Grabbing her car keys, she jogged downstairs to the kitchen for a snack on her way out, bumping into her mother who was just home from the grocery store.

"Hi sweetheart! How was your morning?", her mom smiled with a wink.

"It was good, ma. If you think that something happened between me and a certain blonde, sweatshirted, pop sensation then you guessed wrong...", she took a bite of her apple and finished her sentence. "...thanks for letting me know he was here, though. Appreciate it." Liv smirked sarcastically and started to walk towards the door, but her mother's voice stopped her.

"He's a nice boy, Olivia."

She turned around and smiled. "Yeah... he is isn't he?"

Her mother smiled at her knowingly and started to put the groceries away. Liv pushed open the door and walked towards the light blue Jeep Wrangler that was parked in the driveway.

"Hold on!! Livi, where are you going and when will you be home!?", Mrs. Jacobs yelled out the door.

Olivia rolled her eyes. "Mom, please don't call me that... I'm going over to the cemetery and then probably to the mall. I have work tomorrow so I need to take advantage of the day. I'll be home before dinner... around seven?"

"Okay, we're having your favorite!!", her mom grinned sarcastically. "Fish!"

Liv groaned and waved goodbye to her mother before pulling out of the driveway. She hated seafood, and yet her family insisting upon toturing her with it. She turned her sound system on and jumped nearly ten feet in the air when the music to "I Just Wanna Be With You" blasted through the speakers. It was mid-way through the song already, so she guessed she had left it in the CD player the last time she was driving. "And there he is again...", she sighed, lowering the volume and switching the track to number five. The soft voices flowing out of the speakers calmed her anxiety and she slowly began to drift into a train of thought. She told her mom that nothing had happened between her and Justin that morning, but she wasn't so sure she could believe her own comment. Something had most definitely sparked inside of her when he looked into her eyes... Or when he touched her hand, it made her body tingle... Oh yes, something definitely had happened between them and it scared her to think of what the outcome of her growing feelings for him could mean.

Snow had yet to fall, but it was getting a little brisk outside. The weather was never tremendously cold in Orlando, and they rarely ever got snow, but it would get a bit nippy out at times. Olivia sat down on the grass cross-legged and stared at the disturbing object in front of her for what seemed like hours. Every once in awhile she would come to this place to straighten out thoughts and such. She sat in the same place everytime, too. Today was no different.

"Hey... Liv?", a masculine voice called behind her.

Her head spun around quickly, surprised at who could be calling her. A pair of warm eyes met hers and she smiled up at the blonde haired blue eyed boy that was looking at her. "You're mom said you'd be here... is everything okay?"

"Yeah... I'm fine. I come here to think about things that are bothering me..."

He crouched down next to her and looked at the object she was staring at, nodding his head towards it in question. "Who's Sidney?"

Olivia had never told him about Sidney, and it wasn't something she liked to talk about too much so she answered him quickly, "She... she was my best friend." She pulled her eyes away from the cold tombstone that she was sitting in front of and looked up at him. "What are you doing here anyway, Brian? I thought you had work today."

"No, I have off most of the week. I came by your house to see if you wanted to do something, but you're mom said you were at the cemetery."

"Oh...", she looked away from him and studied the engravement of Sidney's name on the hard block of stone.

He sat down next to her and looked at the grave. "What are you thinking about?"

Olivia sighed. "Everything.... everything that is going on in my life right now... everything that has happened to me in the past year... I'm-I'm struggling with new feelings and emotions that I've never felt before... and I'm still struggling with the fact that I lost my best friend in a freak accident. My life - it's taken some drastic changes and followed a curvy path lately and I don't know what's to become of it." She pulled her eyes away from Sidney's tomb and studied Brian's face. "And you know, you haven't been making it any easier..."

"What--What do you mean?"

"Brian, every single time the name 'Justin' is said you have this monstrous scowl on your face like you just want to break the kid's neck or something. To have two of your best friends hate each other doesn't exactly make this hell called life any better for me. I want to know the truth about what your big problem with him is. And don't you dare tell me it's because you 'just don't trust him'." She crossed her arms and watched him expectantly, waiting for a response.

He stared at the ground for a long time, searching his brain for the answer. "I just, I don't like him. He's this big pop superstar that can get anything he wants, whenever he wants, and he thinks he's too good for anybody. To me, it seems like he's just the perfect being. Everyone practically worships the ground he walks on, the air he breathes, and they see him as being able to do no wrong, yet I feel I'm the only one to realize that he's just like all the other big-headed celebrities...."

Olivia couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Brian, you've met him ONCE. ONCE. How can you determine all that from ONE encounter with him? I hate to be the one to burst your bubble about what you think is right, but Justin is not egotistical at all, or at least I haven't seen it in him, and he's just like a normal teenager, except for the fact that he can't go out in public by himself. I remember YOU told me that he was 'just like you and me' and not to let his 'star status' intimidate me. YOU said that, Brian. Remember?"

He shifted uncomfortably on the grass and slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, I remember...", then looked over at her. "But Olivia don't you see? He's got you wrapped around his finger, and you don't even realize it. One day he'll be gone and you'll be alone, remembering this conversation we're having right now. So to answer your question, I don't like him because Justin Timberlake annoys me. He's always annoyed me, since the first time I saw him on television. And now that he's all buddy-buddy with one of my best friends, it creeps me out because I don't want you getting crushed in the long-run."

Liv remained quiet for a few minutes before answering. "I see your point, but you shouldn't have to worry about me. Justin has always been there for me from the beginning and he's a great friend to me. I'm sorry you feel that way about him, because he's a great guy."

"Can I ask you just one thing before I leave?"

"Mmhmm..."

"Do you like him?"

"Of course I like him, he's a sweetheart!!", she answered, avoiding the real meaning of that question.

Brian studied her face for a minute before repeating his question. "Olivia, do you LIKE him? Do you have feelings for him?"

"I... I don't know."

"C'mon Liv, it's not that hard. You can tell when you like a person... either you do or you don't. So what is it -- yes or no?"

Olivia stared into space, recollecting her thoughts about him. That morning, when he had showed up at her house seemed to be the turning point in the way she saw him. His eyes looked so caring, and the way he always made her feel so special drove her nuts. When his hand brushed against her face while he was pushing the hair behind her ears, a wave of tingles surged through her body. And that smile... oh, that smile. He could break a thousand girls' hearts with that smile, and he could turn any cloudy day into a sunny one. Brian had been right about one thing... he did seem like the perfect being, but Liv knew that deep inside of him, there were flaws, just like any other human being... it's just that Justin kept them hidden from the public. Thinking about him made her heart jump, and she knew she couldn't deny the obvious, so she looked back at Brian who was waiting for an answer.

"Yes."

(the next day, at TransCon)

Humming softly to herself while cleaning out a conference room, Olivia came across a piece of paper lying on the top of a filing cabinent. It was a note to her, with no signature. She read it while holding her breath in fear of it being another threat but all it said was:

"Go to the front desk, there's something there waiting for you."

Wondering what could possibly be at the front desk for HER confused Liv, but she obeyed and jogged down the hall to the main office. As soon as she walked in, the first thing that grabbed her attention was a huge bouquet of crimson roses sitting on the table. "No way...", she said under her breath, convincing herself that they weren't there for her.

A middle-aged woman, in her late forties, walked out of a connecting door and smiled at her. "Hello, dear. You're Olivia Jacobs right?"

"Y-yeah... how did you know?"

The lady smiled and pointed to the roses. "Those are for you."

"WHAT!!?" Liv's jaw dropped to the ground. The woman only continued to smile at her. "W-who are they from!?"

"Read the note and find out!!", the secretary said and quietly left the room again while Olivia cautiously approached the flowers. By the look on her face, it looked as if she thought the flowers would bite her or something. She picked up the little note attached to the vase and read it carefully:

Something to brighten your day. Meet me at the park tonight at seven, angel.

Angel. It didn't say who it was from, and whoever had sent it used the petname 'angel', which she had only been called by the person who had been sending her the threats. Her eyes left the paper and wandered over to the roses. They were gorgeous... but who were they FROM!? She wasn't sure if she should take this as a gift or as a threat...

A few hours later, after arriving home from work, she set the roses in her room with fresh water, and studied each flower carefully. Each petal was unique in it's own way, each stem with a different number of thorns. The note that had come with it was handwritten, unlike other notes she had gotten, and something about the way it was written convinced her to go to the park that night, to push away her fears, to open her eyes to new things.

"You gotta start somewhere, Liv.", she told herself and put the note in her pocket.

(seven o'clock...the local park)

Olivia stepped out of her car and cautiously walked towards the park entrance. In the distance, she heard the familiar sound of a basketball hitting the pavement and occaissionally swooshing through the raggedty net. Walking towards the comforting sound, she found the blacktop court with a tall figure running around on it, bouncing the ball. When she got to the gate, a big man prevented her from entering.

"Can't I go play basketball?", she asked him confused.

The bodyguard looked her over curiously and asked, "You need a ball to play basketball."

She looked towards the figure on the court, still unable to see who it was, and answered the man. "Maybe the person on the court would have a one-on-one with me."

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that."

"What? Why not? Who are you anyway?", she challenged him, getting angry. Nobody told her that she couldn't play basketball.

"No, the question is... who are you?", he challenged back."

"My name is Olivia and I want to go play basketball, so if you'll excuse me..."

His eyes widened when she said her name. "Olivia? As in Olivia Jacobs? Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead."

Liv's eyebrows merged together in confusion. "Wh-- how did you know my last name?"

Jason, the large bodyguard, smiled brightly and pointed to the guy on the court. "Justin's been waiting for you!"

Justin? She looked at the person on the court, who glanced over at her at the same time. "He... oh my God..."

Justin saw her and grinned, waving her over. She opened the gate and walked in, getting closer to him with every footstep. Her eyebrows were still merged together, like she didn't understand why she was here or what was going on. He stopped bouncing the ball and held it up against his chest with a smile on his face. "Hey!! I see you got my note!", he said cheerfully.

She stared at him for a second, her face expressionless. Should I bring up the 'angel' thing? Maybe he just wrote it by accident... yeah, I'm sure it was an accident. , she told herself and let a smile form on her lips. "Yeah, thank you. The roses were beautiful, and extremely unexpected."

"Beautiful flowers for a beautiful woman."

Liv's heart rate began to speed up and her stomach did tumblesalts as he spoke. His voice was so smooth, and the meaning of the words he had just said penetrated within her brain. His smile was so broad and genuine that her heart melted as fast as ice cream would turn into milk on a sweltering hot summer day. His eyes danced with sparkles against the November moonlight, and the cute little dimples in his cheeks just made him seem like the most gorgeous thing she'd ever seen in her life.

He adjusted his orange baseball cap backwards over his hair and straightened out his FUBU jersey against his thin frame. "So, um... ", he tossed the basketball around in his hands and met her eyes. "... do you wanna play?"