A/N Okay, so due to my lovely reviewer past decembers, I've been inspired to start writing this chapter, number 21 already! She just gave me an absolutely brilliant idea, and I wanted to get started! So of course, all credit and dedications go to past decembers, for being amazing. Oh, and check out her stories Ten Minutes and Into the Sky, kay? Awesomeness! Now let's look at what Chad was thinking during Chapter 20...
Chapter 21
Hit Rewind, Let's Do It in Chad's Way!
After basically flirting with my best friend in front of everyone a few days ago, my cast had been all over me. Especially Portlyn.
*Flashback*
"Chad!" My cast screamed, storming in. I was hiding in my dressing room an hour after the embarrassing incident, and my face was still bright red.
"Okay, I'm gonna answer your questions before you start screaming at me, because I'm awesome and you're all way too predictable," I snapped.
"First, NO, I do not have a crush on So-Allison. She's a Random." And my best friend. "Ewww. Second, I called her pretty because she is pretty, and it would be useless denying it, Randomite or not. And third, no, NO we cannot have a plotline which involves a new guest character that is named after one of the Randoms getting killed." They all shot me weird looks. "What? I'm not deaf, and none of you can whisper very quietly." I informed them, then threw them out.
And of course, Portlyn came storming back in ten minutes later. I groaned.
"Get OUT, Port!"
"No. You and that Random... there's something going on. I don't particularly care what it is... what I care about is that you're lying to us, Chad."
And with that, she picked herself up and stomped off, slamming the door after her.
*Flashback ends*
Ugh. The whole thing made me blush. Sonny was my best friend. Even during the years she wasn't there, she was the whole reason I went on. The reason for every good thing. Telling my mom to dump her loser husband. Nah, what would Sonny say? Firing my whole cast just for being irritating. No, what would Son say if she knew? Living life. Sonny wouldn't want you to give up Chad. She'd want you to follow through life. You promised Chad, you promised.
So, basically, my conscious came in the form of Sonny Munroe. Yes, I was that suckered by her. Isn't life a joy? It's hard to explain that someone's got you completely wrapped around their pinkie finger without being related to them or in love with them, but I, Chad Goldfarb, managed it.
So being in an awkward situation with her was bad. I couldn't go without talking to her... I'd gone back to relying on her faster than should've been possible. So there was only one thing for it; break out and meet in the secret room for a long, awkward talk. Yaaaay.
(Haha, I made him say yay.)
I couldn't face walking up to her and saying 'we need to talk'- not only would that be weird, it'd alert the Randoms. No, to me, Sonny wasn't a Random. She was simply Sonny. So instead, I pulled my phone out of my pocket as I walked onto set. I could feel some eyes on me (Portlyn, Katrina and Skylar probably- my behaviour relating to Sonny freaked them out.)
Can we talk? Chad x
I sent that, and set it down on the table, waiting anxiously for a reply. I always seemed to sign off with an x. But it was Sonny. Adding an x was normal and nice. My phone started singing the chorus of 'In Fate's Hands' by the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and I dived for it.
Come close to me, and don't you fake it... It belted out, and I shut it off before the screaming part started. (I absolutely looove that song.) I changed my phone to vibrate, then read my message from Sonny.
Of course. Since when do you need permission? Sonny x
She actually had a point. All this awkwardness was making me polite. Usually it'd go something like, 'Yo, Sonny, come talk to me! Chad x'
I shuddered. There wasn't really a reply I could think of to her question, because I didn't know. Ugh.
Just meet me at the private room at lunch, k? Chad
Well, that sounded desperate. But she'd understand. Sonny always understood- everything I didn't say as well as all that I did say. I appreciated that.
See ya then, worry guts. Sonny x
Oh, so now she was making fun of me, too. Joy. The difference was I knew she was being playful, not spiteful. But I still didn't reply, and I don't think she expected me to. That's what I loved about he- our friendship. She knew when I needed her, when I needed space, and when I needed to battle her at Call of Duty. That kinda thing.
A part of my mind was almost dreading talking to her, even despite all her understanding. That was the part of me that had proclaimed her pretty and started this whole thing. The part of me that had started to notice little things, the way I catalogued and chose who next to date. How her long eyelashes brushed against her face, how her eyes were the exact shade of milk chocolate, how those eyes sparkled when she laughed...
But it was all just automatic. There weren't really any romantic feelings for her. So because of my dread, rehearsals zoomed past and before I knew it, Katrina was letting us go for lunch. I glanced up and saw the whole clique that was my cat fast approaching; so neatly and casually, I turned and walked quickly out of the backdoor, and got to the private room in less than ten minutes. I felt the need to be there before her.
I walked in, and sure enough there was no one there. I knew her rehearsal usually ran on, and Katrina had let us out early, I think. Oh well. It gave me more time to mentally prepare myself. I sat down at the table (which was a lot like a randomly placed dining table, except the only people to ever eat in here ate while sitting on the couch *cough*) and tried to think of what to say. I'm a brilliant actor, but I have to be honest when it comes to her. And honesty is darn hard.
I head the door open.
"Hey, Goldie," She sang out casually. Hee hee. She recognises my presence.
"Sup, Sonbeam?" I responded, using one of the many nicknames for her nickname.
I watched her sit down on the couch, completely at ease. I grinned, and walked over, then swung my legs over the back of the couch and landing beside her. (I'm watching EastEnder's right now! Thank goodness, Ronnie gave Kat's baby back. I feel sorry for her though. It's a heartbreaker storyline)
"Am I the only one getting the feeling our casts are now conspiring against us?" She whined at me. I smiled at the irony, realizing it wasn't only my cast all but locking me into my dressing room between rehearsals.
"Nah. Mine have been basically dragging me around the past few days. You?"
"Same. They seriously seem to think we have feelings for each other!" She started giggling, and even though it wasn't her usual infectious laugh, I couldn't help joining in, even if I didn't seem to find it all quite as funny as she did. Our eyes locked and the laughter died in my throat, as I felt myself falling and staring into her eyes. We both started to lean in... then suddenly, the weird connection was broken, and Sonny jerked backwards, blinking rapidly in shock.
And, man, not nearly as shocked as I felt.
I pulled myself together, though, as she smiled lightly and crossed her legs. How can that girl go from one emotion to another so easily? In fact, how can teenage girls in general do that? I suddenly remembered she was waiting for an answer, and my grin slipped from my face and mouth went dry. I tried to look up, but my hands moved of their own accord and I started fiddling with my tight tie, and staring down at the uncomfortable shoes I'm always forced to wear during work.
"," I said, unable to talk loudly or clearly. I mentally groaned as she answered.
"What?"
"I said we need totalkaboutwhathappenedaysago," My voice started out strong, but I faltered at the end again. I could feel my humiliation radiating off in waves.
"What?" She asked again. I could feel her getting a little anxious.
"WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED DAYS AGO!" I yelled. I immediately felt bad; Sonny was like glass. Hurt her, and she would break pretty easily.
Of course, there's a part of me that's always underestimated her. And that part of me didn't realize just how strong she's grown in the past years. Back then, she would've flinched, and depending on her mood, maybe cried. She could be a delicate little girlie-girl, and took that approach to how she felt rather than the tough tomboy side she sometimes showed. But, as didn't dare look up, I heard her calm, casual voice.
"Sure. What about it?" Her voice penetrated my train of though nonchalantly. Yes, in the past few years, she had grown stronger. Stopped shattering at a little pain. And she had more of a tomboy side, too. The last time I had seen her, she only wore jeans if it was absolutely pouring with rain, and even then she didn't like it- she was more a sundresses and skirts kinda girl. But now all she wears in jeans and Converse, Converse and jeans. I realized I'd gotten lost in my thoughts again, and I couldn't think of a single thing to say.
"I... um... I'm..." Yes, that was the extent of it. Stuttering. Reduced to stuttering over a stupid awkward moment. I saw concern cloud her brown eyes, and she leaned forward and touched my arm gently. Warmth shot through my arm, from my shoulder to my fingertips. Which is obviously how I knew I didn't have proper feelings for her... because no one, out of all the- don't mind me saying this- extremely hot girls I'd dated, none had ever given me that feeling. So- all the girls I'd liked never gave me that feeling, and Sonny did obviously I didn't like her. Yeah...
"Chad. You know you can tell me anything, okay?" She whispered. I glanced up at her uneasily. I didn't know where to begin.
Now, I must really be starting to sound like an idiot. The obvious answer is, "Man up, dude, it's your best mate! Tell her what you both know and get it over with," But for me, it wasn't quite so simple. I knew, that if I said this all wrong, Sonny would get the image that she was hideous (which she isn't) and that I hate her (which I don't) and the reason I 'hate' her is because she'll never ever be good enough. Which she always, always will.
All such thoughts flooded out of my head, as she looked thoughtful for a moment, and then she started pouting, her lips trembling, like she was trying not to cry. My heart clenched in my chest, and my eyes went huge. She looked up and met my eyes again, and I nearly choked. She looked so... sad. She tightened her hand on my arm a little.
"Please, Chaddy..." She begged, and my mouth fell open, and the desperation to stop hurting her caused the needed words to form in my head.
"Well... you know how I sorta... kinda... said you were pretty?" I asked, then regretted my choice of words as worry crossed her face. I cringed internally and looked down. It was obvious she thought I was going to tell her she was horrifically hideous or something.
"Yes," She murmured. I glanced up to get another good look at her face, and she seemed to start a little, and removed her warm hand from my arm. The truth formed its words in my head.
"Okay... Well, I can't deny that I said that," Get it all out, dude, you sound like your denying it...! "And I also can't deny that it's... true." This was hard to say. She truly was an absolutely beautiful girl, and that made me want to protect her. Especially from Hollywood madness. If she went all anorexic... well, it'd be up to me to stop her.
I looked up to see her reaction, and her mouth was hanging open, and I could see the rebellion in her eyes. I sighed.
"It's true, don't go all insecure on me," I insisted, seeing the fight in her eyes (Seventeen Ain't So Sweet by the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus reference...)
Now, to beat down the rumours.
"But, Sonny, I do not have... those sort of feelings for you. I know I've probably made it sound like I do, but I don't. I don't." I felt relieved to get that out. It was the truth after all. But at the same time, it didn't feel like I was telling her the whole truth. Which was weird, because I was. She screwed her face up, thinking hard.
"I think I understand," She said uncertainly. I could hear the wheels turning in her head. She still looked thoughtful. I suppose, with another person, I would've gotten frustrated. But this was Sonny, my best friend. She could tell when I was lying nearly 100% of the time. I knew I had to explain more deeply, so that all feelings were clear.
"Well, it's sort of automatic for me to look at girls that way... if she'd pretty, it is distracting." I pulled a face at the... the... heartbreaker part of me. I picked up girls and dropped them just as easily. "After four years of dating on looks alone. Ugh," I shivered, thinking of the many, many horrible- but hot- girls I'd gone out with.
"Why do you do it, Chad?" She asked me, looking me square in the face. All the awkwardness had pretty much dissipated.
I explained the boring story of my publicist's crappy ideas, how I'd gone along with them and how much I hated it. She was the perfect audience; groaning and being sympathetic in all the right places.
Then she surprised me by playing with my hair, brushing the bangs (is that the right word? I'm not American) out of my eyes. I smiled. She always used to do that.
"But I know the truth..." She whispered sweetly. I looked up at her, surprised all over again. What was she talking about? "Chad Dylan Cooper is a fictional character," She informed me, grinning confidently. "The real Chad is Chad Goldfarb, and he's awesome, funny, a little arrogant, sweet, and has a best friend by the name of Allison Munroe... also known as Sonny," She smiled hugely at me, and a huge grin spread across my face as I took in her words, touched. Sonny had a way of making me feel like a completely decent person- something Chad Dylan Cooper was not. I felt the need to respond.
"Yeah." I murmured, realising just how lucky I was to have her. "And Chad Goldfarb's best friend Sonny is great too." I hesitated, then took the risk and told her exactly what I thought of her. "She's pretty, sweet, smart and lovely." I finished, and she beamed brightly at me.
"Fine," She mumbled, still gazing into my eyes with a silly grin. I responded automatically.
"Fine,"
"Good," She said, and it was like the old 'fine, good,' speeches; a best friend ritual rather than a screaming fight.
"Good." She was giggling now, and I couldn't help but ask the question; one that would answer whether we were over the awkwardness, and if we were still bestest best friends, as I used to call us. (Awww, baby Chad reference 3)
"So are we good?" I rested my hand on hers, and smiled softly as she took my hand.
"We are so good," She said softly, and I was the happiest I'd been all week.
CDC~SM~CDC~SM~CDC
(Oh my crap. My compute decided to restart itself. Thank goodness for auto-recover, it meant I only lost a short paragraph!)
I was in a great mood all week. Sonny had hung out at my house until she was kicked out- she used to leave when Charles came home, but not any more. I loved how she dealt with Charles- polite and condescending. Charles didn't like her much- but my family adores her, so he couldn't ban her from my life or anything. Not that he'd be able to do that, anyway. We'd just flip him (as in give him the finger) and meet at the studios. And in less that a year, I'd be eighteen and he wouldn't control me anymore. I'd be home free.
Anyway, everyone was weird about my good mood. And by everyone I mean my cast. Sonny was happy that I was happy, and I was happy because she was happy about my happiness. (Confused? Me too.)
Then, the most dreaded thing for a Condor Studio's actor came on; a call to Mr Condor's office. Our whole cast, and all the Randoms. And Sonny, of course. But she's not a Random in my eyes.
We walked in, and the Randoms were already there. What caught my attention (and panicked me slightly) was the fact that there was no Sonny. No Sonny? Was she sick? Had Charles killed her? Wouldn't put it past him...
I translated my worry into a sarcastic comment.
"Yo, Randoms, where's the new girl? Has she realized she's on a crap show and left?" I asked, forcing a smirk to my lips. They took the bait.
"No, Cooper, for your information, she dropped her bag and had to pick her stuff up. Being the nice, considerate person she is, she told us to go on ahead," Tawni snapped at me, glaring. I stifled a laugh. Typical Sonny. She was so clumsy sometimes. And still extremely nice to anyone within a mile radius.
Just then, the girl herself came crashing through the door. Ah, no seats left, poor girl. I signed sympathetically at her, and she just shrugged, before Condor turned around.
"Why are you standing?" He practically yelled in her face. My shoulders stiffened. No one should get away with screaming at my Sonshine.
"Um, there's no seats left, sir?" I love Sonny. I mean, uhm, Sonny's my best friend. She's hilarious at dealing with bossy psychos.
"Very well then. Sit." He demanded. I could see she was as confused as anyone else. (When I first typed confused, I mistyped and it said Sonfused, lol! Okay, ignore me, it's nearly midnight and I'm talking crap)
"Sir...?" Sonny asked. Well done Sonny, most people would just stand there like an idiot. Mr Condor turned and did a very scary thing. He pointed at me. Uh oh.
"Sit. His lap. Now." He said, almost boredly. I nearly had a heart attack. I was cool with her sitting on me, but everyone else was gonna skin us alive. There was an awkward silence, before she made her way over and slid into my lap. Thankfully, the boss man yelled for attention before anyone could comment. Without thinking, I slipped my arms around her waist. I needed her, and she felt like she was going to slide off anyway. She put her feet up on the back of Skylar's chair. I tried not to laugh.
"Right, so I've decided the lot of you fight too much," Mr Condor yelled, glaring at us as he turned. Everyone turned to look at Chad and I, even though we must've looked like a flipping couple right now. Even though we're not and... Mr Condor made me sit here!
"So," Condor barked, looking at us all angrily. I don't think he's ever actually not angry, even when he's smiling. Except maybe when Dakota's around... Eww. "I've decided you all need another little bonding exercise!" He announced, smiling. Which was terrifying.
"So... you're all going to take part in a karaoke competition! All of you are doing solos, except for Chad and Allison," He said, totally shocking me and Sonny.
"WHAT?" We yelled in shock. We weren't displeased, after all, we're best friends! Then again, all our cast members needed to believe we were mad. Sonny didn't leap off my lap to protest, and I couldn't be bothered moving my arms. She even kept her feet up, so when everyone turned to stare at us, we looked completely unnatural.
"Yes. As you two fight the most," Ha, suckers. We're best friends actually! "You two are being picked to do a duet!" Hm. Me and Sonny singing... together? Interesting. We were still shocked, though. And the scary thing is, Condor found it funny. So funny, in fact, he threw his head back and laughed. I'd never seen him laugh before. It was disturbing. Me and Sonny stood up at the same time, and shocked as I was, I forgot to remove my arms from around her.
Just before our casts turned and saw us, she whispered in my ear.
"Scream!"
And then our casts saw us, standing close with my arms wrapped around her. There was a long second of silence, which was broken by Mr Condor slamming the door and leaving us alone to face their wrath.
Oh, joy.
They all started yelling, and Tawni was loudest.
"What the heck?"
Sonny struggled free of my arms. She turned to look me in the face, and her back was to our cast mates. She winked subtlety at me before going.
"WHAT THE HECK?"
And then I understood. By 'scream' she meant keep yelling at each other so that no one could hear the words. She's a smart one.
So immediately, we began arguing, which soon rose to a scream, until Tawni screamed herself.
"SILENCE!" She shrieked, and we shut up and turned to look at her, surprised.
Nico and Grady strode forwards and grabbed Sonny roughly by the arms, and away from me. Everyone glared at me; no one saw as Sonny mouthed 'Good luck!' at me.
The Randoms all ran in front of Sonny, and I realized I was the one getting blamed. To them, Sonny was a 'victim'.
"Leave her alone," Zora hissed at me. They all stalked towards me, slowly, until Tawni broke ranks and ran forward and grabbed my arm. What the-
SMACK!
Tawni slapped me around the face.
(iluvchanny13, told you he'd get it!)
I staggered back in shock. Tawni got in my face.
"She's ours, Chad. Not a Mack Falls girl, not a model. She's ours. So keep. Your. Hands. Off. Of. Her." She spat the last word in my face, and then they all stormed past me to the door, Nico shoving me deliberately with his shoulder. (Like Dudley does to Harry near the start of the second Harry Potter movie!)
The door slammed again behind them, leaving me with my castmates. They immediately began screaming at me as well, but I held up a hand and they shut up.
"I don't want to talk about it," I snapped, then slammed out the door myself, holding a hand to my stinging cheek.
A/N So love it? Hate it? Like it? Strongly dislike it? Review! I had fun with this chapter. It's 00.11, and my dad's turned the internet off, so I'll upload this tomorrow... or later today I suppose. Later, guys!
Nangelgirl x