Better Than Revenge 

Chapter 11

“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,” Tori screeched, grabbing my arm and speed walking out the door. 

“What?” I asked, wriggling out of her grip. “Why? I like this one!” 

“We are not staying here,” she choked out, shaking her head quickly. “This apartment is no longer an option!” 

“But why?” I insisted stubbornly. “This one is great.” 

“I saw…” She paused momentarily, dragging me around a corner, where we couldn’t be seen. “I saw Ash here…” 

“Ash?” I repeated, my eyes widening. “As in, your ex, Ash?” 

She nodded, her eyes widening alongside mine. “I think he lives here! Let’s get out of here, before he sees—” 

“Ohmygod. Tori Grassing? Is that you?” a scarily high pitched voice said from behind us. 

Tori grimaced at me before turning with a false smile on her face. “Ash! Hi!” 

He smiled widely at her. “Tori! I haven’t seen you in so long! How’ve you been?” 

“Great,” she said, twisting a strand of her hair around her finger. “Just great!” 

When Ash wasn’t looking, Tori turned and gave me a pleading look, begging me with her eyes to help her out. 

See, Ash broke up with Tori for a very… awkward reason. He realized he was gay. Now, normally this wouldn’t be that bad, but no girl wanted to be the one who made a guy realize he swung the other way. That could make any girl feel like a failure as a woman. I felt really bad for Tori when that happened and I understood the relief she felt when Ash moved to Hollywood to follow his dream of being a male model. It was really bad luck, running into him here. 

“Oh, shit!” I screeched loudly, running a hand through my hair wildly. 

“What? What’s wrong?” Ash asked, just now noticing my presence. “Oh! Ohmygod! You’re Sophia Hastings! You’re starring in ‘Kidnap My Heart’, right?” 

I nodded, fanning myself crazily. 

“You get to work with Christian Ryder!” he exclaimed. “You lucky byotch!” 

“Not really,” I squeaked, still fanning myself. 

“Are you okay?” he asked, becoming worried all of a sudden. 

I shook my head, rubbing my face. “No! I’m sorry, but we have to go! I totally forgot that Tori’s family leaves today, and we haven’t even said goodbye!” 

This was a total lie, of course. Tori’s family had left two days ago. Tori and I decided to find an apartment and stay here in Hollywood. I obviously had to stay, but Tori didn’t want to leave when the time came, so I told her she could just stay with me. 

“Oh,” he said, sounding slightly disappointed. “Okay. It was nice meeting you! And it was nice seeing you again, Tori!” 

“Definitely,” Tori exclaimed, forcing a smile. “Bye!” 

She grabbed my arm and almost ran away. 

“Thank you,” she breathed when we were out of sight and earshot. “That boy never stops talking. I was scared I’d have to stand there and listen to him…” 

I laughed, shaking my head. “You’re so mean. He’s not that bad.” 

She gave me a look. “No. he is. Besides, it’s so awkward talking to him, after what happened…” 

I grimaced. “I bet it is…” 

Tori complained about Ash for another hour as we continued searching for the perfect apartment or condo. Finally, we found it. We found the perfect apartment. It was pretty close to the set; it was only about ten minutes away. It was huge. There was plenty of room for the both of us. The furniture it came with was in amazing condition, the view of Hollywood was gorgeous and there were no ex-boyfriends living in the building. 

It was perfect. 

I was in a really good mood after this. That is, I was in a really good mood after this until Tori decided to ask me a question. 

“Can I ask you a question?” 

“Shoot,” I said as we walked out of the apartment building. We had just picked up the papers we needed to finalize the transaction. We just had to fill them out and come back tomorrow to finish the transactions. 

“So, I’ve been pretty patient about this,” she began and I immediately stiffened. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like this. “But it’s been a while and you still haven’t made a move, and I can’t wait any longer!” 

“What are you talking about?” I asked slowly. 

“I want to meet Ryder!” she blurted out. 

I made a face. “Um, Tori… I really don’t think…” 

“Soph!” she screeched loudly. “You can’t deny me this! Come on! I want this more than I’ve ever wanted anything!” 

“Tori,” I began with a sigh. “It’s not that I don’t want to… well, no, that’s a lie. I don’t really want to, but… the biggest reason is that I don’t think that would be such a good idea…” 

“But why?” she whined. “Ryder loves his fans! He even said so himself! He’d love me!” 

“Well, I can’t argue with that,” I muttered, knowing fully well that Christian would be nice to Tori if he met her, just because she was a total Ry-Hard. He couldn’t be rude to her. “But that’s not the reason!” 

“Then what is?” 

“You, of all people, should know that I’m not exactly the best of friends with Christian,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. 

“Hah! You just said Christian!” 

I gave her a look. “Yeah… so? That’s his name, isn’t it?” 

“Yeah,” she said, clapping her hands together giddily, “but most people call him Ryder or Christian Ryder. Not you! You’re on first name basis with him! There’s no reason for you not to be able to introduce me to him!” 

“Just because I’m on first name basis with him doesn’t mean I can introduce you to him!” 

“Yes it does!” she insisted stubbornly. 

I really didn’t think it was the best idea to introduce my crazy best friend to Christian, considering the relationship we had—if you could even call it a relationship—but I felt bad. I was living part of Tori’s dream. The least I could do was grant her this one wish, right? 

“Well…” 

“Well?” 

“Fine,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll introduce you to him…” 

“Yay!” she cheered happily, running up to me and squeezing me tightly. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” 

I just grunted in response. This was sure to be awkward. 

*** 

The next morning, when I reached the set, I was pretty much fed up with Tori. She was getting on my nerves and I really just did not want to deal with her. When she became distracted trying to get a glimpse of Jake, who was entering his trailer, I ran like hell and turned a few corners. 

Yes. It’s true. I tried to ditch Tori.

Mission=failed. 

I turned out to be horrible at ditching people. She found me in about, oh, ten seconds, and didn’t even realize I had tried to ditch her. She thought she had just gotten distracted for too long and I had kept walking.

Disappointed, mostly in myself, I decided to just lead her to my trailer and hope she’d be content just staying there. 

I should’ve known that wasn’t going to happen. 

“Soph,” Tori whined in my ear. “Now?” 

I had been listening to that the entire morning. 

The. 

Entire. 

Freaking. 

Morning. 

My nerves were on edge, to say the least. My temper was short and I had a feeling that the slightest thing was going to irk me. 

Christian Ryder didn’t stand a chance against me today.  

I gritted my teeth forcefully. “Fine! We’ll go now!” 

Tori squealed in happiness. “Yes!” 

With a scowl on my face, I marched out of my trailer, silently making my way over to Christian’s trailer. I knocked furiously on his door, wanting to get this over with as fast as was humanly possible. 

He didn’t open the door for the longest time. Well, in reality, it was only about one minute, but it felt like the longest time to me. 

“Goddamn, what do you want?” Christian demanded, already knowing who it was. No one else had the nerve to annoy him by knocking like that, especially so early in the morning when he was probably taking a nap behind Nora’s back. 

Well, no one else had the nerve to annoy him like that except for his best friend, Blake Grey. Blake was also an actor, and a super cute one at that. I had never actually spoken to Blake, although I had a feeling I might get along with him, since he seemed to enjoy bothering Christian almost as much as I did. The only time I had seen Blake was when he visited Christian on set one day. He pelted Christian with water balloons and ran away when Christian found an old paintball gun in a shed by the set. 

It was pretty epic. 

“There’s, er, someone who wants to meet you,” I said awkwardly, shifting from foot-to-foot uncomfortably. 

This felt so weird… 

He raised an eyebrow. “Really, now? Who?” 

In a monotone voice, I stepped out of the way and pointed to Tori. “My best friend Tori wanted to meet you. She’s a… a…” I choked on the word. “A Ry-Hard.” 

I was ashamed to admit it. My best friend. My best friend… was a Ry-Hard. That fact was pretty ironic in itself. I was probably the biggest Anti-Ry-Hard you would ever meet. You wouldn’t expect my best friend to be a total Ry-Hard. 

Realization dawned on his features and he put on his most breathtaking smile. Now, normally, I would never have described his smile in this way. But because of the sharp intake of breath and the small squeaks I heard coming from a certain, sad, sad person beside me, I thought that was the best way to describe it. 

“Well, then, it’s nice to meet you, Tori,” he said, exiting his trailer and walking towards Tori.

“Ohmygod,” she squeaked. “You’re… you’re… Christian Ryder! Eep!” 

Oh, dear God, I wanted to kill myself at that moment. I was so embarrassed for her… 

He chuckled and said, “I am.” 

She jumped up and down excitedly. “I can’t believe this is happening! Eep!” 

I made a face, shaking my head. This was horrible… just horrible… 

“Can I hug you?” she blurted out hopefully. 

“Sure,” he said with a smile. 

She grinned widely and threw her arms around him. He put his arms around her waist and I could tell that she had died and gone to heaven.

“Eep!” she squealed loudly. 

I rolled my eyes. “Dear God, Tori, have some self control!” 

She ignored me, holding onto Christian as if her life depended on it. 

I sighed, shaking my head. I was so disappointed in her. 

“I love you so much!” she cried, squeezing the life out of Christian. 

Actually, now that I thought about it, if she accidentally suffocated him, I was totally fine with this. 

He laughed and said, “Well thanks. I love all of my fans, too.” 

She squealed again. “Ohmygosh! I’m one of those fans! Eep!” 

I internally gagged. 

She finally pulled away, but I quickly realized that was only to get a better look at him. “You’re way hotter up close and in person,” she blurted out dreamily. 

“Thanks,” he said with a chuckle. 

“I don’t know how Sophia doesn’t think you’re hot,” she continued, clearly not even considering your words. “You so obviously are.” 

He glanced at me in annoyance. “She doesn’t think I’m hot, huh?” 

Tori shook her head dazedly. “No. She once said that if ugliness were bricks, you’d be the Great Wall of China. I thought it was really mean but she thought that was one of her best ones yet. I think she even wrote it down somewhere.” 

I actually did write it down. I was pretty proud of that one. 

“Did she now?” Christian looked torn between amusement and offense. 

“Yeah. There were a few more. Well, no, a lot more of those. But I don’t want to say them because I think they’re mean.” 

“I’d be happy to list a few if you’d like,” I offered sweetly. 

“You know, Sophia,” Christian began, glancing at me, “you could learn a thing or two from your friend here.” 

“A thing or two?” I repeated. “A thing or two about what?” 

“Manners,” he replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. 

“I have plenty of manners!” 

He gave me a look. “You’re kidding, right?” 

I glared at him. “I have manners! I was raised right! I just happen to lose my manners temporarily whenever you’re around.” 

He rolled his eyes. “Oh, of course.” 

“Hey, Chris! Chris! Godammit, Chris, listen to me!” a guy’s voice said from behind us. 

I turned around and saw that Blake was once again visiting Christian. 

Blake stood in between Christian and me. 

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your beautiful leading lady?” Blake winked at me. 

I felt like laughing. Blake was clearly as full of crap as Christian. This was ridiculous. 

Christian looked annoyed. “She can introduce herself.” 

“Such a gentleman, as always,” I said sarcastically. 

Christian just made a face at me. 

“How mature.” I rolled my eyes. I turned to face Blake. “I’m Sophia Hastings. Oh, and please don’t call me his leading lady… I’m reminded of that enough… I don’t need another reminder.”

Blake looked extremely amused. “Why? Don’t you enjoy being Christian’s leading lady?” 

“Stop saying that!” I cried, wrinkling my nose. “And no, I don’t. At all.” 

He laughed. “Seriously? You just might be the only actress I’ve ever met who wasn’t happy being known as his leading lady.” 

“So I’ve heard.” 

“Well, I’m not exactly happy about this, either,” he said with a scowl. “Nora could have cast a girl who actually likes me, someone I actually had chemistry with. But instead, I’m stuck with you.” 

He was stuck with me? No, no, no. I was stuck with him. 

“Practice safe sex; go screw yourself.” 

Blake laughed out loud. 

“You know I can get laid,” he said angrily. 

I flinched involuntarily and hoped he hadn’t noticed. I hadn’t been too obvious, had I? 

“I would shove my foot up your ass, but you’d enjoy it,” I said between gritted teeth. “Now I have better things to do than waste my time talking to an ill-bred asshole.” 

Christian was about to say something when my phone rang. 

Saved by the bell! 

When I saw that it was Lucy, I grinned. Just the person I needed to talk to. She was the only one who would understand. 

“Ohmygosh, I’ve missed you so much, Jerk-Who-Never-Keeps-In-Touch!” I exclaimed happily as I answered the phone. 

“Hey!” Christian called out angrily. “You can’t just leave me talking like that again.” 

“Christian, I’m busy now,” I called out, rolling my eyes. “Can I ignore you some other time?” 

He gave me an irritated look but I decided I just didn’t care and left him hanging, as usual. 

“Now, what were you saying, Luce?”

***

I'm doing awesome updating with this story. I'm so proud of myself!

And I'm glad so many of you like this story. :D It's getting so many new fans! I'm so happy!

Well, I hope you guys liked this chapter.

Next chapter will be... well... it'll be fun. :D It's mostly a Sophia/Christian chapter, and you know what that means. 

Constant fighting! 

Christian and Sophia are being featured on a talk show. 

That just screams disaster. :D

Anyways.

Yeah.

Thanks for reading! 

UNTIL NEXT TIME! :D

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