Been Here All Along: Speak Now Part One

Disclaimer: I don't own SWAC.

The funeral was simple, at least for Chad Dylan Cooper's standards. It was held on a sunny August afternoon in Los Angeles, and the weather was a bit chilly. The attendees consisted of Chad's mother Ellie, his brother Samuel, and the MacKenzie Falls cast. The So Random! cast was there as well, everyone dressed in black. Sonny wore a simple black dress with a matching cardigan. Her main accessory? Her grief, which she wore like jewelry.
No one came near Sonny, except for Tawni. Everyone knew the full story about why Chad was in Miami, and it was undoubtedly a topic of gossip. Sonny sat at the corner of the front row, and tears constantly flowed from her eyes in silence. Tawni would pat her leg every once in a while, but besides that contact with humanity was at a minimum.
As the ceremony passed, Sonny couldn't help but stare at a bird in a tree. The bird, a small white dove, stared back for what seemed like hours. Once the ceremony culminated, the dove flew away into the eternal blue sky, as if telling Sonny she needed to free herself.

Sonny was the last one to leave the graveyard. She stayed for an hour and talked to Chad. Although she knew he wouldn't respond, she felt like he knew what she was supposed to do. She brushed her dress off and left the graveyard. As she reached the entrance, she paused and turned behind. She whispered an 'I love you' and blew a kiss.
She walked aimlessly down the streets and stared at the store windows with a blank expression. As she passed a newsstand, she saw the cover of the weekly People. It was a picture of her and Chad hugging, taken from when they first dated. Sonny stared at the magazine intently. Suddenly, she grabbed it and ripped it to shreds. She continued to grab the rest of them and throw them into a rain gutter.
"Hey! Those are my magazines!" The clerk said in a heavy Italian accent. She looked him up and down, from his beer gut to his five o' clock shadow. Suddenly, he recognized the girl and backed off, realizing the trauma she had gone through.

Sonny opened up her apartment with boxes in tow. She grabbed everything and anything that reminded her of Chad and stuffed it into the box. Once she finished, she looked into the box. There were picture frames, magazines, teddy bears, blankets, dresses, plates and even shampoo. There was where she realized that absolutely everything reminded her of that bastard. 'Why did he have to be so fucking stubborn? If he would've thought about what he was doing for two seconds…' Suddenly, Sonny slumped herself onto the floor and began to cry heavily. She reached a point to where she wasn't crying or sobbing, she was wailing. She remained in that position all night, clutching her blanket.

The next morning, Tawni, Nico and Zora stopped by her apartment with some breakfast. They knocked twice on the door, and Sonny didn't answer. Tawni pulled out her spare key and entered. At once they say the mess Sonny had made. Silently, both girls picked up while Nico willed Sonny up to the kitchen table and gave her the hot cakes. Around noon, Sonny seemed to wake up from her reverie and opened up her laptop.
"You need something, Sonny?" Nico asked. They had all gathered around Sonny's TV to watch some sappy chick flick, Lovely and Lyrical.
"Just checking my email. I haven't done that in a while." Sonny opened her inbox to spam, offers, and work emails. There were two from Marshall. The first was asking about where Sonny and Tawni had disappeared to. The second, dated two weeks later, was informing her that the show had been put on hiatus due to lack of cast members. She discarded the two and continued reading. She had an email from Winona about the release of the album, as well as the press release regarding the delay on the album. Sam had sent her an email as well. She deleted it without reading it. Finally, Condor Studios had sent her an email that same morning.

"As you all recently learned, one of our beloved crew members has passed away; Chad Dylan Cooper. Seeing as Mr. Cooper was the star of MacKenzie Falls (which was put on hiatus in July) and there is no possible way to write him off of the series, the whole series will be cancelled effective immediately. Our sincerest apologies to the entire cast, and we hope to see the cast of MK Falls in one of our productions soon."

"No!" Sonny screamed. The three friends all knew the news by then, and they decided not to tell her. Tawni hugged her and rocked her in her arms, as if Sonny was a baby. "How can they do this? It isn't fair!" Tawni gulped.
"That's not all," Zora started. Sonny looked up at her. "Condor Studios has decided to revamp their programming. Which means that for the Fall 2010 Line-Up, So Random! has officially been removed."
"WHAT?" Sonny shot up. She walked into her room, grabbed a pair of sweats, and stormed out of the apartment building, which her friends trailing her.
"Sonny! What are you doing?" Nico yelled, running up behind her.
"How the hell is he going to cancel our show?" Sonny yelled. Nico grabbed her shoulders.
"He didn't pick. We did."
"What? Why?"
"We thought that is was time to start anew. The Falls and So Random were the oldest shows on the channel, and it was time for a change. We're all booking new gigs. We're moving on, Sonny." Suddenly Sonny stared deep into his eyes, while those two words rang in her ears.

Moving on.

Sonny freed herself from Nico's grasp and ran up the street. Everything was telling her it was time. The dove, the magazine cover, and now Nico's words. It was inevitably time. Leaving her friends behind, Sonny turned a corner and hid until they passed her. They couldn't be with her when she spoke. She had to be alone.

x-x-x-x-x-x

Sonny ran into a police station and demanded to speak with someone. That's where she came clean about Sam's physical abuse. She told the officer everything that had happened only 8 months prior. She told him that he beat her. She told him about how she had to hide. She didn't leave anything out; she even told him the drama that had gone on between Chad and Sam. She just wanted to be helpful. The officer has assured her that he'd do what he could, but he saw it unlikely that anything would happen because she had spoken too late. Sonny stared at him with a cold stare and left.
When she left the precinct, Sonny called Winona and asked for a press conference. That same evening, and on live television, Sonny Munroe told the world the secret Chad Dylan Cooper willed her to tell.

She had been physically abused by Sam McDowell.

For multiple reasons, this chapter was agonizing to write. First, because this is the end of Been Here All Along. There's TWO chapters left though, because I ended this chapter halfway. Second, this chapter had to go a certain way, and it became difficult to stay in that pattern. Reading your reviews helped me though. Lastly, I have lots of homework to do!

Signing off, Wizardly Vampirefied!