nods and turns back to the game. “It has been a fun time, Heere, but all good times must come to an end. Maybe I'll run into you again?”
“...Maybe.” Heere seems disappointed again, but Michael doesn't pick up on it as he signs off and starts heading upstairs.
His mind switches from gaming to dinner so quickly that he forgets about the entire conversation rather quickly, the memory is almost completely gone by the time he lays down to sleep that night.
***
Jeremy walks into his class only two seconds before the late bell, earning him an annoyed look from his teacher. He pays no mind to it as he heads to his seat, plopping down into it and dropping his bag on the ground, already tuning out of the lesson.
For some reason, the dude with the username weedsocks had taken up a lot of his daydreaming time. He thought it was really stupid since he didn't even know the guy and the fact that his username was what it was.
For some reason, he just… found him really interesting. He couldn't help but hope that they would end up playing together again tonight.
Before he knew it, that class was over, and it was only a short amount of time before lunch. When it was finally lunch time, he darted out of his class and arrived at lunch before everyone else.
Jeremy honestly didn't know how he got to be lucky enough to even have people to sit with. He was anti-social as all hell, not to mention his killer anxiety. He guesses he has Rich to thank for his current friends, a group that would be a lot louder if Rich still went to their school.
He had moved to the town over a month before Junior year started, and while that wasn't a far distance away, it still required him changing schools. Everything was cool though, the distance from Jeremy's house to Rich’s house changing from two minutes to ten minutes. Besides that, Rich had already befriended a kid named Michael and Michael's friend named Chloe. He also mentioned some girl named Jenna, but Jeremy didn't know too much about it.
Jeremy realized he had been spacing off for too long when someone snapped their fingers in front of his face. He jumped and glared at Brooke who hid a giggle behind her hand. She sat down next to him, and that's when Jeremy noticed that Christine and Jake were already sitting across from him. He smiles sheepishly and greets them.
“Seriously, where were you, dude?” Jake asks. “I was gonna throw water on you but Christine held me back.”
“And I'm glad I did,” she says then, and Jeremy smiles at her, face flushing pink.
Jeremy may have still had a small crush on her. His crush on her used to be huge, but it had started dying out as he got to know her. It's not that he didn't like her, in fact, he loved her, but it was only platonic. It's just that he realized that his crush wasn't exactly strong and that he just had it because “wow! a pretty girl I might have a chance with!” Now it was more of an “If you're down, I'm down, but we're just friends” kind of relationship in his eyes, and he'd honestly just want to keep it there.
“Jeremy Heere!”
He jolted again, looking over at Brooke with wide eyes. This time she didn't bother hiding a laugh, but it cut off short with a question.
“Why are you so out of it today?” she asked and Jeremy shrugged. He honestly had no idea as to why he was so distracted. He had one lead, and it was still the guy playing video games, but there was no real reason to support the fact that he could not for the life of him pay attention to anything.
“What, did you watch a porno and- Ow!”
“Jake! No!”
Jeremy and Brooke laugh at the exchange, Jeremy's laugh more awkward and forced as his face turns red. He hears Jake start to make a comment about it but he coughs loudly and switches the topic.
“Has Rich told you guys about his plan?” he loudly asks and they give him a confused look. “He said that we should meet up in December at the mall and meet his other friends.”
“Why so far ahead?”
“I'd assume Christmas shopping,” Brooke says and Christine nods with understanding.
“I'm excited to meet this Jenna girl. I hear that she's… something.”
“I think the Michael dude is a nerd like you, Jer,” Jake says and Jeremy shrugs again, a smile on his face.
“Guess we'll have to see.”
***
Michael logs into his account to see a pending friend request from i.am.heere. It elicits a small smile and he accepts it quickly, typing out a message.
weedsocks: You couldn't resist my charm, huh?
He gets a response way quicker than he imagined, so the noise makes him jump and open it.
i.am.heere: How could anyone resist your charm, Weed
weedsocks: Ikr
weedsocks: Real talk, do you have a phone or something? This way of messaging is annoying
The next message sent is the guy's phone number and Michael pulls out his own phone, adding the number to his contacts and changing the contact name to “Heere”. He types out a message to make sure he got it right.
me: I didn't expect to get your number out of you so easily
Heere: I'm going to assume that this is weedsocks
me: you would be correct, my dear sir
Heere: Hey, do you have a name you want me to set for your contact name?
me: Are you asking me for my name?
me: How can I be sure you won't try to look me up?
me: What if you're secretly 40 years old?
Heere: !!!Calm down!!!
Michael snickers at the responses to his drama.
Heere: I can't have a contact on my phone that is just “Weed”!!
Heere: What if people think I do…
Heere: ...drugs?
me: I'm kidding dude. You sound like a seventeen-year-old and there isn't that much stalking you can even do with just my first name. It's Michael
me: I expect your name in return…?
The response took a minute and it had Michael wondering if Heere forgot his own name because he could see that he had read his messages.
Heere: I'm Jeremy
The name sounded familiar to Michael and he could place his finger on why. He just brushed it off and changed his contact name to Jeremy.
me: let me guess…. Heere is your last name?
The lack of a response gives him his answer and he laughs.
me: Did you seriously use your last name for a username?? That's dangerous Jeremy!
Jeremy: shut it weedsocks!!!
Jeremy: ...do you want to play Apocalypse of the Damned now?
me: Never thought you'd ask!
Michael put his phone down, setting up his headset and adding Jeremy to a party so it would be the two of them talking to one another and playing. They played for a long time, talking about nothing really, laughing at nothing really, and by the time they said their goodbyes, Michael was shocked to find out that it was night already. He had spent the majority of the day talking to this guy he just met, over a video game nonetheless. He smiled to himself as he turned off his console, already hearing a ping from his phone telling him that Jeremy had texted him, and headed upstairs for the night.