WHAT!

IS!

THIS!

Jessica couldn't believe her eyes. Is this for real? At this moment, Liam, her feelings, anything was not romantic to her. All she could feel was panic. 

"This message is on the university website!" she thought to herself as she was now pacing around the room with her phone in her hand. Just then another message flashed on the screen. This time it was Kiana.

"How was that baby!!!???"

It was her!

"Take it off! Right NOW! TAKE IT DOWN KIANA!!"

"UMM NOOOOO. BYE ;P"

"WHY WOULD YOU DO IT!"

"TO GET YOU A GOOD HOT BOYFRIEND?"

"BUT-"

Kiana calling...

"DELETE IT"

"It's already being shared so..."

"ARE YOU DUMB? WHY WOULD YOU DO IT?" Anger flared through Jessica as she barely held herself from throwing her phone away. Kiana seemed to have sensed Jessica's annoyance, but there wasn't much she could do. Even if she did delete the message, people had already shared it more than hundred times. It wasn't unusual for some random kid to prank or create trouble at times, but Jessica was as a  moth. She didn't like being in the light, for obvious reasons. 

"Look, Jess, I am sorry about it, okay? Calm down, please?"

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CALM DOWN? THE WHOLE UNIVERSITY MUST BE TALKING ABOUT THIS! "

"Well-"

"Talk to you later. Bye"

Jessica couldn't sleep that night. Not until it was morning. And it was a deep slumber she apparently fell into.

*****************************************

It was lunch time after the morning classes were over, and Kiana was in the cafeteria. She kept trying to call Jessica who had not picked up her calls since their last conversation. Maybe I deserve it. But people are not talking about her all that much! She's just too... too timid?  Maybe-

"How are doing, Kiana?"

Kiana looked up to find Liam along with some other handsome, but not as handsome as Liam guy standing in front of her.

"I am doing good, Mr. Anderson." She plastered a forced smile on her face.

"Mind us sitting here?"

"Not at all"

"By the way, this is Larry." Liam gestured towards the other guy with him.

"Kiana, first year, computer science engineering."

"Larry, fourth year, Earth Sciences."

For a while, none of them spoke. Larry, because he had nothing to say. Kiana, was regretting the whole thing. Liam, had so much to say that he couldn't figure out how to begin. He couldn't almost bear the sight of this woman sitting in front of him. Not because of what she did, a hidden part of him that he didn't wish to acknowledge, kind of liked the rumor. What really annoyed him was that Jessica was probably too traumatized by the whole situation. He didn't wish to admit that he missed seeing her. Since meeting her for the first time in the library, he saw her for once each day, in the class, in the café. Somehow he did. And that gave him these strange tingles, this sense of happiness. Just this one day, he hadn't seen how she was, if she was fine or not, and it made him worry like an old mother for his son working in a corporate job. And for that he wanted Kiana to apologize. Finally, getting out from the whirl of emotions in his head, he decided to break the ice.

"Kiana, wanna say something?"

Kiana was startled, to say at the very least. She knew Liam might be angry about the rumor, but he had no way of knowing it was her!

"I... umm... today's hot, isn't it?" She let out a nervous giggle.

"No. Say something about your TA and your best friend dating. I want to hear that stuff." Liam sounded calm. 

"I don't know about that? Best Friend? Jessica? She... she is focused only on her studies and-"

"I know it was you Kiana, the one who spread the rumor. How? I know a little bit of backtracking, you know? I like stuff like these, hacking, finding IPs, besides studying about human psychology." Kiana stopped sipping the espresso that had turned cold now. She felt more guilty about all of it now and didn't dare to look Liam in the eye.

"I apologize. I shouldn't have done that." 

"Scandals like these, happen here every day. What you really should be sorry for is Jessica's feelings. She's not that brave to handle all of this attention that she suddenly has to face."

"I know. I... I have been trying to call her but she wouldn't pick up. I'll go check on her right now. I am really sorry for all the trouble, Mr. Anderson." Kiana was at the verge of crying at this point. She barely held back her tears spilling out of her damp eyes. She got up to leave, but Liam stopped her.

"Give me her phone number." She looked at Liam, a little bit surprised, and a little bit in disbelief at what she had heard. 

"Umm-"

"Her number?"

Kiana gave Jessica's number to Liam, quite unsure if that would make Jessica even more disappointed in her. She got up to leave again, but stopped. This time it wasn't Liam. It was her.

"Mr. Anderson, can I say something?" 

"Yeah, go ahead."

"Aren't you, well, being a little too intrusive towards Jessica?"

And with that, she left. Without waiting for his reply. 

"She ain't wrong though. You got something for this Jessica girl."

Larry, who had been witnessing all of the drama with the interest of a housewife, winked at Liam and left, leaving Liam wondering what was wrong with him.

*********************************************************************

The sky had turned dusky when Jessica finally gathered enough courage to get out of her room. 172 missed calls. All from Kiana. Jessica sighed, it wasn't her intention to make Kiana feel bad. Although she didn't appreciate what she did, either. Just that she wasn't brave enough to face people who would probably point at her and say 'look she's the girl'. Her roomie did ask her about it, but that was just one time in the morning. The girl could sense Jessica's discomfort and hence decided against her curious mind. And she did add, at the end-

"Oh and if it's true, I wanna say I ship you guys!"

 That comment made Jessica giddy. She hoped it was true, but then she was also too embarrassed that her fear of people talking about her came true. So it wasn't until the evening that she stepped out to relax her anxiety. She decided the departmental store that she usually went to would be a good place to avoid things and people that were a burden to her mind. The store was quite a few miles away from the uni, but she decided to go regardless. It was open 24x7 so had plans to probably stay there for as long as she could. The manager of the store was one of her high school friend's single mom, Ms. Watson and they usually got along well. 

When she reached at the store, it was already eight. After eating about six cups of vanilla ice-cream, she played zombie chase on her phone. All of that, and talking to Ms. Watson when she was free, only made three hours slip away. The night seemed longer than usual.

"Hey sweetie, I just got a call from Amelia. I need to run an errand. Could you look after the store? There're hardly any customer's at this hour, and I'll be back quick." Ms. Watson looked at Jessica with her big doe eyes, in a pleading way that Jessica couldn't say no to.

"Please be back quickly, I don't really know how to deal with people. Might shoo the customer away, if any comes." Jessica grinned at the lady as she went away. This was not her favorite way of relaxing, but Ms. Watson had said no customers at this hour.

Jessica plugged in her earphones. She didn't realize when it was when she started to doze off at the cashier's table. She was not a good choice for a cashier. It was someone's hand brushing off her hair from her face that woke her up, suddenly. She pushed that hand away from her and herself got out of the tiny space that she was sitting in. Her heart beat loudly, out of fear, obviously. 

She hadn't looked up yet, but could surely smell that this person was drunk. Heavily. The entire store probably reeked of alcohol. She raised her eyes towards this gentleman.

"Liam?"

"Jessica" Liam smiled the biggest smile that Jessica had ever seen, not that she often saw him smile. It is usually him giving lectures with a dead serious face that she got to see. 

"Do you have any beer?" Liam continued in his slurred tone. 

"Um, you need to wait for a while, the shop manager isn't here right now!"

You are the manager right now, dummy! She mentally smacked herself.

"Ohhhkaayyy" Liam stumbled as he tried to leave, and Jessica steadied him. It was electrifying the way his hand felt in hers. She almost wanted to take advantage of the state he was in. No one will know anyway. But that was just a thought. She shooed it away as quickly as it came to her.

"Wait, I guess we do have beer." Jessica walked towards the shelf with the beer bottles. Liam followed her, without saying a word. The bottles were refrigerated and Jessica had no idea how to open them. She was embarrassed once again. 

"It will be quick, just give me a minute." Jessica told Liam as she looked at him. He was observing her, again, like in that library. She tried once again and failed.

Reason- Liam hugged her from behind. Tightly. She was startled. Afraid. But his arms around her felt so good. She was tempted to stay that way. And she did. Liam further leaned towards her, his breath fanning the crook of her neck. This is... wrong, You know that right? She told herself. Yes.

And so, instead of pushing Liam away, she further leaned into him, indulging into the moment, closing her eyes and feeling it all. This was new to her, and felt good. They stayed like that for a while, before Liam spoke.

"You know what else could be quick?" Jessica opened her eyes as Liam turned her to face him.

"What?" 

"This."

And with that Liam crashed his lips on hers. He licked her lips slowly, making tingles shoot down her entire body. To Jessica, this was an eternity. She finally broke the kiss when Liam bit her lower lip a little too hard, and she hissed in pain.

Jessica stepped back. She was so lost in the kiss that she didn't notice Ms. Watson being back to the store. Not to mention, her mouth tasted like metal mixed with bourbon. She could now describe the taste of bear, even though she had never tasted it herself. She looked back at Liam, only to find him still looking at her, without blinking.

Ms. Watson faked a cough and in a same fake angry tone, scolded Jessica.

"I only left the shop for like twenty minutes, and here you are, busy in your romantic life. What if a thief broke in? Also-" she said while walking towards Liam and grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, "-drunk ones are not allowed in my store." She dragged Liam till he was out of the store and gestured Jessica to come outside. 

"You, Jessica, seem to know this man right here. But my entire store reeks now. How about you drop him home first?" Ms. Watson winked at Jessica as she herself went back inside the store, locking the door from inside. She probably thinks Liam is my boyfriend!

"Oh maybe he is, considering how close you two were a while ago?"

"STOP! I have to think how to send him back."

The place where this store was, was not very active at late night, so there were not a lot of people on the road. 

"Give me your phone." Jessica instructed Liam, who was busy playing with a strand of her hair. "Quick."

He handed his phone over to Jessica, who held his hand and tried to unlock the phone with all his fingers before finally unlocking it with his pinky finger. Immediately, she dialed the last number that Liam had spoken to. It was some guy named Larry. 

"Who is Larry?"

"M..My cousin."

Larry picked up the call.

"Hey man! Where are you?? You left without telling me or-"

"Um, hi."

Upon hearing Jessica's voice, Larry stopped talking.

"I am Jessica, Mr. Anderson is my TA. He is really drunk, so, could you like come pick him up? I'll send you the address."

"Yeah, sure thing. I'll be right there." 

After about half an hour, Larry finally showed up in his amber colored Toyota Avalon. He stopped right next to where Jessica and Liam were. Getting out of the car he started to help Liam get inside, but halted. He smirked at Jessica.

"So you are the one Liam is dating? Mind you, he's a monk who hasn't dated for a long time. His skills in bed suck. Just so you know."

Jessica's eyes widened as she was left speechless at Larry's words. She watched Liam being half carried towards the car, but he grabbed Jessica's wrist and looked at her.

"I think I like you, Jessica."