Fake It Until You Make It

Chapter 43: The Hate Wave

"You're making it really hard for me." Lisa said, with a cheeky grin on her cute, thin, pinkish lips.

I adjusted the bikini straps on my body, pumping my breasts up on the bra while giving her a teasing look.

"You're the one who really likes the couch."

"Correction, I don't like the couch. I like not giving your family any more reason to dislike me than the ones they already have."

When Lisa had arrived in my hometown in Brazil two days before to spend New Year's Eve with us, I had been quite surprised. Lisa and I had made plans to see each other on the first week of January.

Coincidently, as it had happened the first time Lisa met my family, this time, too, it was Dara, my sister in law, who called her without me knowing, and invited her to come and spend a week with us before we went away. Unlike what happened last time, however, this time Lisa neglected to tell me about it. So one day I was helping my mother hang Christmas lights around the pier in our backyard and next thing I know Dara is handing me her phone saying 'Surprise!'

Turns out she had to tell me before Lisa got there because my house in my hometown – where she had been hosted last time – was occupied. I had rented it out for the season, so I was staying in my old room in my parent's house for the holidays and Lisa – whom I had just found out was coming with her three protection officers – had nowhere to sleep. Dara's plan was for them to stay in a hotel, but with the holiday craziness, they all forgot to make reservations beforehand and, since it was summer in one of the prettiest beach cities in the country, there were no vacancies anymore. That's when my mother stepped in.

She was very welcoming of Lisa and her entourage, but also very quick to make sure we all knew she would be sleeping in the couch – where it was easier for everyone to keep an eye on her.

My parent's house had four bedrooms: one for them, one for me, one for Jiyong – who was sleeping there with Dara and Arthur as their house was under construction. The fourth was a guest bedroom and Eddy had been sleeping there since he arrived – he spent Christmas with his own family, leaving me with a temporary replacement bodyguard until he met me there afterwards. We also had a small bungalow in the back, with only a small bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. It had one single bed and one couch, so my mother left Lisa and the boys with the option of who would be there and who would sleep in the couch in our living room.

Lisa was so desperate to be cordial she chose the least safe spot for us to make out. And now she had to suffer the consequences.

"Why are you so desperate to play good girlfriend?" I asked.

She smiled. "I wanna surround you with people who won't stop gushing about how amazing I am, and how terrible of a decision it would be to let me go."

We were at the beach, on the last day of the year of 3032. As it usually happened, Christmas had sucked. So I was particularly happy to have Lisa there. As it was December 31st, the paparazzi had given us a break – turns out even heartless vultures have better things to do than spend their New Year's Eve following celebrities around all day. But we still had to deal with the prying eyes of tourist snapping pictures of us on their phones to post on twitter.

There was a new trend going around by this time of the year, one of the reasons Christmas had been the cherry on top of a large, sucky Sunday: thinking I sucked. That's right, kids, Jennie Kim is an annoying, no-fun, know-it-all who thinks she's too good for everyone else. Or that's what most people online – and therefore most media outlets – seemed to think.