Last Girl Standing

“How’s your pasta?” Harry asked, smiling at Jenna from across the table. They were the only ones left at the dining table, presumably because it had taken Jenna so long to whip up something edible. She knew she’d done a subpar job at best, so she was thankful Harry was shoveling the food down despite how poorly it tasted.

“Mine’s a little bland,” she said, pushing the wet noodles around on her plate. She looked up at him, and when their eyes met, they shared a smile.

His smile was nice, but it didn’t make her heart flutter the way Liam’s had begun to. There was something about the way Liam looked at her that sent her body racing, and she didn’t want to feel that way about anyone else. She was focused only on him, and he was the only boy in the house that she wanted.

In what seemed like only minutes to her, she had gone from having eyes for everyone to only seeing Liam. It was like she had tunnel vision, and her tunnel ended with him.

It had only been a week since she and Liam had bonded over the kissing challenge and the date that followed, but she was already wild for the boy. He wasn’t like any other guy she had met.

When they were at the cabin, he could have had her pants off in seconds, but he didn’t even try. Instead, he held her all night and ran his fingers through her hair. The entire time they were together, he did nothing but care for her. It was almost as though he forgot that the girls were the ones that were supposed to be charming the guys, not the other way around.

When Niall had picked Harry for her date, she was surprised. She thought everyone in the house had realized that Harry and Sadie were supposed to be together, especially since they were the only somewhat functional pair in the house. She was shocked Niall hadn’t sent them on a date together, but the blonde boy had appeared so focused on Abelia when he picked out the dates, it didn’t seem like he even looked up when he pointed between the boys and the girls.

Niall’s carelessness had caused everyone to get mixed around, and it was obvious everyone was disappointed in him. Jenna wondered if he’d get a mouthful from Harry later.

When she had begun getting ready for the date, she made a vow to herself to make the best of it. She immediately decided that she could use the time to get Harry to put in a good word with Liam, since she wasn’t interested in him and it was obvious he wasn’t interested in her.

From across the table, Harry scrunched up his nose, causing her to chuckle. “My pasta’s great.”

Shaking her head, Jenna let out another laugh, as she stood up from the table. “I think it needs salt.”

He nodded, and she took it as her cue to head to the kitchen to grab them some. He’d offered to grab them drinks just a few moments before, but she had refused to let him. The girls were supposed to be waiting on the boys, presumably in Love Games’ producer’s attempt to show the boys what wonderful housewives they would make.

Hands pressing against the wooden door, Jenna pushed it open with very little force. The moment she did, she wished she hadn’t. She really wished she hadn’t.

Her stomach churned inside of her in the worst way possible. The tendons in her wrist tightened in a way she couldn’t explain and her knees locked beneath her.

Just a few feet away from her, Liam pressed a soft kiss against October’s cheek. The girl smiled and it sent Jenna’s lip trembling. She pressed her teeth to it, in an attempt to make it stop.

With her body frozen, her mind no longer knew what was to come next. A part of her wanted to run up and tell Liam that he wasn’t supposed to like anyone else, but a larger part of her knew that it wasn’t her place.

“Everything alright, Jen?” Harry asked, standing up from the table.

Jenna still didn’t know what to do with Liam, but she did know that whatever it was, it wasn’t the time to do it. She couldn’t make a scene and risk being labeled ‘The Dramatic One’. Every part of her hurt, but her pride wouldn’t let her do anything about it.

Turning back to Harry, Jenna bit her lip. “Everything’s okay. I just think Liam and his date want to be alone.”

Harry’s eyebrows furrowed, as his head cocked to the side. Confusion was written all over his face and Jenna waited for him to speak on it.

“Really?” he asked, taking a few steps towards the door. “That’s odd.”

Shrugging her shoulders, Jenna took Harry’s arm and began leading him away from the kitchen. She didn’t want to deal with anything going on in the other room. At that point, she wanted nothing more than to just ignore it.

When they stepped through the dining room’s threshold, Harry stopped dead in his tracks. His head turned slowly to Jenna, a large smile splattered across his face. She twisted her head slightly. She couldn’t help but immediately begin questioning what the odd look was about.

Before she had a chance to ask, he responded to the question that had yet to fall from her lips. “You’ve got a thing for Liam, don’t you?”

Any other girl would laugh, pushing the question off with a simple ‘no way’, but Jenna wasn’t like those girls. Jenna was on a mission.

Biting her lip, she nodded her head slowly, causing Harry’s smile to get larger.

“That is precious,” he said, pinching her cheek beneath his fingers. She tugged herself away, scoffing at him.

“I’m not a baby, Harry. It’s not supposed to be precious.”

His arms folded across his chest. “Well, it is.”

Jenna let out a deep breath, her gaze moving to the floor. Harry was one of Liam’s best friends. He knew better than anyone who had a chance with Liam, and ‘precious’ didn’t sound like a chance. With every second that passed, it seemed as though Liam’s odds of ending up with October seemed more likely. Liam’s odds of ending up with any other girl seemed more likely.

“I can help you,” Harry said.

Jenna eyed him. He had something up his sleeve, and she knew it. Even though she didn’t know what, she was anxious to find out.

“Help me?”

A wicked smile fell across Harry’s lips. “I can help you get Liam.”

She didn’t ask how. She didn’t care how. As long as she got Liam, the tiny details didn’t matter.

“You will?” Jenna asked. Her eyes lit up with excitement, as her mind had its tiny celebration at the fact that she and Liam might still be together. She wanted it so badly.

Harry nodded, his hair moving slightly as he did so. He looked just as excited as she was.

“I’ll help you get Liam,” he said. “As long as you help me.”

Jenna didn’t pause for a second. She would jump at any chance to get Liam on her side, so she didn’t hesitate in asking the next question that fell from her lips.

“With what?”

Harry shuffled his feet against the floor, kicking at an invisible object. His teeth tugged at his bottom lip as a million thoughts raced through his head. Jenna had no idea what was going to come next. Harry looked worried and she didn’t know why he would be.

“I want you to keep Sadie away from Lou,” Harry said, his eyes meeting hers for the first time in moments.

“What?”

Harry took a deep breath, shoving his hands in his pockets. “When we got signed up for this show, I didn’t expect to come out having feelings for anyone. I thought I’d shag a couple girls and play a couple games. Just watch while everyone scrambled over one another. But then I met Sadie, and there’s just something about her. I want her all to myself all the time, but I obviously can’t have that. I don’t exactly have any claim over her. I don’t get to decide who she spends time with, especially not with the way these games are.”

Harry bit his lip tightly, causing it turn red. “Louis likes Sadie. He likes every girl in the house, really.”

Harry was right. Louis had been jumping from girl to girl since he arrived at the house, from Sadie, to the blonde, to another brunette, and back to the blonde girl again, with at least two others in between. He’d been making his rounds in the house and both Jenna and Harry had noticed. She wondered if the other girls knew it too.

“Sadie and Lou had a thing at the beginning,” Harry said, tucking his hands in his pockets. “The first couple weeks, she was all he could talk about. Even now he tries to talk to her every chance he gets -”

“Why don’t you just tell him you like her?” Jenna said, cutting him off mid-sentence.

Shaking his head, Harry let out a breath. “He doesn’t get it. He thinks I’m just playing games with her. I swear he only wants her because I have her. She chose me instead of him, and he hates that. I’m just worried that he’ll do something stupid.”

“What do you want me to do about it?”

“I want you to help keep him away from her in any way that you can. You do that, and I’ll make sure Liam knows how great you are.”

Biting her lip, Jenna nodded her head, officially sealing the deal between her and Harry. It was the perfect agreement. They’d both be getting what they wanted with very little effort.

After all, how hard could it be to keep Louis away from one girl when there was a house full of others?