"I GET AROUND, GET AROUND, ROUND, ROUND, I GET AROUND, FROM TOWN TO TOWN, GET AROUND, ROU-"

Fuck! Why the hell did I have to put that song on my phone? Oh, crap. That can only mean one person is calling. She should know by now not to call me when I'm sleeping. I tried to press my head deeper into the stupid, lumpy pillow and ignore the loudness of the Beach Boys trying to infiltrate my head.

"GET AROUND, ROUND, ROUND – OH-WAAA-OOHHH..."

Oh, shut up,shut up! Fine, I thought to myself, pulling my head out from the depths of the pillow and looking around pointlessly with my eyes closed. I would answer the goddamn phone. Extracting my hand from under the pillows, I reached over to the bedside table, and fumbled around for a minute before my hand closed over the offensive object.

"Hello?" I mumbled into the phone, blarily opening my eyes. Oh, shit, who turned the fucking lights on? It was too bright this early in the goddamn morning. Wait – the light's not on. What time is it?

"Hi, Brya. What you up to?"

"Sleeping," I replied dryly, my voice slightly raspy from sleep. "Why are you calling so early?"

The voice on the other side of the phone laughed. "I know there's a time difference and everyhing, but I checked, and it should be at least twelve-thirty in New Orleans."

"What?" I looked over at the red numbers on the digital clock next to the bed. Twelve-twenty-two. "Oh."

"Yeah."

"What are you doing calling, Jaime? I thought you'd email or something like that. You never call me. And since I'm half-way across the world, you know I can't bail you out of anything, right?"

"How can you think that of me?" She joked.

God. To me, that wasn't a joke. I had spent one too many times bailing that girl out of dates, and on the odd occasion, jail. Nothing major, just drinking in public. Oh, yeah. And indecent exposure. She was a barrell of laughs, this one.

I rolled my eyes. "I always think that of you."

"Just seeing what you are up to," she replied, scoffing. "You know, I have the feeling that you've met someone. A guy, possibly..."

"Jaime! It's been two years!"

"Exactly – you should get out. Actually date for once. You know that you've been sending those updates to me, too, right? Um, let me quote – 'nothing much, just sleeping my way through the continent'."

I let out a squeak of indignation. "I was using hyperbole!"

"Hy – what? Stop using big words to confuse me. I'm just saying, you should date instead of just fucking guys."

"Okay, okay, I'll think about it." I lied. No way in hell was I going to start dating. And she made me sound like a goddamned slut. Since I'd been to New Orleans, I'd only been with Paul. Once. And I'd left the rest of it up to my trusty Rabbit. Which I thought I should stick with to stop me sounding like a slut to my friends back at home.

There was a small beep that sounded from my phone. Call waiting. It was probably Mum, she said she'd call me sometime this week. Thank God. Saved by the beep. "Jaime, that's my call waiting. Gotta go."

"I can wait."

I ground my teeth together. "It's probably Mum. And you know how she gets. I'll email you and the girls at the end of next week for my update, okay?"

"'Kay. Bye."

"Bye."

I sighed in relief as I hung up the call with her, and transferred onto the call that was waiting.

"Hello?"

"Hi, hon. It's Mum."

I smiled. It had been a while since we'd chatted. And I really needed to get her onto Skype or something like that. Kevin wouldn't tell her if her hair had been done over-the-top by Jane, and I was the only one who would answer a 'how do I look' question honestly.

"Hey. How is everything back in little ol' New Zealand?"

She laughed. "It's not that old compared to some places you've been. And it's been going good. Kevin and I are planning a trip to France, Venice and Spain. You know, last year we did Egypt and Africa, now we want to do the European thing."

"Oh, Mum, you'll love it all. Great food, great shopping, and you can even perv on some hot guys when Kevin isn't looking."

"I know I'll love the food and shopping, but I'm not sure I can pull off the 'perving' thing," Mum said. I could even hear the quotation marks in her sentence. "I don't have a good poker face like you do."

"That's true."

Mum and I laughed together.

"What about Adam? How's he doing?"

"He's good. You know, for him. Laughing away, like usual. Gran's still calling him 'God's Angel' like always. And she's doing really well, too. She has a new student at her place, Mizuki. It's like the Hiromi thing all over again. Mizuki is really sweet, and so good to her."

"Oh, that's great. Gran is never going to give up on the whole 'God's Angel' thing, is she?" I joked.

"I don't think so."

"So I'm guessing by the trip thing that everything is going well at work with Kevin? No more employment issues like he used to have?"

"None at all."

"That's good."

I turned my head to look out the slit between the curtains, when I saw the time. Twenty past one. Oh, fuck, no!

"Oh, shit. Mum, sorry, but I have to go and get ready for work. I will email you at the end of the week when things die down a bit, okay?"

"That's okay. Bye, love."

"Bye."

I pressed the 'end call' button, and closed my phone, throwing it into my open bag, and rushed into the bathroom to start my routine. Clearly, I was going to be later than usual, but hopefully, not too late.

As I rushed out of the bathroom, my hair still damp, I pulled on a suitable outfit for work, and grabbed my bag. Pulling the door locked behind me, I grabbed a hair-tie out of my bag and pulled my hair into a messy bun.I quickly ran down the stairs of the motel, and headed down the main road to the restaurant. As I went, I checked my phone. Shit, it was already ten past two. I was supposed to be there at two. Fuck, fuck, fuck! I increased my pace, and made it to the restaurant in ten minutes.

Heading into the kitchen and grabbing an apron, I looked over to see April, my supervisor, looking at me and then to her watch.

"I know, I'm sorry, I know – I'm late. I'm very, very late. White Rabbit late," I apologised, winding the strings around my waist and tying a quick knot. "But as compensation, you can keep me on for an extra half hour."

She grinned, pulling me out of my ass-kissing mode. "It's your first time being late. I'm sure I can excuse you. But don't do it again. And I think I will keep you on for the extra half hour. I like that idea."

Internally I groaned and cursed my recessive ass-kissing ways. I always did that as a kid. But I sucked it up and nodded.

Thankfully, the day went quickly, and with a few more gentlemanly men than usual. I had said to one of the other waitresses, Hannah, at the end of our shift, that it was a welcome change from the usual assholes who would pepper the questions about the menu with innuendoes and stare at our breasts as we asked the rest of the table for their orders.

"I know, right? Maybe it's a new breed of man. It would be nice to date one of those new hybrid men, wouldn't it?" She asked rhetorically.

I shrugged. "Why date when I have my Rabbit?"

This comment made Hannah laugh hysterically as she made her way out of the restaurant, waving goodbye. It was nice to see her smiling for once. She hadn't been having much luck with men, she had told me, when we went out for drinks after my first shift. Lately it had been a drunk, a hand-sy accountant, and then a guy who came out as gay after their first date. Poor girl.

Shoving the apron back in the cubby, I threw on my jacket and slung my bag over my shoulder. As I wandered slowly back to the motel, I suddenly remembered last night. I had supposedly met Jackson Rathbone. It could have been a dream, because I know I wasn't that drunk when I headed home last night.

It was obviously a dream, the rational, malicious side of my mind thought.

Well, check your phone, The eternal optimist countered. Didn't you swap numbers?

I hastily dug around in my bag, stopping in the middle of the footpath. A couple of men shoved past me on their way to a pub. "Sorry." I muttered, moving off to the side of the footpath, and leant against the brick building.

After a few more minutes of pulling everything but the kitchen sink out of my obviously too-big bag, I finally found my phone. I made a quiet noise of triumphant glee as I pulled it out of the black hole. Anxiously, I scrolled through my contact's list until I got to the J's. And there he was. At the top of the list. Under 'J. Action'. I fought back the hysterical squeal that threatened to errupt from my throat.

Oh, my God. I can't fucking believe it. I did actually meet him. Holy fucking shit. And the expletives kept rolling over and over in my head. But as I thought it over more, the more I wondered what would come out of it. Would I just be a booty call, or would he want a relationship? Was I even ready for that? And where the fuck did the flirtiness come from last night? I could never flirt with success. Maybe Hannah's brief flirting lessons and the few articles on flirting actually stuck with me. Huh, weird.

After studying the number a bit more, and worrying myself and my bottom lip, I shoved my phone back into my bag, and headed back to the hostel where I was staying. When I got back to the room that I shared with two other girls, I dumped my bag onto the coffee table in the middle of the room, and plopped myself down on the bed. It wasn't the most comfortable of beds, and I had seen my fair share, but it would do until I moved onto the next city.

Suddenly the door to the room opened, and my roommates Elisabeth and Lucia sauntered in, also sitting themselves gracefully on their beds.

"Hey, süße," Elisabeth said to me in her German accent, turning to lie on her stomach. It was so sweet, because, as she explained, 'süße' meant sweetheart, which she thought applied to two of the best roommates she had ever had. "how was work?"

I chuckled. "Not bad, darling, what about you?"

Lucia laughed in her slightly creepy, witch-like laugh, and cackled, "You two sound like an old married couple."

Both Elisabeth and I laughed. We just got along well, and were into the same type of humor. On occasion, we liked to screw with men, and bump and grind together on the dance floor to get their hopes up, and then burst their bubbles like a kid with bubble-wrap.

"So, we didn't see you at any of the clubs last night..." Elisabeth said, trailing off suggestively.

I ran my hand through my hair as I replied, "Wasn't really in the mood to dance, so I just went to the House of Blues instead, just to have a few drinks,"

"And to fuck off Paul, I'm assuming?" Lucia interjected.

"What? No! Sara was there, anyway," I replied, continuing with my story. "I stuck around because 100 Monkeys were playing. Awesome as always, by the way."

They both looked at me with suspicious eyes. Oh, right. I forgot, one night they had snuck up on me while I was checking out the Jackson Rathbone fan fiction online. I had a couple of favourites, and in one, I was in the middle of a hot sex scene, and Elisabeth and Lucia snuck behind me and read the page with me. They had tormented me over my crush ever since. But they couldn't empathize with me over his hotness, they were both 'Team Edward'.

After a moment of them narrowing their eyes in suspicioun at me, I gave in. "Alright, I perved, we talked, and then I left." Okay, I was definitely not going onto the part where he gave me his number. Even though they didn't consider him hot, they definitely recognised him as 'that Jasper guy from Twilight', and a celebrity and even they would squeal at me getting his number.

Elisabeth held up her hand, as if to stop traffic. "Wait – you talked? Did you get his number?"

For the first time in a long time, I felt the tell-tale signs of a blush spreading across my cheeks, giving me away to the two women sitting across from me.

At once, they both squealed loudly, at a decibel that I was sure even dogs a mile off would hear. Not a moment later, a group of three men and two women rushed into the room to see what all the ruckus was about. Oh my God. Even just in my head I used the word ruckus. Weird.

Lucia and Elisabeth quickly rushed the group out, and came back into the room looking insanely eager to hear all about what happened. And of course, at that point, my bag vibrated. And that's how powerful my phone's vibrating capabilities were.

All three of us lunged for my bag.

Unfortunately Lucia, who was a long-jump winner in high school, made it to my bag first.

She read the I.D out loud. "'J. Action'? Who the fuck is that?" That sounded hilarious in her Romanian accent.

And thank God neither of them read the 100 Monkeys website, giving them the nickanames of the band. J. Action being Jackson. "Just a friend from home." I lied quickly, carefully yanking my phone out of her grasp.

"Not with that face, you don't, fräuleinchen." Elisabeth said, noticing the way my face was flushed.

"Aw, Lis – just let me read it first, and then I'll show you." I tried bargaining with her.

She scoffed. "Scheiße, nein. You'll read it, delete it, and pretend you deleted it on 'accident'."

Damn it, she could read me like a fucking book.

She pressed the 'open message' button. Then she read out loud, "'So, what can I do to get more letters? Your mysterious woman thing is getting to me,'" She threw the phone back to me, which, by some miracle, I caught, and I gaped down at the text message. "oh my God. What did you do to seem like this 'mysterious woman?'" Elisabeth continued.

"Just didn't give him my whole name. Gave him 'BR', but that's it."

Both she and Lucia looked at me dubiously.

I scoffed in indignation. "That. Was. It." I pronounced for them.

"All right, all right." Lucia caved in.

"So, what are you going to say back? Have you even got a plan for him to gather more letters, Brya?" Elisabeth asked, settling back down on the end of her bed.

Rubbing my face, I replied, "I don't know. I'd had a few drinks, so I wasn't exactly thinking ahead," I paused for a moment. "maybe I should make him guess. I wish there were some sort of manual for this, because I haven't done this before."

"Done what? Flirting?" Lucia asked.

"Well," I paused for a moment. "no. Not really. With – with the last man I was emotionally involved with, we were friends for years before we started dating." I stuttered. They didn't need to know my past.

"Go with your gut." Elisabeth replied.

All right. My fingers hovered over the tiny key-pad on the cell phone for a moment, and then I began to type.

Take a guess. I'll give you five tries, and if you don't guess right on any of them, I will demand something from you. It may be band merchandise, or something else...

-B

I hesitated and turned the phone around to show the anxious women sitting across from me. "What do you think?" I asked tentatively. "Too much?"

Both women's jaws dropped as they read over the text message.

"Shit no! Not at all. Send it, send it!" Lucia said excitedly, bouncing in place.

I turned to Elisabeth.

"Well, go on. Send it." She added, glancing mischievously at me.

Again, I hesitated. Was I being too forward?

NO!

Well, maybe... he might take it the wrong way.

"Send it, send it, send it!" Lucia and Elisabeth chanted.

Oh, come on – he seems to be a good sport.

All right, but it's your fault if he doesn't send anything back.

My finger pressed down on the 'send' button. I watched as the little envelope on the screen flew across, sending my message into cyber-space and straight into Jackson's phone.

Elisabeth and Lucia finished chanting and fell back laughing onto their respective beds. My head fell into my hands as I anxiously waiting for a returning message. After an excruciatingly long minute, my phone buzzed loudly in my hand. Oh my God. What was he going to say? What I was I going to say if he asked me what the hell I meant by 'something else'? Oh shit.

"Open it!" Elisabeth coaxed.

"Open it or we'll start chanting again." Lucia threatened.

I opened the message and read the message first to myself, planning to read it aloud to Lucia and Elisabeth once I had gotten over the shock.

Okay, guess number one, and this would really suck if you say yes, but I need to know. Is your name Bryan? Were you once a man? I'm hoping to hell that you'll say no and just laugh at me, but I need to know.

J. Action

I laughed out loud. Thank God he didn't mention the demand, because I may have died of embarrassment if he had.

"What are you laughing at? Tell us!" Lucia demanded.

I relayed the message back to them, and it practically sent them into hysterics. And watching them fall over each other to get to me just sent me into paroxysms of laughter as well. When they both saw the message on the phone and that it was actually real, they suggested that I send back a message confirming that I was a man. I generally considered it for a minute, but then I liked the idea of just waiting for a couple of minutes without sending a message back to see what else he would say. I lay down on the floor with the phone on my stomach, waiting to see if he would wait for an answer or send another message. But about five minutes later, my phone vibrated again, tickling my stomach. I giggled and opened the message.

You're scaring me. Please send me an answer. I only sent that text because Ben G dared me to, but now you have me worried.

J. Action

Quickly, I typed him a reply, with Lucia and Elisabeth sitting on either side of my head to get a better view of the phone.

Don't worry – I'm not a man, and my name isn't Bryan. One question down, four to go.

B

"Good?" I asked my audience. When I got the thumbs up from both of them, I sent the message to Jackson.

When my phone buzzed next, I eagerly opened the message, keen to see what he would guess next. I hoped he didn't guess it, so I could be creative as to what I could 'demand' from him, and how far I could get.

Just breathed a huge sigh of relief. I'm extremely thankful that you're not a man. Next guess – I'll try and guess a letter this time. 'I'?

J. Action

I didn't see that one coming. Glancing at Lucia and Elisabeth, they nodded their agreement to keep going. "We have to head to bed now, because we've got an early flight to catch to Rome tomorrow, but trust your instincts with him," Elisabeth offered. "I know we won't see you in the morning, but we'll try and keep in touch."

"I'll add you to my list of people to send my weekly updates to. I even might send you non-forwarding emails about my progress about Jackson. Don't expect too much, all right." I told them.

Both she and Lucia smiled at me and hugged me and then got into their beds. I got into my own bed and replied to Jackson's message.

Nope. Way off the mark. Next!

B

Mere minutes later Jackson came up with his next question.

This is kind of weird, since this is my sister's name, but Brea?

J. Action

Yeah, that would be weird.

I'm afraid you struck out again, my friend. Two more questions left...

B

I grinned to myself after I sent the message. Moments later, my phone vibrated.

This isn't going very well. Brandi?

J. Action

I rolled my eyes. Hell to the no.

Dude. That's a porn star name. How many girls have you actually met with that name? My guess would be not that many.

B

I giggled slightly as I pressed the 'send' button. As I waited for the reply, I pulled off my jeans and bra, and got more comfortable in the bed. It turns out that it's not quite possible in that particular lumpy bed. Shifting my body into another contorted, yet slightly more comfortable position, the phone vibrated.

Grabbing the phone from where it had fallen off the bed from me shifting around so much, I opened the message.

Trust me, you would be surprised at how many girls have told me that was their name. Oh, crap I'm on my last guess, aren't I?

J. Action

I smiled as I replied to the message.

Yes, you are. Last guess?

B

When the message was sent, I pulled my hair out of the bun it was in, and ran my fingers through my hair until it was at least manageable. As I yawned, the phone buzzed next to my head.

Okay, last guess. Brayden?

J. Action

Strike three.

Where I come from, that's a guy's name. Zero out of five. Let me see, what should I demand from you... I'll sleep on it and try and get back to you tomorrow. 'Night.

B

Not long after I had sent the message, and I was settling down to go to sleep, my phone vibrated for what I hoped was the last time, because I was getting tired. I liked talking to Jackson, but I was getting really tired after a long day at work.

Opening the message, I yawned again.

Let's see what you come up with. Maybe I could come up with something, too. And sweet dreams.

J. Action

That last message sent thrills throughout my body. The 'maybe I could come up with something, too' part? Did he even know that my perverted mind totally twisted that into something suggestive? But the 'sweet dreams' kind of scared me. I hadn't heard that in a while, especially from a man.

The next day I woke in a cold sweat with tears streaming down my face. I had the dream. Dead eyes. His cold, dead eyes. Oh, shit. I slumped back in the pillow and squeezed my eyes shut against the light of the world.