Jazmin

Chapter 1. Part 5

Jazmin walked into her house confused about what had just happened. She had never felt this way before, a mixture of desire and anger. It was late and she expected to go straight to her room and sleep until at least 1:00 pm tomorrow, a habit she indulged in to avoid hangovers. But destiny had other plans, as soon as she opened the door, she saw her mother walking around the living room. She looked desperate.

- Mom, mom, what's going on? What happened? – Jazmin asked as she noticed that her father was laying on the floor

- Jazmin, thank god you are here! Your father is drunk again. I don't know what to do. This situation is getting out of hand. Shh be quiet, we don't want to wake up your grandma. Your brother found him like this when he came back from soccer practice. He was so scared, poor thing. He called me and I came right from work. Maria is covering for me at the store. She told me that she will give me half of the earnings

- Mom, this can't keep going on. It's been three times this week. He is been taking it to work too, I saw that he had it in his briefcase the other day. We need to get him help, mom. He is sick.

- Help where Jazmin? Don't be so naïve, this isn't America. If someone finds out about your father's condition, we are all finished. C'mon, help me take him to bed.

Jazmin was tired of living at home. Her house was small, two bedrooms and one bathroom to be shared among five, sometimes six people. She lived with her mother, her father, her eight-year-old brother, her grandma, and sometimes her aunt Dora. Dora had found a boyfriend recently, so she was out of the house a lot, and at least they had a little bit more space.

She shared her room with her grandmother and her brother. At least she had her own bed. Her grandmother was almost seventy-five years old, but she looked younger, Jazmin looked a lot like her. But as her mom used to say, her grandmother had a brittle old soul. She believed that time and society were standing still, that nothing had changed since she was young, so the family hid everything from her: the lack of food, the scarcity of money, the signs of violence in the neighborhood. Her brother, Antonito, as she called him was her favorite person in the world. He was gentle and spent most of his time studying and playing soccer. He dreamed of becoming the next Ronaldo and getting on a plane to Madrid and never look back.

Jazmin was finally in her bed. She dreamed of Pablo's smell, of his touch. She wanted to see him again, to repeat tonight's dance once more but she knew that she could not. Her friendship with Lisa was too precious for that and that was one of the two rules of their relationship. They had promised to never have a relationship with each other's family members and to always, no matter what, talk at least once a day.

The next morning the phone woke her up.

- Jazmin, pick it up, it's for you, it's Lisa- screamed her grandma from her kitchen

- Ok, grandma! Hang up, please!

Jazmin picked up the phone- still half-asleep

-Hey, Lisa, what's up? Why are you calling so early?

- Jazmin, I need to talk to you right now. It's about my cousin Pablo. I'm heading over to your house

- Ok- said Jazmin, feeling her veins turn into ice.