When story comes alive

Part 11

'Oh come on! Liam? Seriously?!' I heard Jenna's high pitched voice through the common wall that our bedrooms shared.

She was clearly upset about something but I was not sure about the reason. I had just finished updating and publishing the latest chapter and was dozing off when I heard Jenna. Since she mentioned Liam, I derived that it had something to do with it. I sat up in my bed and checked time, it was a little after midnight. I was wondering if I should go and check on her, but not all of my senses were coordinating. Surely some time had passed between me deciding to check on Jenna and physically acting on that decision, since when I tried to move my feet towards the floor, I found that I was back in the sleeping position. The last I remembered, I was sitting up. Once again I sat up. When I did not hear any sound emitting from her bedroom, for a good 5 minutes (or so I thought), I slid back into the covers.

The next morning, as I went about my routine, there was not a peep from Jenna. As I brushed my teeth, I peeked from the bathroom but could not see where she was. After I went to pour myself a cup of coffee, I saw her spread out on the sofa, with a magazine on her lap and a cup of coffee in her hand. She did not seem to notice as I entered the living area.

'Good morning!' I said sitting opposite her and stretching my legs over the coffee table.

She put down the magazine for a moment, gave me a cold hard stare and then picking it back up, continued to read.

I knew it had something to do with the story so I said smiling at her, 'against my better judgement, I am going to ask, what did I do?'

'What did you do?' she gave me a cold stare as she ended the statement but after failing to get an appropriate response she said, 'you called him Liam.'

'Umm...so?' I was trying out all the permutations and combinations in my head to figure out why it was wrong in any way.

'You call Aiden- Aiden. Andrew became Andre. I don't know who became Oliver. I was happy when you called me -me, as I knew I meant something to you. But then Liam?'

I laughed out loud as now I knew the reason for her being upset. 'Oh so that is what yesterday's shrill screech was about.'

'I got a notification about your update. I could not wait to read it. So I woke up to read and this is what I get...Liam?'

When I had used Aiden's real name, the reason was that I did not want to change anything about him. When I introduced Jenna, the reason remained the same. But now after I introduced my date as Liam, using his real name, Jenna was having doubts about the reason I used her real name. 'I am sorry. I love you, you know that? That is the reason I did not change your name.' I slid into the tiny empty space beside her and hugged her or was atleast trying to hug her.

'Do you love Liam too?' she asked with a smile.

'I was just... creatively lazy with his name plus I was tired and sleepy.'

Her smile had widened.

'So, am I forgiven?' I asked taking a sip of coffee.

'Hmm... for now.' She pushed aside her magazine now that she wanted to chat with me. She turned around to face me and asked, 'so why didn't you write that your date was Aiden? You could have ended the story on a happy note that you guys started from where you left off and that you lived happily ever after.'

'Now that cliché, is what I want to avoid as a writer. What I do not like about romances in print or on screen is that it is too easy or too predictable. Come sun or rain, the lovers end up together....'