We're Just Friends (Jaspar/Youtube)

Chapter 2: I'm Not Jealous

The group ended up at a restaurant down the street from their flat.

 Caspar had always liked the restaurant. It was quaint and brightly colored with red and blue booths and large windows that looked out over the London streets. He had spent many days curled up in one of the booths across from Joe both editing videos. 

Caspar was drawn from his internal musings by the raised voice of Joe who was currently in an argument with Oli about Coachella.

"I just don't see the point in going this year," Joe said finally.

"It's good content."

"No, it's not." Joe said rolling his eyes, "Cas, back me up here."

Caspar looked away from Joe and met Oli's eyes. Oli rolled his eyes, clearly expecting Caspar to agree automatically with Joe.

"We don't even have tickets" Caspar said, "Plus we might have the movie thing..." He trailed off, meeting Joe's eyes. Joe smirked at him, distracted from his argument for a minute. Marcus who had been staring at the menu intently looked up, glancing between the two of them curiously. 

"What movie thing?" He asked.

"None of your business," Caspar said with a teasing grin as he pulled the one menu they had out of Marcus's hands to read it over. He practically had the thing memorized, and Joe knew it, but it was imperative their friends didn't find out about the movie deal just yet. Even if he had slipped and mentioned it. 

"None of my business?" Marcus parroted back, narrowing his eyes. "Your going to tell me Cas, you can't keep a secret to save your life."

"Can too," Caspar said hiding behind the menu. 

"Can not." Marcus laughed, reaching to grab the menu back. 

"Hey, I'm reading that."

Marcus kicked him teasingly under the table, "More like hiding in it."

"You're ridiculous," Caspar stated, handing it back to him. Marcus stuck his tongue out childishly in response.

"Now what should I order? Fries? Mhmmm?"

Caspar turned to see both Oli and Joe had been watching the exchange. Joe's eyes were crinkled up like they always did when he was thinking too hard about something. 

Marcus had turned back to Oli, trying to convince him about the pros of getting multiple dishes and splitting them. Meanwhile, Oli was shaking his head in disagreement, arguing he only wanted a sandwitch.

"What are you thinking so hard about?" Caspar asked curiously, nudging Joe's elbow. 

Joe smiled at Caspar faintly, but there was still a tenseness to his eyebrows. He reached up to nudge the red beanie up further off his face, messing with his blonde fringe. 

Caspar watched him for a minute, glancing up at the red beanie. It had been what Caspar thought was a very uncreative birthday gift two years ago, yet Joe still wore it often. 

"Why do you and-" Joe started finally, lowering his voice as he turned to ask Caspar a question. They were interrupted by Oli's voice once more. 

"Marcus is bullying me," Oli said jokingly, glancing at them both, "do you guys want to share with him because I certainly don't." 

Joe sighed, shaking his head, "Cas and I always share." 

Marcus groaned loudly, "No one likes me. Look if we get the fries-"

"Your on your own buddy," Oli cackled, closing the menu. 

Caspar ignored them, a pleasant feeling fluttering in his stomach at Joe's assertion that they always shared between the two of them. He leaned back in the booth, colliding with an arm and realized that it was Joe's  awkwardly bony one slung over the back of the booth. Caspar relaxed after a moment, sinking into it as Joe pulled him tighter subconsciously. 

Caspar liked how easy it was sometimes. When Joe's mind wasn't overthinking every word and touch that passed between them. When he was happy and relaxed and calm, in the presence of friends. When Caspar could lean into him or hug him without a second look or thought. Maybe that was one of the reasons he liked the restaurant so much, fans never seemed to come in there. 

Right now it was especially nice considering the tension that hovered between the two of them thanks to Tyler's joke in his video about them dating. Everyone had overreacted to it; posting comments on their Instagrams and trending #risejaspar. It had gotten to the point that Joe and Caspar had paused making videos with each for a few weeks since Joe hated the rumors so much.  

 "Are you ready to order?" A girl clutching a notepad in one hand asked as she approached the table. Caspar blinked up at her. She was pretty he observed lazily; curly brown hair and green eyes.

When she smiled at him, her lips moved revealing a set of crystal white teeth. Yes, she was very pretty; Caspar couldn't deny that. 

He just wasn't attracted to her. 

It was weird. 

It kept happening. 

When he was younger he just figured that someday he'd grow out of it. One day he'd just stop being awkward and meet a girl he fancied and that would be that. He liked girls, he did.


They're fun to hang out with, and he had plenty of friends who were girls. He wasn't interested in dating any of them because they were friends. Like his mom had told him on the phone, he just needed the right one to come along.

Caspar knew the boys had questioned it at some points where he never hooked up with anyone that they knew of when they went out.  Caspar sometimes wondered if Joe thought he was weird for never bringing girls back to the apartment.

He couldn't help it though. He did date them sometimes. It was just more a dinner and maybe a kiss because they'd initiated and he supposed that's what couples did. It was nice, it was fine, it was just boring. Maybe that was the problem, he did like them, he just didn't like any of them like that or something. Caspar sighed, eyes snapping back into focus as he looked at the waitress.

When it was his turn to order, he watched waitress flutter her eyelashes at him as she wrote down his order. Why do girls do that he wondered? It looked like her eye was having a seizure. Maybe she was having a seizure. Caspar glanced at the others to see if they were noticing it.

Joe had a smirk plastered on his face, the one he used to get girls. As a result, Caspar shrunk away from him slightly as the waitress let out a laugh turning to face Joe as he made a joke about the amount of food they were ordering. That wasn't very creative. Why was she laughing so much? 

Caspar glanced over at Marcus and Oli, but they didn't seem to care much. Marcus was on his phone, probably with Tanya, and Oli was reviewing footage on his camera a slight frown on his face. 

When the girl finally turned to walk away Caspar moved to cross his arms over his chest. He didn't know why but he felt slightly angry watching the way Joe's eyes lit up happily as he flirted with the waitress. He didn't even know her.

Joe turned back to him after she'd gone, raising his eyebrows at his curled in position before reaching to pull him closer. Caspar let himself be tugged back into Joe, but he didn't feel as happy as he had earlier. 

There was still a deep, unsettled feeling in my stomach. Almost as if he was jealous or something. But that's ridiculous because it's Joe.

 Caspar didn't have feelings for Joe.

He didn't.