“Brennan no!” I yelled as she ran out of the front door when I opened it coming in from work. Why hadn’t I locked them up before I left; what the fuck was I thinking? I stood on my porch and watched her run down the street a little before turning back to the glass door at Buckley who was standing nearby watching on with jealousy that she was out roaming free and he was confined to the walls of my tiny house.

“Don’t even think about it. I’m going to kill your sister! Stay.” I threw on the UCONN hoodie that was hanging by the door and my Uggs before running down the street after her. When I was looking into a neighbor’s yard I heard someone yell excuse me from down the block. I turned around and saw a tall unfamiliar man holding Brennan by her pink studded collar, stupid bitch.

“Thank you so much for grabbing her.” I got closer to him and couldn’t help but notice he was at an all time high on the gorgeous scale. I smiled at his six foot frame and looked into his green eyes; god damn he was perfect.

“It’s not a problem. I found her in my backyard with my dog. What’s her name?” I clipped the leash I had grabbed around her collar and lightly yanked over to me.

“Brennan.” He crouched down to pet Brennan’s head but she snapped at him.

“She’s feisty, that’s the second time she’s done that to me.”

“She doesn’t like any males but her Daddy.” I couldn’t believe I was calling Justin her Daddy the way he does, it makes me sick.

“Oh.” He looked a little hesitant to continue talking to me. “No disrespect to your boyfriend or anything but you’re very beautiful.”

“I’m sorry, my boyfriend?”

“Yeah, Brennan’s ‘daddy’. Wouldn’t he be your boyfriend?

“Oh wow no. She’s not my dog.”

“She’s not?”

“Well she might as well be, but I’m just dog sitting for a friend.”

“Then I feel stupid now. My name is Derek.” He held out his hand to shake mine, so I put Brennan’s leash around my wrist and shook his.

“Alana. I haven’t seen you around here, you just move in?” He looked back at the house he came out of and nodded his head.

“Yeah, I just moved into the neighborhood a week ago.” A week before that I was in Aspen; that would explain why I didn’t see him move into my small neighborhood. I didn’t want to seem rude but it was freezing and Brennan was started to pull at the leash so I told Derek I had to go back inside, not before telling him that my door was always open if he needed anything (he had just moved there from Canada and didn’t know anyone around).

I’m sure you’re wondering what happened to Kurt, right? Apparently his phone call during mine and Justin’s rendezvous turned him off a little; he claimed that he figured there was ‘someone else’ in the picture because when we were talking he heard ‘weird noises’ in the background, and I don’t doubt it because Justin wasn’t discreet during the phone call. But once again I was let down by a male and I got the ‘let’s just be friends’ line. When I called Justin after Kurt dropped me off from our final date and told him the news he cracked up hysterically for ten minutes and then said ‘I told you not to answer the phone’. After he was able to regain composure he asked me if I wanted him to get Kurt fired; I was highly tempted but decided against it considering I wouldn’t want someone fucking with how I make a living. I thought Jay was going to comfort me but he kept making slick comments about Kurt instead of telling me I didn’t need him and could do better. Some friend he is, right?

“What’s your friend like?” Derek looked over at me while I was skimming through a rack of men’s clothting at a store in Manhattan. I rolled my eyes and scoffed.

“Spoiled. He has everything and anything you can think of, which is why this is so hard.”

“You’ve been friends with this guy for how long again?” So maybe at that point I hadn’t exactly told Derek who exactly we were shopping for, or whose dogs wanted to bite his head off every time he was in their presence.

“Nine or so years. But like I said, he’s spoiled, and not to mention the pickiest person I’ve ever met in my life. So shopping for him is like house hunting…” I saw his eyebrows furrow in confusing before walking towards the back of the store to most likely shop for himself, since he wasn’t being helpful looking for Justin at all. After a while of shopping around for my favorite spoiled pop star I decided that I was just going to have to figure something out myself because Derek wasn’t enjoying himself on account of hunger and I felt bad. We were about to head into a nearby Burger King when Derek brought up how he’s never eaten at Southern Hospitality but he’s heard good things about it. I tried to avoid going there and made it seem like I didn’t want to sit down and eat but he insisted we go and that he’d pay. When I protested more he asked why I was so set against going there and I didn’t want to tell him so I gave in.

“Hello?” Derek and I had been walking down the street about to go into the doors of the restaurant when my cell phone rang. Sure enough, it was Justin.

“Ay bay bay.” I smiled and rolled my eyes, hoping Derek wasn’t paying attention. Lately he had been answering his phone like that whenever I called him or vice versa.

“Oh gosh hello. What are you up to?” We were brought to a table in the back and given menus. I looked around to see if anyone that would recognize me was working; and when I say anyone I mean Kurt.

“No ay bay bay back? That’s not nice of you. Right now I’m sitting backstage at the arena. We just did our sound check, I met some fans, got my ass kissed a little, you know all that good shit. Now I’m bored and decided to call my favorite person in the world.” I knew it was rude to be on the phone talking to Justin while I was with Derek, but it had been a few days since we’d spoken last due to his busy touring schedule.

“You must have confused my number with Jessica’s.”

“No, I didn’t dial the wrong number this time actually. Where are you? Seems like you got a lot going on in the background.” I looked up from my menu at Derek who was looking at me as if he were telling me to get off the phone but I ignored him and continued to scan the menu of my food options, as if I really needed to.

“Out eating with…a friend.” As soon as I called Derek a friend I looked directly at him and winced when I noticed the confused look on his face.

“Noel?”

“No, Derek.”

“Who’s Derek? Are you on a date or something?”

“Yeah sorta, can I call you back later?”

“Uh actually I’m going to be tired after the show and yeah... So it’s okay, don’t bother. Have fun on your little date though.”

“Oh don’t be like that now. I’ll call you back when I get home.”

“No, it’s alright. Have fun, really. I’ll just see you next week out in LA for my party. You’re still coming to that, right?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world and you know that. I’ll text you when I get home, so check your phone when you go on your break and Tim takes over, okay?” I was trying to tell him to check his phone during intermission without making it so obvious.

“Whatever. Talk to you when you’re done dating.”

“Grow up, please. Go call your girlfriend if you have nothing better to do.”

The questioning started to come daily from Derek after that phone conversation with Justin. Every time I would be on the phone when he was around he would question me once I was off and make faces whenever I would say I was talking to Justin (well he knew Justin as Jay, my best friend who was on a business trip for a month) or whenever I would say something about him or Trace (who Derek knew as Tray, Jay’s cousin). Derek was smart though; he knew there was more to it than what I was telling him. I could have answered him truthfully since I really liked him, but how do you tell someone that you’re pursuing a relationship with that you can’t fully commit because you’re fucking your best friend and developing feelings for him in the process?

I guess the same way you tell someone that you’re pursuing a relationship with that you’re flying across the country to see that best friend (that he’s already not too fond of) for a week just for his birthday (apparently that’s not kosher in his eyes).

“So you’re leaving tomorrow?” Derek sat on my bed and watched me as I was packing the last of my stuff in my suitcase to bring out to LA with me for the week I was spending at Justin’s, who was getting off tour just in time for his birthday.

“Yep.”

“Why are you going out there again?” I rolled my eyes, having told him a ton of times already.

“I’m bringing Buckley and Brennan back there. It’s been a good month, but it’s time for them to return to Daddy.” Yeah, I know they were there for three but I couldn’t tell him that. Any smart person would have thought it was weird for someone to be on a business trip for three months.

“So dropping them off takes a week?”

“I’m not spending all that money to go out there for two days then fly back. It’s my best friend’s birthday too, and his party is towards the end of the week.”

“Your best friend Jay, right?”

“Yes, Jay.”

“And you’re staying with him?” I didn’t really know where I was staying at that point. I wasn’t sure if it was ‘safe’ to stay at Justin’s, so there was a possibility I’d be in a hotel or at Trace’s.

“Either with him or at Tray’s.”

“Tray is your other best friend, Justin’s cousin, right?” I know it’s bad that I was lying to him about who Trace and Justin were, but he was already asking tons of questions, I didn’t want to deal with the annoying ones that came when people found out I was friends with ‘celebrities’.

“Correct.”