Stuck on Stupid

Charlotte was frustrated. More than she wanted to be and more than she wanted to show. Henry and Jasper were making their plans, as they usually did. She was focusing on what she had to, as usual. Ray was discussing something with Schwoz and Piper was coming into the store. Charlotte noticed her on the monitor and got up to go meet her. Jasper didn't even notice that she was leaving. "Bye, Guys!" she said, with her stankest attitude.

Jasper just smiled and waved. Henry cheered, "Later, Char!"

Whenever she got to Piper, Piper immediately noticed something was wrong, "Great, what did he do now?" she wondered. Charlotte's glare softened and she forced a smile and shook her head. "I know it's something, because your forehead is all wrinkly."

"It's nothing. Well, it's nothing that I have a right to be mad about."

"But, you are mad, so spill it, Sister."

Charlotte sighed and said, "Jasper and Henry are making plans for prom, when neither of them have made any type of moves towards college, and prom and graduation are very close to each other. How can they possibly care more about a stupid school dance than our future!"

"You mean than their futures?"

"Yeah. Of course."

Piper thought for a moment, then wondered, "Charlotte… Do you plan on being with Jasper after graduation? Because, if you do, maybe the two of you should be mapping out your plans together."

"My plans are already mapped out. My plans have been mapped out since seventh grade. Anytime I try to ask Jasper what he wants to do, he says something goofy like "Just be happy and be loved," like THAT buys you personal tennis court! He could at least tell me that he's gonna take general studies at the community college until he figures it out. Or that he'll get a full time job and save up for a tech school stint. Or ANYTHING. Tell me something that doesn't make me feel like I spent 18 years being responsible, only to get so sprung now that I let my hormones think for me, and that is NOT me!" She made a squealing noise and punched a random piece of junk in the store, putting her fist through it.

"Whoa. Charlotte… You've got a temper," Piper had the nerve to say. "Listen… what is it about Jasper that makes you think that you shouldn't break up with him, like right now? What keeps you from making the wise and smart decision of letting him go?" Charlotte shrugged her shoulders and looked at her feet and mumbled something. "You what?"

"Love him!" She said with her eyes shut and her fists clenched.

"I don't understand why, but if that's the case, that's what you present. Jasper, I…" Piper struggled to even hypothetically repeat it, "love you and I want us to be together. That can't happen if I don't see you taking your future as seriously as I take mine. You can do what you want, but not with me. With me, you've gotta do what you gotta and you need to let me know really soon what that is."

Charlotte shook her head and said, "That sounds like an ultimatum. I don't want to threaten him into anything. I want to encourage him into things."

"Oh, then I can't help you."

"I didn't ask for help!" Charlotte squealed.

Piper folded her arms and said, "No. Just poured and punched a poor defenseless piece of junk."

"I should just break up with him. That's nicer than trying to get him to change and I promised myself that I wouldn't try to change him!"

"I second breaking up with him."

"But that would also be breaking my own heart. You know what I need? I need to create a vision board for this." Charlotte grabbed her backpack and left the store.

Piper said, "I came here to pick you up!" And chased her outside.

Meanwhile, Ray busted out laughing as Jasper tried not to have a nervous breakdown. "Henry, good call on eavesdropping on Charlotte's conversation with your sister!" Ray said through tears of laughter.

Henry glared at him and tried to collect Jasper's hands, "Jasp,"

"Oh my God!" Jasper said.

"I'm sure it's fine…"

"She's gonna break up with me! How is it fine?" Jasper was hyperventilating.

Henry said, "He's having some kind of attack, Ray. Do something!" Ray punched Jasper in the face and knocked him out. Henry rushed to catch his friend so that he wouldn't fall to the floor. "What! Is wrong with you?"

"I fixed the problem! You're welcome," Ray said and walked off, scoffing at Henry's audacity. Henry rested Jasper on the couch and sighed, wondering if he should call Charlotte or try to wake up Jasper. One of these things, but the "freaking out" in him wouldn't tell him which one! Okay. Maybe wake up Jasper. Maybe call Charlotte and ask her if he should wake up Jasper? He called Charlotte and said, "Char!"

"Henry, I'm busy," she told him.

"Yeah, yeah. Me too. Listen… We sort of spied on you and Piper a little while ago and Jasper had a panic attack and Ray punched him unconscious."

"WHAT? WHY?"

"What to which part? And follow up… Why to which part?"

"I'm on my way. Piper, can you please go back? These… IDIOTS just possibly injured Jasper!"

"Why am I an idiot, too? Ray is the one that punched him…" She hung up on him. "So… She's mad."

"About what?" Ray wondered.

Jasper was awake by the time that Charlotte came storming into the Man Cave, ready to swing on pretty much everybody in the room. Piper was waiting in the store for her and wondering, like she always did how in the world this store was still standing with literally no customers whatsoever, EVER.

Charlotte came storming into the building and Jasper looked nervous, while Henry looked panicked. Ray was fine. She marched up to him and began to swing her bag at him. "Ouch! Ouch! Why are you hitting me?"

"You punched Jasper in the face and knocked him unconscious!" She fussed. Jasper came to collect her and she turned to Henry, "And you!"

"I tried to help him, I swear!" He said, fucking behind Jasper.

She went on to say, "I know it was your idea to eavesdrop on me and you can bite it, Henry Hart!" She grabbed Jasper's hand and said, "Let's go. I have to stay with you to make sure you don't have a concussion and we aren't staying here!" She pulled him, swung her bag one more time at Ray, who pushed Schwoz in the way.

When they got onto the elevator, Charlotte was asking questions about how he felt. He felt fine. He had a high tolerance for physical pain. It was his heart that was aching. He was afraid to admit that. Instead, he answered her questions and afterwards asked, "Are you gonna break up with me?"

She sighed and said, "No. I just wish that you cared more about your future. I feel like you not caring about your future is you not caring about OUR future. It makes me feel like you kinda don't care about… me." Her volume dropped dramatically when she admitted that.

"What? No. How could you think that? You're the most important person in my life, right now. I don't know… I'm sorry if you feel like I don't care. Can you help me fix it? There's nothing could be further from the truth and I don't have the… I'm sorry. Nobody ever taught me how to love you right, but I promise I'm trying to learn how! I thought I was doing okay." She sighed, put her backpack down and collected him into a hug. "I thought you knew that you mean the world to me. I don't know how to handle knowing that you don't.." She cupped his face and kissed him. But he shook his head. He'd let her down, somehow. She wasn't going to make him forget. No matter how juicy and sweet her lips were. "Charlotte, no." He said and moved her off of him. "Tell me what I can do."

"I just… Wish that I knew what your plans are? Is this a senior year fling? Did you just want to have a high school sweetheart to tell your future wife and kids how things turn out differently than you think when you're young and in school? Did you just want another notch on your belt? Did you just want to see what it felt like to hook up with your best friend? To bed an asexual? To…"

"Please, stop! None of that is true. I don't… I thought that I'd be spending our senior year working and saving up to maybe move out of my mom's when I turned 18 and most likely just dropping out and working until I had enough to be comfortable. I figured that I'd spend years working in the Man Cave and watching you be successful in your science stuff and watching Henry become the hero of Swellview and just having to be happy to accept that I had really awesome friends who made a difference in the world. MAYBE find somebody to put up with me long enough to fall in love and start a family and hope that Henry would pay me enough to provide for them. I didn't think too deeply about my future before you and nobody made me. My mother would be fine with me never leaving the house. I'm on my fourth stepdad and I don't know if he likes her as much as a husband should. I've told you - You and Henry are my only people, and you're my PERSON. My favorite person. I wish that I could have everything with you, but I realistically know that isn't possible. I have a lot of ideas and plans that I've had in recent months, but I know that most of my plans are usually stupid, so I didn't want to present anything to you. My stepdad calls it being "stuck on stupid," which is hokey talk for somebody who's basically trapped being stupid." He felt really weak right now, so he just hid his face against the elevator wall.

Charlotte felt bad. "Jasper?" She said, softly. She didn't want to just reach out and touch him. "Do you want me to get off of the elevator and give you a moment? Or stay?"

"I will always want you to stay."

Now, she reached out and touched his shoulders, "And I always want to stay. That was the reason that I was upset. I thought that you didn't want that with me. It was a miscommunication, Jasper."

"I have goals," he reiterated. "I write them down and I say them out loud, just to see how it sounds and looks. I scratch off a lot and tear out a lot of pages…" She didn't want to talk about that anymore. He was too upset and all she wanted was for him to feel better.

"Let's get you home. Piper's waiting to drop us off at your house."

"You're coming to my house? With my mom there?"

"If we're gonna have a future… I'm gonna have to get used to her, or at least try to tolerate her." She shrugged her shoulders and said, "I love you, you know?" He couldn't stop himself from smiling.

"You've never said that out loud before," he noted.

"I know. But… I also know that sometimes, a person just needs to hear it." She was scared to make eye contact. She loved him, but Jasper's love level could be a little bit intimidating. The thing was that Charlotte felt a little bit guilty that this was her first time saying it out loud. She'd written it down before on gifts, in a platonic way. She'd texted it as abbreviations or in emojis. But, saying it out loud always felt like it might cement her to him and she was already scared of how clingy he was. If they didn't last. If they didn't work out… What kind of condition would they be in with that being out and on the table, for real? And now, he was staring at her with this huge, proud smile and she could feel the warmth of it on her forehead. It might be too bright for her eyes to bear. But, Jasper lifted her chin to have to face him and he told her, "I love you too. But, you know that." He moved in to kiss her, but truth be told, all this emotion was a bit intense for her, so she pressed the button and they held on to not fall down as the episode shot upward.

Piper dropped them off at Jasper's house. Charlotte was pretty quiet the whole trip, while Jasper seemed pretty elated. Piper didn't want to get involved. Instead, she just said, "Hey. Call me if you need me to pick you up?"

"Yeah. Thanks so much, Piper. You're a great friend," Charlotte said. Piper made a confused expression. Charlotte was unsure of why she said that. She was just in her feelings, she guessed. Jasper was sleepy, so they went inside and his mom was in the kitchen, cooking. Jasper was so out of it at this moment that Charlotte was the one to address her. "Hi!" She tried to cheer. "Um, Jasper unfortunately had a work accident and so I escorted him home and hope that I can stick around for a little bit to see if he's alright and doesn't need any medical attention."

Jasper's mom's smile was fake, but at least it was there. "Okay. Well… Keep the door open," she said. "Are you going to stay for dinner?"

"I'm not hungry. I was thinking that I'd just finish some homework while I monitor Jasper to make sure he doesn't have a concussion or anything."

"Okay. I didn't realize that you were qualified to do that."

"There's tips all over the Internet. Most people don't rush to the ER every time they hit their heads," Charlotte said through her teeth and fought the urge to roll her eyes.

"She's a genius, Mom. She's qualified to do anything," Jasper said. He headed for his room, bumped into the door and Charlotte moved it and tried to help him out. "And she loves me!" Jasper called out. "More than we could say for you," he muttered.

"Jasper, please." Charlotte said softly. She didn't want to get kicked out. He might be hurt and she wanted to make sure that she was around to get him help, if he needed it. He was fine, though. Physically, at least.

Charlotte was bothered about how Jasper felt. Hearing that his stepfather called him "stupid" was bad enough, but "stuck on stupid" was just ugly and mean. She hated the way that they made him feel. Recently, she realized that Jasper cried a lot. He let her know that she was the first person to know and see it (since Henry when they were younger, and even since Henry most likely thought that Jasper no longer did that). They all knew that his mom sent him mixed messages about whether or not she actually loved him and from his little outburst earlier, Charlotte guessed that he had at least subconsciously decided on the belief that she didn't.

One of the reasons that their relationship had worked in the beginning was because Charlotte was extremely harsh with him and pretty mean. Honestly… it embarrassed her to think about how she would speak to him. Even sometimes today, if she said something with an attitude, in the back of her mind, she wondered if she might be adding on to his drama/trauma with his mama. So, now… she tried really hard to be less condescending and gentler. She tried to be more complementary whenever he frustrated her than accentuating whatever he was doing to get on her nerves. He still got on her nerves A LOT. He just had certain ways that were very different than what she liked.

In their round robin spiral, instead of an update, Charlotte simply wrote Jasper a little love note that read: Now that I know that you're okay, I'm hoping that you sleep well and wake up okay. The most important thing is that I wanted you to know that I rebranded that thing from you know who.

Then, she drew a little doodle (she wasn't great at drawing, but she made an attempt and since it was lettering, it was better than her actual drawings), which read Jasper TBD Dunlop: Stuck on Stupendous and had a little Jasper drawing smiling and giving the thumbs up. Then, she kissed the bottom right hand corner and autographed it. It was a light pink color, because she only wore gloss, but she opened the book so that he'd see it whenever he got up. Then, she gave him a kiss on the cheek and fixed his hair, even though he was sleeping.

On her way out, she said, "I think he's fine, so he's gone to sleep, now and Piper Hart is outside to pick me up. So, goodnight."

"Goodnight," his mom said.

Charlotte nodded, then stopped at the door and said, "Look. I don't know why you don't like me. I don't know why you think that I'm bad for him. I don't know what I might have done or said to give you the thoughts and ideas that you seem to have of me. But, I also don't care. I don't care what you think or how you feel or even how you try to treat me. But, I do care how you make Jasper feel, and I wish that you would take the time to care about that too. Now, good night."

His mom looked offended and bothered, and maybe she had just made things a billion times worse, but maybe she had helped. If she had, it was worth how uncomfortable she felt having to say that to this woman.

By the next day, at work (Charlotte came early, so she didn't meet up with the guys), but whenever they came in, Jasper immediately wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the cheek. "Thank you," he said.

"For what?" She wondered, blushing.

"My mom told me what you said and she was pretty heated about it. Asking me what I'd been saying to you and if I was making her look bad." He laughed.

"That doesn't sound good," she said.

"It was pretty bad, but I appreciate that you stood up for me. That's super important. You're the best. Also, I sent your artwork in to 1 Hour T-Shirts. I ordered it in seven colors."

She gasped, "Jasper! That was just for you!"

"Yeah, so doesn't that mean I can do what I want with it?" She scoffed. He smirked and kissed her on the neck.