Page 32 of Accidental Proposal

Chapter Fourteen

“What do we have here?” the new guy’s deep voice asked, laced with amusement.

I turned back to Liam, our lips almost touching. Realizing he was staring at me, waiting for me to get off of him, I scrambled up. In one smooth motion, Liam got up, standing next to me. Lennon and the new guy continued to stare at us and grin, and Lennon had her phone in her hand, pointed at us.

“What are you doing here?” Liam asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Well, I heard you were engaged. Which is quite the shock since I’d never even met the girl.” the guy said, looking over at me. I felt him looking me over from head to toe.

“Blake, come on, don’t be mad,” Lennon said next to him, putting her small hand on his bicep. Blake? As in Lennon’s crush and Liam’s best friend? He looked down at her, and I saw him nod slightly.

“Guess we don’t have to ask what you guys have been doing. You know the paint goes on the wall, right?” Lennon said, gesturing between us. I looked over at Liam and bit back a grin. We looked ridiculous, honestly.

“Jenna started it,” Liam said suddenly. I turned to him with my jaw hanging open.

“Hey! I didn’t mean to! You technically started it by going after me,” I said defensively, turning to point my finger at him.

“You put handprints on my chest!”

“Well, you put handprints on my ass!” I yelled back, turning and showing Lennon and Blake. I heard both of them bust out laughing, which made me look at them with narrowed eyes.

“Don’t make me come over there, guy I don’t know,” I warned, taking a step closer to him. All he did was raise an eyebrow at me before turning back to Liam.

“Well, if you guys are done with your paint war, we came over to see if you wanted to get something to eat for dinner,” Lennon said. “But if you want to continue flirting, then by all means, go ahead.” I blushed, looking anywhere but at Liam. The only reason I was blushing was because earlier I had bad thoughts when I shouldn’t have.

“We weren’t flirting,” Liam bit out next to me. Peeking over at him, I noticed he wasn’t as relaxed as he had been a minute ago. His hands were curling into fists, and his jaw was clenched. My heart sunk.Itwasnicewhileitlasted. Should have known Liam being nice was too good to be true. “I’m going to go shower.” With that, he headed for the door, Lennon and Blake moving far away for him to get by. I stared after him, an unknown feeling entering my chest. The sight of him walking away from me actually hurt.

Jenna, stop! You cannot be getting feelings for Liam. He is never nice to you, and when he does talk to you, it’s to berate you. Stop whatever it is you are thinking.There was no way I had feelings for Liam, and if I did, it was only anger. This had just been a moment of weirdness. Liam being nice to me just threw me off. That’s all. I just needed to shower and wash off this paint. Then I’d be fine. Looking up, I saw both Lennon and Blake looking at me with odd expressions. Shifting awkwardly from foot to foot, I glanced around.

“I’m just going to…” I trailed off and headed out the door. I quickly made my way to my room so I wouldn’t drip paint on the tile. When I shut the door, I went to the bathroom and started the shower. I glanced in the mirror and looked away but ended up doing a double take. My green eyes widened at my reflection. My blonde hair was absolutely covered with red paint, my face was splattered with it, and there was even some running down the side of my jaw. Almost every inch of my bare shoulders, arms, and tank top was covered. I could see why Lennon and Blake were staring at me, as well as Liam.

“This paint better not stain my hair,” I said. I turned around and starting pulling off my soiled tank. From the corner of my eye, I could see the reflection of my ass in the mirror. Liam’s handprints were the only thing on the back of my blue jeans, and you could clearly see that he’d grabbed it. A ghost of a smile appeared on my lips as I finished stripping. Putting everything on a separate towel I had laid on the ground, I hopped in the shower.

It took me almost five times longer than normal to shower. I had to wash my body and hair three times before the water started to run clear. The red water going down the drain would have scared anyone. People would think I had just come back from killing someone. I couldn’t see my hair, but I hoped it wasn’t stained. After standing in the shower for a while, I was able to get out. Wrapping a towel around myself, I went to the fogged mirror and wiped it clean. I let out a sigh of relief upon seeing my blonde hair was back to its normal color. My skin was tinged a little pink from me scrubbing at it with soap.

Everything but my underwear was ruined, and I knew I had to throw everything away, maybe even my bra that had some paint on the straps and a little on the cups. I went out to my closet and threw on a clean set of underwear, a bra, black skinny jeans, and a grey shirt with an anchor on it that hung off my shoulder. Going back to the bathroom, I grabbed my bad clothes, holding them away from my body. I glanced down at my jeans and bit my bottom lip, pulling them out from my hands. Something inside of me wanted to keep them for some reason. Setting them on the edge of my bathtub to dry, I left my bathroom and my room.

I padded barefoot to the kitchen in search of a bag to put my clothes in. I stood at the entrance, seeing everyone already in there whispering intensely with one another. I knew they were probably talking about me. As much as I wanted to eavesdrop and hear what they are saying, I cleared my throat. Sometimes it was better to not hear what people say about you; plus, it wasn’t like I hadn’t heard any of it before. I’d heard enough bad things said about me that could make me cry for days on end.

Once I cleared my throat, they all snapped their heads toward me. Rolling my eyes, I walked into the kitchen, going to the cabinet under the sink for a garbage bag. Awkwardly, I opened the bag with one hand and shoved my clothes in with the other.

“Jenna, this is Blake Williams,” Lennon said, gesturing to him. “He’s who I was talking about a week ago.” Up close, I could now see he had a pair of pretty light blue eyes.

“Hi, nice to meet you,” I said, sending him an awkward wave. I hated meeting new people. I didn’t know if I should shake their hands, hug them, or just stand there like an idiot. I usually opted for standing there like an idiot.

“Blake, this is Jenna Howard, as you already know.”

He gave me a nod in greeting.

“So you’re the one who is engaged to my annoying friend. What made you do it?” Blake asked.

“Definitely not his personality,” I said before thinking. Lennon’s laugh echoed through the kitchen while Liam just glared at me. I held back a smirk before opening my mouth.

“So, dinner? I’m starving.”

“Where do you want to go?” Lennon asked, looking at each of us.

“Probably nowhere expensive, since Jenna can’t afford it,” Liam shot at me, his blue eyes back to being expressionless and cold. The comment hurt more than I let on. I didn’t know what had happened to Liam when Blake and Lennon had made themselves known. We were fine playing around and laughing at each other. It seemed like whenever someone else was around, he acted differently—colder and more rude. It seemed Liam just had to say something rude to me at every possible moment. Schooling my face so it was calm, I tried not to let my emotions show. I’d gotten pretty good at doing so over the years. I was starting to think it would literally kill Liam if he was nice to me.

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