My Lovely Lunacy (Lisa Rowe x OC)

like a dying engine

   Polly heard Lisa being brought up the stairs and basically became a track star. She pushed through doors, maneuvered around people, and even did a little hop over a puddle of water that strangely hadn't been marked by a "Caution: Slippery When Wet" sign yet. She resisted the urge to go find a janitor, reminding herself that this was an important mission.

  "Kali, she's coming. Lisa's out." She made sure to scream whisper into the room. When Kali jumped up from her bed and nodded in understanding, Polly took a deep breath and ran off to find a nurse to help her find a janitor. She didn't want the guilt of someone turning the McLean hallway into a slip n' slide on her conscience.

   Kali hurriedly practiced "mindful breathing", the topic of Wick's latest lecture. But rushing through it didn't seem to have that much of a calming effect. She tried to think back to everything Leo had prepped her with only a week ago. Polly didn't know why Kali was so bent on knowing when Lisa was arriving, but she didn't bother asking much questions. She just knew it was important and that was enough for her.

   When Kali heard slow and deliberate footsteps approaching, she almost jumped back into her bed and pulled the covers up over her head. Instead, she lightly smacked her forehead and took a seat in the desk chair. She sat with both feet planted firmly on the ground. As the doorknob slowly turned, she decided against that sitting position. She brought up one leg and crossed it over the other, opening her book like she hadn't been carefully constructing an arrival.

   "Chatterbox" Lisa gave her only a slight nod before she started changing her shirt. Kali looked down at her feet as Lisa switched her lavender tank top for a yellow t-shirt.

   "Lisa." Kali waited for her to finish before standing, "We need to talk."

   "What about?" Lisa didn't look at her as she started folding her blankets. Kali had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Lisa never cared about what her bed looked like. This was her attempt at avoiding the situation, but Kali was not about to let her get away that easily.

   "What happened. Last week."

   "How's Paulie boy?"

   "I don't know. He left." Kali shrugged.

   Lisa chuckled. "Oh, I thought he would have told you all about how he was feeling."

   Kali angrily took the blanket that Lisa was starting to refold out of her hand. A part of her wanted to fling it onto the floor, but she only calmly put it down on Lisa's pillow.

   "He's not even my friend. I don't know him and he doesn't know me. It's not like-"

   "Like what?"

   "You almost kissed me."

   "And you didn't want me to."

   Kali couldn't help laughing incredulously, "You were covered in Paul's nose blood. Excuse me if I wasn't feeling romantic."

  "Maybe romance can't be conditional, Chatter. If you like one part of me, you have to like the rest."

  "So I should like the part of you that pushed Daisy to kill herself? I should just accept that one day if you get mad at me, you could just say anything. And you won't care. Because you obviously don't, it doesn't affect your day to day. You live like it never even happened, but it did. It happened and if I killed myself, would you just move-"

  "You know shit about anything. You got here basically yesterday." Lisa just chuckled, shaking her head.

   Kali stepped back. "I know that you bully people."

   "Oh, grow up, Kali."

   "Maybe you should grow up, Lisa." Kali opened the door, "Because life isn't a game that you can manipulate. One day you're going to get into a situation that's going to be more than just a week in Solitary. And I'm so sorry that I can't just accept that."

   Lisa kept the smile on her face until Kali slammed the door closed behind her. She rolled her eyes as she started refolding her blanket. Kali didn't know anything, she kept laughing about it to herself.

   She told herself that she enjoyed the silence of a quiet, empty room. She smoked her cigarette and let the smell that Kali complained about seep into every corner of the room. And then it started getting darker outside. Lisa skipped dinner and waited for Kali to come back sulking to go to bed.

    Kali didn't come.

   Lisa laid down and tried to fall asleep that night. All she could think about was Daisy. Was the life she used to lead. The people she used to love. She had told Kali romance can't be conditional, but wasn't she the one who treated everything like it was? It annoyed her. Because she couldn't just roll over on her side and pretend it didn't hurt when Kali called her manipulative.

   "Whatever." Lisa scoffed. She said it out loud just to hear sound, to cover up the deafening nothing that was awaiting her on Kali's side of the room.

   But after that all she could hear was her own breathing. Like a dying engine, it drove her right to a restless sleep.