Official book trailer is on the side, made by moi. New cover made by my_illusions! 

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Better Than Revenge

Chapter Two 

I ran out of popcorn ten minutes into the movie. The reason for this? I kept throwing the popcorn at the screen whenever Christian Ryder’s face appeared. Considering he was the star of the movie, he appeared very often. My popcorn never stood a chance. 

I knew I should’ve gone with the extra-large bucket. What did it matter if it made me look like I would soon be extra-large, too? It would have been worth it. 

“You’re the best out here, kid,” an older, scraggly faced character said to Christian Ryder’s character. “But you still have a lot to learn. The ways of the streets aren’t what you’d think.” 

Wow. I couldn’t even remember the names of the characters. I didn’t even know what letter they started with. I wasn’t paying much attention to the movie, clearly. I couldn’t tell if it was good or not because I just wasn’t interested. Tori tried to get me to pay attention so I could “change my mind and appreciate Ryder’s sexiness and talents”. 

I burst out laughing when she told me this and I couldn’t stop until she smacked me in the gut; it was kind of like a wake-up call. A very rude wake-up call, but still a wake-up call.

We were alone in the theater except for two other girls. They looked to be about sixteen, although they could easily pass for much older, due to the heavy hooker make-up they wore.

Also, they were the two single most annoying people I had ever encountered in my short eighteen years. 

“Oh em gee, oh em gee, oh em gee!” the blonde one squeaked loudly. “He is so effing hot! Yummy! Oh em gee!” 

“I know, right?” the other one, a red-head, agreed. “I would so, like, marry him! Oh em gee!”

“Oh em gee, Tori, like, look at, like, him, like!” I mimicked in a highly annoying voice, very clearly making fun of them. “He’s so, like, hot, like! Oh em gee!”’

Tori giggled at my imitation. 

The two girls didn’t enjoy my imitation as much as Tori had, though. 

“What’s your, like, problem?” the red-head demanded angrily from her seat. 

I rolled my eyes. Girls were so dramatic. All I did was mimic them and they got so defensive immediately. “My problem is that my friend and I are trying to enjoy the movie and your commentary is getting annoying. You don’t have to add your own soundtrack to the movie.”

Tori snickered from beside me. “You’re trying to enjoy the movie?” she whispered.

I shushed her and turned back to see what the two airheads would say next.

“And you throwing, like, popcorn at the screen isn’t annoying?” the blonde one said, narrowing her eyes at me. 

“I was just trying to feed him like they do in the movies,” I replied innocently. “That’s romantic, right?” 

Tori had to cover her mouth to stifle her laughter. The thought of me trying to do anything romantically related to Christian Ryder was completely ridiculous. 

“Please,” the red-head scoffed, looking me up and down. “Like Ryder would ever go out with you.” 

I raised an eyebrow at her. “And he’d go out with you?” 

“Yes,” she said, fluffing her hair obnoxiously. “I know how to make myself look good, unlike you.” 

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. Sure. Nice makeup. Do you use a brush or do you just dip your face in?”

Tori cracked up from beside me. 

I smirked at the look on the red-head’s face and turned back in my seat to “enjoy” the movie.

During the next shirtless scene, they were much quieter when they obsessed over him. “Oh em gee,” one of them whispered. “He’s going to—eee! Look at those abs, Sel! Oh em gee!

“Oh em gee, look at those abs!” I mimicked under my breath. “Look at me, I’m a total airhead! Oh em gee! Barf.” 

Tori giggled, shaking her head. “Come on, Soph. Even you have to admit that he looks good without a shirt on. And with a shirt on. Well, he looks good no matter what, but he looks especially yummy without a shirt.”

I ignored her insinuation, instead saying, “Hey is that a pimple I see? Christian Ryder has a pimple. That’s naaaasty.” 

Tori smacked my arm. “Shut up! He does not! You just don’t want to admit you like his body, do you? The world isn’t going to end if you admit he’s got a sexy body.”

Rolling my eyes, I told her, “I don’t care about abs, Tori. Not since my dad started working out at that new gym by our house and decided to showcase his new set of abs at our Christmas party last year. Well, he showcased what he thought was a pair of abs. I suspect he was still flabby.” 

She giggled, imagining what had happened. She hadn’t been there to witness it. She was the lucky one. “Okay, I guess I can see how that would be emotionally scarring… but what about Ryder’s biceps, and those oh-so-strong arms?” She sighed dreamily, heading to Ryder-Land. That was what she called her dreams. 

She was so sad. 

“Okay, we’re done talking,” I said, turning away and holding up my right hand. 

Tori barely noticed. She was too busy glaring at the blonde chick touching Christian Ryder’s arm on-screen. 

“Ohmygosh, you’re so… so strong,” the blonde girl said to Christian Ryder’s character—who I still didn’t know the name of, by the way. I assumed she was his love interest. 

I pitied the poor girl. I wanted to be an actress; I wanted that more than anything in the world. But having to work with Christian Ryder and having to make out with him wasn’t worth all of the fame in the world. Not according to me, at least. 

His character chuckled. “I have to be, or I would get killed out there.” 

Now there’s a movie I would love to watch. Why couldn’t this be one of those twisted movies where the main character died? [I normally don't like adding a comment right in the middle of a chapter because it drags you out of the story, but seriously, enough is enough. STOP COMMENTING SPOILERS ON THIS PASSAGE. A book series has already been ruined for me this way and I don't want it to happen to me again or to someone else either. I know there are books that end this way but there is NO need to comment the name and spoil it for everyone else. Stop.]

The girl’s blue eyes widened. Very original. Blond haired, blue eyed girl. They made that kind of girl the main love interest so many times, it wasn’t even funny. What hope did that give me, a brunette with strange blue and green eyes? “But you… you won’t die, right? I… I couldn’t…. I wouldn’t be able to stand it, Fletch.” 

His name was Fletch? It sounded like the name of a dog. 

Quite fitting, actually, now that I thought about it. 

I didn’t like his love interest’s character, though. She couldn’t even speak English! Just because she was in Christian Ryder’s presence! 

“I promise I’ll be okay,” he said, taking her hand in his and looking her in the eyes. 

She stared into his emerald green eyes for a second. All of a sudden, she grabbed the back of his head and crashed her lips onto his, curling her fingers around his onyx hair. 

I made a face at the screen. Gross.

I bet his breath stunk. 

“I have to go the bathroom,” I said, quickly standing up. This was going to make me sick. There was too much tongue… blech.

Tori was too engrossed in the movie to notice that I was leaving. 

Really, this movie was like an XXX rated movie with a plot!  The two main characters were practically doing it through their clothes. Like I was seriously going to stick around for that.

I ended up camping out in the bathroom for about an hour, until the movie was almost over. People who walked in gave me weird looks, but I didn’t care. 

The bathroom had one of those counters with sinks and at the far right end of the counter, there was a huge, empty spot, just calling out to me. I just sat on the spot and hauled my bag up alongside me. I was used to doing this. If Tori really liked the movie she was watching, she would become completely engrossed in it, giving me the chance to leave until the movie was nearly over. I had been doing it for the past year, since Christian Ryder became insanely popular. 

I took a fashion magazine out of my bag and flipped through it for a few minutes before getting bored of it. I text messaged my sister for a while, complaining about having to watch another Christian Ryder movie. She was the only one who understood my hatred for him. Not even Tori knew. Only Lucy. She was sympathetic, but I knew she found the great lengths I went to in order to avoid seeing him amusing. 

After the hour had passed, I stuffed everything I had taken out of my bag back inside and jumped off of the counter. I went back to Theatre Two, where Fighter was playing, sneaking in just as the last scene was wrapping up. 

“I love you,” the blonde girl whispered to Fletch as they held hands in the middle of the street. “So much.” 

He smiled his trademark half-smile. “I love you, too.” 

Lies! That man was incapable of feeling love, or any emotion, for that matter. 

They both leaned in and their lips crashed together, and once again they went overboard with the kissing. I was grateful when the end credits began rolling. 

“So?” she asked, standing up and stretching. “What’d you think? Wasn’t it amazing?” 

I grunted my response. “Eh.” 

She rolled her eyes. “Well, it’s still early,” she pointed out to me as we grabbed our bags and our trash. “What do you want to do now?” 

“I don’t know,” I replied, shrugging. 

We made our way out of Theater Two, heading towards the exit. I stopped in my tracks when I saw a sign for the newest Christian Ryder film, Bloody Mary. It was a horror movie, which meant… 

My eyes lit up and a wide smile spread across my face. I made my way over to the front desk, turning away from the exit. 

“Two tickets to Bloody Mary,” I said to the lady behind the counter. 

“What are you doing?” Tori asked, coming up from behind me. “You actually want to watch another Ryder movie? I mean, I’m fine with it, obviously, but…” 

I smirked over at her as I handed the lady at the front desk a twenty. “Yeah. Why not?”

She looked at me suspiciously. “Hmm. Okay, I guess.” 

The lady handed me the change. “Thanks,” I said, already walking away. I headed to the snack bar, purchasing some more popcorn and a water bottle. Tori ran after me without stopping at the snack bar. She still had a ton of popcorn and soda left. She barely ate; she was too busy ogling Christian Ryder. 

We walked into Theater Four and sat near the front. 

The movie was actually pretty good, plot-wise. It was about a group of teenagers who got bored one Saturday night and decided to stand in front of a mirror and say ‘Bloody Mary’ three times simultaneously. They thought it was just a joke, but they began dying off one by one. They all died slow, painful deaths, such as having their eyes scratched out, having their faces ripped off, or having their heads cut off. 

Tori, of course, was blubbering fearfully in her seat. 

I started getting angry when the movie was nearly over and Christian Ryder’s character was still alive. He was the only survivor.

“What?” I hissed to myself. “I sat through this whole movie, and he lives? This is ridiculous…” I mumbled incoherently to myself. 

At the very, very, last minute, Bloody Mary appeared to take her last victim and Christian Ryder’s character’s head was cut off. 

It. Was. Awesome.

All of the girls in the theater began either screaming in horror or crying. Even Tori was bawling her eyes out. 

Not me, though. Instead of screaming or crying, I started laughing uncontrollably. I couldn’t help myself. 

Everyone turned to look at me, even the girls who were freaking out, but I barely paid them any notice. It was just too funny. 

Those last ten seconds of the movie were so worth paying nine dollars and sitting through that movie. It even made sitting through part of the first one bearable. 

I was still laughing quietly as we left the theater.

“You’re insane,” she told me, shaking her head. “But a deal’s a deal, I guess. And you sat through two Ryder movies, so I guess you deserve it.” 

“So you’re finally going to give me my surprise?” 

She shook her head. “No, I’m going to tell you your surprise.” 

I frowned, about to protest, but she cut me off. “Soph… we’re going to Hollywood!” 

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Sophia's going to Hollywood! You know what that means, right? It means she's going to encounter some trouble real soon. ;)