Hayden and I just stood in front of the door awkwardly for a few minutes. I didn't know what to bring up first; there was so much needed to be said. I unfortunately couldn't recognize the emotion in his face. All I knew was that he kept glancing at a few select people around the crowded room, and then they'd stare at me in confusion. He would simply shrug, and they would move on, before another person would look torwards him and the cycle would repeat. Hayden wasn't exactly doing an excellent job of being discreet about his several silent conversations going on at once.

I felt just like I did at Chad's other party, years ago. Only this time, instead of them giving me condescending glares because I was with Chad, now it was because I was with Hayden.

"So, um, how've you been?" he finally asked. I would say he broke the silence, but with all of the chaotic noise and deafening music playing, that was far from the truth.

I tried to ignore them all, and I forced a smile. "Not that great, but you know, I get by, I guess." I had to shout, since the music was so loud. Whoever was in charge of the sound system must have major hearing problems.

"Yeah, yeah," Hayden said equally as loud. "I know what you mean. Oh, crap, is that what I look like?" his new tone startled me, and he frantically reached for a glass on the counter next to us. He peered into his reflection, and immediately flew his hands to the top of his head to fix an out-of-place strand.

"There. That's better, don't you think?" he sighed in relief.

"Um, sure?" I wasn't positive if he was talking to me, or his reflection. He slowly backed away from his mirror, and sighed. His calm expression was suddenly replaced with worry.

"You don't have a camera on you, do you?" he asked suspiciously.

"No, why?" I answered.

He still wasn't convinced. "You sure?"

I motioned to my pocket-less ensemble and my empty hands, and stared at him incredulously. "Do you see a camera?"

Right when I thought he was about to reply, a girl who looked to be in her late teens unexpectedly slammed into him. "Sorry," she mumbled. She then looked up, and her face changed from mellow to utter shock. "Oh my God, you're Hayden Spencer!" she gushed. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God." she fanned her bright red face.

Hayden gave her an annoyed look. "Do you think I don't know who I am?"

"Sorry," she said regretfully. "I just…wow! I'm kind of new to Hollywood, so I still get star struck a lot."

He rolled his eyes. "Well you better get used to it if you want to be as sucessful as me."

She still smiled at him, unfazed by his attitude. "Can…can I take a picture with you?" she asked, enthusiastically pulling a camera out of her purse.

"No! No unprofessional pictures!" he yelled, shielding his face.

She looked disappointed as she slid her device back in her bright purple purse.

"Here," he started. I watched in horror as he snatched the napkin she was holding, got a miniature pen out of his pocket, and quickly scribbled his name.

"There you go. Now bye." he snapped in a curt manner, passing her the sky blue autographed napkin and made a shoo fly, don't bother me hand motion. She nodded and mumbled a thank you, then walked away with her head down.

I stood there, mouth agape at Hayden. I blinked in surprise. I had to be dreaming. How else could the Hayden I know be so mean to that poor girl?

"Why were you so rude to her?" I couldn't help but ask.

His face morphed into realization as it finally hit him that I had witnessed the whole exchange. He seemed lost for words for a few moments, but his blank expression quickly vanished.

"I know that must have looked bad, but I just have so many fans, and it's kind of annoying to always get interrupted for pictures or autographs, you know?"

I nodded. I guess I could understand that. Personally, my stardom had never reached the stage where I was constantly bombarded, but I could imagine how old that could get after a while. I smiled at him. "Yeah, I get that."

He grinned gratefully at me, making me feel wrong to assume he was just being a jerk. After all, Hayden is definitely not James. Or Chad.

I felt a pang of uneasiness as I thought his name. Something was nudging me, saying that I believed wrongly of Chad. Like he wasn't a jerk or something crazy like that.

Who was my mind trying to fool?

"So, what were we talking about?" Hayden pondered.

"I don't even remember," I said honestly, giggling more than usual. "But I heard you have a new movie?" I said, hoping he would happily dive into that subject, and then I could easily steer it to the important stuff.

His eyes twinkled sparklingly, and he slightly raised his eyebrows joyfully. His pink lips turned into a gigantic smile before they parted to speak. "Yeah, it was great! I played my part excellently. The director said that I'm sure to win an Oscar. And I did a lot of photo shoots for you know, I Love Hayden posters, and…"

He then launched into what felt like an hour long discussion where he droned on about how people love him. He was seriously starting to remind me of Chad with his constant bragging.

Actually, now that I think of it, Chad's gloating never lasted nearly this long.

I nodded with each word, trying my best to look like I was paying attention, and patiently awaited for a break. Gosh, does this guy ever take a breath?

"Um, how about the people that worked with you on the movie? What were they like?" I cut him off right as he was in the middle of a new topic: His new convertible, which he believes matches his new house in Europe perfectly.

"Oh, psh, they were nothing special," he downplayed. "I'm the one who brought the whole flick together." he boasted.

"But enough about me," he eventually said. I sighed in relief, and felt myself grow hopeful. "What's new with you?"

Such an easy question, with such an easy answer. But for some reason, my mouth didn't allow me to speak. I figured it was a habit, formed when I realized a long time ago that to protect myself, I have to say quiet. My lips were glued shut, no matter how much I willed them to part. Why was I putting up my shield now? It was just Hayden. He wouldn't hurt me. Regardless, he was waiting for an answer, and I couldn't just say nothing.

Surprisingly, I brought up this skit on a comedy show I watched last month instead. That's right, I'm still into that stuff. Just not as much as I was when I was on So Random. I went through an agonizing period of nothing being funny to me whatsoever, but that episode was rare in the sense that it made me laugh unstoppably.

"And then, the monkey came out, and the girl was like, 'That is not my boyfriend!'" I giggled loudly as I told him the punch line. Tears were streaming out of my eyes from laughing so hard, and I slapped my knee. I was clutching my stomach, which was hurting from my constant cackling. I hadn't even laughed this much when I saw it. There was just something about me being with Hayden that felt familiar. I felt as if I was as if I was slowly turning back into my old self.

Hayden chuckled slightly, looking uncomfortable. I wiped my eyes with my sleeve. "Sorry about that. It was just…it was so funny!" I snickered again, and even snorted embarrassingly, causing me to howl even louder. Hayden was looking at me as if I was a crazy person, and soon enough, he started chuckling with me.

About twenty seconds later, our joint laughter had finally come to a stop. To say that I now felt comfortable with him would be an understatement. I felt at ease, happy even.

"See, I've missed this. What are you doing here anyway?" he said.

I was ready. "Um, well, I'm sort of Chad's-"

"What?! I can't hear you!" Hayden shouted over the blaring song. Even though we were right next to each other, our voices easily blended in with the sound of music.

I tried again. "I said, I'm Chad's-"

"What was that?" He cupped his hand to his ear, as if that would help transmit my voice more efficiently.

I huffed, frustrated, as he bounced with the beat of the newest Ashley Tisdale (who is here with her new boyfriend, Joe Jonas, by the way) song.

I took another small step closer to him, and another step, and another, until we were practically nose to nose. I looked around the room, searching for...I don't know what. When nothing intimidating jumped out at me, I judged it safe to lean even closer, only to the right. My lips were brushing up against his ear. "I said, I'm Chad. Dylan. Cooper's-Ahh!" I screeched. Without warning, I was being snatched away.

My immediate instinct told me it was James, but the warmness (and sparks, but let's not talk about that) I felt at the person's touch made me consider otherwise.

I kept stumbling, trying to keep my balance as I was being tugged away from Hayden. I soon tripped over my own heels, and tumbled on to the ground. I looked up at Chad, who seemed hesitant on whether to help me up or not.

"What is your problem?!" I demanded, ignoring his obvious internal battle. I pushed myself up on my own. I looked a few yards away, to where I was previously standing.

"Break time's over." he spat loudly over the music.

"Chad, I'm busy!" I shouted back.

"No, you're working," he corrected. "For me." he pointed to himself arrogantly. "And I say, no mingling with the guests!"

"Well Hayden and I were in the middle of a conversation. And it's rude to interrupt, no matter what." I countered.

I thought I saw a flicker of hurt through his eyes when I mentioned Hayden's name, but it was gone before I could think anything of it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw James walking torwards us. Great.

"Sonny, you keep forgetting. You. Work. For. Me! Not…that guy. But if you don't want to work for me, then please, consider yourself welcome to packing your backs and going home."

If only I could.

But at the same time, something in me loved staying here, even though I was constantly treated like crap.

Why?

By this time, James was right next to Chad now, smirking at me obnoxiously. I turned back to Hayden, about to excuse myself and promise that I'd talk to him later tonight, but he came up to me first. "You work for him? As what, his hooker?" he sneered, probably referring to my outfit. I honestly didn't think it was that revealing.

"No," I said softly. I knew he couldn't hear me, but hoped he read my lips. I braced myself for my next words, and for some reason, I didn't feel safe with sharing this information with him anymore. "I'm his…I'm his maid."

And right then, at that exact moment, something happened that gave me major dejavu. You know that moment in a movie, when everyone's at some party, and all of a sudden a character says something shocking, the DJ stops what ever corny record is playing, creating a rip sound, and suddenly all eyes are on that character?

That's what just happened to me.

Hayden's eyes were bulging out of their sockets, and Chad stood by, silently confirming my statement. "You're…you're what?" he exclaimed, still shocked. There was no need to shout any longer since the music was off, but I had a feeling that wasn't going to change anything.

I crossed my fingers, hoping no more would be said about my current career. I wasn't trying to hide it from anyone. There was no need to. Every single guest at this party new I was working for Chad. The truth is the truth, and that's it. But now that Hayden knew, I felt like I was naked.

"She said, she's my maid." Chad stressed, looking threateningly at him.

Hayden then frantically looked all over the room, and absorbed the hushed conversations and wide eyes staring at us, anxious for whatever was going to happen next. You couldn't cut the tension in the room with a knife. Chad looked hurt for some reason, and also enraged. Tawni was with us now, staring at the four of us with wide eyes.

Unexpectedly, Hayden exploded.

"Stop stalking me!" he screamed, flailing his arms in the air.

I stared at him unbelievingly. James looked like he was about to burst with laughter. He put his fist over his chin, trying to hold back.

"What?" I croaked.

"You heard me. I said stop following me around all the time!"

My emotions were beginning to run wild, but they mostly consisted of anger and confusion. What the crap is he doing? I was at a loss for words. What could anyone say to a random, public accusation like that?

I couldn't let myself go down like this. If no one else was going to stand up for me, I would.

"Hayden, I-"

"Shut up!" he snapped, causing me to shrink back in fear. "I know we had something a long time ago," he continued, "But it's so over! So get over it. I don't like you. I would never like you. You're not good enough for someone like me. You're just recycled trash."

I could feel the warm tears start to make way to my eyes at the last insult. His other words were just crap he made up on the spot. I knew that. But the last sentence cut deeply into an already fresh wound. He was right. Nobody wanted me here. Chad didn't want me. But now I'm back, as no more than a servant for them.

Hayden of all people pointing this out, bothered me. It's not like he and I were close or anything. He never bothered to come in contact with me after I left. It wasn't the humiliation of him saying things like that about me with hundreds of people around to witness it that instantly switched my mood from Kinda Good to Mega Awful. And it definitely wasn't that I was in love with him or anything mushy like that.

It was because Hayden was the only thing that made sense about my short experience here in Hollywood.

And now, he was just like the rest of them.

"Plus, you look like a whore." he added, glaring at me disgustedly. I stared down at the bottom half of my outfit, my slight self-esteem dropping to an all time low. I furiously wiped the burning tears away, not being able to resist looking to see what Chad's reaction was. He kept his expression blank, but seemed uneasy at the same time.

"So leave me alone, before I get a restraining order." he said angrily, pushing his way through the crowd.

And as he walked away, I felt the last piece of hope in me leave as well.

I know I gave you guys three choices for Hayden's personality. A, B, and C. AKA, Nice Hayden, New Jerk Hayden, and Always Jerk Hayden. Not so sure if it's in that order, and I don't feel like looking back to see.

Well, combined with the reviews AND the pms I received, A and C tied, and B was just one vote under. And for those of you who gave reasons on why you chose whatever letter, I took that into consideration as well.

So I figured, hey, why not mess with their heads, and make them think it's one of the choices, when it's really another?

Ha, love you guys.

But don't worry, something great and romantic and Channy will come of Hayden being all mean.

Pinky swear.

Oh, and the next update might be slower than usual. I'm going to my grandma's house for a few days, and I'm not sure how often I'll be on to write.

But I'll try to make it as fast as possible.