90210

III

Day (199)

If at all possible, the day after learning her father had passed was somehow worse for Lisa. Objectively, he had been four days in the ground when she found out. By the following day, it was five days (math courtesy of Jennie). There was no rational reason to be more upset as time edged farther and farther from the last day Viktor Manoban had been on Earth.

Predictably, these facts did little to make her feel better.

Lisa ate her punitive consumption requirements (as Jisoo liked to refer to Jennie's cooking) that night with a certain listlessness that did not go unnoticed by Roseanne. Or Jisoo, really. But Jisoo excused herself the moment she realized that some form of emotional disturbance was going on at their table. Jisoo might've been abrasive at the best of times and convinced that 'bitch' was an affectionate nickname, but Lisa was fond of her. The fact that emotional support was not her forte was of little consequence. As Jisoo would say: 'I'm not havin' none of that'.

And she didn't.

Roseanne didn't seem as averse.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" She asked, faking casualness.

No. Absolutely not. If there was one thing that Lisa Manoban did not do, it was talking. Especially about anything requiring the evasive pronoun "it".

"No."

Roseanne sighed. "Yeah, figures. If there's anything you won't do, it's talk about something bothering you. That and sing along to the Nat King Cole, but it won't stop me from trying."

Damnit.

"No," she repeated, trying and failing not to sound childish at Roseanne's uncanny ability to read her mind.

"Fine. I'll talk about my dad." Roseanne put her fork down, abandoning all pretenses that she was actually going to consume the helpless pile of unseasoned ground beef that Jennie had just completely given up on that night. She called them her "Freeform Nights". Sometimes it was better when Jennie just silently admitted that she didn't give a flying fuck what she served them. Most times it wasn't.

Lisa tried to stamp down her own skeptical look. It wasn't a very kind response to Roseanne's olive branch offeelings or whatever. Suddenly Jisoo's decision to flee the scene of thefeelings seemed attractive. But Roseanne didn't often volunteer personal information, so Lisa stayed at their table and gave Roseanne her begrudging attention.

"He was great. Loved underdogs, you know? We lived in this crappy house in just, like, a godawful neighborhood. Which was hilarious, because my mom's a doctor so she's got money and stuff. But my mom and dad grew up there and he thought the neighborhood had 'character' or something, so we stayed. Just think: I could've been a regular WASP. I mean, except for the part where none of us were protestant and I'm inevitably going to burn in hell."

Lisa could feel Roseanne's eyes on her, but she quickly found she wasn't feeling up to the conversation. Hearing about fathers in general was bad.

"Anyways. Turns out the shitty neighborhood was a bad idea. He got killed in a botched robbery when I was fourteen and I thought a swell way to repay him would be with piss pour grades and a shitload of trouble. I just kind of lost myself in a bunch of dumb garbage that didn't mean anything. Stupid."

Roseanne pushed her tray further away and leaned toward Lisa on her elbows. "I know he's dead and objectively doesn't have the ability to be disappointed in me anymore, but I can't shake it. The guy was everything to me. He loved singing, could recognize every kind of tree by name, and made the best goddamn soup this side of everything." Roseanne seemed almost breathless by the end of it. Lisa wondered when the last time Roseanne had talked about her father was. She seemed rusty.