Rock Me

Careless Whisper

"I think we've pretty much covered everything," Scooter said. "There's just one change to our schedule today and Justin I think you'll actually be interested in this," Scooter nudged Justin's chair with his foot. Justin was busy tweeting and he rolled his eyes at his manager.

"Well, it's up to you," Scooter said. "But I've set up a meeting with Clara Cartwright and I thought you'd want to come with me."

"Clara Cartwright. Today?" Justin clutched his phone harder, hoping to keep his hands from shaking. Scooter had his full attention now. "We have a meeting today?"

Scooter grinned at him. "Just a few hours from now. Think you can find the time?"

"I mean, I can probably fit it in," Justin laughed. His voice sounded anything but casual. "You're serious, right? You're not just making fun of me because you found that uh- magazine?" Justin asked. On the first leg of their tour Scooter had come across an old copy of Playboy Justin had stolen from a friend's brother. It was the month that Clara had been the centerfold and Justin had been obsessed ever since. Now anytime someone caught him listening to her music they teased him relentlessly.

"Would I ever joke about something like this?" Scooter asked.

"Yes," Justin laughed. "You're probably recording this," he pointed out. Everyone laughed.

"Well, I'm not kidding. I can forward you the email from her manager if you'd like," Scooter offered. He held out his phone so Justin could verify for himself.

"Nice" Justin tried to keep himself from cheering. "That's cool."

"I'm pretty sure she'll be fully dressed today," Scooter teased. Justin rolled his eyes but everyone in the room laughed at him. Of course by now they could see right through his atteps

"Whatever, I'll be in my room," he said, standing up from the table. He pulled his pants up as he walked away. Before he was even out of the room he had pulled up Clara's twitter feed and was busy clicking through her status updates, looking for pictures.

Clara had skyrocketed to fame as part of an all-girl rock band when she was only 15. Her happy childhood had turned dark as her popularity grew and Clara had turned to drugs and alcohol to help her combat depression and anxiety. Her singing career had been cut short as the other members of her band grew sick of her getting all the attention for her bad behavior and relationships with men who were far too old for her. Clara had spent a short time being famous simply for being famous, and eventually ended up posing for Playboy just before she checked into rehab. She was only 21.

When she left rehab, Clara had disappeared from the public eye. Pictures of her living a seemingly typical suburban life appeared in the tabloids periodically when there wasn't anything more interesting going on, but she was a notorious recluse. Despite several modeling and acting offers, Clara had avoided the limelight.

That was until a year ago when she accepted the opportunity to present at the Grammy awards. She'd presented the award for Best New Artist and though Justin hadn't won the award, he'd been captivated by her ever since. And Justin wasn't the only one. The world still loved Clara Cartwright and she'd been walking red carpets and making surprise appearances to sing with other artists ever since. There were talks of her going on a reunion tour with her band, but according to her tweets it was all just a lie.

"Whoa," Justin said, opening the first actual picture of Clara he found. She was fond of Instagramming her food, shoes, and everything around her – but rarely tweeted actual pictures of herself. Still, Justin had found one and he was trying to keep his pulse steady as he looked it over. The picture was captioned "haircut" and showed her in a white tank top, tugging on a strand of white blonde highlighted hair.