Better Than Revenge 

Chapter Five

“We’re in our hotel room, stupid,” Tori told me, rolling her eyes. “You don’t have to hide your face here. No one can see you except for me.” 

I looked around suspiciously, prowling about like a ninja before succumbing. “Fine.” I took off the pair of dark sunglasses I wore, rubbing my eyes as they adjusted to the new lighting. I shrugged off the baggy hoodie, thankful to be free of it. Wearing a dark hoodie under the blazing California sun wasn’t my idea of fun. I took off the navy blue baseball cap I used to hide my hair and shook my hair out, now completely undisguised. 

“You can’t hide forever, you know,” she pointed out, grabbing her suitcase from the corner of the room. “It’s impossible. You’re gonna have to face this eventually.” 

“I know that,” I said in my defense. “I don’t plan on trying to hide forever.”

“Then what do you plan on doing?” She gave me a puzzled look, raising an eyebrow. 

“I plan on hiding for as long as I can,” I declared, nodding emphatically. 

It took a second for this to sink in and when it did, she wildly shook her head at me, exclaiming, “No, no. No, no, no, no, no! That is not how we’re going to spend our vacation!” 

Uh-oh. She had that look on her face, the look she only got when she was about to let me have it…

“Er, Tori,” I began, trying to stop her before it was too late. “I just meant—” 

“I picked Hollywood for you, Sophia. For you! I picked it so that you could get the chance to make your dreams to come true because you’re my best friend and I love you to death! And then you go and do this? You’re not going to launch your acting career by hiding for the rest of your life! So what if someone recognizes you? It’s bound to happen eventually! You can’t stop it! And we are not spending our summer vacation hiding! That would totally ruin it! You just have to let what’s going to happen, happen!” 

I opened my mouth to speak but she continued with her rant. 

“And come on; is this really the worst thing in the world? Yeah, I know you don’t want to be associated with Ryder, but it’s too late to worry about that! It already happened and no matter what, you’re gonna be associated with him! And I know you wanted to become and actress because of your accomplishments and all of that but I know that you would’ve done that anyway because you’re just that good! Why not just accept what you can’t change? And no, you can’t change this!” 

Somehow, her rant turned into a motivational speech. I didn’t know which one was worse. I thought I was done hearing these kinds of things when I finished high school. 

“Fine! Just quit talking!” I yelled, holding up a hand. “I’ll quit hiding! Happy?” 

She beamed at me, immediately forgetting she was angry just seconds before. “Very.” 

I rolled my eyes and muttered a few things under my breath. 

Tori raised her eyebrows and gave me a sour look. “I heard that.” 

“Good.” 

She rolled her eyes at me. “Jerk. Now come on. We’re going out!” 

“Out where, exactly?” I asked, hauling my suitcase up onto my bed. 

“To explore Hollywood,” she replied in a ‘duh’ tone. 

I was about to decline, but then I considered it further. Hollywood was big. The chances of running into Christian Ryder or someone from Hollywood Tonight were close to nothing. And I doubted anyone would pay much attention to me, anyway. There were tons of people walking on Hollywood’s streets all the time. As long as we blended in, I would be fine. All we had to do was blend in. 

*

Blending in turned out to be a bit harder than I had originally thought, mostly because Tori decided to wear the most ridiculous outfit I had ever seen in my life. I am not even kidding. It was that bad. She might as well have just dressed up as a clown or something. 

I told her not to wear it. I even begged her not to. I told her it was a bad idea and that we wouldn’t be able to blend in if she wore that train wreck. I repeated this a billion times, but she wouldn’t listen to me. 

“It’s all the rage in Hollywood, Soph,” she would insist every time. “Just trust me on this one.” 

It wasn’t “all the rage” in Hollywood, as I had suspected right from the start. It wasn’t “all the rage” at all. Where would a tube top over a tank top, cut off shorts, fishnet tights, this weird hat that I couldn’t even describe, flashy jewelry and Vans be “all the rage” in? Seriously? 

Needless to say, we received quite a few stares, thanks to Tori. That was how awful her outfit was. I was sure people here saw quite a few bad outfits as they went about their day, so if they found Tori’s bad enough to stare at, we had a problem on our hands. 

“Tori, please… just take off the hat and the tube top,” I begged after a middle-aged woman gave Tori the stink eye. “You’re attracting too much attention!” 

“But…” she began to protest, raising a hand up slightly. 

I gave her a look. “Tori. Seriously.” 

She looked at me for another second with big, pleading eyes before giving in. “Okay, I’ll take it off…” 

She was right in the middle of taking the tube top off without flashing anyone when we heard it: dozens and dozens of girly screams far off in the distance. I turned around in search of the source. It didn’t take me long to find it. The screams were coming from behind us, and the girls who were producing the shrill screams were heading right towards us. If we didn’t get a move on, we would be trampled. 

“Holy shit,” I exclaimed, my eyes widening. “F’cking run!” 

Tori squeaked in fear and began to run the second I began to. Neither one of us was very fast so it was a good thing we were already pretty far away from them. They were gaining on us quickly, though. We had to pick up our pace. 

We kept running and I would turn to look behind me every five seconds. Finally, I got tired of running and quickly turned to my left into a small candy shop. Tori stumbled in behind me, breathing hard. 

“What the hell was that?” I asked, trying to regain my breath. 

“I don’t know,” she replied, holding onto her chest. “But I wanna know!”

I knew why, of course. It was obvious. Those girls were after something, or someone. It was most likely a celebrity. And if it was a celebrity, Tori wanted to be present. 

“I guess we could start our celebrity stalking a bit early,” I allowed, shrugging. “Let’s go.” 

“Who do you think it is?” she asked, exiting the store with me on her tail. “Oooh! What if it’s that one guy from that one movie we watched that one week?” 

“Ohmygod, the one with that one cute haircut?” I asked excitedly, playing along for her sake. 

“Yeah, that’s the one!” She squealed. “I hope it’s him!” 

As long as it wasn’t Christian Ryder, I was good, actually, but if it was that one guy, I would be more than just good. 

“Me too!”

Sometimes I went along with her boy-craziness just to make her happy. I was just that awesome.

We looked at each other for a moment before grinning and taking off into a spring to try to catch up with the deranged fans. It actually didn’t take long since they had already stopped running. They had reached their destination, apparently. 

Tori and I pushed our way to the front to see what all the commotion was about. I glanced around and realized we were standing in front of a huge building. Either it was a recording studio or it was the set of a movie. 

I couldn’t even hear myself think thanks to the loud screams and squeals coming from the fans. I was going to have a massive headache after this. 

“Who are we waiting for?” I screamed to Tori over the yelling. 

“I don’t know,” she screamed back. “I think it’s a dude though.” 

“Why?” 

“These girls said they wanted to lick him,” she screamed with a giggle. 

I snickered to myself. Fans could get pretty wacky… 

“I love you Austin!” a girl with bright blond hair screamed loudly. She was right next to me so she basically destroyed my eardrum by doing so.

“You just destroyed my f’cking ear drum!” I screamed angrily at her. 

“Who cares?” she screamed back. “It’s Austin frigging Trevor!” 

Tori poked me in the ribs. “Did you hear that?” she shrieked happily. “It’s Austin Trevor!” 

“Okay!” I screamed back. 

I couldn’t even remember who Austin Trevor was, to be honest, but I wasn't going to tell her that.

“Here he comes!” the same blonde girl screamed. 

We all turned to where she was pointing and sure enough, there was Austin Trevor. At least, I assumed it was him. He was accompanied by three bodyguards, so I figured I was right. 

“Sorry girls. Mr. Trevor is late to his meeting. No autographs today,” one of the bodyguards announced loudly. 

The girls’ disappointment was obvious but after enough pushing, shoving, and escorting away, all of the fans left. Except for Tori and I, that is. Tori decided it would be a good idea to hide so she could keep looking at Austin Trevor, who was currently sitting in his limo, waiting patiently for his bodyguards to finish doing their job. 

“Damn it, I wanted a picture!” Tori complained in a whisper. 

“Yeah, that’s gonna happen,” I muttered, rolling my eyes. “Let’s just go. That one bodyguard creeps me out.” 

“But…” she protested weakly. “Aww.” 

What happened next proved what terrible luck I had. Just as I rose out of the bushes we were hiding in, another limo pulled up. What I should have done was crouch back down into the safety of the bushes. What I actually did was stand there like an idiot. I was curious as to who was in the limo, okay? 

I stood on my tiptoes to get a better view of the limo. I wished I hadn’t later on because out of the limo came Christian Ryder. The second he came out, he looked right up and made direct eye contact with me. 

He wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box, so it took him a few seconds to realize who I was. Normally I would’ve run for it before he had the chance to realize who I was, but I was too surprised to even move. I hadn’t seen him in person in so long. 

Immediately, flashbacks of that night popped into my head and I grimaced slightly. 

“Shit,” I cursed, breaking eye contact and stumbling out of the bushes. I looked up at him once more before turning and running as fast as my legs could possibly carry me. 

“Hey, wait!” he called out, and if the thudding on the pavement behind me was any indication of what was going on, I was pretty sure he was now following me. 

I didn’t answer him, instead running even faster, something I didn’t think was possible. 

What had I just gotten myself into? 

***

I kind of wish I didn't have to cut it there, but my dad is screaming at me to get off because he wants to sit there like a loser and watch some weird music videos in German. (And he can't even speak German, so I don't know why he bothers.) 

He's a freak, I know.

But anyways. I love the end of this chapter especially and next chapter will DEFINITELY be fun to write and hopefully read! :D

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