Chapter Fifteen

Better Than Revenge

Chapter 15

A week passed and I still had yet to figure out a way to use the things I discovered the day Nora had me deliver the paper to Christian and grab the forms he was supposed to have given her while I was at it to my advantage. By that point, I had basically pushed it far back in my mind. I hadn’t forgotten about it, though. I was just waiting for the right time.

“Soph, is this as horribly hideous as I think it is?” Tori asked from inside her closet. We went shopping after we had both gotten off work that day. Tori bought so many things that she decided to just clean out her closet and throw out the things she didn’t want anymore. Unfortunately, that seemed to somehow involve me.

She jumped out of her closet slightly and I glanced over at the garish red top she held in her hands. I scrunched up my nose. “Um, yes.”

She nodded sadly. “Yeah, I thought so…”

What had she been thinking when she bought that? Honestly.

I shook my head and turned back to the television, remembering what I was going to ask Tori all of a sudden. “Tori, can you please give me the remote? I am not watching this.”

Tori scoffed from inside her closet. “Too bad! Come on, you’re featured or talked about on that show so often, you should want to watch it!”

“Yeah, well, I don’t. Please?”

“Nope!” she exclaimed stubbornly.

“Godammit,” I muttered underneath my breath. There was no way to manually change the channel, either, because those buttons didn’t work.

The television screen caught my attention, however, as usual. That always seemed to happen when I watched this show. I heard them mention Frank and Christian and since most of the rumors about Christian also involved me, I decided to tune in.

The press was harassing Christian and Frank as they exited a building.

“Christian, Christian, are the rumors we’re hearing about true?” one particularly chubby man questioned.

“Christian, what about your ex-girlfriend?” some weird looking man asked.

“Christian, can you tell us about your new movie?”

“Christian, do you wear the new cologne you just came out with?” I couldn’t even tell where that one came from.

Frank finally spoke up, looking irritated. “We are not answering any questions right now. Christian has places to be.”

“Christian, where are you going?”

Christian began to maneuver his way over to a big, black limo, escorted by three bodyguards.

“Christian, are you going somewhere with your girlfriend?” a strange looking Asian woman asked.

By this point, Christian was already inside the limo, waiting for Frank to free himself from the press’s grasp.

“No, he’s not going anywhere with Sophia,” Frank replied in exasperation.

I spit out the water I was drinking.

“So he and Sophia are involved?” the same woman asked excitedly, shoving a microphone farther into Frank’s face.

Frank smirked slightly. “Well, they didn’t want anyone to know, but I guess it would have been revealed eventually… yes, they do have a thing going on.”

My face turned red—or purple… I wasn’t quite sure which—and I was sure my ears were the same color.

“What the hell is he doing?!” I shrieked, mostly to myself.

“What’s wrong?” Tori screeched, coming out of her closet. She stopped in her tracks when she saw how red/purple I looked. “Soph... Are you okay?”

I didn’t answer her; I just kept staring at the television screen, my eye twitching every now and then.

“How long has this been going on?” another reporter asked, shoving a microphone in Frank’s face once again.

“Are they exclusive yet?”

“This is recent and they aren’t exclusive yet,” Frank replied, seeming more than happy to answer their questions. “They’re just taking it slow for now and they’re avoiding going public for the time being.”

They asked many more questions but Frank was no longer interested by that point. He had already planted the seed. He was satisfied.

And I knew he had done it on purpose. He had probably assumed that I had forgotten about my threat or something, but he was wrong. Oh, was he wrong. And oh, was he going to regret this. He had made a terrible choice messing with me. And it wasn’t like I hadn’t warned him. He just chose not to listen.

Big mistake.

“Soph…” Tori began nervously. “I know you’re probably mad, but…”

I chewed my lip, trying to calm myself down. “Tori, grab my phone off of that table, please.”

“Why do you need your phone?”

“Just grab it, please.” I ran a hand through my hair, taking deep breaths.

Silently, she grabbed it and handed it to me, looking at me with wide eyes.

I took it from her and stared at it for a few seconds before deciding. I went to my list of contacts and found Christian’s number. With an angry sigh, I pressed ‘call’.

Yes, I had Christian’s number… I had to have it for work purposes, unfortunately.

Since I had the numbers of quite a few celebrities so I had to keep my phone locked to keep it away from Tori. It would probably be a bad idea if she bothered them. Celebrities tended to pull restraining orders on people and I was sure she didn’t want that.

Christian knew what was coming as soon as he answered. “Before you start throwing a bitch fit, hear me out…”

“Did you do this?” I shrieked, forgetting what I was originally going to say.

“Of course not!” he yelled indignantly. “Why the hell would I do this?”

“Well, when Frank suggested it, you considered it!” I pointed out angrily.

“You look into things too much,” Christian retorted haughtily. “That doesn’t mean anything! Now seriously, calm the hell down.”

“I am not going to calm down,” I said through gritted teeth. “Did you see that little encounter with the press? Did you? He basically told the entire world that we’re involved! No, it was worse! He made it seem like we’re friends with benefits or something!”

“I know that,” he snapped in annoyance. “But what do you want me to do about it?”

Was he serious? Was he honestly asking me this?

“He’s your manager!” I cried, shaking my head. “Do something about it!”

“How?” he snapped loudly.

“How am I supposed to know?” I spluttered, throwing Tori a what-the-hell look even though she had no idea what was going on. “He’s your manager! You’re in charge of him, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am—”

“Then do something about this!” I demanded, cutting him off.

“I told you, I didn’t know Frank was going to do this,” Christian enunciated heatedly.

I let out a loud breath. “Sure. Now where the hell is Frank? I need to have a word with him.”

He sounded reluctant to tell me where he was. “Well…”

“Cut the crap and tell me.”

Christian gave in quite easily. “Alright, fine. I don’t know where he is right now, but he’s coming over in, like, half an hour to talk with me about something, apparently, but I can tell him to call you or meet with you later or—”

Frank was probably going to Christian’s house to talk about Christian’s new “relationship” with me, I realized bitterly. He probably figured if he convinced Christian, he could eventually convince me to give in.

He had another thing coming if that was what he thought.

I cut Christian off once again and said, “I’m coming over now.”

“What?” He sounded extremely astonished.

“I said I’m coming over now. Give me your address.”

“Well, aren’t you bossy?” Christian asked, and I could just imagine him rolling his eyes as he said this.

“Yes, I am. Now seriously, give me your address.”

“How do I know you’re not going to use this in some evil way or order a hit man to come for me?”

I sighed impatiently. “Christian, seriously. If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead already.”

“So you don’t want me dead?” he asked in surprise. That was, for some reason, the only thing he got out of my statement.

“I don’t want anyone dead,” I said slowly, wondering why he was asking me this.

“So you don’t hate me?”

I snorted im amusement. “No, I still hate you. That hasn’t changed and isn’t ever going to change, Hot-Shot. I just would never wish death on anyone. Now seriously, cut the crap and give me your address.”

Reluctantly, he gave me his address and I hung up on him immediately after.

“Ohmygod can I come with you?” Tori asked excitedly.

I grimaced slightly. “Probably not the best idea, Tori.”

She pouted and asked, “Why not?”

“This isn’t a happy visit, with snacks and tea,” I told her, shaking my head. “It’s not going to be pretty. Maybe next time.”

She sighed in defeat. “Fine… but bring me back one of his socks or a pair of his boxers or something, okay?”

I gave her a look, trying to hold in my laughter.

“Or not…”

I couldn’t help but let a little laughter out, however. She was so ridiculous sometimes…

Still laughing quietly to myself, I grabbed my purse and keys and made my way out of the apartment and to Christian’s house. It wasn’t too far from where I lived, although it wasn’t in the city like my apartment was.

When I got there, I was left in awe with how huge Christian’s house was. It wasn’t a house; it was a freaking mansion. It had these huge, golden gates and everything. I had to be allowed in by someone monitoring the gates. He had such high-tech security; it was crazy.

There was a path to drive through that led to his mansion, with perfectly mowed grass on either side. There weren’t many decorations outside—or inside, either, I assumed—since Christian lived by himself.

After I was done drooling over the house, I pretty much ran out of my car. That was only when I finally got the chance to park. I ran to the front door and I nearly tackled his door as I knocked psychotically.

“God damn, what are you trying to do, break the door down?” Christian asked as he opened the door.

“You wouldn’t open!” I exclaimed in my defense.

“You didn’t even give me a chance to react!” he retorted in disbelief.

“Well… be quicker!”

He just rolled his eyes in return.

I decided to just ignore him after this, instead pacing around his living room impatiently, muttering angrily under my breath. I admired his house out of the corner of my eye, though. It was hard not to. His house was huge and it was, admittedly, absolutely gorgeous. As I had expected, there weren’t many decorations, but that didn’t matter.

When you entered, there was a huge staircase right in the middle with gold—yes, gold—railings and plush, white carpeted stairs. The floor was perfectly polished and when you looked around, you could tell the house went on for ages.

The living room had three huge plasma screen televisions, five white leather couches, including a recliner—my favorite—and a few glass tables here and there. The walls were white but it didn’t matter. Somehow, it was still amazing.

I would never tell Christian this, of course, but I was free to think it.

I continued pacing and muttering, ignoring the looks Christian gave me.

When the doorbell rang, I nearly had a spaz attack.

Christian shot me a warning look. “Stay there, Sophia. Just wait.”

I glared daggers at him. He made me feel like I was his dog or something. “Fine.”

He shook his head at me and went to open the door. I heard him greet Frank and they talked for about ten seconds before walking into the living room.

When Frank saw me, he stopped in his tracks, frozen to his spot.

“Hello, Frank,” I spat out spitefully.

“Sophia… what a surprise…”

“I was about to warn you,” Christian, the suck-up he was, quickly said to Frank.

“What the hell were you thinking?” I shrieked when Frank looked like he was about to say something. “I told you specifically not to go with that stupid plan of yours! I told you I was not going to fake being Christian’s girlfriend! And then you go off and tell the press that Christian and I have a thing going on? What is that?”

“Come on. You didn’t honestly believe I was going to listen to you, did you?”

“Yes, I did,” I snapped angrily. “But I now see I was wrong to believe that. I can assure you, though; I am not going to play along with this!”

“Yes, you will,” Frank replied with a smirk.

“No, I most certainly will not! And I can also assure you that you will regret this.”

“You won’t do anything and you’ll go along with it,” Frank declared smugly. “You want to know why?”

When I didn’t answer, he continued.

“You won’t do anything because I have the power to spread lies about you and ruin your precious career before it even gets a chance to really start,” he hissed venomously.

“Don’t mess with me, Frank,” I hissed back. “You don’t want to see me when I’m really mad.”

“You think I’m scared of a little girl?” he challenged, raising his eyebrows. “Of course not.”

I chuckled darkly. “Don’t challenge me, Frank. I promise you, you’ll regret it.”

He laughed in amusement. “As obnoxious as you may be, I have to say, you do amuse me.”

My eye twitched. This was never a good sign. That meant I was really getting mad. “I’m not joking around.”

“Neither am I.” He smirked, looking down on me.

“I won’t go along with this, by the way. This is ridiculous. I’m not dating Christian and I’m not going to pretend I am.”

He grabbed onto my arm. “Listen to me, little girl. You are not going to ruin this for me or for Christian. You have no say in this. You are nobody. You have no power to—”

This was where I got absolutely sick and tired of him. I wasn’t sure if it was because of his hand, which had my arm in a death lock or because of what he was saying, but I just snapped. With a grunt, I twisted out of his grip by twisting his arm around to the point where it hurt like hell but didn’t quite break.

Frank cursed loudly.

“What was that?” I asked smugly. “I have no power? I’m a little girl? I’m amusing?”

“Let go of me,” he hissed breathily, wincing.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Whatever, you’re right, just let go of me!” he cried desperately.

With a conceited smile, I let go of him. I began to walk away from the both of them. All of a sudden, I turned back to them. “Oh, and by the way. This was nothing. I can do much, much more. Don’t mess with me.”

And with that, I walked out of the house, silently plotting my revenge on the both of them now.

***

I hate Frank. With a passion. Meh. If I could kill him off, I totally would. Except that would have absolutely nothing to do with the plot....

I'm still considering it. ;D

Anyways, I hope you guys liked it!

*I EVEN UPLOADED ON TIME!

Awesome, huh?

VOTE.COMMENT.FAN!