Chapter 1

Audrey Jackson walked down a newly rain-washed sidewalk in South Beach to the Colony Theater, where she and the other assigned publicist, Autumn Landers, were supposed to meet Skittle Addiction. The weather was quite a change from the usual frigidness that accompanied a New York autumn. It was 70 degrees in Miami that day, but it felt like 80. Audrey wondered, with a flash of irritation, how it could possibly be that hot in fall.

“God, they have a stupid name,” Autumn said. Audrey barely stifled a laugh of agreement as she pulled open the heavy glass door.

“Tell me about it. I bet their music is crap too,” said Audrey.

“I wonder if they’re gay,” was another offhanded comment of Autumn’s.

“Autumn!” Audrey exclaimed.

“What? They sound like a boy band, not a rock band. And you know what they say about those boy bands…” she trailed off, wiggling her eyebrows.

At this point, Audrey couldn’t help herself. She burst into laughter. They both had to pause before the door a minute to collect themselves. Once they finally did manage to get the door open, the theater was revealed. The stage was in the center. Red velvet curtains hung on either side. Long rows of dark red velvet chairs with plastic backs filled the room, making it feel like a scarlet maze. Standing on the stage were six people, five of whom were guys.

“See? I told you: boy band. I wonder who’s fucking who,” Autumn whispered to Audrey as they made their way down an aisle. Audrey tried desperately not to laugh as she told Autumn to stop.

They both hopped up onto the stage, where Audrey got a better look at the guys. Oh yeah, they’re waaay too good looking to be straight… she thought.

“Hi, I’m Kai,” said one, extending a deeply tanned hand toward her.

She tried to control her slightly shaking hand and shook his. She told him her name while trying not to become lost in his incredibly beautiful forest-colored eyes. He stood upright and ran a hand through his sandy blond hair. He was really tall.

“This is Autumn,” she told him.

She gestured behind her to where Autumn was standing. He waved to her and then refocused his beautiful eyes on Audrey. They locked on her own green eyes and stayed there longer than they should have.

“All right, all right K. Enough,” said another guy with hair as black as a winter glove and mocha coffee for eyes. He introduced himself as Miguel.

“Audrey,” she told him.

After him, a third guy with auburn spirals sticking out every which way introduced himself as Torin Davis. Audrey almost laughed out loud as she thought of what Autumn would say about his hair (“He has great sex hair”). The last two introduced themselves as Jake and Asher, respectively.

“Well, I expect you two to get to work right away,” said a woman who was most likely Skittle Addiction’s manager. Autumn and Audrey both nodded.

“I have set up offices for you in the hotel the guys are staying in. After rehearsal, I’ll give you the keys to your rooms. I’m Layla James by the way, Skittle Addiction’s manager,” she said.

The two introduced themselves and sat down to watch the guys rehearse. They needed to get an idea of who they were publicizing. But then, there was no music for a while. Technical difficulties? they both wondered. Then Autumn’s voice cut into the silence.

“I’m telling you, this band only exists ‘cause the guys are so damn good-looking. Boy bands. Ugh. Of course this probably also means that they’ll make a disgusting amount of money for having no talent,”

“Yeah, well. So you admit they’re good-looking, eh?” Audrey smirked.

“Well, yeah,” Autumn replied in an undertone, a small smile on her face.

“So… lemme guess. You think Torin is hot, right?” said Audrey.

“Wow… you’re good…” said Autumn, amazed.

A snicker escaped Audrey’s lips as she said: “You just wanna do him,”

“Well, that’s true,” she agreed. Audrey had to contain a sigh. Autumn was always screwing someone… well, those were the rumors at least.

“What about you? I saw you eyeballing Kai,” said Autumn.

“Come on … you know that would be a bad idea,” Audrey looked her right in the eye as she said it.

“Uh-huh…then why does he keep looking at you?” she asked.

Audrey looked as well. Kai’s emerald eyes were, indeed, boring right into her. She had to admit, this little revelation was pretty shocking. As the gaze lingered, Audrey had to remind herself to keep breathing. In, out. In, out. In, out. Phew. she thought. She managed to smile at him and looked away again. Audrey then proceeded to tell Autumn that it was a bad idea… especially because they were gonna work with him.

“Come on, I bet you $20 you can get him to go out with you by next week,” Autumn said. There was a weird gleam in her eye behind the playful tone of her voice.

“Funny,” Audrey said sarcastically. The gleam didn’t disappear from Autumn’s eyes though.

“You’re serious…” said Audrey. Her eyes became the size of dinner plates.

“Of course I am,” Autumn said, her voice deadly sweet.

“And then you know what you should do? Just for fun? You should say you don’t wanna see him again…no matter how good the date is. That would be pretty funny,” Autumn said in that eerie deadly sweet voice again.

“No, it wouldn’t. I can’t believe you would even suggest that. That’s just wrong and… mean,” Audrey said seriously. She couldn’t believe Autumn was even considering this.

“Eh, you’re right. But I wasn’t being serious anyway,” Autumn said, frighteningly nonchalant.

“Yes, you were,” Audrey said, forcing her most serious expression. She was almost never serious so this was an extreme oddity.

“Yes… I was,” Autumn said.

Make up your mind! Audrey thought, annoyed.

“Are you just repeating everything I say now?” Audrey asked.

“Maybe,” Autumn said. Her face was now a mask of innocence… like that of a little kid’s. To Audrey, this was even creepier than that deadly sweet voice.

“Okay…” Audrey said, mostly just to get Autumn to shut up.

“So, bet’s on,” was the last thing Autumn said before Skittle Addiction rehearsing cut her off.

Two hours later rehearsal ended. The guys had already filed out into the car that was taking them back to the hotel. Autumn and Audrey were just making their way out.

“So, they’re actually good,” said Audrey, breaking the newfound silence.

“Yeah. They are,” was Autumn’s monosyllabic answer.

“Okay, you should know that you’re seriously freaking me out. First that thing with Kai, then being completely silent, and now the monosyllables…you’re seriously starting to freak me out,” Audrey repeated herself.

“Sorry,” Autumn replied with the innocent look again.

Audrey unconsciously shivered. That look scared her more than she was willing to admit. They then approached the car taking them to the hotel and got in. Autumn managed to make it so that Audrey was sitting next to Kai.

Insert eye roll here. Autumn can’t be serious about this crazy-ass bet of hers… Audrey thought irritably.

“So, where are you from?” asked Kai all of a sudden.

“New York. You?” she replied. Her politeness surprised her.

“Hawaii,” he said.

This intrigued her. She certainly hadn’t expected it. Now, instead of cursing her politeness, she was grateful for its immediacy. Then her eyes caught Kai’s green ones. They were boring into hers again. Once again, she had to remember to breathe. She had to remind herself that breathing was what kept her alive. When her breath finally returned, she realized Kai was giving her ‘the look’. You know, that heart-melting look where it seems like the guy is staring straight through you, looking in, and seeing everything inside you? That’s the look Kai was giving Audrey. Who does he think he is? McDreamy from Grey’s Anatomy or something? Audrey thought.

“You okay, Audrey?” he asked, almost in my ear.

A shiver ran down her back and she thought: Evil. He is pure evil.

“Uh… yeah,” she managed to say. She then counted backwards in her head, mentally letting out a breath with each number.

“So, um, what was Hawaii like?” she asked, trying to make the conversation innocent again.

“Beautiful,” Kai replied. His eyes had traveled up and down her face while he said it. She knew he wasn’t only talking about Hawaii. Before she had the chance to confirm she was being blatantly hit on, however, Miguel turned around and said with a smirk: “Kai. Seriously man. Stop. Just stop,”

“So he does this a lot then?” Audrey asked Miguel.

“What, hit on employees and/or inappropriate women? Yeah…pretty much all the time,” he replied, the smirk still on his face. He almost sounded like he was trying not to laugh.

“Why do you ALWAYS have to mess my game up, Miguel? Really man?” Kai said.

Audrey could tell he was only pretending to be mad at Miguel. This really must have happened A LOT.

“Well it’s not my fault you hit on everything that walks and happens to pass through here. And, by the way, not every woman is immediately going to fall for what you call flirting,” Miguel smirked.

“Hey now, I do not do that. And besides, you’re just jealous ‘cause you haven’t gotten laid in… how long now?” Kai said, a smirk now on his face. Miguel gave Kai an evil look and told him to shut up.

“You guys are really amusing,” said Audrey, trying to fight back a laugh.

“I’m glad you think so,” Kai said, turning his attention back to me.

“Well, like I was saying, Hawaii was beautiful,” he continued, doing the look combined with the up-and-down face thing. Audrey felt that she could have just dissolved into a puddle right there. Kai certainly knew how to work women. She forced herself to break eye contact so her head would stay clear. She glanced in back of her to give Autumn her best ‘what-the-hell-were-you-thinking-setting-me-up-like-this’ look. However, she instead found her deep in flirtation with Torin. She rolled her eyes. Poor Torin… she thought.

They finally got to the hotel ten minutes later. It was a pretty nice hotel, but then again, they were on South Beach. Trying to distract herself from Kai’s seemingly never-ending flirting, Audrey read the sign above the entrance. It read ‘The Delano’. She’d heard about this hotel before. It was supposed to be the Waldorf-Astoria of Miami. If Skittle Addiction can afford a place like this, what are we doing here? Audrey obviously didn’t need much help getting their band out to the public.

“Our label is paying for the hotel as a sort of congratulations thing. We’re supposed to be celebrating the fact that our album went gold,” Kai suddenly said.

Crap. Were my thoughts all over my face AGAIN? Audrey’s thoughts continued. The one thing she hated about herself was that she couldn’t think about anything without everyone knowing about it. It was especially bad when she was embarrassed or angry since the reddish color that appeared clashed terribly with her ivory skin. Still, all this knowledge didn’t prevent her from being surprised that he had read her so easily.

“You don’t sound all that excited about it,” she noticed.

“Yeah, well, our publicists and just about the rest of the team deserted us just as we were about to finish our album. Apparently, another record label had been offering them better positions and better money the whole time. The publicizing and show scheduling was all us,” Kai replied.

“Wow. Nice,” she told him, impressed.

“Thanks,” he said.

Then a disgustingly flirty couple passed them. Three guesses who it was.

“Remember the bet,” Autumn whispered in Audrey’s ear before going back to flirting with Torin.

What?!? She was serious? Gah, I really am going to have to talk to her. thought Audrey.