in every universe (one shot-s) | JENLISA

you tell them (or not)

five times jennie and lisa come out (and one they don't have to)

1.

Jennie doesn't sit at the back.

She has sat in a middle row for her first two weeks of the new semester. She takes notes, she only doodles in the margins of her textbook on occasion, and her entire being feels lighter. The dread hasn't entirely dissipated, but it no longer settles deep in her stomach every time she looks at her textbooks.

Switching majors was a really good choice, she thinks as she glances down at her sketchbook, a really really good choice.

Her sketch of Lisa she did for her homework is open on her desk and she smiles when she looks at it, running a finger down the edge of the drawing, careful not to smudge the charcoal.

She drew it two nights ago, an assignment for her Drawing the Figure: Observation to Expression class.

Lisa hadn't even realized that she was drawing her at first. She lay on her stomach on Jennie's bed, feet crossed in the air behind her. She was reading a book absently, and every few pages she would glance up at Jennie as though to check she was there. Every time she would look up to find her staring at her, she would raise her eyebrows in this entirely unaffected way. But every time Lisa would look away, pretending to turn her attention back to her book, she would smile down at the page, giddy and pleased at Jennie's attention.

Jennie didn't draw Lisa's smile, but she thought you could see it in the way Lisa was looking at her in the picture, deep and careful and hopeful.

She glances toward the front of the classroom, her professor still hasn't arrived and she kind of just wants to go back to her dorm. When she had left Lisa was still asleep, face hidden by a tangle of black curls, her body pliant and sleep soft. She had mumbled when Jennie got up, a slew of gibberish that had made her laugh and consider skipping class just to curl up with her for longer.

But ditching class wouldn't really be a great start to the semester, although apparently her Professor doesn't have the same concerns.

"He's late again?" a boy asks, working his way down the aisle and throwing his stuff at the desk next to her, "that's like three out of four classes, must be some kind of record."

Jennie smiles at him, moving her backpack to other side to make room. "You were cutting it kind of close, too," she says looking over at him as he settles at his desk. Jennie doesn't really know him, they just tend to sit next at each other, make polite small talk. It's almost a relief to have someone to talk to, the rest of the students seem to have already found their group within their classes and Jennie doesn't like the idea of having no one to study with when things pick up.

"The difference is," he says with a grin, "I'm not teaching the class, I feel like that gives me a little more freedom." He leans toward her as he struggles to get his sketchbook out of his bag and his eyes fall on her desk. "Whoa," he says, taking in her drawing, "that's really good."

She looks down, almost moving to cover it. Having people look at her work is still incredibly foreign. "Thanks," she says, "It was a fun assignment."

"Yeah," he agrees, leaning closer, "She is really pretty. Who is that? Your roommate?"

Jennie hesitates, her stomach flips a little bit and she smiles when she answers, "Uh, she's my girlfriend actually."

He looks back down at her paper and then back up at her, his eyes widen a bit but then he grins, "She looks really cool," he says.

Jennie laughs and thinks about Lisa when she saw that she was drawing her. She had gotten all quiet and soft, peppering kisses all over her face and neck until she had smeared a line of charcoal down Lisa's cheek, squealing as Lisa moved to retaliate.