"You hate this," he said to her one night as they laid out on his porch, watching the stars and trying to pick out the constellations they've learned. It isn't a question and the right words to respond with fumble over themselves and stumble as they try to find the way out of her mouth. Soon those words are forgotten and she really doesn't know what else to say beside the truth (but she can't tell him the truth. she'll never tell him the truth) so she closes her mouth as tight as it will go and shakes her head without making a single sound. "Liar," he hissed through clenched teeth as his eyes gazed penetratingly into hers. "You hate this, Sonny. You hate this," he said defiantly, almost like he was commanding her to hate it. Her throat was clogged and she couldn't find enough breath within her to shake he head and tell him, no, she didn't hate this. "Why don't you tell me already, Sonny? I know that you hate this. You've always hated being someone who takes for their own benefit. Why don't you just get out of this relationship already and say it?" He slams the words into her with such force that she thinks (no, she knows) that the breath she is barely breathing is about to stop. He stands up and gestures around him, gestures to the wide open beach with the shoreline and the sand and the water. "Just get out of my life, Sonny. Pick a direction and run with it. I don't want anything to do with you anymore. You act like I'm the greatest gift you've ever gotten but it's the complete opposite way around! I love you so much and you should hate me more then you can even think of because I've taken away your freedom. Why can't you hate this? Why can't you hate me and make this so much easier for me to do? Why do I have to tell you that you hate me? Get out, Sonny!" he yells at her as she stands from her position on the beach towel that they had been laying peacefully on only moments ago.

"Chad, I don't hate you. I have freedom and I love you and this life is the life that I would choose no matter what. I love you more than you could ever know. You just don't understand that you are the greatest gift to me no matter what you or anyone else says or tells you! I can't believe that you would think that. I love you. I'm not getting out of your life. I don't hate you! I don't hate this," Sonny whispers as she takes a step towards him. Chad leaps back, afraid of her touch. "Chad, I love you. I love this life that I have with you, and I can't bear to think of leaving it all behind for some stupid reason that you think is true when it isn't!" she cries tearfully and moves to his side like lightening, placing her hands on top of his. "Why can't you accept that I love you? Why aren't you willing to love me as I love you? I know you love me, because it's something that you've been telling me for nearly ten years now. You've been telling me that you love me since you were eighteen and I was seventeen! I'm twenty six now, and you're twenty seven! It's been over nine years since we've been together, and I love you, and you love me, and I think that you can't ruin it with this one conversation. Why are trying to ruin what we have?" she asks(demands) of him and collapses into a chair he's had on his porch since his mother came one night and decided that her son needed "the proper furniture to fit a home that might become a home for a family" in his house. Sonny had whole heartedly agreed, because that was when we she was twenty three and thinking that she and Chad were going to be hearing wedding bells headed in their direction sometime soon. That was four years ago at the insistence of his mother and girlfriend that he got new furniture. He hadn't thought about popping the question to Sonny ever since she had mentioned it one night after she had been out with Tawni and was a little drunk and babbled a lot about things she doesn't remember. She mentioned marriage and then faced him, asking Chad the question he had avoided from day one of dating. "When are going to get serious, Chad? We've been boyfriend-girlfriend for almost six years and you haven't said one thing about getting married. When are you going to pop question?" Sonny had continued the conversation as though marriage had never been brought up, but the sentences she spoke that night had always remained in Chad's memory.

"I'm not trying to ruin what we have because we don't have anything! Sonny, I asked you out because of a dare! Ever wonder why I was sporting a brand new watch the night we first went out on? That watch was the prize! If I could ask you out, convince you to say yes, and set up a date between the two of us within three days, I won the watch! I love you. So what? Love is stupid, really, Sonny. Haven't you ever wondered why I hate all of those romance novels that you read? It's because everything works out! Nothing works out like it does in the movies, Sonny. We're not going to have a fairy tale ending like you want us to! Just get out of my life before you get your hopes up for wedding bells and kids and everything else that comes with a happily ever after. I'm sorry I strung you along for so long, Sonny. You're free now. You're free to find that guy who will give you a happily ever after, and who wants to raise kids and watch you become a soccer mom who drives a mini van. I'm not that guy. You have to find him. Just get of my life before I'm not willing to let you go, Sonny. Choose any direction you want to leave from, and, please, just get out of my life before I try to keep you here forever. I'm sorry I'm not one for happily ever afters. Have fun, ok?" Chad whispered desperately, trying to turn her away from him. "Forget about me and the life we've had, Sonny. It's long behind us now and I don't want to relive a past that wasn't worth living. What we had together was fun for a while, but it's only for a while. You have to get out there and show all of the men that you've been missing out on what they've been missing out on. I have to get my bad boy reputation back in place. Sonny, I love you more than you'll ever know. That's why I'm doing this. 'If you love something, set it free,' he said in a calmer voice than any other had used that night. "You're free, Sonny."

Sonny stood on his porch facing the shore and tried to swallow the lump in her throat. "You didn't hear the whole line," she said finally, sinking into a chair. Chad turned from where he stood, facing the doorway into his house, and looked at her questioningly. "You didn't hear the whole line," she repeated.

"So you said. What's the whole line then? Tell me the line and then leave here, alright? If I see you too much I'll never let you leave me. You'll be trapped. I don't want you to be trapped by anything, not even me, Sonny. Tell me the line then," he prompted, walked in front of her, and faced the shore where (luckily) no one was around for a good distance to hear the famous Hollywood couple's screaming at each other.

"I've never been trapped before, Chad. I'm not going to let you trap me. I can take care of myself, but I still need you. You can't trap me into this relationship. If I want to leave it, I will," she screamed.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you! I want out! Get out of my life before I can't bear to let you leave it at all. I'm going to let me trap you. I heard what you said; you won't let yourself be trapped. Even though I'm sure that's true, Sonny, you have to believe me when I say that I don't want to try to trap you. I love you too much to try to do that, and I love you enough to let you go when I need to. Go." The final word is whispered, not only as a command, but a plea. He wouldn't be able to tell her to leave once more if she makes a case of it, and he knew it, so he told her one last time to leave and went into his house in case she didn't understand what he had asked of her. He clicked the several locks into their places, drew the curtains on the windows closed, and left a small girl to shudder from her sobs on his porch. Chad Dylan Cooper was so heartless that he didn't even leave the porch light on for her to find her way off of the porch.

Sonny sat and cried and sobbed for a good long while, and then picked up her phone to look through her contacts. She and Chad had gone out to dinner before they had come to his house to look at the stars, and, as usual, Chad insisted that they take his car. Which left her with no ride back to her house. Lucy was in Wisconsin, and even if she wasn't they had grown apart once Sonny had matured from being in Hollywood so long. There was a long list of relatives who lived around the country, the only one living close by being her mother. Sonny Munroe had just bawled her eyes out over a boy who was not worth it, and she hurt from heart being torn into tiny pieces and seeing it stomped on right in front of her eyes, but she still had a small margin of dignity left, and she was not going to let her mother see her like she was. Zora was visiting a friend in Orlando, Florida, so she wasn't available. Nico and Grady, were probably sleeping at a time like three in the morning (any sane person would be), and she was not about to call Marshall. Her father was still on a business trip to somewhere in Canada, and even if he wasn't, she would not let her father see her as she was either. There were many friends, none of whom she was close enough to for them to drive out of their way on a Sunday night/Monday morning. Finally, after much consideration, there was only one contact left to think about calling. Her only hope had to pick up the phone, even at such an unreasonable hour. After a few rings, there was Tawni's voice floating out of the receiver in its fun and carefree way. "You've got Tawni Hart at five-five-five-one-zero-seven-nine. I'm not available right now, but once I get your message I'll try to call you back as soon as I can. Thanks for calling. Bye," the voice snapped and a tone ensued, then silence was left in the air. Sonny stood up from the chair, and followed Chad's directions by picking a direction and walking with it. She decided that wasn't going to turn. She was going to stay in that direction until something killed her by getting in her way because with God as her witness, she was going to pick a direction at random and walk with it until she couldn't walk anymore.