Lisa
The Homecoming dance was exactly what I thought it would be. Pictures, punch, and poor-ass music. The gym had been decorated in a New York theme, which Jennie loved, and I was extremely fucking delighted that Mino had joined us, after all.
He filled in where I failed.
Dancing in public? Check.
Cutsie pictures with loving poses? Check.
Polite, futile, nonsensical chatter? Check.
I played along, but situations like this were like eating a mouthful of lemons. Mino made it more fun for Jennie at least.
And her?
She read me like a book.
She was light on the public displays of affection and heavy on the eye fucking.
I couldn't wait to get her home.
But we had another appearance to put in first.
"Are you sure you want to go?" I asked her as we walked hand-in-hand up the Beckman's driveway.
Tzuyu and Bryan Beckman, twins and our classmates, were having an after party, and Mino insisted that we get our thumbs out of our asses and get crazy.
"I'm fine," she whispered. "Not tired at all."
I raised my eyebrows and shook my head. I wasn't worried about her being tired, but I didn't want to bring up last year's incident, either. That's what I was really worried about.
A year ago, before Jennie had left for France, I'd let Mino dump her car keys in the pool here and watched as she dived in to fish them out.
She'd been humiliated, and I figured this was the last place she'd want to be.
In fact, I wasn't sure if I wanted to be here myself.
Not only did I have our own after-party planned, but the longer I waited to come clean about the rest of the story, the more it was the only thing I thought about. I'd been sitting on it all week, and it was time to bite the fucking bullet.
I needed to tell her about Mashiho.
Walking through the ceramic-tiled foyer, we followed Mino down the carpeted stairs into the huge dipped living room.
The big room already bustled with at least sixty or seventy of our classmates, and the music pounded so hard, I could feel it through my shoes.
My arm stretched behind me, and I looked back, noticing that Jennie had come to a complete halt.
I let out a sigh. Shit.
Her chest rose and fell quickly, and she swallowed, clearly nervous. Like a deer in headlights.
My stomach tightened, and I just wanted to take her out of there now. This was a bad idea.
"Jennie, are you okay?" I kept my voice soft, but I was afraid she'd haul off and break my nose this time instead of Mino's like she did here a year ago.
She narrowed her eyes as she looked around, and then she just shook her head. "Yeah, I need a drink."
I didn't believe her, but the corners of my mouth turned up anyway.
Tough girl.
We squeezed through a throng of people coming out of the kitchen as Adrenalize by In This Moment blasted throughout the house. Mino was already making drinks, and I watched as Jennie took the one he offered.
I was the designated driver tonight—well, pretty much any night, since I barely drank in public—and I definitely didn't plan on staying here long anyway. I just stood there, trying not to laugh as she choked down the dark liquid.
Mino grinned from ear to ear as she tipped her chin up, swallowed the last of her drink and then threw the cup into the sink.
She coughed into her hand, and all I could do was hold her waist, letting her get comfortable.
She should have fun. I didn't want her nervous or scared that a prank was going to go down.
And that's why she was drinking, so I just let it be.
"Aw, she's as red as a tomato," Mino joked.
"Piss off," Jennie scowled at him, but he just winked at her.
Rosé and Lucas sauntered in, looking like yin and yang. She was bright-eyed and smiling, while he looked constipated with his bored expression and pursed lips.
"Hey, guys," she greeted, pulling Lucas behind her.
He pushed the hair out of his eyes and nodded at Mino and me but said nothing.
I knew it was me making him uncomfortable, and I had to force a straight face.
He probably still thought I'd gotten in his girlfriend's pants, and I couldn't help being impressed with Rosé for not telling him the truth. She was playing with him, making him suffer, no doubt. And why shouldn't she?
She and Jennie still weren't back to square one, but they'd get there, and Lucas could go fuck himself.
Mino finished off his drink and immediately started making two more until I shook my head at him. Jennie didn't notice it as she talked with Rosé, but Mino got my warning.
I needed her awake for a while.
Leaning in, I whispered in her ear. "Come with me."
I didn't wait for her to even look at me before I grabbed her hand and led her out of the kitchen. We squeezed through the crowd of partygoers, all in little clusters, and tried not to get slammed with drinks in the process.
Once we made it to the stairs, I hurriedly led Jennie to the second floor. I had no plans to make use of the rooms here with her, but people saw us go up and would draw their own conclusions when we came back down.
I just needed her alone for a few minutes.
To right a wrong.
Opening the door to the first bedroom I found, I peeked in and found it empty. Pulling Jennie in, I had barely even closed the door before I backed her into it and dove for her lips.
She stumbled and latched onto my shoulders to steady herself. The surprised little moan she let loose filled my mouth so damn hard that I was ready to ride this storm right here and now.
Yeah, this was not what I'd planned, but I'd been good tonight.
I deserved a reward.
She tasted like peaches, and I pulled her barely-clothed body into me, close to forgetting why I was up here in the first place.
"God, Jennie." I dipped my head to nibble her ear lobe. "Your dress should be burned."
"Why?" she breathed out, leaning her neck into me for more.
"Every fucking guy has been looking at you tonight. I'm going to get arrested."
My tone was joking, but my words weren't. I wasn't insecure about Jennie. I knew she loved me, and I could trust her. I also didn't mind other guys looking at her, wanting her. It kind of turned me on, actually.
No, my crime would lay in the fact that every time some dipshit pointed at her tonight or some asshole did a double take when she walked by, I wanted to put my hands all over her to show them who had claim.
They could look.
They could want.
But she was going home with me, and I felt like rubbing it in.
Couldn't exactly feel her up in public, though.
She pulled away and held my head in her hands, her eyes searching mine. "I'm yours. It's always been you," she assured.
I held her gaze, her fire meeting my ice, and I couldn't deny her one more damn thing that she deserved.
Jennie
"Come here." She led me to the center of the large bedroom, which looked to be a guest room by the absence of photographs or other personal paraphernalia.
Lisa took out her phone and pushed a few buttons before Seether's Broken started playing. Setting the phone on the chest of drawers, propped up by its kickstand, she walked back over and took me in her arms as I wrapped mine around her neck. Slowly, we started moving together to the music in our very first slow dance.
"I'm sorry I didn't dance with you tonight." Her eyes wouldn't meet mine, and there was regret in her voice. "I don't like doing things like that in public. It feels too personal, I guess."
"I don't want you to change who you are," I told her. "But I might like to dance with you some time or hold your hand."
She pulled me closer in a hug and wrapped her arms around my back like a steel band. "I'll try, Jennie. Yesterday is gone. I know that. I want that comfort we used to have back."
I tipped my head up further to meet her eyes as we continued to sway to the music. "Your tattoo—Yesterday lasts forever, Tomorrow comes never—that's what it says. What does it mean?" I'd finally been able to read the script on the side of her torso one morning this week while she'd been sleeping.
Her hand skimmed down my hair. "Just that I was living in the past. What happened with my father, what happened with you, I could never get over the anger. Yesterday kept following me. And tomorrow, the new day, never seemed to come."
Until me, she'd written on the note.
"And the lantern on your arm?"
"Oh, you ask too many questions," Lisa complained playfully, and I could tell she was embarrassed.
But I waited, not letting her off the hook.
She pinned me with a resigned smile. "The lantern is you, Jennie. The light. I got it after I got in trouble last year. I needed to clean up my act, and my mom decided to do the same thing with her drinking. We both picked one thought that would get us through the day. A dream or a desire…" she shook her head and trailed off.
Her confession made me breathless. She had thought of me every day?
"Me?" I asked.
She gazed down at me and stroked my cheek with her thumb. "It's always been you." She used my words, and I couldn't swallow for the lump in my throat. "I love you, Jennie." Lisa looked at me like I was the most important thing in her world.
I closed my eyes and touched her lips to mine. "I love you, too," I whispered against her mouth before sealing it with a kiss.
Our bodies melted together, and her fingers threaded through my hair as we devoured each other. Her lips were soft but strong against mine, and my fingers dug into her back as her hands claimed my body. I wanted her everywhere.
I was insatiable, and guilt reared its ugly head at me. I wanted her here and now, but sex in someone else's room while a party happened downstairs was not something a nice girl did.
I pressed my hips into hers, and we were both breathless in between kisses.
I trailed a path to her jaw, and my teeth lightly grazed her chin. "Unzip me," I panted.
She groaned. "Let's just get out of here. I'm in the mood for more than a quickie."
"Well, I've never had a quickie," I pointed out. "Unzip me."
She complied, but the corners of her mouth lifted in a sexy smile. "Where'd my good girl go?" The question was rhetorical. I knew she loved the way I wanted her.
I felt the draft when Lisa's hand reached behind me to unzip my dress, and I moaned when her hands slipped down and caressed my back. Her hands were like a drug, almost as addictive as her mouth. I peeled off her jacket, while she let my dress fall down to my waist.
Lisa's mouth seared my neck in soft kisses, and I worked the buttons of her shirt. I sucked in a breath when her hands went to my breasts. Tingles spread across my skin, craving more of her.
"Lisa," I whispered and wrapped an arm around her neck, placing my lips to hers. "I really am a good girl. But tonight I want to be really, really bad."
Her breath shook against my mouth, and she captured my lips in a fierce kiss. God, she wanted me. And I was thrilled, because I didn't want to wait until we got home.
Lisa tore open the rest of her shirt, sending buttons scattering to the hardwood floor. I let my dress spill to my feet and then peeled off my panties, leaving my high heels on.
"Fuck, Jennie." Lisa clenched her jaw, taking in the sight in front of her. And she pulled my lips to hers again, devouring almost every part of me with her mouth and hands. "I'm sorry. I want to go slow with you. It's just so hard. Do you think in ten years I'll finally get to where I'll actually need foreplay to get hard with you?"
Her eyes questioned me, but I could only smile. There was just something about the way she wanted me, the way her eyes drowned out any doubts, that made me feel powerful.
Lisa, from what I'd seen, was a one-nighter kind of girl. She didn't do sleepovers, and she didn't take phone numbers. I worried that she'd lose interest or consider it a mission accomplished when we'd first slept together, but instead, she'd become even more hungry.
Every touch this past week, every kiss, every time we'd loved, she acted like everything we were doing was new. Ridiculous, I know. She had more experience than me, so why would anything be different than what she'd experienced before?
Unless she loved me. That was something I was sure she hadn't had with any other girl. I hoped, anyway.
I wanted to be bold, even though my nerves wanted me to run for the hills. I wanted to experience everything with Lisa. No hiding, no fear. I was going to ask for everything I wanted, and be brave about it. Forever or never.
Her shirt dropped the floor, followed by her pants.
Be bold.
I put my hand on the swollen proof that she wanted me. She jerked and sucked in a breath while I wrapped my hand around her and stroked. I expected her to close her eyes. Wasn't she supposed to do that? To concentrate on the feeling more? But instead, she just watched me touching her. She got harder in my hand, and I clenched my thighs, turned on by the smooth length that had been inside of me and would be inside of me again.
She watched me with dark, heated eyes. She watched me touch her, and I thought I would come just from what I was doing to her. The way her hands clenched into fists and her erection jerked when I rubbed a certain way, and the way her breathing got heavier all got me throbbing to the point where I couldn't take anymore.
She tore open the wrapper of the condom she'd put on the nightstand when she took her pants off and slipped it on.
Thank God!
Melting my body into hers, my breasts rubbing against the smooth skin of her chest, I kissed her long and deep, running my hands all over her back.
Be brave.
"My turn," I whispered in her ear.
Lisa's eyes widened when she realized what I meant.
I lightly pushed her back on the bed and slid on top of her. Perfect. A shot of adrenaline coursed through me when I felt her hands on my hips and her sex pressed against me.
"You're perfect. Perfect for me." She ran her hands up and down my thighs.
I moved, gliding her tip along my slit, teasing her. When I came down on her, putting her inside me, my toes curled with the unbelievable feeling. It was so much deeper like this, and I leaned backward a little to be able to absorb every inch. I was filled and stretched, and I wanted her to feel as complete as I did.
Lisa put a hand on my breast and used her other hand to guide my hips as worked her slowly. "Tell me you like it, Jennie."
"I…" I clenched my thighs tighter at her sides and moved in a front-back motion against her rather than the up-down I'd been doing.
Oh. My. God.
She hit the spot deep inside of me, and my head flipped back as I moaned. Damn! There was nothing better than having her inside of me.
I loved that I could still feel where she was the next day. And I want to feel her tomorrow, too.
She pushed her hips up hard against me, sending shudders through my body. "Say it."
"I love it." My body had lost control. The ripple inside of me turned into a wave, and I grinded against her faster and harder. "I love it with you."
Afterwards, we lay collapsed on the bed, too tired to move, and I just wanted to crawl under the covers with her. I couldn't believe I'd just done that in a strange house. We needed to get out of here before everyone figured out what we were up to. I had to start being more careful. My dad trusted me, but that wouldn't last if I kept making irresponsible decisions.
Of course, he liked Lisa. I was eighteen. My dad knew me having a sex life was bound to happen sooner or later. However, this school year had been full of behavioral mishaps on my part, and having sex in a strange house at a party wasn't on my list of great ideas. It was fun once, but I reminded myself to not try this again.
I kissed Lisa, and we both smiled and laughed as we helped each other get dressed.
"I have a question." I finally broke the blissful silence as I smoothed over her hair. It was the same question I'd tried to ask her before. There was only one more piece of the Lisa-puzzle that I needed.
"Shoot."
"You didn't want to tell me about your dad or your brother. But Irene knew where you went on the weekends. Why could she know and not me?" The idea of Lisa close enough to that girl to confide in her pissed me off.
"Jennie, I didn't tell Irene anything. Her dad is a cop. The cop that arrested me last year for attacking Mashiho's foster dad. She found out through him." She circled her arms around my waist and held me close.
"So you just happened to be dating the daughter of the cop that arrested you?" I knew it was more than a coincidence without her saying anything. She'd sought out Irene for some silly revenge. Bagging the cop's daughter was a "screw you" to her father.
She shrugged. "Yeah, I'm not proud of that, but would it make you feel better if I actually liked her?"
I looked away. No. No, it wouldn't.