Forgetting Billions | ✓

25 | Forgetting The Rocks

"KARINA, SOMETIMES it feels like you're drifting away from me," Jasmine teased. Her cousin had her head in her lap and Jasmine ran her fingers through the girl's hair. Karina was stressing over what she claimed was excessive schoolwork, but Jasmine knew it was really because her mother was in jail, separated from her and Aditya.

"I'm not," she whispered. "Promise."

Whatever smile left on Jasmine's lips faded at the sound of Karina's tone. "Now I believe you even less. What's going on?"

She pulled herself away from her older cousin and wrapped her arms around her body. She was the epitome of seriousness as she hid within herself, acting as if the world had frightened the light out of her. "Nothing is going on."

"You can trust me, Rina. Tell me"

"Aditya's going to be back from practice soon. We should probably start preparing dinner. You know how hungry he can get." Karina laughed, dodging Jasmine's gentle prodding.

"I'm serious. I'm not going to allow you to leave this room until you tell me what's going on. You never hide anything from me."

"I'm just exhausted, okay? Pretending to be strong for Aditya really takes it out of me. And how come he gets to cry and I don't? That's not fair." She let out a deep breath before speaking again. "I want to see my mom."

Jasmine nodded. "Your mom did nothing wrong and Maria will have to see that eventually. You'll see her soon, I promise."

Karina lifted an eyebrow, sticking out her pinky finger. "You promise?"

Jasmine didn't even believe herself, but she interlaced their smallest fingers together anyway. "Promise."

"Promise one more thing for me then."

"Anything you want."

"Make sure you take care of Adi if I'm not there. He doesn't like to show it, but he'll always need someone. Right now, it's me, but I have a feeling there will come a time when he'll need someone else. Promise me you'll be that person for him."

Jasmine's heart slammed against her chest for reasons she hoped were just a product of her overactive imagination. "What are you implying, Karina?"

She shook her head. "It's not what you're thinking. I just want to be prepared. He already lost Mom without a single warning. I don't want to leave him alone if he loses me too, that's all."

"Are you sure?" Jasmine asked, wrapping her arms around Karina and holding her close, more for her own comfort than anyone else's.

"I'm sure. Now, promise."

"I promise."

Karina whispered a 'thank you' under her breath before melting into her cousin's arms. Jasmine placed a kiss on top of her head and held her for another minute.

She wiped a tear from her eye and let out a jagged laugh, "I'm getting way too emotional, aren't I? Anyway, I actually have to meet someone right now, so I should get going. But I'll be back soon and the three of us can hang out. We haven't in so long."

"Are you visiting Selena? Because you tend to take a while with her and I don't want to get my hopes up only to have you come back at night after we've gone to bed," Karina replied stiffly, all emotion gone from her face.

"I am visiting Selena, but this won't take long at all. I'm sorry if it's seemed like I haven't had time for you recently. It's been a busy year. I'm going to make sure that I spend more time with you, though. You matter the most." She smiled.

"See you soon." Karina sent her a small wave as Jasmine left the room, diary in hand.

As she made her way down the stairs, she peered into the living room, "Dad, I'm going to talk to Selena real quick. I'll be back within the hour."