Better Than Revenge 

Chapter 14

“Hey, stranger!” Jake called out to me as I was leaving the set to grab some lunch.

I turned around and came face-to-face with him. I grinned at him and remarked, “You’re one to talk, stranger.” 

He smiled and shrugged. “Not too late to fix that, is it?” 

I shook my head. “Nah. You’re still in time.” 

He laughed and said, “Good, because I need someone to eat with me. I get lonely.” 

I snorted but I was secretly excited. I knew it was stupid, but I couldn’t help it. He was one of the few young actors I actually liked, and I was close enough to him to have lunch with him. It was beyond awesome.

Jake suggested a small restaurant a couple of blocks away from the set. Normally, we weren’t allowed to leave the set for lunch since it took up too much time and we all had a million places to be in a day. We usually had the interns we had on set grab some take-out for us or we just ordered something. Occasionally we had to convince our managers to go out and grab us something to eat. 

This was easier said than done. Never would I have thought that convincing your manager to do something as simple as that would be so hard. 

Setting up meetings and interviews for us? That was fine.

Acting as our personal assistants and fetching us things? Not so much. 

We took Jake’s car to the small restaurant. As was expected, we both had our fair share of autographs to sign once recognized.

“So how do you like this life?” Jake asked me after we had ordered. We were attended the second we stepped foot inside. It was kind of nice, actually, even though I felt a little awkward.

I made a so-so sign with my hand. “I don’t know, honestly. Some parts are amazing, others not so much.”

He nodded in understanding. “Yeah, I get what you mean. It definitely has its ups and downs.”

“It definitely does. I mean, I love acting. I love it more than anything. It’s just this whole no-privacy thing that still bothers me.” I grimaced, remembering the rumors that were circulating about Christian and me. 

“It still bothers me sometimes, too,” Jake said, probably to try to make me feel better. It actually made me feel worse. That meant I’d never learn to accept this, if even he still hadn’t fully accepted it. Great. 

I didn’t want to make him feel bad, though, because he was genuinely trying to make things better for me, so I didn’t say anything. I just smiled at him in gratitude. 

He chuckled all of a sudden. “Of course, there haven’t been as many rumors circulating about me.” 

I groaned loudly. “Don’t remind me. It’s horrible. And humiliating.” 

“Humiliating?” he repeated. 

“Yes. I have an image to retain, after all.” I slumped down in my chair dejectedly. 

Jake shook his head. “You’re something, all right. You’ve got to be the only girl I’ve heard of that’s not obsessed with Christian.” 

“No, there are more,” I corrected, brightening on the subject. “I started an Anti-Ryder website on the internet and there are a lot of members, actually.” 

“Really?” He sounded surprised. 

“Yup. There were a lot of new members when he broke his high school sweetheart’s heart and some other scandal I can’t remember… some of their responses were pretty funny.” 

He shook his head in amusement. “I hope you haven’t started any Anti-Jake Bueller clubs or websites.” 

“Not yet,” I teased. “No, but seriously. You’re actually one of the few young actors I ever liked.” 

“Seriously?” He seemed pretty happy to hear this. “Awesome. I feel accomplished now.”

I grinned. “Oh, shut up.” 

He laughed and said, “No, really, I do.” 

“I suppose you’re going to go home and cross that off your bucket list now?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He smiled and I saw that his smile was vaguely similar to Christian’s devilishly handsome half-smile. “Of course.”

After this, we talked about the most random things for a few minutes. After our food arrived, and it arrived very quickly, Jake pursed his lips, appearing deep in thought.

“What?” I questioned, taking a sip of my iced tea.

“It’s just… I don’t know if I should ask you this,” he began slowly. 

“Ask me what?” I was beyond curious by then.

He paused momentarily to take a bite out of his food. “It’s just… I’m having some relationship issues and… I… well, I need advice,” Jake explained, running a hand thorough his short, brown hair nervously.

I gave him a reassuring smile. This was beyond adorable. “Then you’ve definitely come to the right person. I was Sally for my high school’s newspaper’s ‘Ask Sally” advice column.” 

His eyes shone with amusement. “Well, then you probably heard this kind of thing all the time.” It wasn’t a question, more of a statement. 

“Pretty much,” I said, nodding. “And then some…”

He smiled. “Alright. Well… I’ve been with my girlfriend… er, ex-girlfriend, I guess… I’ve been with Faye for four years. She was my first love and she’s all I’ve ever known, basically. I thought things were going good but then, all of a sudden, she breaks up with me.” 

I furrowed my eyebrows. “Just completely out of the blue?” 

He nodded gravely. “Pretty much.” 

“She didn’t show any warning signs?” I couldn’t quite believe that this had been completely out of the blue. My guess was that she had, in fact, dropped hints that all was not well, but Jake had just failed to pick up on them. 

He paused momentarily. “No… at least, I don’t think she did…” 

I decided to just tell him what I thought. He came to me for my opinion, after all, and this was it. “I think she probably dropped subtle hints about it, but you just didn’t notice, which is pretty understandable.” 

“Probably,” he admitted sheepishly. “I’m kind of clueless with this shit.” 

“Most guys are,” I reassured him. “What did she say when she broke up with you?” 

“She said we needed to break things off because I was her first serious relationship and we’d been dating for years.” 

I raised an eyebrow. “Er… last I heard, that wasn’t a bad thing.” 

He shook his head. “Normally it isn’t, but to her, in a way it was. She heard that it was bad to settle with your first real relationship because you haven’t even tried it with anyone else.”

I bit my lip. “No offense, but although I guess I can see where she’s coming from, I think that’s ridiculous. Hasn’t she heard that it’s never a good idea to leave behind something great in search of something better?" 

“Because she may not find it in the end,” Jake said, showing that he knew exactly what I was talking about. 

I nodded shortly. “Her fear is understandable, though, in a way. But if she really loves you and you really love you, then there’s no reason for you guys not to be together. Just give her some time for now. She’ll come to her senses.” 

“You’re completely right. And I’ve gotta say, your advice was a lot better than Christian’s. I’m never going to him ever again.” 

I snorted. “Cant say I’m surprised. What did he tell you?”

“He said that I was crazy to have stayed with one girl for four years, especially at this age,” Jake said. “He said the ‘single’ life was where it was at.” Jake made quotation marks around ‘single’. 

I rolled my eyes. Typical Christian. “Why the quotation marks?” 

“Come on. You know Christian. Do you really think he’s not involved with anyone?” 

I nodded once. I didn’t want to hear any more. Gross. “I gotcha.” 

Jake snickered. “Yeah.” 

With this, the conversation turned much lighter and when we were finished eating, we headed back to the set.

“I’m going to head to my trailer,” Jake called out to me as he went a different way. 

I shot him the thumbs up sign and headed towards my own trailer. 

As I was passing Christian’s trailer, I overheard someone talking on the phone, it seemed. The voice was coming from behind Christian’s trailer, apparently. It took me a few seconds but I recognized the voice as Christian’s. 

I was about to just ignore it and keep walking but my curiosity got the best of me, sadly. With a mischievous smile, I tiptoed closer and hid behind a car that was parked right by Christian’s trailer.

“No… no, I can’t tonight, babe,” he said in a husky voice. “I know. I know. I miss you too, baby.”

Well. It wasn’t exactly hard to deduce who he was talking to. It was clear he was talking to his girlfriend. Unless he called his mom “baby”. I thought he was single, though, so I was a bit surprised. I then remembered what Jake had told me and I wasn’t so surprised anymore. Of course Christian had a girl. He probably had more than one, actually. I wouldn’t be surprised if he even had a baby mama.

It felt weird listening to a conversation that was very clearly supposed to be very private. But I was nosy by nature, so I didn’t care.

He chuckled deeply. “Oh, being naughty today, are we?” 

There was a pause. 

“Don’t tell me that babe,” he groaned. “You know I can’t tonight… you’re making me want you so bad right now…”

I made a face. Okay. Eww. 

Maybe I should leave… 

Christian then said many, many… unmentionable… things… things that were sure to give me nightmares. I so did not need that mental image… 

I was positive he was not talking to his mother. That was for sure. Unless he told his mother what he would do to her if she was there with him… I really, really hoped that wasn’t the case. 

Well, either that, or he was talking to a hooker. 

I snuck away after I realized the conversation could only get worse. I had already heard way too much. I didn’t want to hear any more. 

I went back to my trailer and stayed there until we had to go back out and keep shooting. We worked until really late that day, unfortunately for me. Every time I glanced at Christian, I grimaced. Why had I listened in? Why? I was never going to get that image out of my head…

Luckily, the day was over, finally, and I was free to go. As I was leaving the set, Nora stopped me. 

“Soph, can you give this paper to Christian?” she asked me. “He keeps forgetting it. Oh, and can you tell him to give me the forms I gave to him yesterday? He was supposed to give them to me today but he forgot, it seems.” 

“Is he still here?”

“Yes,” she said, “he and Jake are spending the night in their trailers. They have to be here bright and early tomorrow to practice a couple of scenes they’re in together.” 

“Oh, alright. I’ll go see if I can find him, then.” 

She smiled in thanks and walked away. 

With a sigh, I headed to Christian’s trailer. I knocked on the door countless times but he didn’t answer. Extremely annoyed, I tried the door and saw that it was unlocked. I shrugged. If anything happened, it was his fault for not locking it. 

When I walked in, I saw that Christian was already asleep. I almost died of silent laughter when I looked closely at him. Christian was lying on his bed, cuddling a blue baby blanket, occasionally sucking his thumb. 

This was too good. That sight just made my day. No, it made my week. 

It was too funny to keep to myself so I took a picture with my phone. Who knew when it would come in handy? 

Shaking my head, I held in my laughter. Tears were rolling down my cheeks as I stifled it. It was hard but necessary. 

I quickly grabbed the forms that Nora needed and replaced it with the new paper she had given me to give to him. 

When I got back to Nora and handed the forms to her, I was laughing hysterically. I couldn’t control myself. It just wasn’t possible. 

Christian Ryder, Hollywood’s manly, hunky Heartthrob, slept with a baby blanket and sucked his thumb. 

Priceless. 

“Why are you laughing so hard?” Nora asked curiously. “Have you and Christian, perhaps, reached a milestone? Are you sharing inside jokes now?” She smiled knowingly. 

I finally calmed down and wiped a stray tear from my eye, saying, “Well… something like that.” 

***

Tee hee. I almost died laughing at the mental images this chapter gave me. :')

Anyways.

I'M SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO UPLOAD.

I've been suuuuper busy.

BUT I WILL TRY VERY, VERY HARD TO KEEP MY PATTERN GOING AGAIN!

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! :D

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