Forest~A Stepbrothers AU

Chapter 9

Jeremy POV

It was still raining and my dad was still dating. I tried not to complain about it to Michael. The last thing I wanted was to scare Michael away with my whining.

So I kept quiet and watch my dad get more dazed and lovesick and goofy than ever, and I felt myself growing sadder and sadder and, at the same time, feeling my crush for Michael grow more with every day. I need someone to talk to, so of course I called over the Squip Squad (minus Michael) for a good old rousing sleepover.

The girls were the first to arrive. Christine showed up by running through my door and launching herself at me. She had been jetting around Asia for Christmas break and we hadn't been able to talk. "JEREMY!"

"Hi, Christine," I said, laughing and hugging her.

"Oh. My. Gosh. I haven't seen you in FOREVER! I missed you," she babbled as we headed upstairs to my room. "Asia was fun but SO boring at the same time. I had to be quiet a lot. You know I'm terrible at being quiet."

"We all know you're terrible at being quiet, Chris," I heard Jenna say.

"JEN!" Christine practically flew down the stairs and launched herself at her girlfriend. "I missed you with every molecule of my body!"

"That's not a lot of molecules," Jenna teased, kissing Christine's hair. Then she looked up at me. "Hey, Jere! Anyone else here yet?"

"Nope, just you two. And me. And my lovesick dad, but I locked him in his office and so far he hasn't noticed," I joked.

We were heading up the stairs again when Chloe and Brooke arrived. They were carrying bags and wearing sunglasses and they wouldn't tell me what was in the bags.

My staircase was narrow, so we headed up one at a time, Christine on Jenna's back.

"You first," Chlo said.

"It's okay," Brooke said. They both started to go at the same time, tripped, and ended up with their faces inches apart. Jenna snapped pictures as we watched with smirks. It was so obvious that they had crushes on each other but neither one would admit it.

"Okay, let's get rid of the romantic tension and GO!" Christine shouted.

Brooke and Chloe blushed and got up, coming up the stairs with us.

We went into my room and cleared space on the floor to sit.

"Is RichJake coming?" Christine asked.

"RichJake?" Chloe said.

"Rich. Jake. Dating," Jenna explained, posting the pictures of Brooke and Chloe on Instagram.

"Oh yeah, I remember they made out at the café a few months ago," Brooke said, scrolling through her camera roll and showing us the pictures.

"You have to send me those!" Jenna squealed.

"Already done."

"Guys! Is RichJake coming?" Christine repeated.

"Here and queer," Rich said from behind us and we all shrieked.

"When did you get here?" Brooke screeched.

"We were watching you," Jake whispered creepily, picking Rich up and coming into the room.

"You know what? Moving on," I said, facepalming.

"Okay, well, why are we here?" Christine asked, bouncing up and down.

I inhaled. "We're here because I have something I need to tell you," I whispered.