Life Through a Lens

11. Tea Dates

11. Tea Dates 

When Carter had dropped Jasmine at home, she quickly said goodbye and thanks for the great day. Then raced past the kitchen hoping her dad wouldn't see or hear her, wanting to get to her room and pretend like she was there earlier than she had been. But of course, that was not the case.

"Jasmine honey, you're home! You're a little late, was work busy?" He asked glancing at the clock above the stove which he was cooking dinner on. It read 6:15pm; not too bad then.

"Yeah dad, it was quite busy today," Jasmine lied through her smile as she slowly turned around. Her camera bag was held in her hand dangling at her side, and slowly, she transferred it to behind her back.

"Oh, because I called the store earlier to see if they had a Lokai bracelet for mom; you know how she used to go on about them when you were younger. I thought it would cheer her up, maybe settle her a bit while she's at the hospital..." he trailed off and turned around to face Jasmine. "But anyways, Mrs. Covert picked up and said you had gone out for the day." Her dad raised an eyebrow. 'Shoot he knows,' she thought instantly, grimacing because trouble was more than likely going to follow his little speech. Figuring this, Jasmine thought she'd at least give him some of the truth, hoping to snake her way out of things.

"Yeah, I went out to work on my photography project, the store was dead today and Mrs. Covert gave me permission." Jasmine looked up at the ceiling and slowly started to inch over towards the staircase. It wasn't a total lie at least.

"Why are you completely soaked? Head. To. Toe." His words came out clipped and short.

"I went to a conservation area to take pictures and, well I kind of fell in a river." Jasmine explained. Once again, not a total lie.

"With Carter," her dad added just as she had reached the stairs. Her eyes moved to look at him and she gave her dad a grimace of a smile. This just affirmed that he had known everything all along. Mrs. Covert had blown her cover; he wasn't lying when he said he called the store today.

"Yes! I'm going to get dried off for dinner, I'll be ready and down here in 20 minutes, tops!" She yelled as she ran up the stairs to her room, avoiding and further conversation for the time being.

"We're talking more about this after!" Her dad yelled up, smiling and shaking his head.

Jasmine set her bag down on her bed then slung her wet clothes off and into the bathtub in her bathroom; she'd hang them on the drying rack in the laundry room later. Then she went in her closet and found a pair of leggings and a comfy oversized sweatshirt to throw on figuring that she wouldn't be going out again today. She grabbed a towel out of the bathroom and tied her hair up within it, hoping that would dry it out a bit. 

Hopping up onto her bed she grabbed her phone out of her bag and began scrolling through Instagram, twitter, Facebook, and any texts that she hadn't replied to. Social media was a big part of Jasmine's life, mostly because she could share her photography with the world, and that meant a lot to her. When she turned on her phone there were two messages in the inbox and hundreds of notifications from her various sites. The first one was from Emilia, the other from Ashley.

Emmy 5:14pm: Hey Jazzy! Ash and I are heading for tea at the Café later, wanna come? We'll be there around 7:30

Jazzy 6:22pm:  I'll have to see if I can go, cause I might already be in trouble...

Emmy 6:23pm:  What did you do?! Wait! Don't tell me, you can tell me at tea!

Jazzy 6:23pm:  Ok, I'll most likely see ya then