JENNIE
By the time I take a shower and dry my hair, it's already six and the sky is long since dark. I knock on Jisoo's bedroom door, but there's no answer. I don't see her car in the driveway, but she's been parking in the garage lately, so she may still be here.
I have no idea what to wear because I don't know where we're going. I can't stop looking out the window, waiting anxiously for Lisa's car to appear in the driveway. When the bright flash of headlights finally does appear, my stomach turns.
Most of my anxiety is dissolved when Lisa steps out of the car in the black button-up shirt she wore to the dinner party. Is she wearing dress pants? Oh my God, she is. And dress shoes, shiny black dress shoes. Wow. Lisa dressed up? I feel underdressed, but the way she's looking at me dissolves my unease.
She really is going all out for this. She looks so pretty handsome, and she even styled her hair.
She flushes. "Erm . . . hi?"
"Hi." I can't stop staring at her. Wait . . . "Where are your piercings?" The metal rings are gone from her eyebrow and lip.
"I took them out." She shrugs. "Why?"
"I don't know . . . you don't think I look better this way?" She looks into my eyes.
"No! I loved the way you looked before . . . and now, too, but you should put them back."
"I don't want them back in." She walks to the passenger side of her car to open the door for me.
"Lisa . . . I hope you didn't take them out because you thought I'd like you better this way, because it's not true. I love you either way. Please put them back in."
Her eyes light up at my words, and I look away before climbing into the car. No matter how mad at her I am, I never want her to feel like she has to change her appearance for me. I was judgmental when I saw her rings for the first time, but I grew to love them. They're part of her. "It's not really like that, honestly. I've been thinking about taking them out for a while anyway. I've had them forever, and they're sort of annoying. Besides, who the hell will hire me for a real job with that shit in my face?" She buckles her seat belt and looks over to me.
"People would hire you; it's the twenty-first century. If you like them . . ."
"It's not that big of a deal. I sort of like the way I look without them, like I'm not hiding anymore, you know?" I stare at her again and take in her new look.
She looks exquisite—she always does—but it's sort of nice to not have any distractions on her perfect face.
"Well, I think you look perfect either way, Lisa; just don't think that I want you to look a certain way, because I don't," I tell her and mean it.
When she looks at me she gives me such a shy smile that I forget what I wanted to yell at her about.
"Where are you taking me, anyway?" I ask her.
"To dinner. It's a really nice place." Her voice is shaky. Nervous Lisa is my new favorite Lisa.
"Have I heard of it?"
"I don't know . . . maybe?"
The rest of car ride is quiet. I hum along to the Fray songs that Lisa has obviously taken a strong liking to, and Lisa stares out the windshield. She keeps rubbing her hand over her thigh as she drives—a nervous action, I can tell.
When we arrive at the restaurant, it looks fancy and very expensive. All of the cars in the parking lot cost more than my mother's house, I'm sure.
"I meant to open the door for you," she tells me when I open the door to get out.
"I can shut it back and you can reopen it?" I offer.
"That hardly counts, Jennie Ruby Jane." She smiles her smug smile, and I can't help the butterflies in my stomach that appear when she calls me by my real name.
It used to drive me crazy, but I secretly loved every time she would say it to annoy me. I love it almost as much as I love the way she says "Jen."
"We're back to 'Jennie Ruby Jane,' I see?" I smile back at her.
"Yes; yes, we are," she says and takes my arm. I can see her confidence growing with each step we take toward the restaurant.