24 Dates

Date Six

Rosie holds her hands up and shakes her head. "No. It must of been the sea monster."

"Sea mon-?" Rosie pounces before she can finish the sentence, dunking both of them under the water.

Jennie comes up, spits water out of her mouth. "I hate you," she says. Her hair is all in her eyes, dips of dark red everywhere. She wipes it back - which only makes her hotter - and grins. "You've got something on your face."

"What?"

Jennie splashes water on her. Fair enough. Rosie shakes her hair, making sure to aim as much water at Jennie as possible. "You've got something on your face too," she says while wiping the hair out of her eyes.

Jennie quirks one brow. "Are you seriously just going to copy me?"

Rosie's eyes widen. "What? Rosie would never copy! That's wrong." She pouts. "I'm being sincere."

Jennie touches her face in confusion, and just as she's looking up, Rosie kisses her. She places her hand on Jennie's face, presses her thumb gently into the dip of Jennie's the cheek before dragging it down. Unsurprisingly Jennie tastes like salt.

Her mouth is warm from the sun, lips wet, body wet. Suddenly the water doesn't feel cold anymore. Rosie opens her mouth against Jennie's, lets out a soft sigh.

"Did you get what was on my face?" Jennie murmurs against Rosie's mouth before kissing her again.

"Mmhmm. Let me just," she kisses again, "and," another small kiss. "All better."

"You taste like salt," Jennie says.

"So do you."

"This water has billions of bacteria in it."

"Yeah."

"It's gross."

Rosie smiles against Jennie's mouth before kissing her again. "We're gross."

"Really gross."

A wave hits them mid tongue and mouth, leading to a sputter of water both of them spit out. They leave the water. Rosie needs to re-apply lotion anyways, and judging by the red on Jennie's back, she's past overdue.

For the most part, though, things are going great. That is until Rosie lays on her front side, trying to get a full body tan. It's then that she feels something wet land on her back. "Jennie I just applied sunscreen."

"Huh?" Jennie turns, and Rosie realizes that she hasn't actually moved. "Rosie...don't move."

It takes Rosie a moment to realize what's just happened. Her stomach sinks, her lips turn down, her eyes well up. "Get it off," she murmurs.

Jennie shifts quickly to the lunch box where their napkins are. Somehow things are worse when she's rubbing it off. Also, Rosie is pretty sure she hears laughing.

"Is it off?"

"Almost - ah, there."

Rosie jumps up and darts for the water to rinse herself. She looks up and sees a swarm of seagulls, then runs back to Jennie who isn't even trying to hide her laughter now. "Let's go."

"Rosie--"

"More are coming." Rosie looks at the sky and sees a circle of them. She grabs Jennie's hand and runs towards the car.

"It's just a bird--"

"Don't!"

"There was worse in that water," Jennie muses before getting into the backseat. The driver looks at them in confirmation, and Rosie nods before putting up the divider. She lets out a loud breath.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're ridiculous?" Jennie asks.

"Me? Ridiculous? All the time." Rosie smiles at the small laugh Jennie lets out, but then falters after she looks around. "Oh no. Our clothes."

Jennie's face goes blank as she looks around. "I meant to grab it but with all the death by seagull talk I - ugh, let's just go back."

Rosie looks out the window, still sees the flock from the distance. "Not worth it."

Jennie pouts. "But my clothes."

And that's when Rosie remembers that Jennie isn't wearing anything substantial at the moment, and well... "Maybe I can make it up to you?" she leans in.

"Actually--" Rosie stops at Jennie's finger on her mouth. She thinks about biting it, but doesn't. "There is something I've been meaning to ask you. Of course, you don't have to answer, so don't feel obligated, it's just that--"

"What?"

Jennie tucks a strand of wet hair behind her ear, her face glowing from sunburn. "There is a children's event at the hospital in two weeks. It's something we do every year to get parents to bring in their kids for physicals, shots, blood work before the summer really starts and our guest, some television clown I can't remember, backed out, so--"

"Yes," Rosie says. She loves the way Jennie talks about this stuff, helping kids, the hospital - all of it, there is a certain aggressive but soft passion in her eyes.

"I didn't even ask yet."

Rosie presses her lips to Jennie's cheek. "I'll do it, and even better - I'll get TWICE to come. They owe me, anyways."

"Yeah, about that - uh, what was that?"

Rosie bites the inside of her cheek, not sure if she wants to smile or frown. "Irene was talking to me about playing in a concert as the post header for something a few months down the road. And Nayeon..." she doesn't really know how to explain that. The simple thing to say is that Nayeon was hitting on her because clearly she was but--

"Are the two of you friends?"

"Yes. Mostly. They came out a year before me, and helped a lot when my career was starting."

Jennie nods and then looks away.

"Nayeon was wondering if I was trying to pull some media stunt," Rosie explains.

"Oh so the flirting -"

"No, I mean she was totally into you too, but she's very strategic. With her things are like chess. For instance, her being seen with you would lead to a media stunt rivalry, which would lead to more press and higher sales. Of course, she didn't know whether it was serious or not, so..." Rosie shifts in the seat when Jennie doesn't say anything back, and for a moment she thinks that maybe Jennie is starting to regret this whole dating thing. The politics of her industry, how things can work sometimes.

But then Jennie takes her hand. She doesn't look at Rosie, just gently twines their fingers together. "It wouldn't have worked," is all Jennie says before slipping back into silence.