Better Than Me

Chapter 21

A/N: Sorry for the late update, but the end of the semester is the worst time of the year for a college student and I'm just now catching my breath. But I'm on summer break now and I'm hoping to finish this before going back to school. I'll be taking 2 classes and working but I think it's doable. Next update will be up soon!

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Chapter 21

As much as I wanted to reclaim the upper hand in this crazy war between Sophia and me, I had officially run out of my ideas and my retaliation was even more pathetic than the last.

The last had admittedly been pretty good, just cruel and untrue. This one was another lie and not exactly well received by the public. I sent one of those tabloids that kept talking about me a sex tape that was supposedly of Sophia but in reality, it was probably just some porn star. It was just a snippet, though, and you never saw her face or any real indication that it was her besides the fact that they were both brunettes in good shape.

Most people didn't buy it. The only people who did were the ones who wanted to believe it was true because they were perverts.

While this didn't guarantee me a win, it was the last straw for our director and clinched us a long lecture about maturity and our reputations. She didn't even bother making the lecture private. That was how pissed she was.

"I don't know what's going on here, but you two need to stop it," Nora snapped. "When we said we wanted publicity for the movie, this is not what we meant. This movie doesn't need two leads with soiled reputations. I want you two for this movie, and I've fought for you up until this point, but if this continues, that may have to change. I won't put up with this any longer."

I, of course, took the mature approach and pinned it all on Sophia. "Sophia was the one who started this whole mess."

Sophia looked at me in disbelief. "I made an indiscretion and you turned it into World War III."

"You were the one who declared war," I said.

"No, you made it war when you made people think I had herpes."

"You got me involved in a gay scandal!"

"You started a rumor that I was in an amateur adult film," she said, pointing an accusing finger at me. "Don't even try to deny it."

Amateur adult film. She was such a prude sometimes. Sex tape. It was a fucking sex tape.

"Enough!" Nora yelled. "This ends here. You two need to keep your images in mind and stop this ridiculous game you're playing."

"We'll stop," Sophia said. I couldn't help but look at her in surprise. I hadn't expected her to give up so easily. My shock faded when she added, "As soon as Christian surrenders."

I snorted unattractively. "Why would I surrender?"

"Because you're already running out of ideas, and I'm just getting started. I haven't even gotten to the drug scandal, the prison scandal, the pregnancy scandal, the—"

"Okay, okay, I get it," I said, cutting her off. "You have a lot more ideas."

"If you surrender, I'll let you off the hook. It's in your best interest, Chrissy, and you know it."

"Don't call me that."

She looked at me expectantly. "Well? What's it going to be?"

I didn't answer immediately. My ego was telling me not to stand down, but common sense was telling me that not only was she right, but this war had already cost me enough and I didn't want it to cost me the paycheck for this movie. I hadn't spent all this time suffering under the wrath of Sophia to just walk away empty-handed.