𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 || 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘭

𝟏𝟑: 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬

------ 2 months into filming ------

The messages hadn't stopped coming. If anything they were getting worse now.

'Where are you, Sophia?'

'Let's meet up and chat.'

'Saw you today. You looked nice.'

She was frantically blocking and reporting every number that messaged her, and finally told Leah about it, who advised her to change her number. Sophia agreed, and decided she'd ask her mom about it when she had the chance.

They were all staying in an air b&b in B.C. while filming, so Leah was only a few steps down the hall. Aryan and Walker's rooms were upstairs, and all of the moms stayed in the house next door. It worked out well enough, Sophia had tried to replicate her old room as much as possible by hanging a string of lights, a few of her posters she brought from home, and setting her pink fluffy cow stuffed animal on the bed.

They had the night off, and she was laying on her stomach in bed, scrolling on her phone.

A knock came from the other side of the door.

"Come in." She said, not looking up from her phone.

Walker peeked his head in. "We're starting a movie in a bit. You voting on Deadpool or La La Land?" he paused. "I heard from a very reliable source that Deadpool is the better option."

She looked upwards, her eyebrows furrowing together as she considered.

"Yeah but...La La Land has Ryan Gosling."

Walker shrugged. "And Deadpool has Ryan Reynolds. Your point?"

She stuck her tongue out at him before going back to her phone. "Okay yeah, Deadpool sounds fun."

Walker opened the door all the way, coming into her room. he sat next to her on the bed. "Hold on, since when are you the type of person to sit on your phone?"

She rolled her eyes jokingly, setting the phone down to show him she wasn't addicted. "I don't know, maybe since I gained 300k followers."

"Likely story." Walker narrowed his eyes, to which she flopped backwards on the bed. He copied her a second later, laying side by side.

"Why do you care anyway?" She realized too late that it came out slightly meaner than she intended.

Walker didn't seem to notice. "I don't, really. It's just not something that the Sophia I know would typically do. That's all."

What did he mean? The Sophia he knows...as if she had changed, like she wasn't the same girl she had always been. The same girl who brought muffins over to his house that one fateful day.

"Yeah, well I guess if we're talking like that, the Walker I know usually has more time than five minutes a day to acknowledge me." She felt him shift next to her, and when she looked to the side he had already beaten her to doing the same thing, his brows slightly furrowed.

"I'm just busy. filming is busy."

She nodded, looking into his eyes. Surprisingly, he broke contact first.

"Okay but...come on. You have changed a bit. You just seem more, guarded? Anxious? I don't know, maybe I'm seeing things." The next thing he said caught her totally off guard.

"Sometimes you act like that Bridgette girl..."

He was going to finish the sentence, but she cut him off, sitting up suddenly.

"Excuse me?" She couldn't believe he had just compared her to the crazy groupie who stalked his house. Walker sat up too, holding out his hands.

"Wait Soph, I just meant that-"

But for whatever reason that one comment had sent her over the edge. Her voice raised unintentionally.

"Well I'm sorry if sometimes I feel like you don't wanna talk to me anymore. Sorry that yeah, sometimes I do have my guard up more often. Maybe I'm on edge because I feel like a fourth wheel who's barely hanging on. Maybe I'm on edge because this friendship is never a priority to you on set." She debated saying the next part before it came out. "Maybe I'm on edge because all you care about is Leah!"

The silence after her explosion was just as deafening. Walker was staring at her in a way she'd never seen. His mouth was set in a hard line.

"I don't like Leah."

"No, of course not. You just like her more than you like me."

He scoffed, glancing around in disbelief. "What has gotten into you? You're being a complete jerk."

A shrug was her only response, but he wasn't finished.

"Listen, I know how different this is than what you're used to, but you're letting the pressure get to you. You're putting yourself on thin ice Soph. Do you hear me?"

She looked at him again, eyes narrowed. "Oh, so it's all my fault that I get stressed out easily? "

He stared right back. "Maybe it is. Maybe you need to stop hiding behind other people like you said you would and start setting yourself up for success."

They were both yelling now. Sophia stood up from the bed, Walker seconds behind her.

"In case you forgot Walker, I was a complete social butterfly before my parents unintentionally instilled a fear of having close relationships in me!"

"You can't just blame everything on your parents Sophia!"

That.

That was it.

Her heartbeat was through the roof. She watched Walker's chest rise and fall from yelling. From yelling at her.

her next words were deadly quiet.

"Get out."

She could see the fire fade from his eyes, the tension in his shoulders melting away. The exact moment he realized what he just said.

"I didn't mean that."

her tone remained the same "Get. Out."

He listened. She didn't watch him go. She stood and waited until the door shut behind him. She didn't open it when Aryan knocked a few minutes later, or when Leah called through the door asking what happened.

She laid in her bed, staring at an empty spot on the wall. How had things gone so wrong so fast?

Her first real friend had compared her to the only person he ever told her he hated. Is that what she had become? Someone he hated?

She was stupid for thinking he could like her. Stupid for liking him. It was over now, and as she hid under her bed covers, letting the tears fall from her eyes, she knew one thing.

she never wanted to be friends with Walker Scobell again.