Yeah. It's time for an update. But first of all…

Oh. My. God. So many reviews, and I'm so happy! Really, when I posted it up I wasn't expecting much (considering it was 2 in the morning and I suck at updating). I guess I sort of thought that some of you would abandon the story. But no! Ah, I should have more faith in you. I love you guys. :3

Apologies for making the last chapter about her just choosing which swimsuit she wanted and that the Channy parts were vague, but I meant it like that, because after all, it is in Sonny's point of view and she's tired (and I was quite tired too). But I'll make up for it: here's what happened, Chad's POV.

~.~.~.~.~.~

Chad's POV

This, I say, is the last time I sleep on the couch. Or eat pizza with pineapple on it AND two whole cans of rootbeer. It's just a bad combination. Plus, my back feels like shit and my whole body feels stiff.

What time is it? I'd open my eyes if I weren't such an anti-morning person, but Thursdays are just… not my kind of day. Thursday is that pesky barrier between the weekdays and the weekends. If Monday didn't exist, Thursday would probably be my least favorite day. Even before Friday. Because even though Friday is technically the weekend, Rebecca Black has ruined it for me.

It must be an off-day. Maybe I'm just crazy. Only crazy people determine their favorite and least favorite days of the week in their head for no apparent reason.

Well, I'm officially awake. There's no chance of me falling back asleep, so I might as well get a move on: maybe fix up some breakfast for me and Sonny.

Sonny.

I fling my eyes open frantically to make sure that last night wasn't just a figment of my imagination (which it probably couldn't have been: I don't usually order pineapple pizza and sleep on my couch while watching a Miley Cyrus movie). I'm relieved when I see soft chestnut hair, her head buried into my chest perfectly. The rest of her body seems to be curled up in a little ball for warmth, and I find that my arm is over her, the blanket still intact.

I've never seen Sonny sleep before, but she looks so peaceful. It's different. Not that she isn't usually peaceful, but I wouldn't know. I haven't interacted with her for so long, haven't really engaged in deep, thorough conversation. The Sonny I last saw was a meddling, over-enthusiastic, bright, sunny, bubbly child that never had a care, full of life and energy. But to see her spark lit out is different. It's like an angel is resting.

I don't know what happened, but something like that. I was tired, but at least I had consciousness of what was happening. Poor Sonny. She's too stressed out, and her brain can't keep up with it. I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't know my name today.

But even if she doesn't know quite what happened, I know that I do. I shut my eyes again, reliving the moment.

~.~.~

"You still like pineapple on your pizza, right?"

"You don't have to get dinner..."

That's when I realize how much help she needs. Turning down a real meal (something as simple as pizza), no matter how generous she is, really shocks me. I know that she's been living on soda for at least the past two years. I didn't see her eat breakfast in the cafeteria. In fact, I never do. Suddenly, I see that if I hadn't shared my lunch, she would've just had a small cup of frozen yogurt and black coffee for the entire day.

Sonny and I may have broken up, but I still care for her.

"I insist," I say. "It's really no problem. Only in Cali can the pizza guy get here faster than an ambulance." I grin at an attempt to make some sort of joke, some way to connect with a Random. They are comedians after all. "Sit down, turn on the TV, pick a movie… it's just me and you tonight. It's all good."

She analyzes the couch, then finally plants herself on it in relief I guess. She looks a little confused as she tries to figure out the TV, but she finally does. It's cute to see her figure it all out. She can't do anything without being cute. Stupid cute. At least she's still the same in that way.

I pick up the phone and dial the pizza place. Lately, I've been shying away from more expensive foods like sushi and caviar. Pizza wasn't an unnatural thing to eat. By this time, I had the local Pizza Hut's number memorized. "Lemme hear ya say heyyy! Hey Rick. Yeah, it's CDC. I need a large Hawaiian pizza… Yeah, I know, I don't usually eat pineapple... Uh huh… In fifteen minutes? That's fast… Thanks, buddy… you make me happy, haha… 'Kay then, see you in a bit."

I turn my attention back to Sonny, her eyes on the television, scrolling through the movie selections. "Hey," I clap my hands and rub them together. "You want me to get us some drinks? Maybe some champagne? Beer?"

She cracks a smile. "This is the first time we've met Cooper, and you're already trying to get me drunk? What, are you going to try to screw me before tomorrow morning? I guess I should expect as much from Hollywood's Bad Boy."

I chuckle. "Well, Miss Munroe. Believe it or not, I don't just bring random women home and fuck them. Now, do you want a drink or not?"

"I don't do alcohol… just so you know. Do you have rootbeer?" she asks.

"Of course, you want rootbeer," I say, walking to the kitchen. When we were dating, her favorite desert was rootbeer floats, so I always had a pack or two in my apartment just in case. Of course I just had to get used to it being around, so I just sort of kept buying them. Maybe in the back of my mind, I kept thinking 'She's going to come back' like old times, but hey, if you think something for so long, and you keep thinking it, it'll probably eventually come true.

"You choose a movie yet?" I call from the kitchen.

"Not yet!" she says in a sing-song voice. "I'll hurry."

"Take your time, I'm just wondering what we'll be watching tonight."

"Can we watch a chick flick? I've been having a shitty day."

"Choice is yours, Sunshine. Just don't do something like Titanic. It's overdone."

"Don't worry about that, we've tried watching it before and you didn't last five minutes."

As I walk in and drop a can of rootbeer in her lap, I grin as I sit next to her, "You don't know that. We just met."

I see her smile and pop open the soda, take a sip and place it on the table in front of her. The way she sits though is so… proper: back straight, folded legs, one hand in her lap while the other switches off controlling the remote and bringing rootbeer to her lips. "You know, you can get comfortable. We're probably going to be staying for a while."

"I'm comfortable enough," she assures me. "You don't have to worry so much, Chad, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I am. I'm perfectly fine."

"You don't look fine. Well, I mean, you don't look bad, in fact you look great. It's just that you don't look… sunny."

"Just stressed, that's all."

I hesitate a little. "…You make me worry constantly. I hope you realize that. I'm SO close to having a heart attack, or something of the sort. It's very bad for my mental health."

"Well, then you don't have to pay so much attention to me." The words themselves seem to sting, but her voice is calm and gentle.

I'm about to object to trusting her, but that's when the doorbell rings. I get up to open the door and see Ricky with my highly anticipated pizza. "Hey buddy!"

"Hey," I say. "Thanks for the pizza. Short notice this time."

"Ah, it's a'ight, I'm used to it. You're not our only costumer, Cooper," he hands me the pizza. "But pineapple… that's interesting. Hawaiian is our least popular pizza, you know."

"Just in the mood for something different." I rummage in my pocket and find a twenty. "Keep the change."

He takes the money. "See you later, Cooper."

"See you."

I shut the door and take the pizza to the couch. I open up the cardboard box, grab a piece, and take a good bite out of it (I'll admit pineapple isn't TOO bad). I put the box on the table and gesture for Sonny to take some. At first she's hesitant, but she eventually takes a piece and takes a cautious bite, which is followed by another bite, then a sip of rootbeer. "It's good," she says.

I shrug as I take another bite. "Pineapple isn't the worse, I guess." I look at the TV. "The Last Song, huh?"

"Yeah," she nods. "I have seen bits and parts, I heard the book was good but never read it… so I guess I'll watch this. Have you seen it?"

I shrug. "Maybe once or twice. I reckon I went to the premiere of it or something. Maybe I watched it with Chastity."

"What do you think of it?"

"Eh. It's a chick flick, what do you want me to say? For a girl, it's cute, sure. It's a love story, obviously."

"Well, my love life is pretty non-existent at the moment," she says, while taking another piece of pizza and sipping her rootbeer, which is probably half empty. "This is probably just what I need."

"If you need romance…" I waggle my eyebrows at her, in a flirty way, jokingly of course. Of course…

She must get my humor, because she laughs at me, takes a bite of her pizza, and starts to play the movie. Meanwhile, I dim the lights.

Movies are nice. The thing is that it doesn't take any physical contact. You can sit with someone for however many hours, watching a movie, without talking to each other, and it can still be defined as being with each other and hanging out or going on a date or whatever you want. So it's perfect when you're on a date, and maybe conversation isn't coming to you as easily, you can always just go to a movie and save yourself and the relationship.

So watching a movie with Sonny is not awkward at all. Even if the movie happens to be a Miley Cyrus flick and a takeoff on a Nicholas Sparks book. And Sonny happens to be your ex you haven't acknowledged in forever. In fact, it's kinda nice.

In the middle of the movie, I notice that Sonny is shivering, so I get up and grab a blanket from one of the bedrooms. She tries to decline it, but I put it on her anyways. Eventually, she wraps the blanket around her more securely and tells me, "I'm tired."

I open my arms for her, and she goes into them without hesitation, her head buried into my chest. "You must be," I say.

"It's just… work isn't the best. I have no interest in it anymore. It used to be so fun and all, but now it's like, hard labor. It's like being paid to act like you're 5. I'm more mature than that."

"Sorry to hear that, sweetheart. If it helps, the Falls isn't doing so great either."

"I mean, I guess we would all lose our jobs some time, right? But I just want to leave, but I can't. Because as much as I dislike my job, what am I going to do when I leave? College? Another acting job? I don't want to be a washed-up celebrity."

"Completely understandable."

"And Danny…" she sighs. "I was so stupid. And sorry for being so defensive in the car, I couldn't help it."

"It's fine," I say. "It's not your fault. It's instinct."

"It's just that he… it was so… I can't believe I didn't see it before…" I assume she's trying to tell me the story, but by the way she trails off and stutters, I know it must be hard for her.

"You don't have to tell me, you know."

"No, I kinda do," she says. She fidgets a little, and there are a few moments of silence before she starts. "It was our two-year anniversary, and we went out to a nice dinner. We were talking about our future. Two years, it was getting serious. He was charming, and funny, and perfect in so many ways. He told me that he loved me, and he had so many times before, but it was our two-year anniversary, and it meant so much more then, you know? I told him that I loved him. And I was thinking that… maybe I could prove it to him… physically."

This keeps me silent. Imagining Sonny and that pig finally getting to her, finally getting to her breaking point… Seeing me speechless, she goes on. "It wasn't a foreign topic. Danny mentioned it a lot, telling me about his physical needs. I guess I didn't mind it much, I just figured it was normal for guys his age to do that. It hurt a little, but I wasn't going to let that get to me. I really did love him."

"Sonny," I manage to say, still slowly soaking in this information. "Did you…? Well, did he…?"

She sighs. "That night, he got very drunk. It was expected. I don't drink, but it was a special event, I had my first champagne. At least I could control it, but Danny was a regular alcoholic, I guess you could say. By the time dinner was finished, he didn't know half of what was going on."

She hesitates before going on. "At first I didn't realize he was drunk. He had enough of his mind left with him to be almost-normal. After paying almost double what was due, he dragged me out of the restaurant and started driving ruggedly. He's not the most careful driver either, but this time it was different, he was loopy and laughing."

"I figured that he was just being joyful because it was our anniversary," she goes on. "He stopped at a cheap motel. He already had a key, gave me a spare and had pre-bought out the room for the night, so it was all ours. He threw me on the bed, started ripping my clothes off. His words slurred, 'You're so pretty sweetheart, almost as pretty as Stephenie' and 'Michelle is good at this, I hope you're tight'. I'm not an idiot, by now, I knew he was clearly drunk. Obviously his mind was screwed up, and he was just saying random names of women. Right?"

She smiles sadly. "I knew I didn't want to do it with him. Not then, in that moment, not while he was drunk. I struggled to get my ripped-up clothes on and I left him there. Took his car, which he had technically given me permission to use whenever I wanted, and drove myself home. The next morning, when I woke up to feel that he wasn't sleeping beside me, I set out again to the motel, luckily having the spare key. But when I walked in and opened it, I saw a tan blonde whom I didn't know, completely undressed, using her mouth on… parts of his anatomy."

"'It's not what it looks like' he tried to tell me, but I knew too well to think otherwise. He wasn't drunk anymore, and he knew exactly what he was doing, and I can't believe I devoted myself to him for two years. It obviously wasn't the first time he did this, nope. I can tell," she gulps. "I cried for weeks at night until I would fall asleep. Sounds cheesy, I know, but it's true."

After a few moments of silence, I can finally steady my voice and respond, "I'm so, so sorry, Sonny. I wish I would've-"

She interrupts. "It's not your fault, you tried to warn me, and I didn't listen."

"It's not your fault, he'd done it to many girls before. I just wish I did something more about it. I just let you walk into his arms so easily. I should've been there to protect you all these years, at least be your friend, rather than shunning you out of my life. I should've made sure you were okay whenever I'd see you eating lunch at the Randoms' table. Yeah, it's not my fault, but knowing I could've done something…"

Silence.

Seeing that Sonny can't respond, I say, "So this means that you never actually…"

She smiles faintly at me. "I'm quite innocent. Still a virgin. Pathetic, I know. Average women my age are probably in successful relationships, maybe married by now. I'm just… I lost my balance, I guess."

"You know, it's not bad being a virgin."

"Are you one?"

I chuckle at this. "Hell no. But at least you've proven to yourself that you're going to find him. And he's out there, Sonny, believe it or not. That night in shining armor who you'll give yourself to." I pull her closer, and I lean in, my lips near her ear to make sure she hears this. "In the meantime, you have me. Fake boyfriend or self-centered ex, you'll be safe with me. And I won't let you fall."

When I lean back, I see her big chocolate brown eyes look up at me in that warm way she used to that I've missed all these years. "Promise?"

"Promise."

And somehow, we both manage to drift off. Funny to think how a Nicholas Sparks story and Hawaiian pizza melted all of our stress for one night.

~.~.~

"Chad?" her voice mumbles. "Chad! Wake up! We slept in, and now we're going to be late!"

~.~.~.~.~.~

Okay, so now you know more of what happened that Sonny left out. So now you know the whole back story of Sonny and Danny… maybe things will make more sense now (because yes, you guessed it, we'll probably be seeing more of Danny). And nice thing is that now we start to see a little bit of Channy forming… you like?(;

Anyways, thanks for reading! Remember to review and tell me what you'd like to see in future chapters, how I'm doing so far, etc. Just regular stuff like that. I hope to update sooner! Thanks again, I love you SWAC fans! I've noticed a decrease since SWAC ended, but I just need to tell you how much I appreciate you guys! I love you!(: