YOU & ME | JENLISA

Chapter 6

Jennie

I looked back at my reflection in the mirror attached to the door of my locker. I was running late this morning, didn't shower, didn't brush my hair and totally forgot to put mascara on which is why everyone kept asking me if I was ill.

"Whoever got her, got her good." Rosé commented. I coated my lashes with her inky-black mascara, holding my mouth open like a fish between breaths. "Her face is all banged up, obviously drug related. Do you ever like get the urge to follow her, and see what she gets up to?" I tightened the lid on the mascara tube and handed it back to her.

"No, she honestly terrifies me. Why would I want to do that?"

She shrugged, while handing me over a tinted chap stick.

"She just seems so mysterious and interesting. I bet there's a story there. I want to know if she's dealing or if she's just addicted. Maybe she's got a secret lab and she's producing the stuff. When people don't pay her, she kills them and then hides the bodies underneath her lab, masking the deteriorating smell with chemicals."

I blotted my lips together a few times.

"That's elaborate Rosé, so now she's a drug producer and a murderer, isn't she failing chemistry?" I poked at my pores to try and smooth them out. "She's in middle set for most subjects, I don't think that she's bright enough to get away with mass murder."

She waved her hand in dismissal and handed me a cucumber scented roll-on deodorant.

"It's all part of her cover. She's a serial killer, a rapist and she owns her own meth lab beneath her trailer."

I handed her back the deodorant and pulled the hair tie out of my hair. Rosé rooted around her bag and then handed me a brush.

"This is not a beauty salon ladies, get to class." The vice principal reprimanded. I scooped all of my dark brown hair into a ponytail and quickly tied the hair tie. I turned to face my over dramatic best friend and placed my hands on her shoulders.

"Listen to me my dearest Rosé, I know how excited you get about solving mysteries but Lisa is not someone you want to go chasing a story for. Her life is messy and she's dangerous. Just keep away."

I slammed the door of my locker closed and reached English before the bell rung. Mr. Choi, our usual teacher wasn't standing at the front but instead a substitute was in his place. The traditional seating plan got ripped up and I sat huddled with some of my dance group.

The door flung open and Lisa's fawny-green eyes scanned the room, her usual seat inhabited by Mino and other guys from the lacrosse team. For a fleeting moment our eyes met and I gasped at the sight of her face. Rosé wasn't wrong, someone got her good. Her eye was encased with purple bruising, her cheek bone was grazed and her lower lip was both cut and swollen, she licked over the scab and then took herself to the back of the classroom, sitting alone.

"Jen, are you going to Kai's party on Friday?"

"You bet!"

"Cool, you want to maybe go together."

"Ummmm."

"That's a really long umm."

"You're a really nice guy Hanbin, but I'm just not really looking to start anything right now. I'm flying solo, sorry."

"Let me know if that changes."

I smiled awkwardly, I found it really awkward whenever guys asked me out, not just Hanbin. I always turned them down and I'm not even sure why I never gave them a chance. I guess my dad set my standards high and nobody has ever reached them yet.

"Jen always gets all the hot guys." Krystal teased.

"Shh." I whispered, while giggling with my friends shyly.

"You know Taehyung has a massive crush on you? He told me so himself."

Admittedly I had caught onto that. During dance practice he looks at me too deeply and holds me too intensely, sometimes he even touches me inappropriately. It's starting to feel a little weird.

"Jackson asked her out this morning too, he's totally hot. I'm so jealous." Momo elbowed me playfully.

"Oh my God guys, will you stop. You're embarrassing me."

They laughed.

I wrote today's date at the top of my paper and then slowly looked over my shoulder at Lisa. She leaned forward and grabbed the pen out of Mark's hand.

"Hey!" He shouted and turned around fast. "Oh, I'm sorry." Once he saw that it was Lisa, he turned back to face the front and cowered into his seat before asking the person next to him if he could borrow a pen.

As Lisa scribbled on her sheet, I noticed her knuckles were busted in and scabbed over. She flexed her fingers a few times to ease up the scabs as she bent her hand around the pen but her face contorted with discomfort and I turned back to face the front.

Okay, Rosé's story was a little dramatic for my liking, so I'm gonna conduct my own little conspiracy theory.

She's into underground fighting.

She fights for drugs and money to buy drugs.

That's the extent of it.

The full depth of Lisa's life.

Now, I don't want to discredit any girl's claim of rape or sexual assault but also I don't want to believe something which I have no evidence or testimony of. So I'm not going to cast any opinion on that, it's none of my business.

We've known Lisa since elementary school, she's always been the quiet, moody kid everyone was frightened of. When we were seven, she tipped a milk carton over Kai's head and squished his jam sandwich beneath her sneaker. When we were nine, she pushed Rosé into the swamp water on our field trip. Yesterday she threatened to kill me, things really don't change much.

I looked over my shoulder again, she licked the scab in the centre of her lips and then her eyes pulled up to meet mine. She crinkled her brows and tightened her lips, with confusion clouding her face. I gasped and turned away.

Lisa was mysterious, perhaps a little interesting too but she was also undoubtedly trouble. Yet I couldn't help but feel the curiosity building up inside of me, there was a part of me that wondered what made her so upset yesterday.