——Y/n (Your) POV!——

Eric nervously looked at Michael. The two stared at each other for a brief moment before Michael hesitantly smiled at him. "It's worth a shot," Michael said.

I smiled and happily clapped my hands. "Now you two can properly meet!" I exclaimed. I looked at Eric. "Squipward, this is Michael, my best friend!" I smiled excessively and turned to Michael. "Mika, this is Eric, my really sweet Squip!"

Michael put his fist out, and the two fist-bumped, Which was a lot less awkward than I first thought it was going to be.

"So, now what?" Michael asked as he leaned back into the couch.

I shrugged. "I don't know, I didn't really think I'd make it this far." I slightly giggled as I scratched the back of my neck.

Eric stood up and walked over to the gaming console. "Want to play Mario Kart?" He suggested.

Michael smiled again. "Sure! I'm calling dibs on the controller that's in the top left-hand corner!" He yelled as he began to set up the game.

"You could have just said that you wanted to be player 1." Eric chuckled, handing him said, controller. Eric sat back down on the floor, in between my legs.

"Whatever, I'm taking you down computer man!" He yelled.

~Time Squip~

The two have been getting along fairly well for the past hour! I'm sure Michael is trying his hardest to forget about all the bad stuff he learned about Squips, but either way, he and Eric seem to be pretty great friends already.

"1 Michael." Eric paused to poke Michael's forehead. "8 Eric. Still think you can beat a computer when doing best out of 10?" He confidently said.

"I don't think I can, I know I can! Next round wins it all!" Michael claimed.

Eric laughed at Michael, but his smiled lingered. I grinned at Eric and ruffled his hair. I brought my hand up to use the controller again but Eric then looked up at me with the cutest expression I had ever seen in my life. "Please don't stoooop." He adorably said.

I smiled at him. "But I need to use my hand for my controller!" I exclaimed with a laugh. Eric, defeated, looked back down at his controller. I could just tell that he was sad now. "Damn it." I put my hand back in Eric's hair. "Guess I'm doing this one-handed."

I heard Michael chuckle at the scene before him. "You guys are adorable." He said.

"Thanks, I know, I'm so fabulous," I announced.

Michael waved his finger. "No no no, I mean, you two would make a really cute couple." He shipped.

My face briefly warmed up. "Whaaaa?" I looked over to Eric to see his head looking down at his hands so I couldn't see his face, but I was able to see his bright blue ears. He was blushing- a lot actually.

"I am no-not blushing! Computers can't blu-sh!!" Eric yelled as he threw his head in his hands.

"You are so blushing!" Michael teased. "HA! This little computer has a cruuushhhhh!"

I swat my hand at Michael. "Jeez, you're so annoying." I rolled my eyes. I then refocused my attention on Eric. I ran my fingers through his hair more now. "And please, he doesn't like me like that, the only way I could see him ever having such feelings is if he was being influenced by throwback or something..." I said, although my voice got quieter when I was nearing the end. Something about that statement made my heart pick up speed, plus I could feel that it could be wrong... I kinda want it to be wrong...

"Throwback?" Michael refocused. "Like, the Mountain Dew flavor?" He asked.

Eric snapped his neck towards Michael. "Don't get any ideas." He scolded.

Michael propped his feet up on the couch. "Too late~." He teased as he started the game.

"I hate you..." Eric mumbled.

"What'cha gonna do? Shock me?" I asked, sticking my tongue out.

Eric just grumbled at me.

~Another time Squip~

"HOW THE FUCK DID Y/N WIN?!" Michael yelled as he stood up and threw his controller on the couch.

"Good question," I said, sitting up to stretch. "And, according to what you said earlier, 'next game takes all', and I'm pretty sure that was the next game sooooo." I boasted.

Michael grumbled and walked upstairs. "I'm grabbing food!" He announced.

Eric turned around and rested his chin on my knee to face me. "Why, hello there, Eric." I chuckled with a smile. I repositioned my hand in his hair, I had been running my hands through it one way this entire time, but this time I started to make it go it totally different directions.

"Wait- wait wait- no no no-" Eric tried to fix his hair. "Stop, only make swoop to the right, not in every direction!" Eric whined.

I giggled and just continued to mess his hair up. After a couple of attempts to have me stop messing with his hair, Eric eventually just gave up and let it happen.

Michael finally walked down the stairs with sodas and an entire tub of ice cream with two spoons. Michael handed me a bottle of sprite, which I opened with ease. I took a small sip, it tasted a little different, but I just put it down and decided to drink more in a minute. It has been a while since I drank sprite.

I opened the ice cream tub and witnessed Michael practically shove his face in the bucket. I laughed at the scene and pushed Michael's face away from the bin. Michael and I then continued to eat the ice cream like normal people, although Eric kept staring at the tub.

"Eric? Do you want some?" I asked him, going in for another scoop of it.

Eric broke his state and looked at me. "Well... I mean... I've never eaten anything before, I'm not even sure what will happen if I do in my physical form." He said.

I shrugged and handed him an ice cream filled spoon. "Well, you're about to find out." I giggled.

Michael propped his feet back up on the couch. "That's actually really sad that he's never eaten anything." He admitted.

I shrugged. "He hasn't done a lot of things, he was only "born" about a month ago, sooooooo." I paused and did air quotes on the word born. We looked back over to Eric who just seemed to be staring at the ice cream on the spoon. "Oh for heaven's sake-" I pushed his hand slightly towards him. "Just eat it! It's not poison!" I laughed.

Eric shrugged and put the ice cream in his mouth. I swear, if this was an anime or cartoon, then his eye would have just become stars. He looked like he had seen the light and he never wanted to look back.

The spoon was still hanging from his mouth so I slowly took it out of his mouth for comedic purposes. I turned to Michael who appeared to be dying of laughter. "He looks like a little kid!" Michael laughed.

I smiled and put my hands on his cheeks. "He's so adorable!" I said to myself aloud.

Michael playfully kicked my back and laughed. "Yeah yeah, shut up and drink your sprite!" He threw the bottle at me.

I swatted my hand at him and continued to drink the sprite. Okay, no, this doesn't taste right. This is not sprite. I took the bottle from my lips and looked into it.

"Michael," I began, "Why is this white? What is this?" I asked him.

Michael smirked at me. "It's a little Mountain Dew flavor called 'Whiteout',"

Eric frantically stood up and frighteningly glared at Michael. "W-why white-o-o-out!?" He glitched as his face's blush just got deeper and deeper. "D-do you-u know wha-t effects t-that cau-ses for Squips?!" He yelled.

Michael shrugged. "No, I just called Rich and asked him on what flavor I should put in her drink."

"HOW DO YOU HAVE RICH'S NUMBER?!" I screeched.

"WHY IS THAT YOUR FIRST QUESTION?!"

"I DONT KNOW!!!" I threw my arms up. "I'm calling Rich!"

"And I'm going to go lock myself in a closet before the effects completely take over..." Eric stumbled away into the closet right next to the stairs.

I rang up Rich, and not to my surprise, he answered immediately. "Rich," I said through my teeth.

"Why, Hello there Y/n~, how's Eric doing?" He smugly answered.

No time for pleasantries. "What the fuck does Whiteout do to him?" I coldly asked. "Is he like, dangerous or something right now?" My toned switched to worry.

Rich let out an amused sigh. "No, Y/n, he's not going to go on any murder spree or anything." He reassured.

"Then what does it do?" I asked again. "Eric's locked himself in a closet right now, I'm worried," I informed him of the situation.

I heard Rich move. "Then you should go into that closet and check up on him," he suggested. "How much did you drink?" He asked.

I looked over. It was one of those median size bottles of sprite, and I drank about half of it. "Roughly, half of a bottle?"

"shit, I was hoping for her to drink a lot more than that..." Rich said under his breath. "Yeah, it's fine. You'll be fine, he'll be fine." He repeated.

I let out an aggravated huff. "Can you just tell me what it does?" I desperately asked.

I could just tell he was smirking. "But what's the fun in that?" He dramatically asked. "Just trust me, you'll be fine." He said, and like the little bitch he is, he hung up.

I grumbled at him and put my phone back in my pocket. I glared at Michael. "I still blame you for this," I said.

Michael looked like a little kid who just got busted by their mom. "Guess so." He then sat back down on the couch and just watched the scene unfold in front of him.

I hesitantly approached the closet and knocked. "Eric? You okay in there?" I asked. But I got no response. "Eric?" I asked again.

Silence.

Welp, guess I have to do this manually. I reached into my pocket and grabbed my wallet. I pulled out my debit card and slid it through the slit in between the door and the frame until I was able to push the doorknob's latch bolt back, which unlocked the door.

I stepped back from the now unlocked- but still closed- closet door. I slid my debit card back into my wallet, and back into my pants. I took a breath and turned the doorknob and opened the door.

But I was quickly pulled in, and the door was shut behind me.

Before I could even react, my back was pushed up against the dark closet's wall. One arm was on my cheek why the other was on my waist. The only thing I could see was Eric's lustful, glowing blue eyes.

My breathing got heavier, and before I could stop it from happening, Eric's lips attacked mine.

It felt wrong.

Eric's just a friend.

Just someone who doesn't have these kinds of feelings for me.

This is so wrong.

This feels so bad.

Like I just committed a crime.

But if that's the case...

Then why haven't I pushed him off me?

My eyes were still wide open as his were closed, enjoying the moment.

I put my arms on his shoulders to push him off.

But...

I couldn't help myself.

I let my arms draped around his neck as I closed my eyes and melted into his kiss, in fact, I deepened the kiss between us.

God, it felt like the world was crumbled away, that he and I were the only ones on the planet. This felt too right not to savor. But just as I was finally feeling pure bliss, Eric broke himself from the kiss and looked at me. The lust that I originally saw was gone. His eyes were bloodshot and staring in horror.

"I-I-I- um- I..." Eric's glowing blue blush grew frantically. Before he could say anything else he ran out of the closet.

I finally thought about what just happened.

Eric kissed- no, made out with me.

Well, now I know not to drink whiteout again...

I put my hand on my face, just to feel that it was practically on fire.

I kept taking in and letting our deep breaths. I didn't want to go back out there looking like a tomato. After about a minute or two, I finally composed myself and walked out of the closet.

"Promise you won't tell her...? I just feel like I just lost all my chances with her..." Eric said, although I couldn't hear that last part, he said it all too quietly for me to hear.

Michael nodded at him. "Yeah man, totally get it." He said, sounding sincere.

I closed the closet behind me, which made a noise. The two of them look in my direction, Eric looking absolutely mortified, and Michael feeling ashamed.

"I..." I glanced at the floor. "I think Eric and I will be taking our leave now..." I lightly stammered.

Michael coughed and Eric nervously straightened his tie. "Yeah, I guess so... I'll, uh, see ya tomorrow?" Michael asked.

I began walking up the stairs with Eric trailing behind me. "Yeah, one hundred percent." I hesitantly smiled. "Bye."

"Bye..."

I walked out of Michael's front door and began to walk home.

Okay, wow, he and I had the most uncomfortable/awkward silence, in the history of silences.

Wait- "HOLY SHIT! I JUST CHEATED ON JAKE DIDN'T I?!" I mentally cursed at myself.

That just made Eric feel even worse. Eric really wanted to bury himself in a pit and just die. "I'm sorry, I messed things up so badly..." Eric groaned as he threw his head into his hands.

I turn to Eric and frantically waved my hands at him. "What! No! Of course not! You were only doing that due to the effects of the whiteout!" I touched his arm to calm him down, but that just made him blush more and tense up. "You are not at fault here," I reassured him.

"I just..." Eric looked at me. "You're such a great person to be around, and the best hostess that I could have ever asked for," he paused and fidgeted with the lining of his dress shirt. "I just don't want to mess up the friendship that you and I have just because of that stupid kiss." He explained.

My mouth opened to speak, but I stopped myself to smile at him first. "I feel the same way," I glanced away to lightly chuckle. I didn't even notice it, but he and I were already back at my house.

Eric tapped my shoulder and I looked back at him. His smile finally came back, I really love his smile, it makes me feel like I'm worth it. "I- uh- thank you," he blushed deeper. "Well um, I just want to say that your parents went out tonight to go have dinner with each other and they won't be back 'till around 10 pm, so..." Eric stepped up to the porch and opened the door. "Wanna watch movies and or TV shows?" He asked.

I grinned at him, ran through the open door and launched myself headfirst into the couch.

Eric laughed at my reaction and sat down next to me. "I'll take that as a yes." The two of us got comfortable on the couch and Eric then started a show called Good Omens. Looks interesting.

~Time Squip~

We were about 3 episodes in before I actually thought about the outside world to realize something;

Eric and I were cuddling on the couch.

I was leaning on his stomach as one of his arms was wrapped around my waist as the other was playing with my hair.

The thought of his physical contact created my face to heat up, and even I could tell that my heartbeat picked up.

But why the sudden change? He does this all the time, but why is now different? Was it the kiss that ruined everything?

Well, actually, ruined isn't a good way to put it, more of, changed, because I've definitely never gotten this flustered over him so easily in the past before. Sure, I blushed whenever he was acting really cute or whenever he playfully or jokingly kissed my cheeks, but this is different.

His touch had almost become desirable in some way.

I feel like the kiss he brought me into just caught me off guard... Do I want to do it again...?

Of course not.

It's not like he would even agree to it. He was just under the influence of the whiteout, he didn't have such feelings for me.

I don't want to kiss him.

Right?

Eric's movements slowed down as he then rested his hand on my neck. Eric then pulled me in and hugged me. He rested his head on mine and courageously spoke up. "Y/n, I can still hear your thoughts." He nervously said. My face warmed up even more, which I didn't even know was possible at this point. "If you really regret that moment so much, then I can leave right now and-"

"No," I cut him off. "Don't leave... I hate it when you leave."

He was going to say something, but he paused beforehand to smile at me. "Y/n," he glitched in front of me and took my face into his hands. I first expected him to kiss me, but he didn't. He held me close to his chest. Holding my as if I would vanish if let go of.

The realization of how Eric has cared, and protected, and just been there for me makes my heart flutter.

This is Eric.

This is the man who I began to fall in love with.

"If you don't want me to leave," He said, putting his forehead on mine. "Then I'll stay by your side... Forever."

I smiled, and quickly wiped the tear that had escaped my eyes.

Eric.

Thank you.

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Word Count: 3051

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