Page 18 of Summer Breakdown (Training Seasons #2)

“You know M’Baku has a sister, right?” Mali asks.

It’s a Thursday night, and Frankie’s brain is going a mile a minute. There’s a squeak in the sound system, her sock rolled down on her way in, and some bellend slurps their drink too loud. She wants to die.

All this to say that Frankie is at the quiz.

She’s dressed, wrote down things to ask Jasmine, and left the house, even though she had work today.

And Jasmine isn’t even here. Frankie invited her and everything.

Last time, Jasmine didn’t go and it was Frankie’s fault, so she plucked up the courage to ask her if she was going tonight.

It took her eight re-writes and twenty minutes pacing around her living room to come up with ‘hey, you going to the quiz tonight? Would be cool to see you’.

She’s the bravest person in the world. There was a time when Frankie only wanted to see her friends, but now, Jasmine has worked her way into every part of her mind.

Frankie wants to be around her, even if Jasmine’s glaring at her.

Isn’t that what it’s all about? Wanting someone to see you, even on your worst days?

To sit with you as they kill you, because at least their hand will be the last thing you hold?

Frankie read a Shakespeare play because she saw one in Jasmine’s bag. She’s not sure she understands it.

Having a heart-stopping crush is not as awful as she thought it would be.

It makes her feel like a teenager, but it’s not life-ending.

It will be; she knows that. Jasmine will break her heart, and she won’t mean to.

She’ll break her heart without knowing how Frankie takes her tea.

She’ll break her heart, and she won’t know that Frankie’s is starting to beat only for her, and she can’t even figure out how to talk to her.

“Frank?” Mali asks, looking over.

“Yeah, babe?”

“You okay?” She tilts her head slightly. In the past year, Mali had been her favourite new person. Jasmine has shoved everyone else to the ground with her arrival, but Mali is still close to the top.

“Yeah.”

“Sure? Because I’ve been trying to talk to you for at least three minutes, and you’ve been elsewhere.”

Frankie frowns. Mali would be kind if Frankie told her how her brain works, but it’s still terrifying. “Sorry.”

Mali smiles. “It’s okay. You know I love you, and I’m not telling you to leave, but if you don’t feel up to it, you don’t have to stay.”

“I know,” she replies. “Sometimes it’s good to get out, even if I don’t want to.”

Mali nods. “Okay. I’m glad you’re here.”

Frankie smiles. She has good friends. “Loser.”

Mali smiles as she takes a sip of her drink. “Glory Park emailed me again.”

“Rats,” Frankie mutters.

“If you don’t want to do it, that’s okay. We don’t need the money. But is there a reason you don’t want to do it?” Well, yes. Frankie’s ugly, and she doesn’t want to see her face plastered all over town. The likelihood she’d have anything other than a page on their website isn’t high, but what if?

Thankfully, Zach turns up before she panics and tells Mali every bad thought she’s ever had just so she doesn’t think Frankie doesn’t like her.

“Hey,” Zach says, but he’s only talking to Mali. Rude fucker. Then, his hand grasps the back of her head as he pulls her into a kiss and, well, at least that’s just for Mali .

The kiss lasts longer than usual. Frankie’s sure she saw the glint of Mali’s tongue. She smiles. Tomorrow morning, Mali will tell them about some freaky sex they had.

“Zachariah,” Frankie says in greeting, when Zach finally sits down. His eyes are wide, like he hadn’t seen her there.

“Coach,” he replies, and swallows. He doesn’t even call her out for calling him that. She rolls her eyes as Ezra pulls onto the bench next to her.

“Coach?” Ezra asks. “We’re not within two metres of the training ground.”

“They had a make-out session and now Azan’s embarrassed because he didn’t notice me,” Frankie replies, and Mali giggles, leaning against him. Ezra sits next to her but without Cam.

“Cam not coming?” Frankie asks, and Ezra frowns. Oh no. She knows that frown. Cam is coming, and she’s bringing Andrew. Frankie shouldn’t have come.

Mali’s eyes widen, and Frankie wants to know why, but perhaps the girl from the bar who’s been checking her out will be looking at her and think it’s an invitation to come over.

Frankie isn’t great at turning people down, and God forbid she goes home with someone just so they aren’t offended.

Frankie usually sleeps with a different woman each week, but she hasn’t looked at someone twice since Jasmine turned up.

Then, Jasmine walks past, and Frankie should have known.

Holy hell. Her hair is blown out into bouncy waves around her face.

With her lips and her hoops, she could be the hottie in a nineties R&B music video.

Frankie was never more obsessed with anyone than she was with them as a teenager. Jasmine’s overtaken them too.

“You’re so unreasonable,” Mali says, and she’s correct. Jasmine is. Frankie would tell Mali she’s unreasonable too, but she’s not saying it in a self-deprecating way. Mali is gorgeous, and she knows that. It’s one of Frankie’s favourite things about her .

“Me?” Jasmine asks. She truly could be a goddess.

It would make so much sense. The slope of her jaw, the slight tension of her arms. The way she moves looks like she could stand in a museum for hours.

Frankie’s gaze slips, and Jasmine’s ribcage is right there, illuminated by the shitty overheard lights.

Jasmine is wearing a baggy vest. Well, it’s hotter than that, but she doesn’t have the right words.

She thinks it’s made from silk, and it means she can see her ribs, the band of her bra, and the side of her chest.

She’s killing Frankie slowly.

“Yes,” Mali replies.

“Why?”

Mali pouts. “You’re too hot.”

Jasmine laughs. “If I didn’t think Zach would take me out at the knees, I would have hit on you already,” Jasmine says, and Frankie doesn’t like it one bit.

Mali beams. “Really?”

Jasmine winks, and it hits Frankie square in the gut, and somewhere else. Zach rests his arm over Mali’s shoulders.

Without looking at Frankie once, Jasmine slides in next to Ezra. Frankie thinks about how to off herself with the beer mat she’s been rolling between her fingers.

“God, must you take up so much space?” Jasmine asks, and he pushes her back out of the booth. They act like siblings. “Ezra!”

“Bar time. Take my seat.”

“Did the kids go off okay?” Mali asks.

“Yeah,” Jasmine replies, as she folds her jacket and moves to put it on the back of the booth. She accidentally elbows Frankie in the arm.

“Oh my God, sorry,” she says, her eyes wide. It’s possible she didn’t know Frankie was here at all. Ezra is massive and blocks most people’s view.

“It’s alright.”

Jasmine blinks rapidly, then spins until she’s facing Mali again.

Her hands are tight against her thighs, and Frankie really shouldn’t have come.

Frankie wants to figure out what to say.

What she could ask her that would get them to have a conversation.

Perhaps Jasmine has put up a story recently and Frankie could reply to that to see if she smiles when the notification pops up?

Like Frankie does when Jasmine replies to her.

“Hi!” Cam says, just as Frankie was about to ask Jasmine if she was okay. God, why does she get the hardest struggles?

“Hi, babe,” Jasmine says. Jasmine doesn’t use babe . Frankie frowns, mainly at that, but then Andrew is in her view. “Oh, hi.”

“Hey,” Andrew says, with a toothy smile. Frankie hates him. “You’re new.”

“This is Jasmine,” Cam says, pulling her jacket off. She’s in a sweatshirt, as if it’s not twenty-three degrees at eight p.m. Andrew is a loser. “Jas, this is Andy.”

“Nice to meet you,” Jasmine replies. They sit down, and it’s almost awkward, but it might all be in Frankie’s mind. She spends her life in a state of being awkward. Jasmine taps the seat, but to be fair, that might be Frankie’s fault.

“Mike was fine?” Mali asks, after thirty-two seconds of silence. Jasmine leans back.

“He was a knob, but what else is new?”

Frankie wants to know what’s wrong and how Mali knows he might have been a knob and Frankie doesn’t.

“Who’s Mike?” Andrew asks.

“My children’s father,” Jasmine replies, pushing her hair over her shoulder.

Andrew’s gaze slips down Jasmine’s body so slowly that Frankie can’t be sure she’s not seeing things. She frowns, barely resisting the urge to wave her hand in front of his face.

“You bounced right back, huh?” he asks, with a smile. Frankie flinches, and the sudden overwhelming need to punch him in the gut stirs within her. She flicks at her fingers instead. She wishes she had a pen because at least then she could draw him with a busted lip .

Jasmine swallows thickly. She shuffles in her seat with a polite smile.

“Andy,” Cam replies, with a jokey scoff.

Cam is Frankie’s favourite thing. Frankie does nothing without Cam’s advice, and Cam can’t make a Victoria sponge cake without calling Frankie for the measurements, even though she owns a bakeshop.

But Frankie has no idea what happens to her when Andrew is around.

Cam broke up with her boyfriend in secondary school because he winked at someone in front of her, but she puts up with this?

“What?” he asks. “It’s a compliment.”

“It’s creepy, man,” Zach replies. He pulls Mali closer to him, and Andrew’s face falls. He wants Zach to think he’s cool, and it’s desperately disgusting.

It’s awkward again. Where is Ezra?

Jasmine riffles in her purse and passes Frankie a pencil. She frowns as she takes it because the quiz hasn’t started, and Frankie’s never the scribe anyway. She thinks of the answers too late and there’s a high chance she won’t think of anything other than the slope of Jasmine’s nose.