Heavy is the Head

Jasmine - 2

Chapter  20

Jasmine got woken up at 2am when Aurora fell off the bed. It was ridiculously loud and Jasmine half expected Tinkerbell to come rushing to their room with the master key to see what all the commotion was about. Along with the actual sound made when Aurora hit the ground, the sharp yelp of surprise that came from her mouth made it evident that she was a singer. This was then followed by groans of annoyance/confusion from Snow White and Ariel who reached for their torches and tried to piece together their fragmented sleeping arrangements back to how they had been 4 hours earlier. 

"Ariel. Look at where your leg is. That's ridiculous." Aurora whisper shouted, crawling back into bed.

"Sorry."

Jasmine rolled over. It had taken her ages to get to sleep and generally, once she was woken up, she found it extremely difficult to fall asleep again. Snow White, on the other hand, yanked her section of the blanket back over her legs and fell back asleep within seconds. It took Aurora slightly longer and just when Jasmine thought Ariel had followed suit, she felt a light tap on her shoulder.

"Jas?"

"What's up?" 

"It's Mother's Day in Agrabah today, isn't it?"

Jasmine sighed, "Yeah, thank you for remembering."

"Do you want to talk about how you're feeling?"

"Same as always. The grief never really goes away, you know?"

"Mhm." Ariel reached for Jasmine's hand and squeezed.

There was silence for a few minutes and Jasmine wiped away a few stray tears that trickled down her face. She didn't have to expand on that feeling that came with losing a loved one. Ariel knew. So did Snow White and Aurora, just in different ways. And that was one of the many reasons why Jasmine valued their friendship so much. Because loss is a complicated thing and although everyone loses people differently, to even understand a fragment of her grief was a great comfort. 

Jasmine still remembered the first Mother's Day after her mother had died, or rather, had been brutally murdered. Nearly every single one of her family members had come over to support her, but it was too overwhelming and she had ended up slipping and spending the day at the nearest marketplace instead. Jasmine winced now, remembering the consequences of that particular venture.

"What about you?" Jasmine asked.

"I guess it helps that there's so much to do, I don't really have time to think about how much I miss her."

"I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing, Ari."

Ariel shrugged. "Speaking of there being so much to do, I really need to start revising. Have you started?"

"Nope. So, wait, is your dad letting you stay here after all then?"

"Well no, but what's he gonna do? Fly out here and demand I get on a plane back to Atlantica?" 

Jasmine raised an eyebrow. "I can't tell if you're joking or not, because that  sounds like something he would actually do."

"It is what it is. I don't regret anything and I'm not breaking up with Eric, so he can do whatever he wants, it's not happening. You know, it's crazy how life works. Your dad wants you to get a boyfriend to protect you and mine wants me to stay away from boys at all costs to protect me ignoring what we want."