Prologue
It found its way onto the internet. Grainy, shaky footage shot on a concealed camera phone, and anonymously uploaded to an obscure website he had never heard of. It had half a million views within the first two hours, and spread like wild fire from there. His agent called him, thrilled at the publicity. His mother called him, disgusted with his behavior. His grandmother called him, and he let it go to voice-mail.
Chad had no idea she had filmed it. He had been half cut when he picked her up in a night club, drawn to her contagious smile and the way the little black dress she wore revealed just enough of her long porcelain legs. Her chestnut hair fell across her face as she danced, and her laugh was like music. He wanted her. And she all but fell out of her precariously high heels to follow him from the club.
He forced himself to watch the video, knowing he would have to sooner or later, and his stomach churned. He recognised the hotel room, uniform and cream, intersected with deep purple, and hastily discarded clothes. He remembered limbs tangled in Egyptian cotton bedsheets and recognised his own chiselled torso hovering over her arched form. His face, bleary blue eyes and tousled hair, was centre frame. There was no denying it was him.
Her face was less clear, obscured by shadows and the low quality of the video. But the resemblance was uncanny. At first glance she looked just like her. It was why he'd chosen her, why he'd taken her back to the hotel, and why he had unintentionally starred alongside her in an increasingly graphic sex tape.
Chad let his head drop into his hands, and exhaled a shaky sigh of resignation. It didn't matter that it was a look-alike, that it wasn't actually her. She looked similar enough, and the tagline for the video boasted her name. Millions of people had already seen it, and were convinced enough for it to trend on twitter.
It was already bad enough. Already solid and undeniable. And then he had unwittingly made it a whole lot worse. Two minutes before the video ended, he had thrown his head back, his hands gripping the bedframe so hard that the guilded metalwork had branded his palms. A groan shuddered through his body, and two syllables fell from his lips in a pained murmur. Crystal clear and perfectly audible.
"Sonny..."
Chapter one
It had been a strange morning. Sonny couldn't quite put her finger on it, but everyone seemed to be a little off. The barista in Starbuck's fixed her with a wide eyed, slightly inapporpriate stare as he served her. A woman literally baired her teeth when Sonny had responded to the tiny pointing fingers of her two small children with a wave, and then proceeded to turn on her heel and drag the protesting toddlers in the opposite direction.
When she walked into Condor Studio's, the security guard had quipped that he was happy she was 'broadening her horizons' with a knowing chuckle. Sonny had politely thanked him for the confusing compliment, and hurried towards the So Random set, shaking her head.
The light clack of her heels announced her presence on the set, and the heated conversation between her cast mates stopped dead. They turned to stare at her one by one, each silent and slack jawed. Sonny momentarily berated herself for expecting to find normality here.
"Whats up guys?" She greeted cautiously.
Tawni smirked and Grady blinked more times than she had thought possible in a ten second period, but no one spoke. Sonny drained the remainder of her latte in silence, and awkwardly stared back at them.
"...Guys?"
They looked at each other, expressions shifty. There was a momentary scuffle and a mumbled arguement, before Zora took a step back, and Nico and Tawni elbowed Grady to the front of the group. His eyes widened at the nomination and he offered her a sheepish smile.
"Errm... Hi." He stammered. "Did you uhh... I mean we saw, well we think we saw a- N-not that I was looking or anything! I just.."
Grady sucked in a deep breath, and wrung his hands nervously. Sonny smiled encouragingly, and raised an imploring eyebrow at him.
"There was a-a... and it looked like you were, and he was.. I mean to say that you both were really... Unless you didn't know you were, and then we should probably call the police."
"Oh for gods sake.." Nico muttered, stepping infront of Grady with an impatient shove.
"Look Sonny, what Grady was trying to say is... is... your... hair looks really pretty today."
Grady scowled at his friend, and brought his hands to his hips, momentarily forgetting Sonny's presence.
"Oh, is that what Grady was trying to say, before he was so rudely cut off by his co-star?"
"Dude, you were flailing, I was trying to help."
"Oh yeah? How'd that go?"
"Errm.. children?" Sonny interrupted, impatient that she had little to no idea what was going on.
Her head was starting to hurt, and members of the crew were staring, casting conspicuous glances over the top of magazines. Two interns who were slotting together some set pieces were more obvious in their interest, blatantly watching the exchange through shaggy unkept fringes.
"Does somebody want to fill me in?" Sonny asked, her voice tight.
Zora took a carefully proportioned step towards her, hands clasped and face stern. She was dressed in her 'kid lawyer' suit, and her expression was steely and proffessional.
"They want to know if you intersected with the three named jerk." She enunciated, surveying her over the top of her wire framed spectacles.
"If I what now?" Sonny asked, bewildered.
"You know what I'm talking about." Zora accused, "The evidence is conclusive! Your guilty, guilty I say!"
Sonny crossed her arms over her chest, well on her way to her annoyance. She raked a hand through her hair, before letting both arms fall to her sides, empty and beseaching.
"I literally have no clue what you are asking me."
Tawni cleared her thoat, finally bored of the proceedings, and flashed a belittling glare at her castmates.
"Did you fuck Chad?" She asked bluntly.
Grady dropped his soda, and Nico winced. Sonny stared at her open mouthed. Had she seriously just asked her that question? Tawni stared back, a challenging glint in her eyes, that showed she was deadly serious as she waited for a response. Everyone was waiting for a response, and Sonny realised with astonishment that they all thought she had.
"No! Oh my god No! Of course I didn't, what is wrong with you?"
Her voice was shrill and a bluch had crept into her cheeks. How could they think she had done that with him?
"Are you sure about that?" Tawni said "Think very carefully.."
"I am positive." she argued, disgusted at the acusation.
"Liar!" Zora shrieked
"I didn't! I swear! There was no intersecting!"
"Theres a video Sonny." Grady told her quietly. "Its all over the internet. Everyones seen it."
"A video..?"
"Of the dirty deed." Tawni confirmed dryly. "It puts Paris Hilton to shame."
Sonny exhaled shakily, and prayed there was a punchline to this joke. Her eyes darted across each of her friends faces, and found no humour there. Only Tawni held her gaze.
"Thats not possible." she whispered.
The blonde shook her head, and gave a nonchelant shrug.
"Show me." Sonny said, choking on the words.
Nico shook his head.
"I dont think you want to see it." he insisted, making a move to comfort her.
Sonny shook him off, and tried to ignore the threat of tears blurring her vision.
"Show me!" She demanded, her voice forceful.
Tawni barked at the eavesdropping crew members to leave, and sent a protesting Zora on a frozen yogurt run with a patronising remark about age appropriateness.
When everyone else had scurried from the set she handed over her tablet cautiously, and Sonny stared down at the video on the screen horrified. 'Chad Dylan Cooper gets down and dirty with Sonny Munroe'. Her breath hitched in her throat. Chad was furiously kissing a girl who most definately wasn't her, unzipping her dress, pushing her onto a bed. The girl whimpered his name as he touched her, climbed ontop of her, made her moan. Sonny diverted her eyes.
"Thats not me." She whispered, surprised to find jealousy tinging the abundance of emotions that were fighting for dominance.
None of her three friends responded, and Nico and Tawni exchanged a glance.
Sonny glared at them, annoyed. Why didn't they believe her?
"Guys, thats not me! I know she kind of looks like me, but come on, you can't even see her face properly!"
"Skip to the end." Tawni instructed.
"I-I really don't need to watch any more of this." Sonny protested, trying to hand the tablet back.
Tawni leaned over and dragged the white bar across the screen, skipping the bulk of the video before resuming it.
The girl was lying on her back, her hair falling across her face, legs wrapped around Chad's waist as he stood upright at the foot of the bed. His muscled arms were taut as he clutched onto the intricate metal bedframe so hard it bowed. Their bodies moved fluidly, the pace quickening. Chads eyes were squeezed closed, and the expression on his face was equal parts pleasure and pain as his head fell back.
Sonny clenched her jaw, embarrased to be watching such an intimate moment. She shouldn't know what he looked like when he came. She shouldn't be watching him convulse involuntarily, or hear his almost animal growl. And then she heard her name on his lips. Low and husky.
Sonny's eyes widened in disbelief.
"No..." She breathed.
"Sonny-" Nico started.
"No, no. No!"
She dropped the tablet, her hands shaking, and the adrenaline pounding in her ears muffled Tawni's scolding as she bent to retrieve it. She took a deliberate step back, looking concerned that Sonny was about to throw up, or cry or do something else that could stain her outfit, and looked at Nico worriedly.
"Its not me!" Sonny sobbed again and Grady nodded vehemently.
"We believe you. Honestly we do."
"It's the rest of the world you need to worry about." Tawni put.
Sonny closed her eyes, trying to remember to breath. The rest of the world. Her mom, her friends, her fans. They would all think it was her. Oh god. This couldn't be happening.
"Do you want to sit down or something?" Tawni said concened. "Do not puke on me."
Sonny shook her head vigorously. She was not going to sit down, she wasn't going to think about it rationally, or wait for the anger to subside.
"Where is he?"
"He's.. hiding in his dressing room." Tawni hesitated.
"What are you going to do?" Nico asked.
"I'm going to kill him." She muttered under her breath as she stormed from set
