A/N: The week is up! New chapter, same rule: I'll take a day off the wait for every review!

Warnings: Jasper attempts to coerce Aaron into sex in this chapter. If that should trigger you, I recommend you skip this chapter.

Aaron liked kissing Jasper. Well, that was—he liked kissing, anyway. He wasn't sure about the "Jasper" part, just yet. But kissing was nice, or at least not bad. Aaron hadn't kissed a boy before...or anyone, but he was trying not to dwell on that. He'd meant to save his first kiss for the first person he liked (so, Call), but after Jasper had kissed him the other day, he'd decided he had a lot of feelings to work out, and he couldn't do that if he froze out his...boyfriend?

That's right, he admitted. Jasper's...your boyfriend.

Those words didn't sound right. Whenever he'd used the word, it was always in conjugation with "Call". Sometimes, it was in his fantasies, where he referred to Call as his boyfriend, dreaming up a summer day like the ones they'd spent at Tamara's house in Second Year. Sometimes, when he was rooted in reality, he'd remember Call was Celia's boyfriend. Either way, "boyfriend" and "Call" belonged together, in a way that "Jasper" and "boyfriend" just...didn't click.

But he could get used to this. He could.

"Call..." he heard himself mutter, inbetween one kiss and another. ...Is straight, he reminded himself. ...Likes Celia. The next kiss was harder, rougher, and full of jealousy that slipped Aaron's notice. Despite ostensibly making out with him, Aaron was barely paying attention to Jasper's presence. If he kept his eyes closed, he could almost pretend it was Call who'd lost to him.

Aaron smiled at the thought. Call was easy to provoke...He wondered how Call looked when he was hot and bothered, and he opened his eyes for a second when Jasper pulled away to breathe. Which reminded him: he was kissing Jasper. He needed to focus on that, he needed to stop thinking about Call.

Call...who had looked disgusted when Jasper had kissed him in the Refectory. Aaron knew Call didn't like PDA, and that he didn't like Jasper for that matter, but Aaron had to wonder if he wasn't a little homophobic. Sure, he supported Tamara's aromanticism, but that was easy, Aaron thought. What's the big deal about not liking anyone?

Call was straight. From his perspective, kissing boys was probably gross. Maybe he couldn't help it if he had a little ingrained homophobia, Aaron thought. He knew he was lying to himself, though. He was just trying to justify that stupid, mawkish kiss Call had shared with Celia.

Aaron gripped Jasper's arms, trying to root himself in the here and now, but he couldn't rip himself away—the thought had a stranglehold on him. Why did Call kiss Celia? He hated PDA. Aaron had thought that included PDA targeted at Call himself, but apparently not.

Jasper's movements were getting more pointed, and more desperate; Aaron could tell Jasper wanted him to pay attention, to fire back at him. Aaron had had sex with Alex Strike before, as an...exercise, or experiment, or whatever Alex had called it. But he didn't really feel up to doing it with Jasper right now. Why couldn't Jasper be satisfied with just kissing? Call would've been!

...Call's asexual, Aaron reminded himself, and then felt guilty. He was happy Call was asexual. It meant he'd never had sex with Celia. What an awful, selfish thing to think. It's not like Call would've had sex with Aaron, either. What was he thinking?

"Jasper," he said, breaking apart from the other boy. "I've gotta go—study with Tamara and Call."

"You should stay," Jasper said. It didn't sound so much like a suggestion as like an order. He was already absently (or perhaps deliberately) unbuttoning Aaron's pants, without asking.

"I really can't," Aaron said, reaching down to button up his trousers.

Suddenly, Jasper had him pinned down, one hand up his shirt.

"I want you to," he insisted.

Aaron focused on calling earth magic to him, something he, admittedly, wasn't very good at; most of his practice was with chaos magic, since everyone was focused on him defeating Constantine Madden someday.

He thought about the sole of Jasper's shoe, his foot hanging off the bed. He thought about the stone floor of Jasper's room. Merge, he thought, willing Jasper's shoe to melt into the floor and trap him there.

Aaron wasn't enough of a jerk to suck another apprentice into the void, but he was mad enough to want to. Still, he kept control of that part of himself. He didn't want to force Jasper's soul out of his body by accident, or do something else that was equally horrific. But he had no intention of having sex with Jasper, now or ever.

Pushing him to give in instead of letting him go—that was the last straw. He'd been willing to try dating Jasper, but he should've known it was impossible. He was in love with Call for a reason. Namely, that Call would never pull this sort of shit with him. Call would never do anything to Aaron that he didn't want.

"Get off me!" Aaron grunted, pushing Jasper off of him and cementing his shoe's goo as part of the floor.

"Hey!" Jasper yelled, when he realized his foot was caught in the floor. "Aaron!"

As Jasper turned to magick his foot out of the floor, Aaron got up and stomped towards the door.

"If it wasn't clear," he said in his most threatening tone, "We're done."

He slammed the door on Jasper's protests, and started running to his own dorm room. He had to find Call.

I'm in love with you!

Maybe he wouldn't be brave enough to ask Call out; maybe he wouldn't dare dream that Call could be biromantic, or willing to leave Celia. Aaron understood that he didn't have a chance with Call, but he was sick of running, and hiding, and lying to his best friend.

"No, I'm your best friend," he remembered Tamara had once said. "Get it, yet?"

Yeah, Tamara, I've got it.

Nothing was going to come of this. Hell, he'd probably just alienate Call and Celia and Jasper for the rest of their lives. And—his anger at Jasper notwithstanding—the idea of pushing his friends away, over a stupid crush, terrified him.

But he wanted this: He wanted Call, and he wanted Call to know it. After that, he could be okay with what would happen. He could let Call date Celia. He could let Tamara talk him into forgiving Jasper. He could go back to being friends with everyone. But he had to do this first.

He had to confess to Call, because if Aaron was honest, he just couldn't live not knowing whether he ever had a chance. Maybe he didn't; or maybe the moment was passed. But he had to know. And more than that, Call had to know. He could live with Call loving someone else. But Aaron couldn't live with Call thinking he loved someone else.

He loved Call.

Next time!

Aaron had been thinking about something Master Rufus had said once, when Call had asked him why, in his opinion, had Constantine Madden done all that crazy stuff? Master Rufus had said that...that was just the way people are. Being driven mad by the loss of his brother wasn't something unique to Constantine, he had posited. It was normal that a human being should be unable to love with only half their heart.

"At the risk of sounding sentimental, there are some people you just can't live without."

Stay tuned!