Better Than Revenge 

Chapter 22

“Oh, dear God,” Nora muttered crossly. “Sophia, Christian. For the last time. Nothing you say will get you out of this! It’s necessary.” 

“No, it’s not!” Christian and I chorused, glancing at each other in surprise momentarily.

“I’m not going to change my mind, guys,” she insisted, shaking her head. 

“You should’ve just let me handle this,” Christian accused in annoyance, turning to face me. “I had it under control.” 

“If you call ‘having it under control’ groveling like a baby, then yes, you did,” I shot back, rolling my eyes. 

“I wasn’t groveling!”

“Then what would you call it? You were desperately pleading and nearly crying over it. You were groveling like a baby.” 

“I had it under control,” he repeated irritably. 

“No, you didn’t! You needed my help and you know it!” 

“I didn’t need your help,” he said through gritted teeth. “I was doing just fine on my own.”

 "Bullshit,” I replied immediately.

“Godammit, you are the most infuriating person I have ever met!” he exclaimed, running a hand through his dark hair in frustration.

 “I could say the same about you!” I retorted angrily.

 “Guys!” Nora cried, finally having had enough. “Stop arguing! This is precisely the reason these late night rehearsals were called! You two cannot be in the same room without finding some petty thing to argue over.”

I glared at Christian, finding myself very tempted to make a childish reply.

He, in return, just glared back.

“I refuse to do these scenes,” I proclaimed suddenly.

I knew I had no right to make such a proclamation, but I was desperate. I was running out of options. I didn’t want to do these scenes with Christian! The last thing I wanted was his tongue in my mouth… I shuddered at the thought, and not in a good way.

My proclamation seemed to give Christian an idea because all of a sudden, he was refusing, as well. “I refuse, too, then.”

Nora sighed in frustration. “You don’t have a choice. We are going over these scenes if it’s the last thing we do!”

“I don’t want to,” I groaned, looking at Christian in disgust.

“You think I want to?” he demanded angrily.

“Sophia, Christian, please…” Nora reasoned, but we weren’t listening.

“Nora, I do not want to practice having Christian’s tongue in my mouth! It’s not happening!”

This ended up making Nora say some very unpleasant things to the both of us. After this, we finally succumbed. I, for one, knew it was a lost battle the minute I started fighting it, but I still felt the need to try.

This late night rehearsal was, as expected, a total disaster. In one of these scenes we did, we had to stand really close, but we didn’t even want to do that. We had already attempted this scene once before, but it didn’t work out so well so it was postponed until later.

Until now, more specifically. 

 “Sophia, just take two more steps towards him,” Nora said to me. “Only two more and you’re good.”

 “Ugh,” I cried, wrinkling my nose in disgust. “I don’t want to. Have you been near this guy? What does he do, bathe in his cologne? I’m dying over here, Nora! I’m going to suffocate.”

 “I wish you would,” Christian muttered crossly.

 I glared at him. “Can it, Ryder.”

 “Sophia, Christian, please. Just step closer!”

 I took a baby step closer, as did he. “There,” we called out simultaneously.

 She shot us a dirty look and stepped off of her director’s chair. She stalked over to us and literally squished us together.

 “Ugh,” I muttered, feeling Christian’s body heat all over my body.

As I had expected, he was wearing too much cologne. I didn’t know if he wore too much or if I just had a really sensitive nose, but I didn’t care. The point was that it was uncomfortable for me.

 “Now start over, and when the time comes to be that close, you stay that close! Got it?”

We grumbled our replies and restarted the scene.

“Is it true?” Christian asked as William Knight, quickly morphing into character. “Is what Taylor said true?”

For a moment, I was no longer Sophia Hastings. I was Emma van der Bilt. Let me tell you, though, it is really hard to stay in character when your eyes are stinging because someone doesn’t know when enough cologne is enough…

I bit my lip and hesitated before speaking. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He took a step closer to me, a bit reluctantly, I might add. “Yes, you do.”

My eyes widened. “But I don’t. I—”

He closed the distance between us, pressing up against me. “Don’t start, Emma.”

Feeling his hard body on mine was beyond awkward. I knew most girls would’ve killed to be in my shoes, but I just couldn’t get into it.

At least, that was what I liked to tell myself.

Admitting to anyone—even myself—that I was remotely attracted to Christian Ryder was something that was never going to happen. Not even if it was a mild physical attraction that one couldn’t help. It just wasn’t happening.

I couldn’t help myself. I backed away and started coughing dramatically. “Ohmygod, you could probably get poisoned from standing so close to him!” I choked out.

Christian rolled his eyes. “You are such a drama queen.”

“Sophia, please,” Nora snapped, shaking her head. “Now go back and finish the scene!”

Muttering angry protests under my breath, I reluctantly complied. I took a few steps closer to Christian until we were pressed up against each other again.

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” I breathed, resuming the scene. I looked up at Christian with wide eyes.

“Stop lying,” he demanded in frustration. “Tell me the truth. Is it true? Were you only pretending to be with me to escape your imprisonment?”

“I—”

“Answer me!”

I pushed him away dramatically and shook my head. “Let go of me! Just… just leave me alone!”

“Emma!” he called out, but I had already run off.

“Now, see?” Nora asked as she walked up to us, placing her hands on her hips. “Was that so hard?”

“It was,” I muttered crossly.

It went better than the first two scenes we did, though. It took less time. I was having a difficult time acting like I was in love with him because, well, I wasn’t. Nora had to stop us many, many times. The rotten chemistry between Christian and me was great for the majority of the movie, but for these scenes at the end of the movie, our chemistry was proving to be an awful thing. I was sure Nora had hoped that by this point, Christian and I would be getting along a little better, but she must have known deep down that that was just wishful thinking.

“So, are we done yet?” I asked, placing my hands on my hips. “Because as fun as this has been, I want to go home and sleep.”

“Are you kidding?” she asked, seeming more amused than anything else. “We’ve been at this for only an hour. And we haven’t even practiced the big scene yet.”

I pretended to not know what she was going on about, for my own sake, believe me. “What big scene?”

“The big kiss scene at the very end of the movie,” Nora cleared up. She looked even more amused when she saw the horrified look that crossed my face. “You must have remembered this scene, Sophia. You have a script, after all.”

I remembered it, all right. I just tried to force myself to forget it. “No?” I managed to say.

Nora smiled and said, “The passionate kiss scene at the end of the movie is what ties the entire movie together, Sophia. It has to be perfect. It has to be absolutely perfect.”

“No way,” I exclaimed immediately, shaking my head emphatically. “No way!”

“You two are nowhere near ready for that scene, which is why you have to rehearse it in private with me first.”

“Nora, we’re professionals,” Christian replied calmly. “We’ll do the kiss scene perfectly when the day comes.”

“Now, we all know that isn’t true,” Nora said, rolling her eyes. “You might stroll in here that day thinking you’ll do it perfectly, but when the time comes, you’ll realize you’re not even close to ready!”

Christian rolled his eyes. “Nora, it’s just a kiss. It’s not a big deal. She’ll be like, the thousandth girl I’ve kissed.”

I looked at him in disgust. “Ugh. That makes me feel so much better. What if he has herpes?”

“I’m not the one who was accused of that, remember?” he pointed out smugly.

I shot him a glare. “Go tell it to someone who cares, like your gay lover.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “You little—”

“Do you see what I’m talking about?” she asked us, raising an eyebrow. “You guys have to practice this scene. Most importantly, you have to practice the kiss.”

I made a face at the thought, shuddering. Christian looked pensive for a moment and then grimaced.

“Okay, let’s start,” Nora said, clapping her hands together.

Christian and I nodded decisively, slipping back into character.

The big kiss scene was at the very end of the movie. After Emma runs off, William is left considering where she could have gone. He remembers the little park she told him about and literally runs there. He finds her there and that was where we were starting.

“William,” I breathed, turning around and facing Christian.

 “I hoped you would be here,” he said, walking closer to me.

 I took a step back, glancing at him cautiously.

 “Emma, please,” he pleaded, inching closer and closer. “I just… I need an answer. I need to know.”

 My stiff body relaxed slightly. “Need to know what?”

 “I need to know if it was really all just a lie. Was it just a plan you formed to get yourself out of a sticky situation?”

 I bit my lip nervously and sighed. “I…” I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath before opening my eyes once again. “It was a lie, in a way… at least, it was at first.”

He looked absolutely heartbroken and it was hard to remind myself that we were just acting. It almost made me believe that Christian was capable of emotions.

“At first, it was just a plan to escape… but then something changed… I don’t know how. Somehow, along the way… I stopped pretending.”

His face lifted all of a sudden. “What are you trying to say?”

This is so wrong; I couldn’t help but think as the words began to form on my lips. They weren’t my words, but I was still the one saying them. “I’m saying that I love you, Will.”

“You what?” he breathed, his eyes wide.

“I love you,” I repeated, feeling the sudden urge to stab something.

Eww, eww, eww, eww, eww, eww, eww.

He smiled at me but as he leaned down and our faces started to get closer, we both chickened out.

“Oh, God, I can’t do this!” I cried, shaking my head. “I can’t!”

“What happened to being professionals?” Nora asked with a sigh.

“It’s a bit harder than I thought,” I admitted, my nose wrinkled in disgust.

Nora sighed again. “Come on, let’s try it again.”

I nodded decisively. We got back into place and I repeated my line. “I love you.”

Christian smiled at me and this time, when he leaned down and our faces inched closer, we didn’t chicken out. That was the good part. The bad part was that we also didn’t succeed. The only thing we got out of it was a peck on the lips. 

Nora was clearly annoyed with us when she yelled at us to stop. “The kiss isn’t going to be a clothed kiss, so—”

“Wait, what?!” I shrieked immediately.

“Closed mouth kiss, sorry!” Nora quickly corrected herself . “I meant to say closed mouth kiss!”

I let out a loud sigh of relief. She scared me for a minute there.

“You two are lucky I took out the sex scene,” Nora muttered.

“Sex scene?” I repeated incredulously.

Nora nodded once. “There was originally a sex scene, but we took it out at the last minute. It was a good thing we did, because we were all wrong, it seems.”

“Wrong about what?” I asked slowly.

She looked uncomfortable all of a sudden. “Well, we assumed that by this point, you would be in love with Christian, but that didn’t happen, clearly.”

My eye twitched without my consent. “Me. In love with Christian? What, did you guys bet on it?”

“We were just hoping you might be by this point, to make these scenes easier,” Nora quickly said.

I gave her an annoyed look. “Well, sorry to disappoint.”

Nora shot me a small smile. “Let’s just try this again, okay?”

“Fine,” I grumbled crossly, stepping back into place. I pretended to be up to making this work and being a professional about it, but I wasn't. Quite honestly, I was aghast at the very idea of having Christian’s tongue in my mouth. This was going to be horrible. No, it was going to be worse than horrible!

I tried to stay in character, but it was hard. Oh, was it hard. It was hard to focus on anything besides what was about to happen.

“I love you,” I repeated.

Christian smiled and leaned down. I had to stand on my tip-toes and our faces inched closer together, slowly but surely, until finally, our lips met.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.

Ohmygosh, there must have been fireworks! How exciting! Eep!

No. Just… Just no. That was not at all what happened. First off, fireworks when kissing were a myth, and second of all, the kiss was with Christian. There would be no fireworks even if they existed.

Instead of fireworks exploding and the kiss getting hot and heavy, things took a turn for the worse.

“Ohmygod, quit slobbering on me!” I cried, pulling away.

Christian glared at me. “I wasn’t slobbering!”

“Are you kidding? It felt like I was kissing a dog! Actually, I bet my parents’ dog kisses better!”

“None of the girls I’ve been with have ever complained about my kissing,” he replied in annoyance.

 “Well, there’s a first time for everything, isn’t there, Hot Shot?”

 He glared at me.

 “Let’s try this again…” Nora sighed. 

 The second attempt was no better. Neither were the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth or eleventh tries. 

 A few of them, I just pulled away from and gagged.

 Others I had comments for.

 “What the hell are you trying to do, swallow my tongue?”

 “Oh, God, this is like making out with a toilet…”

 “What did you eat before this? Garlic? Nora, please get him a tic-tac or an altoid!”

 Overall…. A total disaster.

 It finally got to be too late to continue. “I thought this would go over a little more smoothly,” Nora said in frustration. “If you guys don’t get your acts together, the sex scene will be going back into the movie.”

 My mouth fell open. “What? No! Ohmygod, no! I promise, we’ll do this scene so well, a sex scene will not be necessary!”

 As I was protesting, Christian just stood there silently.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?” I demanded angrily.

He shrugged nonchalantly, smirking. “Sex is one of the things I do best. And hey, who knows? Might change your mind about me.”

I looked at him incredulously, my mouth wide open.

“Mmm, no, sorry, an open mouth won’t be necessary for this scene,” he replied with a wink.

I gave him the dirtiest look I could manage before instinctively socking him in the face.

“Shit,” he cursed, rubbing the spot where I hit. “Watch it! Not the face!”

“You stupid, motherf—”

Nora and Anne, who had come out of her office, both had to hold me back at this point.

 Christian just laughed in amusement, walking away.

 He thought this was funny? Oh, I would show him funny. I twisted out of the grip of Nora and Anne and jumped on Christian’s back, pulling on his hair and strangling him.

Okay, so this wasn’t the most effective form of fighting, but considering the fact that he easily weighed more than me by at least fifty pounds and was nearly a foot taller than me, my options were limited.

“Get her off of me!” Christian cried in a choked voice. Clearly my efforts to strangle him slightly were working.

Nora and Anne managed to get me off of him by working together.

“I hate you, Christian Ryder,” I snapped angrily, slapping him in the face once more before stalking off.

And once again, he had a look on his face that I couldn’t quite decipher. But then again, I was terrible at reading people.

***

The next day, Tori went on set with me. I knew this was mostly to control me. I had told her about the late night rehearsal over breakfast that day and had told her what had happened at the end of last night’s rehearsal... She knew I was still on edge and would snap very easily.

I had calmed down, though, so I didn’t think her presence was that necessary.

We ran into Savannah on the way to my trailer. “Watch where you’re going,” she snapped icily. “God.”

“Takes two to tango, Savannah,” I retorted, rolling my eyes. “Move.” I pushed past her in annoyance.

“Geez,” Tori said, shaking her head. “What’s her problem?”

 I shrugged. “No clue. Must be that time of the month for her.”

The day actually went pretty smoothly after this, surprisingly, although that might’ve been because of Tori’s presence. I didn’t like admitting it, but she definitely helped my self-control issues.

Well, kind of.

There were some things she just couldn’t help, such as the petty arguments Christian and I got into on a daily basis.

Tori and I were sitting with Christian, Blake, Savannah and Jake when Christian and I got into another stupid argument. Savannah was busy talking to Jake, and Blake and Tori were just listening to Christian and I argue.

“She’s not going to make us do the scene, so calm your ovaries,” Christian said, rolling his eyes.

I shot him a look. “How do you know? She sounded pretty serious to me!”

“She won’t,” he insisted stubbornly. “And even if she does, it’ll be your fault, anyway.”

“What? How will it be my fault?”

“You were the one who messed up the scene every single time,” he pointed out.

He kind of had a point there… not that I would ever admit to that, of course. “Because you made me mess it up.”

“How?” he demanded.

“You know how! Don’t play stupid! Although now that I think about, you probably aren’t playing, aren’t you?”

Christian snorted. “That was a fail.”

“So was your dad’s condom.”

Even Tori couldn’t help but laugh at my comeback. Blake was howling with laughter.

“God, man, she just burned you!”

I was starting to take a liking to Blake. He always appreciated my insulting comments, even though they were directed towards his best friend.

"Very funny," Christian snapped, rolling his eyes.

Tori was glancing between Christian and I the entire time with a weird look on her face. I was going to ask her about it, but figured it would be best to wait until we were in private in case it was something important. It was still really awkward, though, but I tried my best to ignore it.

When we were back at our apartment that night, Tori finally got around to talking about whatever was clearly on her mind all day. “Soph, I have a question for you,” she began slowly.

“Shoot,” I said, skimming through the text messages I had received that day.

“Do you… like Christian? Or… do you think he likes you?”

Well, that certainly wasn’t one of my guesses as to what was on her mind…

***

I'm so sorry it took me so long to upload! My excuse at first was finals, but I should've uploaded immediately after finals. :/ So sorry! 

Anyways, this one's pretty long, and it was very fun to write, so I hope it makes up for it. :)