Chapter 5

Track 4. Bad Blood (3:22)

Lisa

WE'RE OFFICIALLY SCREWED…

"So, what do you think about the place?" Bambam coughed as he walked our latest potential roommate onto the deck.

I leaned back in our hot tub and waited for the guy to answer. He was so high that I smelled the marijuana on him the second he stepped into our house, and he couldn't make it through a single sentence without laughing. Unfortunately, he was the best person we'd met so far.

"It's amazing." He bent down and dipped his hands into the hot tub, laughing. "Really amazing. There's plenty of space for me to have my runners over here for meetings."

"Runners?" Bambam asked, coughing again. "You're on the track team?"

"Ha!" The guy laughed. "Not that type of runner. Runner like runner. Like, people who handle the delivery of my products."

"So, you sell things for the track team?"

"He's talking about drugs, Bambam." I shook my head. "He's a goddamn drug dealer."

"I don't deal any heavy drugs, though," the guy said. "I'm strictly a weed, pills, and roofies guy. None of the hard stuff. I'm always looking for people to join my team if either of you is interested. I even have a competitive health care plan."

I rolled my eyes, but Bambam kept his composure. The second he mentioned how much the rent was, I was confident that the guy would run the hell out of here, just like everyone else did.

"So, the rent is five hundred dollars each a month," Bambam said. "And we have to split the bills evenly. Well, the water bill anyway. My dad will cover all the other ones for us."

"Cool." He nodded. "That sounds more than doable. I can pay an entire year upfront."

"Um. Well, before we get to that point…" Bambam scratched his head. "You smoked like two cigarettes and a blunt during the house tour, and it only took twenty minutes for me to show you everything. So—"

"So, what?" The guy raised his eyebrow.

"So, if we vote for you to move in, can you limit your smoking to maybe three to four puffs a day? Neither of us smokes, so it'll throw off the whole aura of the house if you do."

"Nah, I need my weed and my smokes," the guy said, crossing his arms. "They're a part of me, and if I'm paying five hundred dollars a month for shared rent, I should be able to do whatever the hell I want."

He has a point…

The guy pointed to the beach. "Are there any cameras from the house that can see out there?"

"Not that we know of," Bambam said. "Why?"

"Good." He stared out at the water. "Just making sure I have a secure place to discipline my runners if the time comes for that. The two of you won't be able to sit on this deck if any of that shit ever goes down, alright?"

I shot Bambam a look, and he held his hands up in surrender.

"We'll be in touch with you after our vote, no matter what." He motioned for the guy to follow him.

I watched as Bambam walked him out of the house, and then I reached over a stack of towels to grab my cell phone. There were no new emails from my posting in the Business School newspaper, but there were plenty of text messages from Sunmi and Bobby. They were repeating the same fake apologies, so I deleted them.

"Okay," Bambam said, returning and pacing the deck. "So, it's between the drug dealer, the guy who does creepy ass magic tricks with roaches and rats, and the guy who can only pay us half of the rent but says he'll take my Sociology class and get me a guaranteed B minus… I don't know about you, but I'm leaning toward guy number three."

"Shut up, Bambam," I said. "Has anyone contacted you from the Craigslist ad yet?"

"Yeah. There's been tons of interest from the Craigslist ad."

"Okay, so why haven't you let any of those people see the house yet?"

"Because I accidentally listed it in the looking for sex section, so I don't think we should answer any of those for a while. Unless that's something you're interested in doing on your own time."

I shook my head. I refused to believe that he was an Honors student.

"We have one more potential roommate coming today, but since she's twenty minutes late, I don't know if we should keep her in the running or not."

"A she? As in a female roommate?"

"Yeah." He shrugged. "Unless you have a list of people who are interested from the Business School, I think we have to open it up to women at this point."

"Fine. Just make sure it's not my ex or anyone who is friends with my ex. She's an automatic no, and your ex-girlfriend is also a no since you've told me about some of the things she's done."

"Even if she has the money?" he asked. "And I mean, my ex only keyed my car one time. If she hadn't done that, I wouldn't have known that it was time to get a new car. She technically did me a favor."

I gave him a blank stare.

"Okay, okay. No ex-girlfriends. What do you think of officially opening things up to a non-college student, then?"

The doorbell rang before I could answer him, and he stepped off the deck.

I opened my calculator app and tried to figure out how many extra hours I would need to work this month if we didn't get a roommate. How many hours I was going to suggest that Bambam work as well since he was the one who got us into this unfortunate situation.

"Oh, wow!" a raspy voice said from inside. "This place is amazing. The picture didn't do it justice at all."

I didn't bother looking up.

An extra ten hours a week should cover us for at least three months.

"Please step further into our humble abode and get as comfortable as you'd like." Bambam's voice sounded giddy as hell. "Have you been going to SBU all this time?"

"Yeah." She laughed. "I've been getting that question a lot this week."

"I'm sure you have." He cleared his throat. "How come I've never seen you around? I mean, don't take this the wrong way, but I would definitely remember seeing you around here."

"I did Semester at Sea for three years." She paused. "I was in the full opt-in program, but I decided not to renew for the final year."

I immediately stilled, hoping that the raspy voice didn't belong to who I thought it did.

"Well, I'm glad you're deciding to join us on the real campus, then," he said. "Let me introduce you to my roommate. I'm Bambam, by the way. What was your name again?"

"Jennie. Jennie Kim."

Jesus Christ…

I sat up and slowly turned around in the hot tub, ready to tell her "hell no," but I found myself looking at a woman who looked nothing like the Jennie Kim I remembered. She wasn't even close.

Gone were her oversized black glasses that covered half her face and ruined every yearbook photo with their glare. In place of the frizzy, wild hair that always looked like she spent too much time sticking her fingers into electrical sockets, were sleek curls that fell to her breasts. She'd even tamed the thick, brown caterpillars that she once called eyebrows.

I tilted my head to the side in utter disbelief, unable to stop staring.

What the hell?

Her brown eyes gleamed as she spoke to Bambam and I noticed honey-colored highlights in her hair. As I looked her up and down, I couldn't believe that wasn't wearing her "every-damn-day" outfit from high school. The one she bragged about wearing in all her recent letters to me.

"All I ever wear on this ship is baggy grey sweatpants and a casual T-shirt."

There was nothing baggy or casual about her current outfit at all. She was dressed in a light blue skirt that hugged curves I'd never noticed and exposed long and toned legs that she used to keep wrapped under tons of layers. Her white and grey sleeveless top was see-through, revealing a bright red and pink bra.

I didn't want to admit it, but this Jennie Kim was fucking beautiful.

There was no denying it.

"This is my roommate," Bambam said when they finally stepped onto the deck. "We just met each other few months ago, but—"

"Lisa?" Jennie's eyes met mine, and she stepped back like she'd seen a ghost.

"Oh." Bambam smiled. "So, you guys know each other?"

"No," we said in unison, narrowing our eyes at each other like we'd just met for the first time, all over again.

"Ha! Okay, great!" He clapped his hands. "Jennie, let me give you the official tour." He escorted her into the house, and I knew that my vote for her living here was still going to be a no.

A definite "hell no."

Dealing with her smart mouth and hot-headed-ness via snail mail was one thing. Seeing her in person, even though she was now stunning as hell, wasn't going to work for me at all.

In fact, despite the letters we consistently sent each other over the past few years, there was always a palpable tension and sense of loathing between us, and I could never understand where it was coming from. I just knew that it was the main reason why we'd sometimes take breaks in between sending letters. When we became upset with each other over a written revelation we didn't want to read, or when we dealt with a girlfriend or a boyfriend who didn't understand our "enemies with an understanding" relationship.

"You'll have access to the pool, hot tub, and all the other crazy stuff we have…" Bambam's voice trailed off as he walked her to the other side of the house.

I climbed out of the hot tub and dried off, grabbing a beer inside. I needed to make sure Jennie received my answer face to face.

"Now for the bad news," Bambam said, walking Jennie into the living room. "The rent is five hundred dollars a month—each, and this tour is just a formality. We still have to vote on who we want for our third roommate since Lisa prefers a male."

"Yes, I do prefer that," I said.

She ignored me. "What about the utilities? How much are those?"

"The only one we have to split is the water bill. All the others are handled."

"Oh. Well, I'm definitely interested in being considered—gender aside. Regardless of the vote, I'd appreciate it if I could sleep on your couch for a few nights. I can pay for that as well."

"There's a homeless shelter down the street," I offered.

Bambam shot me a look. "Of course, you can crash on our couch for a few days, Jennie. Do you have any other questions about the house?"

"Not that I can think of." She avoided looking at me as she tapped her lip. "Can I call someone in private to see if I'll be able to pay that amount?"

"Absolutely." He gestured for her to go to the deck and waited until she was out of earshot. "Holy shit. She's sexy as hell, Lisa." He looked her up and down as she paced the deck. "Please don't tell me that she's an ex of yours."

"I would never date Jennie."

"Well great, then." He was still staring at her, looking as if he was seconds away from drooling. "She officially has my vote."

"Then we'll need a tiebreaker." I crossed my arms. "I vote for the drug dealer."

"What?"

"I'd rather deal with him and his runners than Jennie."

"Wait, wait. I'm confused." He tapped his lip. "I thought you two knew each other. I thought you were friends."

"We've never been friends," I said. "We have a history."

"Does that history include her paying all her bills on time?"

"It's complicated."

"It's really not." He looked at me. "We need a third roommate to help us pay the bills by the end of this week. Since she's the most normal person we've interviewed thus far, and you can vouch that she's not a psycho, what's the problem?"

"It's a long story."

"Give me the CliffsNotes."

"I've hated her since I was seven and a half, and we just don't get along. We can be cordial for a few minutes here or there—hell, sometimes we can be cordial for a few hours at a time, but we always end up arguing or fighting."

"Well, seeing as though the two of you are grown as hell now, I think that you can get over your petty childhood," he said. "I mean, there's no way you two actually hated each other when you were kids, right?"

"Right." I sipped my beer." We despised each other."