FOURTEEN: SURPRISE
KIMBERLY
Khloe wasn't home, I don't know where she went to and I kind of didn't care. I have been lying down on my bed since I woke up, thinking about my encounter with Liam McGillivary and looking at the piece of paper Aiden had given me yesterday and had instructed me to call him. The truth was that I couldn't. I was scared of calling him on the phone because I don't know what rubbish he was going to spit from his mouth over the phone this time and I didn't think I was ready for that. Khloe has been asking me since she came back from work yesterday about my visit to the McGillivary mansion but I was just evasive about it and we were not so close that I could talk to her. I was in this alone and if I make any mistakes, I will be done for sure.
Khloe's friends were bothering me in the alumni group to drop a picture or show evidence that I went to see Liam and that we were dating. Shirley even went ahead to say that Liam went to the office yesterday and there was no way, he would have left his sweetheart to the office, or at least he should have gone with me. I didn't reply to any of those, I ignored them, and just like I was tired of trying to get anything right, I was also tired of trying to prove to anyone something that wasn't even true. Mum was trying her best to treat me a little differently, but things remained the same, and she had also started to doubt if I was lying about the whole news.
"Why haven't Liam come out to confirm the news? Why can't he visit his in-laws for once?" she had asked one day.
"In-laws?" dad had asked and had scowled at her.
I had been helping mum in the preparation of food to sell, since I wasn't delivering meals anymore because of my sudden reputation, I helped mum and dad out. I didn't say anything to that. I had focused on what I was doing, completely ignoring them when they started arguing about it.
"Kim, dear, come and run some errands for me!" Mum's voice called from the living room, bringing me out of my thoughts.
I sat up in bed, folded the piece of paper, and put it inside my hoodie pocket. I went down quietly and met mum in the kitchen. She was busy and her gloved hands had food smeared on them. She turned to me and handed me a list.
"I need you to go pick these things up for me at the grocery store. Be quick, I need them to cook, I didn't realize I have run out of them."
I sighed and walked out of the kitchen to the space my parents have used as their restaurant. Dad was cleaning the table tops and chairs. He looked at me with an unreadable expression as I passed and muttered "Hi dad."
Without waiting for him to say anything or ask me about anything, I opened the door and left and was grateful when a cab pulled up just in front of me. I boarded and told the driver I was going to the mall. Mum wanted me to go to the grocery store a few blocks away, but they were always out of stock and I didn't want to waste my time. I was in a foul mood but couldn't pick out what was making me moody, but my mind kept veering to Liam McGillivary and his stupid, arrogant face and his words kept repeating themselves in my head.
I got to the central mall in a few minutes and alighted the cab. I wore my hoodie cap so that no one would recognize me and start asking me stupid questions. As I was about to enter the mall, Shirley and her friends were just leaving and I tried to hide since I saw them first, but it was too late, Ashley saw me already.
"Hey, Kim!" she called.
I stopped right in my tracks and slowly turned to face them. They were all with shopping bags and had that look they always had in high school whenever they wanted to bully someone. All their eyes were on me. I smiled awkwardly. "Hi, girls." Khloe was not with them.
"So, were you ignoring us on the WhatsApp group?" Ashley asked.
"Guess that's what you do when your boyfriend is Liam McGillivary," Brittany said and chuckled.
I wondered when these girls would really grow up. They never changed through college at all. I managed another smile and tried to open my mouth to lie, but Shirley cut me off.
"You are just a pretty liar, how could you lie on National TV that Liam of all people was your boyfriend? He could never see someone like you. Look at you, look how you are dressed for the mall, in your sleepwear. Liam could never fall for that."
"What of a picture?" Donnie asked. "You went to his house yesterday, right? You must have made a video of both of you or even a picture.
"Girls, leave that talk, she was just chasing clout," Shirley said and stared hard at me.
"I'm not," I blurted in an attempt to defend myself.
"You and Liam's relationship has gone viral—I mean if there was a relationship, but we have never seen you two together. Why are you here alone? It's Saturday and he won't be busy at home or is he?" Ashley asked.
"I—" I started saying.
"Baby!" someone called from behind, interrupting me.
I didn't give it a thought until I saw my tormentors' eyes growing wide and their mouths forming Os and gasps leaving their throats. I slowly turned and saw Liam McGillivary standing there beside his car, in flesh, looking our way and smiling. I blinked twice to be sure it wasn't just an apparition and I wasn't hallucinating from thinking too much about him.
He started walking towards us, his eyes on me, smiling. The first time I have seen him smile so beautifully. I stood there awkwardly staring at him and he looked like he just stepped out of a magazine page. He came up to me, held my shoulders, and placed a kiss on my forehead. My heart stopped for that moment and started biting again, faster and faster that I thought it would explode. Watch out, people. I felt a warmth from my face to my whole body that hadn't been there earlier. I was dumbfounded and numb, I couldn't just believe that everything was happening for real, maybe I'm in a trance and I waited for someone to snap me back to reality.
"Hey girls," he said and waved at those girls.
"Hi!" they chorused like teenage girls, waving excitedly at him.
"I will have to steal my woman away." He turned to me who was still numb and smiled. "Baby, I told you to call me when you are coming to the mall. Let's go." He hung his arm on my shoulders and turned me away from those girls.
I followed obediently, maybe if my brain had been working at that moment, I won't have followed him and I would have blown my cover, but at that moment, the only questions in my head were how he knew that I needed help at that moment and how he knew where I was. He led me towards the car and I heard the girls muttering behind us.
"Omg! He is hotter in person," Brittany said.
"So, it's true. he is really her boyfriend," Donna said.
"But how?" I heard Shirley's voice last before we moved out of earshot.