"Sheriden! See you at the bottom!" My friend yelled as she pulled down her ski mask and set off down the slope.

I smiled. not in any hurry to get down there. I was enjoying this breath taking view. The cold snowy air of the mountains filled my lungs.

This was it now. It was just me, I deserved this view. I had been through so much lately. I saw the florescent colored jacket of my friend reach the bottom of the slope.

Taking the ski poles tightly in my hand I set off.

The wind whizzed past me, blowing my blonde hair about as I descended the slope at maximum speed. I loved the thrill, the adrenalin coursing through my veins... the way it made my heart thud hard in my chest.

The snowy mountain was now just a blur as I picked up more and more speed.

I could see something ahead of me, it stood out quite clearly from the crisp white snow, but my speed allowed me no time to react as one of my skis collided with the large chunk of broken branch that was in my path.

I was catapulted in to the air. Fear engulfed my lungs as a sharp intake of breath sucked itself in.

My back contorted in a disgusting way as I hit the ground. Pain scored through my entire body as I lay there motionless, I knew it was bad.

"SHERIDEN! HOLY FUCK!" I heard my friend call. It was a minute or so before her and another few people gathered around me.

Tears streamed from my eyes as the shock and the pain became unbearable. The noise of snow mobiles came nearer and medics where soon telling me to not move as I had a neck brace placed on me.

"Oh my God it's Sheriden Lloyd!" I heard one of the now large crowd say that were spectating the after math of my accident.

"Sheriden can you feel your feet?" One of the medics asked.

"Yeh." I replied as I wept in complete shock and agony.

"Okay... the helicopter will be here soon... Is there any one we can contact for you?" He asked.

I gulped hard. "Carlos... Carlos Pena!" I replied...

I shook my head from my terrible memory... of course it was carlos pena senior I was wanting that day, he was as good as a father to me.

Today though it was one of his sons I was was with as I stood in the airport

I Never thought I would leave my modelling days behind me, I loved the runway and the life it helped me lead, but at 27 my back had decided it was time to retire me from my catwalk days. The skiing holiday often played on my mind. It was hard to believe it was 14 months ago now, it went badly wrong! Left me with a 6 inch scar along my spine and a back that would no longer tolerate the days of a runway model.

So here I was in sunny L.A. ready for a new job, a new life and a new me.

I bought an L.A. house a month ago and was just waiting for my things to arrive from florida. carlos junior would be staying with me. When I first moved to America from England it was Carlos' family that had helped me so much, a place to stay and a family to call my own. Carlos was like a brother to me, so when he said he was moving to california to try make it big in some kids tv show, I thought to my self "well why not go with him," ease Carlos in to the limelight, and hopefully he wont make some of the bad choices I had made with fame.

Carlos was 19 he needed guidance, the show he was a co-star of took off so well, none of us expected it. it grossed 3.4 million viewers for the cable channel it ran on for just the pilot.

I became the surrogate manager of him, making sure he was in the right place at the right time, got him in to A list partys and at my delight got him and the other guys from the show a very high profile glossy mag photo shoot, not bad for a bunch of lads who had only been in the limelight for 3 months.

I pulled a few strings with the editor who I knew well. my modelling days came in handy for one thing at least.

The travel up to the photo shoot was to be a long one, carlos had convinced me to fly with him so I wouldn't be on my own, first class on a passenger flight was not what i was used to,i was more a private jet kind of girl! but Carlos promised it would be fun for me, we had to board a flight to Orlando Florida then a three hour drive to Miami the following morning. I hadn't really got to know the other boys Carlos worked with on the show. I had met them and introduced myself vaguely, knowing full well they knew exactly who I was.

I'm so paranoid... I agree that I chose to be famous, I chose to model, and I chose to be damn good at it, but it was always the failures of my life people remembered, like the skiiing accident or the drug and alcohol fuelled life I led before I came to the US. So meeting new people I didn't know a thing about always made me nervous, plus my fear of flying didn't help I had big issues with take off and landing.

the shows entourage to the sunny state Totalled to 8, some I had met, some I hadn't.

Going through security at the airport, Carlos had left me on my own to chat to a girl I didn't know the name of, before my head could swell up of flying anxiety it was interrupted by James.

James was one of the stars of the show, just turned 19 a few days ago and incredibly good looking, I mean god had really gone to town when he created this guy, dark hair that always seemed to flow the right way, chiselled to perfection face and brown eyes that could make even the likes of me melt.

Surely this adonis James who stood beside me should have been a model too or at least a greek god.

Then he spoke, taking me sharply from my day dream gaze I had upon him.

"Hey" he said softly.

I smiled in response.

"Sheriden, right?" He asked.

As if he didnt know, "Yeah, hi, nice to see you again" I said squeezing my hands tightly together.

He smiled.

"So is it true your never going back to modelling?" he asked, it was the question I had been asked at least a million times in the past year, a question to which I usually paste the prettiest smile on my face, and flip my now natural brown hair over one shoulder and reply "it just wasn't meant to be".

But today in front of the the greek god James and the mixture of fear from the flight and the xanax pills I had taken prior to getting inside the airport, or the fact poor James had just come along at the wrong time, The tears started coming out of my eyes before I knew I had to try stop them,

"no, geez I'm so sorry" was the only reply I could master as I silently wept with such pain I didn't want to show, I knew then that the tears wouldnt want to stop easily.

James gave me a reassuring one armed hug. "hey I'm so sorry, that was a dumb question, I feel awful now".

at the same time he spoke I noticed him glance over to Carlos to make sure he was still deep in conversation with the girl I had no name for and not notice how I had been reduced to this weeping wreck .

Carlos was still in mid chat so James although was in the clear from a telling off from him, he also had the job of trying to cheer me up from the mess he had made of his opening pre flight question.

With out saying another word James already had a master plan of his own to quick-fix his blubbing wreck of a problem, and simply placed his sunglasses that were perched so perfectly on his head on to my face, and said "I'm James by the way, not sure if you remember and I really just want to get out there how sorry I am, I mean am I an idiot or what?!"

I felt bad. I forced a smile to slap over my face like an instant make over.

"Ha! honestly James its fine, if anything I'm sorry, I'm just terrified of flying and I maybe have some issues with myself that the xanax pills want to take the time to get out now. haha! Geez I'm a mess".

I was rambling now, great! His look then I noticed was one of pity. He knew he was in his prime ready to start an amazing career, where as mine had obviously been killed in action and some how i had ended up with this group of teens starting out.

"You still look stunning" he replied." so you really that terrified of flying you need xanax?" he grinned. "I actually have an amazing remedy for fear of flights, drug free too. would you like me to talk you through it when we are on board?" He added.

James was simply precious. I thought it was the least I could do to sit next to him on the flight, plus any guy would wanna sit next to a model huh, even an ex model? Maybe that would spear his career ego and be my way of an apology for this entire embarrasment.

"sure, i would love to hear it" i replied.

Just then the un named girl Carlos had been chatting to tapped James on his shoulder with a clip board in her hand, asking him to sign bits of paper she needed his name on, James turned to me with a smile like I've never seen before.

"cool, see you onboard" he replied and he was off.

I regained my composure, or as much as I had left to gain, and for some reason a memory of Carlos' brother antonio came in to my mind. Antonio and I Hung out a lot, I dated his best friend jay for two years, jay was the love of my life, my little piece of home in a crazy world of fame. But he lost his life in a car accident four months before I broke my back in my skiing accident. Antonio was behind the wheel but the driver of the other car involved came up positive for drink driving.

I consoled antonio, told him so many times there was nothing he could of done. He got depressed and it wasn't untill Carlos' grandmother passed away 6 months ago that I received a drunken phone call from Antonio admitting he was trying to text on his phone the time the accident happened that killed jay. I hung up.

It was only carlos and I that knew about the phone. I was shocked at antonios' confession but I didnt blame him.

Carlos bounded upon me, "hey!.. you crying?" he asked with an arm slinging over my shoulder simultaneously.

"No...well yeah, your err.. gran just popped in to my head, well actually Antonio popped in to my head, you know eh.."

"Oh shoo" - my nickname Carlos had for me for sentimentle occasions such as this.

"cmon, let's not do this here ay, Antonio is coping better now, and you cant dwell on the past" he said softly.

"Yeah I know" I replied, now rammed with more guilt for lying to Carlos for bringing his dead grandmother along for the ride, knowing full well how much it shook his entire family to the core.

"Right! Let's get on this flight shall we?" He winked, he took my shaking hand after we had been through security and went through to the departure lounge with me.

Walking down that tiny isle of the plane with my ticket in my shaking hand trying to find seat H-24, the seat I would soon be attached to by my finger nails.

My heart was beating so fast with the nerves of flying. I found my seat, or rather Carlos had guided me in to it. I had the isle seat and Carlos wanted window, I was fine with that, looking at all the different walks of life that had got on the plane was always a good distraction for me to concentrate on.

Carlos was talking to me about a jacket he had seen online that he was intending to buy as he stuffed our hand luggage in the overhead compartments. This was his form of a calm down preflight chat with me, shopping was the highlight of my life any other day, but it was wasted on me today.

All I managed as a reply was "Mmm sounds great".

Reaching for the sick bag and resting my head in the palm of my hands I wished the flight away.

"Excuse me" were the words that broke me from the pits of hell in my hands, and looked up to see adonis like James standing beside me.

he must have swapped seats with carlos, while I was in my newly found dying position.

This guy must think I'm a drama queen.

"Hi" I replied as I moved my legs in to let him squeeze past to Carlos' former window seat. "I completly forgot about our ...err date, ha!"

He flashed that smile that I knew was gonna haunt me in the future.

"its okay, so are you really THAT bad" he said eyeing up my empty sick bag.

"Oh, god no! I like to have it just as a safety measure, besides it feels safer to have my head in there than I'm already in the emergency position..." rambling again! Geez he must think I'm an idiot.

He didn't say anything, the pre flight safety demo was playing on the tv screen in front of us, I presumed he wanted me to watch it, as he had realised there was no way I could manage to get myself out of this seat if something did go wrong and he would be stuck in his window seat to peril.

"Oh, before I forget, these belong to you, thanks for the loan" I handed him his sunglasses back. "So now's the time to make good on your amazing remedy for flight fear" I smiled the most convincing smile I could master, but judging by the his face, I hadn't convinced him of anything.

The plane had already begun moving and was just about to start the rocket launch it did to get in the air.

"Well now your stuck next to me for the next few hours, I thought we could plan an amazing date in Miami, you know after the shoot! I was looking at your body in the airport and I thought to my self, James you have got to get a piece of that action..." He went on.

My blood boiled, flipping men! Only after one thing all the time.

He carried on, "I thought maybe we could hook up, dinner, dancing and you know...maybe after we could..."

I cut him short, of all the ignorance! I was really pissed now. "james!" I hissed, "I don't know who you think you are but if you think im some kind of slut then you are very much mis-"

then I saw it, the cheeky grin apon his face. He had done it, he had distracted me brilliantly by pissing me off so royally that he had got me in the air without me even realising it.

I laughed hysterically and clapped my hands over my face to stop a stray tear escaping down my cheek.

James laughed a little chuckle at me, "told you it was amazing" he gloated.

"Well at least your not honestly letching on me, are you?" I said still with my hands on my face.

"No, I'm a true gent most of the time, but the offer for dinner is still available if I haven't pissed you off too much" he smiled, he had his masterfully shaped eye brows raised high as if he had pinned his whole plan on these very words.

Why did I feel I always owed this guy something.. geez.

"James I would love to but I have to run a few of my own errands, I honestly don't think I will be about that much, besides your...well, a bit young for me to go on a date with"

He smiled a cool smile, I hadn't crushed his boyhood dream or ruined a budding new friendship as far as I could tell, so I was pleased with my efforts.

"That's fine, but if you change your mind?" He gave my side a small nudge with his elbow to suggest it was a joke, but also to say it was a very real offer.

Talking to James on the plane was a much better idea than sticking with Carlos, there was a constant flow of conversation.

James was very much like myself, he was driven. He knew what he wanted and I could feel this guy was gonna go far, he was the entire package, I promised I would help him get some good publicity, I knew a lot of people that could transform his life overnight.

The pilot announced the imminent landing of the plane, and I wondered if James had another top trump card to play to distract me, he placed his hand on top of mine, which may have to be surgically removed from the armrest, He gave it a squeeze. better than nothing I thought to myself.

He leaned in to my ear and whispered "so Carlos says your amazing in bed!"

"What?! I have never.." then I realised again he was having me on.

"your good at distractions" I said with some resentment in my voice.

Then his real top trump came out to play in the form of that gorgeous smile. I can't really remember that plane landing.