Touch

Part 17

Armed with a new sense of normalcy, Jeremy navigated his midterms with success... With the Squip's help, of course. The only thing to look forward to now was Spring Break, baby. Eleven days of a whole lot of nothing was a well-needed relief from grades, homework, and grueling study sessions with the Squip, a chance to genuinely relax. The Squip, of course, found the idea a huge waste of time and kept insisting they implement some kind of study schedule during the week, but Jeremy wasn't having it.

-The point is to have fun. It's a break. You aren't going to be like this during summer, too, are you?-

While you're busy drinking and making a fool of yourself, you'll be losing any information you may have gained so far this semester. It's no good to simply regurgitate what you've memorized onto paper and forget about it.

-Yeah, yeah.-

The Squip either didn't understand, or perhaps care, that sometimes you just had to shut your brain off and relax. It probably wasn't even capable of such a thing, though Jeremy was determined to fix that. Michael, Kevin, and he had a ton of things planned for the week... in Atlantic City. Not exactly the most luxurious place to spend their time, but Jeremy hadn't been since he was a kid and it was the best option they had. It didn't mean he was completely thrilled with it, and he was frowning as he stuffed a couple sweaters into his bag and paused when he reached for his swim trunks.

"You think it'll even be warm enough to try the beach when we get there?" Michael looked up from his phone.

"Uh, maybe. It's supposed to be sunny most of the time." Jeremy sighed.

"Why couldn't we have planned a trip to Florida, again?" He'd never actually been to Florida, but it was always Hot College Spring Break Destination #1, at least in his head, anyway. Warm beaches, palm trees, hot, half-naked people... He could hear the Squip snort is amusement behind him.

Really, Jeremy? That is what you're looking forward to?

-Shut up, get out of my head.-

I would if I could.

"We couldn't afford Florida. Besides, I don't think my car would survive the drive."

Jeremy stuffed his swim trunks into his bag.

"I think we're going to be stuck in New Jersey until the day we die."

"We could always pop over to Philadelphia just to say we did."

"I'm exhilarated just thinking about it." Jeremy's voice dripped with sarcasm and Michael chortled.

"You done packing yet? The M-Train is leaving in ten." It was Jeremy's turn to laugh.

"Please never say that again."

Michael winked.

"You got it, dude."

A two-hour drive later and Jeremy had to pee so bad he thought he'd end up wetting himself in the hotel lobby.

I told you not to drink all that coffee.

The Squip seemed to have returned to its normal, smug, nagging self, and Jeremy didn't know whether he was happy about it or not. It was much better than the unsure and timid way it'd been behaving the first couple of days after it returned, but did it really have to point out the obvious all the time?

Yes. Otherwise, you'll never learn.

-Oy vey.-

Michael and Kevin didn't stay in the hotel long. Kevin, apparently, wanted to check out the aquarium as soon as they got there and Michael wanted to make a date of it, so that left Jeremy alone to his own devices. He kicked off his shoes and jumped up onto his bed, flopping down on top of the covers.