Author's Note: I know. I haven't updated in a loooong time. I basically didn't update for so long, I figured I might as well put it off until after the holidays. I've been really busy, but now I'm back with a brand new chapter. I hope you like it, cause I had SO much fun writing it. Warning: I switch POV's a lot in the first part of this chapter cause I wanted to get both of their reactions to the same things. Just letting you know. I also want to thank LilRockerStar, , Sophbells, DannySamLover20, and swac twilight14 for reviewing, you guys are awesome! Please continue to review if you like this story. Enjoy chapter five!

"We need to talk." I said, my stomach twisting even as the words came out of my mouth. Please tell me I know what I'm doing.

"We do?" Chad looked totally shocked. Then he cleared his throat. "I mean, sure, great, lets talk." He pulled out a chair for me, but I shook my head.

"Not here. We need to talk... in private."

Chad stared at me for a second. "I-I, um, is everything okay Sonny?"

I bit my lip. "I hope so. Or at least, I hope it's going to be." When he still didn't move, I sighed and grabbed his sleeve, trying to ignore the chill that raced down my spine as we touched. "Come on."

Chad's POV:

As Sonny led me out of the cafeteria, I felt my heart race. In fact it was thumping so loudly, I was sure she must be able to hear it. A thousand questions were in my head and on the tip of my tongue, but I decided to hold them back until Sonny had said her peace. It looked like she had something important to say. She led me into her and Tawni's dressing room and immediately released my arm. I stood there awkwardly, while she walked over to her nightstand table and picked something up. It looked like a piece of paper.

Sonny's POV:

I took a deep breath as I lifted the piece of paper, trying to hide the fact that my hands were shaking.

"Chad," I turned to him, and tried to ignore how adorable he looked when he was confused, "I want you to have this." I pushed the paper into his hands. "It's a song I wrote for you after we broke up. It's called World of Chances. I want you to take it."

He looked at me, looking confused and a little disappointed. "Sonny, why-?"

"Because, it can't go on like this Chad." My voice cracked a little, so I took another deep breath to steady it. "I don't want us to be awkward the whole time I'm here. I want us to be able to work together like two professional adults. I don't have the energy to keep avoiding you or wonder what you're thinking constantly."

Chad raised an eyebrow at me, a brief grin forming on his face. "You've been thinking about me Sonny?"

"Not the point." I said quickly, trying to hide my embarrassment. "I just mean, it can't go on like this. So please take the song. Cause I don't want to be reminded of why I broke up with you anymore. Let's just let it go and try to be friends for the rest of this week." I swallowed hard. "Are you okay with that?"

Chad's POV:

"Are you okay with that?" She searched my face and looked in my eyes, as if trying to read into my facial expression what I thought of her little speech.

Friends? Us, be friends? We were never friends, Sonny. We were enemies, and then we were boyfriend and girlfriend. But friends? Never.

"Friends sounds... perfect." I said carefully, folding the paper and slipping it into my pocket. She's moved on Chad. If you really love her, you'll let that happen. I tensed as my subconscious reminded me once again of what I had never truly said to Sonny. Love. But I did love her and now I could never have her.

"Great." Sonny's voice sounded somewhere between relieved and sad. "I'm glad you see it that way too."

"Yeah." I kept my gaze fixed on my shoes. I was afraid if I looked up she would be able to see how much I was not okay with this. "Well, I should probably get going." I turned to go to the door, but something turned me back around. "Wait, Sonny, I-I want you to know..."

"Yeah, Chad?" Her brown eyes stared into my blue ones, and suddenly I found myself losing my place.

"I-I just wanted to thank you. For saying all that. And I'm glad we don't have to be awkward around eachother anymore."

"Oh." She dropped her eyes. I cringed at my own cowardice. Nice one Cooper. "You're welcome." Before I knew what was happening she walked towards me and opened her arms for a hug. I opened mine as well, but just as I was about to embrace her, the door to the dressing room flew open and hit me in the back. Before I could stop myself, I stumbled forward, slamming into her and knocking her to the ground.

Sonny's POV:

"Chad, wha-?" I blinked, dazed. All I could see were flashes of light. Is this what they mean when they say "I saw stars"? How hard did I hit my head? It took me a second to realize that the flashes of light were coming from cameras. Cameras? I looked straight up and saw Chad's face, close to mine, frozen with surprise. And then I realized... Chad was on top of me. And the cameras were held by a dozen reporters standing in the doorway.

"Get off of me!" I said quickly, and pushed him as hard as I could. He scrambled up, and offered me his hand, but I pushed it away.

"Sonny! Over here! Chad can we get a comment from you about Channy? Is this what it looks like? Can you give us some details?" The voices of the reporters and the flashing of the cameras made me cringe. I stared up at Chad as he looked from me to the reporters, his cheeks pale.

"Chad... how could you?" I blinked hard as tears started to form in my eyes. "I thought... I thought... how could you!" I swiped at my tears with one hand, jumped to my feet and pushed through the doorway, ignoring the reporters questions, and the flashes of the camera's. I am never going to be able to show my face in public again once those pictures get out! I can't believe Chad would pull a trick that low... I thought, as I blindly stumbled through the hallways, trying to put distance between me and my humiliation. Finally reaching the door, I ran outside and leaned against the side of the building, sobbing.

"Sonny? Sonny! Are you okay?" I felt a hand on my arm and looked up, terrified I'd see Chad there. But it wasn't Chad. It was Shayne.

"Shayne?" I blinked, and wiped some of my tears away again, feeling my mascara smear underneath my fingers. "What are you doing here?"

"I saw you running through the hallways and thought you might be sick. Are you okay? Do I need to call someone for you?" He leaned down slightly to look in my eyes, and I felt a warm rush of gratitude at his concern.
"No, I'm f-fine." I hiccuped softly, then shivered.

"Are you cold? What happened? Who do I need to beat up?" As he talked, Shayne slipped the jacket off his shoulders and handed it to me.
I smiled at little. "Thanks. And... well, I might as well tell you. You'll know in a few hours anyway." I sighed and brushed a piece of hair behind my ear. "Chad... he... well he set me up. H-he was mad at me for breaking up with him I guess... anyway... he made it look like we were, um..." I trailed off, a little uncomfortable. "Well I guess you could say he just knocked me to the ground and then.. there were these reporters..." I trailed off, feeling my throat tighten.

"He knocked you to the ground?" Shayne moved closer to me and slid his arm around my shoulders. "I'm going to kill him."

I laughed. Normally, I would have felt a little bit nervous about him putting his arm around me, but for once I was so shook up I didn't even care. It was actually kind of nice after all Chad had put me through. "It's okay. I don't even care about that. It's just that... he made it look like something was going that most definitely isn't. And I guess... I guess I just don't believe he would go that far to get me back."

I shivered again and closed my eyes. "He didn't used to be that way."

Shayne nodded than squeezed my shoulders. "You're really brave, you know that Sonny?"

"What?" I opened my eyes and stared at him.

He nodded again. "I mean it. Coming back here, facing your ex, stepping back into the public eye, that's gutsy stuff. And I know, if you were brave enough to do all those things, you're brave enough to stick around here and show what you're made of by not letting those pictures get you down. You know what really happened and your fans won't desert you over a thing like this."

I looked up at him. "How did you know I was thinking of quitting?"

He shrugged, then smiled. "Who wouldn't at least think about it right? But I know you're strong Sonny. You can handle this."

I sighed. "Well, I guess so. Thanks Shayne, I really, truly, appreciate everything you've done."

"What? I haven't even done anything yet. But I'm going to try." Shayne squeezed my shoulders again, then released me. "Go back inside and don't worry about those pictures unless you see them online. And if Cooper gives you any trouble, you just phone me, okay?"

"Okay." I smiled as he started to move away. "Oh wait! I don't have your phone number."

"Oh, you don't? Okay well here it is." He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket with the number already written on it and winked.

I laughed. "I see you had that ready."

He shrugged again. "Just in case. See ya Sonny."

"See you Shayne." As he walked off to his car, I took a deep breath, turned and faced the door again. I would get through this. Somehow...

Chad's POV:

What just happened? What just happened? What. The. Heck. Just. Happened? I stared in my dressing room mirror, reliving over and over the words Sonny had said. "How could you Chad!" Did she really think I was capable of hurting her like that? My heart sank as I thought of what she must be going through right now. If I ever get my hands on the person who really sent those reporters here I'm going to-

"Chad!" I turned around to see Tawni in the doorway, looking seriously angry. "Chad, you better call your bodyguards, cause I am about to inflict some major damage on your pretty little movie star face!"

I threw up my hands as she stepped forward threateningly. "It wasn't me! I had nothing to do with it!" It probably wasn't very manly the way my voice cracked, but an angry Tawni had about the same intimidation factor as a nuclear bomb being tossed at your face. Scary stuff.

"Yeah, right!" She stopped just inches of my face and hissed, "You have done some pretty stupid stuff in your day, Cooper, but this is lower than low! How could you do that to Sonny? I thought you loved her you idiot!"

"I do!" I yelled before I could think about it, then blushed. "I mean, I, uh, um..."

"Oh get over yourself!" Tawni rolled her eyes. "We all know it."

I sighed. "I didn't do it, Tawni. I know it looks bad, but I could never do that to Sonny. I would never hurt her like that."

Tawni gave me a look that made me want to crawl in a hole and die there. "Chad, that trick has your name all over it. I can't believe you would pull something like that and then lie about it. Even I didn't expect that of you, Chad, and believe me, my expectations of you are not high!"

"Hey!"

Tawni sighed. "Chad, I hope you realize, when you pulled that stunt, you ruined your chances with Sonny. Not just for today, not just for this week, but for forever. She would never be with someone who did that to anyone, let alone her. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I was almost sure you guys would get back together eventually. I thought you weren't really that much of a jerk. I guess I was wrong."

"Tawni, I-I didn't do it. I don't know how to convince you, but I really didn't."

"Oh spare me!" She threw up her hands, exasperated, and turned on her heel to walk out. Suddenly she turned around again and faced me. "I'd just be on your guard after this Cooper. There are a lot of people here who love Sonny to pieces and they'll hate to see her hurt. Just watch out, okay?"

I gulped. "Are you threatening me?"

"No, dummy, I'm just warning you. You might want to be on your guard." She turned and marched out before I could say another word.
I sighed and rubbed my forehead. Sonny is never going to forgive me for this... even if it wasn't me. I rubbed my head harder as I felt the beginnings of a migraine start. I always got them when I was under a lot of stress. I guess I'll go to the cafeteria and get some water to take with some meds, I thought. Maybe that will help keep my mind off Sonny and how much I've blown it today too.

I walked slowly to the cafeteria, and got a bottle of water, then took my medication and chugged down half the bottle. I sat there for awhile, opening and shutting my eyes, trying to decide if I felt bad enough to bail on rehearsal tonight, and later, my date. I sighed as I finally realized I couldn't cancel. That would be like admitting I did it and was hiding out. As I stood up and turned to walk back to my dressing room, I noticed a lot of the people in the room were laughing. Well, it's good to know everyone else is having a good day. Then I noticed they weren't just laughing. They were all laughing at me.

Just then Rebecca ran up to me, with her phone in her hand. "Chad! I-I think you should see this."

I took the phone from her and stared at the screen. I recognized it as a gossip site I had often seen, Ingrid's Inside Scoops. Everyone read it these days. Then I noticed the latest entry. It read, in big headlines, Chad Dylan Cooper's Private Online Journal EXPOSED! I gasped.

"I checked it out." Rebecca gave me a sympathetic look. "I'm pretty sure it's the real deal."

I clicked on the link and stared disbelieving at my private thoughts and feelings, now on the internet for everyone to see. "This...this can't be happening." I sat down hard in my chair. I've been journaling in that thing since Sonny and I were dating! There's probably tons of juicy stuff in there... but it's not stuff I want anyone to know! I thought back to the stuff it covered. My hidden feelings for Sonny. How I had asked her out. My nerves about our first date. My total humiliation after our first date. Our many dates afterwards. Our break ups. My disbelief after she left. A couple of dreams I had had about her. There was even a VERY recent entry about Sonny coming back to So Random. I closed my eyes. This. Cannot. Be. Happening.

Rebecca patted my shoulder, obviously a little awkward. "Chad... do you have any idea who would do something like this to you?"

I thought of Tawni's warning/threat to me earlier. Then I shook my head. Tawni hadn't known anything about my journal. The only person I had ever told about it was... Sonny.

AN: DUN DUN DUN! (Yes, that's my imitation of dramatic music.) If you haven't picked up on this already, this story is going to have a little bit of a mystery element, which is making this really fun to write. There is going to be SO much drama, (with some definite Channy along the way) but I'll try hard not to make it sound like a bad episode of Mackenzie Falls! I know so far this story has been a little light on the Channy action, but don't worry, that will be coming soon. Thanks for reading!