A Fake Marriage ( Jenlisa ) (Gip )

Part 1

L

When Jennie Kim and I first met, I was naked and she was stoned. She was accidentally stoned, and I was purposefully naked but accidentally locked out of someone else's apartment across the hall from hers. It was definitely the first, and hopefully the last time in my life that my nakedness has inspired instant feelings of non-lusty friendship in a human female.

The girl that I had just...been intimate with...had flipped out when I told her I had to go home to study, called me a selfish liar, and then got dressed and stormed out of her own apartment. I chased after her because I didn't want her to go around thinking I was lying about wanting to go home to study and I definitely wasn't selfish. I allowed myself one weekend a month to have a little fun and I had just given her three loud orgasms, so I thought I had earned me some late-night study time. The door locked behind me—my clothes, keys, wallet and phone were inside—and she'd disappeared down the stairwell, me yelling after her while laughing because what the fuck. Next thing I know, I'm cupping my hands over my private parts, silently cursing myself for not just letting her think I was going to go out and hook up with someone else, when the door across the hall opened a crack and I got a glimpse of the most beautiful cat-like-eyes staring out at me.

"Hey," I said.

"Hi," she said, opening the door a bit more so that I could see more of her pretty round face. She had fair skin, no make-up, and she was all glowy. Her cat-like-eyes got so wide-open all of a sudden, I thought maybe she recognized me.

"Do I know you?"

She tilted her head to one side, like a cat. "I don't think so."

I have no idea how long we stared at each other like that. It felt like forever. I kept thinking I should say something, but I was also so strangely comfortable that it didn't seem like I needed to. After the high-octane sexed-up craziness of my night with Niki, it felt like everything was suddenly in slow-motion, like Christmas at my grandmother's house. Although, to be clear, I had not stood around naked at my grandma's house since I was a toddler.

Finally, I said: "I'm Lisa."

"I'm Jennie."

"Nice to meet you."

"Howdy." She stuck her hand out and waved.

"I got locked out of Niki's apartment."

"Yeah, that happens."

"Does it?"

"I mean, in general, in the world. I don't know if it's happened here before."

"Right."

Another silence. She just stared at my face, and I think she may have been humming to herself. It was almost like she was a nurse and I was a naked patient waiting to see the doctor. Except that's not what it was at all.

Eventually, I coughed and said: "I'm naked."

"I thought so," she said, giggling. "My vision's a little wonky right now. I thought maybe you were wearing a flesh-colored body suit."

"Well. I'm not."

"Okay. I think I'm stoned."

"Okay. You don't know for sure?" I shivered. It was chilly in that hallway.

"One of my roommates baked brownies and told me to have some, then left for the night. I had some. She hasn't responded to my texts. I've never been stoned before. It's not what I thought it would be. I can't tell if it's better or worse. Or maybe there is no good or bad. It's just a state of being that I've never experienced before. Or wait...Maybe I'm always like this but I've never been aware of it until now. Whoa."