A month had gone by and Justin found himself obsessing over the girl in the Polaroid. Visions of her were running through his mind day and night. If he wasn't working he would either find himself staring at her picture or dreaming about her.  Although he found her attractive, there wasn’t anything really sexual about his interest in her. He couldn’t figure out how an inanimate object could have such a strong hold on him. Something kept telling him that he had to meet her. There was this force that was building within in and the only way he felt it would be extinguished, is if he found her once and for all. He had no idea what he was going to say to her when he did actually meet her, but he had do something or it was going to eat him alive.

"Hey Kyle." He called into the other room.

"Yeah, Justin?"

"I need you to call-” Justin stopped before he finished his sentence.

"You need me to call?" Kyle asked waiting on him to finish.

This wasn’t an ordinary, everyday errand that he was used to giving Kyle. This was more complicated than going down to Starbucks and picking him up a Latte. "Ummm...You know what? Never mind. I'll take care of it myself."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Thanks anyway." he said as he made his way upstairs to his room.

Justin knew Kyle would ask too many questions, and frankly he didn’t trust him. This was something that required a certain amount of confidentiality and finesse. He sat on his bed looking down at photo trying to figure out what he should do next. An idea came to mind and he quickly walked down the hall and knocked on the door of the guest room. "Yo Trace? You up, man?" he yelled through the door.

A muffled voice rang out. "Yeah."

Justin opened the door and could see Trace sprawled across the bed still wearing the clothes he had on the night before. Justin pushed at Trace's leg, signaling him to move over as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I need you to do me a big favor, man."

"Trace lifted his head up from the pillow and tried to adjust his eyes to focus in on Justin's face. "What ya need?"

Justin slid the photo of the woman over towards him. Trace leaned down to see what it was and quickly lifted up his head and sucked in his teeth in disgust. "Damn, Justin, I thought you got rid of that thing a long time ago...You need help, bro."

"Exactly! I need your help to track her down."

"What the fuck for?" Trace said as he slowly sat up and started wiping his eyes.

"She's gotten into my head, dude."

"How? You don't even know her."

"I know, I know.  But there is something...Something I can't explain.” He got up and paced the room. “I just need to meet her and see what she is really like. I need to quell my curiosity."

"You only have a Polaroid of this girl.” Trace studied the photo, turning it around looking on the other side before tossing it down onto the bed. “There is no writing on it or any other information to even give a clue as to who this chick is. So what exactly do you need me to do?"

"I know who she is. We met her a few weeks ago."

"Where?" Trace teased. “Is she here with us now?”

"I ain't crazy.” Justin scoffs under his breath, bringing his hand to his forehead and rubbing his temple. “Remember when I was home and we went to that club and the DJ was giving Kyle a hard time?"

"Yeah? The chick with the nice breasts, who kept getting smart with you and Shawn?"

"Yeah...That's her."

Trace picked the Polaroid up off the bed and brought it closer to his face. "I can't tell shit from the photo. You just want it to be that girl, cause she didn't take any of your shit, and it’s got your dick all hard, cause you didn’t end up banging her."

"No...” Justin rolled his eyes. “When you called her sexy she made that same exact face and I could tell it was her." Justin pointed.

Trace couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Justin. Come on now, man. This is insane! You've been going around with a picture of some girl in your visor and then taking it with you on trips in your notebook for over a month! Now you want to go and find her? What exactly do you expect to get out of this? Are you that bored that you can't find anything better to do?”

Trace had a point. Was he just bored and desperate for a challenge? Trace knew his friend had been hurt pretty badly in the past and didn’t want to see him in anymore pain. Especially if it turned out that they couldn’t find this mysterious girl from the photo.

The curiosity was eating Justin from the inside out. He had this set vision in his mind of the type of person he thought she was. And it was very similar to the woman he’d briefly spoken to at the club, except a million times better. “I know that I sound crazy, but something is dragging me on this path and if I don't find out who she is, I feel I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life. I just want you to help me. And if it turns out that she isn't the girl, then I will chuck this in the trash and forget everything about it." he said as he placed the photo inside the back pocket of his jeans.

Trace paced the room briefly before turning around and asking, "What do you need me to do?"

Justin’s smile grew wider as he went on to explain his plan. He had Trace call over to the club and ask the manager for the contact information of the DJ’s who played that night. They went down the list of 5 DJ’s, most of which were men, till they finally reached the voicemail for DJ Lady K. Trace left a message requesting booking information in hopes that the woman would eventually call back and they could setup a meeting.

It wasn’t until the next day, while Trace was out dropping off his dry cleaning, that he received a call back. “…Oh you’re from LA? That’s even better. Is there somewhere we could meet and discuss fees and your availability?” Trace jogged back to the car to grab a pen and paper. “Right now would be perfect. Where are you?” he asked. “…I know exactly where that is. Give me about 20 minutes and I will meet you there.”

Trace slid his body into the car and immediately dialed Justin’s phone, but there was no answer. He looked down at his watch and saw that it was 10:30 and Justin was probably still with his trainer. Trace pulled down the visor and shook his head when he found the Polaroid photo staring back at him. He placed it down on the passenger seat with his phone and made his way up to Café Cappuccino on West Sunset, tyring to remember what Justin said about the photo.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Do I give it back to her?"

"No. This will be my ticket to seeing her again."

"And if she doesn't want it back?"

"Dammit, Trace!” He said, his voice jumping an octave. “Come on man. Stop trippin' and do you magic and get me a meeting."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thirty minutes later Trace finally arrived at his destination. He looked across the street at the café and saw a woman sitting at a table near the window looking out as if she were waiting on someone. He reached over in the seat and grabbed the Polaroid and looked at it carefully before looking back over at the girl. 'That ain't her.' He thought to himself.

He got out of his car and made his way across the street and inside the café. "Hey, how you doing'?" he smiled.

The girl looked up from her coffee recognized Trace immediately. "Hey. Trace, right?" She smiled. “You didn’t mention that it was you when you called me earlier.”

He grabbed the chair across from her, apologizing for the accidental omission. “So you said that you were interested in hiring us for a party you had planned on throwing? Can you give me more details?” She asked as she pulled out a pen and paper to take notes.

“I apologize for that. That was just a lure to get you to meet with me.” He smiled nervously, not knowing what to expect next.

“Wow,” the woman replied, her voice amused, biting her lip to hide her smile as she shifted in her chair. “I don’t even think we spoke more than five words to each other that night.”

Oh!  N-No! Nothing like t-that” he stuttered, his cheeks turning pink. “I’ve just been wracking my brain trying to figure out who the owner of this photo was. When I saw you at the club, I knew it had to be you." He said as he handed her the Polaroid.

Leaning forward in her chair she took a good long look at the picture before laughing lightly to herself. "I'm sorry, but that's not me."

His face turned red as he looked at her and said, "Damn. When I saw you that night, I could have sworn you were the girl in this photo. I'm sorry I bothered you, Hun."

He knew Justin had completely lost it. And he was a bigger sucker for going along with his friend. As he started to walk away the woman called out after him, "You definitely saw the girl in the picture, Trace."

Trace turned around with a confused look on his face. "I thought you just told me it wasn't you?"

"It's not me." she smiled as she crossed her legs, taking a sip of her coffee. "It's my best friend, Kerri."

Trace was caught completely off guard. Not only was the girl real but this broad actually knew her. "Are you serious?"

"Yes. You must have thought I was Kerri when I called you back about the booking. I’m Serena. We work together.”

Trace nodded his head in agreement. Serena went on to explain that the trash talker he’d met that night was actually the one from the photo. Trace was so drunk that night he had no idea which was which. He just noticed a pair of perfectly round breasts staring up at him and he didn’t care to focus much on anything else. He listened as Serena explained that Kerri had a bunch of those same photos in her room tucked away in a box in the back of her closet and she’d lost some when they were out of town. “Where did you get this from?" she asked curiously.

"Justin found it in a parking lot somewhere.”

“Well that was nice of him to hold onto it. She was freaking out about where it could be. Make sure you tell him thank you.” She smiled as she reached her hand out for the photo.

Trace placed the photo down in his pocket and looked over at her smiling, “Well you see, Justin was hoping he could give it back to her himself.”

Serena laughed bitterly, feeling ridiculously jealous and defensive at the same time. Trying her best to shake those feelings away she looked towards him and said, “Well…I’m sure I can arrange something.”

Trace watched her as she got up from the table and bent down to retrieve her bag. He had noticed the disappointment in her eyes and he also noticed that her ass looked like it would fit perfectly inside the palms of his hands. Serena wrote down their phone number on the pad she still had sitting out and handed it to Trace before going to leave. "Am I able to use this same number to get in contact with you too?"

Serena blushed and nodded, “We both should be home after 7.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trace walked into the house and down the hall into the kitchen. Justin heard the alarm beep from upstairs in his room. He bolted out and down the steps to find Trace. As he entered the kitchen he noticed Trace standing at the counter with loads of lunchmeat, mustard, and bread scattered along the counters.

"I got your message after I got done my workout with Steve.” Justin anticipated that Trace would immediately tell him what happened, but instead he rummaged around in drawers, looking for a butter knife. “Well?" Justin asked.

"Well what?"

"Don't act dumb. What happened?"

"I went over there. Talked to the girl who returned the call.  Showed her the photo...It wasn't her." Trace said before stuffing the sandwich in his mouth.

Justin looked down in disappointment. "Damn, I was so sure it was her."

Trace walked past Justin towards the living room and placed a folded up piece of paper in front of him. With a mouth full of food he mumbled, "It's her friend."

Justin's eyes immediately lit up. "Stop bullshittin'!  For real?"

Trace plopped down on the couch and started flipping through channels, pretending to ignore Justin. "Trace. Come on, dude. What did she say?"

Trace took a long deliberate bite out of his sandwich and the look that his best friend was giving him almost made him choke. He swallowed hard and chuckled as Justin narrowed his eyes at him, trying to force his lips into a frown, but he couldn't seem to keep the corners of his mouth from turning upward at the thought that he had actually found the girl from the photo.

Trace went on to explain that Serena was in charge of the DJ’s bookings and they were wrong in assuming that she was actually the DJ. "If you need me to probe her for more information about her girl, Kerri, just let me know. I wouldn't mind. The chic had a nice ass."

Justin rolled his eyes and said no before thanking him again and going into the kitchen to make himself something to eat.

When 8 o' clock rolled around Justin found himself staring at the phone, debating whether or not he should make the call. He hadn’t even thought about what he was going to say to her. As the minutes slowly passed by he found he couldn't wait any longer and decided he would just wing it. He picked up the phone and dialed the number that was written on the torn piece of paper.

"Hey Trish! How you been?" Kerri yelled over to her neighbor as she started to unlock her door. "...Great. Have a good night!" She heard the ringing and took her time to put down her things before she finally answered it, "Hello?"

"Hi, may I speak to Serena please?"

"She’s not here. Can I take a message?”

"Umm...Well is Kerri available? I’m actually trying to get in touch with her."

Kerri didn’t recognize the voice on the other end and was curious as to why someone would be calling to talk to Serena about her. Maybe he was a bill collector. "And why would you need to talk to Kerri?"

"It's kind of personal. You see...My name is Justin. I met her a few weeks ago when I was at a club down in Memphis. I really wanted to talk to her about something."

Kerri couldn't help but laugh at the guy on the other end of the line. "Yeah.  Okay...Justin. Seriously.  Who is this? Ray, is that you? Did Serena put you up to this? Tell her to stop harping over it…”

Justin rolled his eyes at the girls’ mockery of the situation. "Look.  If you aren't going to help me then I will just wait until Serena gets home to talk to her."

"Well seeing that Kerri and I are one in the same person, the only way to really get in touch with me would be to talk to...Well, me." Kerri stated plainly.

"Oh. Well, you remember me from a few weeks back right?"

"I remember Justin and his friends, coming into the club and acting entitled…Yes."

"What do I have to do to prove to you that it's me?"

Kerri sat there for a moment thinking quietly to herself before finally coming up with a solution. "Meet me for lunch tomorrow."

"Why tomorrow? Why not now?"

"Well, I've been at work all day and I am beat. Plus I want to wait until it's broad daylight so I can really get a good look at you…Ray." she teased as she sat there leafing through the mail.

"Where should we meet? Your place?"

Kerri started to laugh, "Whoa! I don't think so.  Why don't we meet at Cravings? You know where that is? It's quiet enough that no one will really notice us and busy enough that my life won't feel endangered if you are some deranged lunatic." she joked.

The next afternoon Justin woke up from his nap in a panic because he hadn’t gotten any sleep from being restless the night before. He threw on a pair of sweat pants and a hat and jumped into his car and headed towards the restaurant that was about 15 minutes away from his home.

When he got there he grabbed the picture from the overhead visor and studied it once more before getting out of the car and placing it in his pocket. He slowly walked a block up the street towards the restaurant. He could see a few people sitting outside eating and talking amongst themselves. He adjusted his hat so that it almost covered his eyes, hoping no one would recognize him. As he neared the entrance he spotted Kerri sitting away from all the others who were there eating. She was busy typing something into her phone and didn’t even notice him as he approached the table. He smiled as he noticed she wasn't dressed up. She didn't even have on any make up. Her hair was up in a ponytail and there were a few stray strands hanging out and down her face. She had on an outfit similar his. A pair of sweatpants and a top that had the phrase “Smile, it’s the second best thing you can do with your lips” written across the front. Kerri was about to take a sip of her coffee when she noticed him standing there and stopped. She placed down her drink and sat back, lifting her hand to try and shield her eyes from the sun. She took a good look at him and grinned. "Well I'll be damned.  It is you." she said as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Justin smiled at her and joked, "If we would have bet money on this, you’d be broke."

"I’m already broke, so you’d still lose." she giggled pointing towards the chair for him to sit down. "So what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

Justin took a deep breath as he leaned forward, twiddling with his thumbs. "This might sound extremely crazy and bizarre, so bear with me...I've been thinking about you for over a month a month now."

Kerri was confused and was about to speak when the waitress came over to take their order. Was he playing a prank? She wasn’t the nicest when they first met. Did he want her to shell out $20 for the cd that broke into pieces? Was he too drunk to curse her out that night and wanted another shot at it? That had to be it. She took a deep breath preparing herself for what was to follow…Including the end of her career if he spread the word around town.

Justin reached into his pocket and pulled out the Polaroid and slid it across the table to her. She leaned forward, gazing down at the photo and sat there stunned momentarily. "Where did you get this?"

"I found it awhile ago in a parking lot at a record store I go to back home. Something about it made me hold on to it that day." he replied as he took a sip of his water trying to study her face for some form of reaction.

"Ahh...Yes! That must have been it.” She snapped her finger remembering back. “Some of them dropped out of the car when I went to go pickup a pair of headphones."

The waitress momentarily interrupted them, placing their salads on the table and making sure they didn’t need anything else.

“That’s what I get for being a smart ass.” Kerri smiled, taking the piece of lemon and squeezing it over her grilled chicken and lettuce.

“Why do you say that?”

"I yelled your name in the parking lot. Serena is obsessed with you. You remember her right?” she asked not really caring if he responded or not. “I went back into the store afterwards and left her out there.”

“Oh! She slammed into the door?”

“Exactly!” she laughed heartily with him.

"Why didn't you stay outside with her and say hi?"

"What for?” she chewed. “I wasn’t there to chit chat. Were you? I was there to get some damn headphones.”

Justin laughed lightly, "You got a point."

"But getting back to the subject at hand." she said as she wiped her mouth with her napkin "What would make you want to hold onto my picture?"

Damn. He thought he was doing so well, avoiding that little fact. He needed to choose his words carefully. He looked down and started sliding his finger around the rim of his glass as he said, "I can't really explain what made me keep it. But once I had it, I couldn't stop looking at it.” He flitted his eyes towards her to scan her reaction. “Seeing how happy you were. How it just seemed like any other normal day...No reporters all in your face. No one hiding in bushes to take your picture. Nobody almost killing themselves just to touch you. Just a quiet moment in time. My life is far from normal right now. It's been this way for over 10 years now. With each year I lose a small piece of myself and the things I used to love to do. Going out the movies anytime I wanted to. Driving down the street in my car and not being followed by anyone. Picking up and going out to the park for a picnic, just because.  Or simply going to the grocery store or mall because I wanted to buy something. Your picture was a tool of sorts for me."

With her fork frozen in mid air and her eyebrows raised, Kerri sarcastically asked, "A tool to help you do what?"

"Get your head out of the gutter." Justin smirked.  He looked back down at the condensation slowly streaming down his glass and continued to explain. "Since I’ve had it…Whenever things got crazy for me or it seemed too much for me to handle all I had to do was look at the picture and I was there...Happy, content, living a simple life. It really has helped me keep my sanity...If that makes much sense."

Kerri sat there for a moment thinking quietly to herself about what he had just expressed to her. "I guess I could see how that might help."

Justin was expecting her to call him crazy, and was pleasantly surprised by her understanding attitude. He looked up at Kerri and then around at a group of people who had just been seated at the next table. He leaned forward so no one else could hear him. "I'm not trying to seem ungrateful for everything I have. And I knew coming into this that it would all come with a price. I just didn't expect it to be so much. I have great days where I really love being in the spotlight and having all this attention, but I also have days where I just want to be left alone and disappear into the crowd.  The only way that seems to be possible these days is in my dreams." He looked back down at his salad he barely touched and started to fiddle with his napkin.

Kerri sat up and leaned forward trying to make eye contact with him. She lightly tapped his hand to get his attention. "I have no idea what it is like to be famous or even mildly popular for that matter, so I am not going to sit here and bullshit you and say that I understand how you feel...Cause I don't. All I can say is that we all have own way of dealing with things going on in our lives...No matter how big or small." She looked over at her picture and back up at him. "And if this helps you then so be it.”

It was as if she were reading his mind, when she smiled at him and said, “I don't think you're crazy.  It's something I've never heard of before, but not as off the wall as some things that I have seen in my life so far."

Justin smiled and enjoyed their brief moment. She seemed very true to form. “So you’re a DJ out here in LA?” he asked, finally picking up his fork and beginning to eat. “Why haven’t I seen you at any of the usual hot spots. You’re really good!"

“I just do that for fun every now and again. I actually have my own radio show here in town though.” She explained.

“Do you?” he asked with his mouth full. “What station?”

“You’re presets probably don’t go below 100 in your car, but it’s 93.3WMK. We don’t really do mainstream. My show in particular focuses on signed and unsigned artists who are trying to get their music out there.  Artists who aren’t in heavy rotation…The complete opposite of you.”

He could hear the slight hint of resentment in her voice and the look she was giving him didn’t help hide it at all. “How could you have such animosity towards someone you have so much in common with?” he grinned.

“What do you mean?” she laughed, not knowing anything that they could possibly have in common.

Justin went on to explain that he had just signed a young girl he’d seen on YouTube. Kerri interjected that she already knew who he was talking about, “Yeah you went and stole her from me.” She smiled. “I’m happy for her, but still mad at you.” She joked. “We were playing her YouTube audio months before you even signed her.”

“I’m sorry.” He defended with a smile. “I’ll have to find some way to make it up to you.”

They talked quietly with one another as they finished their food. Justin grabbed her empty plate and placed it on top of his, pushing it to the side before reaching for his wallet to pay the check. Kerri fought with him over the bill trying to at least give him the money for her salad. When he refused she placed it down on the table anyway, insisting that he at least let her leave it as a tip for their waitress.  He shook his head thinking back to all the times he’d reached for his wallet to pay for meals in the past and the people he was with never even budged…Expecting him to pay. As they were walking down the block to the tiny parking lot, he handed her the picture and said, "I guess you should have this back now."

Kerri never reached for it. "You can keep it. I had only planned on burning it anyway."

"Why?"

Kerri looked away from him out towards the highway. "My ex had taken them of me. When I had lost a few of them, I was scared that they were the ones that were more...Explicit. So it's a relief to know at least one of them isn't."

"Well I wouldn't want to ruin your ritual bonfire." he joked as he handed her the picture.

"You sure you don't need it for future use?" she smirked.

"Well, what would I need the picture for now when I have the real thing right here?" he pointed out.

Kerri laughed, "Ahh...You're good. I'm sure if Serena was here, she’d have ripped off her clothes for you right on the spot."

Justin couldn't help but blush and laugh at her comment, "Nah, for real. I wasn't even trying to come onto you."

Kerri tried to act hurt. "Damn, you go from flirting with me to insulting me all in the same minute."

Justin light poked her in the side. "Come on now. I didn't mean it like that. I was trying to say that since I made a new friend here today...I was hoping I could call you when things got crazy so you could keep me out of a big white padded room."

She looked down momentarily before making a decision. "Well, I don't see any harm in that...Friend." she mocked.

They walked over to her car and she dug around in her purse for her cell phone, trying to find out what her number was. She’d recently had it changed and didn’t know by heart yet. She typed her number into his phone and handed it back to him. "Now I might call you at the craziest hours, so I don't know if you want to rethink this or not."

"Well I'm up at the craziest hours so I think it would work out perfectly."

He lifted the phone up towards her face and told her smile. Kerri grinned towards the lens of the camera on his phone and put up her middle finger. He laughed lightly before assigning the photo to her contact information in his phone.

Kerri sat and turned the key in the ignition and was about to reach for the door to shut when Justin grabbed it and lightly shut it for her, leaning down in the open window. "Hey...Thanks again." he smiled coyly.

"No...Thank you." Kerri replied waving her picture in her hand.

Justin watched her as she backed out of the space, waving goodbye and pulling off before he proceeded to his own car.

He got in and sat there for a while. He grabbed his phone and brought up her photo, smiling to himself before pressing send on the touch screen.

“Hello?”

“Just making sure you didn’t give me a fake number.”

“You’re an ass!” she laughed.

“Yeah, but you’ll eventually grow to love it.” He smirked.