People have been asking for me to continue "Stuck", and although I want to, I kind of don't want to. Consider this a peace offering, or a filler, if you will. I might continue "Stuck" if I'm in a good mood, but yeah, no.
This story was inspiried by "fishbowl hearts hi there, i love you" by sheisawhirlwind. I thought her story was amazing, and when you check it out, you will too. (You guys, it isn't an option okay. You need to check it out.) The story was meant to be uploaded on Valentines Day, but meh. What does it matter?
This is sort of a K+ - borderline T - story, with a couple of themes not meant for young children. Sorry. ;)
Switching tracks here, follow me on Twitter for story updates! My user is cherrycurda, and if you follow, tweet me saying you're from fanfiction. I'd love to get to know everyone!
Now sit back and enjoy. I don't own the characters, only the concepts.
The first time she comes over to the Watson's without invitation is when they are fourteen. It's Valentines day, a Friday night. Logan remembers hiding out in his room, reading comics, and suddenly the doorbell sounds.
He scrambles downstairs and opens the door to see Jasmine leaning against the doorway, her mascara streaked across her face and her hair twisted into a neat bun. She's looking the worst he's ever seen her - not saying much, as Jasmine is usually always dressed nicely. Looking at her like this, Logan feels concerned, but it's weird seeing her at his doorstep, looking beaten down and unconfident, completely different from how she usually is. It's already weird hanging out with her at school with her girlfriends.
"What are you doing here?" he blurts out, too nervous to think of anything else.
She glares at him, but with the tired expression on her face, it doesn't look very threatening. "What do you think? For moral support."
"I don't need moral support."
Jasmine snorts, sweeping a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Moral support for me, dummy. You gonna let me in?"
Logan holds the door wider for her to come in and she shuffles inside. He notices that she's brought an overnight bag with her and a teddy bear. He shoots her a questioning gaze, and Jasmine flushes.
"I can stay overnight, right?"
This question has him stumbling over his words again. "Um… sure. Okay. I mean, yeah, cool."
His smooth sentence seems to make Jasmine smile, but only a little. "Is Lindy here?"
"No, she has a sleepover with her math buddies. My parents are at a party or something."
Jasmine nods absentmindedly. For a while now, whenever they hang out, she always asks him where Lindy is, when she's coming back, almost like they have some sort of connection where one cannot live without the other. For a long moment, they stand there, no one speaking.
"Is she your moral support?" Logan asks.
"Yeah," Jasmine sighs, dumping her stuff on the floor. "It's my parents again."
"Oh man."
"I know," she says despairingly. She crumples to the ground. "It's rough, you know?"
Logan doesn't know what to say, so he jokes, "Kind of ironic, since it's Valentines Day, and all."
Her silence shows him that his comment wasn't very funny, nor helpful at all.
"Alright, listen," he says. He kneels down next to Jasmine. "I'll get some Ben and Jerry's, and we can build a blanket fort. Maybe a scary movie too."
"How about Keeping Up With the Kardashians?" Jasmine suggests, smiling. Her tears make small, meandering trails on her cheeks.
"I guess that's scary too," he agrees, which coaxes a little laugh out of Jasmine.
He starts for the kitchen to get the promised ice cream, and before he can walk out of the room, Jasmine calls, "Hey, Logan?"
He turns around, startled. "Yeah?"
"Thanks." The ends of her lips are turned up, and she looks better, more like her mature, sassy self.
"Sure," he shrugs. "Anything for you."
The second time she goes over to his house is exactly four years later, when they're eighteen. This Valentines Day, she's dressed in this floral dress, and he immediately feels uncomfortable, because a) he can see her curves and all the other details that most other boys in twelfth grade would catcall, and b) she's so much prettier since the last time they talked. He always feels nervous around her, cursing his schoolboy crush and how classy she looks every time she goes and hangs out with the girls.
Today is no exception. When he opens the door for her he catches his breath, because god dammit she's gorgeous. Her eyebrows are creased and she's staring at him. Is there something on his face? He swats himself just to check.
"Uh, is Lindy home?" she asks.
"No," he says. "She's out on a date."
She sighs dejectedly. "Can I come in?"
And he closes the door behind her as she walks in. She plops on the couch covering her face with her hands and groans.
"What's wrong?" Logan asks, frozen in place. Although they don't talk much anymore, Jasmine is usually optimistic, always having a smile on her face.
"Parents," she mumbles under her hands. Uncovering her face, she looks up at him, her expression looking close to tears. "I just can't deal with them, and their relationship..."
At this she stops and looks away. Logan suddenly has a dejá-vü moment from four years ago. It was strange to see how their relationship dynamic changed so much since the end of middle school, how they used to hang out so often and how he was always there for her when her family life hit a rough patch. Right now they barely talk, except for a couple "hello"s here and there.
He softens, and drifts nearer to her. "Hey, you can tell me what's up."
She looks at him hesitantly, with an almost guarded expression, and he wants to throw himself off a cliff. It was too soon. He should not have asked her. He should've told her to wait for Lindy.
But then her facial expression changes and she says, "I don't want to burden you with my problems."
He laughs nervously. "I don't mind."
She shifts on the couch, picking at her dress.
"Will Ben and Jerry's make it better?" he tries.
She smiles a little, her gaze distant. "Sure, Ben and Jerry's."
"I'll go fetch some blankets for a fort too."
Jasmine's smile has grown into a small grin, and Logan can't help but think that she looks even more beautiful broken than she does confident. "Thanks, Logan, you're the best."
Logan's mouth goes dry. "Anything for you," he stutters, then practically sprints to the kitchen to hide his blush.
It's three years later, on Valentines Day. Miraculously, the whole gang was accepted into the same college. They were grouped in pairs, Logan with Garrett, Lindy with Delia, and Jasmine with with a girl from California.
Logan is doing the usual thing on Valentines Day - watching college basketball. He shouts at the screen, glad that Garrett isn't there to tell him to pipe down. After a couple of plays, there's a knock on the door. Logan abandons his spot on his bed to go get the door, and finds himself face to face with Jasmine, whose eyes are puffy and is sniffling like crazy.
"Hi," he says quietly, glancing about the hallway to see if it's some kind of prank. "What are you doing here?"
She sniffles. "Stuff's going on right now, I don't want to talk about it, and - and can I come in?"
He opens the door wider for her. "You're telling me what's happening later," he says. "Come on into the Man Cave."
She ambles in, and for the first time he notices what she's wearing - a baggy white t-shirt and the smallest pair of lounge shorts he's ever seen. Her legs are so toned and smooth and tan that Logan resists the urge to touch them. He turns away to close the door and hopes that the raging flush on his face didn't show.
She lays down face first on Garrett's neatly-made bed and covers her face with a pillow. Logan watches the basketball game a little longer, letting her sort out her feelings and allowing him to ogle her legs in secret.
"So what's wrong?" he asks.
"Everything." He can hear her audibly swallow again. "My parents, they..."
Her sentence stops. Logan glances over at her, and can see that she's stifling a sob. After a moment of hesitation, he goes over to her side and pats her back awkwardly. "C'mon, you can tell me."
Jasmine turns over and sits up just as tears spill over onto her cheeks. She hiccups. "They - they divorced. And I wanted someone to talk to, but my roommate's drunk and screwing someone in my room, and -"
Jasmine bursts into a fresh wave of silent tears. She looks so vulnerable and shattered that Logan feels shameful for not texting her and seeing what's up, for checking out her legs when she was obviously hurting. She looks up at him and continues with gasps of air.
"I tried to call Delia, since Lindy's on a trip -" here she hiccups softly - "But she... she was away at a club meeting. I decided that maybe you guys would act decent enough to be a temporary shoulder to cry on..."
She trails off, the red on her cheeks so prominent someone would have to be blind not to notice. Logan feels bad for her, empathizing how embarrassing it would've been if Logan had blown her off.
"Hey, I'm always here if you need me. Ben and Jerry are too."
She gives him a small smile through her tears and scoots a little closer over to him. "So I didn't make a stupid decision to come here."
He returns the smile and puts his arm around her. "Especially with that weird vegan diet Lindy's having right now, no, you didn't."
An awkward yet comfortable silence falls over them. Logan looks down at Jasmine, who doesn't seem to mind his arm over her. If anything, she's leaning on it. He knows this is just a friendly gesture and was triggered by his comforting her, but there's a feeling in his stomach that he really can't explain.
Logan glances down at her again. She's nestled her head in the crook of his shoulder, cheek pressed against him. Her tears still leave some wet tracks on her face.
All of a sudden, he knows. He still likes her, but not in the schoolboy-crush way. Maybe he had never really stopped liking her. He's been ignoring the signs for too long, and if Jasmine didn't like him back, to hell with it. He had to get this off his chest. And maybe she did like him back, who knows?
Logan gently detaches himself from Jasmine and looks at her. She drags her eyes away from the screen to look in his eyes.
"What?" she breathes.
He swallows. "I liked you for the longest time," he says. "You were always there, even when we drifted apart."
She leans a little closer towards him, her eyes squeezed shut.
"Jasmine."
"How can you like me?" she whispers. "You've supported me for so long, seen me break down, saw my flaws. You can see straight through me and all my lies. But… Once you've done that, why would you still have a crush on me?"
Logan doesn't say anything. He doesn't need to. He moves closer.
"I could hurt you at anytime. I've hurt too many people, and you're one of the most important people I've ever known," Jasmine continues to ramble, her gaze dropping. "I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to break your heart, or -"
He moves across and kisses her. Her eyes are open, and her hands are still on the cushioned bed, but he's holding her shoulder with one hand and another is holding her hips. It's a very short and sweet kiss, and when he pulls away, there's a deep red across her cheeks.
"Wow," she gasps breathily, wiping her hands on the sheets.
"It was the only way I could get you to shut up," he chuckles, and for some reason his voice comes out low and husky.
She looks away at the screen again, looking flustered and exhilarated. Everything is in high definition after the kiss. Had she always had that splay of freckles across her nose? He really can't believe that he hadn't noticed it before.
They watch the game in silence. Before he knows it, they're pressed up together again, and her head is propped against his body, and his arm has snaked around her waist.
Jasmine shifts deeper into his chest. "Hey," she says.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for just…" she searches for the next words. "Being there."
He regards her half-lidded eyes, the smile on her lips. "Anything for you."