Jaspar: I Still Love You Though

Labels

And another continuation . . .

Joe spilled cereal milk all over the floor. "Shit, oh shit," he yelled, jumping back and hopping from foot to foot.

"Joe? Are you okay? Did you cut yourself? Are you dead?" called Caspar from the couch, already settled down and munching on his Crunchy Nut cereal.*

"Just spilled milk all over the floor." said Joe, grabbing a dish towel and dropping it on the floor. "We'll definitely need to go to the supermarket."

"Let me see," Caspar replied, looking at the mess. "Ew, how old was this milk?"

"Well, I haven't properly gone shopping since you last left." Joe admitted sheepishly. "Let me check the label." His eyes widened. "Caspar, it's two weeks overdue!" covering his mouth in comic shock.

Caspar fake gagged. "So I've been drinking month old milk?!?!" shouted Caspar.

"Yeah," Joe laughed. "How could you not tell?" looking up at his friend in bewilderment.

"I don't know! Can you get sick from drinking bad milk!?" Caspar looked horrified.

"Obviously, that's why you don't drink it, idiot." said Joe, full on laughing at Caspar now. While laughing, he caught a whiff of the stench emanating from the pale liquid. "Ughhh, that's rank. That's rank." said Joe, "I'm getting out of here." Joe gingerly stepped around the puddle and into the foyer.

Caspar ran to the sink and turned on the faucet, getting down as much water as possible.

"That's not going to help, you know." Joe called out helpfully. Caspar ignored him and continued to drink. Joe got out to snapchat it. "So Caspar's just drunk a full glass of spoiled milk." The camera zooms in on Caspar's tongue, lapping up the tap water like a dog.

"He didn't even tell me!" Caspar whined, looking at the camera. "Joe is the worst roommate ever."

"Nuh-uh-uh. Who left me here for an entire month all by myself? Hmm?" Joe pressed.

"I'M SORRY JOE, I'll NEVER LEAVE YOU AGAIN!" Caspar ran to Joe and drowned Joe in another of his bear hugs.

"Ah, it's alright" said Joe, his voice muffled. "Caspar, it's getting hot in here."

"Oh sorry. Were you suffocating?"

"A bit."

"Let's just get the milk now."

Joe stopped recording, posted it to his Story, and quickly grabbed a granola bar, deciding it would suffice as breakfast for today.

"Let's go."

********

When they arrived at the supermarket, Joe walked straight towards the dairy lane. Caspar stumbled behind him. "Wait, don't walk so fast! My stomach hurts." he called. Joe stopped in his tracks and waited as Caspar hobbled towards him. "Maybe we should've just left you at home," Joe said.

"But you hate shopping alone." Caspar replied, sitting on a nearby box.

"Agreed." Joe added two cartons of two percent milk to the trolley (shopping cart). "I wasn't going to drag you out here if you were sick, though."

"I'll be fine," Caspar managed. He tried to stand up, but a sharp pain forced him to sit back down again. "Maybe by tomorrow," he grinned weakly. Joe rolled his eyes and helped his friend to his feet. "Let's do this quick. I don't want you vomiting in public."

They grabbed a couple of items. One gallon of two percent milk, pasta, pesto, two cartons of ice cream, and a box of popcorn.

Joe handed Caspar each item while he placed them on the counter. The cashier took their items and loaded them into four plastic bags. She smiled at them and said, "It's nice to see a couple purchasing groceries together. Having a movie night?"

"Oh, no," Joe said quickly, smiling awkwardly. "We're just roommates."

Caspar looked at Joe in confusion. When he realized that the lady was staring at him weirdly, he tried to mask his confusion by running his hands through his hair, "Uh, yeah." he answered, quietly.

"Oh dear. My bad. I shouldn't have assumed." she said, sensing the awkwardness between them.

"I-It's fine." Joe replied, paying with his credit card. The two of them awkwardly shuffled out the door.

********

The way back home was unusually silent. When they arrived at their flat, Joe broke the silence. "Why'd you act so weird when she asked if we were dating?"

"I don't know. I kinda thought that we were, you know, in love and everything." Caspar said quietly.

"Caspar! What do you mean?" Joe said, laughing. "Come on, you know we're not dating."

Never had Joe's laugh made Caspar feel so stupid, so ridiculed. 

"Is this about last night?" Joe asked, the smile fading slightly. "Last night made everything worse. I don't know what came over me, honestly." 

"Me too." Caspar nodded, looking down at his feet. He had liked last night though.

"Look, I know I said: "We're more than friends," and it's still true. We're best friends. Roommates. You're practically family. I don't want to ruin that."

"Yeah."

"Sorry it's so awkward, Caspar. Let's just forget it all, yeah?"

Caspar put on the most convincing smile he could. "I'm going to go rest in my room for a while. My stomach still hurts."

"Tell me if you start to feel nauseous. I've had stomach problems before, I know it's the absolute worst." sympathized Joe.

Caspar limped downstairs. Online, he googled the possible symptoms of food poisoning. Quickly, he went from googling health blogs about spoiled milk, to searching Yahoo answers, reading questions such as "I'm in love with my best friend but . . ." While searching, Caspar came across an interesting article. The author talked about how he, a straight man, and his best friend, a straight man, fell in love, even though they both identified as straight. Ironically, the author fell in love with his best friend when he was sick.** Maybe that could happen to me, thought Caspar. His conscious quickly shattered his hope. You're happy that you've got food poisoning? What the hell? When Joe had food poisoning, he didn't fall in love with you. He didn't beg for attention.

"Stop it." Caspar said aloud, half to his stomach pain, and half to his cruel conscious. "Stop it. Just forget it." But how could he? Joe was just comforting you last night, he convinced himself. He wasn't doing anything except be a good friend. He'd tell you if it's anything different.

________________________________

It's starting to become a series . . . whoops this isn't really one shots any more. It's like an actual fic and then one random story about sleeping in a hotel room. I'll find a way to organize it. Maybe I should re-title it . . .

*I legit actually figured out cereal they eat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFAurkC_noI (Oh noo I'm way too much of a stalker. Help)

**This article actually exists: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-14997/im-an-otherwise-straight-man-who-fell-in-love-with-his-best-friend.html

If you can't click these links, look through the comments, I reposted them, and there you can click them.