Jasmine sat on the stoop of her Aunt Kayla’s house. The suburban lifestyle was not something that she was used to. She missed the dark apartment she lived in with her mother that always smelt of her mother’s perfume. Jasmine watched the old lady that lived next door in the pale yellow house. She was gardening like she did every Saturday afternoon. Jasmine watched her as she waited for her friend Kyle who was supposed to be picking her up. Kayla was often gone before Jasmine woke up on Saturdays. Kayla told herself that she spent so much time away from her own house because she was busy, but she and Jasmine both knew that she was just avoiding their awkward, undefined relationship.

Just as Jasmine was about to head back into the house, she heard the rattle of Kyle’s Jeep turning the corner onto Aunt Kayla’s street. Jasmine picked her book bag off the cement steps and walked through the white picket fence, identically to every house on the street. Kyle screeched his truck to a halt barely missing the mailbox. He flashed Jasmine a smile as he reached across the passenger’s seat to open his broken passengers door.

Kyle Tucker and Jasmine had been best friends since the third grade. When Jasmine’s mother left her for the first time, Kyle was the only kid at recess who still asked her to play. All the other kids avoided Jasmine like she was a disease; like if they played with Jasmine on the playground, their mothers would abandon them too. Kyle was Jasmine’s rock. During the second grade, Kyle’s parent’s had gotten a divorce. Kyle remembered being ashamed of his mother at a young age, and then later embarrassed when the judge awarded full custody to his father due to her alcohol problem. When they were younger, they bonded over the fact that both of their mother’s didn’t want them. Now that they were juniors in high school, they were no longer inseparable. Kyle joined the baseball team and Jasmine found a love for directing plays and short films. However, they both tried to make time for the other because they knew they still needed each other.

“Hey Spazzy Jazzy,” Kyle kissed her cheek while taunting her with the childhood nickname.
Jasmine rubbed the kiss off dramatically. In the moment, she was glad for her dark skin, for the reason that Kyle would not be able to see her blushing. Kyle’s long arms reached over to rub her hair. Kyle liked Jasmine. In all the years that he had known her, she never let her mother’s stupidity define who she was. Kyle hated Nia, Jasmine’s mother. He hated how selfish Nia was. Jasmine was the best person that Kyle had ever met. He looked over at his childhood friend roaming through the glove compartment for the Jelly Belly’s that he always left there. Kyle hated all types of candy put he kept them for Jasmine. Jasmine searched through the bag, collecting all the red and pink jellybeans. Jasmine loved riding in Kyle’s car. Kyle left it a mess; his mix tapes were scattered on the floor. The trunk was filled with baseball equipment and there was a piece of metal that scratched the road whenever Kyle made a sharp left. But Jasmine loved it. The two of them loved just driving around for hours, for in that moment, their mother’s still loved them. When Kyle zoomed and swerved on the dirt roads far in the distance, they felt safe.