Page 33 of Summer Breakdown (Training Seasons #2)

There’s a child standing behind the register. Jasmine is pretty sure the Titans wouldn’t be supportive of child labour, but the fact remains that there is a child behind the register. A child that can’t find her shirts. A child that won’t look at her for more than two seconds.

“It’s alright,” she says. “I’ll get them another time. Can I still get—“ She stops talking because people in the queue behind her gasp. They’ve been scoffing at her for holding them up for at least three minutes. She spins and sees the reason for their excitement.

Ezra. God, he really is massive.

“Ezra!” Lani says. He picks her up before she even has a chance to get her arms up.

They decided not to bring her wheelchair in today because it’s the first time a game has been at the weekend, so it’s packed in here.

Between sitting for the game and the drive, she’ll be fine to walk for a little while.

Still, Jasmine’s been nervous. Lani hasn’t had a fall in a while.

She knows that’s not how it works, but it feels like she’s waiting for her to get hurt.

Ezra throws her far too high into the air, and Jasmine frowns at him. He doesn’t know she’s panicking, but still. She almost hit the ceiling fan. If the ceiling fan was ten feet lower, Lani would have been chopped.

“Don’t tell Mum,” he whispers, and Lani wraps her arms around his neck. “You coming through? ”

Jasmine wasn’t sure if they should. They’re her friends, but it’s game day.

There’s also a tiny part of her that’s nervous.

Frankie hasn’t acted on her kiss, which is fine.

Jasmine’s not spiralling about it, but she is hoping Frankie will act on it, if that’s what she wants.

Jasmine wants to know if she wants to act on it.

There was hope that she’d run to her after training or something.

Perhaps she’d turn up at her house in the middle of the night and confess she couldn’t sleep without telling her she was thinking about her too.

But Frankie isn’t like her. Jasmine knows that.

So, she’s giving her time. She likes Frankie a lot.

Sometimes, when she’s trying to fall asleep, she thinks about her too much.

It drifts from fantasies about the moment she finally puts her hands on her, to what she’d do if they took the kids to the zoo, to waking up with her every morning.

Ezra holds Lani by her arms, and she shrieks with glee.

“Are you trying to maim my child?” Jasmine replies, then turns to see the other cute child looking up at Ezra in awe.

“That kid wants a photo with you.”

Ezra bends down to take a photo, holding Lani away from the camera.

He holds the back of her jumper with his hand, and she dangles facing the floor, cackling like this is something they’ve done before.

She’s going to send him an email about it later.

When Lani is back the right way up, Jasmine takes a deep breath, grabs the flowers she bought, tucks them under her arm, and follows them through.

“Hey, champ,” Ezra says, wrapping an arm around Marcel’s shoulder. He doesn’t seem to care that everyone else is gawping at him. Jasmine’s not sure she knew how famous he was. There’s a whole section of the country that would recognise him. Wild.

When they walk through to the back office, the energy is electric. Mali is painting a nine on her cheek. Zach is topless. Kai is topless. There are far too many topless men. Jasmine frowns. Frankie’s not topless. She’s not even here. The flowers feel heavier now.

Marcel is already in conversation with Kai about something, and Lani is talking at Zach as Mali paints her face.

She’s probably in the queue for her own face to be painted.

It’s nice. Even if she wants to look for Frankie through the blinds.

Everyone appears to have a pre-game ritual, and Jasmine wants to know what Frankie’s is.

“Is Frank in her office?”

“Yeah,” Mali replies, “but she likes to be alone before a game.”

“Oh. Okay,” Jasmine says. She’ll put the flowers in water and leave them on her desk later. No big deal. Ezra comes over and sits next to her. He pulls his top off too. He’s stupidly sized.

“What’s up?” he asks quietly, as he unwraps some body tape. Jasmine wonders if he wants her to do it for him. She has no idea how, but she could google it. “And don’t say nothing, because we got twenty minutes till we gotta go.”

Jasmine sighs. “Frankie’s ruining my life.”

“Because she’s not kissed you back?”

She pulls at her lips. “She might have.” Kissing her in front of everyone had been such a good plan. It was romantic, and honestly, she’d been waiting for a chance to kiss her. She thought Frankie would have done something about it by now. It’s been, like, four full days.

“Bro, if she had plucked up the courage to kiss you, I would have heard about it a million times.”

“She wants to,” she asks quietly, “right?”

“Yeah,” Ezra says. “It’s all she talks about, and she’s beating herself up about being too pussy to do it.” Jasmine wants Frankie to talk about it with her. It doesn’t matter if she won’t kiss her right now; she just wants to know what’s in her head.

“Anything else?” he asks .

“Not unless you want me to complain about how hot she is, or if you have anything to talk about.”

“You’re intolerable,” he replies, and Jasmine gasps.

“Did you finish Atonement ?”

“Almost. No spoilers.”

“It’s hundreds of years old,” Jasmine replies, but she wouldn’t dare.

“Okay, and…?”

“Distract me.”

“I’m almost done with Lani’s jumper.” Jasmine is ridiculously excited. Of course Ezra knits. Lani might end up liking him more than her.

“Can you write me a recommendation letter?” he asks.

“Sure. What for?”

The door swings open, and even though it’s not Frankie’s office door, Jasmine hopes it’s Frankie. She’s not disappointed when it’s Cam. Especially not when she looks like she has snacks.

“I’ll tell you later.”

“Hi!” Mali shouts, as she paints a two on Lani’s cheek.

“Hi, hot stuff,” Cam replies, kissing Mali on the cheek. “Babygirl!” She kisses Lani on the cheek too. She walks over and hugs Jasmine before placing the treats on the table.

“Cato,” Ezra says, with a frown. It’s playful. Jasmine thinks it’s playful, but honestly, his face rarely changes. “Did you bring cookies, or are you just here to ignore me?”

“Cookies?” Lani asks, wiggling in Zach’s arms. He doesn’t seem to notice, and he doesn’t put her down.

“Zach,” Jasmine says, and he looks at her.

“If you don’t put her down, she’s going to bite you.

” Scandalised, Zach looks at Lani, and she laughs.

She won’t bite him, but she does want to get down.

He places her on the floor and looks terrified about it.

Lani has walked in front of most of them, and it’s just a few steps.

Jasmine likes that he cares about it. Jasmine tries not to watch her walk.

She can walk just fine. They do physical therapy. She’s fine .

Cam meets her halfway. “What flavour would you like?”

Lani thinks about it, but Jasmine knows she’ll get double-chocolate. Her legs shake a little, but not enough to intervene. Ezra takes a step forwards.

“Ezra,” Jasmine whispers, holding onto his arm. He steps back, and she smiles at him. He doesn’t know.

“Do you want to sit down?” Cam asks, looking worried, as if her falling isn’t just one foot onto a carpeted floor. She would hurt herself, though, so Jasmine appreciates that they’re looking out for her, even though she’s right here.

“I’m okay,” she replies. “We didn’t bring my chair because it’s busy. My legs always shake a bit. Double-chocolate, please.” Cam hands her one wrapped in a napkin. “Uhm, and can I please have a white chocolate and strawberry one for Mama?”

“Sure!”

“And—“

“Lani,” Jasmine says. “You can only carry two at once.”

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 that there 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.