Pillow Talk

7.

"Now, I'm missing Calculus. Can you please tell me what's wrong?" I handed her the mug of hot chocolate with three marshmallows floating on the top. She had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

"The person she caught me with, they aren't exactly what you are thinking." Jasmine continued to look down at the floating marshmallows. "I may haven't told you the truth when it comes to my love life. I don't even know if I've been completely honest with myself." 

"Jasmine, you can tell me anything."

"Liz, I was caught with a girl."

There are few things that catch me off guard. I had been taught at a young age to always expect the unexpected. Whether it was walking in on my father and my tutor, or hearing my mother declare that she wanted a divorce. But hearing Jasmine utter those six words almost knocked the breath out of me. I stayed quiet, unsure on what to say next. 

"Liz, I've been dating Alexandra for awhile now. It's nothing too serious. We had agreed to keep it under wraps because I wasn't out yet. So I flirted with boys, I would even joke that I had slept with them sometimes. But I always went back to her." The way Jasmine spoke of her, I could tell that she loved this girl. I could tell by the way she smiled down at her hot chocolate, embarrassed to even smile up at me. The way her fingers curled around the mug so tenderly I could tell she way imagining the warmth of Alexandra instead of the warmth of the beverage warmed in a microwave.

I had seen Alexandra before. I had never had the courage to ever talk to her. She dressed like she was in a fairytale and her silky black hair was always gleaming and at it's best. Alexandra seemed to look too perfect to exist. 

"Tell me about her." Was the only words I could muster after seeing my friend in this state. 

Jasmine's lips curled into a sheepish smile and she launched into talking about Alexandra like she was the back of her hand. She told me how Alexandra only likes to wear pink, purple, yellow, and green because she feels like any other color will give her bad luck. How Alexandra skips in the rain and how they steal kisses in the back of the local diner late at night when no one would notice. And how whenever the pass each other in the hallways, they always make sure their fingers touch.

When our mugs were almost gone and our cheeks hurt from smiling too much, I thought back to the reason why we were here. Jasmine was homeless. The Jasmine who told me stories about Alexandra she had never told anyone would have to find a couch to sleep on in less than ten hours.

"Why don't you crash over here? My mom adores you, and I have an extra mattress from when we hosted that Kenyan student last year."

"You would really do this for me?"

"Of course."

~~~

I played with the hem of my dress as I waited for someone to answer my father's door. 

"You told me your dad was loaded, but you didn't tell me he was this loaded." Jared looked up in awe at the three floor house that resembled French architecture.

"I told you, he's a huge big shot lawyer. He represents the Kardashians, some of the members of One Direction, and a few super models." 

"Oh my god! Look at you, little miss thing!" Hannah flung open the door and pulled me into her arms, causing me to almost get a black eyes from her pair of double D rack. I pulled away from Hannah and straightened out my dress. "Hannah, this is my boyfriend Jared. Jared, this is Hannah."

"Girl, when you told me he was cute, you should have used a better adjective." Hannah wiggled her shoulders and chortled. 

Jared shot me a confused look, but all I could do was shrug my shoulders.