What You're Missing

Chapter 12

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"I think I do." Charlotte scoffed, returning to her task at hand.

"You know you can talk to me," Jasper stated.

"There's nothing to talk about," she replied with a shrug.

"Why are you being so stubborn?" he asked. "You'll feel better if you talked about it."

"Fine," Charlotte said, throwing her rag on top of the table she was just cleaning. "Let's talk."

"Really?" Jasper asked in disbelief.

"Yeah," she stated. "Let's talk about how crazy I was to form such a ridiculous plan based on plain suspicion and no evidence." Charlotte placed her hands on her hips.

"Or how crazy you were to go along with it! Why didn't you stop me, Jasper?" Her voice was rising in built-up anger, and Jasper shook his head.

"You can't be serious," he responded. "You're blaming me?" Charlotte pressed her fingers to her temples, taking short breaths.

"I'm not blaming you," she finally answered. "Of course not. I just wish you stopped me because I was obviously not smart enough to realize how dumb the plan was on my own." Jasper sighed.

"You are smart," he reassured, walking towards her. He placed both his hands on either of her shoulders. "He was being totally unreasonable by trying to shut you out of something clearly serious about his life."

"Right?" she agreed, her eyes beginning to well with tears. "What could have been so classified about a sixteen-year-old's part-time job? It's not like he could be part of the Secret Service or something." Jasper shrugged.

"I just wish he told me," she said, her voice slightly strained. Jasper's lower lip fell in a playful pout as he 'aww-ed' at her, pulling her in for a hug. She sighed as she wrapped her arms around his waist, letting her tears fall for the first time since the night he broke up with her. And each time, Jasper was there to hold her.

"Thank you, Jasper," she mumbled into his chest. He suddenly felt overwhelmed with his feelings for her, his heart racing and begging for him to tell her. He cleared his throat before speaking.

"Uh, Charlotte?" he asked nervously. She faintly hummed in response, not moving from his chest. He knew he had to look at her when he told her, so he reluctantly pulled away.

"There's something I have to tell you," he said slowly. Charlotte raised her eyebrows.

"What is it, Jasp?" she asked sincerely. Jasper looked at her nervously, fiddling with his hands before taking her own and leading her to a table so they could sit down.

"Whoa, this must be serious," she joked. When she saw he didn't laugh, her expression changed to one of concern.

"What's wrong?" she asked, her voice filled with worry. Jasper looked down to where his fingers silently drummed against the table. His foot was tapping anxiously underneath, and he could feel the throbbing of his heartbeat beneath his chest growing with every passing moment.

Until Charlotte placed her hand over his, setting his nervous antics on pause and allowing Jasper to meet her kind gaze.

"You can tell me anything," she said, her lips turned in a thoughtful smile. And that's when Jasper knew he had to ignore all the doubts filling his mind about how everything will change and tell his best friend he was in love with her. He moved his hand so he was holding hers.