“I did it with Kyre last night…” Jasmine’s voice was cracking a little bit on the phone, tears were rolling down her eyes, “he didn’t wear a rubber, I don’t know if I’m going to get my period.”

April was on the other end of the receiver, her voice was cracking too, “I don’t know if we can buy a Plan B but I can get one of my cousins to get it for you. Don’t feel bad Jasmine, you okay?”

April went from high end accomplice on a crime to innocent, protective angel real quick. She wasn’t sure about what type of trouble they were about to get in or what was going to come from Jasmine’s actions.

“No, I should be fine. Let’s not worry about it, you got some weed?” Jasmine started laughing as she wiped the tears away from her eyes, she was experiencing all kind of emotions from shame, to sorrow, to pure bliss - it was a lot to take in all at once.

“YOU KNOW I GOT YOU.” April was too enthusiastic on the other end of the phone, “You want to link right now?”

The moon was hanging high and tight in the sky, Jasmine was sitting on the floor of bedroom staring out of her window just thinking, “Why the fuck not hoe?”

April was laughing to herself, “let’s go.”

“BABY MAMA,” Kyre was walking through the brambles of the woods with his arms out ready to give Jasmine a hug, “I MISS YOU ALREADY GIRL, YOU GOT MY HEAD FUCKED.”

Jasmine started laughing, April was sitting on a log lighting a blunt, “I didn’t tell you he was coming because I didn’t want you to stay in the house, but he did match me.”

Jasmine started to laugh to herself, “April, you didn’t have to.”

“I did though, I wanted you to see him - I know you love the fuck out of him girl, get high and give him a kiss, that’s your man.” April was instigating, she was trying to see something nasty happen to be honest.

Jasmine wasn’t in the mood to display public affection so she took the blunt from April and started to chief it, she passed it back to April and then looked at Kyre in the eyes, “Where’s Carl? We can’t be the only ones in love.”

“Carl is handling something,” Kyre looked down at the ground beneath them and began to think to himself, “I’ll let him know his good friend April need some attention,” then Kyre patted April on the back before they took the time to laugh at their inside joke.

“Thank you Kyre, and you’re going to treat my good friend Jasmine here well, right?” April was laughing looking at Kyre, but she had a hint of seriousness inside of her.

“You know it, I’m not about to let her down, I care about her.” Kyre was smiling back with wide eyes, “let’s not ruin this high.”

The first day in Jasmine’s new favorite gym class couldn’t come fast enough. Jasmine was more than enthusiastic to meet with Kyre and couldn’t wait to show off her new boyfriend. She changed into her gym clothes and then as directed, she lined up on the wall with the other half of her class for a good game of dodgeball. Jasmine had just ate the spaghetti and meatballs, she knew it was still sitting on her stomach so she tried her hardest not to run too much.

The other kids were excited, Kyre was playing on the opposing team and he had Carl with him, they were tossing balls to the other side of the gym with ease. Most of the females were feeling a sense of annoyance with how aggressive they were chucking the balls, but Jasmine didn’t mind.

One of the boys from Jasmine’s previous class with Riana was in there with her, his name was CJ. Jasmine didn’t care for him because he was a star football player that felt he could get anything he wanted just because he was cute. CJ was a jokester, he didn’t mind her attitude towards him and for whatever reason this dodgeball session was the perfect place to have a heated discussion, “AYE, I HEARD JASMINE FACE WAS IN KYRE BOXERS, IS IT TRUE?” CJ yelled to the entire class.

The other kids started laughing, Kyre was feeling a sense of shame, “STOP, WHY YOU BRINGING THAT UP IN HERE?” Kyre was ready to peg him with the ball on purpose but CJ was too fast, his football abilities kept him too agile for the average male.

“FACE IN THE BOXERRRRRS,” CJ was teasing Kyre as Jasmine fell out of the game completely. Jasmine was feeling a sense of shame, she threw her body up against a wall and began to tear up. She was trying hard not to cry when one of the girls walked up to her.

“You can’t sit here,” the girl whispered, “you can’t fail for class today, just walk around, don’t let CJ get to you.” The girl was hissing under breath, but she was right. Jasmine slowly started to stand up, knowing she was being rescued, and looked Kyre in the eyes.

“WHY YOU TELL OUR BUSINESS?” Jasmine blurted out among everyone, Kyre dropped the ball and then began to walk towards her. CJ was laughing hysterically hard to himself in the corner, not paying Jasmine any attention. CJ found the entire scene to be hilarious.

“FACE IN THE BOXERRRRRS,” CJ was still dying laughing to himself as he kept saying the line out loud, Kyre was growing angrier and angrier but his primary attention was on Jasmine, trying to get her to relax.

Carl stopped playing as well to approach CJ, “Who you talking about?” Carl stood in CJ’s face, CJ looked at Carl eye to eye before the gym teacher walked over to spit the boys up.

Jasmine sat on the wall crying in Kyre’s arms trying to pull herself together, “you bragging on me” she was wailing into his chest, “why would you brag on me like that, it’s nobody’s business. I trusted you. You fucking FAKE. I HATE FAKE PEOPLE.” Jasmine began to scream.

Kyre leaned in close to Jasmine trying to caress her, the gym teacher ran towards him as well, “Leave her alone, Jasmine dismiss yourself to the bathroom now.” Miss. Jen was a lean white woman played soccer for 15 years straight, she was wearing her infamous green and white striped Nike jumpsuit, the whistle she always blew almost hit Kyre in the face so the backed up off of him to give some space.

Jasmine threw herself out of auditorium’s door and ran down the hall to the bathroom. She closed the stall door behind her tightly as she sat on the toilet grieving, she couldn’t believe the person she was supposed to love ruined her life so bad. Jasmine felt as if her reputation was trashed and so many females were going to be talking about her. Inside of the stall, Jasmine continued to cry, she left her phone inside of her gym locker so she couldn’t even pull it out to text April to update her on what was happening.

As Jasmine sat on the toilet she realized it was nothing more than the first few weeks, as a freshman, at Jamerson High School, she wasn’t quite sure what else was in stock for her but she did know that she had a lot of growing up to do. As she sat on the stall crying, she couldn’t do anything but reflect on how many moments in her life made her feel depression this deep and she wasn’t even halfway through the school year. Jasmine began to realize she was going to have to change more than what she thought in order to survive, those choices she was going to make were going to take some real practicing, but she knew she could do it.

It was in that moment Jasmine realized April was going to be more than a friend, but also an accountability partner for her. Jasmine was ready to start working towards being the opposite of her mother and she was prepared to fight hard to not become a product of her environment.

To read the entire story visit: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0B6KFW2JW