Page 42 of Summer Breakdown
Jasmine shrugs. “She was nice, but she wanted to come back to mine, and I wasn’t into it.” Oh. She’s been on dates that resemble their date, and their date wasn’t even a date. Frankie taps her heel so she doesn’t descend into panic. It’ll work if this conversation ends immediately.
“Why not?” Mali asks. “I can’t be the only one sharing my sex life.”
“Wait,” Cam says. “I need to pee. Hold that thought!” She runs, but Andrew doesn’t care about her.
“Because she doesn’t have a dick. You know that’s what you’re missing, right?” Andrew says, like Jasmine is going to suddenly realise she’s straight because a bloke she met thirty seconds ago wants her to fuck him.
“Andrew,” Frankie says, leaning against the table. His eyes widen slightly. Frankie’s never talked directly to Andrew before. “I will beat the shit out of you if you don’t leave her alone.”
4. She’s not very good at it.
Jasmine laughs, looks down at her lap, then looks over at Frankie.
“Alright, Rocky,” she says quietly, but she’s smiling, so Frankie might buy some boxing gloves. Jasmine’s ankle rests against her shin.
“Jas,” Andrew starts again, and Jasmine chews on her lip. Frankie spins her pencil like a weapon.
“What’s up?”
“If you have kids, surely you can’t be a lesbian.”
“Andrew, she’s a fucking lesbian,” Zach responds, typing on his phone then showing something to Mali. “Ask her another question about it, and I’ll let Frankie knock you out.”
Andrew scoffs. “Just a question.”
“You can’t ask someone you don’t know about their children,” Mali says.
“Why the fuck not?” Andrew replies, with a tone that should be criminal to use with Mali.
Zach places his beer down with a thump. “Andrew.”
“Yeah, bro?” Loser.
“Keep talking to Mali like that and I’ll break your kneecaps.” God, one of these days Zach will hulk out on someone that dares brush past her and it’ll change Frankie’s life.
Andrew laughs. Zach doesn’t.
“I’m not joking.”
Andrew scoffs, getting up to go find Cam or hopefully just leave. Jasmine wrings her fingers in her lap. Frankie leans forwards to move Jasmine’s hair from her face with shaky fingers. When Jasmine turns to look at her, Frankie says, “You’re allowed to ignore him. We all do. You don’t owe him your story just because he demanded it.”
Frankie’s never had to deal with people questioning her sexuality out loud because she’s never been anything other than “aggressively gay,” as her mother would call it. But she remembers feeling bothered when she thought people were questioning it. Frankie’s free hand stays behind Jasmine’s neck, so she should feel Jasmine looking at her drawing, but she doesn’t. Frankie defines the jaw, the curve of her lip, the curls in her hair.
“Is that me?” Jasmine asks quietly. Frankie freezes in her movements. Is it? Well, yes. Of course it is. Everything she’s drawn recently is Jasmine, or things that remind her of Jasmine.
“Uhm,” Frankie starts, and her hand drifts down Jasmine’s back.
“It’s beautiful,” Jasmine says. “I don’t know any fancy art words, but I know I like it enough that I’d like to see you draw absolutely anything.”
Frankie smiles. “It is you. So, it’s probably not my skill. There’s really no other way for you to look.”
“It’s very flattering.”
Frankie frowns. “It’s not flattering, it’s accurate.”
“Lani is trying to improve her drawing,” Zach says casually, taking a sip of his beer. It drags Jasmine’s attention away from Frankie and for the first time since she looked at her, she can breathe properly. “We saw this colouring set the other day. It comes in a yellow case – can we get it for her?”
Frankie watches as Jasmine tries to play it cool. It doesn’t work all that well.
