chapter 2

"Sadie!" I roared down the steps angrily. I could hear the soft patter of footsteps as my sister came to meet me in our new room. Yes. Ours.

"Yes, annoying twin?" she asked sarcastically. She was wearing a cute running suit, with strands of purple racing down her clingy T-shirt and yoga pants. I winced at the surplus of skin she bared.

"How are you not freezing?" I demanded, my eyes narrowing.

"Well, whenever I stare at that guy," she nodded towards the shiny poster on the otherwise bare wall. "He takes away the cold," she joked. I frowned.

"Can you take it down please?" I pleaded. She chuckled at my obvious discomfort.

"Why should I?" she asked airily, laughter lacing her words.

"It's distracting me!" I complained, "I can't work."

She laughed. "Little Eve falling for Dex again?" A touch of crimson graced my lightly tanned face. She walked closer to me, slinging a small, athletic arm around my shoulders. She whirled me around to face the poster.

"Sadie. Stop," I said, discomfort mounting in my chest. She waved off my numerous complaints.

"Look at this dimple right here," she pointed at a spot just above his mouth, noting the small crease that he had in his cheeks. I had noticed that the first time he smiled to the cameras, posing for People magazine. "And look here, at this beautiful, spectacular ring. See that ruby?" I did not reply. I was NOT going to play Sadie's game. I reached up to grab the top of the huge poster, ready to rip it apart. I couldn't look at him anymore.

Sadie forced my hands away frantically.

"Mom!" she wailed, "Eve's trying to tear up my limited-edition five star life-size thirty dollar poster!"

"Yup," I muttered, trying to barrel my way towards the poster.

"So you ARE starting to like him again!" Sadie laughed as she pushed me away from the monster of a poster.

"No I'm not!" I shrieked, "MOM!"

"It's okay," Sadie reassured me as she pulled me far away from the poster. "It's normal to have a celebrity crush, and even MORE normal to have a Dex crush. Look at me! I have this brand new poster of him in my room so I could admire his hotness everyday when I wake up."

"No! I will NOT STAND having a poster of him in my room!" I boomed. I was just starting to recover. Why did Sadie have to ruin it now?

It all started when I was nine years old...

Mom had just turned on the television, and a little boy of ten trounced on the stage of American Idol. He was so adorable, graced with a naturally clear complexion and red hair. Everyone “oohed” and ‘ahhed’, awed by the boy's cuteness.

"What are you going to sing for us, little boy?" the hostess asked. She smiled at the little boy, and he stood perfectly still, with an elegance and grace people could only hope to mimic.

"I will sing ‘Love Me’ by Justin Bieber." His voice had an alluring musical lilt to it.

The piano began to play, and so did his voice.

His voice was toying with us, leaving us on edge, and drawing us in faster than lightning. We were hanging on his every note. This boy seemed to be meant for an audience, and at that minute, all of America, agreed to be his. We were unexplainably bound to this one boy. He had captured our hearts in one simple song.

"All I have to say is... WOW!" The hostess said, eyes widening at the boy's incredible talent, "you will surely have an amazing career from now on," she informed him.