Lisa

I stare at my watch for the thousandth time. Just ten more minutes until Jennie gets here. I look over my living room, pleased with how tidy it is. I've felt bad about the way I snapped at her for getting drunk when I was much worse at her age. It's like I lose all my rationality when it comes to her.

It's not just my rationality I lose… it's my willpower too. Most of the time I manage to keep her at a distance, but fuck, I didn't think it'd be this difficult.

The doorbell rings and I jump up. I open the door far too quickly and Jennie looks up, startled. My heart skips a beat when she looks into my eyes.

She smiles and steps forward, pushing herself against my body and wrapping her arms around me. I hug her back and rest my chin on top of her head. She fits into me so perfectly. I inhale deeply and my heart skips another beat when I catch a whiff of her perfume — the one I bought for her.

"Hey," she says, pulling away.

"Hey." I walk into my house, feeling somewhat flustered. No one has ever made me feel the way Jennie does.

She takes a seat on the floor in what has become her usual spot, and I drop down beside her. She takes out her books and gets to work, but I can't for the life of me focus on my own work.

I sigh and work on autopilot as best as I can, occasionally running a hand through my hair. Coding has always come easy to me. I love the binary part of it.

"Hey, what're you up to?" Jennie asks, her voice soft. I shake my head and turn to look at her. I'm startled to find her so close and my heart starts to race.

"Wow, this looks so cool. What is this?"

She leans into me as she peers at my laptop, her back against my arm. I move without thinking and wrap my arm around her the way I used to. I rest my chin on her shoulder, and if I wasn't so close to her, I'd have missed her sharp intake of breath.

"It's a platform that Jaehyun and I are building. It's based on blockchain, and if all goes well, we should be able to build an exchange of sorts. Almost like a stock exchange. We're trying to build a platform that'll rival banks as we currently know it."

Jennie turns her head to look at me in awe, and she's so close that my nose almost brushes against hers. Her eyes widen, and for a second, her gaze drops to my lips.

"Wow, that's seriously so cool. I have no idea what blockchain is, though."

She leans her head against my shoulder, and I rest my head against hers. "Blockchain is basically data that's extremely secure and as far as we're aware, impossible to hack. If implemented well, it will transform the current banking industry. Can you imagine being at the forefront of that?"

Jennie shakes her head and looks at me, her eyes filled with wonder. "No, I can't. But I can imagine you being at the forefront of that. I always knew you'd go on to do something amazing. You have so much freaking potential, Lisa. I always thought you'd either get drafted into the NFL or you'd do something else really cool."

My cheeks heat up, and I look away. Jennie has always believed in me. Even when she and I acted like each other's worst enemies, she always had my back when it came down to it.

"Yeah, well… coach thinks I still have a chance at getting drafted if I work hard enough, but I'm not sure about that. Football training is so fucking rough, Minx. It's such hard work that I barely even enjoy it anymore. I'm still thrilled when I'm on the field, but it's not the same as it was in school. I don't know. I guess we'll see which direction life will end up taking me."

Jennie nods. "Whatever you do, just make sure you're happy. Don't get so caught up making a living—"

"—that you forget to build a life," I finish, quoting the words my mother drummed into us. Jennie laughs and nods.

"What about you, Minx? You still want to be a lawyer like your dad?"

She nods absentmindedly, as though she isn't quite sure. "Yeah, I do. I'm not sure what I want to specialize in, though. I don't think I want to get into criminal law. I'm thinking corporate? I don't know. Plenty of time to decide, I guess."

"How about I build a huge company and you become my in-house council? We'd make a killer team."

She smiles at me, her eyes filled with hope for the future, and my heart skips a beat. Jennie and I working together… the thought hadn't occurred to me before, but now I'd love to see it happen.

My doorbell rings and we both frown. Jaehyun is meant to be at work for the rest of the day — I specifically scheduled my tutoring session with Jennie so we'd have some alone time. I'm annoyed as I walk to the front door and yank it open.

Sana stands in front of me, black tear marks on her face. She's crying and starts to sob as she throws herself in my arms.

"Lisa," she murmurs. I wrap my arms around her and hug her back as I gently steer her into the house. She's clinging onto me as though the world fell from underneath her feet. I sigh as I stroke her hair.

"What happened?" I whisper. She shakes her head and continues to cry her heart out. I rest my head on top of hers and let her be. If she's crying like this, then that can only mean one thing. Fucking Mason found a way to hurt her again. I'm tempted to rough that asshole up a little, but Sana would never forgive me, and coach would fucking bench me.

I steer her to the living room as best as I can, but she won't budge. I groan and lift her into my arms instead. Her entire body is shaking from the force of her tears.

I carry her into the living room and come eye to eye with Jennie, who's looking at me with eyes filled with heartache. She swallows hard and looks away as she takes a step back, nearly stumbling over my coffee table. Fuck.

I try to put Sana down on the sofa, but she won't let go of me. I glance at Jennie apologetically, but she isn't even looking at me. Instead, she's packing up her bag. I know how she feels about Sana, and even though Jennie and I aren't together, I still don't want to hurt her.

"I… he — Lisa… I can't," Sana says in between sobs. I sit down on the sofa with her still in my lap and what should've felt like consoling a good friend suddenly makes me feel like I'm the worst person alive.

"I should go," Jennie says, her voice shaky.

Sana pulls away from me and turns to find Jennie standing in the middle of my living room. She scrambles off my lap and looks up at her. "Jennie," she says. "No, please don't go."

Jennie looks at Sana and tries her best to smile, but she fails. "I, uh… I won't interrupt you guys," she says. She picks up her bag with trembling hands and Sana shakes her head. She grabs Jennie's arm and pulls her toward her with so much force that they almost collide.

"I'm sorry," Sana says. She throws herself at Jennie and starts crying all over again. Jennie looks at me with wide eyes, but I shake my head. I have no idea what's going on, or what could've happened. I breathe a sigh of relief when she hugs Sana back and moves her hand over her back soothingly.

I lean back against the sofa and look at the two girls. "Was it Mason?" I ask. Sana nods against Jennie's shoulder and tries her best to stop crying, but every few seconds a sob tears through her throat.

"I… I was supposed to… I was going over. We were g-gonna have lunch together. H-he was still asleep, but there was a girl. He was in bed with a girl."

I don't doubt for a second that Mason orchestrated it so Sana would see that. I don't get that guy at all. Something has gotta be wrong with him for him to treat her the way he does.

"He's an asshole, Sana. Fuck him. You could have any guy you wanted the moment you set your eyes on them. Why the fuck does it need to be him? He doesn't fucking deserve you."

Jennie looks at me over Sana's shoulder and I can see the gears in her mind whirling. I just know she's going to overthink and overanalyze what I said, and part of me wishes I could take it back. She looks down and avoids my gaze, doing her best to console Sana instead.

Sana pulls away and turns to face me. "But I only want him," she says. I sigh and nod. I know the feeling — that's exactly how I used to feel about Jennie. Hell, part of me still does.