Better Than Me

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

It took me a good ten minutes to escape the grasp of the crowd Sophia had drawn towards us. Well, towards me. She had managed to slip out undetected, leaving me to face the numerous grabby hands surrounding me on my own.

Every time I tried to make my way out of the crowd, I was stopped before I even took three steps. It wasn't until Hollywood & Highland managed to call in enough reinforcements to separate the crowd that they were able to help me make it out of there without further interruptions.

The man in charge of security personally escorted me to safety, safety being a relative term. I never actually feared for my life. I mostly just feared for my face. Several fans almost punched me in the face trying to get closer to me.

"Can you do me a favor?" I asked him.

"I can try," he said.

"I came here with a girl and she left before me. Think your security cameras would be able to show me which way she went?"

"Let me see what I can do."

The security cameras didn't extend far enough to help me much, but they did give me a general idea of where she could have gone. With the direction she went in my mind, I set off after her. If she was still on foot, I could probably catch up with her. If she had managed to find a ride while I was held up, I might have been going after a lost cause.

I found myself in a residential area with a few stores nearby and a park around the corner. After coming up short in the stores, I was about to give up and go get a donut from the bakery across the street. It was starting to get dark and I didn't feel like blindly chasing this girl in the dark. Baked goods sounded much better.

Just as I was about to turn back, I saw the back of a brunette sitting on a bench by herself in the park. I couldn't tell for sure from where I was standing, partly because of the distance and partly because of the less than stellar lighting – but I had a pretty good feeling it was Sophia.

She made this too easy for me. She could have at least hidden in some bushes or a tree or something.

Not that that was really necessary. I wasn't a serial killer or anything. That kind of made me sound bad. Never mind on the tree thing.

I slowly approached her, feeling creepier and creepier by the second. It didn't help that I'd gotten that serial killer idea in my head. I really wasn't trying to be a creep. I just had this strange need to talk to her again. People didn't treat me like this. It was both insulting and intriguing to me.

For someone who had managed to lose me in a chase, Sophia was pretty oblivious. I managed to walk up behind her and stand by the bench without her noticing me. She didn't notice me until she put her phone away and stood up, finally realizing that I was standing right next to her.

"Holy –" She jumped back and almost lost her footing. "How – when did you get here? How did you find me?"

I shrugged. "I have my ways." I looked her over and smirked when I realized I was literally looking down on her. She was shorter than I'd realized up-close and in person. Then again, I was over six feet tall. Not everyone could be as tall as me. But she seemed a lot less threatening and annoying when you took the height difference into account – which I did. I had to have something over her.

Sophia's eyes didn't stay on me for long. They were already wandering, most likely trying to find another escape route. But this time, there were no fans around to use as a weapon. And if it came down to who was faster or who knew how to get around the city better, we both knew who would win.