"I hated love. I hated what it did to people, how it pulled them apart and almost killed them when it didn’t work. Most of all I pitied the lovesick puppies wandering around on clouds because they had someone ‘special’ in their lives. That was all until he came along…"
"It started out as a mission, a dare; I was supposed to prove to her that the male sex isn’t necessarily evil. Now the dare is over, and I think I may have fallen for the girl…"
"From this moment, I have been blessed. I live only for your happiness, and for you I’d give my last breath. From this moment on…"
"What is this crap?" I demanded, leaning forward from my seat in the back of my best friend’s Firebird to grab the CD player’s controls. "Why are we listening to this lovey-dovey music? It’s making me sick."
"Anything even close to romantic makes you sick, Shana," my best friend, Karie Finn, laughed as she drove.
Okay, so I had to confess that this was true. Romance wasn’t my thing—actually, it was the exact opposite of my thing. Shana Waters, anti-love girl. That was pretty much the description of me. Love only eats away at people’s insides, in my opinion. Why bother? "True, so stop playing it," I told her, pressing the button and changing the song to one I approved of.
"I don’t get you," Amy Madison, my perky blonde friend in the front seat of the car, admitted. "Guys like you, and you won’t have anything to do with them."
"They aren’t worth my time, plain and simple," I stated firmly.
"But they really like you," Karie insisted.
"Because they’re weird. Guys have this thing where they feel they have to have what they know they can’t have. That’s why I look good to them," I explained. "They are very demented, evil creatures." I sounded harsh and rude and cynical, and that was exactly how I was when it came to men. I’d been screwed over too many times to fall for guys anymore.
"You make them sound like devils," Amy giggled.
"Aren’t they?" I shot back, smiling at her. She just rolled her eyes at me, and I knew she knew she couldn’t change me.
Amy was boy-crazy, and she couldn’t understand why I would possibly not be in love with every cute member of the opposite sex who approached me. She knew I didn’t like girls, which was her first theory for my behavior, and she couldn’t come up with anything else acceptable for a reason not to drool when the hotties came around.
Karie, on the other hand, understood me. She didn’t always like what I did when it came to guys, but she understood and didn’t question my methods. "Some of them are," Karie agreed as she pulled her car into the parking lot of Orchids, the bar that we were going to. It sounded mild, but it got pretty rowdy on Friday nights.
"I bet you can’t even stand to be around a guy for one night," Amy thought aloud. "Not spending time with him and talking…"
"I could if I wanted to," I defended.
"Could not," Amy laughed. "It’s not who you are."
"I could too, if I wanted to!"
"So prove it," she challenged.
"I… don’t want to," I stated.
"Sure, uh-huh," she sang doubtfully.
"Let’s go," I encouraged, practically forcing Karie out of her seat so I could push her seat forward and climb out of the not-so-spacious back of her car.
"What, ready to meet some hot guy?" Amy joked.
I narrowed my eyes at her as I shoved some money into the back pocket of my pants and shut the car door. "Oh, funny. I think I’m just gonna die laughing," I said sarcastically as we made our way towards the entrance.
Once inside, I got pulled into the atmosphere of the lively place. A band was on the stage in the front, blasting out music, and bodies were already grinding against each other on the dance floor. I loved to dance, and live music always set something off in me.
"See you girls at the bar after this song," I told the girls, and made my way through the crowd without waiting for a response. It was our normal routine at Orchids—we arrived, split up for the first song, met up at the bar, and spent the rest of the night dancing with each other and pretty much whoever else was around. And every Friday night we danced on the bar for fun, just because we could. Our friend Trixie owned the place.
All right, so maybe my life wasn’t exactly normal or extremely exciting. I was a twenty-one year old writer who worked at a magazine writing articles that girls pinned up in their rooms and writing fantasy novels in my spare time; a girl who was against romance, but I still had friends and a good enough life. I didn’t need a guy.
As I started moving my body to the music, all thought left me. I was in the music, and it was probably the one time I let guys get away with touching me without smacking them. Nothing at all mattered to me until the song was over and I pushed away the guy who I’d been dancing with and made my way to the bar. Amy was already there with a blonde guy and a group of his friends, so I reluctantly joined them.
"Shana!" Amy cried happily, grinning when she saw me. "Hey, these are the guys. Guys, this is my friend Shana."
Many of the guys stared shamelessly at me, but I just ignored them. I was used to being ogled at by stupid males. Not to say that I was amazingly beautiful or anything, because I saw myself as only average looking, but I usually got attention from the opposite sex. I was five ten and had emerald eyes, longish layered chestnut hair, and a slim body.
"Hello, gorgeous," one guys greeted me in an annoyingly cocky voice. "How ya doin’?"
"I’d be doin’ a lot better if you stopped staring at my breasts," I replied with a sweet yet challenging smile at him before turning to the bartender. "A strawberry margarita."
"I'll get that for you!" two guys offered at the same time, each thrusting money in my direction.
I stared at the outstretched hands and couldn’t help letting out a snort of laughter. If I’d wanted to, I could have gotten so much out of those guys. "Thanks, but keep the money for someone who wants to rob you blind," I told them, pulling a few bills out from my pocket and tossing them onto the bar as I got my drink. "I can buy my own stuff."
"You don’t want attention, you shouldn’t dress like that," Karie’s voice rang out teasingly as she took a seat next to me.
"It’s not like I’m wearing a sign on my boobs that says ‘Look here!’" I laughed back. "Of course, the way some of these drunken louts are staring… who knows."
Karie chuckled. "It’s the clothes… and you."
"It’s a club. I don’t want to dress like a nun here."
"And you shouldn’t!" one guy put in firmly.
"Bite me, I didn’t ask you," I retorted before taking a sip of my drink.
"Shana doesn’t like attention," Amy told her group of new friends with a smile. "None of you are gonna get anywhere with her, so don’t bother trying."
"Ice princess, huh?" another one jeered.
I looked over to see a guy who was getting up into his forties, probably, and who I bet had a wife and kids at home somewhere. I was instantly disgusted by the man. "As far as you’re concerned, buddy, I’m the bitchiest of the bitchy."
Most of the guys hooted at my comment, the one looked embarrassed, and Amy and Karie just laughed at the whole scene. Then one guy looked directly at me. He was pretty cute, sure, but nothing that would send me to the floor begging for love. "Come on, baby. Lemme make your day."
I smiled icily. "And how would you do that? Take me outside and walk in the opposite direction as me?"
The guys hooted some more, and I waited for the next guy to take his shot at me. I was in my element—exchanging humiliating banter with strange guys who I didn’t care about was my forte, and I couldn’t deny that I enjoyed it.
No one said anything to me for a moment, then one tall guy with jet black hair stood up and raised his glass to me. I just looked at him challengingly. "I know who could get to you, little lady. A guy no woman can resist."
I laughed and raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh, and where is this wonder boy? Surely you aren’t talking about yourself."
The guy laughed in good nature. "No, not me. He isn’t here yet, but Justin’ll get to you."
"Ooh, Justin," the guys chimed, nodding like the guy was some god they looked up to. For a moment I was totally confused. I thought guys were supposed to not like other guys who could get whoever they wanted, which was who this guy had to be to have any chance with me. But then I realized that they were all waiting for my response, and I couldn’t let them think they were getting to me.
"Justin, huh? Doesn’t sound too terrific to me."
"You’ll change your mind. They all change their minds with him."
"And why would that be?" I pressed. "Is he even more charming than you fellows?" I wrinkled my nose. "Hard to imagine."
"He’s Justin," one of them answered simply.
"I don’t care if he’s Adonis, he needs more than a name to matter."
"How about two names? Justin Timberlake," the forty-or-so year old guy said smugly, crossing his somewhat chubby arms over his chest. He looked so pleased with himself that I wanted to smack him upside his fat head.
"Justin Timberlake?" Amy repeated. "Like from N’SYNC? You guys can’t be serious."
"Oh, we are," chubby replied.
Hmmm… okay, so even I will admit that Justin Timberlake, one of the five members in the music group N SYNC, could hold up his end of the looks department, but that didn’t mean I was gonna go gaga over the guy. So he had a voice that dominated the radio, piercing blue eyes, and a tall, lean body. So what? He was a star—big deal. Girls all over the world wanted him—let ‘em have him. I still wasn’t in the market for a guy, and that was assuming he was stupid enough to want me in the first place.
"You know Justin Timberlake?" Amy wanted to know, her eyes wide.
"Come on, tell us! Do ya really?" I squeaked in a fakely excited voice, rolling my eyes.
"We work with him, sweetie," an ugly guy—the ugliest in the group without a doubt—replied. "Doin’ a video with him and the guys."
This time I was surprised. "Really? Cuz I never would have guessed you were a video guy—you just have the perfect face for radio." I smiled innocently at him, waiting a moment until the meaning of my words sunk through his skull and a frown took over his face.
"That was a good one," Karie whispered to me, grinning.
"Save the stars’ names for this one over here," I went on, indicating Amy, "because it’s really not my thing. Now excuse me, I’m sure I can find someone better than you to talk to." With that, I stood up and walked away, drink in hand. I really wasn’t in the mood for guy games anymore.
Another long day is over—finally. It was filled with the usual. The guys and I were filming a video in Los Angeles and we’d all been having our butts kissed all day by everyone around us. And why? Because we’re N’SYNC. Not that that statement says anything about us individually, because it really doesn’t.
The other four guys were resting and I was ready to spend some time with the guys who were working on the video at this club they’d found that had sounded pretty cool—Orchids—and I tried not to be noticed as I entered the place and started looking for them. They were sitting in a large group with two girls—one blonde and one redhead—who they seemed to have flocked.
I walked over to them and took a seat next to Earl, nodding to the girls with a small smile. "Hey, sorry I’m late."
The guys all looked at me, and I noticed the evil glint that was in each pair of eyes turned in my direction. Instantly I knew something was up; they were plotting, and that could never be good.
"No problem, man," Charlie said, smiling in a way that told me I was in for something really bad. "Just glad you could make it."
"Justin, this is Amy, and that’s Karie," Ryan introduced, looking first to the blonde and then to the redhead. "Girls, this is Justin Timberlake."
I smiled at them in greeting. "Hey, nice to meet you."
Karie simply smiled back. "You too."
The blonde—Amy—on the other hand, seemed more excited. "Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m meeting you. This is crazy, but in the good way," she gushed in a fast whirl of words. "I’m a huge fan of yours."
I smiled and was about to say something to her when I noticed Karie elbow Amy, then cover it up with a smile and a wide-eyed look that the guys. So the girls were also in on whatever I had coming.
I looked around the group. "Is there something going on?""We found you a challenge, Justin," Bruce stated with an impish smile on his face.
"A… challenge?" I was utterly confused.
"A challenge in the form of a really pretty girl," Chuck explained.
"A really pretty bitch," Bruce snickered.
"If you hadn’t stared at her so much," Mario muttered under his breath, "maybe she would’ve been nicer."
A challenge in the form of a really pretty, bitchy girl? I still didn’t quite get what was going on. Were they trying to set me up? I knew the guys were aware that I was looking for the perfect girl, but she was not easy to find. I wanted someone who was sweet and fun and who didn’t care about my money or fame, but that girl… maybe she didn’t even exist. I seriously doubted that the guys had managed to find her for me at the bar.
"What’s going on?" I wanted to know.
Marc, who seemed to be getting closer to Amy, made a face. "Well, Amy and Karie have this friend—"
"This amazingly hot friend," Chuck elaborated.
"—who doesn’t really warm up to people well. At least not this bunch." He motioned to our movie group, who ranged from extras to crew.
"She can be really nice," Karie defended.
Bruce snorted. "Not in this lifetime, honey."
"Just because she shot you down cold doesn’t mean she can’t be nice at all," Marc put in. I laughed—Bruce was so sure of himself around women that he’d probably fallen over when the mystery girl had turned him down.
"Anyway…" I hinted. "What’s this… challenge?"
"She isn’t up for attention," Damion voiced. "Said she needed something more—we think you ought to try your luck with her. But watch out, that one might just eat you alive."
"She’s almost a complete vegetarian," Amy announced. "And what meat she does eat is never human. Or beef…"
"That wildcat, a vegetarian? Never woulda guessed," Chuck mused. "The girl’s got bite. A little too much, even for me."
"And this is besides the fact that she would never, ever go out with you," Charlie teased.
"Well… yeah."
"Does she bite?" I asked cautiously.
Karie bit her lip thoughtfully. "Only when you really piss her off," she stated thoughtfully. The guys all laughed.
"You up to it?" Ryan inquired. I looked around the group and in every single pair of eyes—including Amy and Karie’s—I could see them silently daring me to do it. "If you get through to her, it would be worth it, buddy. You would’ve tamed yourself a shrew and this shrew is a beauty."
"She’d gut you if she heard you call her a shrew," Karie sang out.
"This girl is really all that bad?"
"She’s an anti-romantic," Karie filled in. "Even mindless flings aren’t her thing. And you being a famous music star really won’t get you far with her, just a precautionary warning."
"So you guys want me to go after this girl on… what? A dare?" The idea of going after someone just to see if they would agree to going out seemed stupid and pointless to me, honestly.
"Yeah, a dare," the guys agreed. "You up to it?"
I didn’t like the idea, but I couldn’t very well back off without hearing about it every day at work, either. "I guess so… are you girls okay with this?" I asked.
Amy’s lips were pursed into a thin line and I could tell she was debating about whether or not she liked the idea. "I don’t know… I think it’s kind of meaningless," she admitted. "Shana isn’t going to go for it. It’s just not who she is."
"Aw, come on, Amy. Let him try. It’ll be fun," Karie coaxed, then turned her eyes to me with a serious expression. "I’m hoping you don’t think you’re going to mess with her heart, though, because we will hurt you before we let that happen. Personally I doubt even you can break through to her, as nice a person as you seem."
"So why are we bothering?" Amy wanted to know.
"Give him a chance," Ryan cried. "We wanna see if he can do this."
I knew that by taking the dare I would be under a lot of pressure—the guys would never shut up about it if I couldn’t get this girl to talk to me and at least be civil for a while, and Amy and Karie seemed too loyal to not follow through on Karie’s little threat, not that it was that part I was worried about. Even so, I knew that if I said no I would look like a fruitcake who wasn’t up to taking challenges.
"Hey, from what I hear, I don’t have much of a chance with your friend anyway," I started, looking at the girls. "And I promise that I’m not going to hurt her." I laughed softly. "Sounds like she’d hurt me first."
"She only gets violent when you piss her off," Karie replied with a shrug.
The guys all kind of stared at her, including me. "You’re kidding, right?" Marc inquired.
She looked around the group and shrugged again. "If it makes you feel any better, sure. Yeah, uh-huh, kidding." She certainly didn’t sound like she was kidding.
The guys laughed, and Amy smiled. "All right, Justin. You’ll never get anywhere, so I won’t stop you. Have fun," she granted. "And good luck. You’ll need it."
That certainly didn’t sound promising. I swallowed hard. "So, who is this girl anyway?"
"That girl right there," Bruce replied, smiling and pointing towards a beautiful brunette on the dance floor. "She’s a looker, huh?"
"The brunette?" I asked.
"Hell yeah, the brunette! She’s the best one out there!"
The girl was exceptionally attractive, that was for sure. She was tall for a girl, maybe a couple inches shy of six feet, and had this dark brown hair that went down to her mid-back, verdant eyes, and a slender but not stick-like, softly curving body. Dressed in tight black pants and a light blue halter, she looked amazing. She was a beauty, all right, but she also sounded like a lot of work.
"Her name is Shana, she hates males with egos, and if you step on her feet while dancing she might push you down, depending on her mood at the moment," Amy told me helpfully, then smiled. "Don’t approach her like a star and she won’t hate you any more than the other guys here."
Wow, her friends really weren’t helping me feel any better. "Thanks for the advice. See you guys later." I stood up and walked towards the girl, but I couldn’t help feeling like I was walking towards something much more—like maybe my execution.
I could feel the eyes on me as I danced, coming from the group Amy and Karie had joined. Almost nothing bothered me more than guys ogling at things—or people—that they knew did not want the attention, but I tried to ignore it. No use getting Amy and Karie mad at me by yelling at or beating up their male companions.
I felt the person behind me before I saw him, and I whirled around before whoever it was could say anything or touch me. My eyes flashed as I was met face-to-face with none other than Justin Timberlake himself. I was surprised at first, but quickly remembered my tongue. "So they weren’t lying."
His blue eyes clouded with confusion. "Excuse me?"
I let my eyes wander over to the group of my friends and his. "Tell your buddies that sending you over here after already mentioning you and your so-called ability to get through to me is simply moronic," I told him firmly. Whether or not I would ever admit it to him, the guy was cute. "I know why you’re here, and let me tell you now: it isn’t gonna happen."
"I’m… not sure I know what you’re talking about."
"Not too bright, are you?" I made a face at him. "Okay, here’s the deal. I know your little friends or minions or whatever they are sent you over here. My friends are probably laughing because they know you aren’t going to get anywhere, so you may as well just leave."
He looked a little taken aback, but he covered it quite quickly. I guess it was part of being a public figure or something. "I don’t think we got off on the right foot. I’m Justin."
I eyed him coolly. "I know who you are. Doesn’t everyone?" He stayed uncomfortably quiet, eyeing me. "What is it that you want?"
"Is your behaving like a civil human being too much to ask for?" he inquired.
I raised my eyebrows at him and resisted the crazy urge to smile. Not very often did I find someone who pushed back when I shoved, verbally or otherwise. I had to give him credit for it. "In most cases I would have to say yes, but maybe in this case I can make an exception. Come on, we’re in the way." I walked towards the bar—not by our friends, though—and he followed.
"I’m Shana," I told him when we’d taken seats at the bar. "But you probably already know that, seeing as how our friends are staring at us the way they are."
"I think they expected you to have already killed me by now," he laughed.
I let the sides of my mouth quirk up in a sort-of-sort-of-not smile as I waved girlishly to the group. They looked away, as if trying to hide the fact that they’d been looking. "I never kill in public places—Amy and Karie know that. That’s what dark alleys are for."
He was staring at me again, this look on his face like he was trying to figure out what was wrong with me or whether or not I was kidding. It was unnerving. "Thanks for the warning. I'll never go into an alley with you."
"Good decision," I approved. "Shouldn’t you have bodyguards here or something?"
He sighed. "I don’t like them following me."
"It would get old after a while," I mused. "Anyway, why are you here? Why’d they send you after me? Surely you weren’t that bad."
He smiled, causing his eyes to crinkle slightly. Damn, the boy was cute. He looked so young when he smiled like that—maybe something around seventeen instead of his real age of twenty-one. Give me a break, I worked at a magazine—I had to know things like teenage heartthrobs’ ages.
"I don’t think I was," he remarked, "of course you never know. The guys seem to think you’re… a hard catch."
"I am, although I doubt they worded my description that way," I stated simply. He watched me again. "What? I’m not ashamed to admit it, and I’m not stupid. And I’m sure you expect me to fall madly in love with you like every other woman in here probably would, but I’m different. So don’t waste your time here. Go find someone else to be your puppy-dog, all right, because I’m not up to it."
"God, you really do have some issues," he commented.
"Excuse me?"
He shrugged. "Never mind."
"Never mind my ass," I retorted. "What was that supposed to mean, that I really have issues? You’re a music star at a bar trying to pick up some random chick because your friends wanted to see if you’re charming enough to do it. Are you really in the position to point at people with issues?"
"Hey, guys," Amy’s cheerful voice rang out before Justin could answer me, and she appeared at my side. One of the guys—the sandy blonde haired one she’d been by—was at her side. He was one of the only ones who hadn’t tried to pick me up. "What’s up?"
"Nothing," I told Amy, but I remembered her words from earlier. She’d dared me to spend the evening with a guy—not just talking to him for a minute and then ditching him for someone else to dance with. Was it useless, or could I actually do it? "We were just… talking."
"Oh, cool," Amy said with a smile. "Well, we’ve got ten minutes, and we need you to choose your song."
"Choose a song for what?" the blonde guy wanted to know.
"You guys don’t come here much, do you?" I asked with a smile on my face. If they came often, they would have known about our dancing on Fridays. Lots of guys came basically for that, and I found it lots of fun to tease them while on the bar singing.
"No, we’re just here because we just started shooting a movie here," Justin answered. "We’ve only been here two days."
Amy turned to me and grinned devilishly. "Ooh, newcomers are most fun to play with," she squealed, causing me to laugh.
"What’s going on?" the blonde guy asked.
"Wait, what’s your name?" I asked.
"Marc, Marc Blucas," he introduced himself. "I’m sorry, we didn’t really get to talk earlier, but it’s nice to meet you."
"Then you really don’t know me," I laughed, but it was said in a friendly tone. Amy seemed to like the guy, so I would force myself to behave. She would never forgive me if I scared away yet another one of her boyfriends—or at least it would take a lot of groveling to make her forgive me if I scared him away. "And you’re just going to have to wait to see what’s going on."
"Should we leave?" Marc teased suspiciously.
"If we do, we should steer clear of all alleys," Justin laughed, and I smiled back at him. Amy’s eyes kept wandering back and forth between us, but I made myself ignore it. Marc seemed pretty surprised, too, and he didn’t even know me.
"You learned," I observed.
"Hey, I listen to warnings," Justin replied.
"Smart boy."
"Shana? Choose your song," Amy ordered. "Karie, Trixie, and I already chose ours."
"Umm… I dunno. Surprise me," I told her with a shrug. "Just make sure I know the words and that it has a beat I can dance to."
"All right…" She turned and walked away, taking Marc with her.
"Okay, what just happened?" Justin demanded as soon as they were out of hearing range.
"What do you mean?"
"You were practically jumping down my throat a minute ago, but when Amy and Marc came over here, you were being nice," he pointed out. "Why?"
I sighed. "Your friends are watching you to see how much progress you can make with me, right?" He nodded. "And my friends are watching me to see how much progress I let you make. So I was thinking that a trade would be good. We both save each others’ butt by being nice."
I could tell the moment realization dawned on him. "Oh, I see…"
"Come on," I beckoned as I got up and headed for the dance floor again. "Dance with me." He followed, and I could only wonder what the night had in store for me. Being nice to a guy—what a concept.
*Shania Twain, From this Moment On*
