Just Friends

1

୪𝚃𝚎𝚜𝚜୪

I get to Jasper's place right on time. He told me he'd be ready to go to the restaurant by five.

It's his birthday today, and I've been planning this dinner for, like, two weeks. It's not like it'll be this huge party or anything, there was just a lot of coordinating with his and our shared friends. It was surprisingly difficult, actually.

I assumed getting the people who aren't my friends but were his would be tricky, of course. I didn't really have all of their numbers or social media and I haven't yet met all of them. There are three that I've never met before.

Jasper and I have been friends since we were just little kids. Our moms were in the same Mommy and Me classes and we happened to just live a couple of houses down from each other growing up.

We've been friends our whole lives, but there's a small gray area in high school. That was the year we were both going through changes, and we just drifted apart for a couple of years back there. Now, obviously, we've reconnected and learned about each other all over again. It's almost the way it was back then.

Only now, my feelings about him have changed.

Back in high school, I didn't quite notice the change in our friendship until it was a little too late and he was already too far away from me. I mean, we shared a class, but he was still far away. By the time we reconnected, I realized a few things about myself.

I never saw him in a romantic light at all before. But then, all of a sudden, him sitting next to me made me feel all jittery. It took me months to realize I had a crush on the guy. At first, I thought I just had messed up blood pressure or something.

It took me a little bit more time to work up the courage to ask him out after discovering my feelings. Unfortunately, I wasted too much time. The night I was ready to tell him, he spoke first.

He was grinning like a mad man as he told me about this woman he'd met at the coffee shop we always go to. My heart sank while his soared, overjoyed by his date that he'd get to have that same week.

That was six months ago. I waited two years before I felt confident enough to ask him out, and I didn't even do it.

Since then, I've met his girlfriend, Tara. She isn't even a terrible person. I can't hate her. She's a literal fucking angel. She respects the friendship I have with Jasper, and I respect her relationship with him. As it should be.

With a deep breath, I knock on his door before tossing it open. He usually leaves it unlocked no matter how many times I warn him about it.

"Jasper!" I call out to him, throwing the door closed behind me. "Hey, you ready yet?" I ask, freely walking to the kitchen for a bottle of water.

"In a sec!" Jasper calls back to me. I hum in acknowledgement, busy raiding his fridge for something more than water.

"Hurry up." I urge on a playful groan. He's got time.

Jasper laughs from whatever room he's in. Probably his own. "I'm trying!" He insists. He always moves a little slower when being rushed, just for the hell of it. "And you better not be getting into my cheese sticks, Tess!"

I freeze, in the middle of peeling off a strip of cheese. Then scoff at him. "I'm just getting water!" I claim. I haven't even looked for the water yet. I saw cheese and just forgot about it.

Jasper's still laughing, totally unbothered by the fact that I'm for sure stealing his cheese. His laughter starts getting louder as he comes down the hall and towards the kitchen. I'm left to stand in the middle of it with a strip of cheese in my mouth, caught red handed.