𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 15
3𝐫𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐯

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        — JASPER WAS UP LATE THINKING ABOUT HIM TOO, this he knew. What he didn't know was why his ex showed up.

He found his contact on his phone without realizing it, when he did realize he didn't give himself a moment to doubt before he pressed call.

"Colby."

"Jasper." He responded softly, gazing at his bedroom walls like he could find Jasper's face in the darkness.

"You left."

"I'm sorry." He apologized, "It was stupid."

"Yeah." Jasper chuckled, unable to hide the pain in his voice. Not from him. "It was."

"Can I come back?"

"Always."

"Not always." Colby shook his head in protest, "Because I'm not gonna leave again." He cringed because it began to sound like some sort of romcom — but then he found, he didn't care. "Not- not like that."

"I'll hold you to that, Colby Brock."

He found himself smiling as he slipped out of bed and into a pair of sweats and shoes. "Good." He responded sternly, and then, after he grabbed his keys, "Hey Jasper?" Jasper hummed in response, "It's not too late."

—'✧˖*°࿐

       JASPER sat on his couch, mindlessly scrolling through Instagram with unfocused eyes and a wandering mind as he waited for Colby. The brunette had ended the call with a simple see you soon, giving Jasper no chance to tell him it was too late and not worth it — that Jasper wasn't worth leaving his home in the middle of the night and driving fifteen minutes just to see.

On top of that, a fifteen-minute drive turned into an hour and suddenly he was running worst-case scenarios in his head, picturing Colby's car veering off the road, him in the hospital because of him and he couldn't do it. His hand squeezed tightly at nothing and he let out a heavy exhale. Maybe Colby just changed his mind, decided it was too late to drive, and stayed home. He's probably fine.

Probably. Not for sure.

Jasper shook his head and stood, mindlessly letting the phone fall onto the couch before he headed into the kitchen, grabbing a water bottle from the fridge. He leaned his elbows on the counter and glanced at the clock which seemed to tick loudly just to piss him off as more time passed. An hour. Colby told him he was on the way an hour ago, and Colby didn't lie, he would've at least texted if he changed his mind, so where was he? He didn't even care if Colby didn't show up he just needed to know he was okay.

Grabbing the water bottle, Jasper forced his eyes off the clock and returned to the living room. Just as he began to sit down, a knock sounded. He winced, thinking it was too loud, too late, and his neighbors would hate him more than they already did before he recognized the noise as someone at his door and rushed over, pulling it open without a thought because it was — "Colby." He breathed, staring into blue eyes. It took him a second to realize that not only was Colby okay and here standing at his door, but he also held a bouquet, and a piece of white poster board which— fuck why had Jasper not put his glasses on after he took the damned contacts out. His gaze fell back to Colby's eyes, as they always did, and he relaxed, "You came."

Colby's lip quirked as he debated responding to it with a dirty joke before deciding against it, "It took a while to find a flower shop open this late." He admitted instead.

Jasper nodded absentmindedly as he let him in. He didn't care if Colby had flowers or diamonds or a jar of dirt, he was here.
Jasper found his eyes on the poster board again as Colby juggled it and the flowers, he squinted his eyes but still couldn't make out the words and cursed his eyesight as Colby looked at him and smirked, "No glasses, baby blue?"

In response, Jasper lifted a single middle finger and went to grab his glasses from — where had he left them? He stumbled in the direction of the living room to start his search, managing to get out a quick, "There should be a vase in one of the cupboards."

He heard a few cupboards open before the sound of water running assured him that Colby had found the right cupboard while he still struggled to find his glasses. He frowned and cursed under his breath, ducking down to look under the couch.

"No luck?" Colby asked, leaning against the door frame from the kitchen to the living room.

"I can't remember where I put them and I can't even see properly to find them." Jasper scowled like a manly man, he did not pout, not even when Colby gave him a gleeful smile and moved to help him, immediately finding them— "Okay that's not fair I never would've looked there!" He exclaimed in outrage, reaching for his glasses, "Why were they there?!"

Colby only chuckled, helping settle the glasses on the bridge of his nose before their eyes met, Colby was close — too close. "Thanks." Jasper said, adjusting the glasses as Colby blushed and stepped back.

Colby took a few steps, going back to the kitchen, he began to talk as he walked, "I wanted to do this forever ago, but since I never got to and we're starting over?" The words came out as a question, he nodded to himself and continued, "I wanted to start right."

Turning to him, he held up the poster board and with his glasses on his face, Jasper could finally read it.

BE MINE, it read in capital letters in big messy letters written with a sharpie, below it read AGAIN in brackets, surrounding the words were meticulously drawn and randomly arranged hearts, and in the bottom corner were two initials brought together by a plus sign, J + C. Jasper was perhaps only truly surprised that a cheesy 4eva didn't follow the initials of their names.

"The sign I made when we were in high school was way better," Colby began to ramble, "But I didn't have as much time. I just wanted to come see you but I want to do this right, and I know you want to go slow so— so this isn't me asking you to be my boyfriend," he stumbled over the word with a blush before he continued, "or anything but I just, I don't want to lose you or for you to think this whatever this is has to happen in the shadows because it doesn't. Not like before. And I wasn't kidding, I will climb up to your roof and shout it from the rooftops if you just give me a shot."

"Colby," Jasper cut in, stepping forward before the man could continue to ramble anymore, "You didn't have to do this. Any of this. Coming here so late or the flowers or the — this fucking sign, I don't even have anything for you except—" he trailed off, wincing because what he wanted to say was so incredibly cheesy and then he looked at the sign again and decided fuck it, not like Colby didn't like cheesy, "except me. I'll give you a shot," why wouldn't I? He thought but didn't say, "if you give me one."

He moved forward before he even realized and then Colby was dropping the poster board on the ground and moving forward too with a whisper he couldn't quite make out that sounded suspiciously like "fuck I love you," but it couldn't be, and yet Colby was still moving forward and his arms were going around his waist and their lips... oh. Jasper realized, leaning into the kiss, his eyes closing as he let go, and relaxed fully into Colby's embrace, this is what love feels like.

I think I love you, Jasper wanted to say but didn't because it was too soon, too much and he didn't want Colby to leave so instead when they pulled apart, he pulled Colby to the couch and sat closer until they were touching as they sat on the couch, and they began to softly speak, a conversation just for them as they talked about anything and everything, from the past to the present, to the future — their future, Colby decided, as every one of his plans somehow now involved Jasper in one way or another and the blonde couldn't help but grin at the way Colby spun ideas for the future so confidently like he knew Jasper wasn't going anywhere, like he knew this would last. The words were on the tip of his tongue again and he scolded himself and instead rambled about his plans, doing his best to involve Colby in the way he'd involved Jasper, he found it shockingly easy to imagine his future with Colby.

He wasn't sure how long they talked, he just knew the smile had never left his face and he was practically sitting on Colby's lap when Colby's phone began to ring, with tired eyes lit with enough emotion to ignore his exhaustion, Colby looked at the phone and his eyes widened, "We've been talking all night." Jasper's eyes flicked to the clock, realizing that Colby was right it had gone from midnight to seven in the morning in a blink of an eye, and somehow he didn't feel tired at all.

Colby blinked as his phone rang again, realizing he'd never looked at who was calling, "It's Sam." He said apologetically as he stood and walked away into the kitchen. From his position on the couch, Jasper could just see Colby standing by the counter, the vase of flowers behind him and he grinned, unable to take his eyes off the brunette as he spoke on the phone for a few moments before hanging up and coming back to him, "So we've got a choice," Colby said lightly as he sat back down beside him, tucking his phone in his pocket and forgetting it with ease, "I forgot Sam and I had plans to film today, so I can tell Sam to go away and stay here with you all day, or I can come back later and maybe you can get some sleep?"

Jasper wished he could scream stay, tell Colby to forget the world and stay with him in their little bubble of an apartment but they weren't kids anymore, they were adults who couldn't put their whole lives on hold just because of some teenage love coming back to life so he smiled and waved him off, "Go, I'm sure the night will catch up and I'll pass out soon. Wouldn't want to snore on you."

"You don't snore." Colby pointed out with ease, Jasper was taken off guard. For a second he forgot how intertwined they were, how many days and nights they spent together in their youth, how much they could've done together if Jasper hadn't left. Before he could get too caught up in the past, Colby continued with an easygoing smirk, "You drool."

Jasper let out a startled laugh and shoved him away, knowing he was right as his cheeks flamed red, "Shut up, go film with Sam."

"See you later, baby blue?" Colby spoke like a question.

Jasper nodded and whispered like a promise, "See you later, Bee."

—'✧˖*°࿐
𝟏,𝟗𝟎𝟎 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬

MEDIUM's BACK BABY!

hello everyone! Yes it is I, the author, back from the dead bringing you a newly republished book and a new chapter!
Also to point out I just made this lovely new cover, please give it some love —

but yeah, Medium is back!
Don't know how often I'll be able to get chapters out as I am somewhat busy but more updates are coming! <3