I warned you that you should be on the lookout for BULL (Bottled Under Love's Labyrinth)
I'm hoping to upload it as fast as COW was uploaded since all the chapters are already written so all I need to do is edit them.
Once again, this re-upload goes out to all of my amazing friends on this site!
For anyone who doesn't know, THIS STORY IS THE SECOND PART OF A THREE BOOK SERIES! GO TO MY PROFILE AND READ COW, CRUSH OF THE WEEK, IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!
That is all. Hope you enjoy this!
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Thanks for asking though!
Prologue
Mrs. Munroe was walking out of her apartment just as my fist was going into the air to knock on the door. She wasn't surprised to see me (I'd come up almost every day since Sonny and I had started dating), but she did take the time to narrow her eyes and jab her finger into my chest.
I knew what she was going to say before the words left her mouth. She was going to give me a warning, the same warning she gave me every single morning. Sure, it got annoying hearing it every day and it seemed like she would've learned to trust me a tiny bit by now (I was over almost as much as I was at my own house). Still, I would deal with hearing it as many times as she felt the need to say it.
Sonny was worth it.
"Just because I'm leaving for work now doesn't mean you're free to do whatever you wish with my daughter," Mrs. Munroe said the words I already knew so well. "If I ever hear even one word about you touching her against her will, I'll-,"
Oh, how little she knew about the relationship between Sonny and me. Not only would I never dream of doing something like she suggested every morning, but it was her daughter who did most of the touching. I understood how hard it could be to have to look at my face all day and have to keep your hands off (I couldn't even do it), but Sonny took things to a new level. She'd reach out and take my hand when I least expected it. If she thought I wasn't being romantic enough, she would take my arm and put it around either her waist or shoulders. Every time I leaned in to kiss her, she was eager to accept and kept her arms wrapped around me, keeping me attached to her for as long as she could.
If anyone deserved the warning I got every morning, it was my girlfriend.
"Mrs. Munroe," I cut her off mid-sentence, just as I did every morning. I gently placed my hand on her shoulder, trying to make my eyes as soft as possible. "Don't you trust the two of us?"
"You're asking me if I trust two television stars who think they own the world because the world loves them?" Mrs. Munroe gave me a skeptical look. "Of course I don't trust you!"
Pushing away my hand, she stepped out of the doorway, not bothering to shut the door behind her.
"But you can still go in because you have every day and I haven't had any bad reports yet," she said as she started walking down the hall. She called over her shoulder one last time. "I mean it though, if I hear even one word-,"
The rest of her threat was blocked out when I shut the apartment door.
When Sonny and I had first started dating, I spent the awkward stage, the time we were both figuring out how to cross the line from friends into something much better, waiting for her at Condor Studios every morning. We began to grow more comfortable with each other and once her cast got tired of seeing me every morning, I started picking her up instead.
For the first few days, I waited in my car until Sonny came outside, ready to go. Her mom would always walk by five or ten minutes before Sonny would arrive (always giving me the same glower she did today) and it was me who asked Sonny where her mom went.
"Oh, she leaves for her job a few minutes before we have to go," she'd told me before turning her attention to the floor, nervously wringing her hands together. "If you wanted to, you could come up to the apartment after she leaves instead of waiting in the parking lot."
I tried to wait until I was sure Mrs. Munroe was out of ear-shot before getting out of my car so she wouldn't hear me shut the door. I wasn't sure if she'd be mad if she knew I went inside every day (some parents could be weird about a dating teenage couple being left totally and completely alone). My game only worked for about a week. After that, I didn't see Mrs. Munroe walk by and figured she must've left early. When I knocked on the apartment door though, I was shocked to see her standing there.
After that morning, Mrs. Munroe made sure to always be there to let me in and other than her daily threat, she didn't seem to mind my presence. I was happy she didn't tell me I wasn't allowed to come in; the mornings were my favorite time of the day.
While Sonny and I were at the studio, we didn't get any alone time. She was always on her set and I was on mine. When we had time to visit with each other, our cast mates were always around. Even during lunchtime when Sonny came and sat beside me, Portlyn was just as eager to talk to her as I was and seemed to monopolize the time. I would try to take Sonny places where we could be alone at night, but somehow we'd get followed (usually by Nico and Grady, who seemed to think now that Sonny and I were dating, they could hang out with me and raise their 'cool' status).
Most days, the time in the morning after Mrs. Munroe left for work was the only time Sonny and I got to be alone for the rest of the day.
Today, Sonny wasn't waiting for me in the living room upon my entrance. She didn't come running out to meet me when I closed the door behind me, signaling my entrance. That could only mean one thing: she was still getting ready to go.
"Sonny?" I called out anyway, heading down the short hallway where her room was, along with the bathroom and the room Mrs. Munroe slept in. All three doors were shut.
As I stood there, waiting for Sonny's shout to tell me she wasn't ready and I should go make myself at home, one of the doors flew open. I almost jumped out of my skin as her head popped out of the bathroom, her brown eyes sparkling as she took in my expression.
"Did I scare you?" she asked eagerly.
"Chad Dylan Cooper doesn't get scared," I replied, watching as her smile fell. "He does pretend to be though to spare the feelings of the scare-er."
Sonny rolled her eyes, not finding my statement charming like she was supposed to.
"Go make yourself comfortable," she told me. "I'll be ready to go in a few minutes."
"You're not ready yet?" I asked before she could shut the door. "I can see your face; you already have make-up on. What else do you need to do?"
Although she was hiding her body behind the door so all I could see was her head, from what I could tell she looked fine. Better than fine even; she looked great. She looked any adjective that would bring her out of the bathroom and let us waste our last few minutes together instead of with a door between us.
Smiling up at me, Sonny shook her head the small amount the door allowed.
"Just go wait, Cooper," she ordered again. "I'll be there in a few."
Without another word, she slammed the door shut, leaving nothing behind but a trace of the perfume she was wearing, the perfume that drove me wild no matter how many times I smelled it.
'Stupid perfume,' I thought as I left the hallway, instead heading toward the living room. 'I don't know how you do it, Sonny, I really don't. It's been over a year and I'm still just as much in love with you as I was the first day. I don't know what I would do if I had to go a day without you. Thankfully, I'll never have to find out.'
Thankfully. I couldn't help but laugh at my small joke as I flopped onto the Munroe's couch, my head on one armrest, my feet hanging off the other. There was a lot for me to be thankful for this month, or at least, that's what Sonny kept telling me. It is November after all.
No one at Condor Studios ever cared about holidays. For my first few years working on Mackenzie Falls, my cast and I laughed at the thought of special days, not talking about them before or after the break we received with them. It was nothing special to us. All we cared about was making sure our show stayed number one.
Now that Sonny was around with her annoying (and yet so cute) bubbly personality, it was impossible to ignore any holiday. She seemed to know when each and every one of them were by heart and felt each of them needed celebrated in their own special way ("I'm not the one who comes up with the celebrations," she'd told me one day as I helped her wrap Christmas presents for her family. "People have been doing it this way for years. I can't believe you've never even heard of putting up a Christmas tree!").
I wasn't the only one Sonny forced to get into the spirit. Her cast had to make decorations as well and she even worked on my cast during lunch. As soon as she was done, they would all ask me if we were really going along with her plans.
"We're going to do whatever she says," I'd always tell them. "And I don't want her to hear any mumbling about it either, got it?"
Thanks to Sonny, last year around Christmas time, the Mackenzie Falls set had been full of the Christmas spirit. There was a tree, stockings, candy canes, cookies (having to bake them hadn't been so bad. When I burnt the first batch trying on my own, Sonny helped me and we ended up in a huge flour fight), and even a gift exchange between our two casts.
And now that Christmas was right around the corner again, Sonny was trying to get everyone into a Thanksgiving mood. Before letting any of us start eating our lunches, she made us go around the table and say one thing we were thankful for every day. Her and I got into a huge fight when she wanted me to draw a 'turkey' by tracing my hand. Both casts had watched in embarrassment as she stood behind me, using all her strength to push my hand down to the paper waiting on the desk.
I would do a lot of things to make her happy, but stooping low enough to draw a turkey like any little kid would do-
That was where I set my limits.
'She'll be surprised this year,' I thought happily, feeling the smile as it overtook my lips. 'Wait until she hears that I'm the one who planned Thanksgiving instead of making her do all the work! She'll be so proud of me!'
I was so far gone in my thoughts that I never heard the bathroom door open again. I didn't realize Sonny was standing beside me until I heard her voice.
"Alright, Chad, I'm ready to go whenever you are."
Scrambling to get off the couch, I didn't take the time to look at Sonny until I was standing at my full height, ready to pull her to my side and tell her good morning. My hands stopped mid-air when I finally took a good look at her.
Her clothes were normally an outward appearance of what her hyper insides were like, usually exploding in her own unique colors and styles. Today's outfit didn't fit in with her normal attire at all. She was wearing an all black long-sleeved dress with a white apron type thing tied around her waist. On her head was a matching black hat with a white trim around it. She looked like - like…
"What are you supposed to be?" I asked, not daring to take a step closer to her.
"Do you like it?" She spun around in a circle, letting the dress swirl around her body. "It's for the Thanksgiving sketch So Random! is filming today. I'm a pilgrim!"
"It's very…cute," I told her, struggling to find the right word to use, something that wouldn't force me to lie or make her angry. Cute worked; for her little comedy show, the dress would fit in just fine. "Now go take it off."
Sonny looked confused as I sat down on the couch again, this time sitting the way I was supposed to. I didn't have time to get comfortable. By the time she was done putting on her normal clothing, it would be time to leave.
It took me a few minutes of Sonny's glaring before I realized she hadn't taken a step toward her room. Her arms were folded over her chest and she was staring down at me with those beautiful eyes of hers in slits.
"What?" I asked, now feeling a tad bit confused myself.
"Why do I have to change? I think this costume looks really good on me."
"It does look really good on you, as far as costumes go. But you're not going to wear it while riding in my car."
"Your car has a dress code now?"
"Yes. It states 'no pilgrims are allowed inside for the sake of embarrassing both the driver and the person in the pilgrim costume'."
I knew immediately I'd said something wrong. Sonny's mouth opened into the perfect O as she placed one hand on her hip.
"Well, if the driver is so embarrassed to be seen with the pilgrim, maybe the pilgrim should find a new ride," she suggested.
"Maybe she should," I agreed.
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
"Good!"
"Good!"
"Fine!"
Not giving me a chance to retort, Sonny stormed out of the room. I followed her as she walked down the hall again, this time going into her room. When she didn't shut the door behind her, I stood in the doorway.
"Oh, good," I said as I sighed in relief, watching as Sonny headed toward her closet. "You're finally going to change."
"Nope," she informed me at the last second, turning away from the closet and to her bedside table instead. "I'm calling Grady to pick me up."
Grady had just received his driving license only a few weeks ago and drove around a piece of trash he'd bought at the junkyard because he thought it looked cool. The car was always breaking down on him, and I made sure I was far away when he was either arriving at or leaving the studio. He had a habit of driving on the sidewalk.
"Yeah, right," I laughed as Sonny picked up her cell phone. "Like I'm really going to believe you're brave enough to get in a car with that knucklehead!"
"I got in one with you, didn't I?"
I didn't think she was really going to do it. She'd seen Grady's car and his driving skills, probably more than I had, and she knew getting in a car with him would be her dumbest idea. She was too smart to really do it.
Making sure I was watching her, Sonny started hitting buttons on the phone, trying to make me think she was punching in Grady's number. When she brought the phone to her ear, I still stayed in the doorway, knowing she was faking it. As she waited for whoever she'd really called to answer, she stuck her tongue out at me.
It wasn't until I heard her say, "Hey, Grady! I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor?" that I finally ran to her side, reaching out for the phone. I succeeded in getting it away from her ear, but she was still holding the other end of it as I tried to pull it from her grasp.
"Give me the phone, Munroe!" I ordered, my voice strained as I tugged (she could be pretty strong when she wanted to be). "You're not riding in Grady's death machine! I'll drive you, alright? And you can even keep on that costume if you insist."
"My costume and I don't need your pity ride!" she protested. "Go on ahead to the studio, Chad. I'll meet up with you after filming and I have a chance go change clothes."
"Will you just give me the phone so I can hang up before your friends hear all this yelling and think I'm trying to rape you?"
"Maybe if they think that, they'll call the police and I can ride to the studio in a police car! Grady, can you hear me? Call 9-1-1, Chad's trying to-,"
The threat Mrs. Munroe gave me every morning echoed through my head: 'If I ever hear even one word about you touching her against her will, I'll-,'
I had a feeling Sonny shouting the word rape into a phone would count as one word.
Before she could speak the 'R' word, I let go of the phone, reaching to cover Sonny's mouth with my hands. Unfortunately, I hadn't thought the plan through completely. Once I let go of the phone, she lost her balance and flew backwards. Luckily, she was standing in front of her bed and that was what caught her as she fell.
I pounced after she was down, pinning her on her back as I placed my hands on either side of her head. Her hands were on my chest as she tried to push me away, but once my lips were on hers, her fingers clutched my shirt tighter as she tried to pull me closer. I let her guide me down a little but not much. The last thing I wanted to do was squish her under my weight.
To my surprise, it wasn't long before her hands were pushing me away again. Thinking something was wrong (I couldn't remember the last time she'd done that), I pulled away from her, moving so she could sit up straight. She hunched over as she went into a coughing fit, her coughs deep enough to make me flinch. I could only imagine how much they hurt her own throat.
"Are you alright?" I asked once she was quiet again, my hand rubbing soothing circles on her back.
"I'm fine," she assured me, but the smile she gave me didn't make me believe her. She beat her chest with her fist, trying to make sure she was done coughing. "I'm fine. I just - I just needed - a minute - to…"
Her voice trailed off as she started panting. I continued rubbing her back, not caring if I sounded concerned to her or not. Something was wrong; my kisses would leave her breathless sometimes, but never to this extent.
"What's the matter?" I teased, not wanting her to know how worried I really was. "Was my kiss too much for a mere mortal like you?"
Despite her heavy breathing, almost strong enough to be called pants, Sonny playfully punched my shoulder.
"I'm only out of breath because of the coughing fit," she explained, at least able to speak a sentence at a time now. "That's not your fault, unless I'm allergic to you or something."
"I'm sure it's not that," I said quickly. Sonny didn't get a chance to answer me; she started coughing again. "I have something that will cheer you up: Do you want to hear what we're doing for Thanksgiving?"
I watched as her eyes widened in surprise.
"You thought of Thanksgiving plans for us?" She waited for my nod before shaking her head. "I thought you didn't celebrate holidays?"
"Well, Condor Studios is shutting down for a week to give us all a chance to spend time with our families," I explained. "I don't think I get a choice in whether or not I celebrate this one."
"I'm not part of your family, Chad. You just said yourself that's why the Studio is shutting down. Shouldn't you be planning activities for them, not us?"
"You really think I can go seven days without seeing you?" I scoffed and was rewarded with a deep blush on her cheeks. "Now, let me try this again: Do you want to know what we're doing for Thanksgiving?"
"I would love to know what you've got up your sleeve."
I'd worked on my plans forever to prove to Sonny I could not only be romantic but I could also understand her desire to have every holiday celebrated the perfect way. All I could do now was hope she liked what I'd come up with.
"Well, since the studio is shutting down for exactly seven days, I thought we might relive the week I asked you out," I started to explain, slipping my arm around her waist as I spoke.
Sonny's brow wrinkled as she stared at me thoughtfully.
"How are we going to do that? Did you get Nico and Grady's time machine to actually work?"
"That's not what I meant. We're going to relive the week, but of course I mean we're going to do the same events we did on the same day we did them then. For example, on what I called Munroe Monday, I'm coming over here for dinner again, but this time, I'll cook for you and your mom. And on Twizzle Tuesday, we're going ice skating, hopefully with our families since that's the way it happened before. Waterfall Wednesday we're hiking to the Falls-,"
"We can't go to a Hollywood party on Thursday," Sonny interrupted me. "Thursday is Thanksgiving."
"I know," I said quickly, smiling, "And I already thought of that! Since we didn't really do much of anything Sunday of that week, we can go to a party then to make up for Thursday. Friday I'll take you out to a fancy restaurant-,"
"Because I'll really be hungry after eating enough to gain ten pounds the day before."
"We'll finish off on Saturday by doing whatever you want to do," I stated, pretending I didn't hear her last comment. "Saturday will be all yours, so you better start thinking about where you'd like me to take you."
My eyes were on Sonny now that I was done explaining my idea. It was the moment of truth. Either she would like the idea or she would hate it. If she liked it, I would be happy and not change it. If she hated it, I would have to think of something even better. Nothing was too good for her.
To my relief, there was a smile on her face as she brought her body closer to mine, wrapping her arms around my neck. The smell of her perfume was strong, too strong, as she giggled right in my ear.
"It sounds wonderful, Chad," her soft voice said as her lips lingered by my ear. "I'm proud of you for figuring it out on your own, too. Thank you for trying to make Thanksgiving special for me."
"I'd do anything to make you happy," I whispered back.
As the two of us hugged each other close, basking in the feeling of being near one another, the room fell into a comfortable silence. That was when I heard a voice speaking from Sonny's phone.
"You forgot to hang up after calling Grady!" I exclaimed, letting her go so she could grab the still talking phone. "He's been listening in this whole time! How much do you think he heard? Do you think he'll be mad? What if he convinced your whole cast to listen in-,"
Sonny silenced me when she put the phone to my ear. It wasn't Grady's voice I heard once I shut up long enough to listen. It was an automated voice informing me what time it was in different regions all around the world.
I had my mouth open, starting to ask Sonny why Grady's voice had changed, but when I saw the smile she was giving me, it all sunk in: she'd never called Grady in the first place. It had all been staged to make it appear like she had when really the time number was what she dialed.
"You have ten seconds," I informed her. "Ten…Nine…Eight…"
Sonny was already on her feet, her cell phone forgotten on the bed as she ran out of the room. I took off after her without waiting until I reached zero, and when she looked over her shoulder and saw how close I was to her, she shouted something about it not being fair. Just as she reached the door, I wrapped my arms around her waist, happily spinning the two of us around.
"No one is too fast for Chad Dylan Cooper!" I exclaimed before my tone changed. "Sonny?"
Her body was limp in my arms. She was leaning over again, just as she'd done in her room, and if my arms hadn't been wrapped around her, she would've fallen to the floor. I dragged her into the kitchen as fast as I could, whispering soothing words as we went. I wasn't sure if she could hear me over her coughing fit.
Keeping one arm firmly around her, I used the other to pull open the freezer door which was where I knew a few water bottles were kept, filled to the brim with ice cold liquid. I took out the one closest to me, hoping not all of it had changed over to ice yet. As I forced it into Sonny's mouth, I could see she was swallowing. Once again, I had lucked out.
Once she had a little bit more control, Sonny pushed away the bottle with her hands, gasping for the air I'd forgotten to give her a chance to breathe. The coughing resumed but this time only lasted for a few seconds. Her eyes were watering when she shook her head as I offered her the bottle again.
"That's the second coughing fit you've gone into," I reminded her. "Maybe you should stay home today."
"No, no, no," she protested, trying to give me a convincing smile. I didn't believe it for a second. "I'm sure the running was what set me off, that's all."
"Sonny, I really think-,"
"Haven't I already proved you're not getting rid of me, or my costume, so easily?" She started walking out of the kitchen, taking one last glance at me. "You can either drive me to the studio or let me steal your car and drive myself. Either way is fine with me."
"If you're only going for me, you might as well-,"
"You might be my boyfriend, but I'm going because my cast needs me, not because you do," she said in a firm voice. "Besides, I feel fine now. Can we just forget about the coughing thing, please?"
As much as I loved having Sonny at work with me (somehow acting was much easier knowing she was only several hundred feet away), I wasn't so sure she should've been going to the studio today. I knew better than to try fighting with her about it though and kept my mouth shut as I followed her to the parking lot.
It wouldn't have bothered me going one day at the studio without having Sonny there. No matter what, I was going to have her every day during Thanksgiving break.
For the first time in my life, I couldn't wait for a holiday to arrive.