|A/N; I'm writing a new book on Natalie_Sel |
Chapter thirty.
What happens in Vegas.
Larks p.o.v.
I groan as Kat goes to open the door of the room. When she opens it Nick is standing on the other side, he looks in and when he sees me his jaw visibly clenches.
"What's he doing here?" Nick asks Kat and she rolls her eyes in annoyance.
"He's my friend and came to ask when I'd be ready. Why are you here?" She responds swiftly. Nick seems taken aback at her response and how she'd delivered it.
"I wanted to know when you'd be ready because I figured we would all leave together to the place." Nick explains, he's wearing a suit too. Id told everyone to dress fancy since I'd gotten us an invite to a high profile ball that we would be attending on behalf of my father. Afterwards we would go back and change into some more suitable attire to go clubbing with our fake IDs. The only person who would actually be able to get into a club legally would be Ryder.
"Yeah sure." Kat murmurs. I take a quick glance at her before walking out of the room, Nick follows after me once she closes the door.
"Can you leave her alone, maybe?" Nick asks and I roll my eyes at him.
"Like she said; we're friends. You don't get to dictate her life." I snap, I won't take shit from him or anyone else. I do what I want when I want.
"You broke up with her. What the hell do you want?" Nick says before continuing on to talk about "inconsiderate" I am of Kat. I listen to him go on his rant until we arrive in the lobby where Ryder and Allison are sitting.
"Don't talk about things you don't understand. You don't know jack shit about why I left and you don't know what's best for her." I growl before going to sit with Ryder. Nick rolls his eyes at me. I really fucking hate this kid.
Who does he think he is?
"Where's Kat?" A voice asks from behind us, I turn and see Saheymi and Kai. Saheymi is wearing a red cocktail dress with her hair curled and a small black clutch. Kai is wearing a tux.
"Getting dressed. Where's Pogue and my sister?" Ryder asks and Kai shrugs in response.
"I dunno. Last time I saw him was when he was asking me and Jordan for a tie." Kai responds. I huff. Everyone taking forever to get ready and the party starts in an hour and it's quite far from the hotel plus with traffic, we're screwed.
After around twenty minutes Kat finally walks into the lobby and my jaw drops. She looks gorgeous, absolutely stunning. Her hair is naturally curly but she styled it to the side and her dress has a black top and sparkly bottom. She kept her makeup natural.
"Woah." Nick says and I just sit there staring. Kats eyes find mine and she visibly blushes before looking down to hide it.
"Uh, right, wheres Lucy and Pogue?" She asks as she sits down between Nick and I.
"Right here!" Pogue pants, running over with Lucy in toe. Pogue now has a tie and Lucy is wearing a blue dress that flows down to the floor.
"Alright then, let's go!" Ryder exclaims.
~*~
Kats p.o.v.
When we walk into the place it's being held, I take a look around. There's people dancing everywhere, rich business men standing with their friends and a few young girls. There's a few teenagers wandering around so obviously we're not the only ones crashing. Lark, Ryder and Lucy walk up to some guy who I don't recognize. When everyone follows after them I stay behind to look around. However, Lark comes back and takes my hand.
"I want to introduce you to someone." Lark says with a childish grin, I chuckle a little and follow after him to the older man who's talking to Lucy and Lark.
"Hey, Gramps, this is Katerina." Lark says and the old man puts his hand out. This is Lark's grandfather? I shake his hand with a polite smile, he brings my hand up to his lips and kisses it with a smirk. I now know where Lark and Ryder--as well as their father--get their charisma from. I giggle a little as I take my hand back.
"It's nice to meet you, sir. But please, call me Kat." I tell him in a sweet voice, he grins. He's not that old, his hair isn't graying and he's still quite good looking. His eyes are an icy blue and I can't help but wonder how their whole family seems to have nice eyes.
"Call me Charlie, Kat." He replies.
"Grandpa, you have a wife." Ryder interjects, Charlie laughs and I smile a little. I wouldn't be surprised at all if his wife is one of these young women.
"Well, you guys enjoy the party. I've got some poker games to win." Charlie says before winking at me and strolling away. I turn Lark with an eyebrow raised in amusement. He smiles at me a little and when he does smile I realize that he has Charlie's smile.
"You're exactly like him." Saheymi remarks before I have a chance to, I gesture to her in agreement. Lark rolls his eyes.
"Shut up, Simone." Lark replies and Saheymi huffs. We stroll to where the waiters are, they have champagne in glasses and are walking around serving to people. Nick takes two off the tray and hands one to me while keeping one to himself. I mutter my thanks.
"What are we doing here?" Jordan asks, he'd been with Liam the whole time since both of them don't have any girlfriends. Kai and Saheymi shrug and walk off to "take a look around" thus leaving me with Allison and the boys.
"We only have to stay for an hour or two then I've got a limo coming to get us with a change of clothes so we can go clubbing. Everyone has their fake IDs, right?" Lark asks while looking around the crowded place. I nod in response and so does everyone else.
"For now, let's just enjoy the party." Ryder says. Jordan and Liam go off to stroll around the place. Allison and Ryder go play poker in another room, Leaving the three of us; Nick, Lark and I. Huffing, I take another sip of my champagne.
"No way." A familiar voice says from behind us. Oh my god. We turn around and there she is; Sydney. I resist an eye roll when she hugs Nick and Lark, she comes over to me and I just lightly pat her back. She pulls away from me and looks at us all.
"What are you guys doing here?" Sydney asks and Lark puts on a smile.
"My family is the Everlake family and we got an invite." Lark explains, Sydney's eyes widen when Lark states that he's an Everlake.
"Your family is practically royalty around here!" Sydney exclaims, Nick rolls his eyes when Lark grins proudly. Lark's dad is a business guy and owns his own company whereas his mom has her own law firm. They made a lot of money and together they basically built an empire.
"What are you doing here?" Lark asks her in a kind voice, she smiles.
"My family isn't rich or anything but I came because I'm here for the Azalea family. Leonardo Azalea invited me, I'm not sure if you've heard of him." Sydney replies, my heart drops when she says that. It makes sense that my dad wouldn't have been in jail for longer than a few hours since he probably bribed his way out with all the money that son of a bitch has. Sydney furrows her eyebrows when she realizes my expression.
"Why did he invite you?" I ask in a cold tone and her eyes widen.
"He uh, has a thing for me." She replies awkwardly. I clench my jaw and take a few deep breaths.
"I don't think I've properly introduced myself; I'm Katerina Azalea." I say before pursing my lips and taking a look around for my father. When I look back Sydney's jaw is dropped in shock.
"I-"
"Don't even worry about it." I cut her off before downing the rest of my champagne and setting it on the tray of a waiter who passes by. I walk away and go to find Jordan but come up empty handed. I sigh and wander into a study, I sit on the couch and take a deep breath to keep from crying or freaking out.
"Where are your friends and my grandson?" A voice asks from behind me, I turn around and see Charlie standing there with a cigar in his mouth. I sigh in relief that it wasn't my father or something.
"They're doing their own thing... Have you seen Leonardo Azalea anywhere?" I ask and he furrows his eyebrows for a moment but nods.
"Why?" He asks and I chew on my bottom lip, do I want to tell him that Leonardo is my father? Not really. When I realize he's studying my face I look away.
"I knew you looked familiar. You look exactly like your mother." Charlie says and I look up at him with an eyebrow raised. He's met my mom?
"You know my parents?" I ask and he takes a puff of his cigar before nodding.
"Of course, I've done business with your father a couple of times and your mom designed a few wedding dresses for my current wife." Charlie replies with a shrug. He seems so casual and it's quite easy to talk to him without feeling awkward.
"That bastards out playing poker somewhere. Last I heard he was in jail for..." Charlie trails off when he realizes that he was in jail for beating up me and my brother. Charlies sighs.
"I'll make him leave. Stay here, don't move." Charlie instructs before leaving the room and walking off. I do as I was told and sit on the couch, I pull my phone out and look at the two messages I'd received; two from Lark, one from Nick. Who do I text first? After a few minutes I text Lark and tell him where I am. It seems like ten seconds before Lark runs into the study, sighing in relief when he sees that I'm perfectly fine.
"I talked to Charlie, he knows why Leonardo was in jail and he said he was gonna make him leave." I mutter, Lark comes over and sits next to me on the couch.
"How are you?" He asks and I shrug in response because I don't actually know, I don't feel anything, I mean how am I supposed to feel? Scared? Lark's eyes are studying mine and to my surprise he doesn't kiss me or anything, he grasps my hand in his and looks me in the eyes.
"You're okay. He can't hurt you anymore and I promise you that I'll get my mom to bury him." Lark says and I can't help but smile at him, when I smile he does too.
"You're cute." I remark and he kisses my cheek gently before sighing and just sitting back. Charlie returns and gives me a nod.
"He's gone." He says before leaving and returning to whatever he was doing.
"Wanna dance?" Lark asks and I nod with a laugh, we walk out to the dance floor and do the box waltz. I smile and look around, when I do I spot Sydney and Nick laughing at a table. I can't be bothered to get jealous, instead I just continue to dance with Lark. He smiles at me before twirling me.
"Wow, Mr. Everlake, I didn't know you practiced." I joke and he chuckles a little.
"I didn't want to mess up at the actual ball next month, plus you're my partner I gotta impress." Lark replies with a grin that would normally have any other girl swooning but I'd seen the grin countless times. I look back toward the bar and what I see next makes my smile falter; Nick and Sydney leaning in to kiss. I turn back to Lark and his eyes drift to where I was just looking.
"Oh.." He says and I chew on my bottom lip but shrug regardless. I continue to dance with Lark like nothings wrong because in total honesty I don't actually care that they kissed because I slept with Lark and if our relationship is gonna end then I'm glad he'll be happy with her. I leave it alone for now and decide that he'll tell me when he feels like it.
"Alright, Kitty, think it's time to go clubbing?" Lark asks with a shit eating grin, I nod in response before going to get Nick while Lark goes to find everyone else. The two of them look at me like I caught them with their head in the cookie jar.
"Wh-" Nick finds it hard to finish his sentence out of guilty so I just furrow my eyebrows at him, pretending to be confused.
"We're going clubbing, c'mon." I say with a smile before hurrying off to find Lark and the rest.
~*~
When we step out of the limo, there's bright colors everywhere and music booming from every direction. There's people walking through the streets laughing, we'd all gotten changed into different attire which Lark had acquired for us. He'd gotten me a black cocktail dress, Allison a pink wrap dress, Lucy a dark blue cocktail dress and Saheymi had been put in a light blue wrap dress. Whereas the boys had just taken off their suit ties and jackets, Lark had left his tie on though. Sydney had come along too but she had to put on the dress that Saheymi had changed out of.
"Alright, everyone has their shit?" Kai asks and we all nod, including Sydney. Lark walks to the bouncer and hands him a hundred dollar bill to let us in now instead of making us wait in line. When we walk in the music is blasting and there's girls dancing in cages with silver sparkles covering their bodies. We all exchange glances before walking around, the music is so loud I can barely hear anything. Nick and Sydney go off with Kai and Saheymi. Liam and Jordan quickly find girls to hang with, Allison and Ryder go off to the bathroom together. Leaving Lark and I alone.
He calls something over the music but I can't hear him so I grab him by the tie and drag him to the dance floor, I dance with him closely and he seems mesmerized by me. His eyes are following my every move, his hands are on my hips.
He bites his bottom lip and leans down to kiss me, I pull him down more by his tie and kiss him. We're still dancing as we kiss and when we pull away, I turn around for a moment and catch a glimpse of Nick standing there. I don't say or do anything, just continue to dance with Lark. His lips near my ear and he nips at my ear lobe.
"Give me your room key." He whispers and I smirk a little as I take it out of my clutch, handing him the spare one.
By that small action I know the decision that I've made.