Head Over Boots For You // Jenlisa

21: Woman On A Mission

Jennie

When school resumed after the holidays, Jennie was in crisis mode all the time. One week, it would be her classes running her into the ground with projects and exams and endless amounts of information she needed to jam into her head. The next week, she would be working late at the animal hospital. Then there was trying to keep in touch with Jisoo, and her mom, and God forbid Jennie ever wanted to hang out with friends or just relax for once.

And of course there was Lisa. Jennie texted her, and called her, and Skyped her, but none of it was enough. None of it could replace the rough callouses of Lisa's hands sliding over her skin; or Lisa's soft laughter in her ear that would make the fine hairs at the back of Jennie's head dance; or the hunger in Lisa's eyes when Jennie would tease her by slowly undressing her, button by button.

Sometimes, when Jennie was tired enough, she could swear she heard Lisa's sleepy sigh in the bed beside her or feel the tracing of Lisa's fingers against her arm. More often, Jennie dreamed of her and the ranch, the scent of sage filling her nose and Lisa's flanneled form rocking in the saddle beside her. When Jennie awoke, another long day of classes and studying and projects ahead of her, she could only sigh in disappointment.

Even so, Lisa had a way of jutting into Jennie's life, like a curtain being turned aside to let sunshine into a dark room. Lisa's good morning messages never failed to put Jennie in, maybe not a good mood, but at least a better one. Even just seeing Lisa's face on her laptop screen made Jennie breathe easier. And Lisa, for better or for worse, had discovered Snapchat.

Not surprisingly, Lisa's snaps were always a bit unconventional. For the most part, Lisa sent mundane snaps of life around the ranch: what she was eating for dinner (that usually resulted in Jennie scolding her for eating a sandwich again), a view of the sun setting behind the hills, or even a pile of horse manure that, according to Lisa's note, looked like the constellation Cassiopeia. Lisa only occasionally sent selfies, which were usually serious photos with a silly filter. Jennie's favorite filter was the one that gave Lisa puppy dog ears.

Given Lisa's previous snap history, Jennie was completely unprepared for the one that Lisa sent her in class.

It was one of Jennie's 8 AM classes, which she not-so-secretly detested. It was one thing to wake up so early to ride across a grassland and quite another to sit in a room with terrible fluorescent lighting that made her skin look like she was dead. She was already on her second coffee of the day (she was averaging four a day now) but still struggling to stay awake. The notification on her phone was a welcome distraction to help her keep her eyes open at least. She unlocked her phone on the desk, fully expecting a picture of another sunrise, or maybe Lisa with a silly filter.

What she was not prepared for was Lisa, long blonde hair loose and hanging over both shoulders—very bare shoulders, attached to a very bare chest, which was concealed by only a very strategically placed arm.

Jennie sat bolt upright in her seat, startling her friends, Tzuyu and Taehyung, sitting on either side of her. She snatched the phone in both hands and angled it towards herself against Tzuyu's curious eyes. Somewhat reluctantly, Jennie tapped the screen, and the image of Lisa's chest, and her self-satisfied smile, and her bicep that bulged as she covered herself, disappeared.

Tzuyu still craned her neck to see the phone screen, and Jennie kicked her under the desk, a little louder than she had intended. Their professor—just a few feet away in the small classroom—gave her a quizzical look before continuing on about... something. Jennie realized she hadn't been paying attention for a few minutes now. She spared a glance over to Taehyung's notebook, which was already full of notes. Shit.