If this is a rom-com, kill the director | Jenlisa

Eavesdropping

Jennie knows she shouldn't eavesdrop. She may not like Lisa, but she considers herself a decent human being. Listening in to conversations isn't something a good person does.

But, they're right there, a few tables away from her and they haven't noticed her in the corner, and the bar is quiet and she can hear everything. So, she's not really listening in. She can't help it if she hears something they wouldn't want her to hear. She can't shut her ears off.

This is how she tries to justify herself, anyway.

She'd watched as Rosie had dragged Lisa into the bar, brought her over to buy a drink and introduced her to one of the camera women. It didn't take them very long before they were all sitting around a table and talking.

Jennie can hear them, chattering away about Lisa's day and how fed up she is with all the questions about, well, her. She carries on talking about her type, and the more she talks, the more irritated Jennie finds herself getting. She doesn't know why, but for some reason, everything that Lisa says gets right under her skin. Her stupid list is ridiculous; everything she says just contradicts itself.

Her ears prick when she hears Rosie say "And who do we know has feline eyes?"

Surely they're not talking about... no. They can't be.

Lisa says "A lot of people have feline eyes," and Jennie settles back into her seat, because there's no way they'd be talking about her.

But the moment she decides she's had enough is when Lisa cries out "I won't get with someone! Or at least I won't until they stop acting like dirt"

With the sounds of their laughter that follows, Jennie decides that she can't be in the room anymore, so she leaves her drink and heads towards the exit.

————

Her hotel room, as always, has been overtaken by Kai, only this time RM and Don (who Jennie remembers is playing Mercutio) have joined her.

"Whose room is this again?" Jennie mutters when she enters.

"Jen!" Kai says, waving his arms up to beckon her into the room. "Nice of you to join us."

Jennie grunts something inaudible and then drops herself onto her bed, pressing her face onto the pillow. "Can you all leave now?" she says, her voice muffled.

Kai rolls his eyes and gives a deep sigh. "What's she done now then?" he says, twisting himself around to look at Jennie.

Jennie sits up and clenches her fists together, explaining what she had just overheard in the bar.

"She's just so... contradictory," she says. "She says one thing and then she says another and it doesn't even make sense."

RM cocks an eyebrow at Jennie and puts his head on the side, appraising Jennie carefully. "Why are you letting this get to you so much?"

"Yeah," Don chips in. "If you don't like her, why do you care what her type is?"

RM nods. "You're taking this a little personally."

"I am not," Jennie grunts from the bed. "I just don't understand why so many people like her so much when she makes no sense."

"Whatever, Jen," Kai grumbles. "Just get up and help us look for costumes for the Halloween party, yeah? All you do is talk about Lisa. It's really annoying."

"That's not all I do," Jennie says, but she gets up and off the bed anyway, stuffing her hands into her pockets and letting them lead her out of the hotel room.

————

"For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss."

Lisa slides her hand across Jennie's, and the two stand there, locked in each other's eyes. Their faces are covered with intricate masks, but their eyes are showing and Jennie finds herself frozen under Lisa's intense gaze.

"Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?"

Sometimes, when the cameras are on and the lights are up, the crew fades into the background and Jennie forgets that Lisa is Lisa, that they are not Romeo and Juliet, and they are not bound together in a maelstrom of love and hate.

But only for a split second.

Then the director calls cut, and the moment is lost.

————

Kai rests his elbow on the table and sits his chin atop his fist, staring dreamily off into the distance. Jennie had arranged for the two of them to meet for coffee, to talk about the upcoming Halloween party and what costumes they were going to wear, but her friend was otherwise occupied with whatever – or more likely, whoever – was floating through his brain right now.

For someone so brash, Kai really was a sap when it came to love, which Jennie finds it rather annoying.

"Jen," Kai says, his voice far away. "What do you think of Rosie?"

Jennie takes a sip of her coffee and leans back in her chair. "Rosie? Tall. Blonde hair. Looks like she could eat and eat despite her size," she says.

"I'm serious, Jen," Kai says, still staring way off into the distance. "I think she's beautiful."

Jennie shrugs. "I think Lisa's prettier, if weren't for the fact that she's awful."

Kai appears to ignore her, his face still stuck in that goofy expression that half makes Jennie pity the boy and half makes her want to throw up.

"Okay no," Jennie says, clicking in front of Kai's face to make him look ahead. "Relationships are bad. They're just promises of commitment that no one ever keeps. They're a lie."

"I don't care what you think," Kai says. "I'm going to ask her out."

Jennie almost spits out her drink at that and she shifts in her seat, leaning forward and looking straight at Kai, trying to get the guy to look back at her. Her tone changes when she speaks, no longer dry and sarcastic, but instead back to her normal voice, an attempt to get him to listen.

"Kai, I'm being serious now," Jennie says. "You can't ask out Rosie. I can't tell you why, but you can't."

"This is just because you hate her cousin."

Jennie groans and wipes a hand across her face. "No, you need to listen to me. This isn't about me not liking relationships or the fact that I have a weird rivalry thing with Lisa. It's just that – ugh. I can't tell you why, but you can't ask her out."

Kai frowns at him and folds his arms. "If there was a real reason, you would just tell me. Fuck up your own relationships, don't mess with mine."

Then he gets up and stomps out of the shop.

Jennie groans again and settles back into her chair. This was not going to go well.