Mine • Jaren Jackson Jr.

•10•

Jaren woke up the next morning, patting around for Rielle who wasn't there.

He blindly rubbed his fingers through her side of the bed and it was cold, giving the indication that she had been gone for a while. First he thought she had gone to work but she had 3 weeks off since her mother was in Alabama for a case.

Jaren's questions came to a halt when he heard the front door close faintly. He heard the rustle of bags so he stood up, knowing her well enough to know what was happening.

She had so many grocery bags as well as a single paper bag and they all sat by the door. "Oh, shit."

"Little one..." Jaren laughed, slowly walking over to assist her with the bags. "Did you just cuss?"

"It slipped out." Rielle watched Jaren begin to pick the bags up. "I completely forgot that I needed to go get grocery shopping done so I woke up this morning to do it."

Jaren chuckled, noticing how she was a little out of breath. "Why you ain't call me to help?"

"Because when you're tired, you could sleep through a circus parade." Rielle said. "Did you just wake up?"

His voice was still raspy and his eyes were still adjusting to the bright apartment. "Yeah."

Jaren carried the groceries into her kitchen, sitting them on the counter while she was hot on his tail with the paper bag of breakfast for the two of them clutched against her chest. It was almost as big as she was.

"You're so tall, Jaren." Rielle said, standing by him as he received things from bags. "When you were my height, what grade were you in?"

"You asked me that like the second time we hung out." Jaren chuckled, carefully sitting all the fruit to one side of the counter. "How tall are you, little one?"

"5'1." Rielle said, standing behind him. "But I think I grew."

Jaren glanced down at her, smirking. "You didn't. I would've noticed. Plus, you're 21. I don't think you're gonna grow anymore."

"You're still growing, though."

"True but I'm a basketball player and I eat a lot of shit that's gonna fuel growth." Jaren explained. "You do, too because you eat with me a lot but you probably stopped growing when you were like 16."

"Oh."

"It's okay to be tiny." Jaren told her.

"Be nice to me." Rielle told him. "I brought you breakfast."

"Thank you, little one." Jaren said. "What we got going on today?"

Rielle thought for a minute. "We never went roller skating on my birthday."

"That was because we were with two alcoholics." He retorted, thinking about Cynthia and Ja. "We can do that. What else you wanna do?"

"Mmm." Rielle began to store the groceries away in the refrigerator. "We can do something helpful."

"Okay." Jaren nodded. "I think I have an idea."

They sat down to eat breakfast first after putting the groceries away. Jaden obviously ate his in a ridiculous amount of time while Rielle was taking her time. To pass time while she finished eating, he began to peel a kiwi with his bare hands.

"Jaren, that's not gonna work." Rielle told him. "Your hands are too big."

He held the piece of fruit out to her. "You do it, then."

"Use the thing I use to peel potatoes."

"No, cause then I can't hold it with my hands." Jaren explained. "Just give me your knife."