1.

She gazes at him across the top of her textbook. He raises his eyebrows, mouths 'what?' She shrugs and pretends to go back to reading. She's supposed to be studying.

He's leaving again soon. He's been counting the days. Three. She's counting too. He thinks it's going to be legit this time, thinks he's going to make it. She hopes it's not.

The bell rings.

"What's up with you?" Justin says as they head towards their lockers. She shrugs again.

He leans against his locker, studying her as she opens hers. He puts his hand on her wrist and says, "Do you want to come over? My mom isn't gonna be home, she's getting stuff for…"

'The trip to Florida,' she finishes in her head. Outloud, "yeah, ok."

On his couch, he talks about Florida for a half an hour before she leans in and kisses him hard.

Three days later he leaves. It is legit. He doesn't come back. She wonders if Behind the Music will ever call her to find out about the day he lost his virginity.

2.

She's not quite stylish enough for this bar.

Fuck it because she's hotter than half the girls in here. Rich doesn't equal beautiful. Plastic surgery can't help everyone.

Plus she's on her third drink. Let them look.

The guy leaning against the bar is looking and he likes what he sees. She cups her own breasts as she dances. Her hair is sweaty and sticking to her forehead. Her makeup has smudged to make two black eyes. She stares back at him. She likes what she sees.

He crosses the dancefloor and puts his hand on her hip. Pulls her towards him. He's hard.

She doesn't find out his name until they're in a cab, halfway back to his hotel, and only then because his hand is in her pants, stroking her off. He wants to hear her moan 'Justin.'

A year later she's watching Access Hollywood, and there he is.

3.

Justin smears cake on her nose and she fights the urge to swipe it away. Tradition, according to the book she read. She's followed all the traditions. Old, new, borrowed, blue. The wedding planners, and her mother, insisted.

The only tradition she really cares about is the one where they fuck that night in the honeymoon suite. Two years without it is making her crazy. She half suspects she said yes just to finally get him into her pants. None of her friends can believe that she's dating a world-famous popstar and they haven't done it.

They haven't. She can't believe it either.

She used to think the whole virginity thing was a marketing ploy. The first day he noticed her in the office, asked for her name, asked if he could see her sometime, she thought she'd be spread eagle on his bed that night. And out of a job in the morning.

It wasn't a marketing ploy. Unfortunately. She still has the job. He thinks it's sexy to date a secretary. She thinks he should get her a promotion.

He leans in to kiss her and whispers, "God, is this almost over? I just want to get you back to the suite and…"

She leans into his kiss, smiling slightly. Flashes go off. They'll be the cover of Us Weekly next week and she'll read about how their first time was from unnamed friends who won't really be her friends at all.

4.

Her bag has the following things in it: a three-pack of condoms, a five-pack of gum, a lipliner/eyeliner combo, and her demo. It's silver. A clutch.

She's missing the show, but she shook her tits when the security guard came by her for this very reason. She's got a backstage pass. Fuck the show. She's got tickets to another night, anyway, and she saw him four times when he was still with *Nsync.

There are four other girls backstage. They mostly look cheap and trashy. She fingers her bag and tugs at her top. It shows less of her belly but more of her cleavage. She adjusts it again. Can't decide which is better.

The door opens and the whole band saunters in, yelling and wiping sweat off themselves. The other girls jump up. She waits.

Across the room, Justin catches her eye and heads towards her. She smiles and decides she'll give him her demo after she gives him the best blowjob of his life.

Three hours later, when she leaves his hotel room, her bag has the following things in it: one condom, a five-pack of gum, a lipliner/eyeliner combo, and her demo.

5.

She's only 25. Album number four debuted at number one and dropped out of the top 25 faster than she could get her drunken Vegas marriage annuled. Album number five peaked at number ten before disappearing off the Hot 100 in just over a month. She's only 25 and she's over.

That's how her record label looks at it. She doesn't see it like that. She knows she's over because she can go shopping at top boutiques and bargain bin stores and there are no paparazzi at either one.

She doesn't miss them, just what they mean.

Three weeks ago she had her first blurb in Us Weekly in eight months. She was quoted as being very sorry that Justin's marriage had broken up. When asked if there was any chance of a reconciliation now that he was single again, she simply said, "I haven't spoken to him, but, you know, we'll always care about each other."

Larry wants her to call him. He thinks relaunching their relationship could relaunch her career. She agrees and promises to call him.

She doesn't call him because she's already started a relationship with him to start her career once before, and maybe that was the problem. She fucked it up, but this time she's going to do it right. She doesn't call and she doesn't read Us Weekly anymore and when she goes to the grocery store, no one follows her. Larry doesn't mention Justin again.

Two weeks later, her phone rings, and it's him. "Hey," he says, and it's like the first time.