Better Than Revenge [Unedited - 2012 Version]

Chapter Fourteen

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.”