KICK IT | JENLISA

114

Jennie

"Jennie." Jackson's voice preceded his heavy steps. "I need to speak to you."

"I'll give you two some space." Irene's whispered words faded behind me.

A beam of sunlight pierced my left eye, a hot poker jabbing into my aimless thoughts. The filtering dust caught its soft glows and flickered golden highlights.

"Close it." I rolled away and groaned at my brother.

"You've been in here for five days." Jackson frowned from where he parted the white curtains. "Irene's given you three heart-expanding speeches. You need to get out."

He was right; Irene came in every night with a tray of food and kind words about how moving forward didn't mean leaving Taehyung behind. That she knew the guilt weighing down my heart. That the very same heart was capable of loving more than one person.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that mine was shattered by the person behind Lisa's image. Not the media darling but the image she presented to me, a kind, patient, forgiving and loyal person. She stopped when I called Lisa a two-faced, lying cheat and earned myself Jackson's blessed presence. With a vampire hiss, I pulled my blankets overhead. "Fuck off."

"There's something you need to see." His phone screen appeared in front of my face.

Lisa.

A stock photo blurred her gorgeous face. I snorted at an article questioning her relationship with Kendall, a photo of them with a jagged black line superimposed. 'Trouble in Manoban's Paradise' captioned it.

Lisa wasn't the glossed-over image that the media presented. If asked before the party then I would have acknowledged the stability behind the person who put aside her ego, buckled down, and accepted a humbled approach. She stepped out of her comfort zone; when had I ever done that? She wouldn't ever be confused for a yogi, but she was a hard-working person.

Now? Lisa was just another player-athlete who took whatever the fuck she wanted without a care about anyone else's feelings. And I was a fucking fool for falling for it.

Buried under shame and three-day-old sweats, my body twitched with reminders of her touch. But heated throbs between my legs and electricity buzzing in my veins weren't enough. Knowing she experienced the same physical... experiences with her staff sickened me to the point that no meals stayed down in my stomach.

Nancy was married, for fuck's sake. And Mina blue-balled Bambam, but even I knew that Bambam drooled over her. Lisa wasn't only a cheating asshole but also a shitty friend and shady, unethical employer. "Why the fuck are you showing me this!?" I shoved the phone back. "As I told Irene, I'm done with that lying, cheating..."

"She's not a liar, and she has never cheated." Jackson flipped through the rest of his screens, charity PR coverage. "Have you seen her with anyone since Kendall?"

"Don't know!" Jackson knew that personal level of detail sickened me as much as the visual images my mind cooked up of Lisa being with other women. "Don't care!"

"You should..."

"Jackson!" Frizzy strands fell across my forehead with the air exposure from him yanking my blankets off, blurring my annoying brother's smirk. "I know what's being covered up! She doesn't need to go out in public with other women while secretively fucking..."

"Do I need to send you a copy of the accident's NDA or copies from Lisa's home security system?" His eyes twinkled behind his glasses and fuck, I wanted to punch him in the nose for it. "You two are shit at talking, and I'd normally tell you to ask Lisa, but there's something else you should see."

This was not the time for Jackson's superior-brother mode. I flipped past his bookmarked Lisa triumphs to a local real estate page. What he intended for my eyes crippled my heart. Tears blurred the address I could drive to blindfolded, and the screen shook in my hand. "No."

Keys jingled and the press of cool metal met my palm. "Go see for yourself."