"Well, the short story is -"
Jennie interrupts, "I don't want to hear the short story. I've been watching you sit in that bar, alone, since March. If I wanted a short story I wouldn't have let you drive me to a secluded area and handed over my wall...
Lisa counts to twenty in her head in the way she used to when she was a child.One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi. This has become sort of routine for her. She would take a shot, count to twenty, take a sip of water, count to twenty, and then repeat the whole charade over and over again until her thoughts begin to fade. Until everything in her head becomes fuzzy.
"Let me buy you one of those," A unkown girl interjects as she takes a seat next to Lisa at the bar.
Lisa tilts her head slowly and takes in the girl's appearance - dark hair, warm eyes, friendly smile. She seems nice.
"Wouldn't want you to waste your time," Lisa smiles weakly, "I'm totally gay, but not in the mood."
The girl laughs and nods, "Yeah, yeah, I could tell."
"So you're not here to get lucky?"
"No offense, but gloomy lesbians aren't really my type," The she offers up a smug grin, "I just thought I'd come over here and offer to buy you a drink. I've seen you around for a while now but I was always too afraid to come up and talk to you."
Lisa raises an eyebrow, "You were afraid of me?"
"Yeah, you have this cool, too-good-for-everybody-here vibe about you. It's kind of intimidating."
"So why are you talking to me now?"
"I'm a little bit drunk, to be honest," The girl gestures down to the half-empty cup in her hand, "Also, I noticed that you never come here with anyone. I figured you might want some company."
"I don't," Lisa says and then frowns a bit when she notices how harsh her voice sounds, "Look, you seem like a nice girl. Like, ridiculously nice. But I'm not really looking for... friends or anything right now."
"Why not?" The girl leans towards Lisa a bit and rests her head in her palm, "Oh, and I'm Jennie, by the way."
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"Your name is Jennie?" The girl nods, "Wow, okay. You don't really look like a Jennie, but that's cool. You do you, girl."
"What do I look like?" Jennie grins, white teeth exposed under pale lips.
"I don't know, maybe something... y'know, typical Korean."
"I get that a lot, actually," Jennie takes a swig of her liquor, "Jennie is a famous name all over the world but yeah and I'm full Korean. When I was young I was sent alone abroad to study in Auckland and I lived with a home-stay family, so for me the name is pretty normal. But to be honest my real name is Jennie Kim, though, so I'm still somewhat of a basic Korean."
"Cool story," Lisa drifts her eyes away from the girl and stares straight ahead.
"What's your name, then?"
Lisa chews on the inside of her cheek to stop herself from saying the words that her brain echoes in response. I'm Lisa. My name is Lisa. She's used to this by now - staying quiet. It's easy.
