Early the next morning, Jennie used her spare key to enter Jisoo's sunny, oversized studio apartment, calling out, "Sweetie, it's me. Are you up?"
Jisoo's strained voice answered from the other side of the room. "Pretty sure I'm never getting up again."
Frowning, Jennie made her way across the clothing-strewn floor to stand over Jisoo's unmade bed. Her best friend's motionless body rested in the center of the mattress, stiff-limbed and in obvious pain. Alarmed by how badly Jisoo seemed to be suffering, Jennie hurried to inspect the orange bottle of pills on her nightstand. "Is it time for another painkiller?"
"Fuck those things," Jisoo seethed through gritted teeth. "Goddamn opiate bullshit."
Jennie put the bottle back in its place. "Okay, then." She turned to face the bed, taking note of the way Jisoo continued to stare resolutely at the ceiling. "Shall I roll you a joint instead?"
Jisoo's eyes softened ever so slightly. "I'd love you forever if you did."
Jennie knelt to retrieve the necessary tray of supplies from beneath the nightstand, then perched gingerly on the edge of the mattress while she prepared Jisoo's preferred form of pain relief. "What the hell happened? You fell?"
"Off that ladder." Jisoo indicated it without moving, but Jennie was too busy grinding a fresh batch of flowers to follow her gaze across the room. "The pain was unbearable."
Jennie raised her eyes to Jisoo's, choking up at the catch in her friend's voice. "Why didn't you call me?"
"At some point during the excruciating lifetime I lay paralyzed on the floor, I settled upon this batshit theory that trained paramedics would be able to offer more relevant aid than my sex-guru bestie." Jisoo gritted her teeth while minutely shifting her weight to the side. "Well-intentioned though she may be."
"I had no clue you'd injured yourself this severely." Jennie licked the seam of the joint to seal it closed. "You should have told me. I would've canceled class and taken care of you."
"Which is exactly why I didn't. What could you have done, exactly? Besides, lose a small pile of cash." Jisoo beckoned for her medicinal herb, grimacing. "Light that bad boy and hold it to my mouth, will you?"
Jennie sparked up the lighter, burned away the twisted paper at the tip, and took a hearty drag to start them off. Without exhaling, she flipped the joint around to insert the unlit end between Jisoo's parted lips and kept it there while Jisoo inhaled a long, careful drag. She held the smoke in her lungs for a good five seconds, then cautiously exhaled without a single cough. Jennie released her own cloud of smoke, grateful for Jisoo's practiced finesse. "Nicely done," she said, giving Jisoo another hit. "Hopefully this helps."
Jisoo closed her eyes after the second exhalation. "It sure as hell doesn't hurt."
"What did the doctor say?" She kept the smoldering joint within Jisoo's reach, just in case. "How long until you recover?"
Jisoo's face crumpled. "I don't know."
Jennie curled her free hand around Jisoo's, giving the cold fingers a soothing caress. "Sweetheart, you're going to be okay. Even if it takes weeks, or months, you will heal."
Tears streamed from the corners of Jisoo's tightly shut eyes. "Doc said it's a spinal fracture. Exacerbated by the fucking early onset osteoporosis she diagnosed me with. So there's that."
