disclaimer: I claim to own absolutely nothing.

a/n: This story holds spoilers for the upcoming new episode of Sonny With A Chance. If you don't like, don't read; tag to Sonny: So Far

One, Two, Three

-1-

She felt her stomach drop with dread as she sat in the black leather chair next to her co-worker and sometimes friend, Tawni Hart. Things were unraveling quickly and Gilroy was a conniving man who knew how to get what he wanted, usually via hidden camera.

Gotcha! with Gilroy Smith.

He was on to her. He had speculated about who she liked and had kept up false pretenses by asking about Nico and Grady. They were her friends, nothing more. He knew that. And just like she knew the sun was going to rise in the morning, she knew he was going to bring up him.

Oh God, here it comes.

"...And what's your impression on Chad Dylan Cooper? Because I heard he made quite an impression on Sonny." There it was, hanging out in the open - so obvious, almost obscene. She didn't know how to reply. Should she deny the truth? She wanted to answer with some eloquently rehearsed line, but she had nothing.

Instead, her lips formed in an 'o' shape and all she was able to get out was a hesitant, "Oh..."

Tawni's questioning voice popped up. "He did?"

She knew she had to say something, anything. "Umm...how long is this show?" she asked, looking down at her imaginary watch and shifting uncomfortably in her chair. Please let this Hell be over. Let me wake from this embarrassing nightmare, she prayed quietly.

"It'd feel shorter if you spilled a little bit," he replied quickly, folding his hands and looking at her attentively.

She was at a loss for words. Were the lights shining this brightly on her before? The room was getting hot so quickly. How many people were watching this at home? Say something! "Uh...About Chad Dylan Cooper?" As if that's not what he already said. "Th-There's nothing to spill," she answered, trying to give off the impression of having absolutely no idea what Gilroy was talking about.

Smith piped up quickly. "Well I heard the first time you two met, he stole your heart."

Now that was utterly ridiculous. So much so, she burst out laughing. "Haha, stole my heart?" Just so funny. "What? He did not steal my heart!" she laughed, trying her best to control herself. The first time she met the Jerkthrob was when she was in her fat suit and was Madge, the waiter, for a sketch. He had charmingly distracted her away from the fact that he was slowly edging the self-serve yogurt away from her and into his sneaky hands.

And in return she had received an autograph.

It was hanging in her room.

Feeling the need to make herself more clear, she offered a tid-bit of information. "Well Gilroy, if you really want to know...the truth is, Chad is in a very exclusive relationship with someone very special to him." She recalled the time when he had obsessed over a sharpie-drawn mustache of a cardboard cutout of himself. She couldn't help but snort.

Gilroy switched tactics. "Well Tawni, want to weigh in on this one?"

Tawni immediately became interested, her eyes brightening. "There's going to be a weigh in? Oh, if I had known that I wouldn't have eaten all the cookie dough!" she exclaimed, pouting.

"Gilroy, you heard the pact that Tawni and I made," she said, sitting up. "We're not going to ditch out each other. Okay? We're ditch-free born people!"

"Just here," cut in Tawni. "Anywhere else I'm fabulous! And she's...she's...well, we made a pact, so I can't say."

There was tension in the air. "Well," Gilroy started sharply, "Since you two are so on the same page, looks like I'll need a third opinion. Please, give it up for Chad Dylan Cooper!"

Oh no he di'n't.

A round of applause was heard from the studio audience and many girls stood up and pledged their love to the famous actor. Drums welcomed the well-known heartthrob, followed by another roar of excitement from the fans.

She clapped unenthusiastically, partly shocked and partly disgusted. This wasn't a part of the deal. She was just supposed to be there with Tawni, talking about So Random! As he gleefully took his seat next to her, she smiled up at him and greeted him with a friendly, "Hey!" and in a harsh whisper, "What are you doing here?"

He smirked and coughed politely, sitting back comfortably in his chair. "I'm here promoting my new book."

She could hardly believe her ears. "You wrote a book?"

He scoffed. "I read a book."

"So what are you two whispering about?" interrupted Gilroy nosily. "One of your 'secret dates'?" he asked, exaggerating the air quotes. She wanted to kill him.

Laugh, smile. Oh how clever, Gilroy. Grin, laugh.

"I'm just here to talk about my book," said Chad, putting his hands up defensively.

Smith smiled knowingly. "Actually you're not. I wanted you both here so I could get your reaction to this. Let's roll the clip!" he announced, gesturing to the TV and pressing the remote.

She, along with Chad, Tawni and the entire audience, had their eyes glued to the screen. And just as she turned around to see, the realization of what was playing made her sick to her stomach. The screen changed from mutely black to a scene of her and Chad. It was when she had stormed over to the Mackenzie Falls set, demanding peace instead of war between the two rival shows.

Her mouth was hanging open in embarrassment. He bit his lip and looked away. Their humiliation played out mercilessly, finally coming to a painful stop.

"Where did you get that?" she demanded.

Gilroy grinned. "Didn't know you were being filmed, huh? Apparently somebody on Mackenzie Falls doesn't like Sonny very much...so as we say on the show, GOTCHA!"

She answered hastily. "But you 'gotch' nothing, that was totally taken out of context!"

He smiled happily. "That's what I do! If I were to wait for things to be in context, I wouldn't have a show. Still, it seems like you two have a little something-something going on! Care to comment?"

Hollywood was such a twisted world.

This had to stop now, before something accidentally slipped. Something she would regret. She had to get Chad away from this distasteful situation quickly. "Yup!" she chirped a little too excitedly. "Right after this commercial break!" She stood up and shrugged nonchalantly.

"We're not taking a break," stated Smith, refusing to end the juicy conversation. They were finally getting somewhere.

"Well we are!" she announced cheerfully. She blindly reached for the boy who had made her heart race so many times before. Holding securely onto his wrist, she quickly pulled him off stage, preventing any further embarrassment.

"You're leaving me here by myself?" squeaked Tawni, standing up.

She paused and turned around. No use in lying. "Yes."

"YES!" cried Tawni joyously.

Rolling her eyes, she looked away and continued to drag Chad away from the spotlight. She walked past many surprised crew members, leading Chad off into a secluded area back stage. She distanced herself from him before turning around and saying, "I can't believe Gilroy tried to do that to us."

Chad waved the matter off dismissively. "He's a jerk. I can't believe I read that book for nothing," he muttered, still upset over the fact that he had overexerted himself for no reason.

She looked at him confused, but decided to drop it. She had to address this point now, before anything was spilled. Before they could make a mistake. "Y'know, Tawni and I made a pact earlier - that we wouldn't tell anyone secrets...And I think we should probably do the same thing," she explained, trying her best to sound reasonable.

He looked guilty for a minute, and stood rigid before blurting out, "Kay fine, I didn't read the book!" A look of utter bewilderment crossed her face. "OH! You're talking about between us," he clarified. She nodded. "Gotcha. We don't have secrets..." he grinned and trailed off, and then looked serious. "Do we?"

For the second time that day, she didn't know what to say. She swallowed and decided to counter the question. "Uh, I don't know. Do we?"

He frowned and put his hands in his pockets. "What do you think?"

She played with her fingers and looked down. "Wait a second, I mean like, us, liking each other?" she managed to cough out, blushing lightly.

Chad stared blatantly at her. "Yeah, I mean, I don't really want to talk about my feelings in front of a live audience..." he trailed off, referring to the fact that they were a mere few feet away from hopeful fans.

"Yeah, yeah!" she agreed quickly. "Yeah, right, especially feelings we've never talked about before..." she exclaimed, nervously shifting from one foot to the other.

"Yeah..." he said, trying to get her to look him in the eyes. "D-Do you have feelings?"

Her heart was racing and she was shaky. She couldn't say anything, for fear of rejection. So once again, she strategically re-asked the question. "Do you have feelings?" she questioned, looking up at him.

He paused and stuttered, "I...I mean it's 'cause you're really asking and it's j-just the two of us..." he rambled, not making sense.

"Right!" she squeaked out, saying it louder than she had meant. Coughing, she added, "There's like, no cameras or anything..."

He started, "I really-"

"No, listen, it's what I'm here for," she sighed, smiling encouragingly. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her erratic nerves. She felt like she was going to burst from the tension. "You go first."

"No you go first," he replied nervously.

She stammered, "No you go, wh-, okay, at the same time. One..." she counted off, looking around nervously. "Two..."

"I was going to say that, yeah, um... two and a half?" he added.

"Three!" they both said in unison.

"I like y-"

"I'm sorry S-"

"W-What?"

"Wait, what?"

"You go first."

He stood solemnly and looked regretful. "I'm sorry Sonny...I um, uh, I don't feel anything for you like, uh, that. It would get complicated, y'know, with our shows." He looked down and seemed almost ashamed.

Her heart shattered.

Biting her lip to keep it from trembling, she quickly picked up the broken shards. Collecting her wits, she reposed herself and offered him a small smile. "Right, yeah. That's good, actually, because I don't really feel anything either." Liar.

She looked up at him, blinking, holding back tears. She gazed momentarily into his eyes and thought she saw something crack. Or maybe it was just the catch of the light. "Oh," he said, monotonously.

"That was...so much easier to say than I thought it was going to be," she laughed, trying hard not to cry. She needed to get out of there now. Biting hard on her tongue, she felt the metallic taste of blood fill her mouth as she walked quickly by him.

She had been so wrong, when she thought she had read the signs right. How stupid, stupid of her. He could never like the Funny Girl. She replayed the moments she thought they had shared in her head, each time convincing herself that she had mistaken what she thought was a sign that he liked her, into something less significant.

Maybe things weren't meant to work out between them.

One, two, three.

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