Lean On Me (Chaelisa)

3| The Art of Getting Over It

"Left! Left! Cover me!"

"Cover your own ass, I'm surrounded!" Jisoo shot back, her fingers stabbing the console crazily as the figures on screen opened fire. "Shit Lisa, I'm gonna die!"

"Serves you right for break dancing while I was trying to do reconnaissance," Lisa grunted as she moved and rolled through with the console in her hands, mimicking movement on screen. Her eyes suddenly widened as the enemy lobbed a small black object into the air.

"Oh hell! Jisoo, duck!"

"Where?"

"A GRENADE, IDIOT, oh shit—"

GAME OVER, mocked the TV screen as the grenade blew up in their faces and obscured the screen in smoke.

"Dang it, that's the third time already," Lisa groaned, throwing down her game console and picking up the bag of chips instead. "Maybe we should try something lighter, like Mario Kart."

"I'll get it," Jisoo agreed as she jumped up.

Neither had spoken about what had transpired only hours earlier at the party. Jisoo had merely whisked her friend away back to Lisa's apartment and they had been playing games on bean bags and devouring chips as the night crawled forward towards dawn.

Lisa lost track of time, but she wasn't sleepy either. Hurt compounded by humiliation was a potent mixture that wouldn't let Lisa's thoughts stop buzzing, even when she tried distracting herself.

Given their poor track record in staying alive during several rounds of Call of Duty, the distraction wasn't working very well either.

Jisoo had tactfully refrained from asking anything, merely checking to see if Lisa was comfortable, if she needed more soda, if she needed more chips and kept up casual chatter, otherwise giving her friend space.

Jisoo had always been good at reading the room and taking a step back until the other person was ready to talk and for that, Lisa was thankful to have an understanding and patient friend that read her moods like the back of her hand.

"You know, after tonight, if I get murdered in my sleep by a certain pretentious prick, I'll leave you my stash of Motor Crush albums," Lisa blurted out of nowhere through a mouthful of chips.

"No way, Motor Crush? Your pop punk fiends with the crazy hairdo, the baseball bats and the sexy thigh highs?"

"The one and only," Lisa nodded but her smile was mirthless. Jisoo must have noticed because she paused from her fiddling with the TV for a few seconds, as though choosing her next words.

"Well, I'll be sure to take good care of them...until I sell them and cash in on all the money muahahaha! Make it rain dollars, baby! I'll finally be able to afford a new Xbox and I won't come bother you anymore. Eh?"

Lisa didn't join in the laughter like usual whenever Jisoo threatened to throw out Lisa's music albums in the trash or sell them on the flea market to rid herself of what she called 'lesbian screamo music on LSD'.

"Hey," Jisoo tried again, nudging Lisa's foot, "for what's it worth, whoever buys those albums will have fantastic taste."

"Speaking of fantastic taste, you know who else got that?" Lisa asked sourly. She balled the empty chip bag and tossed into the bin, sighing when she missed. "Jeong fricking Jaehyun. For all his stupidity, he actually has great taste in women. And I'm just the fucking sore loser."

Jisoo sighed too before she settled down next to Lisa.

"Hey now, you got a double whammy in one night. The girl you obviously had the hots for (don't deny) is straight and dating the assistant coach, whose guts we hate because he's a misogynistic and pretentious a-hole. That can't be easy for anyone. And don't you let him get to you, you're far from a sore loser and you know it."

"Well, this one time maybe he's right, cos' I'm still pretty sore about the whole situation," Lisa said, curling her knees up under her chin. She gave a strangled laugh. "Of course it had to be the most lesbian cliché in the book: having the hots for a straight girl but she has a boyfriend."

She shook her head. "For a minute there, I even thought we had been doing great and that she was flirting back but...well, Jeong Prick wins this round," she said bitterly. "I wonder what she sees in him."

"One of the mysteries of the universe." Jisoo patted her shoulder sympathetically. "Give it time. You'll get over her. And you don't wanna piss Jeong Prick off more now that he knows you had been hitting on his girlfriend. Although if he does kick you off the team, I'll make sure to organise a riot on your behalf. It'll be easy. Don't forget the squad hates his guts, but they love you. We got your back, Captain."

Lisa finally cracked a smile, albeit a weak one, but Jisoo would take that over seeing her friend being sad and heartbroken any day.