call back in the morning, will you?

michael with npd is sooo important to me, its such a demonized disorder so im glad people arent shy to express that headcanon. ive always seen jeremy as his ep/equal person who he slowly falls out of having that relationship with as the story progresses. he doesnt see him as “above” their peers based on high school popularity, but instead the exact opposite - michael thinks they’re both above everyone because they aren’t going to peak in high school, they have better priorities and they’re going to lead better lives once they get to be “cool in college”. once jeremy starts prioritizing popularity over their sort of vow of patience, then michael starts lowering the pedestal jeremy is on and being less receptive to his desires to be cool (“so you haven’t been ignoring me all day?”). also once he no longer has an equal person post-bathroom scene it kind of just destroys him. he doesn’t have anyone he wants to talk to. everyone else is shallow and dumb and POPULAR and won’t ever GET him like jeremy did. (big reason why i hate when people say michael being suicidal in mitb is unrealistic or stupid. because like maybe you haven’t considered that he was already mentally ill way before this and just didnt show symptoms because he was doing okay with jeremy being there.) i think boyf riends dont ever return to the ep/fp dynamic (random bpd jeremy mention i love bpd jeremy) but eventually become something mutually healthier post-squip after theyre both kinda weird with each other for a bit because jeremy is afraid of michaels rejection and michael is afraid of jeremy never meeting his expectations again (+ mad at him a little).

bonus expensive headphones note: the way i plan to play npd michael is probably going to involve being REALLY awkward with rich during act 2 scene 8 and voices in my head. first of all the concept of people liking him romantically is foreign to him as a gay trans (<- personal hc) kid who attends high school in bumfuck nowhere new jersey, but also he’s always seen rich as one of those inferior peaks-in-hs popular kids and now suddenly he just. isnt. and the whole thing is weird and strange and weird to michael. kid who used to be an obstacle to his grandiose self-perception now thinks he’s cool and awesome and it’s everything he wants but it’s not enough because it’s still rich goranski and he really can’t gauge how he’s supposed to weigh that guy’s opinion yet.