Chapter Seven

Note: Better Than Revenge was written before Kidnap My Heart. Kidnap My Heart wasn't supposed to be a real book but I decided to make it one after writing Better Than Revenge. The Kidnap My Heart scenes in this book are NOT the same as the ones in the real version of Kidnap My Heart. Nicknames are different, dialogue is different, even some of the plot is different. This is an extremely rough draft of what would later become Kidnap My Heart as you know it. So if you've read Kidnap My Heart, just keep this in mind!

Better Than Revenge

Chapter Seven

“Soph, calm the hell down!” Tori snapped, shaking me violently. “You’re not going in there freaking out like this! Calm down!”

“I can’t!” I wailed, wiggling out of her grip. “I’m so nervous!”

“You can’t let them see you’re nervous, though!” she reasoned with me. “Just take a deep breath and breathe… in and out, Soph, in and out.”

“That sounds so wrong, Tori,” I said between my deep breaths. “So, so wrong…”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Shut up and breathe! In… out…”

I followed her advice and steadied my breathing, which in turn calmed me down considerably.

“Better?” she asked me.

“Much,” I replied, nodding my head.

“Good.” She looked very proud of herself. “Now, are you ready to go knock their socks off?”

“I was born ready,” I told her with a grin.

“That’s what I like to hear!” She grinned widely. “Now go! Don’t forget to be your charming self!”

“Who else would I be?” I asked her, shaking my head as I exited her car.

“I don’t know,” she replied in exasperation. “Just go!”

I chuckled and shut the car door, turning away from her. I looked up at the huge building and took a deep breath.

Here goes nothing, I thought, walking towards the building. I stopped at the entrance, nervously biting my lip. I was momentarily lost in my own little world, a little world that was domineered by “what if’s” and fears. Tori honked her horn at me all of a sudden, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I was thankful for this. That little world wasn’t a place I wanted to be at that moment. I turned around to give Tori the thumbs up sign. She stuck her own thumb out the window and I laughed, turning back around. Clutching the door handle in my hand, I faced my fears and opened the door. Walking inside, I glanced around.

I followed my instincts as I made my way around the building, somehow managing to find the audition room. It was marked with a sign for the clueless folk like me.

“Whew,” I muttered to myself, glad I hadn't gotten lost. I opened the door to the audition room and ran right smack into something hard. “Oof. Shit.”

A cup of something, coffee, it seemed, fell to the floor and splashed all over my legs.

“Watch where you’re going!” a voice snapped angrily.

I looked up in annoyance and realized the thing I had run into wasn’t a thing; it was a person. And of course, with my luck, it was the one person I couldn’t stand.

“Why don’t you?” I snapped right back.

“You’re the one who ran into me,” Christian Ryder said, looking down at his spilled coffee scornfully.

“Excuse me?” I asked, scoffing. “It takes two to tango, Hot-Shot.”

“What the hell does that even mean?”

“It means it takes two people to cause something like this,” I clarified, rolling my eyes at his stupidity.

“No, if you had been watching where you were going, this wouldn’t have happened,” he insisted stubbornly.

“And if you had been watching where you were going, this wouldn’t have happened!” I threw right back.

“I don’t have to. That’s your issue, not mine!

“That’s the biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard,” I screeched, shaking my head.

“It is not,” Christian replied, glaring at me. “And thanks to you, I spilled my coffee.”

“Thanks to me?” I repeated, shaking my head in disbelief. “For the last time… this wasn’t my fault!”

“Of course it was.”

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. I didn’t want to get fined for hitting the guy, after all. “Okay, how about I reenact this for you? Just stand there.”

He looked confused but didn’t say anything.

“Now do whatever you were doing when I ran into you,” I commanded, nodding towards him.

“I was texting,” he said slowly, waving his phone at me.

I smirked. “Exactly my point!”

“What?”

“Just start texting like you were before,” I said, rolling my eyes.

Christian gave me an odd look but followed my command anyway.

“Now, I was walking straight and I looked down for a second and boom.” I ran into him, just like I had a minute before. “We collided. Now, ‘Mr. Salutatorian’, why did we collide?”

“Because you weren’t paying attention to where you were going.”

I let out a loud exhale. “No. We collided because I looked away for a second and you were on your phone. So you know what that means?”

“What?” he asked irritably.

“It means we were both at fault,” I explained. “It was mostly you, of course, but I was still partly at fault.”

“How was it mostly me?” he demanded.

“You were the one texting! I was just looking down.”

“I’m perfectly capable of texting and walking at the same time,” he told me bitterly.

“Well, considering you ran into me, I beg to differ.”

Christian sighed, running a hand through his fair. “God damn, you’re annoying… what are you even doing here?”

“What are you doing here?” I shot back.

“Can you just answer a question the first time without being so difficult?”

“Can you just quit asking me intrusive questions?”

He looked at me in annoyance. “How are my questions intrusive?”

“Because it’s none of your business,” I snapped.

“You are so infuriating,” he growled, looking like he wanted to reach over and wring my neck.

I was sure my expression was something similar to his.

It wasn’t until this moment that I realized we had drawn quite the crowd. I supposed we were being a bit loud…

I nearly cursed out loud when I realized we had also caught the attention of the director herself, Nora Harding. Great. Now I had no chance of getting this role. I was fighting with a well-known actor that she had worked with before.

“I’m infuriating?” I repeated disbelievingly, ignoring the knot in my stomach the thought of Nora Harding standing right there produced. “You’re infuriating!”

“How am I infuriating?”

“Because you’re so goddamn nosy!” I accused, shaking my head. “You’re always asking stupid questions! And then you wonder why I purposely give you stupid answers.”

“The questions aren’t stupid,” Christian said in his defense. “They’re normal questions.”

“Hmm, let’s see,” I said, faking wonder. “‘What are you doing here?’ Well, genius, I’m holding a folder filled with my information, my headshot and other files, so what do you think?”

Realization dawned on him. “You’re auditioning?”

I rolled my eyes. “Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!”

“Quit treating me like I’m stupid,” he hissed.

“I will as soon as you quit giving me a reason to,” I retorted.

He was about to say something when Nora Harding herself appeared, standing by us. “Is there a problem here?” she asked, looking back and forth between us.

“Yes,” he replied just as I said, “No.”

“Well? Which is it?”

“Yes, there is,” Christian said, looking at me with disdain. “She’s being problematic.”

I rolled my eyes. “You just still can’t handle the fact that I refuse to worship the ground you walk on!”

“I don’t ask you to!”

“That’s because you know I wouldn’t do it, anyway!”

“That’s not true,” he exclaimed, shaking his head.

“Of course it is. It’s common knowledge that you would have to hold a gun to my head to make me do that and even then, I might not do it. And you can't accept that!”

“Why are you so stubborn?” he asked, breathing outwardly.

“Why are you so stubborn?”

“Do you see what I’m saying?” Christian asked Nora, pointing to me. “Do you see what I’m dealing with?”

“You just can’t handle the heat you give others,” I accused, narrowing my eyes.

“What are you talking about?”

“All I did was ask the same question you asked me,” I said, shrugging. “And you blow up on me. You can’t take what you give out.”

Nora actually looked more amused than anything else. “Christian, would you do me a favor?”

“Yeah, sure,” he replied, going from mega-asshole to mega kiss-ass in one second.

“It seems this young lady is here to audition for my movie,” she said, a smile playing on her lips. “Would you mind helping out and reading a couple lines with her?”

Christian and I both began to protest at the same time.

“There must be someone else who could—”

“That’s really not necessary—”

“No, no, since Christian is already here and you need someone to read the lines with you, it works out.”

“I’m not even auditioning for this movie, Nora,” Christian protested weakly. “I’m just here to support a buddy.”

“Well, can you do this as a favor to me, then?”

He sighed, giving in very easily. “Yeah.”

She smiled at him and turned to me. “Come with me and we’ll get you all sorted out.”

I followed her, appearing confident on the outside although I was extremely confused on the inside. The director didn’t usually pay this much attention to any of the people auditioning…

She took my folder with my information and headshot, reviewing it silently. She quietly discussed a few things with the casting director before turning back to me. She gave me a few instructions on what to do for my audition and before I knew it, the audition was beginning.

Christian and I took center stage, glaring at each other out of the corner of our eyes.

“Christian, read William Knight’s lines. Miss Hastings will read Emma van der Bilt’s lines.”

Christian smirked at me and mouthed, “Miss Hastings?” to me.

I glowered at him. “Shut it.”

“Begin,” Nora commanded.

“Is it true?” he began, shifting into character very quickly. “Is what Taylor said true?”

I bit my lip and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He took a step closer to me. “Yes, you do.”

“But I don’t,” I replied. “I—”

He closed the distance between us, pressing up against me. “Don’t start, Emma.”

The scent of his cologne nearly blinded me and I took a few steps back. “Okay, this is not going to work out,” I said, coughing outrageously.

“What now?”

“The smell of Axe is okay,” I said, fanning the air around my nose. “Spraying the whole can onto yourself isn’t.”

A few of the crew members chuckled at my comment.

“I don’t use Axe, for your information. I use personalized cologne.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Like I care. The point is I almost drowned.”

“You think I liked having to pretend like that with you?”

“Obviously not. You were glowering half the time,” I retorted.

“I wasn’t,” he exclaimed. “I’m a professional. I don’t let annoying brats get to me.”

“If I’m an annoying brat, then you’re an insufferable bastard,” I snapped angrily.

He was about to reply when Nora interrupted.

“I think I have a scene in mind that you two might actually be able to do,” she said, sharing a look with the casting director.

I nodded silently, pointedly turning away from Christian. She handed me a new script and I looked down at it. Oh, we could definitely do this one.

Christian was also handed a script and we began once again.

“I can’t believe I’m stuck with you,” Christian said in disgust.

“Oh yes, because I’m so happy to be here with a self-righteous asshole who doesn’t know the first thing about anything,” I read, slipping into character very easily. I liked Emma van der Bilt. She was saucy.

“Well, excuse me for not knowing the rules of kidnapping,” he retorted angrily.

“You’re excused.” I smirked at him.

He rolled his eyes. “Oh, very mature.”

“I know I am, thank you.”

“It’s called sarcasm,” he said, rolling his eyes again.

“It’s called throwing back your own sarcasm,” I said calmly.

“Why couldn’t I have gotten the other one? She looks much calmer.”

“Because God hates you.”

He gave me an incredulous look. “That’s a terrible thing to say.”

“You think I’m worried about being polite to the jackass who kidnapped me a week before my best friend’s eighteenth birthday party?”

“I think you’ll live if you don’t go to this one party.”

“The party isn’t going to happen at all at this rate, considering the birthday girl is also kidnapped,” I told him, rolling my eyes.

“That’s not my problem.”

“Actually, it is, since you and your idiot of a brother are in charge of us.”

“Would you just shut up?” he asked in annoyance.

“Make me,” I snapped.

“Maybe I will,” he snapped right back. “You better watch yourself.”

I laughed in amusement. “You think I’m scared of you? Please. You guys are amateurs compared to the guys before you.”

“The guys before us?” he repeated.

“Yeah,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “You think this is the first time I’ve been kidnapped? My dad is a billionaire. This so isn’t the first time.”

“You’ll learn to be scared of us when we make good on our threats,” he warned.

“Please,” I scoffed. “I’d like to see you try.”

He glared at me and stalked forward, pressing his hand to my mouth. I struggled under his grip and bit his hand, hard.

“F’ck!” Christian screeched. “Cut! You weren’t supposed to actually f’cking bite me!”

I smiled innocently. “Whoops. Must’ve slipped my mind.”

“What kind of an actress are you?” he yelled, holding his hand to his side.

“The kind that gets deep into character, of course.”

He scowled at me.

I looked over at Nora and saw that she and the casting director were once again engaged in a deep conversation. I bit my lip, desperately hoping Christian’s presence and the affect his presence had on me hadn’t ruined my chances.

If it did… boy, was he going to regret it.

***

Wahaha, I love this chapter! Writing it was super fun. :D I hope you guys enjoyed the fighting as much as I did!

Thoughts, comments, complaints? I'd love to hear them!

Anyways.

Yeah. :D

VOTE.COMMENT.FAN.