Okay, so maybe Cameron is a bitch. But I sure didn’t know it at the time, especially when she was buttering up to me every second she got. I just didn’t know what went on behind closed doors. Justin never let on.

Well, I guess I should be thankful that Justin has enough common sense to know when to get out of a situation. Cameron had practically preached marriage night and day to him, enough to finally scare him away.

And all I can say is thank god. After all, if it wasn’t for Justin and his oh so great intelligence (note the sarcasm), Piper wouldn’t have ended up by his side.

“You didn’t say your aunt lives right on the beach!” Piper exclaimed as she ran her toes through the soft sand.

“Surprise,” Rae replied, grinning.

The three girls were sitting on beach chairs situated on the sand of the beach, yards from Rae’s aunt’s house. Neither Piper nor Virginia expected instant access to the beach out the back door.

“What does your aunt do that allows her to live in such style?” Virginia questioned, glancing behind them at the large, elegant, beach-front house, “Shit, I can’t imagine how much it must cost to live here.”

“My aunt’s a doctor and my uncle is a lawyer, hence all the money,” Rae explained, shrugging her shoulders, “My aunt and my mom grew up with no money, so I guess this is my aunt’s way of living life to the fullest. I’m just glad that we can stay here and don’t have to waste money on some slimy hotel room.”

“You can say that again,” Piper agreed, sighing as she watched the waves lap lazily across the sand.

“I dunno about you two, but I’m gonna head in for a nap. I’m exhausted from that plane flight,” Virginia announced as she stood up and stretched, “Wake me up before it gets dark.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Rae agreed, hiding a yawn with her hand, “I can just hear the soft fluffy bed calling my name right now.”

“Dork,” Piper said, rolling her eyes.

“Not gonna argue with you on that one,” Rae agreed with a grin; Virginia let out a short laugh before making her way back to the house, “So are you coming with us or would you rather sit here all by yourself?”

“Wow, way to put it nicely. But no, I think I’m gonna grab my camera and mosey on down the beach to see if there is some unsuspecting person that I can train my camera on.”

“Damn, you sure are motivated,” Rae commented as the two girls followed after Virginia, “I prolly won’t dig my camera out for at least another day. I’m too tired and too interested in working on a tan that everybody back in Michigan can be jealous of.” Piper laughed.

“I’m too restless to take a nap right now,” she confessed as they entered the house, “Every time I ride a plane, I’ve got a whole ton of energy the minute I get off.”

“You’re strange,” Rae stated.

“I know,” Piper agreed with a grin.

“Well I’ll see you in a couple hours then,” Rae announced as they came to her bedroom door, “Be careful and don’t talk to any strange cute boys.”

“Okay mom,” Piper replied, rolling her eyes.

“Hey, I just want to be there to meet all the hot guys with you,” Rae got out before another yawn crossed her lips.

“Whatever,” Piper called, waving a hand over her shoulder as she walked to the guestroom where she was staying.

Truth be told, Piper had nervous energy that refused to let her sleep. This whole experience was something new for her and she wasn’t quite sure what exactly to make of it just yet. so she’d do something productive with all this extra time. It was a good time to go exploring on her own to familiarize herself with the place and hopefully grow a little more comfortable.

Piper grabbed her camera and inserted a new roll of film, quietly humming the strains of some old country song as she worked. She cleaned the lens, making sure that everything was exactly how it should be. Once she was done, she pulled her hair into a ponytail, replaced her tennis shoes with flip-flops and bounded back down the stairs and out the back door.

With her camera strapped over her shoulder, she rolled her jeans up, removed her flip-flops, and with a little squeal, ran straight towards the water. She splashed like a little kid, shocked at the unexpected cold and the immediate numbness in her feet. Laughing, she began to trek down the deserted beach flip-flops in hand.

It wasn’t too much later, as she neared the public part of the beach, that she finally put her camera to use. There was a young couple, chasing each other and acting like giddy children. Smiling sadly, and with a small wrench of her heart strings, she lifted the camera and snapped a few pictures before moving on.

Next came an old man fishing. He had on a pair of knee-high rubber boots that came over his pants, a red and white stripped flannel shirt, and an odd-looking fishing hat. Grinning to herself, Piper focused in on him and snapped one of him tossing out the line and another as he stared off into the distance. A few minutes later, she was off again down the beach.

Soon, the public beach turned private once again and beautiful houses, seemingly twice the size of Rae’s aunt’s, lined the beach, looming in all their glory. She stared as she walked along, wondering about the lives of those who lived there, wondering if they had accomplished their dreams. Was she the only one who seemed unable to accomplish her goals?

Lost in her thoughts, she almost didn’t see the young man staring broodingly out at the waves crashing violently against an outcropping of rocks. There was a sadness in his blue eyes that Piper felt all too keenly in her heart and she quickly felt herself reaching for the camera resting against her side. But if felt wrong for some reason.

His curly hair was blowing in the merciless wind but he didn’t seem to notice. In fact, he didn’t even seem to be taking in the natural beauty of the ocean, nor the cry of a lone gull in flight. No, something was deeply troubling him, there was no doubt about it.

Despite this, Piper couldn’t help herself. She just had to capture his raw emotion on his camera regardless of the warning bells resounding in her head. She couldn’t explain it; there was no coherent reasoning behind the thought.

Quickly, before she lost all her courage, she picked her camera up and snapped. She had promised herself only one, but she took another. And another.

Suddenly, stormy blue-gray eyes snapped in her direction and she was caught. Piper stared. He was handsome, as attributed by the amazing blue eyes and sensuous lips, but what caught her attention the most was the ugly scowl trained directly on her. She stood there mute, her body unable to understand her brain frantically screaming ‘run!’.

“Fuck. I go on vacation and I can’t go one day without running into a damn reporter intent on making my life even more miserable,” he snapped, scowling at her “What do you want? More pictures? A one-on-one interview?”

Piper trembled at the angry words, thoroughly terrified that he was going to hurt her in some manner. And she was confused. Why would he think she was a reporter? And why would she want an interview? Was he somebody important? She racked her memory but could come up with no answer.

Justin watched her as she seemed to contemplate coming up with an answer. She was obviously flustered, her cheeks a becoming pink and her hands twiddling with the expensive-looking camera hanging around her neck. She was definitely pretty…even striking. The combination of that reddish-looking hair and stunning green eyes took his breath away.

But he wasn’t here to check her out. She seemed young, maybe no more than sixteen. She definitely couldn’t be a reporter, and he felt a little guilty about assuming the worst and then yelling it straight to her face. She had to be a fan; otherwise she wouldn’t be carrying that camera.

Then again, her camera wasn’t one of those everyday disposables that most tourists had when on vacation. He was confused and becoming more impatient with each passing minute filled with nothing but silence and uneasiness on both their parts.

“Well?” he finally demanded, taking a menacing step towards her, “I don’t have all day here you know.”

“I…uh…” Piper stuttered, backing up a step.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm her quaking nerves. Who the hell did he think he was? He couldn’t order her around like she was a child who needed to be taught a lesson. Oh no, Mr. I’m-High-And-Mighty had no idea what was coming to him.

“Look, if you’re just going to stand there and not say anything, be my guest, but I don’t want you following me,” he warned, softening his tone when he saw how frightened she appeared to be.

“Just who the fuck do you think you are?” she finally bit out, much to his surprise.

“Excuse me?” he questioned, eyebrows raised as if to challenge her last statement.

“You heard me right. Do I look like a fucking reporter to you?” she demanded, eyes flashing in anger, “I’m a college student for crying out loud.”

“Shit, you’re not a fan, are you?” he suddenly interrupted, chewing his lip in nervousness. He could get in a lot of trouble with his record label if he verbally assaulted one of his “loyal” fans.

“A fan of you? Now why the hell would I be a fan of you? I don’t even know who the hell you are,” she exploded, crossing her arms as if to warn him not to come a step closer.

“You don’t?” he asked, seemingly shocked.

Of course, that was cocky of him. Not everybody on this earth knew who Justin fucking Timberlake was, but damn if he just had to run into one of them right now.

He should have been thankful. He should have been down on his knees praising the lord for his good luck. He was in a very bad mood and it could have turned out awfully had she turned out to be a fan or worse, a reporter as he had wrongly assumed at first.

Then again, he was more than a little pissed off that she was invading his privacy, taking pictures of him when she had no right to. What the hell was she out taking pictures of strangers for anyway? Didn’t she know that she could get hurt if she mistakenly photographed some psychopath?

He felt his heart fill with dread at the thought, but quickly brushed it aside. That wasn’t the issue here right now. The issue was that she now had him on her camera at his most vulnerable state. It didn’t matter what she was taking pictures for, there was no way he was going to let those pictures in anybody’s hands, including her’s.

“No, I don’t. Am I supposed to?” she demanded, raising an eyebrow in his direction.

“Well, uh…I…” it was his turn to stumble for the right words to come up with. What to tell her? Did he dare reveal his true identity? Would she even give a damn?

“Look, I’m a photography major and I’m trying to get a scholarship to this really expensive school which explains why I’m out taking pictures of strangers. I didn’t mean to offend you or anything,” she stated, as if offering him a white flag of peace.

Justin was somewhat flattered. He knew how odd photographers could be when they were on the job; oh he knew that all too well.

She must have seen something in him that she thought the camera would love – even though it had already loved him for the better part of ten years. And it wasn’t like she taking pictures of him that he would later sell on Ebay for an outrageous sum.

Then again, how did he know that she was telling the truth? She could be lying through her teeth and he wouldn’t know any better. How could he tell her that he wanted those pictures without offending her.

He looked up, ready to plead his case, only to find that she had disappeared. He looked frantically up and down the beach, but could find no trace of her. He cursed, fully convinced that she had lied to him.

What was he to do now? Well, he could always continue with his vacation and forget about the whole incident. Yeah, that’s what he’d do. He had enough to worry about now as it was, no way he was going to add one more thing to the mix.

Sighing, Justin shoved his hands back into his pockets and walked up the trail to his house. His growling stomach reminded him how long it had been since he had eaten, so he figured now was as good a time as any to obey those pesky hunger pangs. Besides, it would take his mind off of everything, even that mystery girl…

Piper took a ragged breath as she watched the stranger disappear into one of the houses she had been staring at just minutes ago. He didn’t look too happy that she had up and disappeared on him, but she couldn’t stay there ignoring the warning bells in her head any longer. Her mind, which had been telling her to run, finally connected to the rest of her body and she had fled.

He had seemed so angry, so capable of hurting her, that she wasn’t willing to stick around longer to find out if she was right about him. Better to be safe than sorry in that kind of situation.

Besides, she could make it up to him. She had invaded his privacy, that was true, and the least she could do was send him a copy of all the pictures she had taken with that roll. He deserved that much. And it would be easy to just leave them in his mailbox so she would have to confront him again.

With her seemingly fool-proof plan in place, Piper quickly walked back towards her temporary home as the sun began to fade from the sky. Rae and Virginia would get worried if she wasn’t back soon, and there was no way she wanted an earful from them. Not after she had just gotten enough from a handsome stranger.