Chapter Text
Sowunmi yawned as he walked out the bathroom, having just finished brushing his teeth. Entering his bedroom, Sowunmi turned his laptop on, eager to start on the new YouTube video he’d been commissioned to edit. He’d left the laptop on sleep instead of shutting it down, as he’d intended to only take a quick power nap before returning to work. Apparently, Sowunmi’s body had other plans and he ended up sleeping his way through the entire night. Oh, well. That was Sowunmi got for pulling an all-nighter the night before and still editing through the entire day, deciding to only nap right after dinner.
Sowunmi was satisfied to see the screen was still on and in the same state as he’d left it, but frowned when nothing on the screen moved after trying to navigate to their file explorer. He tried clicking and shaking his wireless mouse a few times to see if the laptop was just being slow, but that didn’t do anything either. Sowunmi opted to just restart the laptop, but the screen showed the same home dashboard of DaVinci Resolve despite the whirring coming from the laptop indicating its restart process. Frustrated, Sowunmi ran through a troubleshooting diagnosis in their mind. What could possibly be wrong? They knew it couldn’t be the RAM as they’d recently replaced that, and they weren’t even halfway through their hard drive storage. Sowunmi thought about asking Jijyasa but refused to have her try to hold the favor over his head, so he tried restarting the laptop again to boot into its BIOS.
Except the screen once again didn’t change even slightly. He tried repeatedly mashing the f10 button to see if that would force the screen to change to the BIOS interface, but the attempt ended in vain. Frustrated, Sowunmi poked at the laptop screen, half in frustration and half in a desperate attempt to see if it was a hardware issue instead.
Then he felt the screen shift. Literally.
Heart skipping a beat, Sowunmi moved his index finger to the right corner of the screen to peel back a fucking laminated paper replica of his DaVinci Resolve home page, revealing the real laptop screen that in fact now showed the BIOS interface he’d tried to access.
Sowunmi could already hear his sister’s maniacal laughter in his head before shouting from his lungs,
“JINX!”
Sowunmi marched from his room and downstairs with the replica in his hand, finding an already amused Jinx in the kitchen with Isha and Sevika, the latter of whom raised her eyebrows at him. She was wearing her glasses, reading up on the morning news on her tablet with a mug of coffee in her hand.
“What ever is the problem on this good morning, dear brother?” Jinx asked mockingly as she poured melted strawberry ice cream into a bowl of cereal.
Sowunmi held up the paper replica, “Why?!”
“Whoa, when’d you get into drawing? Trying to compete with me?”
“Be serious, Jinx. When did you even do this? How did you do this?”
“Well, you passing out for eleven hours kinda makes it easier to mess with you.”
“How did you manage to make it so accurate?!”
“Eh. Took a photo, used it as reference, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. You know the rest.”
“I already told you to stop messing with my stuff!”
“No, you told me to stop messing with your stuff while you’re working. You never said anything about that while you’re not working.”
“Okay, fine, don’t mess with any of my stuff whether I’m alive or dead!”
“Is there a time limit on the dead part or…?”
“Mom!”
Sevika narrowed her eyes at Jinx. “Jijyasa, we’ve talked about you guys respecting each other’s boundaries, have we not?”
“I know, I know. I’m sorry…” Jinx grumbled. “It’s not like I broke it or anything.”
“Is there anything else in my room that you messed with last night?”
“Nope.”
“…”
“I’m serious! Truth be told. And I promise won’t ever do it again.”
Sowunmi scoffed. “Yeah, alright.”
Sowunmi turned to walk back upstairs before catching Isha’s face stretching into a wide smile and her shoulders heaving up and down. Oh no.
He glared at Jinx. “What did you do?”
“Uh…”
Sowunmi rushed back upstairs and into the bathroom. He stared back at the comical reflection before them, a shocked Sowunmi with drawn eyebrows angled upwards, a drawn mustache, goatee, and a monocle around his right eye.
“JIIINX!”
Aside from shit sleep, Jinx’s morning was starting off pretty well, all things considered. She’d pulled two pranks on Sowunmi in one night, achieving the hilarious reaction she’d anticipated. She managed to go the night without a night terror, making it the sixth night in a row without one. Not a new record, but it was reassuring nonetheless that these new medications were working. Sure, it was likely because she spent most of the time on crafting her prank and fucking around in her lab, but she’d easily risk sleep deprivation to avoid dealing with another night terror. Her family would worry, but a touch of makeup always helped keep the questions away.
She and Isha had gone for a walk from the house to the neighborhood park, greeting a few neighbors getting their mail or out on their morning jogs. The duo took some time to draw with chalk on the sidewalk when they ran into a few of Isha’s friends, with Jinx supervising while encouraging the kids who wrote out swear words they’d recently learned. She made sure they spelled them right so the blame could be put on her should any of the parents somehow found out (They never did in general).
Isha then challenged Jinx to a race back home, which she easily won.
By the time they returned, the duo was sweaty and high on adrenaline. Enough so that after showering, they decided on a new breakfast format. They’d decide on each other’s breakfast meal and would have to make it as each listed. Jinx gave Isha a menu of Nigerian puff puffs and adhirasam, a donut shaped Tamil Nadu pastry made of rice flour, jaggery, ghee, and coconut. In turn, Isha just wrote out Jinx’s choice to be cereal but with melted ice cream instead of milk.
The sight of her two daughters making each other’s meals made Sevika heart melt when she’d found them in the kitchen, though gave Jinx an unimpressed deadpan look when Jinx started microwaving the fucking ice cream. Jinx had only shrugged and pointed at Isha. “It was her idea.”
Sevika had snapped a photo of them preparing their meals and texted it to Mel.
Sevika: It’s not even 10 yet and your daughters are determined to give each other diabetes before the day is over.
Mel:
Mel: Well, if they do, you’re complicit and you’ll be the one paying for their medicine yourself.
Sevika: I’m sorry which one of us is the one with the sweet tooth in the family genes?
Mel: Considering how well you always eat me, I’d say it’s you.
Sevika: :skull: Why do you always have to use my strengths against me??
Mel: It’s called strategy.
Sevika: Get back to work
Jinx was satisfied with her pranks on Sowunmi. She’d intended to only do it with their laptop, but Isha had been the one to draw on Sowunmi’s face while he slept, so she didn’t mind taking credit for that.
Isha sprayed some whipped cream on her pastries as Sevika grabbed two puff puffs and headed to door, putting on her boots.
“I’ll be at work running inventory with Margot and Silco. Make sure to clean up after you two are done. Jijyasa, make sure you drop Isha off at Ren’s house on time. And save some of the puffs and adhirasam for your mom and Sowunmi, okay? It’s the least you could do after those pranks.”
“We will.” Jinx said with a salute. “But you know it was funny.”
“The face drawing a lot more than the laptop stunt, but yeah.”
Jinx cackled as Sevika left the house. She used her spoon to mix up the Frosted Flakes into the liquified ice cream before taking a bite. Her face lit up. “Oh my god, this is good!”
She glanced at Isha. “Yours?”
Isha grabbed a puff puff and an adhirasam before taking a big bite of each at the same time. Isha’s face brightened as she chewed and swallowed, throwing a thumbs up at Jinx with whipped cream smeared all over her smile, earning a laugh from Jinx.
The two watched an episode of Winx Club over breakfast, ending in Jinx having to tell Isha to change into new clothes since she had crumbs and whipped cream all over herself.
While Isha did that, Jinx looked over herself in the bathroom mirror, contemplating whether she should go out with her friends later today. She had the day off from her usual shift at the Janna Community Center, with Viktor texting her that the Kids’ STEM Workshop was adequately covered by staff for the day. Jijyasa ran her hands over her baggy eyes; sure, she might be a bit sleep deprived, but her compulsive need to keep herself busy always ate into her sleep schedule. And the thought of facing another night terror induced enough anxiety to weather the risks.
Guilt gnawed at Jijyasa’s insides as she applied mascara to her baggy eyes. She knew her parents wouldn’t be upset at her if she told them but rather upset for her, but she refused to cause more unnecessary stress. They were already busy with enough on their plates.
Jinx just hoped she looked kempt enough. She’d opted to sport a simple sleeveless pink tee that complemented the blue cloud tattoos on both her arms, a pair of pink cargo pants, and sneakers. Her blue dyed hair was styled back in two braids as usual, ending at the middle of her back and matching with her blue mascara and nose ring.
The mascara helped obscure the exhaustion pulling down at her eyes, plus she just liked how it looked. Feeling her phone buzz, Jinx pulled out her phone to see a text from Akali in one of the group chats she was in.
Party Ppl
Akali: Everyone still good for the Plaza?
Esenria: Yes.
Sky: Yup!
Jinx’s breath hitched at seeing Esenria’s text. She hadn’t seen Esenria in person in nearly four months. Esenria had been going through a rough patch with her parents (again) and insisted to her friends that nothing was being done to her behind closed doors. Still, everyone worried, especially when she’d stopped participating in group hangouts. It was to the point of them only seeing her when any of them happened to catch her working a shift at Jericho’s.
Jinx had been the most forward in trying to get Esenria to open up at first, but gave up when Esenria continued providing either one-word answers or vague, brief answers that she dodged around elaborating on. It hurt that Esenria didn’t seem to feel comfortable enough to tell Jijyasa, so the latter just stopped texting as often, giving her the space she seemed to be demanding.
Jinx’s thumb hovered over her phone’s keyboard as she thought about a response. On one hand, it would be good to get out of the house and hang out with friends. And possibly reunite with Esenria.
On the other, it would be much easier to stay home, coop herself up in the basement, and drown in her lab experiments. Her mother’s new arm still needed furbishing…
Jinx sighed and sent her reply:
Jinx: Yea
Once Jinx and Isha cleaned up and left a few leftover pastries for Mel and Sowunmi in the fridge, Jinx dropped Isha off at Ren’s house for a playdate. She then biked to the Zaun Plaza to meet up with Sky, Akali, and Esenria for the arcade.
Zaun Plaza wasn’t as large or lavish as any of Piltover’s many plazas or malls, but it was unique and grounded. Unlike the dull, block based corporate architecture that Piltovan plazas held, Zaun Plaza was a small strip mall with both a community-owned and run farmer’s market but where vendors operated in small buildings rather than makeshift shops. The buildings were structured with Gothic architecture along with a variety of other cultures including Indigenous, South Indian, Central African, and Middle Eastern designs. Zaunite graffiti was spray painted across the walls in arrays of greens, purples, and golds, and chalk drawings from children covered the concrete pathways. The Plaza was surrounded by trees, providing a canopy of shade that helped cool the area unlike the Piltovan plazas that forwent trees due to “aesthetic concerns.”
Zaun Plaza was heavily populated today, as the school season recently ended and families were out with kids enjoying the season’s summer freedom. Jijyasa found her friends at one of the bike racks at one of the storefronts.
Locking her bike to the rack, Jinx walked up to her three friends chatting under the shade of one of the trees. Sky was dressed in a yellow crop top with black stripes above a pair of ripped blue jeans while Akali wore a green compression shirt with black camouflage short, boots, and two lip rings. She had her previously long hair cut down to a buzzcut, having recently embraced leaning into her butch identity.
The one who caught Jinx’s eye the most was Esenria, the shortest out of all them. Arms crossed over her chest while listening to Akali and Sky, Esenria wore a black bra hidden beneath her red off-shoulder blouse that matched her radiant dark skin, a white mini skirt over red leggings, and sneakers. Her hair had grown a bit longer since Jinx had last seen her a couple months ago, styled in short braids adorned in red and white beads, and a crescent moon-shaped septum ring and earrings designed as Africa. A trans pride flag button was attached to her shirt next to another button that read "She/Her".
The sight of her stole Jinx’s breath away, and all the memories from four months ago came flooding back.
“Jijyasa, you okay?” Akali questioned. “You look a bit pale.”
“I’m fine, just have a lot on my mind.” Jinx replied with an eyeroll as she greeted Akali and Sky with hugs.
“Hey, Esenria.” Jinx said, nodding her head at the third friend.
“Hi,” Esenria said with a wave. “You look really nice.”
“Thanks! You look even better.”
“Oh. Uh, thanks, heh.”
Akali clapped Jinx on the shoulder, a knowing grin plastered on her face. “Alright, Ms. Cassanova. The arcade is right there, and we’ve been waiting too long for you.”
Laughing, Jinx let Akali drag her into the building with Sky and Esenria trailing behind.
The four played as many games as they could, playing anything from whack-a-mole and foosball to air hockey and darts. At one point, Jinx won a stuffed Lucario from a claw machine and gifted it to Esenria, who stammered over her words trying to thank Jinx from for the gesture. Jinx didn’t miss Akali’s knowing grin as the four moved on to the Video Game Gallery to play Mortal Kombat.
“Someone’s upped her chivalry game.” Akali teased.
“Shut up,” Jinx retorted, crossing her arms over her chest with a scowl, ignoring the way her face warmed. “You know how much Esenria loves Pokemon. It only made sense.”
“Uh huh.”
Playing video games with her friends was one of Jinx’s favorite activities. You could tell a lot just from how someone played a video game, especially a fighter game. Maining as Baraka, Akali was the most competitive, being ruthless in her constant alternating between button mashing and spamming combo moves while refusing to let her opponent recover. Sky had the least investment in the game and thus didn’t try very hard, only choosing Sindel for her character design. Jinx matched Akali’s competitive energy but was far more chaotic with Kabal as her main, using her years of experience and knowledge as a fan to take down her opponents. It allowed her to beat Akali and Sky as usual, and soon she was facing off against Esenria as the last one standing.
Esenria’s main was D’vorah and she was more skilled than anyone would give the quiet, shy girl credit for. She was tactical, patient, and remained on the defensive until she saw an opening to land hits or a special move. Jinx ended up winning in the end, but it was a close call. It was one of the many things that Jinx admired about Esenria. She was a lot more interesting than she let herself on, and it only made Jinx want to know more.
At some point, Sky had to storm off to force Akali from doing a sixth round of Dance Dance Revolution against random opponents, as the others were ready to leave.
“You killed that shit,” Jinx complimented as she led Esenria to one of the prize booths. “I almost forgot how good you are at Mortal Kombat.”
Esenria rubbed her arm, flustered. “Thanks…I just improvise in real time and hope I win at least one round.”
“That’s a hell of a way to improvise.”
Jinx scrambled for something else to add, battling her desire to bring up their brief estrangement. Part of her wanted answers, but the other part didn’t want to somehow fuck anything up. As Jijyasa contemplated, her eyes caught a familiar face rushing out from the back of the prize booth with a couple other workers.
“Thieram!”
Thieram turned his head from the rack of stuffed plushies he was sorting up on the wall and smiled. “Oh, shit. How’s it goin’ Jinx?”
“Just hanging out.” Jinx pointed her finger towards the exit doors as she propped herself up to sit on the counter. “Sky’s trying to get Akali to kick her beetle fighting addiction.”
“Tsh. Sounds pretty pointless.”
“Soo…” Jinx playfully batted her eyes. “You got any good loot for me?”
“Hold on…” Thieram disappeared into the back for a few moments before returning with a large reusable bag of what appeared to be discarded arcade contraptions, toys, and machine parts. “This is all I could get from this past month without getting in trouble. You’re welcome.”
“Holy shit, you’re a savior, Thieram!” Jinx exclaimed happily as she grabbed the bag and peered inside, practically salivating at the assortment of parts and pieces she was planning to add to her laboratory. “Thanks.”
“Wow, I didn’t know you got parts from here.” Esenria said.
“I get some of them from here.” Jinx said as she rummaged through the bag’s contents. “I get others from Best Buy and CVS and any place that throws away hardware parts. Thieram just hooks me up here.”
Esenria sat down in one of the chairs next to where Jinx was on the counter. “So are you planning to go to college at this point?”
“Nah. School fucking sucks, and the last thing I want to do is to pay for it.”
“That’s fair. I think you’ll do just fine with engineering without getting into debt. Have you thought about Viktor’s apprenticeship offer?”
Jinx’s stomach tightened. “I’m still thinking about it.”
“Not a fan of Viktor?”
“Nah, he’s fine. I just hate having to follow someone else’s orders more than I have to. I have a method to my madness, you know? I don’t want to have to abandon it just because some institution wants me to conform to whatever bullshit they make up.”
“You mean stuff like safety policies and ethical guidelines?” Sky asked as she and Akali joined them, the latter with a beetle on her shoulder.
“Meh. I said I don’t want to follow them, not that they shouldn’t be followed in general.”
“Oh, please. You have your process of doing shit, but if you want to get your work out there, you’ll need to make sure your inventions don’t blow up or involve hurting people.”
“People won’t get hurt if they just follow my manuals and don’t be dumb!”
“That’s not how that works!”
Sky and Jinx devolved into a back-and-forth while the group left for the food court. Feeling like Gullah Geechee cuisine, they picked the restaurant, Geechee Feast, for lunch.
Jinx quickly changed the subject, unable to stand lingering on it longer than she was comfortable. She asked Esenria about her life updates, and the other three learned that she was applying for production assistant roles at local comic shops while still working at Jericho’s.
Sky had just started interning at Viktor’s pharmacy, The Herald, where she was still trying to get used to her routine and absorbing as much information about administrative processes and specialized pharmaceutical medications for disabled patients. Akali was still a tech assistant at Shimmer Radio, though her manager, Ran, had said she’s on her way to being promoted to being a cohost for one of the new shows before the summer was over. The new show would be one spotlighting Zaunite’s musical history with musicians, historians, and other experts as guests. It was meant to not just educate Zaunites about local history but combat the long misconceptions of Zaunite’s musical scenes biting from Piltover’s, when it was the other way around.
After eating, the quartet perused the plaza’s thrift stores shops for some clothes shopping. Truthfully, it was mostly browsing since they were all broke. Still, it was nice seeing the diversity of fashion attires and body shapes the shops had.
Done with thrifting, they biked from the plaza to the skate park where they found Gert, Aeturna, and Claggor. The group’s new additions allowed for some catching up and for Aeturna to be introduced to the rest.
Jinx frowned when she noticed Esenria moving away from the group and to one of the benches situated at the edge of the skate park area. She cautiously approached Esenria, hoping the girl wasn’t upset. “Hey, you okay?”
“Huh?” Esenria looked up from the ground with surprise. “Oh, uh, yes. I’m fine. Just needed to sit down for a bit.”
“Drained?”
Esenria cracked a small smile that didn’t meet her eyes. “Yeah…sorry, I just, don’t want to be a buzzkill, you know?”
“Pfft,” Jinx waved her hand dismissively. “Fuck that. No one’s gonna attack you if you need some space. Besides, I get drained from hearing Akali drone on about sound levels and pirating audio software too.”
Esenria giggled. “It’s definitely not that. It’s just been a while since I’ve been out like this.”
Jinx nodded. Though she didn’t share Esenria’s social anxiety, she understood the need to just be away from people for a period of time. Even if it was her own family, though she didn’t bother to voice to anyone but her therapist.
“Mind if I sit?”
Esenria shook her head, scooting over to make room. “Nope, go ahead.”
Jinx sat next to Esenria, feeling her heart race from proximity. Her nose easily picked up the cherry blossom perfume, and the fragrance only made Jinx melt. She didn’t miss Esenria glancing away before shooting her a shy smile, and it made her stomach twist with something pleasant. She resisted the urge to tuck a braid behind Esenria’s ear, not wanting to breach any boundaries. Esenria was the only person in their friend group who wasn’t much for physical affection. It wasn’t anything person to anyone; Esenria genuinely just preferred touching people and vice versa unless she consented or it was necessary. It was completely logical, though Jinx couldn’t lie and say she missed the days when it wasn’t the case. All of them had no issue with hugs or handholding, and Akali and Sky weren’t above platonic forehead/cheek kisses when someone was struggling mentally or just celebratory moments like birthdays or graduations. Of course, they still asked for consent each time regardless.
But Jijyasa’s disappointment was selfish than anything. She missed Esenria’s hugs from elementary to middle school. She missed being able to hold hands with her walking to school or to the library. She missed when Esenria would bury her face in Jinx’s chest when the group would watch a horror movie together. She missed when they would read comics and manga together under the bedsheets, and cuddling together after. She missed when one of them had a nightmare and the other wouldn’t hesitate to offer comfort. She missed the nights when Jinx would sleep over and sneak into Esenria’s bed so they could talk about life goals or struggling with mental illness or their families not being able to afford certain medications. She missed when they stared into each other’s eyes before one of them rolled over to stop what they were both too scared would happen. Too scared to name.
After Esenria came out, her parents didn’t take it well, and she spent some time at Aunt Vi and Lest’s place. That’s when the physical affection stopped. When she drew away from everyone to a certain extent. Not ghosting or cutting them off but certainly closing herself off. It didn’t seem fair. They wanted to help Esenria and yet she repaid them by just putting up walls and--
Jinx dug her fingers into her leg, forcing herself from the reminiscing. Stop. That was the past. This was now. She had no right to judge Esenria for her response to her family’s rejection. She would never know what it was like to be trans, Black and trans no less, and not receive unconditional support from her family. Even during what Jinx jokingly called her “Loony Era” when her mania had been going unmedicated and she insulted her own family, pushing them away, throwing things, breaking furniture, running away from home multiple times because she felt Sevika and her biological mother’s divorce had somehow been her fault but also somehow Sevika’s fault, and felt like the world was coming apart.
What do you mean you guys are getting divorced?
Why would you stop loving each other?!
Is it because of me?!
Why can’t we just be normal?
Jinx wanted to smack her past self for the ridiculous accusations she’d projected onto her mothers. Even through all of that, when she felt she had to shut them out to force some sort of reunion or normalcy, they’d never stopped loving her. There weren’t many people who could say the same.
“Jinx?”
Jinx righted herself on the bench. “Yeah?”
“Do you ever wonder what it could’ve been like? To be normal?”
Jinx opened her mouth and closed it, thinking of an adequate response.
“I did, at first.”
“What changed?”
“I did. I realized I’d never actually been ‘normal’ because what I thought was normal wasn’t even other people’s normal. So, I just let it go. Because what good would it be to dwell on what could’ve been than focus on what’s now?”
“But what if the now is shit?”
“Is something going on with your parents again?”
“No. Well, yes, kinda…it’s complicated.”
“Want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
“Okey dokey.” Jinx moved to a cross-legged position on the bench, and the two resumed watching the rest of their friends shout with amusement as Akali embarrassed herself by trying a trick on Claggor’s skateboard, laughter filling the air.
“I meant what I said earlier, you know.” Jinx piped up after several quiet moments.
Esenria frowned. “Meant what?”
“About you looking even better. As in like, fucking gorgeous.”
“O-Oh…”
Jinx winced, bracing herself for the consequences of what she just said. “Shit, sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I-”
“No, no, you didn’t. I just…I don’t know, I…”
“What?”
Esenria wrapped her arms around herself, unable to meet Jinx’s eyes. “I’ve never been called that before.” There was insecurity in Esenria’s tone and painted all over her face, and Jinx wanted to shoot her shark rocket at whoever called Esenria the opposite of beautiful. “You…really feel that way about me?”
“I never stopped.”
This time, Esenria looked back up at Jinx, and the eyes that Jinx leveled her own with made Jinx want to fall to her knees.
Esenria opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by her phone ringing. She grabbed it from her pocket and frowned when she read whatever was on screen. “Sorry, hang on…”
Jinx shrugged. “No problem.”
Esenria declined the call and texted something to the caller. She then stood up. “I gotta get home.”
Jinx stood up herself. “Did you want me to go with you?”
Esenria hesitated before nodding. “Only if you don’t mind…”
The two said their goodbyes to the rest of the group, as Jinx had to pick up Isha from Ren’s place anyway. By the time they biked to Esenria’s apartment complex, it was fifteen til six-o-clock, and the sun was only just starting its early stages of setting. Traffic congested the roads as drivers continued leaving their workplaces.
Esenria locked her bike to one of the bike racks in the apartment building’s indoor bike storage before Jinx followed her to the entrance.
Esenria turned to Jinx. “Thanks for that.”
Jinx shrugged, though her face warming betrayed her faux nonchalance. “It’s no skin off my back. I just wanted to make sure you got home safe.”
Esenria’s face contorted with a flurry of emotions, looking as if she was struggling to confess something. Jinx was about to ask if she was okay when Esenria posed a question she never thought she’d hear again from her:
“Can I hug you?”
Jinx blinked. Then blinked again. Then blinked again. Her facial reaction must’ve not reflected her internal excitement because Esenria immediately walked back, stuttering. “S-sorry, I just…I don’t know it’s just been a long time, and I know I haven’t been the best-”
“Yes.”
Esenria blinked this time. “What?”
“Yes, you can fucking hug me.”
Esenria barely took a step forward before Jinx eveloped her into her arms. Esenria was rather short, so she was usually eye level with Jinx’s neck. This allowed Esenria to tuck her face into the crook of Jinx’s neck, arms up to wrap around her the upper part of Jinx’s back while Jinx wrapped her toned arms around Esenria, chin resting atop the other girl’s head.
The embrace took longer than Jinx expected, but she wasn’t complaining.
When they pulled apart from each other, Esenria cradled Jinx’s cheek against her hand, looking up into her eyes with such softness that Jinx thought she might combust.
“Please try to get more sleep, Jijyasa.”
Jinx didn’t have the time to reply when Esenria immediately turned and walked through the door, not looking back as she went inside the complex and disappeared up the stairs.
Jinx’s mind dwelled on that moment through picking Isha up and a rare family dinner. Through receiving a text from Esenria and a few others if she made it home safe. Through responding with an affirmative yes. Through hovering her thumb over her keyboard when she returned to her and Esenria’s text thread, weighing the pros and cons of asking Esenria out on a date. She moved her text into unfinished drafts and deleted it, opting for a different message:
You Got Jinxed!: Thanks for the hug. I missed those.
It wasn’t even two minutes before Esenria responded.
Esenria: Thanks for accepting it. I missed you too.
For the first time in a long time, Jinx slept better than she could ever remember.