Take My Mask, I'm Home

a cold hard bitch: a force of nature

At 5:30am, the alarm clock that belonged to Lisa Manoban did not go off. By 6am, she was still buried beneath her duvet, curled up around a large pillow, and completely unaware that she was already horribly, disastrously late.

At 6:47am, her cell phone rang. She groped under her pillow for it as best she could in the dark, and smiled when she saw her colleague Minnie's face on the screen. She sleepily swiped to answer it.

"Mornin' Minnie," she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

"Where the hell are you?!" Minnie hissed down the phone, forgoing any pleasantries.

"God, Minnie, I'm in bed, where do you think I am?" Lisa whined. "It's the crack of d-"

Minnie cut across her. "It's ten to seven! The witch is going to be here by seven forty-five for a meeting at eight!" Minnie whisper-shouted down the phone. Lisa sat up suddenly and tried to ignore the way her stomach rolled at the movement. She looked over at her alarm clock and the time did, indeed, say 6:50 am.

"Shit! Shit, shit, shitting shit," Lisa cursed rapidly, throwing the duvet off herself and leaping out of bed far faster than her body would've liked.

"Did you forget? Fuck, Lisa, you need to get down here fast."

Lisa hung up the phone without as much as a goodbye to Minnie, shed her pajamas as she rushed across her apartment, and jumped into the shower as quickly as she could. Her stomach protested violently at the movement, and a moment later she had rocketed out of the shower and was kneeling on the floor with her head in the toilet, throwing up the last of the bourbon and tequila shots that she had downed last night for Minnie's boyfriend's birthday. She barely had time to flush the toilet before jumping straight back in the shower, gargling mouthwash at the same time as she washed the stink of last night's bar off herself. Damn Bambam for having a birthday on a Thursday when they all had to work the next day.

The last thing she needed was to turn up to work at KnetZ Magazine as Jennie Kim's personal assistant, late, reeking like a dive bar, and her breath practically radiating tequila. She was pretty sure she had already made a terrible impression on her boss, just like everyone else who ever crossed her path seemed to, but there was no sense in making a bad situation worse.

She lived in a small apartment in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Rosie was always trying to get her to move because she thought there were better areas for her sister to live in, but there was something that Lisa loved about being able to take the ferry into Manhattan in the mornings if she chose to. Zipping past the skyline of New York City on a boat was a feeling that the small-town girl in her had never tired of. Her apartment was, admittedly, very small; her favorite quirk to it was the fact that the shower and the toilet were both in the kitchen at opposite ends, each in their own cubbyholes. The whole apartment was one room separated by small half-walls and glass doors. However, it was comfortable, it was warm, and it had good transport links. In the evenings, she could hear the sounds from the bar next door, and she grew to love the country bands that played there. She often headed down to the bar after a long day's work just to enjoy the chilled-out atmosphere and chat with the bartender Leslie, who had become a friend.

This morning though, the warmth of the apartment just made her feel worse, and the thought of the boat bobbing along the waves in the East River made her jaw clench against the nausea that threatened another trip to the toilet.

Lisa had found the job at KnetZ Magazine fairly quickly, thanks to her cousin Jackson. His best friend Jiyoung worked at KnetZ, and as they'd met several times, he'd vouched for her to Jennie Kim herself. When Lisa had shown up for her interview, Jennie had actually been out of the country, so the decision on whether she would or wouldn't get the job was left up to Mina, who was overseeing personnel in her absence. Mina was nice, though, and Lisa was given the job before she'd even left the building. Miss Myoi had seemed a little apprehensive when she offered the job, and although Lisa had heard the horror stories of working for one of the Kims, she'd paid it no mind at the time. She needed a job, and here was one that was very highly paid for a personal assistant role. She didn't stop to think that there might be a very good reason for that high salary.