ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ｔｗｅｎｔｙ－ｏｎｅ

"Mikey," Jasper whined into the phone, jutting his lip out for extra measures. When his best friend didn't budge on the decision to help him move his stuff back to his home, Jasper acted like he was mad and threatened to hang up the FaceTime.

Mikey was at work, working the Friday he was supposed to have off, and stared at his best friend through his phone. He was currently organizing the files his manager wanted alphabetized, and he found himself FaceTiming Jasper a couple minutes into it. He set his phone up against the filing cabinet next to him and started working on the files.

He listened to Jasper complain about all the moving he had to do, but he reminded his best friend he was at work and couldn't help him. Mikey offered up Aiden's help and it resulted in the college student raising his eyebrows.

"You right," he sung, pointing his finger at the phone. "Imma ask him right now."

Mikey offhandedly said, "maybe he'll bring his boyfriend, who knows." He didn't know if him and Cadence were dating, but with how much the other boy was around Mikey wouldn't put it past them to be.

Jasper came back onto the call and leaned his face close to the screen to shriek, "him and the other boy are dating? Aiden'll be useless if his boyfriend is over!"

Mikey shrugged and fondly stared at his best friend who was mumbling to himself, occasionally moving around the room to what Mikey assumed to be moving boxes and packing them.

Out of no where Jasper told Mikey, "Aiden said he'd help, I just have to pick him up. They're off school right now, right? It's after three, so yeah." He answered his own question and Mikey watched as Jasper put on his jacket and yelled to his roommates where he was going. Then the angle of the phone was turned to Jasper's chin while he looked forward, jingling his keys.

Mikey went back to organizing the files and when he heard his brother's voice he looked up and stuck his middle finger to the screen. He said, "give me to Aiden, Jasper," and he laughed when Aiden narrowed his eyes.

Off screen Mikey heard Jasper his brother, "so are you and that Cade boy dating?"

Mikey saw the faint blush, but did say anything while he decline and corrected Jasper on his friend's name. They argued throughout the whole car ride and as Mikey reached the end of the alphabet he got the attention of the two boys.

"I have to go, but continue yelling at each other. Jasper, I give you permission to throw Aiden out a window when he annoys you enough."

Aiden complains, but the older of the Balms hung up the FaceTime and stood from his spot he was sitting on. He made his way to his manager to tell her he was finished after an hour of alphabetizing. She grinned and had him start on other small tasks that made Mikey want to quit on the spot.

.

..

...

"So," Aiden began. He elbowed Jasper to get his attention from his phone. When the college student looked up the younger of them stated, not asked, "you like Mikey."

Quickly, Jasper shook his head and tried to change the subject. But, Aiden wasn't having it. He slapped a hand over Jasper's mouth and kept talking.

"Mikey told me you guys almost kissed the other day, yet by your reaction you two aren't dating. I'd say you two are stupid, but we been knew–" Aiden cringed at the wetness that came onto his hand as Jasper licked his palm. "I'm not letting go, Jasper, until you admit you like Mikey."

It was quiet in the almost empty college apartment, and Jasper was stubborn enough to not fall into Aiden's trap. He'd use the known fact and hold it against him for anything he'd want at a later time. Plus, Jasper didn't want Aiden to blab to Mikey about his crush.

"Why aren't you two together?" Aiden asked honestly, taking his hand off Jasper's mouth.

The college student looked to his twiddling fingers and shrugged. He quietly mumbled, "Mikey doesn't like me that."

"You guys fuck each other, Jasper! You two almost kissed." Aiden smacked Jasper's head and punched his stomach. "Just get together already, you fucking idiot."

Jasper, fed up with Aiden's bugging, brought up Cadence. He smirked, knowing it'd stir something between them. "What about you and Cadence? Huh? You two aren't together yet."

Aiden flipped him off and took a box down to Jasper's car. It was one of the last ones he had to bring down, so the sixteen-year-old sat in the passenger seat with his eyes trained to his phone he pulled out. Jasper threw his head back and groaned at the annoying Balm brother, and walked the last box down. He closed the trunk and back doors, then was in his way to his house. They had taken two other trips and this would be the last, then he'd drop Aiden off and suffer at his own house.

They were in their separate homes around five p.m. and Jasper had at least two hours until he could even think about asking Mikey to hang out. He had to work the next day so they wouldn't be able to hang for long, but the college student wanted to be around Mikey.

It was before seven that Mikey texted Jasper.

👕

Why aren't you at my house? Did you drop Aiden off and then go home?

Yeah? I thought it'd be weird to just hang with him without you there 🤷‍♂️

👕

Get over here. It didn't never stopped you before

Jasper chuckled and headed out. He nodded to Marlene and took the stairs two at a time, bursting into Mikey's room. He greeted Aiden with, "'sup lil bitch? Ask Cade out yet?"

He flopped on Mikey's bed, laying partially on his best friend, and smirking towards Aiden. He glared at the college student, but shook his head. Jasper smiled and tilted his head back into Mikey's shoulder, asking, "how was alphabetizing?"

Mikey groaned and rolled his eyes to the back of his head. He complained, "I can't wait to quit, but this job pays nicely, so I'm stuck."

Jasper patted his cheek, more like slapping, and grinned. Then he went on his phone, ignoring the TikToks Mikey watched until he couldn't and moved around so he was curled against Mikey's side. His chin was laid on Mikey's shoulder and his chest pressed into his best friend's arm.

Mikey adjusted his phone so they both could see the screen and leaned into Jasper's touch. They watched TikToks for awhile until Aiden turned the light off and went to bed. Like the light switch, the darkness flipped something on between the boys. Mikey became aware of how close him and Jasper were, how his breaths were fanning over his neck and prickling the hairs on his arms—all types of thoughts running through Mikey's brain—and the twenty-year-old could feel every movement Jasper made even if it was a slight switch in his position.

A large part of Mikey just wanted to pin Jasper under him, but another part of him didn't want to change anything about what was going on between them. They were back to normal after the snowman incident, surely they still weren't fucking but he could deal with that, and he didn't want to ruin that. So, Mikey cleared his head and focused on the TikTok videos, completing shutting out his best friend from his mind.

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Here we go! So now, really thinking about how to get what I want happen for Mikey's birthday, idk how to do it. I really don't want to put a stick in the road, but for what I want I have to. :(

Also, wild thing happened to me—I have covid, but I feel fine. I literally only have cold symptoms and probably wouldn't have know I had covid if I hadn't gone to the urgent care for something else. So, please, keep masking up and socially distancing (I did that and still got it and idk how).

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