My Christmas present to all of my amazing fans. :') You'll see why this chapter is so special hehe. 

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Better Than Revenge 

Chapter 23

I honestly didn’t think she was being serious at first. I laughed at her when she first asked the questions, but after ten seconds of giggling, Tori’s serene facial expression hadn’t changed. 

I stopped laughing abruptly and said, “Ohmygod, you were being serious?” 

Tori looked slightly annoyed as she nodded in reply. 

I shook my head immediately. “Of course not. How could you think I like him? Have you completely forgotten everything I’ve ever said about him for the past two years?” 

“Well, no, but…” 

“But what?” 

“I don’t know,” Tori said, shrugging. “It’s just kind of hard to believe that you still hate him.” 

“Why?” I demanded in annoyance. 

“Have you seen him?” she squeaked with wide eyes. “Soph, when I first saw him in person, I almost died. They don’t come any hotter than that. He is absolutely gorgeous! Who in their right mind wouldn’t fall, seeing him every single day?” 

“Um, that would be me,” I pointed out slowly. 

“But how?” she exclaimed, shaking her head. “I don’t get it!” 

“Because I can see past his exterior,” I answered simply. “I don’t see him as the sex god that all of you people clearly see him as. I see him as a human with faults. And trust me… there are plenty of faults.” 

“I see him as a human,” Tori quickly said, but her protests fell short. “Okay, so maybe I don’t. But come on. It’s not my fault! It’s hard to focus on his humanness when he looks like that…” 

I shrugged. “It’s not hard for me. And that’s why I haven’t fallen for him, as everyone expected me to, annoyingly enough… It’s because I don’t see him as someone who’s perfect because I know he isn’t.” 

There was short silence before Tori broke it. “Soph, what did he do to you?” she whispered with wide eyes. “I know you don’t want to talk about it, but… it had to have been awful.” 

“It was,” I replied bitterly. “And I promise I’ll tell you… but not today.” 

Tori bit her lip before nodding, “Alright. I can live with that. But going back to my question… do you think he likes you?”

I snickered, covering my mouth with my hand to stop the crazy laughter that threatened to come out. “Of course not. I don’t know why people keep thinking this. Just because we’re costars doesn’t mean we have to fall in love! Geez.” 

Tori shrugged. “A lot of costars do. It’s cute.”

“Well, it’s not happening with us,” I muttered, mostly to myself. “Besides, Christian has access to freaking Victoria’s Secret models. No, he has access to the majority of the world’s female population. He wouldn’t be interested in me, anyway.”

Her eyes widened. “So you want him to be interested?” 

I nearly slammed my head against a wall. “Ohmygod, Tori, have you been listening to nothing I’ve said? I said I’m also not interested in him!”

“Oh, right.” 

I rolled my eyes. “I’m going to bed. Goodnight, Tor.” 

“Goodnight,” Tori said distractedly. 

“Don’t stay up partying too late,” I joked, walking to my room.

“I won’t!” she called out. “I’m just going to make a quick phone call…”

She sounded a bit weird, but I figured she had some boy toy she wanted to call, and I by no means wanted to listen in on some steamy conversation… 

Shrugging it off, I went to sleep. 

*** 

If I had known what was about to happen, I wouldn’t have gotten up the next morning. I honestly wouldn’t have. I would have faked an illness and slept in. Tori wouldn’t have even been around to hassle me, either, because she disappeared early in the morning. She probably had a yoga class or something. 

Now, by this point in my career, I was used to having surprise visitors. I was used to them being less than pleasant occasionally, as well. 

What I wasn’t used to was having my ex show up on set all of a sudden. He wasn’t just any ex, unfortunately; he was my most important ex. We were together for a year. No, this wasn’t the stem of my “commitment issues.” Our relationship was never very serious. When he tried to make it serious, I kind of cut it off. 

“Adam, what are you doing here?” I asked slowly, walking up to him. He was waiting for me by my trailer. I wasn’t sure why they just let him in without verification first, anyway… what kind of security was this? Really. 

“I needed to see you,” Adam said, closing the distance between us. 

I gave him an odd look and took a huge step back. “Okay… why?” 

“I want you back,” he blurted out. He took my hand in his and looked me in the eyes. Looking into his deep, chocolate brown eyes brought back memories, but it wasn’t even enough to make me have any bittersweet feelings. “I wish we never broke up, Sophia.” 

I slowly disentangled my hand from his. “Adam, look. I don’t know if my fame is what spurred on this sudden declaration, but let me make it clear right now that I’m not interested. I’m sorry, but I just don’t feel anything for you anymore. I’ve moved on.” 

“What? Of course it wasn’t that!” he exclaimed quickly, shaking his head wildly. 

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Really now? Because ever since I landed the lead role in this movie, I’ve had a lot of old friends wanting to catch up.” 

“I—” 

“Adam, what we had was nice,” I interrupted, nodding slowly. “But that’s in the past. My feelings for you are gone.” 

“It’s because of him, isn’t it?” Adam asked angrily. He pointed behind me. I was kind of surprised to see Christian standing there awkwardly. “He’s the reason your feelings for me disappeared.” 

I chuckled lightly. “You couldn’t be more wrong. My feelings were gone long before Christian ever came into the picture.” 

Adam’s eyes widened, as did Christian’s, and I quickly realized my mistake. 

I managed to coolly play it off, however, even though I was internally panicking at how bad that sounded. “Besides, Christian being in my life doesn’t even make a difference. It never did. I’m just not interested. Sorry, Adam.” 

I shot him an apologetic look before walking away. 

I should have known that he wasn’t done with me, though. Wishful thinking, I supposed. I managed to ignore him when it came time to do some acting, though. We only did a few scenes that day since we wanted to get in and out quickly. Luckily for me, they weren’t the love scenes. That was the last thing I needed. 

“Take one!” 

“What are you doing?” Christian as William asked, walking into the room.

I turned around quickly and shot him an innocent look. “Hmm?” I stepped in front of the closet, obstructing the view. 

“Mmm, cut!” Nora called out. She walked over to me and said, “Sophia, give him an innocent smile along with the look, okay?”

I nodded in reply and Nora smiled, walking back to her chair. 

“Take two!”

Redoing that line, I turned around quickly and shot him an innocent looking smile. “Hmm?” 

“The suitcase,” he said, shooting me a suspicious look. “What are you doing with it?” 

“I’m trying to find that pair of jeans I lost,” I stated in annoyance, placing my hands on my hips. “Have you seen them?” 

“Why would you be looking there?” He narrowed his eyes at me, nodding towards the suitcase in the closet. 

I sighed impatiently. “Because you stick things in the weirdest places, stupid. Do you know I found one of my bras in your drawers?” 

He smirked. “That wasn’t an accident.” 

My mouth dropped open and I smacked him in the chest as I stormed by. “Pervert.” 

He just laughed in response. 

“Good, good!” Nora called out, pleased that we had gotten through a scene smoothly. Honestly, though, these scenes were now pretty easy. It was basically how Christian and I acted around each other: The fighting, the rude remarks. They were so much like our normal behavior that they let us get our frustration with each other out of our systems without having to waste time. 

After shooting a few more scenes with my character and Savannah’s character, we were finished for the day. We didn’t have much more to do. The movie would be finished in about two weeks, two and a half at the most. That was counting on the fact that Nora wouldn’t add the sex scene, because let’s face it. If she added it, all hell was going to break loose. 

“Hey,” Christian said, running to catch up to me as I made my way to my car. We were the last ones at the set. Everyone else had already left. I had stayed in my trailer for as long as I possibly could, hoping to avoid Adam. I guess I had stayed in there too long… then again, I guess I hadn’t stayed in there long enough, considering Christian was still here.

“What?” I snapped, not bothering to slow my pace. He could keep up. I wasn’t in the mood to talk to him, anyway. He and Adam were getting on my nerves. Adam wouldn’t stop bugging me and Christian was acting even more annoying than usual. 

“Sophia, talk to me,” Adam said, also running after me. 

I let out a loud breath of irritation. “What, Adam? I already did. My mind isn’t going to change all of a sudden.”

Adam caught up to me and I now had both of my pains walking beside me. 

“Just please, Sophia, consider it.” 

“I’m not going to,” I replied honestly. “I already told you how I feel.”

“But come on—” 

“Dude, she already told you that she’s not interested,” Christian snapped all of a sudden. “Leave her alone.” 

I looked at Christian as if he had two heads before reinforcing his statement. “Yeah… what he said…”

Christian ignored the weird look I was giving him. 

“Who are you to interfere, anyway?” Adam demanded angrily.

“Who are you to demand anything from her?” Christian shot back. 

“I’m her first love,” he Adam. “We dated for a year.”  He grabbed me by the arm all of a sudden and pulled me against him. He pushed up against me awkwardly, mashing our lips together brusquely. I tried to wriggle away, screeching my complaints intelligibly, but he had my arms in a death grip. 

“Mmt o ef e,” I mumbled incoherently against his mouth. That was my attempt at demanding he let go of me. 

Adam held on tighter if anything, though, annoying me greatly. He was slobbering all over my mouth and it was disgusting. It was even worse than kissing Christian, actually. I had used a bit of dramatization during that rehearsal with Christian, anyway. 

“She said to let go,” Christian snapped, pulling Adam away with ease. It was like he was lifting a rag doll… 

Geez. I was using all of my strength and nothing… wow, did I feel like a weakling at that moment. 

Adam cursed at Christian. “Whatever, Sophia,” he snapped, turning to face me angrily. “Your loss anyway!” He stalked away, muttering under his breath. 

I wiped the back of my mouth in disgust as I watched him leave. “Ugh. That was… just ugh.”

Christian still looked pissed off, for some reason. His brow was creased and his fists were clenched. He looked ready to kill someone, actually. 

At first, I was wondering why. What was his problem? He was starting to scare me… 

Then, it suddenly dawned on me. And when it did, I flipped. I managed to keep most of my freaking out internal, however. 

“What was that all about? Are you… are you jealous?” I asked incredulously. 

“What?” Christian cried in astonishment. “No!”

“Then what the hell was that all about?” I demanded, shaking my head slowly. “That is not normal! That is not how we act around each other! What the hell?”

“I—” 

“Are you jealous? Er, were you jealous?” 

I honestly didn’t even know what to think. This was so weird… why would he be jealous? What the hell? Something wasn’t right here. This just wasn’t right. This wasn’t happening. It just couldn’t be happening… 

“Well… maybe…” Christian rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. 

Self consciously? I asked myself. Since when is Christian Ryder self conscious? Am I stuck in some other dimension or something? 

“But…” I closed my eyes and shook my head quickly. This isn’t happening, this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening… “Why?” I asked, opening my eyes once again. 

“Because somehow, my annoyance with you turned into something else,” he blurted out.