YOU & ME | JENLISA

Chapter 10

Jennie

"Let me in! I have no place else to go. It's gonna rain, you can't leave me out here all night. Not again!" Her father punched her and Lisa fell to the ground holding her jaw.

"You can rot out here for all I care! No money, no entry. You still owe them my last debt. She doesn't want to see you, not until you can provide for her!" He hocked back phlegm and snooted it at Lisa's face. Then went back inside the trailer and slammed the door shut.

I chewed on my lower lip, not knowing how to approach the situation but needing to walk past. Lisa sat in the dirt breathing heavily, then she heaved herself to sit on the steps outside her trailer door, while keeping her head lowered. I put my pepper spray back and walked slowly towards her.

"Um... hi."

Her head lifted and she rolled her eyes the very second she laid them upon me. She said nothing.

"I was on my way home from Kai's party." I felt nervous, the need to explain myself was an irrational urge that I couldn't resist. Lisa didn't speak, she just stared at me blankly with those bruised, and earthy eyes. "I heard your dad..."

"What do you want Jennie!?" She snapped.

"Uh... I just wanted to ask if you're okay." I cowered down to her intimidation. She looked rough, she wore her trauma on her face but it went further than that, it was deeply rooted.

"Do I look okay to you?!" Her words were short and snappy, she clenched her jaw and then hissed in pain and grabbed it.

"No." I admitted softly.

"Then I guess I'm not okay!"

The lights went out in the trailer behind her, with darkness encircling us. The street lanterns around the trailer park had been smashed in. Giving way to the crime dealings going on around here. Being alone with Lisa in the dark was nerve-wrecking and tense but I couldn't just leave her out here.

"Do you want to... maybe... I don't know... stay with me?"

Her face contorted into something of shock and bewilderment. Her lips didn't smile, they didn't even twitch.

What was I thinking?

Inviting literal trouble to my door, my dad would be mad if I brought home a drug dealer-taker-producer-whatever, maybe even a serial killer and an accused rapist. Lisa licked the scab on her lower lip and blinked in the expression written on my face.

"Didn't think that through, did you?" She asked.

"No." I admitted.

"Regret asking the question, right?"

"Yeah." I answered without thinking. She scoffed and then held her ribs in pain.

"No, I mean no." I said firmly. My father raised me to see the good in people. When there was a lack of good you needed to make good and that starts by giving someone a chance. "You've got nowhere to go, right? You can stay at my place. We have the comfiest couch in the whole world and a stocked fridge and it's warm there."

"Now you're just bragging about all the things that I don't have."

My eyes widened in horror. "No... uh... that's not... I didn't mean..."

"Jennie, I'm just fucking with you." She pulled up her jeans and revealed an electronic bracelet around her ankle. "Kinda doomed to sit right here on this doorstep, besides your dad is the sheriff. Cops and I, we don't mix well."

"So you're just gonna sit out here all night, in the rain?"

She took off her jacket and balled it up, she lay down resting her head on the pillow-jacket and lifted her legs to rest up on the door frame. She glanced over at me.

"Yup."

Then the rain fell, it didn't slowly trickle or pitter patter. It dropped down like an unstoppable waterfall. Lisa sat up immediately and sighed. I dropped to my knees next to her and she flinched backwards at my sudden movement.

"I can remove it." I stated, taking it upon myself to lift her jeans and have a look at the bracelet. She stiffened, a little weirded out by me, I think. "So there's this tiny hole here, that's the GPS tracker. It works by radio frequency, if we shoved some aluminium in this hole the GPS system would glitch. I have a gum wrapper, so that would work."

I glanced up at Lisa. She no longer seemed weirded out. She was studying the ankle bracelet over my shoulder with an interested expression, so I took that as my cue to continue.

"Once we've blocked the GPS, we can remove the bracelet. We'll need something thin like a knife or... wait... I know... a metal nail file." I fished through my bag and pulled out my file, slipping it between the chunky clasp of her ankle bracelet. The front shield popped off with careful effort.

"Woah, okay... you're really doing this then?"

"On their system it will show you at the last location before the GPS glitched, so that's here at home. They will never know." I smiled at her as I detached her ankle bracelet and stood up with it, while handing it back to her.

"So you're like smart then?"

I laughed at her joke. "Not smart, just the sheriff's daughter." I remarked.

"Cool, uh... thanks."

I nodded.

"Well then, since I'm free I'll see ya in class or whatever."

My smile fell instantaneously.

"But, you're going to stay with me. So, I can keep an eye on you."

She laughed at me before running off in the opposite direction.

Yeah... you're definitely not fucking smart Jen.