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“Here you go, Christine. It’s not a letter, but it’s a book."
Jeremy handed Christine the book that he wrote-
Well, technically, it was the SQUIP who wrote it, but it was Jeremy's memory, so it still counts as his. First person baby.
The small girl grabbed the book with a blank face, which he was expecting hatred or outrage like the one he got during the day of the play.
He walked off with his SQUIP following him. "Guess I've gotta buy Mountain Dew Red now.” He sighed and left the school to go to the store.
He was searching for the right soda aisle when he saw a familiar figure.
Christine. Fuck. Of course she had to be here. Pretty cliché.
His SQUIP wasn’t activated right now, so he ducked away hoping she didn’t see him.
He was just about to run out of the store when he bumped into a display and knocked a couple of the products over.
"Um, hello?" He froze.
Come on, he scolded himself. You can't just avoid her for the rest of your life. Be a man! Jeremy turned around to face Christine.
When she looked at him, he couldn't tell what was in her facial expression. Distain? Disinterest? Whatever it was, it wasn't exactly good.
“Uh, hi, Christine. It's me."
"Alright. Here goes nothing." Jeremy gripped the Mountain Dew Code Red in his hand, thinking about the disaster that happened at the store. he Fu__ing ran into Christine at the store, and his SQUIP couldn't even help him out during it. He unscrewed the cap and brought the bottle to his lips, but he stopped for a moment. "Do I really want to do this?" He didn't know what would happen after he deactivated his SQUIP for good. Would he go back to being a loser? At least, until the next version of the SQUIP came out. But I don't wanna wait. "Reactivate.." he sighed.
"Jeremy.. what is it now?" He watched as his SQUIP formed into Keanu Reeves in front of him.
"I just... I don't think I can do this."
His SQUIP's face was unreadable. "Jeremy, I am defective. You must drink it. I failed to bring you your goal, and have only caused so many problems. You can always get another SQUIP. A faultless one."
"But I don't want to," he protested,
"And why is that? You were angry that things with Christine did not go according to plan. That was because of me."
"Look, I'm sorry that I got mad at you for that. You just did what you thought was right. Even though that didn't work, everything else did, right?"
The SQUIP was silent for a moment, and for a moment, Jeremy thought that it somehow deactivated. He always got a direct and immediate answer from it, but this time it didn't. Eventually, it spoke. "Jeremy, I'm supposed to benefit you. But to do that, you must listen to me. You can get version 4.0 when it comes out."
"But I want you to be my SQUIP. You've still helped me a lot. What happened during the play was... a set back. Christine said she's gonna look at our book, so she might understand. We can try to fix things. And... and... making mistakes is just a part of being human. Maybe you're more than just a piece of technology.” Jeremy shrugged, he sounded like a parent telling their kids that mistakes are a part of life and blah blah blah. Maybe his own mistake was being such a f__king loser all the time. “At least, you are to me.”
The SQUIP frowned then turned away. “I am not a human. I am technology programmed for the use of people. You would not become emotionally attached to your television, am I correct?”
He shrugged irritably. “I’m not gonna drink it.”
“Jeremy, what are you trying to achieve here? How can I possibly help you any more? I failed, that’s all there is to it.” Its voice sounded slightly frustrated, which surprised Jeremy. That was the most emotion he’s heard from the computer.
”I... I just...” he trailed off, eyes clouding. “This is so lame!” he groaned. “So what if I’m emotionally attached to technology? Aren’t all teens like that? Glued to their phones and stuff. Well, I guess in my case, it’s a literal computer chip stuck to my brain. But I don’t just see you as a guide..” It was so pathetic. He saw the SQUIP as a friend, which it probably didn’t seem mutual. “I’m not getting rid of you, and that’s the end of it.” That’s the end of it was how most conversations ended with him and his SQUIP whenever he protested about something. Well, not this time. This was his choice.
The SQUIP turned around, sighing. It looked down at Jeremy. “I see that this isn’t going anywhere, and I suppose I can’t really stop you.”
And then, it smirked. “Then come on, we have a lot of work to do.”