JENNIE

The morning arrives much too quickly, and when I wake up, I'm alone in the bed. The empty side of the mattress still bears the imprint of Lisa's body, so she must have gotten up only a few minutes ago.

Right on cue, she enters the room quietly, coffee mug in hand.

"Good morning," she says when she notices that I'm awake.

"Morning." My throat is tight and dry. Images of Lisa moving in and out of my mouth with furious thrusts makes my insides tighten.

"Are you feeling okay?" She places the steaming mug of coffee on the dresser and walks over to the bed. She sits down next to me on the edge of the mattress. "Answer me," she calmly adds when I take too long to respond.

"Yeah, just sore." I stretch my arms and legs out in front of me. Yes . . . definitely sore. "Where did you go?"

"I went to get some coffee, and I had to call Jisoo to tell her I won't be home today," she tells me. "If you still want me to stay, that is."

"I do." I nod at her. "But why do you have to tell Jisoo?"

Lisa runs her hand over her hair, and her eyes concentrate on reading my expression. I get the feeling that I'm missing something here.

"Answer me," I say, using her own words back at her.

"She's babysitting your dad."

"Why?" Why would my father need a babysitter?

"Your dad's trying to get sober, that's why. And I'm not stupid enough to leave him at that apartment by himself."

"You have liquor there, don't you?"

"No, I tossed it. Just drop this, okay?" Her tone is no longer gentle; it's urgent, and she's clearly on edge.

"I'm not going to just drop it. Is there something that I should know? Because I feel like I'm being left out of the loop here, again." I cross my arms over my chest and she takes a deep, dramatic breath, her eyes closing with the gesture.

"Yes, there is something that you don't know about, but I'm begging you to just trust me, okay?"

"How bad?" I ask; the possibilities terrify me.

"Just trust me, okay?"

"Trust you to do what?"

"Trust that I will take care of all of this shit so that by the time I tell you what happened, it won't matter anymore. You have enough shit going on right now; please, just trust me on this. Let me do this for you, and let it go," she urges.

The initial paranoia and panic that always come with these types of situations flutter through me, and I'm moments away from snatching Lisa's phone from her and calling Jisoo myself. The look on Lisa's face, though, stops me. She's pleading for me to trust her on this, trust that she'll be able to fix whatever it is that's going on; and to tell the truth, as much as I want to know, I don't think I can handle another problem on my already full plate.

"Okay." I sigh.

Her brows furrow, and she cocks her head to the side. "Really?" She's astounded by how easy it was to persuade me to back off, I'm sure.

"Yes. I'll do my best not to worry about the situation with my dad as long as you can promise me that it's better for me not to know."

She nods. "I promise."

I believe her, mostly.

"Fine." I finalize the agreement with the word and try my best to push my obsessive need to know what's happening to the back of my mind. I need to trust Lisa with this. I need to trust her of my own resolve. If I can't trust her with this, how can I entertain a future for us at all?

I sigh, and Lisa smiles at my acquiescence.