Last Girl Standing

Each of the boys was strapped to a chair, with wires hooked up to their heads and wrists. The colorful wires all attached to a set of machines, with pointers that danced across paper. If Jenna didn’t know any better, she’d say it looked like the boys were being tortured. They might as well have been, because what they were about to be put through would be far worse than any torture.

“Alright, boys,” Tanisha said, her smile moving between them and a camera in front of her. “As you all know, the key to any relationship is honesty. In today’s challenge, we will be putting that through the ultimate test to find out how honest you have been with the girls, and how honest you will be in the future.”

Her gaze moved to the girls, as if trying to pass them a secret signal. Whatever it was, Jenna didn’t pick up on it.

“These machines are lie detectors, and they can detect even the faintest bit of deceit, so I suggest you not try to fool them.” With her eyes on the camera, she continued speaking. “Each of the girls will take turns asking the boy a question of their choosing, and each boy will get asked in the order based on where they are seating, meaning Niall will be asked first. All the boys have to do is be honest. For every lie a boy tells, he earns a point, and three points kicks him out of the game. The last one left standing wins. Let’s get started, shall we?”

The girls didn’t know it when they had lined up by chance, but that line determined which girl asked first, so Jenna was thankful that she was somewhere in the middle. Being the first one would be brutal, because that girl was responsible for setting the tone for the entire game.

“Rachel,” Tanisha said, smiling at the girl. “Please ask Niall the first question.”

“What did you say to the producers to get them to let October stay?”

She did it. Rachel did it. She asked the question that was at the tip of everyone’s tongues, but that no one had the courage to say. That question – the one that had crossed the invisible line of what was okay to ask and what wasn’t – proved to everyone that nothing was off limits in the challenge, and you could practically see the fear entering each of the boys’ eyes. They knew what was coming.

Each of the questions asked got a little more detailed and a little more personal with each girl that went down the line.

Jenna was too nervous to focus on any of the questions that were asked. She was too worried about the answers and too afraid of what they would be.

Her hands grew sweatier and shook with more fervor the closer it go to Liam’s turn. He was the last one in the line, making Jenna’s wait the longest. She didn’t even care which girl was asking him, she just wanted to know what his answer would be.

She could have sworn she let out a relieved sigh when she saw that Sadie would be the one asking Liam’s question. There was no way the sweet brunette would ask anything too over the top, so she would save Jenna the pain of hearing an answer she didn’t want to know.

“Liam,” Sadie said, tapping her sides with her fingers. Her teeth nibbled at her bottom lip, as she thought of the perfect question. “If you could be with any girl in the house, which one would it be and why?”

Jenna immediately took back every nice word she had ever said about Sadie. How could she ask that? Jenna could have sworn that was off limits. Asking which girl he wanted to be with was like asking Snooki who the father of her baby really was. You just didn’t do it.

To be honest, Jenna didn’t want to know the answer. She didn’t want to know which girl Liam wanted to be with, because it would break her heart if it wasn’t her. She thought about plugging her ears, but even though she didn’t want to know, she had to know.

“I would pick Jenna.” Liam quick to speak, without even a hint of hesitation in his voice, and it sent a chill down her spine. He took his gaze away from Sadie, looking directly at Jenna as if he was speaking only to her. “Even though we’ve only just gotten to know each other, I feel a connection with you that I haven’t felt with any other girl in the house. The other night, when we were on our date, I told you that I could see us making it to the end together, and I still see that now. Everything I said to you I truly meant. You’re the girl for me, Jenna. I only wish I’d seen it sooner, so I didn’t spend so much time playing games, but I’m not going to let anything come between us again. I can promise you that.”

Everyone’s eyes darted to the lie detector, as they waited for it to go off.

When the pointers stayed still, proving that Liam was speaking the truth, Jenna felt her heart beat increase tenfold. If anyone measured her pulse at that moment, they’d think she’d just run a marathon.

In all her life, Jenna had never had a boy speak words to her as sweet as Liam’s. She’d never had anyone believe she was the right girl. She’d always been the in between girl, who was passed back and forth between a bunch of nobody guys with nothing plans, but that didn’t have to be her anymore.

She could be with Liam, where she would be happy, and she wanted that more than anything else.

Jenna didn’t care that they were in the middle of a challenge, or that they were already moving onto the next question. Her feet flew beneath her, as she raced to the chair Liam was sitting at.

The grin plastered across his face showed just how excited he was to have the blonde girl racing to his side. He cared half as much about the rest of the challenge as she did, and the combination of both of their lack of caring could only equal a loss at the end.

Liam’s hands were wrapped around Jenna’s waist the moment she reached him, as she quickly fell to his lap. Her soft hands went straight to his short hair, as the tips of her fingers moved everywhere they could.

Their eyes met for only a moment, locking them in on one another as the rest of the world faded out. That one look set everything in motion, and both of them were powerless to stop what was to follow. Even if they could, they wouldn’t have.

Both of their eyes fluttered shut, as if they were in sync with one another, while they slowly inched closer. It only took a few seconds, but it felt like hours before their lips finally touched.

Liam’s lips tasted like peppermint – the same scent that laced her hair – and she wanted to taste him again and again. Every pull of his body against hers only increased her attraction to him.

His lips, his hands, his entire body needed to be hers, and there wasn’t a bit of hesitation from either one of them. They were too lost to care that thousands of viewers would be watching their kiss in just a few months. They wanted one another too badly to give it any thought.

Liam knew that he’d fallen for her. He knew he had to make Jenna his, so he was going to do just that.
His lips pulled away from hers, just as slowly as they’d reached them. He realized for the first time that everyone was watching, but was too happy to have Jenna with him to care.

Without giving it a second thought, Liam ripped the wires from his hands and head, and turned to Tanisha, with a bright smile on his face.

“I forfeit this challenge,” Liam said, before turning to the boys. “Good luck.”

His hand wrapped around Jenna’s, intertwining their fingers together. With a gentle tug, he pulled her back towards the mansion, as he looked at her with his lips turned up in a smirk.

Until that moment, Jenna never realized how perfectly they fit together, but she was thankful that they did.