YOU & ME | JENLISA

Chapter 18

Jennie

The cold air clung to my shimmering skin the second I stepped outside. It was refreshing but also left a chill on my bones that made my teeth chatter. The ever green trees blew in the slight breeze and I knew the weather would've been pleasant if I didn't have a sweaty body cooling me down.

As I approached the trailer park, I could hear laughter and I purposely went out of my way to avoid it because as a young girl, walking alone, wearing next to nothing in this part of town wasn't smart.

"Hey straight-laced little bitch! Come here! What money ya got?" I didn't even look that way, I picked up the pace and kept walking. "Oi! I said come here! Are you deaf?" I heard his footsteps running towards me and he grabbed my arm, yanking me like a rag doll to face him. "Prissy little whore like you is sure to have some dough. Hand it over!"

"I don't have anything and I've had a really bad day, please just leave me alone." I tried to shake my arm free.

"Woah! Hey Bam! Woah stop!" Lisa came over and took his hand off me. The guy turned to her, wondering what the heck was going on. "She's cool." My eyes narrowed at her.

"You know her?" The guy asked.

"Yeah, she's the one who taught me how to take off the monitor."

So much for her not telling anyone.

"Come on, leave her alone."

They walked away together, back towards Lisa's trailer and sat down on a rickety bench. Lisa sparked up a cigarette and blew out a ball of smoke. I stood staring at them. They sat staring at me. Then, they stared at one another and laughed.

"You want to hang out with us baby girl?" Her friend shouted over to me. My steps slowly walked towards them, I don't know why. It was impulsive and uncontrollable and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop walking in their direction. Her friend held a cigarette out to me and I shook my head.

"You have a friend?"

Her friend laughed but Lisa scowled at my question.

"Name's Bambam and you are?"

"Jen."

"Well, you want to sit down, Jen?" He kicked a broken plastic chair a little closer to me but I just shook my head. I needed to leave. I don't even know why I'm here in the first place. Lisa made no effort to speak to me, she just kept smoking a damn cigarette, like she didn't even want to be here herself.

"I've got to go."

Bambam and Lisa exchanged a silent look. I smiled sadly. "I'm glad you've got a friend, my friends all suck." Suddenly my eyes welled up and a lump formed in my throat. In an ultra-embarrassing way, I burst into tears right in front of them. They just looked at one another.

"Shit, she's crying." Bambam whispered.

"I can see that." Lisa replied with a monotone.

"Hug her or something... I don't know."

"I'm not hugging her, you hug her."

"I'm sorry." I sniffed. "I need to go." I turned around and walked towards my house, while wiping away the tears from my eyes.

"Hey wait, wait." Lisa ran in front of my path. Her hand carefully and awkwardly patted my arm "It's okay, don't cry. There. There." I burst out laughing, I was a mess. The way she spoke to me was just so unsympathetic, it was laughable. "She's laughing! She's laughing!" She shouted to her friend, then the tears came again. "Oh, she's crying again."

Bambam wrapped his arms around me and hugged me, I could see Lisa standing awkwardly in the background, shifting on her own two feet. I nuzzled my tears into his chest, he smelt like cigarette smoke and dusty T-shirts.

"Baby girl, I'm sorry about trying to mug you and the things that I said. I'm not really mean, it's just a reputation that I live up to. I didn't mean to scare you. Don't cry." he smoothed out my hair and spoke softly.

"I'm not crying because of you. I'm crying because Krystal is going to make me dance with a pervert tomorrow and that pervert touches me and we're doing lifts and he's going to slip his fingers into my Spanx and I'm not going to be able to stop him."

"Breathe. Slow down." Bambam whispered.

"Wait, what!?" Lisa pulled me out of Bambam's hold and set her intense glare on me. "Who!?"

I sniffed.

"Who is it, Jennie!?" She demanded.

"Taehyung."

"I'll sort it out." Lisa said.

"What? No. I..."

"I said I'll sort it out. I do this, then we've evened out the score. After this, I don't owe you anything."

My brows furrowed. Did she think that she owed me something?

"What are you going to do, Lis?" Bambam asked.

"I'll make damn fucking well sure, that perverted twinkle toes can never dance again."