Better Than Revenge 

Chapter 9 

“Sophia?” Suzy asked after a minute of silence. “Sophia, dear, are you there?”

“Yeah,” I replied, my voice hoarse. I was trying to hold it in. I really was. I didn’t want to explode on this poor lady, but it was hard. It was so hard… This could not be happening. It couldn’t. It just couldn’t! This was just my luck… 

“How do you feel about this?” she asked after I didn’t say anything else. 

“Well, at first, I was happy,” I replied slowly. “Until I found out who my leading man is." 

“Yes… I thought this might be a bit of a problem…” 

“If you thought it might be a little bit of a problem,” I began, still speaking in a ridiculously calm voice, “then why did you cast him?” 

“Well… that would be something best explained by Nora, I’m afraid,” she tittered nervously. 

“I know he doesn’t want to work with me either!” I exclaimed. “I’m sure he’s screaming at Nora right now!” 

“I think you may have a point there,” Suzy admitted shortly. “Nora has a grimace on her face and is shouting…” 

“See? This is a sign! A sign from God! We can’t do this! We can’t work together!” 

“Oh, honey, it won’t be so bad!” she assured me. “You two will learn to get along, I’m sure!”

“No,” I cried out. “We won’t! That’s the thing! You don’t get it. No one gets it! I will never be able to get along with him. Ever! It’s just humanly impossible!” 

“But—” 

“Oh, God, oh, God. This is just my luck. Why is this happening? Why him? There are tons of other actors out there. Why did he get the part? Why, why, why?” 

“But what did he ever do to you?” she asked, sounding very puzzled. “What caused this? There has to be a reason for this repulsion you feel…”

“Of course there’s a reason,” I blurted out. “A good reason, at that! I’m never going to say what the reason is, of course, but there is one!” 

“Well, it can’t be that bad—” 

“No, it is that bad!” 

She sighed in frustration. “Okay, well, I’m sure working with him can’t be too bad, nothing you—” 

“No! It can and it will be that bad!” I exclaimed wildly. “I can’t work with him! I don’t want to work with him! I told myself that it’s just not worth it once, and right now, I think I was right! I don’t think it is right now!” 

“What do you mean, dear?” she asked in confusion. 

“I was watching one of his movies—well, I was being forced by the loser I call my best friend to watch one of his movies—and a very explicit kissing scene came on and I made a face at the screen and thought to myself, or maybe I said it out loud… I can’t remember… but I said that having to do that with him and having to work with him wasn’t worth all the fame in the world,” I explained, rambling quite a bit as I spoke. “And right now, I think I was right! I’m not sure if it is!” 

“Of course it’s worth it,” she exclaimed, aghast at the idea that it wasn’t. “This is the chance of a lifetime, Sophia. This doesn’t happen everyday. Are you really going to let something as petty as your hatred for the actor you have to work with affect your life in this way?” 

“Well… no.” When she put it that way, I felt stupid for even considering turning this offer down.

“Take the job, honey,” she advised soothingly. “I promise you, you will regret it every day of your life if you don’t.” 

I let out a loud breath. “Gosh darn it, you’re right… you do realize this is going to be a disaster, right?” 

“Of course,” she replied with a chuckle. “I’m sure you’ll grow to like him eventually, though.”

I gagged involuntarily. “Yeah, that’s going to happen.” 

“It might,” she insisted. “You might even grow to feel more than just that for him…” 

“No,” I said, shaking my head even though she couldn’t see me. “No. Just… no.” 

“If you do, you wouldn’t be the first one.” She giggled loudly. “I’ve worked with him quite a few times. His love interest always falls in love him within the first couple months of filming.” 

“Trust me,” I insisted, making a face at the thought. “That’s not going to happen.” 

“I hope for your sake it doesn’t. I always pity the poor girls who fall in love with him. He never reciprocates. He dates them for a bit but then grows tired of them. He’s quite the ladies man, I have to say. I do think you could be an exception, though. I’ve never seen a girl who dislikes Christian Ryder as much as you do.” 

“And you’ll probably never see another,” I muttered, mostly to myself. “Well, except for his first, second and third wives.” 

“He’s been married?” she exclaimed in surprise. 

“No, but I’m sure that when he does finally get married, he’ll go through wives like he goes through socks.” 

Suzy laughed joyously. “Oh, dear. We’re all looking forward to working with you, you know. We had a feeling you’d easily brighten up our days and I think we were right.” 

“Oh. Well thank you,” I said, cheering up a little. I had to look at the bright side of things, which was… well, it was everything but Christian Ryder. 

I could do this. 

Right? 

***

Sadly, I had completely forgotten about one thing. One very important thing, mind you. I was basically still hiding from people because of the whole “Mystery Girl” thing. Except that was kind of pointless now, considering my identity had been revealed. 

See, when the cast for ‘Kidnap My Heart’ was announced, they (and I wasn’t exactly sure who ‘they’ were) felt the need to add the fact that I was Ryder’s Mystery Girl. I was sure many people would have figured it out by themselves, but this way, everyone knew. All anyone wanted to talk about was how Christian Ryder and his Mystery Fan Girl were going to star in a movie together. 

The thought made me sick, to be completely honest, but there was no going back now. I had made my decision. Besides, even if I did want to change my mind, I couldn’t. My picture was splattered all over magazines, newspapers, and the internet, everywhere! 

It was driving me insane. 

I seriously couldn’t go out anywhere without a disguise now. I tried to go somewhere the day after the cast for ‘Kidnap My Heart’ was announced… bad idea. I was bombarded by paparazzi. Since I had never dealt with paparazzi before, I freaked out, of course. 

I still had to go to the read-through for the movie in about an hour, though. I didn’t really want to go since I knew I would be bombarded by crazy Ry-Hard’s and nosy paparazzi as soon as I stepped foot outside. (They had found out which hotel I stayed at. Stalker much?) 

I peeked my head out the window and sure enough, there was a crowd outside the hotel. “Godammit, these people are pissing me off…” I muttered angrily. 

“Soph, it’s been two days and you’re already sick of it?” Tori asked incredulously. “Seriously?” 

“Yes, seriously!” I exclaimed, slamming the curtains back into place. “It’s so annoying! I can’t go anywhere without them getting all up in my business!”

“That’s part of the life, Soph,” Tori pointed out. “You’ve got to get used to it eventually.” 

I sighed irritably. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I need to get ready for this stupid read-through now.” 

She squeaked loudly, saying, “It’s not stupid! It’s ‘Kidnap My Heart’! ‘Kidnap My Heart!’” 

I rolled my eyes. “I know that. Now… what should I wear?” 

I really shouldn’t have asked her that. 

***

It took me a while, but I finally escaped Tori’s grasp and managed to get to the read-through only an hour late. 

“Is this a sign of how working with you is going to be?” Christian Ryder asked as soon as I walked through the door. 

“Christian, go die,” I said, not even wanting to bother with him at the moment. I had just nearly gotten trampled by the crowd of stupid Ry-Hard’s standing outside. I wasn't in a good mood. 

The people who were close enough to hear my comment laughed. 

“She was just fashionably late, Christian,” Nora said with a laugh. “I’m sure you know the meaning of that.” 

Christian grumbled under his breath but said nothing more. 

I put my stuff on an empty chair and ran a hand through my hair absentmindedly. This was going to be a long rehearsal… I could just feel it. 

“Sophia, take a seat, please,” Nora called out to me. 

I turned around and looked for a place to sit. There were two seats open. One was next to Christian and the other was next to a creepy looking old man. I pondered which seat would be less horrifying for a moment, looking back and forth between the two chairs. I wasn’t exactly being inconspicuous, so I was pretty sure everyone knew what I was doing. It didn’t take me long to decide. 

I went with the creepy old man. 

Nora chuckled at my choice as I sat down. I glanced over at Christian out of the corner of my eye and saw that he looked annoyed. 

“Well, let’s begin with some introductions,” Nora announced. “We’re going to be stuck with each other for the next few months, so we might as well get this over with. I’m Nora Harding and I am your director. I’m very easy to get along with as long as you don’t get on my bad side, of course. A fun fact about me is that I adore seafood. Christian, how about you?” 

“Do I really have to introduce myself?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “I think everyone knows who I am, honestly.” 

I rolled my eyes. “So modest, Christian.” 

He gave me an annoyed look. “Well, it’s true.” 

“So what if it’s true? Have you never heard of humbleness, of modesty?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. 

“I’m a celebrity. I don’t know the meaning of those words. Besides, it’s the truth, so what does it matter?” 

“If that’s the argument you’re going to go with, then you can’t get mad at me when I throw the truth in your face anymore,” I pointed out smugly. 

“I don’t get mad for that anyways,” Christian replied haughtily. 

I rolled my eyes. “Sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night.” 

He pressed his lips in a firm line, probably to keep from snapping at me. 

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Well? Are you going to introduce yourself or not?” 

“You want to hear my introduction, huh?” he asked with a smirk. “Maybe you’re not such an Anti-Ry-Hard after all.” 

I grimaced. “Ugh. Never mind. Besides, I just realized I don’t even care about your introduction. Who’s next?” 

“No, it’s still my turn,” Christian said obstinately. 

“I thought you didn’t want to introduce yourself.” 

“I changed my mind.” 

And this was why I wanted to push him in front of a bus. Well, no, this was part of the reason. 

“This is going to be a long night,” an actress I didn’t recognize said with a sigh. 

I ignored her, instead choosing to stare at my nails. When I looked up, I saw that Christian was distracted talking to a cute actor I actually recognized. His name was Jake Bueller. 

“Sophia, how about you introduce yourself, since Christian is busy all of a sudden?” Nora suggested. 

I shrugged and nodded. “Alright. My name is Sophia Hastings. My character is Emma van der Bilt. I’m new to this, which is probably really obvious, but whatever.” A few of the cast members chuckled at this. “Like Nora, I’m easy to get along with, as long as your name isn’t Christian Ryder.” Everyone laughed openly at this, except for Christian, of course. 

“Tell us a fun fact about you,” Nora said, still laughing lightly. 

“Hmm… well, this is really random, but I can’t think of anything except for this, for some reason… I can make that annoying chipmunk voice, like the ones in that movie, ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’.” 

“Really?” Jake Bueller asked. “I have to hear this.” 

“It’s really annoying,” I repeated, and then added, “You’ve been warned!” 

He raised his hands up slightly and nodded with a smile.  

I shrugged and said in the annoying chipmunk voice, “Hey, Christian, why did the chicken cross the road?” 

Christian's lips twitched upwards at my voice. “I don’t know.” 

“To get away from you!” I cried in that same voice. 

He rolled his eyes. “Very mature.” 

“Why, thank you,” I replied cheekily, speaking in my normal voice. 

“Christian, would you please introduce yourself now that you’re no longer distracted?” 

He nodded shortly. “My name’s Christian Ryder. My character is William Knight. I’m actually not that easy to get along with, especially if your name is Sophia Hastings.” He smirked over at me. “I figured out your name, MG, by the way.” 

I made a face at him. “Oh, because it takes such intelligence to figure out something as simple as a name.” 

“It does when the person is a stubborn brat who can’t answer the simplest questions.” 

“It’s not that I can’t answer them,” I retorted in irritation. “It’s that I choose not to. We’ve been over this, dipshit.” 

He was about to reply when the actress I still couldn’t recognize spoke. “So, Chris, what’s your fun fact about yourself?”

“I hate it when girls play hard to get,” he replied after a moment of thought. 

I snorted. “Of course.” 

“What?” he snapped. 

“Nothing,” I replied innocently. 

“What?” he repeated. 

I rolled my eyes. “Nothing. I was just laughing because it’s such a… you thing to say.” 

“What does that mean?”

“It just means that I’ve been right all along,” I said, shrugging. “You’re just a spoiled brat who is used to having everything handed to him on a silver platter. Even girls, apparently.” 

“That’s not true,” Christian snapped, his hand twitching. 

“Isn’t it? See, here you go again, getting angry over the truth. You really need to learn to accept the truth.” 

“But it’s not the truth!” 

“You keep telling yourself that, Christian.” 

He growled in frustration. “See, Nora? This is what I was talking about! She’s impossible!” 

“I’m impossible?” I repeated shrilly. “You’re impossible!” 

“How am I impossible?” he demanded, standing up. 

“You’re arguing with me, aren’t you? You’re not better than I am, then!” I cried, standing up as well. 

“What am I supposed to do? Sit here and take it?” he asked in disbelief, shaking his head. 

“If you wanted to be the bigger person, then you would,” I replied. 

“Why don’t you be the bigger person, then?” 

“Because you frustrate me,” I snapped, slapping my hand down. 

“And you don’t frustrate me?” he asked, walking towards me. 

“I hope I do!” I exclaimed. “You deserve it!” 

He narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re an inconsiderate brat who doesn’t know the meaning of—” 

“You’re a narcissistic, uncooperative asshole who needs to just go f—” 

“Watch your mouth,” he interrupted before I could finish.

“Why don’t you make me?” I asked, poking a finger at his chest. 

“Don’t test me or I just might.” 

“What are you going to do? Cover my mouth with your hand so I can bite you again? It’ll be good practice for when we get to that scene.” 

He let out a loud breath, growling, “You’re the most frustrating, annoying, selfish little—” 

“Okay, why don’t we go outside and talk?” Nora jumped up, standing between us. 

“I don’t have anything to talk about with him,” I snapped just as he said, “I don’t want to talk to her.” 

“Let’s go,” Nora said with a sigh, dragging us outside. 

Well. Seems like the snobby actress was right. This was going to be a long night… 

***

Tee hee. I was going to add more but it's nearly midnight and I really should be doing my homework right now, so... sorry! It'll just have to wait for the next update.

Anyways.

Yeah.

I updated really soon this time!

Well, it's soon for me.

:D

I'm so proud of myself.

I hope you guys liked it! I love writing the Sophia and Christian parts. It's so much fun! I hope you guys like reading them as much as I like writing them.

So.. yeah.

VOTE.COMMENT.FAN.