Chapter 6: SOS

Even though I really didn't want Christian to catch up to me, after about thirty seconds of running at full speed, I was exhausted. This was way too much running for one day. I wasn't exactly what you would call "in shape." My idea of exercise involved yoga and giant exercise balls, if I worked out at all. There was no way I would be able to outrun him. I didn't have enough endurance to keep running, anyway. The adrenaline had worn off. I needed to figure something else out.

"Wait up!" He sounded close. Too close.

And so I put Plan B into action. Plan A had been to outrun him, but Plan A had also been foolish and unrealistic. Plan B was to confuse Christian by taking a series of random turns until he left me alone.

Being new to the city, I didn't know where to turn and had no idea where I was going. I was pretty sure this method was going to get me lost, and getting lost in a city as huge as Los Angeles was obviously a terrible idea. Even though Hollywood itself was just a district of Los Angeles, it was huge.

With my luck, it would get dark soon and I would end up in Hollywood's slums and die before my audition, most likely thanks to my smart-ass mouth.

"Wait up!" he called out.

Okay, Plan B was terrible. Time for Plan C: sick the fans on him.

"Stop running!"

He didn't sound any farther away than he had the last time he'd spoken. If anything, he sounded closer. Plan B was officially a bust, but I had high hopes for Plan C.

I made a few more random turns until I found myself in front of Hollywood & Highland, a large shopping complex in the city. I didn't think twice about running inside, even though my lungs felt like nonexistent little lumps by that point.

"Stop!"

Uh-oh. It sounded like he was right behind me.

Unfortunately, I turned out to be right. The second I made it to the central area of the mall, Christian reached out and grabbed my arm, forcing me to face him. With his other hand, he fixed his hoodie so it obscured his face once again.

"It's you, isn't it?" He was only slightly out of breath. I, on the other hand, sounded like I was dying from an asthma attack. He must have caught on to this because he added, "Uh... are you okay?"

I made a few incoherent noises, waving my arm at him in a way that was supposed to be casual but probably came out frantic. I didn't actually reply to him because at that moment, all of my efforts were going into returning the air to my lungs.

"Do you need some help or something?" He looked at me with a startled expression.

"I'm... fine..." I choked out, placing a hand over my chest. "Just... need... air..."

He just nodded slowly in response.

After another minute of this, I was finally able to breathe normally again. Christian carefully let go of my arm and opened his mouth to speak. I didn't give him the chance to say whatever he was going to say. Instead, I pulled his hood down and screamed, "Oh, my God, it's Christian Ryder!"

Dozens of eyes immediately turned towards us. I smirked at him, while he just looked at me with a wide-eyed expression, like a deer caught in the headlights or like my ex-boyfriend when I found out he was cheating and outed him in front of all of our friends and family.

Christian's reaction quickly went from startled to furious. "Damn it. You—"

He didn't get to finish his sentence. He was cut off by multiple screams and was attacked from every angle. I just barely made it out of there in one piece. I backed away until I was out of the brawl but could still witness it. He wasn't getting away anytime soon.

Smiling triumphantly at the commotion I'd single-handedly caused on my first day in California, I walked out of the mall. Involving his crazy fans was the best idea I'd had that day.

On the downside, I still didn't know where I was. I had no idea how to get back to my hotel or to Tori. She had sent me several confused texts concerning my whereabouts but when I tried calling her, she didn't answer. Neither did the rest of her family. They were probably out doing something fun while I was stuck here.

I decided to just walk until someone called me back. It didn't take me long to get tired of walking in the humid heat. I made my way over to a small park to sit down for a minute and rest. After a few minutes of sitting on a wooden bench, the severity of my situation began to dawn on me. I was in a park that appeared to be deserted, it was getting dark, and Tori – a.k.a. my ride out of here – wasn't responding to my calls or texts.

The more I thought about how creepy my surroundings were, the more disturbed I felt. Still, I didn't get up. I wasn't looking forward to finding my way home on my own. Why wasn't anyone calling me back?

Finally, my phone vibrated, and I took it out of my pocket. Tori had sent me a text message: Where are you? Are you with Ryder? Did he catch up to you? Omfg I'm dying here 😬

A few seconds later, she sent another message: RIP Victoria Alba ⚰️

I was honestly surprised she hadn't sent me more messages considering she thought I was with Christian Ryder. Well, at some point I was with him, but that was beside the point.

I replied immediately, already looking forward to curling up in the sheets of my hotel bed. I'm in this little park near Hollywood & Highland. It's in front of a bakery. O'Neil's Baked Goods. SOS SOS SOS

Feeling a little better about my situation now that I knew help was on the way, I stood up and nearly had a heart attack. Standing right next to me was Christian himself. "Holy—" I jumped backwards and almost fell over. "How—when did you get here? How did you find me?"

He shrugged. "I have my ways."

Rather than explain what these "ways" entailed, he looked me over. It was less like he was checking me out and more like he was sizing me up. I didn't know why. It didn't take a genius to figure out who would win in a fight if it came down to that --- the girl who may or may not have been on the shorter side and struggled to open jars or the human tree who probably flexed in the mirror every morning kissing his muscles?

My eyes roamed my surroundings as I began to plan my exit strategy. "Right... well, as fun as this little game of cat and mouse has been, I have to go. My, uh, favorite commercial is on TV. Wouldn't want to miss it. It's a classic."

With that, I turned to run away from him again. This was the third time I had to run from something that day. This was getting ridiculous.

I should've known it wasn't going to work. For starters, he was right next to me when I tried to run away. More importantly, he was fast. That "killer body" as Tori called it wasn't just for display, apparently, he not only caught up to me in about, oh, three seconds flat, but he also managed to get in front of me, forcing me to come to a halt. "Not so fast, Sophia," he said pointedly.

I cursed under my breath. "Which one of my friends sold me out?"

"Some girl named Bianca. The girl you were with today said your name, too, so don't try to tell me your name is Dorothy or Jennifer or whatever else."

"Damn. Of course it was Bianca."

"I don't think it was really her fault," he said. "My manager called the movie theater you were at. He has a way of getting people to do what he wants."

I didn't know why he cared enough to get his manager to track me down. All I did was rile him up a little.

"Well, congratulations," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. "You tracked me down. Do you want a trophy? A medal? A certificate?"

Christian rolled his eyes. "No. I just want to talk."

"Thanks, but I'll pass," I said.

"I didn't follow you all the way here to just let you go so easily."

"Oh, because following me for a few blocks must have been so hard. Was it too much for you to handle without your manager here to hold your hand?"

"No. Following you was easy. You're slower than my grandmother."

Although that was probably true, I was still offended. "I'm new here," I said in my defense. "I don't know this place very well yet."

"Clearly, or you wouldn't treat me this way. I'm Christian Ryder, for God's sake. Doesn't that mean anything to you?" he asked.

"I don't care who you are. Haven't you realized that by now? Do you really not have enough sense to figure that out for yourself?"

Now, he was the one on the defense. "I'm not stupid. I just thought you might have been playing hard to get or something."

I couldn't help but laugh at the sheer stupidity of what had just come out of his mouth. "You're kidding, right?"

He wasn't as amused as I was. "No."

"I don't play mind games," I told him. "If I like someone, I'll make it clear. If I don't, I'll make it even clearer. I think even you could figure out which one applies to you."

"Stop treating me like I'm an idiot. I finished school with a 4.0. I was second in my class, and I'm taking college courses between filming. I'm not an idiot."

"I don't remember asking for a summary of your education."

Christian took a deep breath, I assumed to try to calm himself down. What he said next confirmed my suspicions. "You know, I'm usually a calm person. I don't get riled up easily, and I definitely don't believe in hitting a woman, but you make me want to forget all of that. You're the single most... frustrating person I've ever met, and I've met a lot of assholes here."

"Do it, then," I said, purposely egging him on for the sole purpose of seeing his face turn red with embarrassment and anger. It was almost as nice a sight as seeing the waiter coming with your food at a restaurant. "Hit me. I bet the press would love that. 'Christian Ryder Hits Mystery Girl.' I'm sure your manager would have fun cleaning up that mess."

The tides quickly turned once again and he appeared to be the amused one now. "I almost forgot about that. You're my Mystery Girl." The thought made him chuckle.

"Yeah, well, being your Mystery Girl sucks. I've been hiding out for the past few days because of that stupid show and your Ry-Tards. Did you know they turned me into a meme?"

"Ry-Tards?"

I didn't reply. I'd just seen Tori's rental car turn the corner. My call for help had actually worked. "Thank God," I said, watching Tori pull up in front of the park. "Looks like my ride's here."

When Tori's car was officially close enough to successfully run towards, I once again bolted and got to the car before Christian even thought to follow me. Physically, he might have been fast but he was obviously mentally still on dial-up while the rest of us had moved on to high-speed internet.

"You could at least apologize!" he called out.

I hopped in the car and looked over at him. "Why would I do that?"

"Do you really have to ask?"

Instead of doing as he suggested and apologizing, I gave him the finger and told Tori to step on it.

She protested weakly, crying, "But Soph, it's Christian Ryder."

"Go," I insisted, locking the doors. I didn't want to look over to see if he'd tried to follow me again and I didn't want to. I'd had enough of him for one day. "Tori!"

Tori wailed loudly but finally did as I told her to. After we were far enough away for me to breathe easy again, she said, "So do you want to explain what just happened, or do we need to go back and ask him? Because I'll totally go back. Like, right now. Like, right this second. Please?"

"We're not going back, and no, not really," I said.

She gave me a look that clearly stated that wasn't the answer she wanted to hear.

"Well, you asked!"

"Just tell me," she groaned, quietly muttering to herself in Spanish. She was lucky I had no idea what she was saying.

I didn't even know where to begin. We reached the hotel after a few minutes, but instead of getting out of the car, Tori parked and sat there with the keys still in the ignition and the radio softly playing in the background.

"Aren't you gonna get out?" I asked.

"Not until you tell me what happened." She crossed her arms over my chest.

I sighed. I really didn't think what had happened was such a big deal. So I ran away from an actor and we somehow ended up alone in a sketchy park. So what? Still, to make her happy, I gave her a quick summary of what she had missed, just enough to stifle her curiosity and reunite me with my bed.

"How are you so calm about all of this?" Tori asked. "It's Christian Ryder. Christian freaking Ryder!"

"So?"

"So? So? It's Christian Ryder, Soph. I would kill to meet him and you've met him like twice now and you don't even care," she groaned, slamming her head against the steering wheel. "It's not fair."

"Trust me. He's not all he's cracked up to be. If I could somehow transfer this whole Mystery Girl situation over to you, I would."

She sighed. "I know. I guess I'll just have to find another way to mooch off of you and use your newfound proximity to Christian to my advantage."

I rolled my eyes but couldn't help but smile. "There's the Tori I know."