Manhattan: In Love with the Infamous King

Chapter 2

Alex POV

“I’m Victoria, Tori for short.” She looks at us with an arrogance that kind of suits her. I can tell Kennedy already doesn’t like her. But I know better than to piss off the supposed Queen.

“Alex.” I nod towards her while Phillip whispers something in her ear, but I couldn’t catch it with the music blaring. She just nods at him. Trent is tongue deep in Kennedy and I can tell all of her friends are gawking and squealing about it while I suppress another eye roll at her. Geez, Kennedy. Victoria coughs a little to get Trent’s attention. He wakes up from his trance and flashes his heart stealing grin.

“Let’s go back to my place!” Trent screams through the music blaring and the others are super excited about it so I just nod along.

We walk to the private elevator but since there’s more of us Trent takes Kennedy and the other girls first. I’m just hoping she’s still alive after this, but I can tell Phillip staring at me from time to time in deep thought while Victoria seems bored. We get onto the elevator.

“You’re quite different from the others.” Victoria says just as the elevator slows. I look at her through the glare on the metal doors. She doesn’t faze but looks at me through the same glare and I catch her eye. I don’t say anything when the door opens and Trent and them are waiting for us, hammered off their ass. We go into his penthouse suite and I look at my surroundings. It’s got a nice view of Manhattan and decked out with neutral walls and black furnishings. The other girls rush to the window for the view, but I walk slowly towards the center of the room when a very muscular man opens the door and comes inside the penthouse.

He stares into my eyes and stays there until I look away. s**t. I recognize him. Though I know he wouldn’t know me, I don’t need any issues right now. I have my own to deal with. Kennedy seems to be having a great time with Trent, but I know we have to leave soon. I’m in the middle of my thoughts and analyzing when Kennedy interrupts them. “Let’s play truth or dare!!” Oh god. Geez, Kennedy. I try not to appear incredibly irritated at her, but I just nod along for now and look like I’m thrilled to play, even though I wouldn’t be caught dead.

I see Phillip and Trent convincing the man by the door to stay and play with us. We sit around his black sofa. I sit at the edge and the muscular man sits next to me on a chair while everyone else files around. “Alright I’m the birthday girl! I want to go first.” She looks around at all us and when she sees the man next to me. Confused, she points at him to ask “I’m sorry what’s your name?”

Everyone looks at him, but he just sits there and stares at her. Oh man he’s going to make this awkward. Kennedy is so drunk that I don’t think she realizes that it’s been awhile since anyone has said anything. This is the last time I socialize. I’d rather stalk people through the lens of my sniper than go through this again. Trent speaks up to get the ball rolling. “Babe, he’s Nolan.” He says to her with that world winning grin. Even I have got to admit he had a nice smile. Kennedy just laughs really loudly before going “Truth or Dare.. Liv!” Thank god, she picks one of her friends.

“Dare.” Liv with medium length brown hair and the tanned skin looks over at the man next to me, Nolan. Oh I can tell this is just going to be bad.

“I dare you to call your mom and tell her what you did on her bed during your birthday party.” We all laugh, the others just look at us in confusion. Liv folds her arms across her shoulders as she picks up her phone. Oh damn, she’s going to do it. I was at that party and oh it’s not good.

“Hey mom.. yeah yeah I’m fine. I just need to confess.. I slept with Professor Huntley on your bed when you let me throw that party at our beach house last summer.” We all muffle our laughter.

“PROFESSOR HUNTLEY?” Liv hangs up the phone before her mom screams anything else. Damn. She shrugs as we all laugh out loud at her. Kennedy pulls out her phone to show everyone what Professor Huntley looks like. He’s this married 40 year old man that teaches one of the hardest courses in the biology department.

“How do you think I got that A last spring?” She shrugs at the thought. Nolan stays solemn by me. I should have stayed home today. “Okay okay, my turn. Nolan.. truth or dare?” He stares back at us for a second before speaking.

“Truth.”

“Okay, which one of us do you find most attractive? Not Tori, since you already know her.” Liv, seriously, desperate much? He starts to look at us individually and I don’t look at him. I’m not blind, I know those girls are much more aesthetically pretty with their perfect hair and hopeful eyes. On the other hand, I have pitch black hair that falls to my waist and tan skin with dull brown eyes. You don’t make it to where I am with hopeful eyes. After a little bit, I realize he’s staring at me, so I look back at him and he catches my eyes. After I do, he looks back at the rest of the group.

He gestures his head at me and I don’t react. I look straight so I can’t even see his face. Liv, on the other hand, looks pissed and offended. Oh, am I going to hear about this for the next couple of weeks. I take a deep breath before looking around.

“Do you guys have something to drink?” I ask with my bored tone. Trent gets up to grab a wine bottle that looks quite expensive and some glasses. We go back to the game and it’s Nolan’s turn, but he makes Trent go for him instead.

“Alex, truth or dare?” I look at him hard in the eyes while thinking of what I want to say. He has a devilish look in his eye, so I’m sure whatever dare he has in store is not going to be great.

“Truth.”

“Oh come on! I had a really good dare!” Trent shouts at me and then turning to Kennedy and giving her a pouty face. You’re kidding me, right? He’s the Jack, like seriously? Kennedy gives in and looks at me.

“Come on, Alex. Do a dare! You hardly ever come out to do these things! We will laugh about it for years!” The other girls jump in with her and so do Trent’s friends. Their squeals and whines make me put up my hands in defeat.

“Alright, alright. Dare.” I say giving Trent a look before he grins back evilly at me.

“I dare you to kiss Nolan.” That’s the best he can do? Geez. I can feel that Nolan is like “dude, what?” to his friend. The girls are giggling and Phillip and Victoria look amused. Liv, on the other hand, looks like she wants me dead. Seriously, Liv, you can have this hunk of meat. I turn to him and give him an I’m sorry shrug before leaning in, but just as I’m about to kiss him on the lips, I turn a little to give him a little peck on the cheek.

“Awh, come on!” Trent gets up and shouts at me while I put my hands up.

“You really should be more specific.” I say calmly before taking a sip of the wine. “Victoria, truth or dare.” She takes a hard look at me, trying to read me but I don’t let her.

“Dare.” She c***s her eyebrow slightly. I know she’s being a little arrogant, but I kind of like it. I smile a little.

“I dare you to make out-“ I pause to look Trent in the eye, teaching him a lesson to be careful with your words. “with our birthday girl.” If Kennedy is going to make me come out and play this game, she’s going to have to learn the hard way that karma is a b***h. Everybody “ooo” at my dare and I take a little bow in my seat. Nolan just looks at me a little like I’m crazy. Victoria huffs out at me in a childish way, like watch and learn. Oh, she is so feisty.

She goes over to Kennedy and makes Trent get out of her way before planting her lips on Kennedy’s. They start going at it slobbering while Victoria flips me off and we all laugh. She pulls away from Kennedy and they both laugh at each other. A small vibration from my phone makes me stop and look down. It’s a notification of another posting. It vibrates when the reward or deal is higher than a certain amount. “Excuse me, where is your bathroom?” I ask Trent and he points in the direction while completely blown away with what occurred in the living room.

“I so owe you one!” He comes up to me as I get up from my seat and adjust my dress. Smiling down at me, he opens his arms for a big hug and I just stare him. I shake my head with a wicked smile and he feigns pain in his heart. Sidestepping him, I make my way to the bathroom to look at my message. Another photo of Trent pulls up. “The Jack - $1M” Seriously Trent, who did you piss off? I close the screen to my phone and do my business, but when I walk back out, Kennedy and the other girls are gone. It’s just the four of them and me. They see me coming and turn to me.

“Hey Alex, we have some business we need to attend to so we had everyone leave. I’m sorry about that.” Trent comes up to me and leads me to the door. I follow him and we approach the door, but when we open the door a built man comes in with a machete.

“Ah!” He swings it down and I push Trent out of the way and, using that momentum I am able to bounce off in the other direction. But he doesn’t stop, he’s trying to kill Trent and only Trent. He comes down on Trent again with a machete, but I see that the man has a wound on his back side, so I grab the liquor bottle from the counter and hit him there and he yelps in pain as the glass shatters. The machete loosens from his grip and I grab it as the others rush towards us. I put the machete down on the table behind me as Trent and Nolan grab the man the machete belonged to. Trent looks at me like, “what the hell?”

I just look at them, not trying to get involved, though it might be too late for that. “Are you okay?” Phillip asks me and I turn to him to nod and giving him a soft smile so it doesn’t seem like I didn’t care. I give him a sheepish smile so it looks like I was scared but it happened. I have pulled off that look before so I know he should buy it. Trent gets off his phone and some men come to take the man away. They all stare at me now.

“I should take my leave.” I turn to leave but Trent shakes his head.

“How did you do that?” I give him a weird look.

“What do you mean?” I try and sound genuinely confused.

“You shoved me out of the way and then you were able to hurt him and grab his weapon!?” Trent raises his voice a little at me.

The rest of them just stare at me with curious eyes. I give them a weird look and reaction instead, so they know how weird they are acting around a stranger who saved his ass.

“I’m a small 5’5” college female student living in New York City. What do you think happened?” I respond back with a question instead. It’s not wrong, I’m a college female student and I need to be prepared for all kinds of creeps that roam the streets. “Plus, he has a huge bandage on his back, just acted on instinct. I’m glad you’re okay.” I soften, I think that’s what most women would do, right? They all still stare at me until I turn to leave again.

“Wait, let me take you home!” Trent exclaims as he looks for what I assume are his keys. I shake my head and hold up my car keys.

“I drove here. I’m fine.”

“Hold on, give me your number. Let me make it up to you. You kind of just saved my life.” I shake my head again.

“Im fine, but thanks.” I finally make my way out of the door and close it behind me before anyone says anything else. That was too close for comfort. I’m hoping they let it go, but I have a feeling they won’t.