NEW YEAR, NEW LIFE

Chapter 4, Going viral

"What. The. Fuck."

How did this happen? Better yet, why is this happening?

You may be wondering what was on Nina's laptop and why I'm freaking out about it. Well... I've gone viral. Xavier's gone viral. We've both gone viral. Someone, somehow, managed to get a photo of us kissing and posted it. Now its multiplied and is on every social media there is. photos, videos, articles. It's all there. Headlines, 'Xavier Underhill seen kissing mystery woman.' 'Xavier's New Year's kiss.' 'Xavier Underhill 's new girlfriend?' Girlfriend? Who is this guy and why has our photo spread like a virus?

"That's what I thought." Says Nina interrupting my train of thought. "I practically spat out my water when I saw it on twitter. You need to see this." Nina hands me her phone open to YouTube. An E!New, video is playing on the screen titled 'Is Xavier starting off the New year with a new boo? Or is it just a fling?'.

"Does Xavier have a new girlfriend no one knows about? Here's what we know at Entertainment News." Says the news reporter on the small screen. "It looks like our new prince has moved on quickly from his recent split with model Josephine Lamar. Just this morning Photos of Xavier Underhill, star of new popular TV drama, 'Kingdom', was seen kissing a mystery girl. Sources tell us it is Uni student Reign Telia. But the question is, are they a thing? Or is Xavier living up to his Character ways?"

"The Xavier you kissed, is Xavier Underhill," Nina informs me as the video finishes. "He's the male lead in 'Kingdom'. Great show. Right now, he's the hottest Teenage Drama actor. He plays a prince, who gets around but is now chasing after a common girl. He was voted 'hottest new actor of 2018'."

"How the hell did I not know who he was?" I ask handing Nina back her phone.

"You haven't really been on social media lately. You've missed all the celeb goss. You've been too busy with Uni work." she replies

"Well if you knew who he was why didn't you tell me I hooked up with someone famous?"

"I didn't know that you were leaving with Xavier Underhill!" She exclaims. "It was too dark and crowded in the club to see who he was."

I walk over and take a seat on my bed taking in everything that had just happened. Xavier. The photo. Articles. News reports. All of it. It's too much. No wonder everybody was staring at me and the Starbucks guy was acting strange. I was the talk of the internet.

"This wasn't supposed to happen. I was supposed to be known as Reign Telia, Famous screenwriter. Not Reign Telia, the girl who kissed a prince. A fake prince at that."

"Look I know this is a lot to take in."

"You can say that again." I interrupt.

"But we can handle it. Look," She says pulling up the photo. "You can hardly see your face. You can deny it was you, or give Xavier a call and tell him to tell everyone it was someone else."

"Nina, you heard that report. They know it's me."

"No, they don't." She says taking a seat down next to me. "You can just say that whoever gave them your name was lying, and say that you were out at another club with me and I'll back your story up."

"I think I should talk to Xavier first, maybe he can sort everything out."

"Good idea."

I pull out my phone, open the phone app and search up 'Xavier' in my contacts, but his name doesn't show up. I then scroll through all my contacts thinking I may have put his number under a different name. I scroll and scroll, but I don't see any new contacts. "I didn't get his number."

"What now, then." Just as the words leave Nina's mouth, my phone begins to vibrate in my hands, displaying a number I've never seen before.

"Hello?" I say answering the call.

"Hello, is this Reign Telia?" The man on the phone asks.

"Who's asking?" I answer back.

"This is Jonathan Stanford with Hollywood rundown. I was just wondering if I could get a few words from you about th-"

"Sorry, wrong number," I say quickly ending the call. Not long after the phone rings again. "Look I'm not the girl in the photo, so please stop calling." Just before I hang up, I hear a familiar voice.

"Reign? Reign Telia?" The voice on the other end asks.

"Xavier? How did you get my number?"

Nina's face lit up when I said his name. "Is it him?" She whispers, but I wave her off.

"You took my phone when I wasn't looking and put your number down as 'New Year's kiss'." He laughs through the phone.

"Oh, God," I mumble under my breath.

"What?" Nina whispers yet again. "Put it on speaker. I ignore her request.

"Look, I'm guessing you've seen the pictures and are freaking out."

"Freaking out? This is ridiculous. My phone won't stop buzzing with notifications and I just got a call from some reporter. I have no idea how they got my number."

"News reporter? What did you say to them?"

"Nothing. All I said 'sorry wrong number' and hung up"

"Good." He says letting out a breath.

"Good? Because of you, I'm now in the public eye, getting calls from randoms, and all you are worried about is what I said to the paparazzi."

"Look, I'll text you an address and we'll discuss this in person."

"There's nothing to discuss," I say raising my voice. "You need to tell whoever you need to tell, that it wasn't me in those photos."

"It's not that easy, Reign. Just meet up with me and we can sort this out." Before I could fit in any more words, I hear the high pitch tone, meaning he had hung up.

"So?" Nina was sitting on the edge of her seat. "What did he say?"

"He wants me to meet up with him," I say placing my phone back down.

"When? Where? Can I come?"

"I don't know. He'll text me the address and no. This is something that I need to sort out with Xavier, but I will let you know how it all goes." Suddenly my phone buzzes and I check to see if he had texted.

Unknown Number:

Meet here in one hour. 32 Johnsons Drive, Burleigh heights.

"I guess you better start getting ready." Says Nina pulling me up from my bed.

———————————

Thank you so much to the for reading this far and voting. It means a lot to me. xx

Don't forget to vote and comment about what you think. xx

If you do like the book so far, please share it with your friends. Xx