jazz ↺ jazzminnie is ONLINE ⋆
Maybe Jeanine was right… Jasmine should have stayed at Henry’s place. She would have slept better then.
But, Henry wasn’t even in the country. It felt wrong to assume she could crash at his place for free. That, and… well, Jasmine was avoiding a much needed conversation. A conversation she’d been wanting to have, but kept chickening out of. Which wasn’t like her at all. She preferred honesty—and she wasn’t one to hide her feelings. Most of the time.
JEANINE: WHAT DO U MEAN U DIDNT ASK??? HE WOULD HAVE SAID YES
Yeah. Henry wouldn’t have minded, and would take offense by Jasmine not asking. She trusted him to watch over her younger sister, after all. But it wasn’t about not trusting him. It was about taking advantage of his kindness. And Jasmine was terrified of crossing a line and ruining a perfectly good, happy friendship.
It was more than just a friendship though, right?
Jasmine fought back the ache at the pit of her stomach.
Her phone buzzed again. The screen lit up.
JEANINE: ur an idiot
Jasmine had booked a tiny hotel close to where New York Comic Con was being held. Jeanine’s little studio on campus was much too small for her to stay in, anyway. And Jeanine had a project she needed to finish the next day before she could even meet up with Jasmine, Cat, and Andria at NYCC.
So Jasmine suffered through her usual insomnia alone, in a room just big enough to fit her single piece of luggage. Forced to listen to the couple upstairs go at it for most of the night. She stared at her laptop screen, eyes bleary, with her sound canceling headphones on. And made sure to schedule her emails to send at a much more reasonable hour, so as to not look insane.
She finally passed out around five, but only got a few hours of sleep before she needed to be up and ready in time for the first panel.
And now, she just needed to wait for the next one. Though, she was oddly antsy. She’d hardly heard from any of her friends and her sister had been uncharacteristically quiet. Cat and Andria had joined her for breakfast, but Jasmine encouraged them to go ahead and enjoy as much of the con as they could. Even so, it wasn’t like them not to send her loads of updates. Was something wrong?
“Jazz, did you get any sleep last night?” Abby asked, offering Jasmine a fresh cup of coffee.
“I look that bad?” She’d worked extra hard on her makeup that morning. And no one had said anything earlier.
“No,” Abby said with a laugh, “but you keep spacing out—that’s not like you. Something on your mind?”
More like someone, but Jasmine refused to say that aloud. She’d already earned herself a long-winded text rant from Jeanine. She didn’t need Abby joining in.
“Just thinking about dinner,” Jasmine lied. “I’m starving.”
By the way Abby narrowed her eyes, it was clear Jasmine had not been all that successful in her bluff. However, Abby didn’t press further on the matter, so Jasmine was in the clear for now.
“I told you, you should have eaten more at lunch,” Max popped back up beside them, taking the seat next to Jasmine. They’d been left in one of the back halls of the convention center to wait for their next panel—this one with the whole crew of their newest video game project.
Abby sent a look toward Max, as if trying to silently clue him into Jasmine’s false answer. Jasmine met her gaze and it caused Abby to give up.
As if on cue, Jasmine glanced at her phone as it lit up.
ANDRIA: you haven’t heard from henry?
JASMINE: no, he’s busy
ANDRIA: weird
Jasmine brought her feet up onto her chair, knees close to her chin. She tried to ignore the way Andria’s comment upset her. It always felt like her friends knew whenever she was thinking about that friendship of hers. But, she needed to squash the conversation before it went too long. They didn’t have much time left before the panel started and she didn’t need her phone going off the entire time.
Henry had made it pretty clear he wasn’t interested in anything serious dating-wise. And so had Jasmine. She’d vowed against dating for years—especially after that shitty breakup with Nate.
But, she’d be willing to change her mind… if Henry was the one to ask. He’d given plenty of hints. Jasmine wasn’t stupid. She felt his intentions, his interest. And she reciprocated.
However, Jasmine didn’t want to just be an addition to his supposed list of flings, either. And if that was all Henry wanted, she wasn’t willing to give up their friendship for that. She’d never confirmed if that list actually existed, though. Probably because she was too embarrassed to ask.
Jasmine turned her phone to not disturb and shoved it into her pocket just as their handlers came around the corner, gesturing for the cast to follow their lead to the stage.
“Jasmine, if you could go right after Leonard please, then Max—and Abigail.”
A sense of ease settled back over her, happy to be back and focused on the stage. Jasmine waved with a grin to the fans as she followed behind Leo, who then took her hand and helped her up into her assigned stool. Leo also helped Abby next, before taking his appointed spot next to Jasmine.
Max plopped into his chair to her other side. He made a show of pretending he was too short for the stool, getting a good round of laughter from the audience.
***
“So, we know that you often do work in the soundbooth together—does that ever get awkward, considering how often the two of you have played romantic interests?”
Leo and Jasmine were used to getting these types of questions. In unison, they laughed it off with ease.
“I usually just don’t look at him during those scenes,” Jasmine said.
“She really does,” Leo agreed. “She acts like I’m not even there sometimes.”
“It helps that we’ve been friends for so long. It’s not awkward, just funny.”
“And it’s hardly interesting when we’re stuck saying the same lines a dozen times over.”
“Maybe I’m biased, but everyone here is always super professional. Even after being friends for so many years. Leo is one of the best guys to work next to in the soundbooth. He’s never made me feel awkward or uncomfortable.”
“Absolutely,” both Abby and Max agreed.
“You guys hype me up too much,” Leo said with a laugh.
“He’s one of the real good ones in the business, y’all—I’m serious!”
“The second I hear Leo is gonna be on a project, I’m willing to take just about any role if it means we can collaborate,” Max added in. “It’s been a huge honor to get to work alongside each and every one of you on this next big story.”
“Wow, Max—did I just hear a serious tone coming from you?” Abby interjected, causing another swell of laughter from the panel and the audience. “I’d hate for you to give away how much you actually like us.”
Max offered a quick crude gesture in Abby’s direction, which earned him another laugh. “I’ll have to balance it out by tripping you off the stage.” Max shrugged, but even Jasmine could tell his ears had gone red.
***
As soon as the panel ended and they’d stepped off the stage, Jasmine’s handler—Hannah—gave her purse back. With an appreciative smile, Jasmine took it gratefully. “Thank you so much, Hannah. You’ve been great today, really.”
“It’s my pleasure,” Hannah replied, though she still blushed when Jasmine offered her a hug nonetheless.
“You’ll be helping me out tomorrow, right?” Jasmine asked as the group was led back out to a hallway that would send them back into the main convention area. Here they could still chat freely without getting swamped by the sound that echoed from the end of the hall.
“Yes, of course!”
“I’ll see you at eleven for the meet-and-greet then! And make sure to get something to eat soon, I know you’ve been running around all day keeping track of all of us.” Jasmine fished around in her huge, practically magic purse, and procured a granola bar. She insisted Hannah take it before she could vanish.
On her shoulder, she felt a gentle poke as Max tried to get her attention. She dismissed it at first, wanting to make sure Hannah promised her that she’d be getting a meal shortly.
“Er, Jazz—you’ve got some people looking for you,” Max said with a subtle laugh.
“Hm?”
“Unnie!” Jeanine’s voice carried down the hall and over the sea of unfamiliar faces trying to find their next panel location.
Jasmine turned, immediately searching for her sister. She quickly found a waving Cat, as well as Andria stuffing her face with an oversized, salty pretzel. And next to them, she finally found Jeanine. It took a moment for Jasmine to recognize who she was supposed to be dressed up as. It was a cosplay of Jasmine’s most well-known and longest role: Celeste, a magical girl superhero.
Jasmine grinned, thrilled to see her people coming her way. As fun as it always was to work alongside her fellow voice actor friends, she always felt better the moment she was back with her loved ones.
Before she could shout back to Jeanine, however, her sister made a show of waving and gesturing at someone next to her instead. Jasmine followed the direction her sister pointed in and felt herself freeze in disbelief. Her brain went abruptly quiet, a wave of peace washing over her as she took in the sight of Henry. Until it was promptly flooded with a buzz of excitement.
“Henry?!” She blurted out, louder than she’d intended.
Max’s next laugh was even more noticeable in her ear. Followed by a knowing look thrown at her by Abby, then Leo. Ignoring them, Jasmine tried to wave off the threat of nerves.
“I thought you were in London,” she said, muffled partly by the strong hug Jeanine greeted her with—a smug grin on her little sister’s face. “I, uh—I didn’t expect to see you so soon, I—are you cosplaying as Zoro?”
“He is! Thanks to yours truly,” Jasmine circled around Henry as she showed off all the outfit pieces and accessories. Until she not-so-subtly pushed him forward and closer to Jasmine. “Doesn’t he look great?”
Jeanine flitted past her, making a beeline to hug a waiting Abby.
“You do,” Jasmine aimed her reply toward Henry himself, giving him a look over. “You look fuckin’ awesome.”
“We—Henry wanted to surprise you,” Cat said with pride in her voice.
“Planned it for days,” Andria said, once she’d finally finished wolfing down her pretzel. Always the blunt one, she was.
“Really?” Jasmine looked up at him directly, unable to ignore the flutter of her heart. Cat wouldn’t have been so specific if she didn’t mean it. She wasn’t one to fib, even for dramatic effect. Jasmine couldn’t help the grin that overcame her face, even when she tried to brush it off. “To surprise me?”
It wasn’t the first time she’d ever hugged Henry—not by a long shot—but she felt acutely aware now of the expectant eyes on her this time. Jasmine still relished in the feeling, though. Her eyes temporarily closed and she took in the familiar scent. Even if she had to laugh at the fake swords.
“That’s why y’all have been practically ignoring me all day?” Jasmine feigned being hurt, but she was too happy to actually be upset. A completely different kind of jitters had taken over her.
Damn. She’d really missed him, huh?
A sudden realization hit her, however, and she pulled away from Henry with a start. “Oh god—aren’t you exhausted? Have you slept? Are you hungry? Don’t tell me Jean didn’t let you eat. You must be starving.”
Your support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)
