Apartment 34 // Jenlisa

Chapter 1

Jennie pushes open the door to her building's lobby and is greeted with the "elevator out of order" sign. She huffs and glares at it angrily, as if that would change anything. 

"Stupid Bing-Bang-Theory imitation.", she mutters as she slowly turns towards the staircase and begins dragging herself up to her floor.

To say that she was exhausted would be a pretty blatant understatement. She even fell asleep on the subway ride and God knows Jennie never lets her overly cautious ass sleep anywhere else but in her own home. It's a problem. She knows this, because her best friend never lets her forget.

But after moving here from Korea, starting her new job and working 10 hours overtime all within the span of the last 3 days – Jennie just couldn't help herself but take a little nap with her face pressed against the subway-window.

Her head is still throbbing a bit from all the little hits it got due to the bumpy ride and it sure as hell doesn't help her growing headache. She really needs a good night's rest.

The big yawn escaping her mouth as she opens the door to her floor is proof enough of that.
She can barely keep her eyes open and she can feel all the muscles in her body screaming at her to please lie the fuck down. She is sore all over – having to carry all her stuff up to the fourth floor by herself the other day making itself noticeable. Stupid broken elevator.

She's not even surprised when she finds the door to her appartement unlocked. She'd had to get up in such a rush this morning that she probably just forgot – and usually Jennie would freak out knowing that her home had been unguarded all day long, but right now she didn't even have enough strength for that.

She lets her bag slide to the floor by the door and shuffles into the kitchen-living room-area where she finds the tap almost blindly and splashes some water to her tired face.

"Um... hello?"

Jennie shrieks and out of instinct takes a step back – where her back collides with the metal handlebar from the fridge. She screams again – out of pain or fear, she's not too sure, but now she's wide awake.
Her head spins and she feels dizzy and then there's a flash of white blinding her – but when her eyes adapt she realizes that someone had turned on the light.
That someone was standing a few feet away from her – looking at her puzzled but still somewhat friendly.

Jennie has never seen the girl before and she's got some serious questions for the intruder, which she would've voiced out if it wasn't for her heart racing like a maniac, making it impossible to speak.

The other girl looks her up and down and tilts her head in a confused manner.

"May I ask what you're doing in my kitchen?", she asks with a slight hint of amusement in her voice, which takes Jennie aback even more than the question itself.

"In your... it's MY kitchen!", she retorts bluntly, only to see the other girl furrow her brows while laughing. Big light-brown orbs wander towards a picture that hangs on the wall beside her and Jennie follows her line of sight and then her eyes go wide in realization. She's never seen that photography before and when she finally takes in her surroundings for the first time, she has to admit that none of it looks familiar.

"It's.. This isn't... I'm...", she stammers – feeling her heart sink into the pit of her stomach and the heat rising to her cheeks. What the actual hell?

"It's not my kitchen. This isn't even my appartement. I'm sorry?"
Her vis a vis finishes her sentences and sends her a face-eating grin that shows off a perfect set of white teeth.

Jennie can only nod slightly whilst she tries to slow down her racing heart. It's only working moderately.
Her hands are still shaking a bit when she lifts them up, as if to show the owner of the home she apparently broken into that she's not armed or anything.

"I think I... I must've mixed up the doors or something...", she gets out slowly. She's pretty sure her face is as red as a tomato by now.

"Yeah, I would think so too."

"I'm so sorry...", Jennie breathes, and she means it. She's never been so embarrassed in her life.
But the person standing in front of her doesn't seem to care that much – she looks very relaxed as she leans forward against the kitchen island and bites her lower lip.

"Don't sweat it. The doors look all the same, so..."

Jennie thinks it's strange how calm she is, given that some stranger just casually walked into her flat. For all she knows, she could be a serial killer.

"I sure hope you're not some crazy killer or something...", the other girl says then – as if reading Jennie's thoughts.
"I'm gonna warn you – I have pepper spray. Around here. Somewhere. I don't know exactly where I put it, but... you get the idea."

Jennie doesn't laugh, even though she wants to – but the situation is just too weird and it doesn't feel like it's her place to laugh at the person she just bothered beyond explanation.

"Not much of a talker, are we?"

"I'm sorry... I... I should just really get to bed."

There's a rise of eyebrows and a kinky smile and then: "Oh wow, you sure get to the point right away – but sure. Bedroom is the second door to the left."

It takes Jennie a second to comprehend what the other girl suggested but before she can say anything in return her counterpart bursts into a big fit of giggles – her perfect teeth on display once again.

"Sorry. Sometimes I only speak to avoid silence I guess. Here..", she walks around Jennie and grabs the latter's bag on the corridor's floor. She hands it to her and opens the entry-door.

"Do you need help finding the right appartement?"

Jennie shakes her head. The only thing she needs is her pillow so she can scream into it for approximately three hours.

"Cool. Cool cool cool.", the other girl mumbles as she leans against the door frame. "You know where to find me, if you do."

"Yeah I... I'm very sorry for.. you know.."

"Breaking into my home?"

"Yeah."

"It's fine. Really. Don't worry about it and just go to sleep. It was nice meeting you, um....?"

She looks at her expectantly and Jennie realizes that she hadn't even introduced herself.

"Jennie.", she states as a matter of fact and holds out her hand - it's simple manners.

The other girl reaches out immediately, grabbing her hand and giving it a little squeeze.

"Jennie...", she lets the name roll off her tongue slowly, as if to smoothen any edges around it. "I'm Lisa."

Jennie nods because she doesn't know what else to do and shifts her weight from one foot to the other. Lisa still looks at her somewhat intensely and it's making her giddy.

"Well Jennie...", Lisa then speaks and there it is again, that damn huge smile of hers that makes her whole face light up. "Come visit me anytime. Next time maybe knock though."

She winks and before she knows what happened – the door closes behind her and Jennie's alone in the hallway again.
Her eyes are fixed on Lisa's door for another good minute – the golden numbers on it mocking her.

34

She's not even on the right floor.