LISA

“I can’t go back to school on Monday. That’s all there is to it. I can’t go back,” I said.

“Come on Lisa,” Jimin replied. “I think you’re overreacting just a little bit, aren’t you?”

I wheeled on him. It’s not like I had much room to pace back and forth in his room anyways.

“Are you kidding? What would you do if it turns out everyone in the school suddenly knew your big secret? What would you do if everyone knew you were busy staring at Donghyuk’s when you should be watching Reynolds for your cue to get going?”

He shrugged. “Actually I’m pretty sure anyone who sits near me is pretty sure I’m staring at Donghyuk’s ,” he said. “You should try it sometime. It’s really a nice view!”

I rolled my eyes. Of course he would choose this moment to get like this.“Yeah? Well I don’t see why you’re not making a bigger deal out of this. What I saw last night means Donghyuk is off the menu just as surely as it means I don’t have a chance with Jennie anymore,” I said.

“Yeah, that is too bad,” Jimin said. “I always got a sort of vibe from him y’know.”

I wheeled around. Crossed my arms and stared down at my BFF in the whole world who wasn’t Jennie. Which now meant he was my BFF in the whole world since it didn’t seem like things with Jennie were going to be going down the road to recovery any time soon.

Not with her busy shoving her tongue down stupid Donghyuk’s throat. Damn it. No matter how many times I tried to forget what I saw there I couldn’t get it out of my head.

That was supposed to be me kissing her!

“What sort of vibe did you get from Donghyuk?” I asked.

“Y’know,” he said. “A vibe? A feeling you get that someone might play for our team?”

I rolled my eyes. I’d never gotten a vibe that someone might play for our team. The fact that I’d gone so many years being completely oblivious to any sort of “vibe” from Jennie was proof enough of that.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.

“You’ve never vibed?” he asked, looking genuinely astonished.

I blushed until I realized we weren’t thinking about the same thing. Not that it was any of his damn business if I’d ever vibed. Not that he was talking about that.

“Never,” I said. “I’m hopeless when it comes to figuring out if someone is into me. Girl or guy.”

“Yeah, well I’ve vibed before and…”

I held up a hand and maybe my voice was a little sharper than I had cause to be.

“Could you please stop using that word? It’s icky,” I said.

“But…”

It took a moment, but his eyes went wide when he realized what I was going on about. Good.

“You’re disgusting sometimes Lisa,” he said.

“Yeah, well the only vibe you’re getting from Donghyuk is wishful thinking. The All-Korean captain of the football team is not playing for our team.”

“Says you,” Jimin said.

“Yeah, well could we please get back to what’s important here?”

“What could possibly be more important than whether or not Donghyuk would be interested in a little up close and personal time with yours truly?” Jimin asked.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I marched over to Jimin’s bed and picked up a pillow. He cocked an eyebrow but he didn’t have much time to react as I put the pillow over his face and tried my very best to smother him.

My very best wasn’t really my best. Okay, so maybe I wasn’t trying all that hard. Still. He pushed me away and grabbed the pillow. For a moment it looked like he might turn it around on me, but then he sighed and tossed it back to the head of his bed.

“What did you expect? I’m not going to be that upset about Donghyuk kissing a girl because kissing girls is the sort of thing I expect him to be doing,” Jimin said.

“You expect him to be kissing girls?” I asked. “Weren’t you the one who was just telling me you thought he gave you a vibe?”

“Yeah, and kissing girls is exactly what he’d be doing if he gave off a vibe. You said it yourself. Captain of the football team in this small town? If I were him I’d be trying on as many beards as I could to throw off the scent,” Jimin said.

Okay. So I at least knew what a beard was. Once upon a time Jimin had explained it to me in excruciating detail right before he asked me to act like his girlfriend so everyone else in town wouldn’t suspect he was a lifetime member of the Freddie Mercury fan club, if you catch my drift.

“You’re impossible,” I said. “We’re here talking about my very real love life. Not the fantasy love life you’ve created in your head with a guy who’s never going to go for it.”

“Says you,” Jimin said. “And besides. Wasn’t the whole point of this conversation that your love life just went down the crapper? You’re one to talk.”

I sighed. Sat down on his bed. Jimin did have a point there. It irritated me to no end that he had a point there, but he did have a point there.

“You really fight dirty sometimes,” I said. “I want you to know that.”

Jimin shrugged. “I’m not trying to fight dirty. Just trying to pull you back to reality for a little while.”

“It’s just not fair! We were together under the bleachers and everything was perfect! It was like we were…”

I didn’t know what we were like. It’s not like we were a couple or anything. It hadn’t been as intense as that first night when she kissed me for the first time and everything felt right.

Still. It had been something. It had been the hope that maybe if we pulled through this awkward week we’d just had there might be something waiting for us on the other side. It felt like all the craziness I’d been dealing with last week was worth it because I got to share that one perfect kiss with her again.

Then I rounded the corner at Donghyuk’s pool house and saw her locking lips with a guy and my world came crashing down around me.

Looks like Jimin wasn’t the only person who was interested in a beard. Or whatever the hell they called i