Beauty & the Blonde

Chapter 3

Light seeped through the bedroom window, brightly projecting itself onto the bed. Jasmine rolled over, glancing drowsily at her alarm clock. 8:05. Crap. Her alarm hadn't gone off when it was supposed to. Lana was going to be late... again. "Lana, girly, you have to get up." She muttered, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She turned her head to see if she had roused her sister any, but the place she suspected would still hold a sleeping child, was bare.

Orion sat on the couch, a coffee mug in one hand and a cigarette in the other. "Morning." She muttered. Jorgie was still sleeping. She was never a morning person. Orion, on the other hand, was the definition of early riser. She liked being up before everyone else. It gave her piece of mind to sit silently and compose her thoughts before everyone else got up to disturb her. That didn't mean she was a joy to be around in the morning, or any time of the day, but she was awake... at least somewhat.

Emerging from her room, Jasmine didn't have far to look. Their place was small enough that a few glances could tell you whether someone was home or not. "Have you seen Lana? I'm going to have to drive her to school. I'm a hot mess. That damn alarm clock isn't working again." Honestly, she didn't know for sure if it wasn't working or if she'd just forgotten to set it. A mix of both happened pretty frequently. It really didn't matter. Either way, she was late and freaking out.

Orion causally took a sip from her drink. "Calm down, Princess Twinkletoes. I've got it taken care of. I got her up, gave her some leftover shit from last night, and sent her on her merry way. She's fine. You can breathe now." Orion answered. Her responses were always as calm as could be. There wasn't a nervous, anxious, or worked up bone in her body. Usually, it tended to be a helpful trait that balanced out Jasmine's hectic behavior.

Jasmine was throwing a sweater on over her  pajamas as she stopped in her tracks. "Huh? You what?" It wasn't a snippy response for once, just genuine confusion. Orion wasn't responsible enough to do that, was she? Jasmine was convinced she was only really capable of smoking and making a mess. Never in her life would she believe the brunette was trustworthy enough to look after a whole child. "Well... uh, I guess I should thank you. You saved my ass."

Orion nodded. "No big deal. I was up anyway." She dismissed the 'thank you' with a wave of her hand.

Jasmine pulled her hair out of her face and up into a messy bun. The part of her that was relived for a moment was now starting to get anxious again. "Um... next time, could you just wake me up? I'll take care of her." It wasn't that she didn't trust Orion... Oh screw it, of course she didn't trust Orion. You can't trust Orion with a goldfish, let alone a freaking human. Jasmine didn't trust that child with anyone but herself. SHE wanted to make sure Lana was safe. It was her job to make sure her sister got to school in the morning. No one else's. Nor did she trust anyone else to do that job. "It's my job. Not yours. I definitely appreciate it, but I can't throw that responsibility on you."

"It's not a big deal. I like spending the morning with her anyway. She's good conversation. Not to mention, you have plenty of jobs already. Let me take this one task off your shoulders. It's not much anyway. She's a teenager. She gets up, gets ready, and gets something to eat, all by herself. I just make sure she leaves the house in one piece. Pretty hard to screw that up." Orion laughed, taking a slow drag of her cigarette.

"I know it's not a big deal... that's why I can do it myself. Just wake me up, okay?" She sighed. There was a part of Jasmine that couldn't let herself rely on others. She had been like that for as long as she could remember. After being let down so many times by so many people, you lose trust in other's abilities to do things for you. It wasn't that she didn't want the help, she just couldn't let herself accept it. Trust scared her.... God, now she'd have to add that to the list of things that she was afraid of.