Chapter Text
To say that today was a shit day would be the understatement of the century. All Michael had tried to do was warn his best friend (can they even be considered friends anymore?) about the dangers of that devil computer and he's called a loser. The panic attack on top of that didn't help either, nor the incessant knocking at the door. Can't a guy get some sort of privacy?
"Look," a girl snapped from behind the door, "I know you said you were having your period, or whatever, but you've been in there for like ten minutes, and I'm honestly worried about you!" He could hear the concern in her tone and what was that she just whispered? And I don't even know you.
Michael decided to do the smart thing and not reply. Because Michael was the smartest, clearly. This, of course, backfired when she began to knock even louder. He stared at the door until she began yelling stuff along the lines of "I hope you didn't die in there" and "please just open the goddamn door". He decided that maybe-maybe-opening the door would be a good idea, and he proceeded to do just that.
He was greeted to the sight of a very irritated girl, who ended up knocking against his chest until she realized the door was open. They stared at each other for a few seconds before the girl spoke up.
"Uh...hi, I'm Jenna." She seemed shy, despite the fact that she was just yelling from behind a closed door.
"And I'm leaving," Michael replied curtly, moving to leave the bathroom.
"Nope. You were in there for like ten minutes and you clearly aren't having your period-”
“Well, you don’t know about that,” he interrupted.
She paused for a few seconds before she continued. “-SO why were you locked in the bathroom?" Jenna looked closer at his face and gasped when she finally noticed the tear tracks. "What happened?"
He glared at the wall above her head as he tried to ignore her question. How does someone even begin to explain that they lost their friend to popularity and an overrated iPod nano?
What's the saying? The best lie is the truth told unconvincingly or something?
"Well, you see," he began, finally glancing at Jenna. "My best friend left me for popularity and a tic tac supercomputer." The blank look on her face gave nothing away, so he decided to push past her and go somewhere-like home-to cry in peace.
Before he could leave, her hand gripped his wrist tightly. "I can't tell if you're lying or not, and I don't know if I'd believe it as the truth, but..." Jenna looked into his eyes, completely sincere, "If you need someone to talk to, call me, okay?" She took advantage of his shock and wrote a phone number on his arm. "I'm one text or call away."
As he watched her leave, he covered the number, protecting it from the sweaty teens downstairs.
Despite his reluctance to trust anyone at this point, he ended up calling Jenna as soon as he got home. God, he was a loser.
"Hello?" He could barely hear her over the din of drunk teenagers. "One sec, let me go outside." He heard her move through the crowd, a couple of 'excuse me's being muttered. "Alright! I'm outside, who are you and what's up?"
Her genuinely perky tone stopped him for a moment. Could he really ruin a good mood like this? "Uh," clever, "this is Michael? The guy you saw crying at the party you're at?"
"Oh, Michael! Hi, did you want to talk now? I swear I won't spill your secrets." She said this almost bitterly, like she had already been jaded somehow. Something to bring up later, he thought then paused. Bring up later? What, like they were friends?
"Yeah, actually… could we meet somewhere tomorrow, or tonight? I don't want to-"
She interrupted him, "Oh, there is nothing happening at this party. And I know it's super late but I'm sure we can go somewhere." Her tone was almost hopeful. "Uh, is there any way you can pick me up? I would drive but I'm kind of tipsy so-" She was cut off by the sound of the door opening and a sob. Michael could hear her still despite the fact that she shoved the phone aside. "Oh my God, Brooke? Are you okay?"
He could hear a mumbled reply, followed by another sob. Jenna gasped sharply. "That dick! Who the fuck even does that?!" Another garbled reply, and more angry ranting from Jenna. Before she could get in too deep, Michael decided to interrupt.
"While I would love to hear all about this dick, I don't think I should be listening to the conversation." He really didn't, since he had a feeling he knew who this 'dick' was.
"Oh, fuck, sorry! I totally forgot my phone was-" Michael heard a clatter, which he assumed was the phone being dropped. "Goddammit! I just got this thing. Sorry, Michael." He listened to her ramble as Brooke mumbled in the background.
After this went on for several minutes, he was finally struck with a brilliant idea. "Hey, why don't I pick you both up? I'm not really friends with either of you- sorry, that was harsh- but… you both sound like you need it, especially Brooke."
Without waiting for their reply, he hopped into his car. "Stay right there and I'll be there in ten," he said before he hung up the phone. All he could hope for was that they listened.
Nine minutes later, he pulled up to the curb to see Jenna holding a tired-looking Brooke. He quickly unlocked the door, got out, and helped Jenna move her into his car. "Is she… gonna be okay?" he asked, eyes darting between the two girls.
Jenna appraised Brooke for a moment. "She'll be fine… Probably."
With that very definitive answer, Michael climbed back into the driver's seat, Jenna taking the passenger side. "So, any ideas or should we head to someone's house?"
"I don't know how well her parents are going to react to their daughter coming back from a party looking like that. And-" she glanced at the clock on the dash, then whistled. "And, it is way past my curfew."
Michael thought for a moment, before sighing. So much for his basement to him and-
No. He was not going to think of him right now. He was going to focus on how distraught Brooke is, and just… suppress his feelings. Smart.
When they arrived at his house, he glanced toward Brooke and jumped when he saw she was wide awake. Her eyes were still red, but her face was set in a neutral expression. Jenna seemed to notice his quietness and turned to see what he was looking at.
"Oh." She said simply. "Are you not tired anymore, Brooke?"
"I just..." Her voice was hoarse from all the sobbing. "I need to talk about it, you know?"
"I think we both get that." Jenna replied, glancing at Michael who nodded minutely. She seemed happy with that response and clapped her hands together. "Alright! Let's go in and share all of our deepest secrets."
Michael could've sworn he heard Brooke mumble, "So you can share them?" But he decided to write it off as anything else. Tonight was going to be a long night.
The first person to spill their secrets turned out to be Jenna. It seemed like she could sense their apprehensiveness, so she took the plunge and shared how she felt all the time. Throughout her little speech, Michael and Brooke donned strikingly different expressions.
Brooke, who was always an expressive person, had her face weighed down by sadness, her eyes glistening again. Her hand covered her mouth the entire time, hiding almost none of her expression.
Michael's face gave away nothing. He was expressionless throughout her speech, but he never stopped looking at her. Everything she said hit a little too close to home since Jeremy had abandoned him.
She started with a simple statement.
"I'm an extremely lonely person. I mean, you wouldn't think so since I know everything about everyone, right?" She laughed bitterly. "No one wants to get close to someone like that, though. Who knows what secrets of theirs I'll spill, right?" She stopped for a second, collecting herself before she continued. She looked like she was trying desperately not to cry.
"People won't even talk to me for five minutes because they're scared I'll find something out. Even I'm not that good, funny enough." She desperately tried to keep the joking tone, but her voice kept breaking. "And-and it's funny because the only reason I have all that information is because I want friends? Isn't that-isn't that f-funny?" Her voice shook as she continued, until she couldn't. Her sentences faded into faint sobbing as she covered her face with her hands.
Michael was the first to move, used to comforting people who were crying. He touched her arm and asked, “Is it okay to hug you?" When she nodded, he hugged her tightly. He remembered faintly that someone said they felt safe when he hugged them. At the memory, he hugged her tighter, letting her sob into his sweater. He spoke softly, rambling into Jenna's ear to distract her.
All the while, Brooke stared at the two of them before she tentatively wrapped her arms around the two. After she got relatively comfortable, she started to stroke Jenna's hair and whispering comforting words. She seemed surprised by how warm Michael was. This surprise quickly went away as he re-wrapped an arm around her and she sunk into the hug.
After they sat there hugging for awhile, Jenna pulled herself away and wiped her face with the heels of her hands. "Okay," she breathed, voice hoarse. "Who's next?"
"How can you recover so quickly from pouring your soul out?" Michael asked, searching for a bit of humor. Humor had always been an escape, why abandon it now?
She laughed softly. "Beginner's luck, I suppose." She turned to Brooke, tilting her head. "Are you ready to talk, Brooke?"
"I..." She trailed off and stared at a space above Michael's head for a moment. "Yes. I need to talk."
She explained how she found Chloe and Jeremy presumably having sex, seeing him rush out of the room and not even try to explain. "Well, no explanation needed, I guess." She remarked with a bitter laugh. She glanced at Michael's darkened face before she continued.
"I just can't believe Chloe would do that to me!" She practically yelled, no more tears to spare. "I'm her best friend-" She didn't catch the slight wince Michael gave. "-how could she just- just sleep with my boyfriend?! Who the fuck actually does that?"
Trying not to set Brooke off at him, Michael simply said, "Chloe doesn't seem to be the warmest person at the best of times."
Brooke's head snapped to look him directly in the eye. "You're absolutely right, but..." She trailed off, losing herself in thought once again. After about a minute, she collected herself. "But she's my friend, and… I just don't want to be mad at her, you know?"
Michael slowly nodded, completely understanding her current predicament.
When she started off on another bitter rant, Michael clambered behind her and started to braid her hair. He was absolutely mesmerized by the pale strands as he let her words sink in. She went almost uninterrupted except for the occasional comment from Jenna and him. He felt oddly protective of her. Maybe it was the fact that their stories shared a few too many similarities for his liking.
"And, you know, as far as I could tell she didn't even like Jeremy like that at all, and yet she decides to fuck him in Jake's parents' room? And what gets me is that I trusted her and she took that and crushed it. I wish I could fucking hate her, but I love her so much." This confession was the straw that broke the camel's back. Suddenly, Brooke's anger turned into sorrow and she openly sobbed again.
In an instant, Michael let her hair drop and wrapped her in a tight hug- one she relaxed into instantly. A second after, Jenna practically crawled into Brooke's lap, hugging her around the middle.
After they sat like that for ten minutes, Brooke quietly admitted, "I've never had this many hugs in succession like this. It's so… nice."
Jenna pulled back and looked her in the face. "Didn't you and Chloe ever hug it out?"
"Uh." Brooke looked away from Jenna's searching eyes. "No. She… never liked me like that or was even inclined to hug someone she wasn't dating."
Michael snorted. "That's stupid. If you ever need a cuddle buddy, I'm your guy."
Brooke smiled for the first time in hours. "I'd love to be your cuddle buddy, Michael!"
Jenna watched them smiling before she clapped her hands together, an idea coming to her. "Have you guys ever heard of a queerplatonic relationship?" she asked, leaning toward the two (who were still huddled together). To their identical confused looks, she laughed. "Okay, short version? It's very similar to a romantic relationship except no romance-love involved. Just platonic! I think you'd both benefit from it! And since you're both interested in other people, you can just do cute platonic stuff!"
They both spluttered at the crush implication, and Jenna laughed again. Michael lowered his head to rest on Brooke's back as she began to pet his hair. After they sat in a comfortable silence for a little bit, Jenna's expression turned serious and she turned to Michael. "Are you ready to talk about it, Michael? We can wait longer if you need." At Jenna's words, Michael tensed up and Brooke released herself from his grasp to hug him and nod fervently.
"I..." He felt sick to his stomach. He didn't expect to be able to tell anyone, but now? He has two people to pour his heart out to. "Yeah. I-I just-" His eyes swept the room for any sort of distraction. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt Jenna behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Okay. You wanna know why I was crying in a bathroom by myself? Here goes."
He took a moment to collect himself, and slow down his erratic heart. He motioned for them to back away from him, knowing how he gets when angry. "My best friend of twelve years had just abandoned me in the pursuit of popularity at the drop of a hat- well, the swallowing of a microscopic super-computer, but same difference. He'd been ignoring me for a week since he took it and the one chance I get to actually speak to him and he sees me? He freezes and then turns around, ignoring me completely again. I apparently don't fucking exist anymore. And after that, I spent weeks scouring the internet for something about these devil machines, and I finally find some damning evidence against them thanks to a friend on WoW. My first thought is, 'oh I can finally help Jer and he'll believe me because he's my best. Friend.' So at the party, I finally confront him, tell him what I found and guess what?" He paused for effect, actually looking to them for an answer.
When he got no response except sad eyes, he launched back into his tirade. "He thinks I'm jealous! Jealous of his popularity, jealous that he has friends. I'm in absolute shock because why would I be jealous of something that deliberately cut me out, his BEST FRIEND." He was gasping for breath now and vehemently shook his head when Brooke and Jenna went to hug him again. "I wish he would realize that the only reason I even did that is because I love him. So what does he do? He pushes me out of the way, calls me a fucking LOSER, completely ignoring my feelings and I know he can tell I'm about to have a panic attack. He's never called me anything with any real malice and now he does that and just leaves me. The b-boy I love just left me for good, oh-oh my God, I-" He was cut off by a ragged sob that finally left him. Ignoring his rapid head shakes, Brooke wrapped him in a tight hug. As her head was rested on his shoulder, she rubbed gentle circles into his back and hummed a random tune. Jenna began playing with his hair with her left hand, as her right held his own hand, which she squeezed tightly.
He felt safe for the first time that entire night.