A/N: For those of you who read the first draft of Better Than Revenge, from here on out you'll see quite a lot of changes from the first draft so don't be alarmed if you don't remember something happening - it probably didn't!

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Chapter 25

"Give it a rest, Soph," I said, rolling my eyes. "She won't make us do the scene."

The screenwriters were now considering turning our make-out scene into a sex scene because it had gone so successfully and they thought upping the passion even more was now a possibility. Somehow I didn't think they realized that still wasn't going to go over well with Sophia. I usually didn't mind sex scenes, but the last scene we'd done together was pushing it far enough with her. This was a marathon, not a sprint.

Nora was into the idea and had been the one who'd told us about it. She said they were discussing it right now and seeing if it would "add to our story." Well, our characters' story, anyway. I wasn't sure what kind of story Sophia and I had going on at the moment.

"How do you know?" she asked. "She sounded pretty serious to me."

Honestly, I didn't know but I figured appeasing her was the best option. It was either that or listen to her complain about having to do a sex scene with me for the rest of the week.

"Sex scenes are part of the job. Just go with it, Hastings," Blake said, giving me an over-the-top wink. Because that wasn't fucking obvious or anything.

"I will not 'just go with it," Sophia said. "One thing is a kissing scene. Another thing is a mostly naked kissing scene. I bet Nora's doing this to punish us for the stunts we pulled last month." She looked down at her sandwich in disdain like this conversation was affecting her appetite. Great sign.

"She won't make us do the scene," I insisted, shoving some french fries in my mouth. Honestly, I still wasn't sure if Nora was being serious about it or if she was trying to coerce us into keeping up our good behavior by using it as a threat. "If she does and it is a punishment, it'll be your fault. I mean, compared to you, I'm the nice one."

"You bring it out in me. I'm nice to most other people."

"Right," I said, taking the opportunity to shove some more fries in my mouth.

"Don't play stupid. Though now that I think about it, you probably aren't playing, are you?"

I snorted. That wasn't one of her best ones, at least considering what she'd come up with in the past. Maybe she was losing her touch. "Lame. That was a fail."

Her reply was immediate and I quickly realized she definitely still had her touch. "So was your dad's condom."

Instead of taking my side, Blake, like usual, turned on me and laughed at my expense. Laughter wasn't even a good way to describe it. It was more like howling than laughter. "Oh ho, ho, burn!"

Sophia laughed at Blake's reaction, while I mostly sulked. Why did her jokes always have to be at my expense? Blake was as good a target as I was, yet it was always me that got burned. Not fucking cool.

I was distracted by a girly voice screaming Sophia's name from a distance. We collectively looked over and saw it was Tori carrying a big bag and running towards our table.

"What are you doing here?" Sophia asked. "You didn't skip school, did you?"

Tori had started going to a beauty school in the city recently, which was why she was on set less than before. Before that she'd shown up pretty regularly. It was a good break for Sophia, who was usually stuck with Blake and me since she hated Savannah, the girl who ironically played her best friend on screen.

"No, today was a half day," Tori said, sitting down next to Sophia. "Ooh, that looks good." She set her huge ass bag down and grabbed Sophia's sandwich without asking.

Maybe I needed to return the favor and set Blake up with Tori. They certainly had the same appetite from what I'd seen.

Sophia's phone vibrated and Tori immediately leaned over to look at her screen, chewing right in her ear. She was definitely the female equivalent of Blake. "Who is it?"

"It's my coworker from that job I had two summers ago," Sophia said, looking at the screen with a confused look on her face. 

"Madison?" Tori scrunched her nose up. "I thought you guys didn't like each other."

"We didn't. She was awful. I didn't think she still had my number."

"What was wrong with her?" Blake asked.

"She didn't do anything at work and every time something went wrong, she blamed it all on me. I got stuck with all the gross tasks as punishment. Do you know how much it sucks to be in charge of bathroom cleanup every day at work?"

Blake shook his head in amusement. "No, I do not."

"What did she say?" Tori asked. She'd been staring at Sophia's long enough. I was surprised she hadn't read the message.

"'Hey, girly! I miss our days at the Dairy Mill! We need to catch up soon!' This translates right into, 'Hey, I saw that you're basically famous now and I just remembered you exist. Let's pretend to be friends so I can be famous, too.'"

Blake and I laughed, whereas Tori scoffed, showing her jealous side. "If anyone is gonna be the famous best friend, it's me! Who does she think she is? She's just as bad as Adam."

Wait, who the fuck was Adam?

I couldn't help myself. The words came out of my mouth before I knew what was happening, although I managed to phrase it in a way that didn't come across as jealous. At least, I thought I did until Blake gave me a look. "Who's Adam?" I asked. "Is he that guy that calls you all the time?"

Sophia gave me a look. "Chris, that's my dad. Adam is an ex who occasionally texts me."

Oh. Oops. My bad.

"Yeah, an ex who thought the reason she didn't wanna get back together with him was you," Tori said. Ignoring the look Sophia was giving her, she continued. "He thought Christian was the reason her feelings for him had disappeared even though they broke up a while ago."

When I couldn't think of a good response that didn't make me sound too excited to hear that, Blake spoke up for me. "What did Sophia say to that?"

"She said her feelings for him were gone long before Christian ever came into the picture," Tori said, looking between Sophia and me suggestively. Had Blake already managed to contact Tori and let her in on his plan – whatever his plan was? It kind of sounded like it.

When we all looked at Sophia to see if she had anything to say about it, she abruptly changed the subject. "I need to run to my trailer real quick. Come with me, Tori."

Tori nodded and grabbed her bag. She stuck a finger in the air like a lightbulb had just gone off in her head. "Oh, by the way, I need some more pictures with you guys. I have to prove to my friends at work and our friends back home that I didn't hold a gun to your head to make you take those pictures with me."

Sophia laughed at her and shook her head, heading back to her trailer.

"Try to find some extra clothes so it looks like the pictures are from separate days," Tori added, walking backwards so she could keep talking to us. "I brought three outfits for myself so you guys need at least three, too. We'll take them in different spots on set so they look different. One of these needs to be good enough for my new profile picture on Facebook. And I need another one for my Twitter. And one that's Instagram worthy. And one for my Snapchat. Just bring your whole wardrobes."

Well, I guess that explained the big ass bag she'd been lugging around.

Blake and I both chuckled and Blake added, "We'll see what we can do."

Tori squealed and turned back around, all while Sophia was shaking her head in disappointment. Whatever they said next, we didn't hear because they'd gotten too far away.

When I was sure they were gone, I turned towards Blake. "Did you say something to Tori?"

"Why?"

"Because now instead of staring at me the whole time she's here, she keeps looking between me and Sophia like she's waiting for something to happen."

Blake laughed. "Yeah, she's not the most subtle. I texted her earlier and told her to come by. I have a plan."

I looked at him warily. This ought to be good. "What plan?"

He shook his head. "Can't tell you. It's a secret plan. It'll only work if it stays a secret. Just trust me on this one."

"How can I trust you on it if you won't tell me what the plan is even about?"

He shrugged. "You'll just have to blindly trust me. Would I ever do something that wasn't for your benefit?" When I was about to reply, he added, "Don't answer that. I mean, would I ever do something that wasn't for your benefit when it came to something serious like this?"

"I guess not. We've never done anything like this, though."

"That's because this is the first time you've had to work to get a girl. You've never needed outside help. You're losing your game, bro."

"I'm not losing my game," I said in my defense. "My game just doesn't work on Sophia. I don't know why. But she's different. That's probably why I like her so much."

Blake grinned. "There it is. Pretty sure this is the first time you've openly admitted you liked her. Now that that's out of the way, phase one of Operation Chicken can commence."

I wasn't sure I'd be comfortable with whatever it was that Blake and Tori were planning – especially considering it was those two behind it. Who knew what their weird little minds had come up with? Whatever it was, good or bad, Sophia and I were about to find out.