Not Near

Chapter three! You people seem to like it, so that's good. This one, I thought, was really, really cute. I 3 cute! Hope you likeey!

***********************************

"Sonny," Chad said.

"Chad," Sonny said.

They glared at each other for a moment, and then their faces split into a grin. Sonny put her magazine down on the table, and removed her feet from the other end of the couch. Chad beamed at her and sat down, pushing her legs farther away and spreading his arms out.

"Please, make yourself comfortable," Sonny muttered under her breath as Chad grabbed the remote that was balancing on her knee. He began to flip through the channels with inhuman speed, and then finally settled on the Lifetime. Makenzie Falls was on.

"Figures," Sonny said, her good mood disappearing. Chad ignored her.

"Shh, this is the one where Conroy guest-stars," he said, making a silencing gesture with his hand.

"What are you doing in the So Random! building anyway?" Sonny asked, swinging her legs off the couch completely and pushing her elbows into her knees, her face in the back of her hands. Chad jerked his head back, his eyes suddenly sparkling.

"Well, maybe I just wanted to spend some time with the prettiest girl in Hollywood," he said, cocking his head.

Sonny rolled her eyes. "Tawni's not here, Chad, she's off teaching Nico and Grady how to straighten their hair."

Chad looked questioningly at her, and then shrugged when he got no response. "I wasn't talking about Tawni," he said in a taunting voice. Sonny felt her face begin to heat up, but she forced it back down. Ugh, why did he always have this effect on her?

She decided to ignore him. "Why do you smell like hand-sanitizer?" she asked, sniffing the air.

Sonny swore he scooted closer to her by a fraction of an inch. "Well why do you smell like brownies?" Chad asked.

"I just had one for a snack," she replied, although her heart was beginning to flutter. He moved closer still.

His eyes fell onto the coffee table and he snorted. "What's this?" he asked gleefully, picking up the magazine and holding it up. "Would Chad D. Cooper date you? Are you Chad D. Cooper's type? What does Chad D. Cooper look for in a girl? Find out in an exclusive interview with none other than Chad Dylan Cooper!"

This time, Sonny really did blush, and she tried to snatch the magazine away from him, but he stood up and held it above his head.

"Okay, well, just because it says that on the front cover doesn't mean I was actually on that page." She said, trying to laugh it off and make him look silly. It didn't work.

"You doggy-eared the page to my interview," Chad said, opening up the magazine to the exact same page she'd been on before he walked in.

Sonny couldn't think of anything to say. "Well – it doesn't mean anything," she said, grabbing the magazine out of his hands and sitting down firmly on it.

Chad looked at her for a moment, then scooted even closer. He really shouldn't do that, Sonny thought. He was making her nervous.

"So did you learn anything from that interview?" Chad asked. By now, the two were just an arm's width apart.

"Nothing new," Sonny replied, trying to sound irritated. "Although I didn't know that you liked talking in the third person so much."

Chad's arm was now touching the cushion she was leaning on. She gulped quietly and her hands began to feel clammy.

"Did you see the part where I talked about my rival show? So Random?" Chad asked, moving a fraction of an inch closer to her.

"Yeah," Sonny replied, at this point not really hearing what she was saying. He was so close to her, and his eyes were so intense…

"You kept going on and on about how we have no talent and how we're a bunch of loser amateurs." Sonny said, trying to remember to sound indignant.

"And did you see the part about you?" Chad asked, his voice much softer than before. Sonny, who had been trying to avoid his gaze, snapped her head up and locked eyes with him.

"You said I had great potential," she said gently, like any louder form of sound would shatter the moment. Their thighs were touching.

"Well, I meant it," Chad smiled sincerely, and he moved his face ever so close to hers.

Sonny couldn't breathe. She was frozen under his gaze, his warm blue eyes were twinkling, and she could swear he was tilting his head just a centimeter to the right. His breath fanned out onto her lips, and it smelled like spearmint gum. She couldn't take much more of this.

So, she lunged at him.

It was a lot shorter than I thought it'd be, sorry. On a scale of one to ten, what would this be? Next chapter will be called Not Far