Hey guys! Thanks for all the reviews so far. I really enjoy it when people comment on my stories. Even though I don't get a lot of reviews, the few that I do get encourage me to keep writing in the hopes that the story gets good enough to deserve to be commented on.
I got generally positive feedback on the little filler I did last chapter, so I might be doing those a bit more in the future. As for this chapter, it's purely plot related, and I can confidently say I had a blast writing this chapter, and I hope it shows. So I hope you enjoy it as well.
Disclaimer: I don't own SWAC. If I did, its second season would have premiered last February 14.
Chad pulled to a sharp stop in front of an average looking condominium. Actually, it wasn't average at all. It was pretty posh in its own right, but being the rich successful actor that he was, to Chad Dylan Cooper, anything looked average in comparison to his mansion. Chad parked his car in a shady corner beside the building, just in case deranged fans had memorized his plate number and came looking. It wouldn't be the first time that happened, and he'd rather it not happen now, right on the night that might just make his year.
This apartment complex was different from the one Sonny had originally made her home of, different from the apartment whose door Chad totally wrecked. The recent skyrocketing of ratings didn't just bring better food on the Random's table (in the expense of The Falls, of course), but it also gave them a hefty increase of salary – just enough for Sonny and her mom to afford a newer, less, as Tawni would put it, poor-looking flat.
The unusually nervous Chad pushed the buzzer beside the glass door entrance of the large apartment complex. He did so a few times too many apparently, judging by the annoyed tone Sonny used to answer on the telecom.
"Chad, I know buzzers and doorbells must be pretty exciting for you considering you have a doorman attend to all your guests, but you don't have to go all crazy with the buzzing." Sonny's voice on the receiver, despite its cheesed off tenor, had a calming effect on the boy, though he couldn't help but notice airiness of her voice. "I'm opening the door up. Take the elevator three floors up and I'm on the first door to the left."
A minute later and he was in front of Sonny's door, knocking.
"Hey." She greeted softly with a sad-happy smile. Wet strands of hair framed her pale face. She had just been in the shower. Which meant that when she was on the telecom she had just got out of the bathroom, Chad deliberated, thinking back to the airiness of her shook any inappropriate thoughts out of his head.
"Password?" Sonny demanded.
"I bring offerings of popcorn and sappy DVDs. Chad Dylan Cooper doesn't need a stupid password." Chad smirked as Sonny laughed and let him in. "Nice hair by the way."
Sonny buried her face in her palm, smiling and trying to hide the blush on her face at the same time. She hardly had any time to dry her hair considering the minuscule amount of time Chad had taken to get to her apartment. "If someone wasn't such an eager beaver-" She pulled her hair up into a messy clamp, following after Chad.
A few steps in and Chad was overwhelmed by the smell of what he could only describe as pure Sonny. Taking in the room in front of him was almost surreal. It was immaculately neat, with a few drawings and potted plants scattered neatly to add to the feel of the interior. So this is what a girl's apartment looked like; he hadn't really noticed with her last one. That one looked more like an old-folk's home than an apartment.
"Well, well, it's not as bad as I'd imagined. I half expected to be greeted by blinding yellow walls and fluffy pink carpets." Chad said jokingly, dropping the DVDs on a nearby coffee table and giving himself a tour of Sonny's apartment.
"You do know you just described my dressing room right?"
"And so?
"You basically just insulted Tawni and my sense of interior design." She laughed.
"And I reiterate. So?"
Sonny smiled and gave up, following him around as he helped himself to exploring the rest of the flat.
There were three bedrooms: two bedrooms which seemed well-used and another which was set aside as a guestroom/workout area. There was another room to the end of the studio living room but it looked like it was locked. The kitchen looked like any old kitchen; it had been recently used apparently, judging by the empty cups of ramen sitting in the sink. Pictures of Sonny, her friends and her mother were splayed out on the walls of the apartment. Chad smiled.
Taking a last look around, Chad noticed the shoe rack beside the door. He had already expected to see Sonny's shoes and of course a few pairs which looked to belong to her mother. But two pairs of shoes bothered him. They were men's shoes. A slightly battered up pair of sneakers and some old leather dress shoes.
"Whose shoes are those?" Chad asked with a hint of curiosity and jealousy.
Sonny turned around to see what he was talking about. "Those? My mom rents out the extra room to boarders for extra money. He's been here since I came to LA, but I haven't actually met him, or seen him. Apparently, he runs on a whole different timeframe and he's rarely home anyway. Mysterious, huh?"
Chad nodded slowly, making his way to the couch, still eying the mysterious pairs of shoes. "And your mom? She's okay with me being here? Couldn't wait for her daughter to be alone in a room with the famous Chad Dylan Cooper, could she?" Chad laid back and propped his feet up on the coffee table.
"Stop being so full of yourself, Chad. Keep in mind, I can kick you out any time I want to." Sonny threatened ineffectively as shoved his feet off the table and grabbed the popcorn to prepare.
"That's if you can make me." Chad smiled and sat up, flexing his well toned arm muscles. "I could probably kick you out of your own apartment if I wanted to."
Sonny laughed.
"Seriously though, if my mom's okay with a male boarder staying over, I'm sure she'll be okay with a male friend coming over." Sonny opened a pack of popcorn and popped it in the microwave.
"So what, we're friends now Munroe?"
"Well, I wouldn't say friends exactly." Sonny contemplated the question, setting the microwave on the right time setting for popcorn. She took out some glasses and poured a generous amount of soda into each of them. "More like acquaintances with benefits."
Chad coughed and sat up at Sonny's terminology. "E-excuse me Munroe? I totally get why I'd be of any benefit to you, but of what benefit are you to me? I'll have you know I'm here out of pure compassion and goodwill."
"Wow Chad, thanks for reminding me that I'm just a charity case to you." Sonny laughed and sat down next to him on the couch, handing him a glass whilst paying mind to the number of pops per minute, "You get my company. Isn't that enough of a benefit to ya?"
"Well you do make a good notch on my post." Chad looked at her, raising his eyebrows. Sonny glared at him in return. "I'm kidding, Sonny. I enjoy your company and being acquaintances with benefits sounds nice. No strings attached. Very… my style."
There was a semi-awkward moment of silence. They sat there and stared at each other. If it weren't for the popping noises their snack was making in the background, it would have made a pretty romantic movie scene. Not that either of them really noticed.
Sonny sat up and shifted through Chad's DVD collection surprised that he didn't just bring DVDs of Mackenzie Falls. "I thought you only watched yourself?" Sonny asked, laughing a bit.
"I also watch movies which I auditioned for. Even if I didn't get the part, at least I can laugh at how bad the movie was without yours truly." A cocky smile was splayed all over his face, expecting Sonny to be charmed.
"So you're expecting me to believe that you auditioned for an adult movie?" She pulled out a DVD from the booklet sleeve and examined it, cocking her eyebrow in disbelief.
Chad snatched the movie from her hand and hid it in the back pocket of his leather jacket. "H-how did that get there?" Chad laughed nervously, "You saw nothing."
The squinted glare he gave her told her that he was serious and it would be better if she just played along, "Whatever you say Chad." She laughed.
She flipped through the rest of his DVD case and pulled out one that particularly caught her eye, "The Chaos Theory? I love this movie. A lot of people hated it though. I didn't think you'd audition for something so… well, not you."
"I read the script and pretty much fell in love with it. They didn't have a part for me though, but I ended up buying the DVD still. It did pretty bad without me, but still- Living life on the line; it's exciting isn't it?"
"I guess we have our movie then." Sonny smiled and slipped the DVD into the player. She was about to stand to get the popcorn out of the microwave when Chad held her down.
"I'll do it. I've seen this movie about a hundred times and I doubt you'd want to miss the opening scenes."
Sonny smiled and sat back down. Chad could be a sweetheart if he wanted to.
Chad made his way to the kitchen and took the bag of popcorn from the microwave. He emptied into the bowl Sonny had laid out and refilled his cup of soda. He was on his way back to the living room when the soft sound of mooing distracted him.
He looked toward the couch to see if Sonny had noticed. She was too engrossed in the movie to notice that she had left her phone on the kitchen counter.
Chad made his way to the mooing contraption and eyed the caller ID out of curiosity. It was Nico. He put the bowl down and reached for the phone, contemplating whether or not he should give it to Sonny, answer it or just decline the call entirely.
Needless to say, Chad's conscience wasn't the most angelic in the world, and yet again, his inner demon got the best of him. He pressed receive on the phone screen and listened intently.
"Hey Sonny?" Nico's voice came in a loud boom from the speaker.
Silence
"Sonny, I know you're mad. I'm glad you even answered the phone. Sorry for ditching you."
More silence
"So… I was wondering. D'you wanna go on a date Saturday night? I know I've been a jerk, and I know you have a crush on me I just-"
Click.
Chad Dylan Cooper was not hearing any more of this sorry excuse for a date invitation. How had Rainy developed an interest in Sonny in such a short amount of time? He'd factored in the possibility of his induced drama severing ties between the So Random cast, not fostering petty crushes between them.
No way in hell was he letting Nico take Sonny out on a date. She was his new plaything, and Chad Dylan Cooper did not enjoy sharing. Chad Dylan Cooper had every intention of milking out this drama and making it last. At least until So Random was done for and he could have Sonny join them over at The Falls. Then she'd be his plaything 24/7.
"Chad, you okay in there?" Sonny called out from the sofa.
"Yeah, just letting the popcorn air out. We don't want your living room smelling like butter now do we?"
Chad typed a quick text in reply to the pathetic call, "You broke my heart. Leave me alone" and pressed send. Deleting Sonny's call and message history, he smiled at his genius. He turned off Sonny's phone and sauntered back to the living room, planting himself right next to Sonny. That was the last time he'd be hearing from him.
He handed the bowl over to her. "What'd I miss?"
"Oh, we're on the scene where she's asking them to name their uhm… you know."
"You can say it if you want to, Sonny. It's not like it's a bad word or anything."
Sonny threw some popcorn at him, "Just watch the movie Chad."
Chad smiled and laughed inwardly as he contemplated how Sonny couldn't even say the word 'penis'.
He stretched out his hand behind her head laying it down on the recline of the sofa's back rest. Sonny nestled her head into the crook of his shoulder, laying the bowl of popcorn between them. Somewhere in the middle of the movie, they both reached down to the bowl at the same time, touching hands and sending shivers down each other's spine. They retracted their hands quickly and Chad made it a point to inform Sonny how clammy her hands were.
"You're nervous around me aren't you?" he taunted, raising his eyebrows.
"Pfft, I am not. I thought there was a worm in the bowl. Your fingers were sorta slimey."
"Sure Monroe."
They sat through the rest of the movie in silence. The movie was just like them – a compromise between comedic, but utterly dramatic events. It was so well played that despite bad reviews, anybody with a heart would be captured.
As the movie went on, the arm that was around Sonny slowly shifted down to pull her closer to Chad's body and Sonny showed no signs of complaint as it happened. As they watched series of comedic events unfold before them, Chad played with the loose strands of hair that had come undone from her clamp, running them through his fingers. They felt like doll's hair under his course finger tips and he began to wonder if she had been fashioned to look like porcelain.
With the lights dim and the light from the TV shining on her pale skin, she looked just like a porcelain doll, thick eyelashes lining the lids of what were now closed eyes, deep in slumber. Whoever her father was, he and her mother had won the genetic lottery with her being brought into life. It seemed almost rigged.
He turned his eyes back to the TV to take in the scene in front of him. The main character had just made up with his wife and scene trickled into the final reels with him watching his daughter get married.
As much as this movie tried to show that despite all the chaos in relationships, love prevailed, Chad wasn't a firm believer in the emotion. He never actually felt the emotion and chances were slim that he ever would. He would never get married, never have children, never have to watch them walk down the aisle and never have to deal with all the problems that came with a stable relationship. To put it simply, the mere thought of a committed relationship turned him off completely, which was the cause of more than one break up in his teen life. He didn't like commitment, and as much as he loved a girl's company, wasn't really motivated to go all out for one.
The setting that he and Sonny had arranged for themselves – acquaintances with benefits – seemed like the perfect compromise to him. No strings attached, nothing to look back on and no responsibility. No girl had provided him with that option, and he had liked the freedom that Sonny had afforded him. He would enjoy this and he would enjoy it thoroughly. And if enjoying that relationship meant severing all of Sonny's other relationships, he was fully committed to letting it be so.
Ah, the irony.
Tawni was pacing back and forth on the carpeted floor of her studio flat, contemplating her rash behavior.
"What if this was all a misunderstanding? What if Sonny didn't have a crush on Nico and wasn't out to get him?" she asked herself. It had been pretty weird that Portlyn mentioned Sonny's crush on Nico but not the fact that Sonny and Chad were practically ogling each other.
But then there was that Blue Collar sketch, where she was sure she saw Sonny rub up on Nico in a more than friendly way. She had to be flirting. No way was Sonny that good of an actor. She saw the way she tilted his chin to face her in that scene, and she saw that nervous look in Nico's eyes.
Sonny was up to something, and she knew it. If she didn't act quickly, Nico was going to fall into that little fox's arms.
But then again, Sonny had tried to explain what was going on. Tawni hadn't given her the time of day of course. She drove off in her red convertible and left Sonny dusty in her trail.
Tawni decided that if she was going to find out the truth, she might as well get it from the primary source.
She drove back to the studio hastily, knowing that the person she was looking for would still be there. If she guessed correctly, he'd be back in his dressing room from a certain Monster-Truck-Date with the bitch, and she could confront him right there. She did not waste her time memorizing his schedule for nothing.
She parked her car and stomped into the empty, studio, with the exception of the night crew and some shows that filmed late at night, and into the dressing room of the person who held her affections for an entire year.
Just as she entered, she saw Nico right there, talking to somebody on his phone. She retreated in panic, shutting the door silently behind her. She was about to leave when she figured it would do her some good to sneak a little peek of the conversation. Eavesdropping was one of her fortes after all. She held the door ajar by a millimeter and took the conversation in.
"Hey Sonny?"
Tawni gasped. He was talking to Sonny!
"Sonny, I know you're mad. I'm glad you even answered the phone. Sorry for ditching you."
He ditched her? So they didn't go on their usual date? Tawni rejoiced a little inside.
"So… I was wondering. D'you wanna go on a date Saturday night? I know I've been a jerk, and I know you have a crush on me I just-"
He knew! It was confirmed then. Sonny did have a crush on Nico! And Nico was asking her out! Tawni was fuming.
"Oh it's on, bitch. It is so on." Tawni stomped out of the studio, just as noisily as she had stomped in, bent on revenge.
So, what did you guys think? The drama did get a bit thicker in this one, didn't it? I'm currently writing this with butter popcorn on my side, so you can rest assured that my little craving was satisfied.
I used this chapter to clarify more on the state of Chad and Sonny's relationship, as well as flesh out Tawni's character (she's been left behind a little bit, huh?) I have plans of getting a few of The Falls cast into the drama, but I'm starting to think that it'll distract a bit from the plot of the story. What do you guys think?
And the mysterious shoes? Yeah, I have plans for those ;) And those plans involve YOU, the readers. So make sure to keep tuned in until that mysterious character reveals himself, or herself (you never know), depending on how the story goes. And leave your comments, suggestions and speculations on a review. I'd love to hear from more of my readers.
Review and Recommend!
-AnotherDarnApple