Chapter Text
Monday, 6:52am
one boy sat awake, his music playing through the water damaged speaker on his phone. he couldn’t tell you when it had become like that, but the voices crackled and it didn’t sound the best.
jeremy looked up at his ceiling, the paint peeling and discoloured, he would need to re-do that at some point. he traced the constellations of the glow in the dark stars on his ceiling, his space phase has long since faded from his mind. but his mother had put up the star stickers, and as much as he hated that woman and her actions.. he couldn’t bring himself to take them off, instead idly staring at them on sleepless mornings while contemplating the cards life had dealt him.
he was broken from his self pity trance with a flash of his phone and an 8-bit mario text tone. Michael. jeremy suppressed the smile that infiltrated his face at the thought of his best friend. his surprisingly strong best friend, scratch that, unfairly strong. he didn’t work out yet he could easily give jeremy a piggyback ride or lift him up. the worst part was he used this ability to his advantage, flustering the poor boy to the point of silence. his stutter had never helped but that wasn’t something he chose the complain about.
’hey sweetie pie, how’d my little honey bear sleep? did the love of my life rest his beautiful head’
jeremy snorted at the sarcastic text, it almost made him gag. it had been like that for years, michael waking him up with the cheesiest couple nicknames he could. they had always done it to poke fun at michael’s mom and mama, who were utterly and totally in love and showed it on the daily, making michael and his siblings gag. alfie would always stick his tongue out behind them and antonio would roll his eyes.
‘my dearest, the night had other plans as i lay in my resting place, maybe this cursive world will one day let me have the tender kiss of sleep’
‘did not realise i accidentally texted shakespeare. too much time with chris bud, am i being replaced?’
‘never, your always number one sugarplum’
‘you’re’
‘just get ready you dork’
Monday, 8:23am
michael’s car pulled up to my house and jeremy promptly scrambled in, leaving the awkward tension in the air between himself and his dad to be solve some other day. michael eye’s him and choked a little.
“nice hoodie there, jerebear-“ he laughed, glancing at him. jeremy glanced down and noticed it was michael’s. he knew there was something off about it, the three sizes larger should have given it away.
jeremys cheeks flushed and his laughed awkwardly. “you know i didnt mean to mike, must have le-left it-“
michael nodded in response, patting him on the shoulder and smiling reassuringly. “you know i don’t care man, just as long as i get ‘em back eventually-“
jeremy loved michael’s hoodies, it was like a long hug from the boy, warm and familiar. sure he could just ask michael for a hug, feel the boys arms snake around his waist and rest his head just underneath the others chin. take a moment to soak in the affection and calm down, it would fuel him for the day and he would feel a lot less tired. sleep wears a struggle but michael hugs had always helped. but he never felt he could really ask in public, so sleep deprivation was the answer.
jeremy nodded and sighed, calming down as he took the aux cord. he plugged it into his phone and scrolled through his playlists, choosing the one he and michael had complied just for them, with songs of nostalgia from their friendship and just general songs they both enjoyed, he put it on shuffle and left his phone to rest on the dashboard.
the lyrics spilled through the car speakers and brought a grin to jeremy’s face as well as michael’s.
hey baby won’t you look my way, i could be your new addiction
michael drove, humming along and tapping against the steering wheel while waiting at the red lights, he would glance over at jeremy to see the boy hugging his knees and looking out the window, the way the sun shines onto his face and hair, making the splatters of freckles on his cheeks and the blonde of his hair come through better, his lips formed a small pout as he watched the surroundings they passed by, and michael was almost too distracted to realize the light had changed.
the two arrived at school after countless songs and jokes, leaving the car in a fit of comforting giggles. they got a couple strange looks but that wasn’t foreign to either boy.
“hey bud, remember you gotta find another ride this week. i’m gonna be in the Philippines for my Mama’s birthday.” Michael reminded, he visibly saw jeremy’s face drop and laughed a little, messing up his hair. “you’ll be fine you big baby, jake has offered, so has christine-“
jeremy nodded and sighed. “yeah, no need to worry, i’ll probably go with jake.”
michael patted him on the back. “that’s the spirit, but we still got today and tonight, and i’ll be back next monday so it’s not that long.”
he took on that information, a week without michael is fine. not ideal or fun, but fine. they had distance all the time, sure not lately but before. plus they had the others now, it was all gonna be okay.
Monday, 12:17pm
jeremy sat at the table with jake and chloe, the less than comfortable atmosphere was tolerable, but he could t help but pick at his nails as he watched the two high confident people interact.
he blinked as he heard his name come from blondes mouth.
“jere, back me up here man. pink lemonade is superior y’know, like clear lemonade is so basic, you go pink or you just don’t lemonade at all.”
jermey had to stop himself from laughing at the boy, he stifled his amusement and nodded, looking between the two at chloe’s ‘done with this bitch’ face.
“gotta admit he has a point, pink lemonade is god—“
“you two are idiots, it’s not even lemonade, they put raspberries in it. gods your such idiots sometimes, where is brooke when you need someone actually intelligent to talk to-“ chloe complained, though the bite from her words wasn’t there.
jake and jeremy snickered together and jake reached over to mess up jeremy’s unruly curls. jeremy smiled at the affection and stopped picking at his nails. jeremy felt the familiar exhaustion bubble to the surface of his mind and he yawned into the sleeves, he begged to be able to sleep tonight, it was getting annoying now. the lack of sleep.
he felt the bench dip slightly as the weight of another person joined them, michael.
“what’d i miss?”
“these two convinced themselves that pink lemonade is better than normal.”
“yeah, you’re not changing that-“ michael started, eyeing jeremy and then sparing a single glanced at jake. “jerem has a big obsession with the stuff, that, dinosaurs and space-“ michael laughed.
“Mike! what the hell- that was like.. years ago you dick-“ that got michael an elbow to the side and a lightly embarrassed jeremy.
“oh man rich totally had a dinosaur phase last year, no worries. there’s a tower of dino teddies in my guest room from it.” Jake claimed easily, he always had a way of easing the embarrassing situations.
“Gee, why don’t we talk about the time you thought peacocks weren’t real Jacob.” a new, pissed of voice joined their conversation, a short figure stood behind jake.
Rich came and sat between jake and chloe, glaring daggers into his best friend with no relenting mercy.
“dude they’re like unicorns and shit, extremely colourful birds! they didn’t sound real-“
“how did you even make it to high school.” chloe said blankly, thank god jake was good at sports.
Jake rolled his eyes and took a bite out his food, and everyone fell into idly conversation. it felt homely, as much as jeremy wouldn’t have thought it, he had found comfort and family within these people. all for different reasons.
he glanced at michael and saw his leg bouncing, an anxious habit he knew the other hand, jeremy put his hand on michaels knee and smiled at him. he knew michael always got nervous when big trips came up.
jeremy just kept his hand there and michael calmed down, they both joined in in the groups antics, and no one noticed when michaels hand rested on top of jeremy’s and the boys smile grew a little wider.
Monday,6:04pm
michaels speech on the graphics of apocalypse of the damned were interrupted by a yawn, jeremy quickly covered his mouth and muttered an apology into the phone. it was moments like these jeremy enjoyed a lot, the peaceful ones where he or michael could geek out on whatever and the other would listen to the long winded theories and random rants they had.
michaels voice was someone what soothing as well, the phone distorted the audio slightly but his voice was slightly deep and calming. he found himself closing his eyes and just listening. maybe he shouldn’t have though, because after that yawn, jeremy’s body had decided that this would be the best opportunity to sleep, so he did.
“Jere? bud you still there?”
Michael sighed and laughed as he heard the snoring on the other side. he had to pack now anyway. he’s text jeremy later. he hung up the phone and paced around his room, his afternoon falling into idly packing.