Chapter Seven: Really Couldn't Care Less
Sonny's Point of View
When the cast of So Random and I arrived at Britney's party, a lot of people were already there. I seemed to remember Tawni convincing me that her parents would be there, but I didn't see a legal adult anywhere. If we weren't heading into Britney Brown, the "good girl of the press's" house, I would have turned tail and left then without a second thought or an "I'm leaving," thrown over my shoulder.
"I thought you said there would be parental supervision," I hissed to Tawni who was walking next to me. "That's the only reason my mom let me come."
Tawni rolled her eyes, but continued smiling and waving at all the people she knew. "Please. I sense an accusation in your tone. Sonny, I did not lie to you. You'll never see her parents, but they will see us."
My eyes widened slightly. "What does that mean exactly?"
"It means that the Browns have cameras all over the house, and they sit in the control room pretty much all night, watching the monitors. There. Does that help your squeaky-clean conscience?" I picked up on her sarcasm right away.
Ah, the price to pay of being the concerned, uptight goody-goody of the group. Taking the dumb approach, I smiled and nodded. "Yep, sure does, thanks."
We were all quiet the rest of the walk up the pink lantern-strewn pathway to the door where the hostess herself was waiting.
"Hey, it's my favorite comedy show cast!" Britney called out when we were a few feet from the door. "Glad you could all make it. Make yourselves at home, and remember: you break it, you buy it," she said so cheerfully and shamelessly you would think she was telling us she was giving away free money later.
Nico and Grady immediately separated themselves from the group, flocking to the crowd of girls talking in a corner of the living room.
Tawni, Zora, and I went over to the snack table and sort of just observed/spied on other people at the party. No matter how hard I looked though, I couldn't find Chad. I sighed and lowered my eyes down to the potato chip in my hand.
Tawni's sound of disgust and utter disapproval was my first sign of hope that he was finally there. I looked eagerly over at Tawni. "What is it?"
"Take a wild guess," Zora said, glaring towards the front door.
Tawni looked in abhorrence over at the cast of Mackenzie Falls who had obviously just arrived at the party. "Who invited them?"
When I caught Chad's eye I smiled a little, and he did also, until someone pulled him away. Disappointed, I turned back to Tawni. "I'm guessing they're wondering the same thing about us."
"Yeah, but we're not a bunch of hotshots who show up at every cool party because we're so cool!" Zora shouted, attracting some attention from people passing by.
Tawni rolled her eyes. "Calm down Zora." She pulled out a tube of raspberry lip gloss and applied what had to have been her hundredth coat that night.
"Well, let's do something or talk to someone," I said impatiently. I looked around the front room, but I couldn't find Chad again.
Suddenly, Britney, who had gotten famous from a popular remake of a classic movie, walked over to us, carrying a black basket that looked like it usually only held Halloween candy. "Hey, girls. Having fun?"
I smiled at her and nodded. "Yeah, it's great."
She gave us a thumbs-up. "Awesome, awesome."
"What's with the basket?" Zora asked.
Britney smiled cunningly and raised her eyebrows. "It's for a game we're playing later. You guys want to play?"
We all nodded at slightly different times.
She took out three scraps of paper and an orange glittery gel pen. "Write your name on a piece of paper, fold it up, and stick it in the basket."
After all three of us submitted our names, Britney flashed us a green braces filled smile and went back to making her rounds.
About thirty minutes later, Britney cut the music and asked for everyone's attention. "Okay, people. Are you having fun?"
Everyone shouted back yes, or yeah, or something along those lines.
She smiled. "Awesome, awesome. Well, it's time for a little game! Are you ready?" she shout-asked us.
Everyone shouted and screamed back again and I had to cover my ears before I went deaf.
She laughed. "Okay. The game we are playing was chosen by a couple of my friends. And the game is… seven minutes in heaven!" Once the screams died down again, she resumed speaking. "And for those of you who now realize you don't want to play… too bad!"
Everyone laughed. Everyone that is except for me, self-proclaimed cautious bore at parties. And proud of it, might I add.
Britney reached into the basket and pulled out two slips of paper. "And the first name drawn is none other than… Sonny Munroe!"
Oh, that figures. I guess I should have seen this disaster coming. Just so long as I didn't get stuck with some creep in the closet. I supposed I'd probably have to thank my mom later for slipping me some pepper spray before I left.
The crowd's reaction was a mix between more shouting and laughing.
"And she will be locked in a closet for seven minutes with… Chad Dylan Cooper!"
Over the cheers, I heard four loud gasps coming from my friends. Well maybe they weren't happy about it, but if I had to be locked in a closet with someone, he was definitely my first choice.
Both Chad and I acted reluctant while we were dragged over to the closet door by two jocks. The door slammed shut on us. I suppose if we were really that unwilling we would've been begging to be let out, but I didn't care. This was the first time I'd been able to see him all night.
"You've got seven minutes!" Britney shouted across the room.
"Hey, stranger," I said.
"Hi. Liking the party?" Chad asked stepping closer to me.
"More and more, yes." I also took a step closer to him.
"So…"
Picking up on what he meant, I spoke up. "We might as well. I mean we were forced in here. It's not like they can get on us for this."
He took my hands into his and laced our fingers together. "True enough." He leaned down and started kissing me. I wondered how many times we could have a chance at playing this again.
After we ran out of much needed air the first time, I pushed him against the wall and ruffled his hair. He laughed. "What are you doing?" He smirked. "I mean, I know my hair is great and all but…"
I rolled my eyes. "Just making it more believable," I said.
"Oh please, we're method actors. I think we can make it believable on our own," he said before leaning down and kissing me again.
Okay, I think I must seriously be a magnet for falling and tripping and other things of that nature, because all I did was take one tiny step backward, and I swear, there was nothing there but air. Yet, I still managed to trip and fall backwards, dragging Chad down with me. Did I mention it hurt? And that it was really loud because we knocked over a Swiffer Wet Jet and a Swiffer Vacuum in the process?
"Sonny, I know I said we could make it believable but this really wasn't what I had in mind," Chad said breathlessly. I guess I knocked the wind out of both of us.
I smacked him on the back only hard enough to make my point. "Don't be ridiculous, that was an accident," I whispered.
"Why are we whispering?"
"Because I think we woke the dead with that," I said chuckling quietly.
"We?" he asked accusingly, before he laughed.
"Oh be quiet. And would it be possible for you to get up? You're kind of crushing me," I said shifting under him.
Before Chad had time to even respond, the door flew open. Oh… If I was ever tempted to break out of my no-swearing habit, it was then.
About half the room gasped, a fourth laughed, and the rest looked away out of embarrassment for us I'm assuming.
Chad scrambled to get off of me, and I tried to speed the process up by pushing on his chest.
"Wow…" Britney said, clicking her tongue while Chad helped pull me to my feet. "I suppose I can take that as you guys are enjoying the party. Awesome, awesome."
We tried to get the heck out of there, but Britney slammed the door on us.
"Sorry for the interruption," Britney called out. "You still have four minutes."
"Okay, that was embarrassing…" I said after a really long silence.
I glanced over at Chad for the first time since we had the door slammed on us the second time. "Yeah, well… we can just tell them we tripped… I mean it's the truth…" Chad said, smoothing his hair down with one hand and smiling awkwardly at me.
"I can't believe I tripped over… air!" I said in frustration.
"That reminds me. Are you okay? You didn't hurt yourself?"
"No, I'm fine. I mean… there's no permanent damage." That much was true.
Chad slowly pulled me closer to him and wound his arms loosely around my waist. "So this is okay?" he asked.
I nodded, wondering if he could hear how hard my heart was pounding from his close proximity. Jeez. How much longer would it take for that to ease up? Hadn't we been dating long enough for my heart to stop spazzing out when he was so close?
"And this?" He leaned down and pressed his lips onto mine. My response was a little less gentle. We did still have four minutes left to kill.
I didn't know if our four minutes had passed or not when I thought I heard someone call out something, but it sounded muffled to me, so I didn't pull away.
I heard it again, but still didn't stop.
Finally I heard a whole crowd of people yelling "stop," and everything stopped sounding muffled all of the sudden.
I pushed Chad away from me and looked at Britney who was chuckling by the open closet door. I didn't want to look at them just yet, but my eyes instinctively found Nico, Grady, Tawni, and Zora. Their mouths were opened up in shock so wide they could've passed as cartoon characters.
I could feel my cheeks blazing as I glanced at Chad who looked equally embarrassed. We didn't want to be that convincing. Heck, we'd already been just a smidge too convincing. Couldn't say we tripped for that last one.
Chad's hair was all messed up and his shirt was all wrinkly from… method acting…
I looked down at my own shirt, finding it just as wrinkled. I pulled down on the bottom of my shirt and smoothed it out while both Chad and I stepped to the side of the closet opening while Britney continued chuckling and staring at us. And of course, since the hostess was still staring at us, so was everyone else.
"Well, well, well… I guess I can take that as you guys are really, really enjoying the party," Britney finally said while I tried to conspicuously smooth down my long brown hair.
Everyone laughed.
"Well, I doubt anyone can top that, but let's see who's next," Britney said reaching for her basket.
I saw the looks of shock on my friends' faces quickly fade to anger and betrayal. Oh boy. They were on to us.
"I am so dead right now," I said to Chad over the cheering as someone named Amber was called up to play next.
"With your friends?" Chad asked.
"Uh, yeah… I may not make it out of this alive. What about you?" I searched the crowd and saw the familiar faces from Mackenzie Falls. They were all either casually chatting or cheering when Alex was also called up to join Amber. They looked like they hadn't even seen what just happened. Unless… the impossible… they didn't care… I looked up at Chad in disbelief.
He smiled like he knew something I didn't. "I sort of already told them."
"And they're okay with it?" I couldn't believe it, even though the evidence was right in front of me.
"Shocking, I know. They said they already knew it was coming anyway, so they really couldn't care less. The only one who was seriously ticked was Portlyn, but she sort of already knew," Chad said.
I would have responded but I saw my friends making their way through the throng of people, all of them on an angry warpath. Panicking, I gripped Chad's arm while Alex and Amber were quite literally shoved into the closet. They were much more reluctant than Chad and I had been. "You wouldn't have happened to come in a limo or your car or something separate from the rest of the cast, would you?"
"As a matter of fact, I did. Ready to ditch?"
"Since I value my life so much, yes. Best to let them cool down." We started speed walking towards the door.
I saw Britney's bewildered expression and smiled at her. "Great party, Britney, I had a blast. We've just really got to go," I said over my shoulder.
"Thanks for inviting us," Chad called out without turning around.
The last thing I saw before we reached the door was my fuming friends and a suddenly cheery Britney.
I didn't even look back to see if they were following us. I felt like a coward for running, but I had a feeling things were going to be even worse if they didn't have time to settle down and… adjust. And who knew? Maybe they would actually be okay with it eventually. You know… maybe… Or… maybe not…
Monday…
I knew I was dead meat. So Random was not going to be very happy with me for keeping the fact that Chad and I were dating, and that they had to find out by us going a smidge overboard in that stupid "seven minutes in heaven" game.
I had already known I was going to get it bad when I went back to the set on Monday, but I never could have foreseen what was really coming.
"We're kicking you off the show, Sonny."
"What?" I asked. They had to be joking. They wouldn't really kick me off the show for a superficial reason like that.
"We're sorry, Sonny. We really are, but… dating the enemy is like, the ultimate betrayal," Zora said.
"What is that in the code or something?" I asked, slightly sarcastic.
They ignored my question.
"And then not even telling us about it," Tawni said shaking her head like a disapproving parent.
"I was scared to tell you guys because of all of this. I was afraid you would react this way," I said, fighting off tears- that would inevitably end up falling anyway –in an attempt to remain strong.
"Well, we might have understood if you had actually told us," Nico said.
"Really?" I asked, not buying it for a second.
"No, probably not," Tawni said, ruthlessly.
The other three glared at her.
"What? I thought people liked the truth." Tawni acted totally innocent.
I hugged myself and still managed to not let any tears fall. "So this is it then? I'm off So Random?"
The silence that followed was my answer. I turned for the exit.
At the last minute, I whirled back around to face them. "You know, I never thought I'd say this, but the entire cast of Mackenzie Falls is a whole lot more mature than you all are. Know why? Because when they found out Chad and I were dating, they didn't threaten to kick him off the show. And to think I thought you guys were my friends." I turned on my heel for the door again.
"You know, you could stay if you dumped Chad!" Grady called out.
I stopped dead in my tracks for about five seconds. Those five seconds were all I needed to make my decision. I forced my legs to move forward to take me to Chad.
When I got to the set of Mackenzie Falls I spotted Chad immediately, even though he couldn't see me. I walked over to him, quickly, getting several surprisingly friendly greetings from Chad's cast mates. I nodded and tried to smile at all of them, but my face probably just looked distorted.
The guy talking to Chad pointed me out to him and he turned around right as I reached his side. Shockingly, my emotions were still more or less under control.
"Hey, Sonny. So how'd it go?" Chad asked cheerfully.
"Not as well as I was hoping for," I said in a quiet voice. "Can we talk in private?"
Chad panicked when I said that. He started walking to his dressing room with me following behind him without saying a word.
We were in the safety of Chad's dressing room before he finally faced me again. He looked crushed even though he wasn't the one to get kicked off his show.
"Okay. Let me have it," Chad said.
"Long story short, they told me I couldn't date you if I wanted to stay on So Random," I said grimly, with a few tears escaping as the back-stabbing pain sank in.
"So this is it then?" Chad asked.
"I guess so…"
Oh, dear! The first cliff-hanger of the story. I originally wasn't going to include a cliff-hanger but... I felt like being devious about it. Haha. So, I'm not sure when the next chapter will be out. Hopefully before you die from suspense. The only thing I can tell you is to keep in mind that I love including plot twists. Enough said. So, please review, and keep an eye out for the next chapter. Thanks for reading!