Jatp one shots 2

Butterflies in your stomach

(Aro/aroace Reggie because I love this headcanon and you can't stop me from making aro reggie stories)

Reggie's POV

I was in the studio with Alex, Luke, and Julie. Alex was telling us about his last date with Willie. He described it as "having a swarm of relentlessly angry butterflies in his stomach"

"That sounds awful. I mean, they're probably only mad because you ate them." I say.

"What?" Alex says.

"What are you talking about?" Julie says.

"Well didn't you say you had angry butterflies in your stomach?" I ask Alex. "They're probably angry at you because you ate them."

"I didn't eat them. It's a figure of speech."

"Yeah, it means he felt anxious around Willie because he has a super mega big crush on him." Luke says.

"It's not that big. And it's not a crush anymore because we're together."

"So wait, you've never had the feelings of butterflies in your stomach before?" Julie asks.

"I guess not." I shrug. I feel dumb for not knowing the feeling they all were talking about. I wish I knew the feeling, but I've never really even had a crush. Whenever Luke or Alex  asked who I liked I just said who I thought was a good choice based on if they liked Star Wars and who their favorite character was.  And then when that person or the whole class found out who my crush was, I had to find a new crush because it's suppose to be a secret and once everyone finds out I lose, but if it stays a secret I win.

I don't know what I win, oh maybe it's the butterflies in your stomach! I wouldn't know because everyone always found out who my crush was. I don't think having butterflies in your stomach would be a very good prize though.

"So you've never had a crush before?" Julie asked.

"I mean he's had a lot of crushes. Their was Cassie, Lisa, Madilyn, Stacy, Janet, Paige..." Alex begins to list.

"Well yeah but everyone found out I had a crush on them."

"So? You still had a crush on them." Luke says.

"But Luke isn't the whole point that it's suppose to be a secret and if no one finds out you like won?"

They all burst out laughing. "That's not what a crush is at all." Alex laughs.

"So wait, you mean to tell me you only had. A crush on them because you thought no one would find out?" Luke says.

"Well I mean, I mostly based it off of who their favorite Star Wars character was but..."

"Dude." Alex laugh, almost unable to breath. "You continue to make me laugh everyday with your stupidity"

"Hey, be nice." Julie says. "So if you've never had a crush, it felt attracted to anyone, you're probably somewhere one the aro or ace spectrum."

"Oh." I nod. "The what?"

"It just means you're not attracted to anyone like in a romantic or sexual way." Julie says. "My cousin is aroace. She has really strong platonic attraction."

I nod my head, sorta understanding. "That makes sense. Like, I think I'd be much happier just hanging out with you guys than someone in a romantic way. So I guess I am aromantic. Wait, is that okay? You don't think I'm weird or anything?"

"Dude, of course I think your weird but not because of that." Alex says.

"Alex, be serious!" Julie hits him with a pillow.

"Okay honestly I think it's great Reg." Alex says.  "I'm happy you could find that out about yourself, and you should be proud of it even if others think it's weird."

"We always support you man, of course it's okay, I think it's pretty cool." Luke says, unexpectedly wrapping his arms around me and Julie and Alex ended up joining in, making me feel a little smushed but overall so loved.

I've always felt like there was something wrong with me because I didn't connect to romance the same way everyone else did. It annoyed me or made me uncomfortable in fiction, I never understood what it felt like to feel butterflies in your stomach or blush when your crush walks by. I thought I was broken, whether I was made broken or my parents always arguing more than loving broke me. I feared as soon as my friends realized that I was broken, they wouldn't want to be friends with me anymore.

But now I see it's the opposite, I'm not broken. I'm just different. And my friends love me all the same.

"Thank you guys for understanding. And thank you Julie for helping me figure myself out."

"Always." Julie says. "My cousin said it's not something that's widely talked about, it's not something that's known to a lot of people so I promised her to talk about it with others and even help other people who might be aroace figure it out."

"I'd love to meet your cousin, she sounds awesome." I say. "Anyways, Alex you were saying? I didn't mean to interrupt your story."

Alex continues talking about Willie, and although I still don't exactly understand how there's butterflies in his stomach, I'm not too worried about trying to understand it anymore.

Honestly I'm not even too sure what to write anymore so I hope you enjoyed this. Reggie's honestly so me, I totally thought the whole point of having a crush was that it was secret and you had to keep people from finding out but it still had to be someone who you liked so I would always pick the funny guy and once either he or the whole class found out I was like "whelp guess I lost". Like j was so dumb. I had a "crush" on this kid for two years (not counting over the summer because I though the summer didn't count because there wasn't any school) because I was like "well since no one found out I guess I still have a crush on him" and I only stopped having a crush on him because he cut me in line to get icecream. It's a wonder how I didn't realize I was aroace sooner.

Anyways thanks so much for reading it means a lot to me I hope you enjoyed. I feel like the fandom is kinda dying which is sad but we're all here keeping it alive still 💜
Anyways, hope you have a wonderful day or night and remember to take care of yourself and always stand tall 👻💜