YOU & ME | JENLISA

Chapter 29

Jennie

I couldn't stop thinking about what Lisa said to me on the rooftop. It had penetrated in my mind and spread through my body like poison. She made me feel like a creep because I didn't even know at which point I over stepped the mark but obviously somewhere along the line, I did.

"A dress, that's all. One dress for Scott's brother's college party, don't let me buy anything else." I rolled my eyes, we all know when Rosé tells me to talk her out of buying something, she buys it anyway.

Rosé explored shop after shop, trying on so many different outfits for so many different occasions. I followed her with aching feet and a heavy heart. In all honesty, I don't know why I took what Lisa said so personally. No, wait... that's a lie. I knew exactly why I had taken her words so personally. I knew what it was like to be uncomfortable around someone, to have your boundaries betrayed by someone you've trusted, to have your personal space invaded in the worst way imaginable.

But then Lisa didn't trust me, despite growing up with one another we didn't know each other on a personal level and it's not like I had the kind of personality that needed to be liked by absolutely everyone. I just guess deep down, part of me just wanted her to like me.

I had developed a small crush on her, she has always been there but I never really noticed her, up until recently. Now I could never seem to get her off my mind. I found her deceptively gentle nature, very attractive and I loved her extraordinarily charming eyes in perfectly blended shades of brown and green like a majestic forest in autumn. I found her shy blush intriguing and I longed to break through the furtive manner that she shows to almost everyone.

After hours of shopping, Rosé bought a dress, shoes, a clutch purse and earrings for the party. She also splashed out on a random pair of sneakers and a new jacket. Then she complained that she had spent too much and told me that I was rubbish at talking her out of buying things. I, myself bought a dress. A simple black, backless dress.

"I'll buy you lunch." She offered. I laughed at her and shook my head. "I know, I've spent way over the limit but it's my rich stepdad's money and we hate his cheating ass so you name it and I'll buy it. Want a new pair of shoes?"

"No Rosé, thanks though." We walked up the avenue with shopping bags weighing down our arms, deciding on a takeout from Wendy's. People clogged up the streets, it really annoyed me when they would just stop mid-sidewalk and hold up the human traffic. It was busy enough without people stopping to have conversations or standing still while they window shopped. Or maybe I was just being extra crabby because Lisa was on my mind and how overbearing I've apparently been to her.

"Woah! Jen!" Rosé stopped in her tracks and I bumped right into her, everything I had just been complaining about in my head for the past five minutes. I figured she had seen another item that she didn't need in the window of some shop but I was wrong. "The plot thickens..." She spoke in an excited voice, one that built up the theatrics and then pointed a jewelled finger towards some restaurant on the corner of the avenue.

It was an Italian restaurant, not too big but also kind of fancy. Outside, it had beautiful leafy vines hanging over the walls and potted flowers on the sidewalk. Above the door a big green sign read - Del Vino's. The windows were large with European style shutters either side but we could clearly see through into the establishment with many people eating at darling little red tables. It looked nice and had a dimly lit romantic aesthetic. I smiled up at the cute little building, that was until I noticed what Rosé was pointing out and my smile drained away.

Lisa sat at a window table with a girl, no, wait, not a girl. A woman.

I blinked in the display in front me, slowly trying to absorb the sight. Lisa was suited and booted, had her hair slicked back making her seem older. In all of our years growing up, I had never seen her looking so cleaned up and fancy, not even at school dances.

The woman was far too old for Lisa but held her hand from across the candle-lit table anyway. She had blonde hair and a slim figure with fake boobs. Or just boobs bigger than those of the high school girls that Lisa and I went to school with.