Stay With Me

I'm Here

Roseanne hadn't taken a road trip since the one with Lisa from New York three months prior, and before that, it had been years since her last road trip. Still, it felt natural. She stopped only once – to buy herself some candy. It was late, and she'd worked all afternoon, so the sugar boost was helpful. Lisa had insisted that it would be okay for her to just come in the morning, rather than drive so late at night, but Roseanne was determined.

Even though it didn't bother her to drive, and it didn't feel weird, being alone did. Roseanne was hardly ever completely alone. And she'd never driven more than an hour by herself. It felt lonely, even though she knew that her destination would steal away that feeling in a second.

Jisoo had worked late – and had come by the bar only briefly to say goodbye, because she'd been so tired. That was why Roseanne didn't call her. She didn't call Lisa while she drove because, while the brunette insisted that she would stay awake, Roseanne knew better. Solbin was with Minhyun, and she was sure that none of her other friends would feel like talking to her for four hours as she drove until three in the morning.

So she drove completely by herself, occasionally tossing a few gummy bears into her mouth, as music played and she forced herself to stay awake and aware. When she had told her mom she was driving this late for this long by herself, she'd received a strong scolding with the underlying message of "I lost your dad in a car accident, don't be stupid and get into one too.". Roseanne knew that her mom was concerned about that, but she was confident about her driving abilities even at night. She was mostly worried about finding her way to the address that she had scrawled onto a little piece of paper that was now resting on her dash.

When she found herself driving into the city, she turned on her GPS and punched in the address, deciding that trying to find it by herself would be not only stupid, but take an excessive amount of time to do. It began to speak to her in an even voice, telling her where and when to turn, and soon enough, she was driving along a street and saw the building that she had stayed in while she was in New York before – Lisa's building. Her chest filled with the excitement that came with seeing her girlfriend for the first time in three months.

Then she remembered the matter of parking, and she huffed as she glanced at the second address that she had written down as per Lisa's request. It seemed to just be up the street, but Roseanne had to turn around the block to find the parking garage.

Walking from the parking garage to Lisa's apartment at three-thirty in the morning was slightly terrifying, but she walked fast and with purpose, even as she dragged her one, small suitcase behind her, and luckily ran into no sketchy characters. She let herself into the warm apartment building. It wasn't much of a different temperature than Roseanne imagined New York would be during the day – seeing as it was summer now.

Roseanne was happy that she remembered which apartment was Lisa's, because her girlfriend had conveniently forgotten to mention it. She found the door and crouched in front of it, grabbing the key hidden under the mat. Silent, she unlocked the door and walked into the room. It was familiar, but at the same time, not. She'd spent two and a half days, if even that, in New York. But it was just so Lisa, and Lisa was familiar.

The living area and kitchen were both clean, as well as the little table that was between them, with four chairs tucked neatly under it. Roseanne shed the jacket she was wearing and left her little suitcase by the table. Still trying to be as quiet as possible, she slid off her shoes and went to Lisa's bedroom door. It creaked a little as she nudged it open, and she was greeted by an adorable sight. The light in the room was on, as was Lisa's laptop. The girl had clearly tried to stay awake, but she was curled up in front of the computer, the screen of which was dimmed and clearly about to shut off. Lisa was passed out. She was wearing her NYU hoodie and short shorts, and Roseanne felt a smile appear on her face easily. She carefully made her way to Lisa's closet, grabbing random comfy clothes to sleep in, and then changed before going to the bed and closing the laptop, moving it to the nightstand. Then she padded softly back into the living area where she'd left her bag and grabbed her phone charger.