Page 77 of Summer Breakdown
She frowns. “Marcel, you want the double-chocolate one?”
“I’ll get one in a sec, Lan.”
“‘Kay,” she replies, focusing on holding both the cookies and walking over. Jasmine clenches her jaw. Her walking is steady. She’s fine. Unless she gets distracted or tries running. Everyone watches her, but she doesn’t seem to care; she just puts one foot in front of the other. Then, before she knows it and before she’s taken a breath, she’s right in front of her.
Jasmine bends down, her hand against her lower back, and she takes a bite of the cookie in her hand because she knows it’ll make Lani laughs “Thanks, baby. You feeling okay?”
“Yeah,” she mutters, leaning against her a little. “Like a green-orange mix.”
Jasmine hums, taking the cookies from her. “Let’s find you a seat.” The doctors said her walking might get worse. That she might be in a wheelchair permanently, but thatthere were no timescales. Jasmine is trying to walk the line of making sure she’s not in pain and not giving up her independence prematurely. Lani doesn’t walk enough that Jasmine thinks she’ll miss it, but being in a wheelchair makes her life harder, even if it shouldn’t.
She spins to place the cookies on the desk behind her. Frankie’s office door opens, and Lani spins.
“Frankenstein!” she squeals. Jasmine knows she’s gone running before she can even turn back around. She’s fast for a four-year-old with mobility issues. Jasmine is always terrified of embarrassing her by telling her to slow down or stop running. She just wants to be a child. There’s already so much she has to deal with.
It works out most of the time, but there’s the odd occasion where she regrets it. This is one of those times. Lani’s leg gives way, and she’s not close enough. Jasmine moves. Ezra moves. Marcel moves. But ultimately, they didn’t need to. Frankie’s hands are under her arms before she’s anywhere near the ground. To anyone else, she won’t even look like she fell.
“Hey, monster girl,” Frankie says. Ezra keeps moving, but Jasmine won’t blame him when he sits next to Cam. She takes the wrap from his hands and rolls her eyes. Ezra smiles at her, and she leans closer.
Lani blows out a breath. “Good catch.”
“I’m the best at catching.”
Lani giggles. “‘Kay.”
“‘Kay. Did you get me a cookie?”
Lani shakes her head, and Frankie gasps. “I thought we were best friends?”
“I didn’t have enough hands,” she pouts, and Frankie won’t know she’s sad about it. Her precious, far too empathetic, tiny child.
“Come with me to get one now?”
Lani nods with a smile. They take a single step towards Cam. She unrolls the tape and wipes Ezra’s shoulder down alittle too thoroughly for someone that doesn’t have a crush. Jasmine’s not sure she’s allowed to ask.
“Hey, babe,” Frankie says, as Cam rolls Ezra’s shoulder back.
“Hey, girl,” she replies, then looks up at Ezra. “Here?” How is Cam not aware of how Ezra looks at her? She pulls the backing off the tape with her teeth, and Ezra moves her hair out of the way. It feels like she’s looking at a romance scene, with the way his hand lands on her jaw and she smiles at him.
Frankie looks around, her eyes finally landing on Jasmine. Jasmine keeps her face neutral, as if she hasn’t been desperate for Frankie’s gaze since she walked in. Jasmine smiles as she goes to move, but Cam asks Lani a question, and Jasmine barely stops her groan.
“What top did you pick?”
Lani thinks about it. “Mama let me pick two, and only two, so you have to whisper.” Jasmine decided buying the tops when they would be handed them anyway was bad finance.
Cam laughs. “Two is so many! You’re so lucky. But we’ll whisper.”
“Because Zach will be sad if he knows I didn’t get his one,” Lani says, not whispering. Jasmine looks over at where Zach’s hugging Mali, entirely engrossed in this T-shirt conversation. He smiles because Lani is cute. Well, she’s assuming it’s because she’s cute, because she is.
“He’d understand,” Cam whispers back. They’re all bad at it. It makes Jasmine smile.
“I got an Ezra one and a Johnson one,” she says. Kai cheers from behind them, and Lani looks over at him. “Oops.” Lani has a baby crush on Kai, and it’s the sweetest thing that has ever happened in Jasmine’s whole life. Lani pouts, and Jasmine knows she’s feeling bad about Zach. Had she known she’d look so sad about it, she would have bought her another one. Even though the price of sports tops is extortionate, and she’ll grow out of it by next year.
Zach walks over to grab a cookie, but he ducks until he’s in Lani’s eyeline. “You could never make me sad.”
Lani looks at him. “Promise?”
He draws a cross over his chest, and Lani laughs, even though she clearly has no idea what he’s talking about. She holds her arms out, and he steals her right out of Frankie’s arms. It means Frankie has no reason to be near Cam, so Jasmine is hoping she immediately ditches her best friend to come and talk to her.
