A/N: Hey guys, sorry for taking so long to update! Between schoolwork, two jobs, two clubs, and my personal life, I have a lot on my plate right now, but I do love sitting down and writing this so I'll still be updating!

For those of you who have read Better Than Revenge, a warning - this will be pretty different from the original.

I don't really like the first draft, partly because I wrote it when I was 14 and partly because it's a first draft, so I'm using the most recent draft from 2 years ago instead.

I've kept the names the same to avoid confusion, but there will be plot changes and content changes.

The plot/content changes are most evident starting from this point on.

Hope you guys enjoy this new version!

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Chapter 4

It was all over the tabloids the next morning: "Christian Ryder embarrassed by Mystery Girl on Hollywood Tonight," and "Who is Ryder's Mystery Girl?" The only upside of the whole fiasco was that a lot of the attention was on figuring out who this girl was and not so much on me.

Alright, that might have been wishful thinking on my part. There was still a lot of emphasis on my very public roast – a lot more emphasis than I would have liked.

Videos of my unfortunate appearance on Hollywood Tonight went viral. Clips of my mortification were retweeted and shared hundreds of thousands of times. While I normally loved that kind of attention on social media, this wasn't the kind of attention I liked. I liked the kind where girls told me how much they loved me, not how much they loved the girl who kept insulting me in front of a live audience and all of America. 

"This will smooth over before you know it," Frank said. "For now, just focus on your work and the media will forget this ever happened."

"Until it's convenient for them to remember it again," I said.

I shifted in my seat, which was made of only the finest black leather – or so I assumed – wondering if taking the limousine was really necessary. I loved taking the limo for flashy events, but for a trip to the recording studio to check out a friend's new work? That just made me come across as a douche.

"Don't worry." Frank didn't even look up from his phone. That was how unpreoccupied he was with my struggles. "By then, you'll have done something new and even dumber to make them forget about it for good."

Wow.

"Thanks for the support," I said sarcastically. He had a point, but still.

He didn't even say anything in response. His fingers simply kept typing away on his phone.

A few minutes later, we'd arrived at Ocean Way Recording. The limousine pulled up behind another limousine that looked like it was getting ready to leave.

"You coming inside with me or are you just gonna sit there and play with your phone?" I asked Frank. I felt like my mother. That was still what she said to me when I visited her and didn't pay attention to her the entire time.

"I'll be inside in a minute," he said, still not looking up from his phone. He kind of worried me when he did that, honestly. Sometimes he made moves on my behalf without telling me, and his moves weren't all ones I considered good.

"Alright." I wasn't going to sit around and wait for him to decide to return to this realm. "I'll see you in a few."

Just as I grabbed the door handle, Frank said, "Wait. I've got her."

"Got who?"

"Her. Your mystery girl. Her name is Sophia Hastings. She's 18 years old and she's from Indiana."

"Sophia Hastings." Why did that name sound familiar? I guess it wasn't the most unique name in the world. I'd probably heard it somewhere before. "How'd you find her?"

"I tracked down the theater we got the footage from and called them. One of the workers knew her. One of her friends, a – what was her name – a Bianca something."

I guess that meant I had to stop calling her my "Mystery Girl," or my personal favorite, Raffle Entry #587.

"Huh. I knew I hired you for a reason, old man." I affectionately slapped him on the shoulder before turning back towards the limousine door.

I stepped outside and looked up. My eyes locked with a pair of hazel eyes as soon as I did. I could only see the part of her face that wasn't covered by bushes – why was she hiding behind bushes? – but the part of her face I could see looked familiar. Really familiar. Why did she look familiar?

Wait a minute. Holy shit. It was her. It was my "Mystery Girl." It was Raffle Entry #587. I mean, Sophia. It was Sophia Hastings. It kind of felt weird referring to her by her actual name.

Her eyes widened and she just stood there staring at me. Maybe she was star-struck like most girls would have been. Or maybe she was just as surprised as I was to run into me in person after the conversation we'd had on air just a few days ago. It was even weirder for me because I had literally just figured out her identity right before exiting the limo. That couldn't have been a coincidence. Fate had to have been messing with us. 

A voice resonated from inside the bushes. "What are you looking at – oh, my God, is that Christian Ryder?"

Sophia seemed to snap out of whatever trance it was that held her there and looked away from me, falling out of the bushes less than gracefully. She looked up at me one more time before turning away and bolting. She was actually running away from me. Was this real life?

"Sophia!" the other voice called out. "What are you doing?"

She didn't listen to her friend. She just kept running, albeit not very fast. She didn't appear to be very tall or athletic.

"Hey, wait," I called out, finally snapping out of my own trance. I pulled the hood of my jacket over my head and took off after her.

I wasn't sure why my first instinct was to run after her, but it was. To be fair, I was curious about her. This situation had been blown out of proportion by the media and I felt like I deserved another conversation at the very least after what she had put me through. The way she handled everything was kind of intriguing, at least compared to the kind of treatment I was used to.

She picked up the pace when she realized I was running after her. She was actually a lot faster than I'd expected. I actually had to make an effort to try to catch up with her.

"Wait up," I called out. I was almost within arm's reach of her. Just a little bit farther and I would have officially caught up with the infamous Raffle Entry #587.

To be honest, I could have caught her a lot sooner than this, but I had always been a fan of a good chase. Plus, I kind of wanted to see how long it would take her to give up and stop to breathe, or maybe fall down. I was pretty sure it hadn't even been a full minute yet and I could already hear her gasping for breath, so I had to say, it wasn't looking good for her.

She had been running on a straight path at first, but then she switched gears and started making random turns. That didn't last long. She only made a few before she stuck to her original plan and kept running straight.

The turns were unexpected enough to catch me off guard and give her a bit of a lead.

"Stop running!" I knew she wasn't going to stop just because I said to, but I still felt like I had to try. By this point, I was close enough that I could have gotten to her, but I didn't want to freak her out too badly.

We ended up in front of Hollywood & Highland, one of the better malls in the Los Angeles area. Just as I feared, she ran inside.

Alright, enough was enough. I wasn't about to lose her within a crowd after coming this far.

"Stop!"

I finally said "fuck it" and reached out, grabbing her by the arm when I was close enough. She had barely reached the central area of the mall when I caught her. I turned her around, making her face me. My hood had started to fall down, so I quickly adjusted it so it covered my face again. In an area this populated, I had to take precautions if I didn't want any unwanted attention. I didn't know why hoodies worked, but they actually did sometimes. This seemed to be one of those times.

I would've thought we would've attracted more attention since we had run in here, but everyone seemed too preoccupied with their own lives to care.

"It's you, isn't it?" I asked, although I already knew the answer to that question. The resemblance couldn't have been that uncanny, and there was no reason any other girl would have run away from me like that unless she had something to hide – and my "Mystery Girl" was clearly trying to hide herself and her identity from me.

My breathing was already returning to normal. Hers, on the other hand, came in erratic pauses. I honestly thought she was having an asthma attack. It sounded like she was about to lose a lung.

"Uh... are you okay?"

She spluttered incoherently, waving her arm frantically at me. I wasn't sure what the hell that was supposed to be. Was she saying "yes, I'm okay"? Was she losing control of her limbs? Was that a cry for help? I didn't know.

"Do you need some help or something?" She was starting to worry me. I had seen people who were out of shape try to run and struggle with it, but she didn't look like she was so out of shape that running from someone for a few minutes would necessitate an oxygen tank to return to normalcy.

"I'm... fine..." she finally managed to say. She placed a hand over her chest, and I furrowed my eyebrows, still debating whether or not I should call an ambulance. Was it possible for an eighteen year old girl to have a heart attack? Because that was honestly what this looked like, and people were starting to stare. "Just... need... air..."

Okay then... I wasn't really sure what to say, so I just nodded slowly instead.

Her asthmatic breathing went on for a good minute before she finally got her shit together. I didn't realize I was still holding onto her arm until then. Oops.

I carefully let go of her arm. I wasn't sure why, but I guess my subconscious saw her as fragile after that episode. What she did next showed that fragile was the last word that I should have used to describe her. Cunning was more like it.

Just as I opened my mouth to speak, she pulled my fucking hood down and screamed, "Oh, my God, it's Christian Ryder!"

First of all, I wasn't sure how she even managed to reach my hood. She was like five feet tall, while I was over six feet tall. How did she even get up there?

Second of all, this girl had some nerve. Dammit, Raffle Entry #587. Why did she always have to do me wrong?

All eyes were suddenly fixated on us. My eyes widened and I turned towards Sophia, who had a smug little smirk on her face. The surprise I felt and probably expressed quickly faded and was replaced by anger. "Damn it. You – "

I didn't even get to finish my sentence. The ear-piercing screams that followed her revelation made me stop short, and all I could see and feel were hands and hair flying around everywhere. I was being attacked from every angle and losing precious hearing capacity with every second that passed.

I tried to look around for Sophia, but I couldn't see anything from within that crowd. She was gone. And she'd left me with this mess of a crowd to deal with.

It was almost funny. I'd thought she was fragile and that she needed my help just a few minutes ago, but the truth was that she was five feet of girly evil.