"Mickey and Minnie"
Jasmine
12/29/21

Jasmine shut her locker after putting away all her unnecessary books for the weekend. She pulled out her phone and started texting her mom, ensuring that everything would be ready for her older sister's birthday/coming home party.

This will be the first time Jasmine's seen her sister since she left for college. She couldn't make it for Thanksgiving or winter break because of her workload, but she's finally coming home for spring break. She'll be flying down on her birthday so Jasmine decided to throw a surprise party and invite some friends and family members.

She was so wrapped up in her phone that she didn't notice a presence appear next to her.

"Hey, babe," Jasmine's boyfriend, Cayson greeted before kissing her on the cheek.

She looked up from her phone to give him a quick tight-lipped smile and turned back to her phone.

"Are you still stressed out about tomorrow? You know everything's going's to go great Jas. You've been planning this party out for weeks. Take a breather."

She finally turned off her phone, though hesitantly, and looked up at her boyfriend, "You're right Cay. I should stop worrying. My mom told me she has it under control."

"Exactly. Now you're going to come with me to my car and we're going to go get something to eat and you can talk about how excited you are for me to meet your sister."

Jasmine smiled. She really was excited for him to meet her sister. She'd been hyping him up to her sister since they started dating. Angelina was probably annoyed with her for talking about a guy for 6 months straight but Jasmine really couldn't help it. He really made her happy. When he was around and giving her attention, anyway.

Jasmine's phone lit up with a text and her mood almost immediately soured.

"You gonna be wearing your signature pigtails at tomorrow's party little Minnie?" -IDIOT!!!!

Jasmine had forgotten that Rhett was going to be at the party tomorrow. She begged her mom not to invite him and his family but her mother said that it would be impolite not to invite them. They were her mother's friends and Jasmine and Angelina grew up with Rhett and his younger sister.

Her mother didn't understand, though, that Jasmine and Rhett had the worst relationship. Though everyone thought that they were always just messing around, Jasmine despised Rhett, and she knew the feeling was mutual.

Rhett always had to get his way and knew just the right way to push Jasmine's buttons. His only entertainment at these parties was irritating her, and that's exactly what he always did. His only redeeming quality was his unfortunate good looks. Whenever any of Jasmine's friends saw pictures of him, they forgot about the shitty things that Jasmine told them about him.

She almost forgot that she needed to talk to Cayson about Rhett. Rhett wasn't going to leave her alone just because she brought a boy over. At Thanksgiving last year, Rhett brought the girl he was seeing over for dinner. She ended up leaving because he was having too much fun threatening to throw her phone into the pool. Jasmine felt really bad for her but the girl was his problem.

Cayson needed to understand that her Rhett was crazy but he shouldn't get too mad because of it.

As soon as they got into the car, Jasmine decided to bring it up.

"Hey, Cay?"

"Yeah, Jas?" Cayson pulled out of his parking space and started to make his way to the nearest restaurant.

"I just wanted to talk to you about one of my family friends for a second."

"Yeah, sure. What's up?"

Jasmine took a deep breath, realizing that she wasn't exactly sure how to word this properly, "Rhett... well Rhett and I really don't like each other. He's constantly trying to push my buttons and irritate me and I don't want it to bother you if it gets overly excessive."

"Well, that just sounds like normal cousin stuff to me," Cayson replied with a slight smile.

"Oh, no no no. We aren't cousins. His mom and my mom are friends. But anyway, as long as you're okay, then I'm okay."

Cayson looked over at her and smiled, "Alright, cool."

*...*...*...*

"Okay, she's going to be here in 10 minutes guys. Is everyone here?" Jasmine yelled at the guests crowding her house.

"The Poinsettas aren't here yet," Jasmine's mom replied nervously, obviously aware that she was on edge.

"Who are the Poinsettas?" Cayson whispered into her ear.

"Stupid Rhett and his family."

Jasmine walked away from Cayson and went to find her phone. She picked it up after spotting it on the kitchen counter and quickly found Rhett's contact with the unopened message from yesterday.

Once he picked up the phone, she released her stress onto him, "Where the hell are you and your family? If you ruin this party for my sister I'm gonna-"

"Calm down Minnie. We're right outside. No need to get your pigtails in a bunch."

Jasmine was already tense and Rhett hadn't even set foot inside the house yet. She just hoped a repeat of Christmas wouldn't happen because she really was not in the mood.

"Just get your ass in the house."

He chuckled, "We're coming, we're coming."

Jasmine rolled her eyes and hung up the phone. As soon as she did so the doorbell rang and she heard her mother yell, "The Poinsettas are here!"

She took a deep breath and prepared herself to see the irritatingly hot nuisance.

"You okay?" Cayson asked, appearing out of nowhere.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I guess I should go greet my guest."

"Greet me? You mean to tell me you're actually going to talk to me, Minnie? Willingly? This must be my lucky day."

Jasmine slowly turned around and took in the idiot standing in front of her. He had a white button-up with the sleeves rolled up onto his biceps coupled with black jeans. Jasmine made a mental note to figure out where Rhett shopped so that she could take Cayson there because he definitely needed new clothes.

"I was just being polite Rhett, now please go away."

"Go away? Before I've met your brand-spanking-new boyfriend?" He then turned to address Cayson, "Hey, man. I'm Rhett. What's your name?"

"Cayson," Jasmine's boyfriend responded with a nod.

Rhett smiled before glancing down at Jasmine, though she saw the look in his eyes before he looked back to Cayson. He was up to something.

"So, C. Can I call you C? I'm gonna call you C. Anyway... has Minnie here shown you her cute little pigtails?"

"Oh my god, Rhett, that joke got old 5 years ago. Come up with some original content or shut the fuck up."

"Language!" The adults rang from the living room. Jasmine rolled her eyes.

"What's the joke?" Cayson asked, curious to understand what they were talking about.

"Oh my god," Jasmine sighed angrily.

"Well, when we were younger we went to Disney World. Jasmine wanted so badly to dress up as Minnie Mouse, so they let her, pigtails and all. It was adorable, really. Ever since then I've been calling her Minnie."

Cayson looked over at Jasmine with a confused face, "I don't see what the big deal is? Why do you get so mad over that?"

"Cause he always uses that to compare me to a child. Whenever I'm in a bad mood because he irritates me he tells me to put my hair in pigtails cause I'm acting like Minnie. It's frustrating."

"Ahh I see," Cayson said, but his face showed that he still didn't really get it.

"Guys Angelina's outside! Hide!"

Jasmine was so preoccupied with those idiot boys that she wasn't even looking at the time. She ran as fast as she could behind the nearest counter and froze.

She heard the keys go in the door, the lock turn, the door slightly creek open, and then...

"SURPRISE!!!"

Everyone popped out attacking Angelina with hugs, wishing her a happy birthday, and welcoming her home.

*...*...*...*

After everything calmed down and Jasmine was able to properly approach her sister, the first thing she did was introduce her to Cayson.

"Okay, so Cayson this is Angie and Angie, say hi to my boyfriend Cayson."

"Hey, nice to meet you. I've heard so much about you," Angelina said, glancing over at Jasmine who kept her head down.

"Likewise," Cayson nodded his head.

"Okay well, Angie and I are just gonna go catch up. Are you okay here with Rhett?" Jasmine looked between the two guys with a concerned look.

"Yeah, Rhett's actually pretty cool. We're just gonna go outside to play some basketball."

"Oh, well, alright bye."

Cayson kissed her on the cheek and sauntered off with Rhett.

"Are you sure he's your boyfriend, or Rhett's?" Angelina joked.

"I don't even know how he can stand Rhett. He's so insufferable."

"Don't tell me you haven't gotten over the whole 'I hate Rhett' thing. We all know Rhett's just messing around with you. I'm honestly surprised you guys aren't going at it yet... you know?"

"Oh my god Angelina, shut up. Rhett is fucking annoying. Period. I don't hate him and yes I'm aware that he's hot but I can't stand him."

"Alright," Angelina sang in a suggestive tone.

*...*...*...*

Rhett and Cayson were playing horse using the basketball hoop right outside Jasmine's house. They were both enjoying themselves, surprisingly, though Rhett still had his doubts and irritations with Cayson.

He was starting to think that maybe Cayson wasn't a bad guy and he should just leave him and Jasmine be, but he just couldn't shake this weird feeling.

After each guy won a game, they decided to take a break. Sitting on the concrete next to the hoop, they each started chugging the waters they brought outside.

Cayson's phone buzzed and he picked it up. Smirking, he showed the picture to Rhett.

"Hey, dude look. She's hot right?"

Rhett quickly looked away, that really wasn't for him to look at, "Dude what the fuck. Why are girls sending you nudes?"

"Cause I asked them to? What do you mean?"

Rhett gave Cayson a quick once over, "What do I... What? I- Please tell me that these are at least just anonymous girls."

"Nah man, these are girls from my school."

"Dude what the fuck," Rhett quickly ran a hand through his hair.

"I mean, I return the favor, so it's all good."

Rhett got up, suddenly pissed off, "What do you mean you returned the favors?"

Cayson got up as well, eyes swimming with confusion, "I dunno like sexual favors, you know? Why are you getting so mad?"

"Why am I getting so mad? Aren't you supposed to be dating Jasmine? The girl you came here with."

Cayson finally got it and instantly his confusion turned to fear. He thought that since Rhett "despised" Jasmine, it wouldn't be a big deal if he told him about what he was doing. Obviously, he was wrong.

"L-look man, please don't tell her I-"

Rhett cut him off with a swift punch to the jaw. Cayson fell over, making noise and startling everyone inside the house.

"Jasmine! Rhett just punched your date!" Someone yelled.

"Rhett just did what!?" Jasmine quickly ran outside to see what was going on.

"Get the fuck out of here!!" Rhett yelled at Cayson, but instead of listening, he looked over at Jasmine for help.

"Jasmine, you were right he really is a dick, I'm sorry I ditched you I just-" Cayson stood and tried to grab for Jasmine's arm but she flinched away.

She had only ever seen Rhett this mad once in her entire life. Some kid pushed her down the stairs in middle school and she broke her leg. Rhett went apeshit on the kid. Despite how annoying he is, Rhett doesn't get this pissed off for nothing.

"What did he do Rhett?" Jasmine said looking down at the ground and preparing for the worst.

"I don't think I should say it in front of all these people."

She winced when she realized how bad it was going to be.

"Okay," She finally looked up at Cayson, "leave."

"But-"

"She said 'leave'," Rhett said in a menacing tone.

And Cayson was gone.

"We can go up to my room."

Rhett grabbed Cayson's phone, which fell out of his hand when Rhett punched him and made his way through the sea of family members and friends to Jasmine's room.

Rhett looked around the room, taking in everything before sitting down on Jasmine's bed next to her.

"So... what did he do?"

Rhett tried to think of nicer ways to say tell her but decided on just ripping off the bandaid.

"He... he cheated."

Jasmine sucked in a breath on instinct, but the confession wasn't surprising, she had a feeling.

"Yeah, thought so."

"Here's his phone for proof."

"I don't need proof. I don't exactly want to see any of that stuff and I know you aren't lying," Jasmine said, pushing the phone away.

"Well, well, well, never thought I'd see the day when Jasmine said something remotely nice to me," Rhett joked. His frown slowly turned into a smirk.

"Oh, shut up Rhett."

"I'll shut up when you admit that I'm not as bad as you try to make me out to be."

She turned to make eye contact with him, "I guess you can be okay sometimes."

"Sometimes? Who was it that gave you clothes to wear after your little swim in the pool on Christmas?"

"Okay, but who pushed me in the pool?"

"In my defense, I didn't know you were on your peri-"

"Shut up, Rhett," they both started laughing thinking about that day.

"Okay, here's one. Who fished your brand new necklace out of the toilet when my crazy ex-girlfriend threw it down there before storming out on Thanksgiving."

"Hey! Don't call her crazy. She stormed out because you were paying more attention to me than your date."

"True...but c'mon I'm not that bad."

Jasmine rolled her eyes.

"Okay, how about this. I'll stop teasing you about the Minnie thing if we can be friends."

Jasmine thought over it for a minute with a BBL face before nodding her head.

"But! I still want to call you Minnie."

She rolled her eyes again but agreed nevertheless.

*...*...*...*

6 Months Later

Jasmine shut her locker after putting away all her unnecessary books for the weekend. She pulled out her phone and started texting her ride, making sure that she wasn't stranded at school.

"Why isn't he answering?" she thought out loud.

"Maybe because I'm right behind you!"

The person came up from behind Jasmine and startled her, causing her to repeatedly hit them over the head with her backpack.

"It's just me! It's Rhett! Stop, Jas!"

"How. Many. Times. Do. I. Have to. Tell you. Not to. Do. That."

"Okay, I'm sorry."

She finally stopped hitting him but didn't let her guard down.

"What are you doing here so early shouldn't you just be getting out of school?"

Ever since Jasmine's dramatic breakup with Cayson, she and Rhett have become a lot closer. They still argue, but now it's in a more frenemies type of way rather than an enemies type of way. He's been picking her up from school as soon as he gets out but his school is 10 minutes behind hers.

"I wanted to surprise you so I got out early," Rhett said, beginning the short walk to his car.

"Surprise me? What's so special about today?"

"Today, Minnie, is the day when I stop dicking around and ask you to be my girlfriend," Jasmine was going to reply but stopped short when she saw the Minnie sticker planted on Rhett's car window with a note attached.

Will you be my GF? Promise I won't punch any more guys

P.S. it took everything I had not to write 'will you let me be the Mickey to your Minnie?', but I didn't. I hope you're proud.

Jasmine smiled at the cute note until she realized that Rhett was standing beside her waiting for an answer.

"Well...?"

"Yeah, sure I guess," Jasmine shrugged her shoulders.

Rhett smiled at her and pulled her into a bear hug.

"You know, I really wanted to say something stupid like 'where's tootles,' but then I realized I'm not corny like you," Jasmine said into his chest.

"The fact that you thought it, Minnie, tells me all I need to know."