Page 129 of Summer Breakdown
“Where you been, loca?”
Frankie laughs, her head back. “I knew I shouldn’t have let you watchTwilight. Oh my God.”
Marcel sits at the table, and Frankie places Lani down.
“Let me make tea, and then catch me up,” Frankie says. Jasmine has already clicked the kettle on. “Lan, are you having cereal?”
“Please.”
“Marc?”
“I had toast,” he replies. “But, sure, why not.”
Jasmine could sit down, but she likes watching Frankie move around. Everything is second nature to her, even if she wasn’t here. She picks her favourite mug, and Jasmine’s. She grabs the kids’ ones and makes the tea as she hums along to the music Marcel is playing from the speaker.
“You’re staring,” Frankie whispers. She loads the teapot, milk, and sugar onto a tray.
Jasmine grabs the mugs. “I know.”
Frankie smiles. “I love you.”
“I know that, too.”
The moment they sit down, Marcel starts talking.
“I went to Tabitha’s for dinner.”
Frankie’s eyes widen. “Tell meeverything.”
Jasmine adores how she’s not faking it. She truly wants to know everything about him. If Frankie got her own way, she’d make them replay the entire time she missed.
“I saw her room.”
Jasmine laughs as Frankie’s eyebrow arches. “With parental supervision?”
“Oh my God, you’re like Mum,” Marcel groans. “The door was wide open, and I sat on the floor.”
Frankie laughs, pulling Jasmine closer with her hand against her thigh. “Good.”
Marcel puts some cereal into a bowl and then passes it to Lani. “Tab is bi.”
“Cute,” Jasmine replies. Kids are much more open now than they were at her age. Frankie reaches for her hand.
“It’s annoying.”
“Excuse me?” Frankie says, and Marcel’s eyes widen.
“No—not for that!”
Frankie squints, but she’s playing. “Why, then?”
He groans. “I’m used to my friends fancying Ma because—“
“She looks like a goddess, yeah,” Frankie replies, and Jasmine laughs, resting her head against Frankie’s shoulder. She’s so ridiculously happy she might burst into pure sunlight.
“Yeah. So I was expecting Tab to like her face too, and I had prepared myself. But she has a poster of you in her room, and it’s ruining my life.”
“Me?” Frankie asks. Jasmine loves when people talk about Frankie being beautiful. Jasmine saying it won’t mean as much because Frankie will think she’s saying it because she loves her—which she does, but it’s true too. Tabitha is a fourteen-year-old with no desire to lie to Frankie and probably doesn’t actually want Marcel to mention it at all. Jasmine can see the blush on Frankie’s cheeks. She’s so fucking cute.
