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Gravity

Chapter 2

I sat on a couch beside Portlyn, vacantly watching the TV screen.

It was Friday, the day of mine and Sonny's meeting (I was refusing to call it a date), I hadn't seen Chuckles or Blondie all week, my attempts at avoiding them seem to be paying off. Now, all I was praying for was that everyone forgot. About everything. I mean, nobody's tried to contact me, so they've all forgotten. Right? Right?

Wrong.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I felt my heart skip a beat. Please be a wrong number. Please.

I pulled out my phone, and reluctantly flipped it open. It was a text.

Uh, hey, Chad. You haven't forgotten about our...

Thing. Have you?

FROM: Sonny

I stared at it. Maybe if I stared at it long enough it would go away. I hit reply, telling her to meet me at the arcade before throwing my phone onto the table in front of us. I put my head in my hands.

"Was that Sonny?" Portlyn never took her eyes of the screen.

"Uh, yeah." I hadn't had a chance to tell her about our... meeting. I was still under the impression of "if you don't acknowledge something, it doesn't exists".

"What did she want?"

"Uh, what did she want? She wanted to know... if... I...Jeez, Portlyn, mind your own business! God."

She gave me a quizzical look. "Uh huh. Whatever you say. Hey, do you want to go do something tonight? It's the first Friday night we've had off in months..."

I gulped. Great.

"I can't..." I turned away, praying she wouldn't ask anymore questions.

"Why?"

"I have an...Uh...Engagement with...someone.." Please stop talking. Please stop talking.

She didn't seem to get the message, "What somebody? You never hang out with people..."

I groaned, "With, uh... Sonny."

She just stared at me for a few seconds. "What?! You and Sonny? Together? You're not going to kill her, are you?"

"Blondie asked me to."

"Tawni asked you to kill Sonny?!"

I ignored her, "Actually, she tricked me into it."

"She tricked you into killing Sonny? Wow. I didn't --"

"No, Portlyn. Tammi, or whatever her name is, tricked me into having plans with Sonny tonight."

"Uh-huh.. And since when do you actually go along with anything Tawni says?"

"Leave me alone. I don't know. I'm just going... Because... I... Shut up."

I stood up, taking my phone with me. I hadn't been feeling very social lately. And, honestly, I had no desire, great or small, to discuss what had numbed my mind enough to agree to this. Whatever it was. And as I attempted to just go hide in my dressing room until seven o clock that evening, I was sad to discover (though not horribly surprised) that I was being followed.

Portlyn leaned on the make-up counter, staring at me. "So you gonna tell me why you have a date with Sonny?"

"God, don't call it a date!" I said, completely disgusted.

"Chad."

"What?"

"Why?"

"Because... I don't know." Because I don't date. Especially not Sonny.

We stood in silence for awhile, me staring at my shoes, and her staring at me.

"Why do you hate Sonny?" The question actually surprised me. I hadn't thought of it. Why did I hate her? I mean, sure her shows rivals ours, but that's never really bothered me before. And, yeah, whenever she has some crazy scheme that doesn't go right, I'm the one there to make it all work out, but I've kind of enjoyed that. I had to hate her. Nothing made sense if I didn't. Right?

"I.. don't know."

Portlyn smiled, thumbing through the clothing hanging on the racks, "Uh huh. So, tell me, what does one wear to a not-date?"

I grimaced. This would be so awful.

xoxo

The arcade was the same as it looked before. Brightly lit, with neon colored games on one side, and tables on the other. I remembered our date here. Uh, our FAKE date. It was nice, surprisingly.

I wondered if she had even thought about that when I chose this place.

I wondered if she thought about all the weird stuff we did together like I thought about it.

But she probably had better things to think about.

"Chad!"

I looked to see her in a booth farther away from everyone else, over in the corner.

To say the whole nervous-apprehensive-ill thing really applied as I sat down opposite her, would be a total understatement. Half of me just wanted to stop hating her so I could stop feeling so physically awful every time I saw her.

"So...Uh...Yeah. Hi."

She smiled slightly. "Hi... Chad, So, about this whole-"

She was interrupted by a rather fat waitress with a hair net and a pink apron. And bad teeth. "Whatdya want?"

"Just coffee for me."

"Same. Thanks." She stared at me. "So, about this whole party, episode...thing. Have you had anytime to think about it?"

I stared at the table, "Not really. I've been so busy with Mackenzie Falls..."

"Right, I didn't think so." She pulled out a notebook, flipping to a random page. "So, what I've been thinking is--"

"Here you go," the waitress said gruffly, setting two cups of coffee in front of us.

"I've been thinking about the theme of the whole special, and.." She held up the notebook, the words 'Pajama Night' written in big letters. I looked from the notebook, to her. She looked so happy, so proud of herself. I laughed.

"Pajama night? Your serious?"

Her smile faded, "Yes, I'm serious. I know everyone at 'The Falls' doesn't own any clothing aside from their uniforms, but c'mon. It's a good idea."

"Is it, Sonny? Is it really?" I'm Chad Dylan Cooper. I don't do Pajama Nights. Especially not with the cast of Chuckle City. What are we, five?

"Listen, Its a 'countdown to midnight' special, and I don't think our viewers are going to be dressed in ballgowns. They're all going to be in their pajamas, on their couches, with the TV volume turned all the way up." Her smile was back. "Except, when your on. They can hear your ego just fine even if its muted."

I couldn't help but smile. "Fine, whatever you say."

"Fine."

"Good."

"Good."

We both took a sip of our coffees, she had put her notebook away. "So," She looked back at me, biting her lip. "Remember when we had that lame fake-date?"

I laughed nervously, "Yeah. Stupid James. What did you ever see in him?"

"I don't know. He was so sweet. Like the complete opposite of you.."

My heart skipped another beat, it seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "Ah, yeah. Whatever. I still say you and I made a better couple on our fake date, then you and he did on your real one."

I watched as her smile grew, as did the light pink blush on her cheeks. "I'd have to agree with you..."

We settled into silence again.

Conversation 101: Awkward silences have to become 3000 times more awkward than they would normally be.

Especially when you've spent the past year completely loathing the person sitting opposite you. And now you really do still kind of hate them, but now you don't really know if you hate them as much as you did before even though they deserve it. And you wanted them to stop being nice and start being awful because you didn't want to stop hating them like you did.

She lifted her head up, looking at me. "Chad?"

"Yeah?"

"Last nights episode was really good. Just so you know..."

You know, Sonny Monroe, you always did make things more complicated.

If there was some competition for Who Can Make Chad Dylan Cooper More Confused About Everything, you would get first place every single time. Without a doubt.

"Uh...Thank you." Isn't this the time when I'm supposed to say 'Yeah, Sonny, and So Random! Looked good too. I didn't watch it though because the sound of your voice makes me want to break things. But, you know, maybe I'll get over it and watch it eventually. But it better be in a room without breakables.'

Maybe not such a good idea.

"I...uh, I didn't really think it would be any good. But, it is. I'm surprised."

SHUT UP. YOU MAKE THINGS HARD.

"Oh. That's, uh...Nice...?"

She smiled slightly, staring back at her coffee. "So..."

"So..." This day was just getting better and better...

"Do you really hate me?"

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES.

Or... Wait.

No.

Yes.

I don't know.

"I haven't decided yet." Here's to almost truths, huh?

The answer "YES I HATE YOU! HATE HATE HATE HATE! DIE DIE DIE!" seemed bad. And so did "Well, I prayed you would accidentally get eaten by rabid farm animals or fall into a vat of nuclear waste, yeah. But now you're nice and it's confusing me. So I hate you less than before but I still don't like you. Unless I do...But then I hate you for making me like you. So yes. And no. Or something." seemed bad too.

So did throwing my coffee and running away screaming.

So I just... Lied. Kind of.

And then looked at my watch. I hoped she hadn't noticed that it had the complete wrong time on it. I don't think it had worked for the past two years.

"Oh, jeez look at the time. I gotta go see Portlyn tonight, I'm really sorry...You remember Portlyn? My cast-mate?"

"Yeah, how could I-"

"Well, she says hello. But really I have to go-"

I stood up, placing the money for my coffee on the table.

She grabbed my hand, "Chad?" She looked up at me, her brown eyes staring through my nervous demeanor.

"We should do this again. Yeah?"

I smiled, tugging my hand away, "Sure, Monroe. Anytime." I turned on my heel, and left.

Okay, so remember how completely bewildered I had been before?

That had absolutely nothing on what I was now.