JL OS

Silence

Lisa was a firm believer in the power of silence.

It was powerful. Good stuff. Many of her friends feared silence but Lisa? Lisa revelled in it.

When her classmates floundered at social events, grasping desperately at conversation topics, Lisa would smile and nod.

Bitch move? Maybe a little.

But sometimes it actually worked in everyone's favour. Sometimes, leaving a bit of silence made it seem almost profound, like both parties were ruminating on what had just been said, like a bond of sorts had developed in the empty space.

Sometimes silence coaxes answers out of people. She'd seen her parents shout and plead and command her older brother to tell them where he'd been going at night, but he never budged.

He didn't say a word until one day Lisa sat down next to him and waited. Waited for a minute or so as he fidgeted nervously before telling her everything about the car he and his best friends were building in the old junkyard behind the school.

That whole half hour, she said nothing and he told her everything.

Silence was powerful.

Jisoo hated it when she went silent, she hated it when Lisa "did her eyebrow thing and looked at people weird"; she thought it was annoying as hell, not to mention condescending, rude and goddamn, had she already mentioned how it was extremely annoying?

So out of respect to her best friend, Lisa didn't use silence around Jisoo. But for everything else? Hell yeah.

Okay, fine. Lisa knew it was rude. When it was necessary, she would use her words. And, yes, she had trouble making new friends like this, because who wants to be friends – or who could be friends – with someone who never gave anything of herself?

Words are connectors, Lisa knew this, so when there was a need, she would speak up to protect those connections.

But at times like these, Lisa thought, silence was golden. She idly traced a drop of condensation as it fell from her cup onto the table.

"And this is my friend, Lisa!"

Next to her, Jennie was busily using her endless words to make new friends. It was such a Jennie thing to do, chatting up random strangers at the table next to theirs on a normal night out.

Lisa smiled at each stranger as they introduced themselves, nodding at the appropriate times.

"We're here for a girls' night out," said Jennie, smiling a little too widely.

There was almost nothing left in her margarita, Lisa noted, and it was her third one of the night. As unobtrusively as she could, Lisa moved the glass away from Jennie.

"That's so cool!" One of the strangers, a tall woman, gushed. "Do you guys do this often?"

"Every other Thursday night! It's wonderful! We've been doing this for five years now!"

"Wow! You must be such good friends!"

"Yeah!" Jennie draped her arm around Lisa's neck clumsily, nearly smacking Lisa in the face. "We're super best friends."

Another stranger clapped. "Oh, that's so cute! Where did you guys meet?"

"College!" Jennie pulled Lisa's face closer to her own and squished their cheeks together. "We were dating!"

The tall stranger blinked. "Oh," she said uncertainly, "and...are you guys...?"

"No, not any more," said Jennie, smiling beatifically. "We're super best friends!"

The two strangers looked nervously at each other.

"We," Jennie straightened up, falling into an exaggeratedly serious tone, "resolved all our issues and made a pact to stay friends. So we're super best friends! No lingering feelings! Right, Lisa?"

Lisa smiled.

"I love Lisa like a super best friend, and she loves me like a super best friend!"

Silence was powerful, that much was true.

But sometimes, silence was a dangerous game to play.