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1.
High school still feels strange for Jasper.
He's been in high school for over a year already, but he hasn't made any new friends, and he always falls behind on most of his classes.
It's kind of concerning, really, but he doesn't think too much about it, especially because he knows he isn't alone on that boat.
"Chemistry is so stupid," Henry says grudgingly one day at lunch.
Jasper snickers. He can relate to the animosity.
Charlotte only rolls her eyes. "I don't think any science can be stupid."
"You say that because you like it," Jace replies, "smarty-pants," he continues as he chews down his pizza rolls.
"Don't judge me," Charlotte raises one eyebrow. "You're the one who's too worked up about football try-out."
Jasper frowns and turns his head to Henry. "Oh yeah, what happened to that?"
Henry blushes. "It seems like I'm not so bad at it, considering I made the team."
A grin shows up from Jasper's face.
"Dude," Jasper lets out, "congratulations, man, you totally deserve it," he finishes sincerely.
He remembers how worked up Henry was on the week leading up to the try out.
Henry insisted he'd only done it as per his mother's request, but Jasper knew that it was a big deal for Henry too.
"Thanks," Henry replies casually, "I'm still on the JV team, but Coach Manchester said I have a chance to play on the varsity team this year if I perform well."
"I'm sure you will, man." Jasper pats his best friend on the back, while Charlotte expresses the same believe.
"Wow, all of my best friends are jocks now," Jasper realizes and sighs dramatically, "Charlotte with her cheerleading squad and Henry with the football team, when did I become the loser of this trio?"
Henry and Charlotte roll their eyes in sync.
"You're always the loser among us," Charlotte states, earning a boisterous laugh from Jasper.
He can't bring himself to feel offended since there's something fond in her tone.
It's almost non-existent, but it's there.
Henry smirks and steals some of Jasper's fries. "You have other qualities," he says, "questionable qualities."
"I most definitely do!" Jasper exclaims excitedly, and they all end up in giggles.
"Henry," Jasper slaps the back of his hand on his best friend's arm, "would you let me wear your varsity jacket to your games?"
He says it jokingly and with a laugh, but deep down, he feels like he's hoping that his best friend would really let that happen.
And when silence ensues, Jasper sees that Henry seems kind of taken aback and unsure, so Jasper tries to lighten up the mood.
"It's like in the movies!" He says with a cheery grin.
"If it's like in the movies," Henry starts nervously, "shouldn't I give my jacket to Charlotte?"
Jasper blinks and his smile drops a little.
"Ew, gross," Charlotte exclaims, but Jasper isn't paying close attention, even when Henry chuckles in response.
Of course.
Of course Henry would give his varsity jacket to Charlotte.
She's smart, kind, and on the cheerleader team.
Jasper should be happy that he can be friends with a person as fantastic as Charlotte.
But it's hard to feel happy when his stomach twists and his chest feels tight.
2.
"Henry!"
Jasper shouts as he shoulders through a stream of students and catches up with his best friend.
"Dude," Jasper repeats, "can you, like, slow down for a second," he says in between breaths, "I gotta talk to you about something."
Henry turns around, grabs Jasper's upper arm, and steers him to a less crowded hallway. "What do you want, Jasper? I've got football practice in five."
Jasper leans on the wall behind him and tries to steady his breaths. "I got you a present."
Henry looks amused. "For what?"
"Not for anything, I just want to give you a gift."
Henry tilts his head in confusion.
"The other day, I was at the mall," Jasper begins, "I saw this bubble gum with a picture on it that reminds me of you."
Jasper rummages through his backpack, tongue sticking out, and grins when he finds what he's searching for.
"Look at this," he says and shows the package to the blond boy.
"It's a... pizza?" Henry asks, unsure.
"Yeah," Jasper nods, "but it's a grape flavored gum."
Henry only looks at Jasper, waiting for an explanation. It doesn't seem like it's coming, so he shakes his head. "So what, dude?"
"It's ironic!" Jasper finally says. "It's a gum, but it has pizza on the cover. And it's not even a pizza flavored gum!"
Henry's silent for a while, his mouth hanging open, trying and failing to understand how logic works for his best friend.
"By the way," Jasper continues as he looks around his surrounding, "why are we in the shady part of the school?"
Jasper comes to realize that they were in the hallway that connects to the back of the school. Most students never even set foot there, since it's too close to the main dumpster, which smells pretty bad.
"Jasper." Henry snatches the gum from Jasper's hand, and Jasper's eyes are focused back on Henry. "Did you just stop me on my way to practice to give me a stupid gum?"
Jasper squints. "It's not stupid, you jerkwad. If you don't like it, you don't have to be rude." He puts out his hand to take the gum back. "Just give it back to me."
Henry sighs, "I'm sorry," before pulling the gum out of Jasper's reach. "I'm just super stressed out right now, and I'm already late to practice."
"I know," Jasper grins, "which is why I'm giving you that gum to cheer you up!"
Henry looks at the brightly-colored gum package in his hand. "I don't get it, what about this reminds you of me?"
"Well," Jasper drags out, "you love pizza, and you always call grapes 'fruit grapes', which is very weird, you know?"
Henry pushes Jasper lightly. "Shut up, you're weird."
Jasper smiles big and then they both burst into giggles.
"I think it's cute that you call it that," Jasper whispers, hands flailing lamely beside him before going into his jeans pockets, "Just like you're very cute, too, face-wise."
As soon as the words come out, Jasper's heart skips a beat and then beats two times faster than it should have.
The hallway's almost deserted and quiet, so he has a feeling that Henry has heard this random burst of embarrassing bravery, but the blond keeps playing nonchalant.
"Right," Henry says stilted, "I gotta get to practice now, or Coach Manchester will definitely kill me."
Henry punches Jasper's shoulder playfully. "See you around, man."
Jasper nods and hopes to every deity that his internal scream would make the ground open and swallow him whole.
3.
When Jasper finds out they're going to have group project instead of written test for Chemistry finals, he's ecstatic.
When he finds out the teacher is assigning the group, his spirit dies down.
Ms. Shapen usually assigns the group based on where they seat.
Today, (and almost every class, now that he realizes), Henry is sitting with his football buddies on the back of the class, so there's a small chance they're going to be partnered up.
"Mr. Hart," Ms. Shapen calls out, "would you like to come to the front and team up with Mr. Dunlop for the project?"
Jasper's face brightens up and he turns around to Henry, thanking his luck for this absolutely rare moment that Ms. Shapen voluntarily assigns him and Henry together.
"Actually, Ms. Shapen," Henry raises his hand, "I'm good with Bilsky back here, if that's okay."
Henry proceeds to give Bilsky a high-five and they, along with the other football crews, snigger on the back of the class.
Jasper frowns and tries to catch Henry's eyes in the process. The blond refuses to meet his eyes, though, so he's stuck with Oliver as a partner.
Well, stuck is an unfair word, seeing that Oliver is doing a much better job than Jasper on the class. It's probably the best for his grade, working on the project with Oliver.
"The mainstream medias are right," Oliver speaks in the middle of their reading, "football players in high school are all assholes."
Jasper stares at him. "Well, Henry is on the team and he is definitely not an asshole."
Oliver seems skeptical. "You're on his side?"
"Of course I am. I'm his best friend."
"You are? I thought you'd stopped hanging out with him."
Jasper puts down his papers and pencil. "What makes you think that?"
"For starters, you're not joined by the hips anymore." Oliver shrugs. "You don't walk to class together, you don't sit at the same lunch table, and I definitely haven't seen you two talk to each other after he joined the football team."
"That's insane," Jasper says incredulously, "we talk all the time and play video games after school almost, like, everyday at my house."
They don't walk to class or have lunch together anymore because Henry requested him not to. He is trying to get cozy around the team, spend more time with them, so that he can be seen and accepted as one of them.
Jasper doesn't mind, he wants his best friend to be respected on the team, then have a future there.
"Do you talk at school?" Oliver asks not unkindly, his tone is just dripping with curiosity. "Cos I never see that, and it's a small school, Jasper. You two go from being all over our faces to separating on your own way. Everybody notices, I'm sure."
Jasper only gives Oliver an appraising looks and doesn't respond.
They continue reading their papers but Jasper's mind is engrossed in a completely different matter.
He starts to realize how he and Henry only talk in almost empty hallways, or far in the school corners nobody usually reaches.
He tries to keep his thoughts positive, not get dragged by the tides of possibilities, so by the time the class lets out, he jogs up to Henry, is maneuvered into an empty corner, and gives a go on bringing up the subject.
"Oliver said something odd in the class."
Henry leans into the locker beside him. "Doesn't he always do that?"
"He does," Jasper answers, "but I gotta ask, why did you turn down the offer to work with me?"
Henry scratches the back of his ear.
"I see Bilsky all the time now, I think it's easier to work with him if I want to get the project done quickly," is the only thing Henry comes up with.
It's a shaky reason full of plot holes. Jasper knows it, and Henry knows it, but Jasper doesn't push. He knows something's up, and Henry will eventually tell him.
"But, you still choose me over Bilsky any time, right?" Jasper wiggles his eyebrows.
The blond chuckles. "That's a strangely possessive question," he replies, "but yes, I'll choose you over him, obviously."
Jasper grins weakly and tries to be satisfied with the answer.
4.
Jasper moves his thumbs quickly, pressing a combination of buttons that he thinks is going to make his character on the screen shoot better.
It's proven to be useless, though, when Henry's character on the game apparently gets cooler tricks, and he slices Jasper's character in two seconds before the game over sound pops up.
Jasper turns his head disbelievingly as Henry howls in victory.
"You must've put some cheat codes!" Jasper pushes Henry down on the living room couch.
Henry acts innocent. "I did not! I read the tutorials, unlike some people who skipped through it when I specifically told him not to."
Jasper shakes his head defeatedly. "Alright, then. I demand a rematch."
"Dude," Henry cackles, "it's like two minutes to midnight, we still got school tomorrow."
"Yeah, but tomorrow is Friday," Jasper points out, "we can chill."
"Actually," Henry stands up and starts walking to the kitchen, probably to take some drink, "I got a Calculus test tomorrow and I haven't studied shit."
Jasper doesn't follow him. Instead, he slumps down on the sofa and closed his eyes, feeling a bit deflated.
"Okay, be careful on your way home, man," he says eyes still closed, not bothering to let Henry out.
Henry has the key to his house and his bedroom, so he can see himself in and out whenever he wants.
Ever since they were in high school, they started to hang out at Jasper's place more often than they did at Henry's house.
It's cool, because Jasper's parents are almost never home.
Now that he's older, his parents don't seem to care enough to see him in person anymore. They just leave a string of e-mails/text messages consisting the do's and dont's that sometimes Jasper ignores.
He spends his time home alone most of the time, or with Charlotte or Henry when they have some time kill.
Henry usually comes over to stay the night or just play video games until it's super late. They try out new games or watch new movies while catching up with each other.
Jasper cherishes that moment, when he and Henry can talk about what's going on in their life. They rarely get to talk outside of his house, now, what with Henry's football schedule and his other activities.
It doesn't seem to be enough, for Jasper, the time he gets to spend with Henry. He always feels the needs to spend all of his time with Henry, like they used to do.
He wants to join him at lunch, wants to sit beside him at class, and he wants to go to places with him on the weekends. He wants to visit the museum, go to the mall, or even walk through the river in the park. He wants to do everything with Henry.
It's pathetic, Jasper realizes, how much he clings to the little time he gets with Henry. Every time Henry goes away after their hang out, Jasper feels a now-familiar, yet still strange, emptiness inside his body.
But suddenly, he feels a hot breath on his right ear and hears a soft whisper, "Happy birthday, Jasper."
Jasper jumps a little and opens his eyes, only to be greeted by the wide and beautiful smile of Henry's.
Jasper turns his body around and sees that Henry is holding a small bucket-shaped cake that has a 'Happy Birthday, J-Train!' written on it.
Jasper's mouth hangs open in glee as his eyes fleet to his best friend's. "Henry! You remembered!"
The blond only grins and push the cake in front of his face. "Come on, dude, blow the candles, or do you want me to sing you a song first?"
Jasper put on his best puppy-eyes. "Would you, please?"
Henry laughs happily, a sound that makes Jasper's heart soars even more that it already does, his whole body is tingling with happiness.
"Don't even try to deceive me with your innocent face!" Henry points his finger. "You blow these and make a wish, now."
Jasper sticks his tongue out. "Alright, I wish for Henry Hart to be less douchy and be kinder to his best friend," he says sarcastically.
Henry gasps scandalously. "Don't tell me your wish or it won't come through!"
Jasper chuckles and shakes his head in response. He then closes his eyes and blows the candles before Henry yells a happy birthday to him again.
"Try the cake," Henry urges, "I learned to make this from Youtube, so I have no idea how it tastes. I really hope it tastes great," he finishes and hands a plastic knife to Jasper.
Jasper gulps. "You made this for me?"
Henry nods.
Jasper slowly starts to take the plastic knife out of Henry's grip while trying to calm his rapid heartbeats.
The thought of Henry, baking and decorating a cake, his birthday cake, makes Jasper's stomach flops around with jitters.
It's ridiculous.
Jasper slices the cake into two small pieces and feeds Henry a bite before eating one slice himself.
It doesn't taste perfect, like if it's made from a bakery store, but it's sweet and fluffy, so it's enough for Jasper's liking.
"What the hell, dude," Jasper says while licking his lips, "this tastes awesome!"
Henry waves a hand. "It tastes okay."
"No, it's great, you're a fantastic baker."
"Well, I'm glad you liked it," Henry ruffles Jasper's curls but Jasper notices the pink shade forming on Henry's cheeks.
"Thank you, Henry," Jasper says in a low voice, "you're the best friend anyone could ever ask, and I'm grateful to have you."
"Oh, no," Henry groans lightly, "please don't get all sentimental on me, dude."
"I'm serious," Jasper insists.
"Okay, I really do have a test tomorrow though," Henry states while placing the cake on the table, "meet me at Le Bernardin tonight at 8pm for your birthday dinner."
Le Bernardin? "It's a fancy restaurant!" Jasper exclaims.
"It is." Henry shoots finger-guns at him. "So you better show up with something fancy for our reservation."
He then collects his things and bids a dazed Jasper goodbye before leaving the house.
Needless to say, Jasper has little to no sleep that night. All day at school, he mentally deliberates every little detail for their dinner.
He thinks about what to wear, what to order, what to say, and even thinks about who's going to pay.
(If it's a date, Henry should pay since he's the one who asked Jasper out. But it isn't a date, it's Jasper's birthday, so he needs to treat Henry, right?)
(He puts a little extra money on his wallet just in case.)
When 8pm comes around, Jasper asks the nice waiter for a table reserved for them and takes a seat when the table's ready.
Henry seems to run a little bit late, since Jasper can't find him anywhere, and he tells the waiter to bring him water for now, as he is still waiting for a friend.
He fidgets in his seat and scrutinizes the entrance door, willing Henry to go through it with his mind.
His nerves seem to calm down after thirty minutes of waiting, but it's then replaced with dread.
Dread that Henry's going to stand him up.
And it looks like he is, since it's one hour after the time he asked Jasper to show up, and Jasper's whole body is now thrumming with resent, and defeat.
Mostly defeat, though.
He's tried calling Henry but to no avail. So he takes a picture of the three empty glasses of water he's ordered and Snapchats it to Henry with a caption:
'Usually dinner dates involve two people :('
When Henry doesn't reply to that either, he becomes worried that something's happened to Henry on the way, but quickly stops his train of thought before it goes into a darker place.
He scrolls through his Instagram feed to kill some more time, and then he notices.
He notices Henry's new Instagram story that he updated not even half an hour ago.
It's a video of Bilsky and the rest of the football gang playing a game of beer pong. The video has loud music and loud chatters in the background, and Jasper realizes that it's a party.
Henry's at a party with the football team.
As soon as that becomes clear to him, it hits him, how he's been foolishly waiting for over an hour, when clearly Henry isn't ever going to show up.
He quickly replies to Charlotte's birthday message and invites her over to his house instead.
5.
It feels peculiar not being around Henry all the time, Jasper considers.
The next time they met after the forgotten-dinner-reservation incident, Henry apologized, saying that he was coaxed into some party the football guys threw last minute.
But it was weeks ago.
Since then, their conversations are always awkward and Henry even stops coming for their nightly quality time of endless gaming.
They text, yet it feels like a burden to think about everything before he sends or replies a text message.
Jasper's worried he's going to send the wrong thing and it will piss Henry off, then they'll end up not talking at all.
Which really shouldn't be his problem, since Henry was the one that started acting weird and bailing on their sessions.
So, when the school holds a 'Community Appreciation Day', Jasper tries a shot at making things right.
They're supposed to deliver a message to everybody in their life and say the nice quality they find on the recipient.
Jasper makes a red and white card for Charlotte saying 'You show me that you can both be a red and white rose at the same time', and throws a handful of glitters on the card to add some dramatic effects.
He cuts a lightbulb-shaped card for Henry and writes a colorful 'You light up my world like nobody else' on one side and sprinkles gold glitters around it.
It's super cheesy, but he laminates the card anyway and ties a ribbon through a hole he makes on top of the paper.
He bumps into Henry at his locker, just as the blond is putting out some books, and he knocks on the locker beside Henry's.
"Happy Community Appreciation Day!" Jasper opens the conversation.
Henry turns his head and closed his locker with a clang. "Hey, dude, you too!"
"Read this," Jasper says, grinning, before giving Henry the card.
As Henry's examining the card, Bianca, the co-captain of their school's cheerleading team, comes up to them bringing a neon-pink heart-shaped balloon.
It says 'My heart belongs to you.'
Jasper snickers. "Really, Bianca? It's not Valentine's Day."
Bianca's lips form a devilish smirk. "I can't help it, that's how I feel about Henry."
Hearing his name, Henry looks up from Jasper's card and shakes his head disbelievingly. "Me?"
Bianca nods and hands over the balloon to Henry, who takes it with a gleeful smile that makes Jasper feels sick.
"We're the two most popular kids on school, I thought it'd be fitting if we go out." She continues, "we're gonna make such a powerful couple, don't you think?"
After expressing his agreement and gratitude, Henry raises the hand that's holding Jasper's card, as if going to tell Jasper something, but Bianca beats him to it.
"Jasper, did you make this?" Bianca squints and grabs Henry's hand to look closely at the card.
"Seriously?" She raises an eyebrow. "I can't believe you're giving Henry a card with this quote. It's... tacky."
"Well it's not for Henry!" Jasper seethes and snags the card away from Henry, who looks at him with baffled expression.
"It's-" Jasper stutters out, "it's for Oliver. I was merely asking Henry his opinion."
"Oliver?" Henry asks, voice surprisingly loud.
"Yeah," Jasper says casually, or at least tries to, "he's been very good to me lately, and I want to appreciate him."
Bianca coos and gives Jasper a condescending look. "Aw, so you're dating him now?"
Jasper squeezes the straps of his backpack furiously.
"It's none of your business," he says before walking away to the school's front door without looking back.
+1.
Jasper's putting a leftover pizza on the microwave when he hears the doorbell rings.
He goes to open it, and is highly surprised to see a wired Henry on the porch.
"Hey, dude," the blond greets with a wave.
Jasper stares at the way Henry's feet tapping the ceramic ground. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
"Why didn't you use your key?" Jasper wonders.
"It's been a while since I'm here," Henry starts, "I- I feel like I need your permission first."
"That's stupid. You're always welcome here." Jasper rolls his eyes and motions Henry to come inside. "Though I'm not sure why you came."
After closing the door behind him, Jasper and Henry go to the kitchen where Jasper has been preparing his early dinner.
"I've been thinking a lot," Henry utters, "about last week."
Jasper gives him a confused look as he pulls out an orange-juice box from the refrigerator.
"You know, about what happened on the Community Appreciation Day?" Jace reaffirms.
"Right," Jasper says then pours and offers a glass of orange juice to Henry, "what about it? I try not to dwell on the past very often."
He lies. He thinks about that day every night. He thinks about any other day he's fought with Henry. Last week wasn't a fight, per se, but it sure feels like it.
They haven't talked to each other since then, and Jasper only saw Henry when he's passing by in the school hallways.
Sometimes their eyes locked, but sometimes it felt like Henry's avoiding him. Jasper isn't much of a confrontational person, so he's glad Henry comes to his doorstep.
He just wants to stop feeling like he's walking on eggshells every time Henry talks to him.
"Are you crushing on Oliver?" Henry suddenly bursts out, and Jasper freezes.
He then slowly puts his glass down on the kitchen counter.
"No!" Jasper denies with a shaky laugh. "Bianca was being a bitch, and I didn't want to dignify her with and answer."
Henry lets out a relieved breath. "That's good."
Jasper has to raise an eyebrow at that.
"Not- not that that's not fine," Henry stutters out, "you can date whoever you want, man," he rambles on, "if you want to get freaky with that dude, I..., it's really your choice, I support you!"
"Okay, thanks." Jasper chuckles before adding, "besides, I'm fairly sure my type is blonds," with a hushed tone.
"Oh," Henry says back with a whisper, eyes looking anywhere but Jasper's, "it's- I miss hanging out with you, man."
Jasper flatten his eyes, unimpressed. "Then why haven't you?"
"What?"
"I may be slow, but I'm not stupid, Henry." Jasper crosses his arm. "You don't think I'd notice, how you only talk to me when nobody at school is around. Or when you seem to forget I even exist whenever we're with other people beside Charlotte."
"Jasper," Henry cuts in, "I can-"
"It's like, you completely disregard me." Jasper feels his anger rises so out of the blue. "You never invite me to your parties, and heck, you never even invite me to your games!"
"I wanted to-" Henry says before Jasper continues, his blood boiling.
"People don't think we're even friends, Henry, that's how rare you talk to me in public."
Henry starts to open his mouth to give a proper answer, but Jasper doesn't want to let him. Jasper needs to get this all out of his chest.
"I remember one time I tried to approach you at the lunch table, when you were with Bilsky and his friends." Jasper speaks, "And what did you do then? You ignored me, man, and it was embarrassing."
The blond takes a deep breath.
"I get it," Jasper says when Henry doesn't respond with anything, "I'm not good enough to be a jock, and I'm not as cool as the rest of your team. But I didn't know I wasn't cool enough to even be your friend."
"Well, you're not!" Henry shouts, forcing Jasper to close his mouth. "You're not cool and you're a nerd. You're weird and nobody on the team likes you. They make fun of you because you have a podcast about fucking buckets. Do you think anyone would think you're a great company?"
Just then, the microwave beeps and they both jump at the sound.
Jasper turns to switch it off and pulls his pizza out.
"Thanks, Henry," he says as he slams the microwave door close, "nice of you to finally share what you really think of me."
Jasper swallows, as his throat is closing up. The way he's feeling right now is indescribable. It's like someone throws stones at his chest repeatedly, bruising and ruining the flesh and what's underneath it.
"You can show yourself out," Jasper adds, a quiver in his tone, and begins to saunter off to his room upstairs.
When he hears a desperate, "Jasper," he quickens his pace.
Apparently, Henry follows him to his room, and grabs him by the arm. "Just hear me out, okay, buddy?"
Jasper laughs manically. "I think you've made yourself pretty clear, buddy."
"But I wasn't finished, so please, just stop with the flipping out?" Henry says as he puts both of his hands on Jasper's shoulders. Jasper stays silent.
"Yes, you are weird, but you're my kind of weird," Henry continues seriously. His eyes bore into Jasper's intensely and Jasper is captivated with how beautiful Henry's brown eyes are.
"You're my best friend and I fucking despise hearing what they have to say about you. I didn't want to quit football, because I enjoy it too much, so I tried to get you away as far as possible from them. I thought, that way they'd stop talking and you won't have to hear the awful things they say about you. I wanted to protect you, you see?"
Jasper's eyes still harden. "I can take care of myself."
"I know you can." Henry nods. "But honestly, I can't. I have no idea what I'm gonna do if I keep hearing them talking shit about you. I'm not perfect, Jasper, I want to punch them in the face, like all the time, but then I'd get kicked off from the team."
"I'm sorry," Jasper starts.
"No." Henry shakes his head. "I'm the one who should be sorry for treating you like an embarrassment. I'm not, or never have been, ashamed of you as my friend. In fact, when I realize they're not going to stop, I was going to have lunch with you last week."
"On the Community Appreciation Day?"
"Exactly," Henry answers before one of his thumbs caresses Jasper's cheek, "and when you gave me that card thingy, I was really happy and was ready to take you to lunch, but you kinda went berserk, so I thought you hated me."
"Well you were cuddled up with Bianca, so I merely gave you the time to accept her proposal of going out."
Henry chuckles. "I'm definitely not attracted to her."
This earns a raised eyebrow from Jasper.
"I swear." Henry smiles. "I have my eyes set for someone else."
Jasper's face falls.
It's such a predictable thing: Henry having a crush on some other girl. No matter how he longs it to be, Jasper won’t ever be more than Henry’s best friend.
He feels numb thinking about it. It’s just Jasper’s luck to spend the rest of his life pining away after his best friend.
"Cool," Jasper says bitterly, "hope you have a great time with this girl. Just tell me, is it Charlotte?"
"Why do you look so jealous?" Henry smirks. "It's not Charlotte."
"I'm not jealous," Jasper says after walking away from Henry's loose grip on his shoulder, "I just don't want to be a third wheel."
"Okay, then. Don't you wanna know who, though?" Henry asks.
"I actually don't care either way," Jasper lies.
"Well," Henry starts, "he's cute, he's got soft curly hair, and he's like, yay high," he continues as he taps on Jasper's head.
"And he's got great taste in movies," Henry finishes.
Jasper's eyes widen as realization hits him. He slaps Henry's arm. "Are you messing with me?"
"No," Henry cries out with a smile and puts up his hands surrendering, "I- I like you, dumbass, have been for a while," he finishes and scratches the back of his neck.
"I'm the dumbass?" Jasper points at himself. "Why are you just telling me this now? I've been saying some flirtatious stuffs to you since forever!"
"I needed to make sure you're really gay for me and not just saying it!" Henry’s cheeks turns pink.
"Gay-" Jasper splutters and laughs loudly, "gay for you?! Asshole, I literally said you were pretty to your face."
"Well, I know what it means now, especially after seeing how jealous you got last week or even just few minutes ago."
"Right." Jasper rolls his eyes, cheeks hot from embarrassment and excitement. "I wasn't jealous."
"Yes you were." Henry winks.
"Shut up. I'm just mourning how futile my pickup lines are for you. You haven't even flirted back!"
Henry gasps. "Yes, I have!"
"When did you ever flirt back?"
"I said you're my kinda weird just minutes ago." Henry grins and Jasper watches him with blank stares for a while.
"That is so lame, dude" Jasper finally sighs. "It's a good thing you're kinda hot."
Henry laughs and then steps closer to Jasper. They're both laughing and moving until Jasper's back hits the wall.
Henry pins his hands beside Jasper's head and presses their body close together, creating a comfortable warmth all over their body. And when Jasper feels Henry's hot breath on his face, his knees buckle.
"To make it completely clear that I'm gay for you, I really want to kiss you right now," Jasper whispers, lips inches away from Henry's.
"Well, to make it completely clear that I'm gay for you, you probably should do that," Henry replies with a low chuckle.
So, Jasper does.