Page 26 of Summer Breakdown
“Frankie!” Lani shouts, with a wave.Dammit.Lani only spoke to her for like four minutes, but she probably can’t see Ezra from her chair because he’s kneeling on the ground.
Frankie looks over. She looks good. At the open day, she was in uniform, and Jasmine had thought about it as she’d went to sleep. Shorts aren’t supposed to look that good. It’s like an unwritten rule. Now, Frankie is in baggy dark grey cargos and a tight white top. She should look like a janitor. Jasmine is desperately trying to force the image of a mop into her hand, but she knows there’s nothing bad about being a janitor, and the shovel is only making it worse for Jasmine. And Frankie’s too fucking hot anyway.
Frankie looks over, and for a moment, Jasmine hopes she doesn’t recognise Lani. They only met for a moment, and then Lani met Ezra and didn’t care about anyone else.
But Frankie waves back, and then her body twists as if she’s going to come over. She drops her shovel on the ground, and Jasmine wants to ask Mali what they’re doing, but she’s gone to take photos of Zach. Fair, but now Jasmine is about to be semi-alone with Frankie. At least she has Lani.
“Ezra!” Lani shouts, when he stands up. He looks over with a frown, and even though his face doesn’t change, Jasmine thinks he’s glad it’s Lani. She waves, and he might wave back, but Frankie is so close that Jasmine can see the sweat drip into the dip ofher neck.
“Hey,” Frankie says, when she stands in front of them. Jasmine smiles. She’s not rude. She can ignore Frankie while acknowledging she exists.
“You okay?” Lani asks, with a smile. She’s Jasmine’s favourite thing under fourteen. Her little watch, her sunglasses, and her bucket hat. She’s adorable.
“I’m okay, thanks babe,” Frankie replies. She lifts her top to wipe across her forehead, and Jasmine’s stomach bloats with how hard she keeps her sigh to herself.
“You okay?” Frankie asks. “Where’s Marcel?”
“Yes, thank you,” Lani says. “Marc is at school. We just came to… Mama?” Lani loves to start a conversation she has no intention of completing.
“We came to check how many steps we had to walk up,” Jasmine says, looking at how those steps they’d been planning for no longer exist instead of Frankie. “We like to be prepared, but maybe I’m remembering it wrong.” She pulls her lip between her teeth. The entire time she was here before, she’d been vibrating with annoyance and possibly hallucinating to make the place look worse. She looks at Frankie, who blushes. Jasmine tries not to kick her in the shin.
“Oh,” Frankie says, her hand in her pocket. The sun is in Jasmine’s eyes, which is why she’s frowning at her. Frankie moves slightly until she blocks it from Jasmine’s view, and now she’s glaring at her for other reasons. “Well, it’s not ready yet, but it will be by game day. Do you like it?”
“Are you stalking me?” Ezra asks. He’s still ridiculously sized, but he has thrown a T-shirt on.
“Yes,” Lani replies, and Ezra laughs loudly. Lani asks, “You okay? What are you doing?”
Ezra smiles. Jasmine thinks he smiles. It might be a tick. “Fixing the path. Why aren’t you at school?”
“I’m too clever,” she replies. “They said I didn’t need to go.”
Frankie laughs quietly. Jasmine only notices because she hasn’t stopped looking at her.
“And I’m only four,” Lani says.
“Loser,” Ezra replies, and Lani cackles.
When her shoulders have stopped moving with laughter, she asks, “Are you busy, or can you push me around the grass?”
Ezra hums. “How about you come help me?”
“I’m already tired,” she replies.
Ezra shrugs. “Okay, but it means I can’t hook the grass seed to the back of your chair and run you around the field.”
Lani squeals, bouncing in her chair. “I want to do that! Yes, please.” Then she looks over, remembering she came here with Jasmine and she’s abandoning her. “Mama, please, can I go?”
“Yeah, baby.”
Jasmine watches Ezra push her, but Lani could have wheeled herself. It’s a perfectly angled path. Well, it’s mud right now, but Jasmine assumes that’s what the concrete is for.
“There were steps here, right?” Jasmine asks, before she can realise it’s just her and Frankie. She should have walked away. Still, she turns to look at her under the guise of looking for Lani, but Frankie is already looking at right her. She’s been caught, but Frankie doesn’t call her out on it.
Instead, she blinks, looking at the ground, the seats, anywhere but Jasmine.
“There were steps,” Frankie says, her hands in her pockets, pushing her shoulders up. It makes her trousers bag at the waist, and Jasmine sees a flash of underwear. It’s unfair how hot she is for her. Mali is beautiful. Why can’t she have these thoughts about Mali? “But Ezra said Lani was going to train, and she’ll need to get on the field from this side.”
“Oh. She can walk.”
