A/N: Sorry for the late update! I've been busy with school and just got out of a relationship so I haven't really been in the writing mood. Writing is proving to be a good distraction so the next update should be coming soon!

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Chapter 18

I was in hell.

Chloe may have been the most recent attachment of mine, but she definitely wasn't the only one. I'd thought I'd be safe at work and was even glad when Nora asked the four main characters to come in on Saturday. We normally only worked Monday through Friday but we were a little behind schedule.

But I wasn't safe, not even at work. Those vultures found me and attacked me in my own trailer.

Okay, so attacked was kind of a strong way to put it, but I was feeling pretty attacked by the end of the day. Several girls claimed they were also in a "secret relationship" with me, which for starters was total bullshit. I never used the word relationship when I talked to or slept with a girl, and this was exactly why. I did everything right and I was still getting the shitty end of the stick.

Security kept some of them away, but they didn't succeed in keeping all of them away. I could hear the first girl's screams from inside my trailer. Something about needing to talk to me and telling her father about this. That must have been Lyssa. Her dad owned a major record label, but her voice was so terrible even he couldn't make a star out of her.

The other girl got me when I was out of my trailer, and unfortunately Sophia was around for this one. I didn't look at her so she wouldn't see how annoyed I was by all of this, but I had a feeling I didn't even need to for her to know.

"Christian Dean Ryder," she said. I think her name started with a B. Or a V? No, it was definitely a B... B... Bree! That was it. "My friends were right about you. You're a stupid, cheating scumbag!"

"Bree, can we not do this here?" Please tell me I got her name right. If I'd fucked that up, too, I was pretty much a dead man walking.

"No, we're gonna do this wherever I want. You're a liar, Chris. I thought you would change for me. I never want to see you again."

Okay, in my defense, I'd never promised her anything. I'd never told her I had feelings for her. I'd never really told her anything that didn't revolve around her being physically attractive. Yet I was still the bad guy here.

"Bree, I never lied to you –"

"You're a liar!" she repeated, obviously not paying attention to a single word I was saying in my defense. "You don't deserve me."

She looked like she was about to cry so I moved in a little closer so we could talk more privately. "Bree, you know I said I wasn't looking for anything serious. You said you were cool with that. If you weren't, that's your own—"

She didn't let me finish. She slapped me across the face instead. Nice. She huffed loudly, gave me another glare, and stormed away.

I glanced around for Sophia to see how much of that she'd witnessed, but she was nowhere to be found. But I know I'd heard her wheezy laughter from behind me while Bree was letting me have it.

Two more girls showed up after Bree, one of which was kind of justified – I may or may not have drunkenly told her I had feelings for her when it was really my dick that had feelings for her – and the other which definitely wasn't considering it'd been a pretty long time since I'd slept with her. There was no reason for her to have been offended by all of this.

The one I'd lied to about my feelings actually came back and begged me to give her another chance. Without any alcohol fueling my tongue, I had enough sense to shoot her down this time.

Things calmed down soon after that. Either there was no one else I'd pissed off or security was actually keeping them out. Every time I went to the catering wagon to grab some food, Sophia was nowhere to be found. Just Blake, who of course thought all of this was fucking hilarious, only because it wasn't happening to him. He wasn't that innocent. It could've easily been him, except no one had a vendetta against him apparently.

Blake was kind of enough to inform me that two of my "girlfriends" had gone on Hollywood Tonight with their bullshit sob stories. It wasn't my fault girls assumed our relationship status without confirming it with me. If the words "girlfriend," "boyfriend," or "relationship" are avoided like the plague with the guy you're seeing, you're not in a relationship and you're not exclusive. You're a piece of ass to him and nothing more.

Sophia avoided me any time we weren't filming, but she couldn't avoid me at the end of the day. I caught her leaving her trailer. I narrowed my eyes and screamed, "Sophia!"

The mature thing would have been to discuss her actions with me like an adult. But what she actually did was run away from me. I guess I shouldn't have expected more from her.

Sophia ran for the parking lot but didn't make it. I caught her pretty easily once she stopped trying to crawl into small places to get away from me. She was about to crawl in another one when I finally caught her.

She struggled against me and tried to wiggle out of my grip to no avail. "Let go of me," she snapped.

I tightened my grip on her instead of letting her go. I wasn't really in the mood to give in to her demands. "Not until we talk."

"We have nothing to talk about," she said.

I pulled her up on her feet. I'd kind of forgotten I'd just kind of left her dangling there. "You know that's not true."

"Fine then." She struggled against my grip some more. "Talk."

"First, I have a question for you," I said. I began walking back to my trailer and dragged her along by the arm.

"You said you wanted to talk to me, not interrogate me," she said. She started dragging her feet to make it harder to move her.

I kept pulling her but it became a lot harder the more she dug her heels into the ground. Finally, I gave up and just stopped walking. Sophia almost face-planted into the ground when I did, but for some reason I steadied her. Honestly, I should've just let her face-plant.

When she'd steadied herself, I went off. "Do you still think I was exaggerating? Do you still think I was overreacting? Do you realize what you've done?"

"I do still think you were being a bit of a drama queen. I know it's the drama geek in you, but come on. Tone it down a bit."

"I wasn't being a drama queen. How can you still think what you did wasn't that bad?" I asked.

She looked at me for a moment but instead of answering, she twisted my arm to get out of my grip. I screamed, mostly out of surprise but also because it kind of hurt. She was stronger than she looked.

"Damn it," I said, rubbing my arm. "Don't do that!"

"Don't grab onto me like that."

"There was no other way to get you to stop and I needed to talk to you. God, Sophia. How can you not see what you've done? This is a nightmare."

"It's not as bad as you're making it out to be," she said. "It's not like you don't deserve what's happening to you."

What the fuck was that supposed to mean? "Excuse me?"

"You're the one who lied to those girls. What did you think was going to happen? That you would get away with it and no one would ever find out?"

"I never lied to them." Why did everyone assume I lied to these girls? What was so difficult to understand about noncommittal flings? "They knew what they were getting into. They knew I wasn't looking for anything serious. I told them how it was right from the start."

She looked like she was trying to gauge whether or not I was lying at that moment. Something told me that no matter what I said, she'd always look at me that way. Finally, she said, "I doubt they knew there were other girls."

"This was none of your business in the first place. If you'd kept your mouth shut and stayed out of my private life, this wouldn't be happening right now."

She rolled her eyes. "So your little secret got out. Boo hoo. It was going to get out eventually. I just sped up the process."

How did she feel zero remorse for putting my personal life on blast like that? I'd never screwed her over this blatantly. "You're not getting away with this so easily."

"Is that supposed to be a threat?" she asked.

"Maybe it is. What's it to you?"

She shrugged. "Fine by me. Proceed at your own risk."

I laughed. There wasn't much more she could do at this point, but I hadn't even gotten started. And with my resources and level of influence, I was confident I could leave a larger mark on her career than she could mine. "Proceed at my own risk? Don't make me laugh, Soph."

She looked annoyed when the nickname slipped out, which just further cemented the nickname in history. "Don't call me that."

"Why? You don't like it, Soph?"

"I like the nickname. I just don't like you."

Of course. "Well, too bad, Soph. I like it. I'm keeping it."

She let out a loud, irritated breath. "Well, don't say I didn't warn you. Whatever happens next is on you."