Hate You, Love You. | Jenlisa

14

"I take it Jisoo told you about the party?"

"She did, but I'm curious as to why you didn't ask me yourself. We literally stay in the same room."

Her lips curve. "If I asked you, would you have agreed?"

No, but she doesn't need to know that. "Depends on how you asked, Lisa."

She moves from her bed with the duvet in tow and kneels in front of my bed where I'm plopped on. I give her a confused look but she just grins. "What are you doing?" I ask.

"I'm asking you nicely."

"By kneeling? Is this some sort of proposal?"

She licks her lips and looks at me, making my insides summersault. What is up with me today? Days ago, I swore I was going to pummel this girl to death, but how she's making my heart skip a beat. I need to reel this, whatever it is, in or else I'd be in serious hot water.

"Jennie Kim," she says in a raspy tone, staring directly into my orbs with intensity. "Would you do me the honor of attending my party at 9:00pm?"

"Uhm, you know this has been fun." I roll to the other side of the bed and land on the floor, my pillow and duvet cushioning my fall. With a semi-aching body, I stand up on my wobbly legs. "I just realized that Rosé and I had plans for the... you know..." I point to the door and she gives me her signature smirk. "I should... you know... yeah..."

I was out of the door faster than the speed of light and taking the elevator down to Room 500. The sooner I got out of there, the better for my heart and mind. I don't trust my body to not betray me when it comes to Lisa, so it's best if I leave. It's still mind-boggling how I'm letting her affect me so much. Seriously, how did we go from wanting to kill each other to this? I bet she does this with all the high school girls she encounters: flirting with them and acting coll till she gets in their pants.

Well, I will not be another notch on her belt.

"Rosé," I knock frantically on her room door. "Open up."

I hear shuffling from inside and footsteps coming closer. A key jiggles and then the door opens. "Hey, Jen."

"Hey." I say with a sigh.

"Why do you look flushed?" She asks. I put my hand to my cheeks and sure enough they are warm. This is all her fault. "I'm not flushed, definitely not flushed at all," I lie.

She folds her arms across her chest and raises a brow. "Oh, really?"

"I'm not flushed at all. It's just the heat."

"Jennie Rubyjane Kim," she reprimands. "Cut the shit because I know you better than you know yourself. We've literally been friends since the 8th grade, so what is it?"

He knowledge of me is both a blessing and a curse, and she's right, we have known each other since 8th grade when I won the scholarship and transferred to Winterwood. It was a huge adjustment for me, moving to an upper class school and leaving my friends, not to mention I no longer walked to school since Winterwood was a little bit farther from my house.

Rosé was the first person in Winterwood to ever talk to me. She saw me sitting alone at lunch since all the other kids though I was too 'poor' to attend this school. Of course, it didn't help that Lisa 'accidentally' made it known to everyone that I was a scholarship student, the first of its kind at Winterwood.

Anyways, Rosé sat with me at lunch and the rest is history. I'm so grateful for our friendship and I couldn't have asked for a better partner in crime.

"I hate it when you're right." She flips her hair dramatically and grins like a Cheshire cat. "I'm always right when it comes to you."

"Besides the point, but it's Lisa."

"Come in."

I step inside and look around. The room is identical to the room that Lisa and I occupy, the only difference is our room does not look like a rats nest. "Why are there clothes everywhere?"

"You do know the party is by 9 and it's 8, right?" She pats a spot on her side of the bed. "Suzy isn't here, so let's talk. What did she do this time?"

"It's not what she did exactly," I stress. "It's what she's not doing."

She looks at me confusedly. "I'm not following."

"She's not being the Lisa I know and hate," I try to explain in a way that'll make sense to her... and to me. "She's being nice-ish and hella flirtatious."

And my body is responding to her in ways that are beyond me.

"Exactly," she shakes her head and hands me a Mars bar from her bedside table. I open it swiftly and take a bite. "It's a really bad thing." It's bad for my heart.

Her blonde hair is frizzed out as she looks at me like I'm crazy. "Let me get this straight: you hate her when she's being mean to you and you hate it when she's tolerable?"

I nod again. "That about sums it up."

"Humans are so insatiable," she says. "Have you ever consider the fact that maybe, just maybe, she's seeing you as more than the girl she banters with all the time?"

I've considered it alright, but it;s not something that should be playing around in my head. I already have a boyfriend (which she doesn't know about) who actually cares about me and I'm not about to mess it up over a silly... infatuation.

"Lisa and I have a dynamic, we hate each other and it's been like that since 8th grade. I'm not about to change that."

"If you say so," she mocks me. "But, I feel like the only reason you're vehemently denying it is because you feel something too."

Do I really feel something for Lisa Manoban?

"Like Ariana Grande said: 'We can deny it as much as we want, but in time our feelings will show.'" She air quotes and I throw a pillow at her head. "Don't hate me, hate the game. While you're at it, we need to get ready to party."

"I'm not going."

She points at the both of us. "We are going, even if I have to drag your ass all the way downstairs." She says, her tone daring me to contradict her.

"But, I don't like parties," I whine. "And I certainly don't like dancing and stuff." The last time I was at a club, I ended up drinking and dancing with a stranger who ended up being my boss and now boyfriend. Thinking of that memory makes me laugh and cringe at the same time: what was I thinking going to a club at sixteen?

"You'll like this one since it's just our classmates."

I try and come up with another excuse. "But, I have nothing to wear.:

"You have jeans, don't you?" I nod slowly. "Well wear that and you can borrow one of my tops."

"You're two sizes smaller than me."

"We'll make it work."

"But, I–"

"No more excuses, young lady," she chastises like my mom. "We're going and that's final."

She looks at the clock on the wall and gasps. "It's 8:30 so we need to hurry." She kneels under her bed and drags her make up bag. "Grab your jeans from your room and meet me back here so we can get ready together."

"Fine."

She fist pumps the air in excitement and continues bringing out stuff from under her bed. What is she keeping there? A dead body? "Just so you know, if we get in trouble, we are totally blaming Lisa." I say.

"Definitely."