Lisa stood barefoot in the elevator, holding her shoes in one hand, as she waited for the doors to open onto the penthouse floor. Her hair was still wet from the pool, and she ran her fingers through it absent-mindedly to smooth it down.
She had tried her best to have a good time with the others, cavorting around the pool, but her heart hadn't really been in it. Jennie had managed to spoil what should have been a fun night. Lisa couldn't stop thinking about her, no matter how hard she tried to distract herself. Her mood kept wavering back and forth from worry to anger and back again.
It didn't help that Bambam and Hoony kept bringing Jennie up. They'd been ribbing Lisa about her all week - a sure sign of approval that she was back in the picture. The whole reason she'd invited everyone over here tonight was to show Jennie off in front of her friends. So much for that plan.
They'd asked after her when she didn't come swimming, and Lisa lied and said she wasn't feeling well. But she couldn't stop thinking about what Jennie had really said to her up in the suite earlier. "Tell them I said I was too old to go skinny dipping."
What the hell did that mean? She thought Lisa and her friends were immature? Was that it? Since when did Jennie have such a stick up her ass?
Lisa was at the doorway to the suite now, and she opened it to find Jennie curled up on the living room couch with her laptop propped in front of her and a half-eaten slice of hotel pizza in one hand. Someone had cleaned up after her guests while she was gone - all the empty beer bottles and food containers were gathered up in a garbage bag next to the door.
"Did the maid come?" Lisa asked her.
She set down the uneaten portion of her pizza on the room-service tray before she replied. "It's eleven o'clock at night, Lisa. No, the maid didn't come."
"You didn't have to clean up."
Jennie shrugged and turned her head to look back at the book she was reading. Was she giving her the silent treatment now? Why? Because her friends had left a mess?
"What, Jennie?" she snapped at her. "Are you going to tell me what's wrong, or do I have to stand here like a jackass and guess?"
That got her attention at least. She finally looked at Lisa for the first time since she'd entered the room.
"So I cleaned up!" Jennie said. "Sorry. I guess I'm not used to having a whole staff at my beck and call, all hours of the day and night."
Was Jennie calling her spoiled now? Because she didn't want to clean up a hotel room?
"It's a hotel room!" Lisa exclaimed. "Who cleans up a hotel room? Even regular people don't..."
"Regular people? Oh, that's nice."
"What is your problem?"
"That's my problem. I think that sums it up pretty nicely. I am a regular person, and you are not."
"No, I'm not. ok? I'm not a regular person. I'm sorry. Why does that mean you get to treat me like shit?"
"How am I treating you like shit? I came out here to be with you. I spend all day following you around to your rehearsals, making nice with your stupid friends."
"Since when did you hate my friends?"
"I don't hate them, Lisa. They hate me."
Lisa let out a huff of annoyance. "I honestly have no clue know what we're talking about right now."
"Whatever." Jennie held up her hand at Lisa, trying to diffuse the situation. "I'm sorry. I had a long day. I'm in a bad mood. I just want to eat my pizza and go to bed."
Lisa was still trying to decipher Jennie's last comment. "The guys love you. They've always loved you."
"I'm not talking about the guys."
Lisa shook her head in confusion. "What? Kendall? I thought you liked her."
Jennie met her words with a derisive snort. "Yeah," she said, "Kendall's like the sister I never had."
"Did she do something? Because I can talk to Bam."
"No!" Jennie leaned back against the couch and looked up, addressing the ceiling. "Can we please just drop it?"
"No, we can't just drop it. No. You ignored me all evening. You were rude to my friends. If there's some kind of feud going on between you and Kendall, then I think you owe me the courtesy of filling me in."
She continued staring upward, and a long moment passed before she finally responded. "Why did you wear a blazer the other night?"
"What?"
"To dinner the other night," she continued. "At the sushi place."
Lisa squinted at her, silently cursing her inability to answer a simple question. A blazer? Did she wear a blazer? She vaguely recalled throwing on a suit jacket that night over her usual t-shirt and jeans.
Lisa could feel her temper slipping away from her now, but she was too annoyed to dial it back. "I don't know, Jennie," she said, her voice rising in irritation. "Maybe because my arms were cold? I don't..."
"Kendall said you never wear blazers."
"What does that even mean?"
Jennie shook her head and stood up. "Don't yell at me," she said.
"You're not making any sense!" she shouted back.
Jennie turned away from her and started walking towards the bedroom door.
Lisa let out a groan and shut her eyes, forcing herself to count to ten before she spoke again. She couldn't let Jennie go to bed angry. She needed to get to the bottom of this - whatever irrational, idiotic thing was bothering Jennie.
"Ok." she said in a steadier voice. "Ok. Kendall said I never wear blazers. What does that mean?"
Jennie stopped walking and turned back to face her. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest, and she was looking down at the ground in front of her feet as she replied. "It means I'm old, Lisa."
"We're the same age..."
"And I make you act old."
"You make me act my age!"
"When was the last time you wore a jacket to dinner?"
"I don't know, Jennie. I'm not exactly keeping a record..."
"Well, I'm sure your publicist is. Should I call her up and ask her?"
"I wanted to look nice! Ok? Yes. I wanted to impress you. Why am I getting in trouble for that?"
"You're not 'in trouble.'" She made air quotes with her hands. "I'm not your mother."
"Then stop acting like you're my mother!"
"Exactly," Jennie said, meeting Lisa's eyes with a look of exhausted defeat. "Exactly."
Lisa shook her head at Jennie, utterly baffled.
"You're not in trouble," Jennie said slowly. "It's nothing you did wrong. Or I did wrong. Or Kendall did wrong. We just don't belong together, Lisa. We don't."
"Yes, we do!"
"I don't belong with your friends. I don't belong in this town. I definitely don't belong in your VIP sections..."
"Well then I don't belong there either, because I belong with you!"
"No."
"Jennie, I love you."
"You haven't thought this through."
"I have thought it through. I asked you to marry me!"
Jennie's gaze fluttered back down towards the floor for a moment, before she lifted her eyes to meet Lisa's again. "Yeah, that's another thing," she said. "You need to stop doing that."
