My Annoying Celebrity Roommate

I stared at Liam in shock.

My body was rigid and my palms were getting uncomfortably sweaty.

How am I supposed to react when a guy asks me to pretend to be his girlfriend? Like, should I feel complimented that he thinks I look good enough to be his girlfriend, or should I feel outraged that he thinks I’m only worth pretending to be it.

"Well?" Liam asked, casually cocking his head to the side.

"Why?" I blurted out, unable to think of anything to say.

"I need you to pretend to be my girlfriend in front of the media when I go for a red carpet event in a few weeks time. Besides I don't want some clingy actress on my arm that will just make the media think that we're together." he said rolling his eyes.

"Bu..but after that?" I stuttered

"What after that? Oh, well, you can continue living here. I'll just need your help once in a while if some really annoying ex-girlfriend comes my way. Or then, you're free to do whatever you want. Oh, and you'll still have to continue the tuitions for my cousin of course."

I sighed deeply, then suddenly perked up, standing very still

"Ermmm..."

"Yeah?" Liam asked raising his eyebrows.

"Well, if I do agree to be your, uhm, well fake girlfriend, will we have to, erm, you know, be intimate in the public eye?" I asked, squirming uncomfortably.

I had no intention of being physically close with a guy whom I didn’t even know well. Plus, its not like he really likes me.

"You mean,kiss?" Liam asked, a mischevious grin spreading over his face

"Yeah, that." I said, my cheeks turning a faintly rose-coloured.

"Perhaps...but don't worry, I won’t if you don't want me too." Liam said.

“Errrr, I don’t like the ‘perhaps’ part.” I said slightly coldly.

Then I let out a sigh and continued, “Look, can I give you my answer by the end of the day? That’s a pretty big request to process y’know? And also, maybe you can think of something else I can do, if I don’t wanna pretend to be your girlfriend…”

Liam looked thoughtful then said “Okay, I’m fine with that. But I can give you no assurance that the other thing I may ask you to do would be better than this.”

“Ohhh, uhm, okay.” I said, apprehensively.

"Well, now that I’ve spoken to you about that, I'm going out to meet some friends. You can freshen up and set up your room in the meantime. There's loads of food in the kitchen, just help yourself, just don't destroy the house,"

“Ha-ha-ha, okay.” I replied without any humour, and rolled my eyes. Then I watched him stalk out of my room.

~*~

The weight of his words; “You will have to pretend to be my girlfriend.” Kept popping up, in my head over the remainder of the day.

After the weird confrontation during which he had said that, in addition to tutoring his cousin, Liam had left the room, to leave me alone to do some packing.

I had plugged on my iPod to the sound system in my room, and was slowly unpacking and folding my clothes into the cupboards. My suitcase had been a tangled mess. I had dumped in everything in a flurry while leaving my previous house, and I now had to deal with the problem of crumpled clothes. The only clothes which had been spared from looking unwashed were my denim jeans and jackets. I made a note in my head to remember to ask Liam where the ironing board was kept, so I could straighten everything up.

I eventually gave up on clothes, and piled the messy ones on one side of my bed. I went on to deal with my books and other items. I lugged out my Harry Potter book set from another suitcase, and found a nice protruding shelf to display and keep it. It was one of my most prized book collections - along with my classic novels like ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ - and the pages were unruffled, but turning slightly yellow.

After that, I slowly arranged my school books and notes. Then, I sorted out my toiletries, and placed all my girly essentials on the countertop of the bathroom – which was connected to my room. The bathroom was an adequate size and housed a bathtub and a shower area.

Finally, I took out some pictures of my family and friends. I placed the portraits on my bedside table and suddenly felt a pang of sadness.

My beautiful and elegant mom with her slightly dark skin sat next to my handsome dad, who was holding me on his lap, while my younger brother Asher sat on my mom's lap with my elder brother Neil standing next to her, his arm on her shoulder. All of us had brown hair from our mother, but Neil had inherited our dad's brownish-blonde hair which I regarded with envy at times.

I had always been the introvert in my family. The Miss Goody Two Shoes who never broke rules and was always studious. On the other hand, my brother Neil was outgoing, fun and always had a large fan following of girls. Asher seemed to be going on the same path as Neil, but he was still young and cute.

My family was really well off, but the thing is, I sort of ran away from home to come study in England. So due to that, I had no financial support as I hadn't bothered telling anyone where I was. Yupp, it seems like goody two shoes finally came off as a rebel, but the thing is, I had no choice.

I really missed everyone back in the States. Especially my parents, whom I hadn’t spoken to in 6 months, since the time I left the house to come study in the UK, against their wishes. I still kept in touch with my siblings on a regular basis, we were really closely knit. But, my parents refused to talk to me. I still didn’t understand why they were making such a big deal out of it. I knew there was something they were hiding from me, but they refused to tell me what it was about.

I shook my head, sighing; it was pointless thinking about that.

Just then, my tummy rumbled and I glanced at the clock, it was already 7pm! I made my way to the kitchen and was surprised by its elegance, space and technology. I immediately knew this was going to be one of my favourite rooms.

I ran my fingers along the smooth granite table and opened the fridge. It was stocked to the brim. My mouth watered as I wondered what to cook.

Pasta! I thought excitedly, remembering the pasta shop I gave up for three hotdogs. I grinned to myself excitedly, rolled up my sleeves and got to work.