Squishes Cannot Be Broken

4

"Jace! Oh my God, you're actually making conversation?! How are you?" Cas's bubbly persona was evident even through their voice, and never failed to make Jace smile.

"Um, h-hey. Haha... I'm alright thanks, w-what about you?" Aced it. Totally sounded cool and casual there. Jace thought bitterly to herself.

"I'm good thanks!" If Cas noticed how nervous Jace was on the phone, then they didn't make it obvious. "Was there a reason you phoned?"

Jace quickly blurted out that she wanted to tell them something so it would be ace meet up this weekend, all the while cursing inwardly whenever she tripped over her words. Cas was silent for a few moments, and Jace grew increasingly paranoid that she had said something wrong.

"Sure! I can come over Saturday, at about 3?"

Cas didn't ask what is was Jace wanted to talk about. Jace, stunned for a reason she could not explain, nodded before remembering that Cas couldn't see her and quickly agreed.

They had agreed to meet at a coffee shop not far from where Jace lived. It was Jace's favourite coffee shop, made better because her girlfriend worked there. Jace was five minutes late, because it had taken Callum phoning up Alex and Eagle, bringing them all round to drag Jace out of the flat. When she arrived Lex was already there, who waved at her. She sat down timidly, and Lex beamed at her.

"Only five minutes late. Better than the last time we met up!" Cas laughed, remembering when Jace was over twenty minutes late because she had overslept after pulling an all-nighter for an assignment.

"Oh yeah. I'd forgotten about that." Jace couldn't help but smile at the memory of Cas's raised eyebrow, disapproving but amazed at just how late someone could be. They chatted for a bit, until their coffees came.

"My friend, the one you had a fight with," Cas brought up, ignoring Jace's flinch, "is being so annoying! She keeps trying to have a hierarchy of people she knows, then thinks it's a privilege for me to be near the top! Like, what is up with that?" Cas paused as the coffees arrived. "So anyway, enough about me. What did you want to talk about?" This was it, the moment Jace had been preparing for, and fearing.

"I-I-..." Jace stammered, then swallowed. "I have a squish on you I'msorrypleasedon'tkillme." Jace blurted out, speaking so fast that the last six words merged into one that only Cas could translate. Cas smiled slightly and took a sip of their caramel iced coffee.

"Took you long enough to say that, didn't it?" Cas enquired, much to Jace's astonishment.

"You knew?" Jace exclaimed, and Cas just rolled their eyes.

"Of course I knew. You were not very good at hiding it."

"Oh..." Jace fell silent, staring into their iced mocha. It was 20 degrees outside, so both had brought iced coffees and were sat right beneath the air conditioner in a desperate attempt to cool off. Jace was sweating, but the heat gave her an excuse other than her nerves. "So... what do you think?" Jace quietly asked after several minutes had gone past. Her words came out croaked, and she quickly took a sip of coffee. Cas sighed and put down their own cup.

"I don't know, Jace."

"You... You 'don't know'? What's that supposed to mean?!"

"It means that I don't know how I feel about it, or how I feel towards you." Cas said softly. "Give me some more time, yeah?"

Jace agreed, albeit reluctantly. They spent the rest of the afternoon together chatting about whatever floated into their minds, before Cas left to catch her train and Jace made for her flat. The outcome wasn't what Jace had hoped, but it could have been an awful lot worse.