Page 16 of Summer Breakdown (Training Seasons #2)

“That or they’d have to start Giggs, and he’s useless.

” True. Marcel continues. “We’re good enough to beat Groundhogs, even if M’Baku wasn’t out.

Tactics are good,” Marcel replies, “but do you want to win and then have people say you only won because of tactics instead of winning because we’re the better team? ”

Frankie tilts her head. “Why are you so wise? Aren’t you fourteen?”

Marcel blushes.

“When Ezra was fourteen, he—”

“Alright,” Ezra calls out. Frankie had nothing anyway. She can barely remember her childhood. Depression stole so much from her.

“Right,” Frankie says. “We run the team as normal. What’s the next thing on the agenda?”

“Nothing,” Ezra replies. “This isn’t a meeting. ”

“Fuck off, then,” she says, then slaps her hands over her face. Lani giggles, and Frankie turns to look at Jasmine. “I’m so sorry.”

She shrugs with a smile. “It’s okay.”

Ezra bends down to whisper to Lani, and then she says, “Frankie?”

“Yes, babe?”

Lani giggles, checking with Ezra, and he nods. “Swear jar.”

Frankie smiles brightly, but she will put her money in.

It does nothing to lessen the guilt that swirls in her stomach.

It’s just a swear word. There’s a chance Lani has heard it before, but she feels bad all the same.

Frankie’s not sure Jasmine likes her. Sometimes, they talk online, but only if Frankie replies to something she posted.

Jasmine never messages her. Frankie deals with her anxiety as best she can, but she wishes it didn’t feel like the end of the world right now.

“Frankie,” Jasmine says, and she snaps up to look at her. Jasmine’s closer than she thought she would be, and she has a light shimmer to her lips. Frankie wants to know if she tastes like cherries again. “Lani knows the word fuck, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

Jasmine tilts her head. She’s life-ruiningly pretty. “Get out of your head, then.”

Frankie huffs out a laugh. It’s nice to feel like she’s back there—under the stars, by the riverside, with a pretty girl’s hand in hers.

“Okay. Thank you.”

Jasmine sits down again, but she’s closer than she was before. Frankie wonders if it’s by accident or if she did it on purpose so it’ll be all Frankie thinks about when she goes to sleep.

“Mama,” Lani says, “can Ezra pick me up?”

Jasmine smiles. “If he says yes, then yes.”

Lani looks up at him, but she doesn’t need to. He’s squatting right next to her. “Ezra, can you pick me up? ”

He frowns at her. “What do I get?”

“I have a drawing in my backpack,” she replies seriously.

“I’ll need to see it.”

Lani turns in her seat and hands things to Ezra (hairbands, socks, a carton of juice, crayons) until she pulls the paper out of her bag. She shows Ezra, and he hums in thought.

“Yellow,” he replies. “Good colour.” He thinks about it, but Frankie knows he’d give her anything. Then he shrugs. “Okay.” He puts her things back in her bag and picks her up out of her chair. She’s tiny.

Ezra smiles at her when she looks around the room. He wants a child so badly. Frankie should warn Jasmine that he might steal hers.

“Did you send me the link?” Ezra asks Jasmine, and Jasmine says that she will. What link? Why are they not sharing with the class? God forbid Frankie might want something from this link.

“What about the taxes?” Lani asks. “Should I help with that?”

“What tax should we pay?” Ezra asks, and Lani frowns in thought again.

“Ma can help you,” Marcel says, typing on his phone. “She’s an accountant.”

“You can?” Frankie asks, and Jasmine shrugs.

“Sure.”

Frankie needs to see her in a suit with a clipboard immediately.

“I’ve seen the size of her house,” Ezra says. “We can’t afford her.”

“True,” Jasmine replies. She sits on the edge of the desk, crossing one leg over the other, her hands on the edge of the table and her back arched. Like she’s picked the exact pose to drive Frankie crazy. The skin of her back is out. Is that even legal in an office environment?

“When did you see her house?” Frankie asks, her eyes trained to the curve of Jasmine’s arse.

Her words come out a little more defensive than she meant them to be.

Well, than she meant to show. She likes to have an air of disinterest around her, but that disappears the moment Jasmine is in the vicinity.

There’s never been someone she craved as much.

There’s never been someone she fumbled with this badly.

“Picked her up for the quiz, Mum,” Ezra replies. “Is that alright, or would you like my whereabouts twenty-four-seven?” Prick.

“What quiz?”

Ezra rolls his eyes. Jasmine looks amused. Frankie is losing her cool.

“The one at Carl’s,” he replies. “The quiz we go to every other week.”

“Oh.” Frankie didn’t know Jasmine went this week. It would make sense, seeing as that’s how she met her. But Jasmine said she wanted to make friends, and then Frankie had discounted herself from that within hours. But Jasmine is perfect, so she made friends anyway.

“Frankie, if you go next time, we can FaceTime,” Lani says casually.

Frankie’s eyebrows rise until Ezra explains.

“Lani called Jas on Thursday, but she really wanted to talk to me.”

Lani giggles, Jasmine smiles, and Frankie is hideously jealous.

“What accounting do you need help with?” Jasmine asks. Frankie looks at Ezra expectantly, but she realises Jasmine is asking her, not him. She’s looking at her from underneath her cap. Frankie wants to kiss her.

“Did you buy that top here?” Frankie asks, in lieu of answering her question.

“Obviously,” Jasmine replies. Frankie can’t tell if she’s annoyed at her questioning. It might just be her voice. “As if we would turn up in knock-offs. Well, maybe we will, if Lani wants another one.” Her nose screws up as she tries not to smile .

“Why does it look that good on you?”

Jasmine blushes, and her cheeks look like the sunset Frankie tried to take photos of last night in the hopes that Jasmine would respond to her.

She didn’t, but Frankie liked her post of a sunset mere moments later.

She likes to pretend it means something.

Well, something other than the fact she’s a loser.

“I altered it,” Jasmine replies, smoothing it over her toned stomach. So, the way Frankie can always see a sliver of her skin is on purpose. It’s designed to torture her. “I have to tailor all Lani’s clothes because she is one apple tall.”

Frankie smiles. Now it makes sense why Jasmine’s leather trousers fit her so perfectly.

“Should we go outside?” Jasmine asks.

“For what?” Frankie replies.

Jasmine frowns. “Training. It’s today, right?”

Fuck. She hasn’t put them on the mailing list yet because they joined late, and she forgot to write it on her calendar.

“Well, you can blame me entirely because I didn’t call you and I was supposed to call you, but it’s been pushed back a week.” Frankie could train them herself, but she thinks Jasmine would hate her for it.

“Oh.”

“Because we’re crying, dying over the tax thing.

I’m really sorry.” Frankie watches for any sign that Jasmine’s hatred for her has grown in the last minute.

Frankie checks her watch. She could train them now and then fix the taxes after.

It would push getting home until about eight, but she was only going to self-loathe there anyway. She could postpone it.

“Actually,” Frankie says, looking at her phone. “I can do it now.”

“Aren’t your taxes due soon?” Jasmine asks.

Well, yes, but Frankie wonders if being in prison would be better than Jasmine being disappointed with her.

“I can teach you … if you make me another drawing,” Ezra says, looking at Lani. She’s using his forearm as a chair, sw inging her legs over the edge. “If I teach you how to spin on the grass and teach Marc how to tackle, then I won’t get stuck helping with the taxes.”

Frankie frowns. He wasn’t all that much help anyway, and at least Jasmine won’t have wasted a trip. Then, everyone looks over as the door swings open. Marcel’s eyes are wide as Kai walks in.

Fuck. Kai is a flirt. A hideous, monster-level flirt, and God, does it work. Frankie knows Jasmine only likes women, but everyone likes Kai.

“I didn’t forget!” he says, running over to her desk. “My payslip.”

Frankie smiles and tries to figure out a way to get him to go out the back. She crosses her fingers and leans them next to her thigh. Perhaps he wants to walk across the field, even though she can see his bike outside.

“Cheers,” Frankie says.

“Oh, hi!” he says, waving at Lani. Dammit. He might hate kids. Marcel would survive if one of his favourite players didn’t like him. He has two others. It’s greedy.

“Hi,” Lani replies.

“I’m Kai.”

“I’m Kehlani.” She leans closer to Ezra, but she doesn’t look nervous. She might be blushing. “But people call me Lani.”

Kai gasps. “Lani! You’re so famous to me. Mali talks about you all the time.”

Lani giggles. “She does?”

“Yeah. She was trying to decide if she should wear her pink hair or her red hair and told me you would prefer the pink.”

Kai is nice. That’s his whole thing. He’s nice, charming, and way too tall. Frankie doesn’t think he’s hot—she has eyes, and good taste—but other people think he’s hot. Jasmine might think he’s hot. She’s looking at him. Her gaze has slipped from his head to his feet and back twice already .

“I do like pink,” Lani says quietly.

Kai smiles. “Does that mean Marcel is here too?” When Lani looks behind him, Kai spins and gives a little wave.

Marcel looks like he might die. Still, Frankie is figuring out how to get Kai out without seeing Jasmine.

Marcel is sitting behind the counter on his phone.

Jasmine is on the desk. She could get this to work.

“Hi, bud,” he says, going over. “Mal says you’re joining the junior team?”

Marcel nods.

“Tight,” Kai replies. “I can’t help tonight, but I can next week. So, let me know what Ezra messes up, and I’ll teach you the right way.”

Marcel laughs. “Okay.”

Kai knocks his fist against Marcel’s and spins to wave goodbye. He’s almost at the door, then clearly spots Jasmine. He double-takes, his entire body spinning to look at her.

“Oh. Hi.”

Jasmine smiles. “Hi.”

Frankie can’t see Kai’s face from here, and she almost moves so she can. She wants to ask him something, if only to get him to stop looking at her. The jealousy is overwhelming.

“I’m Kai.”

“Jasmine.”

“Jasmine, as in Frankie’s Jasmine?” he asks, and Frankie wants to die.

Jasmine flicks her eyes over to her. Why would Kai say that?

How does—why would— ugh . She’s never talking to him again!

One minuscule conversation about a bad night out, when really, she should have shouted at him for being shit on the pitch.

One slip-up with her name and he outs her like this. She’ll bench him.

“I didn’t say that,” Frankie says.

Kai looks at her, but his entire body is still facing Jasmine. “So, not the Jasmine you’re avoiding at the quiz?”

Frankie clenches her jaw. Not what she said. Kind of what she said, but the context is necessary. For a moment, Jasmine’s brows furrow, but then she raises them instead. Before Frankie can figure it out, her face is back to neutral.

“In which case,” Kai says, holding his hand out. “Hi. I’m Kai.”

Jasmine takes it with a laugh. “I heard you the first time.”

“I just thought you should know.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I can tell you my phone number if you like,” he replies.

Frankie has seen him flirt before, but she’s never heard him.

Jasmine smiles. The smile. The one Frankie pretended was just for her.

If she stabbed herself with this pen, would anyone turn to look?

Would it stop the cosmic injustice that’s happening right now?

It might be worth it. She clicks it so the tip is sticking out.

“You should know I give fab piggybacks, and I have a first-aid certificate.”

Jasmine laughs, and Kai smiles. Ugh. They’re perfect together. Frankie will let this place burn to the ground by not paying taxes. Could she make it so Kai goes to jail? Just a quick eighteen-month stint. He’d be fine .

“Kai,” Jasmine says.

“Yes?” he replies, his voice stupid and gravely and low.

“I’m a lesbian.” Fuck, it’s hot to hear her say it out loud.

Kai throws his head back with a semi-jokey groan. “Ughhhh.” Then, he leans towards her, whispering something into her ear, and she smiles, then looks at Frankie. Her gaze slips down Frankie’s body, lingering somewhere, and Frankie doesn’t like it. Where is she looking?

“Get out of here,” Jasmine replies, with a laugh.

“Can’t believe you ruined my life by being gay,” he says dramatically, then leaves. It’s awkward. Jasmine doesn’t look at her. Frankie wants her to look at her.

“We’re going to train,” Ezra says. “Frank, tell Jas what we need.”