Tinder - Jenlisa (English version)

42

Jennie POV

JENNIE: Lisa.

I open the umbrella and run to cover her. She bends down and puts her hands on her knees, she's out of breath, she looks like she's going to drown.

LISA: I don't think the umbrella's going to help. I've come running.

JENNIE: What?

LISA: There were no taxis left.

She tries to catch some breath while the rain gets me wet too, because an umbrella won't do much in a storm like this.

JENNIE: You ran two miles in the rain?

LISA: Is it two miles?

JENNIE: About...

LISA: Hold on, I need to catch my breath.

She sits down on a bench. She was right, the umbrella wasn't going to fix anything. We stand in silence for a few minutes, waiting for Lisa to catch her breath, and I finally decide to close the umbrella, because I'm being an idiot trying to hold on to it in this hell of a wind, and because I'm practically soaking wet myself.

LISA: Jennie.

JENNIE: Tell me.

She looks more recovered, at least she doesn't look like she's going to faint now.

LISA: What did you want to talk about?

Did she run all the way to my house because I wanted to talk to her?

JENNIE: Are you going to Thailand?

LISA: Yes.

I feel the rain running down my cheeks and I'm grateful for it because my eyes are burning and I don't know if I can hold back the tears, so the water acts as a shield.

JENNIE: I read your letter.

LISA: Is that what you wanted to tell me?

JENNIE: I don't know. I read your letter and I wanted to talk to you.

LISA: I see.

Her hair is plastered to her head and face in the rain and she looks at some undefined point between the two of us, as if analysing what I've just said to her.

JENNIE: I was mad at you, and I think I had a right to be.

LISA: Yeah.

JENNIE: But I don't want you to go.

LISA: I don't want to go either, I just need to sort out my feelings.

JENNIE: Sort them out here.

LISA: Jennie...

JENNIE: Is it really the easy option for you to leave? To never see me again?

LISA: It's not the easy option, it's the one I need.

JENNIE: So you don't want to see me again?

LISA: That's not what I want.

JENNIE: Fuck, don't go.

Tears are already streaming down my face, mixing with the rain that keeps hitting me everywhere. I'm probably going to catch a cold, but I don't care at the moment. Lisa approaches me awkwardly, as if she doesn't know what to do.

LISA: Don't cry.

She doesn't say anything, just stands there without another word. I decide to break the eight inches that separate us and hug her tightly. I put my arms around her and rest my head on her neck.

JENNIE: Don't go.

I feel her body tighten, stiffen. It takes about fifteen seconds before I feel her muscles relax and she hugs me back.