I flip carefully through the article dedicated to me in Rolling Stone. I grace the cover shirtless with the headline, “R&B’s favorite playboy has gone bad boy. Drugs, Booze and Woman, Justin spills his lifestyle to us. And it’s not pretty.”

They kept their word about leaving some of the awful details out, including the remark about Beth’s breasts. It does go into the famous women I slept with, which should piss off Cameron, Alyssa and Scarlett. The beans have already been spilled about Britney, no surprise for her in there. The drugs have been downplayed to a point that no one would be offended to read it. Everyone in music does drugs and drinks anyway. The girls might be harder for some to get around though. What can you do at this point though? A million people are reading this article right now. Probably more.  

Beth is leaned up against the table, her elbows on the surface as her fingertips dangle over the edge as she waits for me to finish the article. I close the magazine and toss it behind me and sigh. Beth raises her eyebrows looking for a response. I glance at her for a minute deciding what I should say, what’s appropriate to say after surveying something like that.

I rub the back of my neck, “I guess you’re right, I could have been much worse.”

“Much, much worse.” Beth adds.

“I mean, I don’t think my whole fan base will desert me because the made me out to seem as though I do drugs occasionally and sleep around a little with a few girl that come backstage.”

Beth shakes her head, “Yeah, imagine if they only knew the real you what trouble you would be in.”

I look up at her and scowl, “Do you spend your days thinking of witty comebacks to fuck with me or do you just naturally do this to people?”

Beth pauses for a minute as if she is actually contemplating the question when I know she is inwardly thinking, “I hope you die.” Her eyes dance as she has a smart remark waiting on the tip of her tongue that will put me to shame, but she decides against it as Trace comes in the room, “Dude, there are some girls out in the hall that I think you should take a look at.”

Beth rolls her eyes at the comment and leaves the room. I look at Trace who is waiting for me to go inspect the girls he has rounded up so that he can hook up with his allotted ones that I give him. He’s the one the settle for when they can’t get me, which I would find unsettling if I were him but apparently he doesn’t think so.  

I smile as I get up and follow Trace out to where the girls are. I have been looking for a pick me up after the magazine anyway.

________________________________________________________________

I sit with Gia and pick at my pancakes. I thought you really couldn’t go wrong with a breakfast food like pancakes. Add water, pour on griddle, wait to flip said piece of food and tada! Instant breakfast. How wrong I was. Apparently not only can you butcher the taste of what is really a piece of bread, but you can also burn it to the point that even when you put a stick of butter and a container of syrup on the thing, it still doesn’t taste like a pancake. Or resemble one for that matter. It would have made a good Frisbee before I doused it with syrup in hopes of being able to swallow it. No such luck.

Gia hands me a bowl with half her fruit salad in it, “I didn’t get to you before you ordered so I figure I owe you. I ordered pancakes my first time I ever ate breakfast from here. They only save the good food for the Almighty and his minions.”

I laugh, “Thanks, I’m starving.”

“You should be, your running around all day. So what’s on the agenda for this morning?”

“I’m free until tonight since Justin has some radio interviews to do. Apparently they all want to know about a certain magazine article.”

“Read that this morning, I thought Johnny was going to lose it there for a minute.”

“I guess he’ll have to remember not to go into an interview high nest time.

Gia snickers, “Yeah right. That boy will never learn. Anyway, speaking of boys, you and I are going out for lunch and meeting Derek.”

I take a bite of a strawberry, “Wouldn’t you prefer to be alone with your boyfriend?”

“You’re coming and that’s the end of it.” Gia says, handing me a glass or orange juice.

I relent as a guy walks up behind Gia and kisses her head. She turns around and smiles her award winning grin. Her smile is a great comfort to me when I think about taking a knife to Justin, “Beth, this is my boyfriend Derek, Derek this is Beth.”

I shake the guy’s hand and feel instantly at ease. He’s about six three with milk chocolate skin. His eyes are warm and inviting as he shakes my hand. It’s easy to see why Gia feel for him, “It’s nice to meet the famous Beth.”

I shake my head, “It’s you who’s famous.”

He laughs and pulls Gia’s shoulder against him, “Well what do you guys say about getting out of here?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Gia says, grabbing my hand.

I grab my purse as we head out the doors of the arena, “So where are we going? It’s like eleven o’clock in the morning.”

Gia smiles as I know I’m in for a wild ride, “First we have to find something to wear.”

Derek holds Gia’s hand and they exchange knowing glances. I guess I’m just going to have to wait and find out. We pile into Derek’s car and he brings us to this back alley and parks it.

“Okay, you guys aren’t going to make me buy contraband or something are you?” I question as I look around for some sort of marker as to where I am.

Derek opens a back door and we go inside the building. He flips on the lights which cause the overhead bulbs to go on one at a time, almost theatrically. The light reveals racks of clothes that line the walls. I turn to Gia and she smiles, “Clothes celebrities don’t wear. They still have the tags on them.”

“Pick something out.” Derek says.

“Something hot. We are going to have fun tonight.”

I look through the clothes, rack by rack with Gia until I find a purple top with a v neck line. I hold it up to me and put it in my arm, looking for a bottom. Gia hands me a black leather skirt and surveys the two pieces together, “Killer. You only need one thing.”

She dives beneath the racks for shoes and emerges with black leather boots with a three and a half inch heel that go up to my knees. I look at her in disbelief, “Am I trying to make some extra money tonight?”

Gia ignores me and pushes me to the screen that I can dress behind. I pull on the outfit and look in the mirror behind me. I defiantly look ready for a night on the town. I probably stand at close to five foot ten. I come out from behind the screen and Gia has already gotten a flashy black top on with jeans, “Damn you look good!” she exclaims.

“Yeah Beth, Jake will love you.”

“Jake? Who’s Jake?” I ask confused.

Gia elbows Derek and he immediately goes silent, looking slightly sheepish. I look to Gia, but she ignores my look, pulling on some high heels on, “You are not setting me up are you?”

Derek goes behind a screen to change and scurries to get out of my firing range. Gia scowls in the direction he left, “Thanks for the back up baby.”

“You’re welcome cupcake.”

A door opens to the building and a guy walks in, dressed similar to our attire. He comes in and waves at Gia, “Hey G.”

Gia waves back carefully, trying not to smile, “Hey Jake.”

The guy comes up to me and shakes my hand, “And you must be Beth.”

I shake his hand, “You must be Jake.”

He smiles, “Were going to have a nice time tonight. It’s nice to meet a girl with the same interests as me.”   

“And what interests would those be?” I ask, eyeing Gia.

“Well, number one being rock and roll.”

“I’m not following.”

Gia comes over and hands me a ticket, “You love rock music, so Derek got tickets tonight to see The Who live at Madison Square Garden.”

My jaw drops and Derek comes out from hiding, “So we are all going to have lunch, browse the city and then go to the show.”

Jake flashes me a smile, “I guess they didn’t tell you.”

“NO, of course not.”

He takes my hand, “Don’t worry, I’m not a crazy person or anything.”

I smile and leave my hand in his. Tonight I’m going to relax.

_______________________________________________________________

How much did you take? Were you getting high with Britney? Have you ever slept with two groupies at once?

That was the extent of my day. I wanted to pound my fists into every fucking stupid person who asked me that today. I came back to the hotel and collapsed on my bed, pulling out every single drug I had in the room and started my relaxation. Trace came in and we snorted for a while but it wasn’t enough and pretty soon I started to shoot heroin. Trace tried to tell me to stop but finally he gave up and left the room in search of some girls. He calls someone to come and get me as he leaves around midnight and I wish he wasn’t the person he is now. The guy who used to stay with me when I fucked up rather than called someone to deal with me.

I sit alone, barely able to think until someone comes in my room. Beth sighs angrily as she sees me laying on the bed, “Did you know I had to run out on drinks with friends on my night off because you decided to try and overdose on drugs?”

Great. She has friends and I don’t. How the fuck did that happen? When did this all happen?

I ignore her and eye her outfit, “Where have you been, walking street corners?”

Beth looks at me angrily, “At a concert. You are a mess.”

The world spins and I put my head back against the mattress. I hear Beth go around the room before she snatches something off the bed. Then I hear the toilet flush and I know what she’s done. I sit up which I must have done way too quickly because I can’t see. I wait until my vision comes back to me to move but by then it’s too late. She’s flushed all the drugs down the drain.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I ask angrily as she comes back in the room.

“I’m doing what someone should have done for you a long time ago.” she argues.

“Do you know how much money you just flushed?”

“Well if you weren’t so stupid as to have spent it on that shit we wouldn’t be in this position would we?”

I am so mad it’s not even funny, “You’re fired.”

Beth stares at me before sitting down in the chair next to the bed, “Fine.”

I wait but she does nothing, “What are you doing? Didn’t you hear me? Get out.”

“No, you fired me so now I can do whatever I want.”

“I’ll call security.” I threaten, trying to get her to leave me to die in peace.

“Go ahead. I bet you can’t even dial a phone.” she counters.

I know she’s right. I feel like dying right now. I lay back down and Beth moves onto the bed next to me. In spite of myself and probably because I haven’t thought this move through, I put my head in her lap. She strokes my head and runs her fingers through my short hair. It brings a lot of comfort and I close my eyes.  

“You may be a mess, but you’re going to be okay.” She whispers.

And tonight, that’s all I need to be told.