So, somebody was recently asking me about these kiddos' jealousy culture and whatnots and it just so happens and we get to see some of that in this chapter! Granted, a lot of this is zodiac information that I swiped from the web and forgot to cite. Not tryna plagiarize. Got 'em in quotations.

College Wasteland * Freshman Year

Jasper and Charlotte were going to the same college, but on different "campuses." Honestly, she felt like this entire community was part of the college and even though there were a few blocks between where they studied, in between were really just dorms, apartments, college houses, and businesses that college students frequented. He was more on the outskirts of town and she was towards the center.

At the beginning of the semester, Charlotte already had her things moved into the dormitory that her scholarships were paying for. She was able to get in, unpack, settle in, bless the place and decorate before Jasper even figured out where he would be able to stay. He, too, was in a dorm, but one of the ones that people often rumored about how terrible they were, etc. It was all that he could currently afford, and he'd have to get to work very quickly if he wanted to be able to survive another semester!

"The Leo man craves fun and excitement and nothing is more displeasing than being home alone or with one other person."

Jasper honestly didn't feel above any particular type of work. He was willing to try anything, if it meant that he could buy all of his books for class and still eat regularly. He figured that his tuition and lodging were probably the most important, so that was what he paid first, then he remembered that he might need supplies, and he didn't even fathom the cost of books. Like… for what purpose? How could ANY book be worth what these were?

"Do you need help with anything?" Charlotte had asked him, a hint of concern in her voice as she stared at her worn out lover, this being the first time she'd been able to actually see him in a couple of weeks.

"No!" He said and laughed, shaking his head. He needed help with everything. But, he'd be damned if he told Charlotte that and made her worry, or worst - feel bad for him. "I'm just tired and I've missed you," he told her (which was true, even if it wasn't the whole truth).

"I'm sorry. I've tried to free up some time for us, but I put our schedules in my calendar and it's a biweekly, sometimes monthly match up possibility at best, for like, this entire semester." They both frowned, until she changed the subject, "Have you talked to Henry?" She asked, a little more cheerfully.

"Have I talked to Henry? I've hardly been able to talk to you! Have you talked to him?"

"Yes. We have free Wednesday nights, after I'm done with my lab, so that's the time that we have scheduled our phone calls. I'm thinking I'll probably head home every other weekend, for right now. Until I've adjusted, more, to being away. What do you think?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "I'm working every weekend, so I can't come along. But, tell everybody that I said 'hey."

"You know… You could try to call them?" She held out her hands in a shrug. Jasper seemed a little moody or something. Maybe he was homesick. Maybe he missed Henry, the Man Cave, hell, maybe he missed his mom. She didn't know for sure, because he wasn't telling her something.

"Yeah, I know. I just don't really have anything to say, yet. I'm working two part time jobs, pledging to a fraternity, getting my ass handed to me by entry level college classes…" He shut up abruptly. He didn't want to spend what little time he had with Charlotte whining. But, he must've needed to vent, because he couldn't help but to mutter, "Maybe, I've overshot my capabilities with this." She furrowed her eyebrows and he immediately regretted admitting that.

"I don't think that you did. I think that you're selling yourself short right now, though. What are you having problems with? I can help you study!"

"You just said like 10 minutes ago that you'd only be able to see me like once every two or three weeks!"

"Can you only study with people in person? I was gonna do so over the phone or video call or something. You can even send me images of your chapter pages (or lend me your book) and I can notate what you'll most likely be expected to know."

"That… Sounds like you putting a lot into me not failing."

"Maybe. But, I mean… If you fail, we fail. We're a team, still, right?" She made a pouting face and he melted against her.

"Of course. Char… I'm… Everything's not okay..."

She nodded her head and stroked his hair with her fingertips as he rested on her tiny shoulder. "I could tell. But… You know that it's gonna be okay, right? You don't have to do any of this by yourself, Jasper. I'm busy, but I can figure out how to make time for you." He squeezed her tightly and then actually fell asleep in the cafe, on her shoulder. He hadn't really slept well since they'd been in college and he never got the chance to lay down with her anymore and well… *Snore sounds*

"During Happy times the Leo man can bring out the most of loving side of the Taurus woman and he can boost her confidence and self-esteem too. She in turn can offer him some grounded common sense for his more airy fairy grandiose plans and she supports him through thick and thin."

Yes, Jasper worked every weekend. He did overnight stocking at a home improvement store every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. Yes, he also had classes on Monday mornings, and yes, he also had pledge things taking place during this time. His other job was simpler. He cleaned up at a tattoo shop right outside of campus Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Fortunately, all of his classes were on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

SO, if he got himself some sleep late Monday night, he slept well into Tuesday. He also slept late Wednesday into Thursday, and a few hours on Thursday night between closing the tattoo shop and Friday morning class, and a few hours Friday afternoon until his nighttime shift on Friday. Saturday mornings he slept unless he was asked to pick up a few hours at the tattoo shop. Sunday, he HAD to sleep all day, because once he got up for his night shift, he wasn't even going to see his bed again until the following night.

Charlotte had planned to spend every other weekend in Swellview, but the weekends that she stayed around campus, she asked Jasper if she could come over. He'd be asleep, but if he really wanted to sleep well, he'd NEED her there. Plus… they really didn't get that much time together, considering how close they lived to each other. Her first few visits, she was most concerned with the condition of his dorm. Not in the way that people rumored about - the crime in the neighborhood, or the alleged pests, and slow management. But… It was a mess.

When she got there on Friday, he'd told her that he'd be awake and waiting for her. He was asleep and she was fine with that. He needed that sleep, based upon his terrible schedule that she'd tried to talk him out of. She began to pick up his things and place them in mplaces that made the most sense to her. He didn't seem to have any rhyme or reason to this mess, but knowing Jasper, he probably did, or at least had gotten used to it and controlled the chaos mentally, somehow.

While she was cleaning, she accidentally woke up his computer and saw several open tabs of payments that he'd made, and a calendar where he was trying to figure out when to pay what. She took a seat in front of the screen and began to study the tabs and make some notes. She was there for a while, and eventually got up and finished cleaning. She returned to the computer a few more times along the way.

Jasper's alarm sounded on his phone and he jumped up and gasped when he saw a clean, organized room and desk. Charlotte came from the bathroom, cleaned up and a little dolled up, but in night clothes. "Hey, Sleepyhead," she said, positively glowing as she sat down next to him.

Jasper shook his head, "I'm so sorry that I fell asleep and we didn't really get to spend any time together!"

"I expected you to fall asleep. It's good, Jasper. I had a chance to get some things done for you that I suppose you haven't had the energy to do."

"Yeah. Sorry about that too. I should've cleaned up before saying you could come over. My punishment is now I probably won't know where any of my stuff is."

"It's in places that make perfectly good sense, but since I presumed that what makes sense to you is likely different from me, I made you a list." She pointed to the computer. He mouthed a thank you to the skies. "I also got all up in your financial business." He frowned. "Jasper, before we started dating, you'd ask me for help with anything in the world, from popping pimples to feeling how sweaty you are. I'm not sure why you didn't want to come to me for help with this, but whatever your reasons, I made some decisions for you. I set up a budget for you based upon what you have to pay and what you make. I set everything to automatic withdrawals from your account on dates that made the most sense. I also signed you back up for that text therapy, because you can afford it and you need it, so if that's too much of an issue, I'll just wire you the total every time. If you won't talk to me, I need to know that you'll talk to someone. Plus, I arranged for weekly grocery deliveries. There's a co-op place on campus that puts together nutritious grocery lists and you can add on or take away whatever they have for a certain additional fee. They deliver it to you at your convenience each week, even if your time slot changes. You just need to let them know at least 24 hours before the delivery. And, I've also allocated a percentage of your checks to go into savings, too. On this budget, you still wind up with an additional $200 every paycheck for whatever else."

"WHAT?"

"Yeah, you can afford to pay your bills, eat, put some into savings and still have $200 left over… if your schedule stays the way that it is for the rest of the semester with your current pay. So… buy something nice for yourself or something. You deserve it."

"No, you deserve it! Thank you for this. I wouldn't have ever thought of that and I've just been eating on the run and buying the cheapest of everything whatsoever and…" He pulled her to him and kissed her.

"So, did I earn a little… something…?" She gave him the look and he knew it was about to be ON before his shift tonight. She deserved it.

"The Taurus woman can be very possessive in love and quite jealous, but the Leo man doesn't mind this. In fact, probably enjoys it and finds it flattering. In reality he is unlikely to stray far which is reassuring for the Taurus woman who is seeking stability and commitment."

The twelve weeks that Jasper was pledging to his father's old fraternity was hell. Not even because of the frat, but because of his personal life. He had gotten a little depressed working as hard as he worked and after a while, wanted to at least do something fun. So, he asked the tattoo shop owner about possibly becoming an apprentice. He was told to create a portfolio and after that, his boss would decide.

Jasper worked on some sketches in his little free time (usually at the shop whenever he didn't really have much cleaning to do), and whenever Charlotte came over on his weekends, he drew different designs on her. "Jasper, this isn't the same thing. Drawing on skin with a pen isn't the same as when you're drawing into someone's skin with a needle…"

"I know. I just need to practice what I can," he said. Charlotte ended up with all kinds of tattoo sketch potentials on her body over the weeks.

She was in Swellview and Henry nearly passed out, "WHAT is that?" He wondered. She looked in the direction of his eyesight and saw the orisha goddess she'd requested on her side, peeking out.

She laughed and raised her shirt a little more to show him. "Have you not been paying any attention to Jasper's twitflash? He's been using me as a canvas to practice sketches for a portfolio to be a tattoo apprentice."

"That's what those were? I didn't really understand what I was looking at." He opened the app to go check it out and wound up going through liking every single one of them.

"The apprenticeship would be unpaid, of course, but I'm hoping that he gets it, because once he gets a license, he'd be able to possibly make a lot of money. College kids are always at that tattoo shop."

"Yeah, these photos have a lot of comments about how people want him to do theirs whenever they get one," Henry said.

"People, or girls?"

Henry laughed, "Aren't girls people?" She rolled her eyes. "Uh oh, I feel like I missed something."

"So. He's past pledging now and living in the frat house. It's a little cheaper than his sucky dorm that he was in, so I'm glad for that. Plus, it's more space there for him, despite all the guys that live there. Now, all of a sudden, all these women know who he is and they just… irritate me, is all."

"That's all?"

"Yep."

"Okay, then." She could tell from Henry's face that he knew that wasn't the case, but he didn't press, so she spilled it herself.

Basically, during Hell Week, Jasper and other pledges were moving their things into the frat house wearing nothing but loincloths and sandals. Their sister sorority came out to ogle them and make unnecessary comments and whatnot and post pics and videos on their socmed. Charlotte never really got into the frat boy stuff that Jasper was doing, because it was frat boy stuff and she wasn't interested. However, as Jasper is Jasper, of course, some manner of calamity has to follow him around. This particular event it manifested itself in the form of a wardrobe malfunction while he was carrying a box. Several frat brothers expressed that it would be illegal to post any images of said malfunction, though everyone present had a good laugh about it, and at least 30 girls got a good eyeful as he had to set the box down then figure out how to get that little piece of cloth back around his junk… which Charlotte discovered from all the upcoming whispers is pretty nicely sized.

She didn't have anything to compare it to, so she figured that the size was great to her, but for some reason, other people knowing what he was working with and the increase of a following that he got afterwards, unnerved her. He always had women sliding into his DMs now and he laughed it off, but she knew that he liked the attention and it frustrated her that he did.

She wasn't trying to be that way, but in her mind, what Jasper had was hers and she felt like she needed to reinforce that to others on several occasions. Whenever the sister sorority pledges had Mingle Night and Jasper had to take off work on the weekend to attend, she was frustrated that he could find it in him to ask for time off for that, but not to go to Swellview with her, any of the trips that she had made. She made one comment about it, but wouldn't dwell on it, at least not out loud, anyway.

She usually skipped parties, so the time that he would make for social events, she either had to tough out a crowd of people that she didn't really care for, or wonder how his night was going and who was taking up his time and space throughout the course of it. She was the one who had to try to make more time for them. She asked Henry if it was possible for him to visit them, for a change in October and it became a practice for her to visit Swellview once a month and Henry to visit them once a month. (Henry rarely saw Jasper whenever he did visit, though.

"Where are we going?" He'd asked as they were heading deeper into the campus.

"The outer gym," she said.

"The outer gym?" Henry repeated.

"Yeah. Jasper has Dodge-a-leen training, then kite disc practice. He'll be happy to see you!" Henry made a confused face, because did she say "kite disc" practice? "Dude, you really ought to at least glance at Jasper's social media at some point."

"I don't even really have the time to glance at mine! I've been in college, too, Dude. Studying to try to be the heir to Junk N Stuff, plus training hard and working nonstop to take up the Man Cave duties. I only study during the week, sometimes on missions, because my time is so pressed. I do most of the night patrolling by myself. If you hadn't set a call schedule for us, I'd probably talk to you just as much as I get to talk to Jasper… HELLO!" He said upon coming to the crowded seating area and seeing a bunch of pretty ladies in the bleachers. Some of them had on practice uniforms - cheerleaders, drill team, pep squad, etc. They were practicing, or having meetings. Others just seemed to be there.

"Our spot is over here," Charlotte said. She had a spot. It was where several of the "alternative sports" fans sat. Alternative sports was what they were calling what Charlotte thought of as "fake sports" or at the very least "sweaty games." Like Dodge-a-leen, which should not exist, in her opinion, but did and had an entire team that would go to competitions, representing the school. Jasper met a girl that he did a tattoo for who played something called kite disc, which was like frisbee playing, but with a damned kite attached to the discs. Players had to fly the kite and throw the disc to a partner, who in turn had to do the same. She hated it. But, Jasper immediately loved it, joined the growing league and fought for a team to be formed on the campus. She still couldn't tell if she was impressed or something else about it.

As they settled into her spot, she asked Henry, "So, if you haven't talked to Jasper, I guess he hasn't told you about his new best friend?" She pointed at a tall, blond girl who was getting the equipment ready for kite disc practice while the Dodge-a-leen team was practicing several yards away. The blond girl waved at Charlotte and she waved back, hoping that her stank face wasn't on.

"Um, no. Jasper has no new best friend, but whoever that is, is hot." Henry admitted. Charlotte rolled her eyes. "Who is she?"

"They call her Ghost. Jasper calls her Casper, because he says that she's a "friendly ghost." She's an athlete here. She loves kites and discs, so whenever kite disc was created, she jumped in and she's the reason that Jasper took on another fake sport, despite his already busy schedule. They're together A LOT. Jasper and Casper. Everyone knows he has a girlfriend, but most people think that's her."

Henry laughed, then apologized. "Well, do you like her? Is she good people?"

"She's okay, I guess. I don't really know much about her. She always tries to be really nice. She loves all the photos that Jasper posts of me and she seems to be happy to see me whenever we cross paths. But… She's super close with my boyfriend, you know? And I know that shouldn't bother me, because Jasper is capable of having a platonic friendship with a woman in very close proximity. We did that for YEARS, but then again… it eventually grew into something else and now, even that is… changing." She said the last word so sadly that it startled Henry and he looked at her, watching Jasper, sweaty and pouring water down his throat now that Dodge-a-leen practice was ending.

"Hey… You two alright?" Henry wondered. She shrugged her shoulders. He felt bad that he didn't know more about this. These were supposed to be his two best friends, and while he was grateful that he still had regular contact with one of them (he and Jasper did talk, but only in small intervals, or very spaced out conversations, the last one being weeks ago). Jasper was rushing over to Casper. They hugged and immediately started talking and laughing. Hello hugs, huh? Henry couldn't say that was weird, not knowing whatever changes Jasper had made and not knowing Casper, at all. But, she pointed over to where they were and Jasper only just noticed him. He felt a way about that. Jasper smiled and came rushing over to greet him.

"Henry!" He cheered. "What are you doing here?" He didn't hug Charlotte, Henry noticed, but maybe that was because he was all sweaty. But… he was all sweaty when he hugged that other girl. Maybe she didn't mind?

"Ummm… Visiting. You took my friend's Swellview visits away, so I gotta come all the way here to see her and I guess you too," he joked.

Jasper looked like there was a slight flinch in his face for a moment, then he nodded and said, "I'm glad you're here. Where are you gonna sleep?"

"Char's dorm," Henry said.

Now, Jasper definitely looked a way. "There's more room in the frat house. You're perfectly welcome to crash there." Charlotte and Henry both looked surprised by that suggestion. He noticed and expounded, "I know we're all friends, but we're also grown, Bro. I don't really want you and my girlfriend sleeping in the same bed." He shrugged his shoulders and kissed her on the nose. "I gotta get back. We'll talk after." He rushed down the bleachers and back to the field and Henry was still stunned.

"Was… was he serious?" Henry asked. "You and me have been sharing a bed since before you even felt comfortable using the word 'friend' to describe him and now he wants to call dibs or something?"

She sighed and shrugged her shoulders, "I mean, I guess he has a point, but it's not like with me and you anything would ever happen."

"Right. Even if either of us was remotely attracted to the other, neither of us would do that to him, or to our friendship! The nerve of him to suggest it, meanwhile, he's giving that one girl sweaty hugs in front of everybody, knowing that you're jealous of her and that people think that she's his girlfriend!"

Charlotte scoffed, "What do you mean, I'm jealous of her?"

"Don't try to play me, Dude. I saw it within five minutes."

She flared her nostrils. He was right. "Well, you know… Jasper doesn't always see the things that we see. He's you know… innocent in a way. Well, innocent isn't the right word. Naive."

"He thinks because the ladies gossip about his big old thang he's gotta come over here swinging it around?" Charlotte wanted to greet that comment with disdain, but she laughed, in spite of herself. Henry stood up, gesturing swinging around a big… package… and saying, "Don't get in bed with my girlfriend like you've been doing for most of your life. Sleep thirty minutes away at the jock campus for less smart people in the institution…"

"Henry, stop!" Charlotte said, suddenly not enjoying it anymore. "This is their campus! And… that's not even entirely true. This isn't a movie, Guy. If you wanna stay in college or on a team, even a fake sports team, you've gotta make the grades. Jasper has excellent grades. He's on the dean's list, here." Henry stopped and sat down, looking confused. "I help him study with the stuff he doesn't get and the stuff that he does get, he tends to take in right away, so…"

"You help him study science and math, right? And the dude that once said batteries was gonna be the next power source is on the dean's list?" Henry asked.

"Why do you do this to him?" Charlotte asked.

"What do I do?"

"You act like he's stupider than what he is. He's your best friend and you're talking about him like he's some brute that knocked into you at a bar."

"I think that you're maybe getting defensive. I was just fooling around. I love Jasp, you know that. It was honest fun. I'd pick with him the same way."

"Yeah, he doesn't like that. You know what he likes? Whenever people tell him he's great and awesome and they love to just be around him and don't fuss at him for getting sweat on them in his excitement to see them or crack jokes on stupid stuff that he's said impulsively, because he thought he had to answer right away. He's… already replacing you, Hen. For all we know, he's already replacing me." She messed with her fingertips. "He's not as… interested as he used to be… in… you know…" Henry frowned. He was always interested in that area of their lives, but he certainly didn't want to dive into it when they were having problems. "And I can't help but wonder if it's because here, I'M the lucky one. Here, he's a budding superstar. Everyone loves him. He's the life of the party, the heart of the team… I'm his uptight girlfriend who gets mistaken as his tutor, like all of the time, even with some of his frat brothers." She laughed a little, then wiped her eyes, feeling silly for feeling how she felt.

"Have you talked to him about this?"

"Not in these exact words. Because, they sound pathetic, right? I'm out here at practices for stuff I don't care about, just to get to spend more time with him. He has a ton of people to spend time with. I haven't made one friend since I got here. I mean… I've already got TWO! I didn't think I needed to add any, but he stays adding them in. Adding so many, I can't even figure out where I fit anymore…" She felt like she was going to start crying and looked like it, so Henry sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her to pull her in, in case she needed that. Jasper noticed, from the field and missed catching a disc, which the kite was taking away, into the sky. He quickly caught himself and grabbed a grounding shot (it was just a sticky ball, heavier than the kite that if you threw it and it stuck to the disc, it weighed it down enough to bring it back. He got it, then he looked at Henry and Charlotte again, frustrated.

Intimate relationships between Leo men and Taurus women can be a flip of the coin. Either or troubled, and not for lack of effort. The innate stubbornness of both signs tends to rear its ugly head here most frequently.

If Henry was staying at Charlotte's, so was Jasper, or if he had to ask Charlotte to stay over at the frat house to get Henry to stay, whatever, he wasn't gonna leave them alone together, though. Charlotte had been insecure lately. Jasper, to the best of his ability, tried to reassure her that he wasn't interested in any other women and that he wasn't "tired of" her. That was a ridiculous thought. Had their sex life been less powerful than when they first started? Well.. Yes, but both of them were extremely busy and they really were just kind of squeezing in sexual stuff where they could fit it. Plus, he felt like she was just doing it nowadays to thwart him from cheating or looking around - stuff he wasn't gonna do, anyway.

The best that it got for them was study sessions. Charlotte would make mock tests to help him study and they were multiple choice, which he answered by touching her in certain places. It was an amazing way to recall the information. He spent tests thinking about how it felt to touch her body and look into her eyes whenever she said an answer was correct and honestly… it was how he wound up getting all A's now. He'd never been able to do so in the past. He'd make A's in stuff he understood and be so far off on the stuff that he didn't understand that his mother thought that he was either cheating in most of his classes, or "mentally retarded at math and science," which he had to repeatedly tell her wasn't appropriate and not actually a thing. Charlotte had convinced him to take an aptitude test their junior year, but he got nervous and felt so weird about it that the results weren't accurate.

She got him to take another their senior year, at the end of the year and it was actually pretty helpful and put his talents into perspective. It made him more confident about finding some direction. Charlotte always added to his life and enhanced it. He didn't know what condition he would be in without her. He seriously thought that if they weren't together, he might be one of those people who was so filled with excitement and fervor who went into the world, got beat down and lost the light in their eyes. Instead, she magnified it. And yes, other people were noticing him, other women… but, he couldn't understand why she would think that would mean that he would notice them.

She still also had time for Henry. He hadn't been able to squeeze their best friend into his schedule, but figured that they both drifting away from him. Now, he felt like he was the one drifting away from them, and if he wasn't careful, Charlotte might wind up being Henry's light, instead. "That's crazy!" He told himself, brushing his teeth in the locker room after his shower. "That's crazy." But, if there was one man that he feared MIGHT be able to get Char's attention, it was Henry. He didn't like feeling that way, because he wasn't a jealous person, at all. In fact, Charlotte had accused him of not even caring if guys flirted with her (which technically, he didn't) because he figured that it was the same for her as for him - nonfactors. It was only when she looked uncomfortable or like she might be being harrassed that he usually jumped in, ready to defend her space and her comfort. Jasper wasn't a jealous person, no. But, he was extremely protective, especially of her. He wasn't a jealous person, until it came to Henry and her. He wasn't sure when it started, but whenever he saw them together, still happy to see each other. Still having fun, something possessive and territorial was stirred up in him.

He remembered things that he hadn't really thought about in years or cared much about whenever he had thought about them - how people used to always think they were together, how they were friends almost automatically and he tried to become friends with Charlotte because he was scared she might steal his best friend. Even though she didn't like him and never regarded him with warmth, he took a liking to her because she was Henry's friend, therefore, they had to be friends or he might not be able to spend as much time with Henry! And then there were the dreams that they were having about each other shortly before she and Jasper became a thing. He never knew for sure if Henry didn't actually have some feelings for her, the way that he kept trying to butt in when they were building their foundation. Now, they were on some shaky ground and Jasper just felt uncomfortable with Henry being there, with them like this.

He was overcompensating. He knew it, but he couldn't seem to stop himself. Charlotte… didn't seem as flattered as he was whenever she was acting crazy over him, but she didn't call him out, either. She just sort of gave him disapproving looks and rubbed his shoulders a lot to smooth him over. Henry was another story. They bickered about his behavior, then they went on to bicker about the time that they weren't spending together, and it eventually got to the point where Jasper said, "Our entire lives, I've had to be the one to always reach out to you, to come to you, to back you up and support you and be your friend. So, I decided that I was gonna focus on me a little bit more and you know what happened, Henry? We stopped being friends, because you can't even be bothered to toss me a like on Twitflash and if I don't call you first, THIS is what we have. We didn't drift apart. I stopped reaching out to you and now you're seeing just how much I was the one doing so." Jasper's fists were clenched and he added, "Charlotte's the only person who ever makes an effort for me, and just… Don't try to get in the way of that, okay?"

Henry was floored. Why would he ever try to…? Jasper got up, eyes red and damp, embarrassed and worried about how Charlotte would take that outburst. "I'm gonna go ahead and get out of your way and stop ruining everyone's good time. Call me when you get home safe." He dared a kiss on her cheek, but she was looking stunned, still. She followed him outside. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say all of that…"

She shook her head and threw her hands into the air, "Jasper… I understand that you're doing a lot of finding yourself and maybe that means that you and Hen don't make it, but… I have to admit that I'm insulted that you for whatever reason think that I don't have any autonomy in our friendship. Henry can't get in the way of what goals I set for myself. Henry can't damage something if it's something that I'm working on, and whatever issues that you have with Henry, you two can try to talk out, but leave me out of it. I'm not taking any sides of something that I have nothing to do with, with two people that I love. It's not fair."

"I said I'm sorry, Char. I'm tired. I have to go home and get some sleep."

"Okay," she said, sounding and feeling defeated. Jasper gave her a hug. A desperate, tight, but soft thing that she sank into and just wanted to vanish with him inside of. But, then it was over and he was walking away. She felt like he probably needed her to go with him and stay with him, but Henry was inside and he was the one who had traveled the three hours to see her when Jasper most of the time didn't travel the 30 minutes to do the same. She stayed with Henry and apologized for whatever that was. He brushed it off and insisted that he'd just do better, be a better friend. But, whenever he'd reach out to Jasper after that night, he was less available than before.

By the summer break, Jasper was definitely taking summer off of school, unlike Charlotte, who not only still had classes, but classes everyday. Henry wasn't taking summer classes, either. Both of them had a chance to squash everything. In fact, Charlotte suggested that Jasper spend some time in Swellview, since he'd have more time. But, Jasper didn't want to leave her when he finally had time to work on them. So, he was working and saving up for the upcoming semester, summer training for his alternative sports teams, doing community stuff with his fraternity since he was staying in the house but not in classes, and doing his apprenticeship too. His art was getting good. And people were super into getting free tats from Jasper Dunlop, aka Big Dog. Charlotte had gotten more used to sharing him with a fan base.

He began vlogging whenever he started his apprenticeship and called his channel ExJasperation, but still would use it if he ever decided to go back to podcasts. He talked about his friends, his frat brothers, his girlfriend. Charlotte didn't make the time to watch his channel, but she'd hear things about it whenever she was on the other campus, or in the frat house. She got used to sharing him with an audience. He enjoyed being noticed. He enjoyed the limelight. She just had to shrink back a little, to make sure that she didn't wind up in it. She didn't care too much for that. Not in these settings, at least.

She was doing great in her academic circles, though. Not getting close to people. It was more like being in a room full of loners who loved their fields of work and could muster up the energy to talk about that for a while, then go back to their own devices. Even her calls with Henry decreased and visits became less doable, too. Sophomore year, they spoke less and saw each other occasionally. Junior year… seldom. And Jasper hadn't really seen or talked to Henry at all, not including a few likes and comments on their social media every now and then.

Junior year marked a lot of significant changes, for all three of them.