I nodded. “Figures. She has a slight obsession with Entertainment Tonight. ”

He cringed. “You’d think that would make her want to shoot me.”

“She likes the bad boy.” I smiled. “So? You asked her where our house was so you could torture me?”

“Torture?” His dimples killed me. “Is that what’s happening between us?”

Panic swept through me as I felt my face heat under his seductive smile. He was the devil. Why couldn’t he bother someone else? Was he truly that desperate? Couldn’t rock stars pay people to hang out with them? At least he had the luxury of money and the choice to do whatever he wanted with it.

“Sure feels close.” I huffed, blowing my shorter layers of hair away from my face. “Anyway, thanks for stopping by, now if you’ll just…” I pointed to the door.

Demetri didn’t move.

Of course not.

“Nope, I came to find you for a reason, and it wasn’t torture.

Though I’d love nothing more than to bring you so much pleasure that you scream my name.”

I felt myself blush as I looked away.

“I want us to be friends.”

“Excuse me?” I was in the process of taking off my sweatshirt, so I could jump in the shower, only it got caught on my head, making me run into the dresser.

“Friends.” I could feel his warm body inches from mine, his hands reached up and tugged the sweatshirt off me, leaving me feeling nak*d as his eyes boldly scanned my body. “I want to be your friend.”

The way he said friend reminded me of the way the shark in Finding Nemo chased Marlin in hopes to be friends not food.

“Friends,” I repeated.

“Friends.” He leaned closer, finally resting his forearm on the wall above my head.

“I have friends.”

“You said they moved away.”

“So I have one friend.”

“Really?” He looked intrigued.

Crap. I was the worst liar ever. “Yup, I have a friend.”

“What’s your friend’s name?”

My eyes darted to the floor. He even had nice Converse shoes that seemed expensive, even though I knew they weren’t.

Ugh. “Sally.”

“Sally?” He laughed. “Is she eighty?”

I tilted my chin up. “Nope, and we have plans today.”

“You do?” He wasn’t buying it. His grin seemed to widen as my lie got bigger.

“Yup, so if you’ll just excuse me. I’m going to be late.”

With a chuckle, he pulled back and went to the door.

“Alright, Lyssa, I’ll give you this one. You know where to find me, if you need a… friend.”

“No, I don’t.” Crap. The words were out before I could stop them.

“Oh.” He winked. “How rude of me. Here.” He put a slip of paper in my hand and kissed my knuckles. “Have fun with Patty.”

“It’s Sally!” I called.

“Right.” His laugh echoed through the house as he left.

My hand was clenched tightly around the slip of paper he gave me. Unable to stifle my curiosity, I pulled it open and laughed. It had his cell number, his home number, his agent’s number, his email, his Facebook and LinkedIn profile, as well as his address.

Now that was interesting. Mrs. Murray was his neighbor. I’d always been curious about who owned the gorgeous beach house next door to hers. Now I knew. At least I lived a few miles away from him. It was hard enough knowing that we’d been seeing the same shrink.

I threw the piece of paper in the trash. Impossible. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t be his friend. When you were friends with boys, it never worked. It always turned into something more, and then when you got really close, the one person you swore you’d give your everything to, leaves. Clearly, I was still struggling with past demons.

Emotion welled in my throat. They leave you with nothing, but sharp jagged pieces of your memories together. Each time I wore the sweatshirt, it was like another cut. Each time I saw the Justin Bieber poster, the cut got deeper.

But as long as I was cutting myself emotionally and not physically… At least I felt pain. At least I knew it was real.

A tear escaped from my eye and dropped to the floor before I could brush it away.

I glanced back at the trash can.

Muttering a curse, I retrieved the paper. Just in case.

**** I only kind of lied. I mean, I was visiting a friend. That is, if a friend is an insanely old seal that lives at the Seaside Aquarium.

The staff knew me by name and always had little fish waiting for me, so I could feed the seals. It was what I did on my day off, another one of my ways to remember the pain. Brady had loved seals. I always thought they were stupid. I mean, who claps when they eat food?

But one day, Brady pointed out to me that I did exactly that.

If I ate something that was really good or that made me happy, I’d clap my hands. He’d roll with laughter. Thus, my new nickname became Little Seal.

It was typical for us to visit the aquarium on the weekdays when it wasn’t that busy, and then a few months before the accident, he got a job there.

I was there every day.

Old habits die hard.

“Hey, Alyssa!” Sam was already standing by the seals, throwing them their morning meal. He graduated a few years before me and was close to Brady, like really close — they were brothers. He was one of the few people who stayed behind after graduation. Consequently, he healed just fine after the accident.

Apparently boys aren’t as emotional as girls. He put everything into his studies and sports, and after a while, we just stopped talking, unless I stopped by to feed the seals. Honestly, it was just too hard being near him. It reminded me of everything I lost that day. Recently we’d fallen into a sort of routine. I think he felt responsible for me somehow, which was ridiculous. He gave me the fish, I fed the fish to the seal, we made small talk, and he gave me a hug.

So, sadly we talked once a day about things that didn’t even matter, and never about Brady. Saying his name out loud was something I never did. It hurt too much.

“How’s work?” Sam threw another fish and politely handed me the bucket so I could join in.

I shrugged. “Well, I figure I’m a few taffy pieces away from curing world hunger, so that’s good.”

“Awesome.” He chuckled. “I know you’ve been working on that one like your whole life. Great accomplishment.”

“Yes, I hope to cure cancer next.”

“My, my, you’re driven.”

I laughed and threw another fish toward my favorite seal.

Sally swam up next to me and splashed water near my face.

“So, rumor has it that one of the famous AD2 members has kind of a thing for you.”

“Rumors suck,” I grumbled, patting the water next to Sally.

“He’s bad news, Alyssa.”

I froze for a minute then shook my head in denial.

“Nothing’s going on.”

“Okay.” Sam put up his hands. “I just wanted to warn you, that’s all. I know you probably don’t know what happened last year, since you were basically MIA all year and stuff…” He just waved his hand in the air. “But he was dating that girl Nat Murray for like a few months, then the brother started dating her. I still don’t know what happened, but he nearly overdosed on drugs and killed himself.”

Well, I wasn’t expecting that, but it gave me another good reason to reject Demetri’s friendship. Surrounding myself with a guy like that would do nothing but get me into trouble.

“I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to people talking about me. I mean, I’m famous, but still…” a deep voice said from behind us.

I swallowed the dryness in my throat. My eyes flickered between Sam and Demetri. “What are you doing here?”

“I like fish.”

“They’re seals.”

“Damn, the pamphlet said aquarium. You understand my confusion.” He winked.

Sam stood in front of me.

“You must be Sally.” Demetri held out his hand.

Laughter bubbled out of me before I could stop it. I put my hand over my mouth; it smelled like fish, but I didn’t care. The look on Sam’s face was priceless.

“No.” Sam swallowed and stepped farther in front of me.

“That is Sally.” He pointed to the seal, which chose that exact time to splash all three of us.

Demetri’s clothes were drenched. His tank top was suddenly molded across his perfect abs. I fought to keep my jaw from dropping. No guy just out of high school should have that nice of body. Everything told me to avert my eyes, but like an idiot, I just kept staring.

“I think Sally’s upset,” Demetri finally said, wiping his face.

“Must be the company.” Sam sneered.

Demetri smirked. “I like your friends, Lyssa.”

“We’re not —” I stopped talking, because to say I wasn’t Sam’s friend would be hurtful. But friends didn’t give up on you, and Sam had. Sally, however, was a completely different story.

“To be clear, I meant the seal,” Demetri said, saving me.

“Can I feed her?”

“Sure.” I grabbed the bucket from Sam’s clenched fingers and handed it to Demetri. “Just don’t let her bite you.”

He grabbed a few fish and tossed them to Sally. Demetri’s rich laughter was like water to a marathon runner. It was intoxicating, beautiful, deep. I took a step away from him. “So, still stalking me I see.”

“Not at all.” He shook his head and grabbed another fish.

Sam stood on the other side of him, brooding. “I was bored, and since my friend wouldn’t come hang out with me, I decided to do the only touristy thing I could find in this town.”

“Taffy. Why don’t you check out the taffy?” Sam offered, obviously trying to get rid of him.

“Ah, now there’s a fun story. I work at Seaside Taffy.”

Demetri shrugged. “So, it’s not very touristy for me anymore.”

“You?” Sam sputtered. “Work?”

“I sing the jingle. Wanna hear it?” Demetri looked dead serious. I laughed again. Why the heck was he being nice to Sam, when Sam was being a genuine ass?

Sam nodded his head. “If it makes you leave, I’ll hear it.”

“No such luck, friend.” He jumped down from the concrete step and went to wash his hands. “I’ll leave on my own. I don’t need to sing in order to gain permission to do so.” He winked at me. “Pleasure seeing you again, Lyssa, and Sam, nice meeting you.

We should hang out sometime. I’m gonna go into the aquarium.

You know since I paid to see fish and all.” With a grin he walked off.

Sam and I stood in silence.

“He’s, uhh…” Sam scratched his head.

“Not nearly as hostile as you,” I pointed out.

“I was being protective.” Sam’s eyes flashed as he grabbed my hand and pulled me close to his body. He’d never acted like this before, and I didn’t like it. What the hell was wrong with him?