A/N: If you're not a Ry-Hard already... well... this might change your mind. ;) 

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Better Than Revenge 

Chapter 28 

I was never going to live this down… ever, ever, ever! Why did I kiss back? Why? I could understand why I kissed back the first time. I kind of had to. It was my job, after all. But the second time? Why did I kiss back the second time? 

I must have been on something. That was the only explanation. Maybe Tori put something in my water bottle when I wasn’t looking. 

Yes, that must have been it. 

Because really. When would I, Sophia Hastings, the biggest Anti-Ry-Hard on this planet, kiss Christian Ryder back willingly? It just didn’t make sense. 

I was so disoriented that day, as well. I could barely remember half of the things that happened. That must have been part of the explanation as to why I kissed him back. 

I really shouldn’t have done it, though. Christian now seemed to think this meant something, which it didn’t, of course. 

As soon as it dawned on me what I was doing (which was, regrettably about twenty seconds after he had kissed me) I pulled away. When it fully sank in, I freaked out. The star-struck, lustful look on Christian’s face after the kiss didn’t help, either. 

After what had just happened, my makeup smudging from the rain was the least of my problems.

I disentangled myself from him and took a few big steps back. I just stood there awkwardly, moving a strand of wet hair from my face before completely snapping out of whatever spell I was in for a full five minutes, it seemed. 

I swiftly walked away from him, ignoring his calls of protest. I was stopped by Nora, who grabbed onto my arm. “Oh, Sophia! I am so proud of you guys! I knew I could count on you! That was beautiful!”

I smiled weakly at her, barely listening as she went on and on about how magnificent we were.

 “Soph!” Christian called out from behind me. 

“I’ll just leave you two alone,” Nora said with a wink. 

I grimaced. Oh, God. This was starting already? This was horrible! 

She walked away with a wide grin on her face. I didn’t know if the grin was the result of the first kiss or the second and frankly, I didn’t want to know. 

“Hey, Tor, come with me to the bathroom,” I said quickly, still choosing to ignore Christian’s insistence on calling my name. 

Tori’s eyes were wide and she looked like she was about to burst with excitement. I didn’t know how she was controlling herself, honestly, because I knew she had witnessed the second kiss, and I knew she had plenty to say about it. “Let’s go, then!” 

The only reason she wasn’t protesting about being dragged to the bathroom so suddenly, especially when she was so close to Christian, was because she was certainly going to pounce on me the second we were out of eyesight and earshot. 

“Soph, wait!” Christian appeared beside me, placing his hand on my shoulder. 

My shoulder twitched, but I didn’t move his hand. “Christian, I have to go the restroom. We can talk later.” 

“Promise?” He looked at me hopefully. 

Why did I tell him that last part? I should’ve just left it as it was. Now he was expecting a conversation, and I knew what the conversation would be about. I didn’t want to go there.

I just grunted my response, latching my arm onto Tori’s and speed-walking away from him. 

Tori managed to restrain herself for another ten seconds until finally she couldn’t take it any more. “Ohmygod, Soph! Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod! You kissed him! Twice! I knew you were going to kiss him the first time, but the second time is just ohmygod! You kissed him back! Eep!”

“Uh huh,” I muttered, walking even faster. If I could get to the bathroom, I could lock myself in a stall and never come out. 

Sounded like a plan to me. 

“When he leaned down again, I freaked out! And then when he kissed you, I thought you were going to push him away! But you didn’t! You kissed him back! And it was hot! You liked it, Soph! Don’t even deny it! You liked it! Well, of course you liked it. It’s Christian Ryder, for God’s sake. He probably kisses like a god! Ohmygod, you’re so lucky! How was it? Tell me everything!”

“I was in momentary shock. I don’t know why I kissed him back,” I finally answered. “And it wasn’t hot. He kisses like a dog!” 

This was a total lie. He didn’t kiss like a dog. He was actually a very good kisser, unfortunately. That didn’t mean I liked the kiss, of course, but I couldn’t deny that he was a good kisser. 

“Soph!” Tori exclaimed, aghast at my refusal to admit the kiss was hot. “Take that back! I bet you ten dollars he doesn’t kiss like a dog!”

“I bet you’d love to go over there and find out, eh?” 

“I would,” she admitted with a grin. “Why? Are you jealous? Do you not want me to go over there and find out?” 

I rolled my eyes. She was so annoying at times. “I’m not jealous. Why would I be jealous? You can go ahead and go over there if you want, although I’m not sure what security will think of that.”

“You’re jealous because you don’t want anyone else kissing him,” she said, her eyes widening as this entire fantasy played out in her head. Because really, that was what it was. It was a fantasy that Tori was clearly living through me. That was the only reason she was so excited about all of this. “Now that you’ve kissed him, you’re territorial! And with good reason! That’s your man! He’s yours and only yours! I have no right to go over there and kiss him!” 

I gave her a look. She had officially lost it. What was wrong with her? “Tori, are you listening to yourself? What is wrong with you?” 

She completely ignored me, still lost in her crazy world. “Of course, I doubt he would kiss me back anyway. He’s crazy about you… he kissed you like there was no tomorrow… Actually, I don’t blame him, because I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be kissing you tomorrow, anyway, so that does make sense…” 

“Tori!”

“And you need to claim him as your own before some other hoe does,” she continued, actually talking to me now. “Cassandra, Chloe, Savannah… all of those grimy hoes would love to get their hands on him! But he’s yours! He’s pretty patient and I think he’ll wait for you for a long time if he has to, but I don’t know if he’ll wait forever, and if he gives up, you’ll lose him to one of those bitches! You can’t lose him to one of those!” 

“Dear God, Tori, he’s not mine!” I exclaimed, shaking my head in disbelief. “I haven’t claimed him and I’m not going to claim him!”

“Soph, you’re crazy,” Tori said, and the seriousness with which she said this almost made me laugh. After all of this, I was the crazy one here. Of course. “I really don’t get you. I know you hate Christian and I know you don’t want to tell me what he did. I know it was super bad, though, considering he went to freaking Mars and back to get you to forgive him! But you already forgave him. And he’s obviously crazy about you. And obviously there’s a little something more there than you want to admit, and don’t even say there isn’t, Soph! You kissed him back both times! I saw! With my own two eyes!”

She just ruined the seriousness was all I could think at that moment. 

“He’s like, the perfect guy. I don’t mean that, like, literally. You know what I mean. He’s perfect for you. He’s gorgeous. He’s sweet. He’s funny. He’s smart. He’s strong, and he’d always be strong for you. He’s focused and knows what he wants! He wanted to be an actor and he went for it, right? He wanted you, and he’s going for you, isn’t he?” 

I didn’t say anything because I knew she had a point. 

“He’s a family guy. And yeah, fine, the only reason I know this is because I stalked his info on Wikipedia… He would defend you if you needed to be defended. Soph, he would do anything for you. I know you probably don’t believe any of this ’cause he treated most of his girlfriends like trash, but you know why that was? That was because they were trash! Have you seen Cassandra, Chloe, all of those hoes? They’re just trash. But you’re not! You’re a real girl and you’re amazing and he obviously sees that!” 

Honestly, all this was doing at the moment was boosting my ego. Not going to lie. 

“He would treat you different,” she continued. “He already does, probably… I don’t think he sent any of those girls gifts constantly, sent them sweet texts—” 

“How do you know about the texts?” I interrupted her. I didn’t tell her about the texts, now that I remembered. I forgot to mention those. 

“What?” she asked, giving me an innocent look, “I don’t know what you’re talking about? Anyhoo. He wouldn’t go on Oprah or Janet Wilde for them, he wouldn’t write messages in the sky for them. But he did it for you! Because he’s crazy about you.” 

I didn’t even know what to say to that. I didn’t know whether to believe her or not. After all, wasn’t this merely Tori’s opinion? I had no guarantee that everything she was saying was correct. 

“I need to pee,” I declared suddenly, finally going into the stall and locking it. 

“That’s all you’re going to say to that?” she demanded incredulously. “Soph, that’s not even cool! I just gave you a speech! A speech! I demand a better answer!”

I sighed in annoyance. “Fine! I don’t know what to say, okay? I don’t know if I can believe all of that! It could just be your opinion!” 

“It’s not!” she cried. “You’ll see!” 

With that, she stomped off suddenly. 

I shook my head slowly. “Good grief,” I muttered to myself. 

I was actually quite content staying here for as long as was necessary. I had my phone and my iPod to entertain myself, and I was smart enough to lock myself in the handicapped stall. There was a chair and a bench in here. That was good; it meant I didn’t have to awkwardly sit on a toilet for two hours until everyone left. 

 I knew we were done shooting for today, anyway, because no work was going to get done, especially not after the big kiss scene. It was a good way to end the day, anyway. 

After half an hour, people started looking. Since I was sitting down Indian style on the bench, no one saw me when they walked into the bathroom. Tori insisted I was in here, of course, but since no one could see me, they figured I’d bolted. 

Tori yelled my name several times but I chose to just ignore her. 

I didn’t know how long I was going to stay in there, honestly. Most likely until everyone else left.

After a while, people finally stopped coming in here and I assumed they had stopped looking for me. I was getting close to leaving when my phone vibrated. I honestly wondered why no one had thought to text me or call me. I had no missed calls or anything, only the call that was coming in just now. 

I saw that it was Christian and sighed. What was it now? 

I was about to answer, but I stopped when I remembered the talk he obviously had planned. I let it ring and was relieved when it stopped and didn’t start again.

After a few minutes, it vibrated again, but only once. I checked my phone and saw that I had a new voicemail. It was obviously from Christian. This time, curiosity got the best of me and I listened to it.

“I know I’m not perfect, Soph. I know my looks don’t mean everything to you. I don’t think they mean anything to you, really… I don’t know how because I think I’m hot, but whatever. I guess you’re immune… if that even makes any sense. Okay, anyway! I know I’m retarded sometimes. I know my jokes and comebacks are usually lame. I know I can be an asshole. But I’m absolutely crazy about you, Soph. I’d do anything for you. I think I’d even take a bullet for you, even though it would probably hurt like a motherfucker.” 

I had to admit, that last part did make me laugh. 

“That kiss meant everything to me, to be honest. I don’t know what it meant to you, but I’m hoping it was something good at least. I’ve kissed girls before, sure. But it was never like this… ever. I’m serious. It was like… okay, I don’t have anything cool to describe it with, and everything that’s popping into my head is beyond lame and you’d probably think I was a nutcase if I said any of them. But anyway… If you’ll take me and accept me, I’ll try my best to be the perfect guy for you, even though I’m really not. I’ll… I’ll get a new haircut! And Google some comebacks and jokes that are actually funny. I’ll wear a rubber band on my wrist and snap it every time I say something mean. No, I’ll snap it every time I say something mean that’s not even funny.”

I snickered. He’d be snapping it a lot. 

“I’ll be strong for you, always. I’ll never leave you alone. I’ll defend you, even if it ruins my reputation or makes me look like a retard. Both of which you’ve already done anyway. I’ll treat you right. You’re not like the other girls. You’re the kind of girl I’d bring home to my mom. I’ve never brought a girl home to my mom, by the way. She’s kind of scary. She kind of reminds me of your best friend, Tori…” 

I laughed so hard at this part. He thought Tori was scary? That was too good. I had a feeling he had spoken with Tori recently. Very, very recently. A lot of the things he was saying were things that Tori had said to me but I had refused to believe.

“Basically… I’ll make saying yes worth your while, Soph. I… I… Iloveyou. Okaybye!” 

 ***

I think I just died writing this.

Seriously.

I want to keep hating Christian...

But I can't.

I JUST CAN'T.

I have made him too adorable to hate.

I can't do it anymore!

That last part melted my heart.

Knowing most of you, I think you guys are thinking along the same lines as me. xD

So what do you think of Christian's epic voicemail? 

Tell me what you think! :)