Just A Girl (The Rock Star Series 1) (Green Day)

Stray Heart

It was Riley Kutyler's seventeenth birthday party and the roof of the Hotel Bel Air had been taken over by friends and celebrities of tinsel town. Clem Donovan, Pinkslip's manager, had spared no expense and arranged the very best in catering. He wanted his special girl to have everything she deserved to make this a night she would always remember.

And of course the publicity would be great for the band.

Riley had danced with almost every guy in the place except for Adam, who had spent most of the night talking to a beautiful blonde Riley recognized as up and coming supermodel, Saffron Rivera. Adam had caught her eye, waved her over and introduced the two of them. Then, resting one hand on Adam's arm, Saffron promised with a slow smile to catch up with him later that night before leaving him and Riley alone.

'She gives the term 'on a promise' a whole new meaning,' Riley grinned at him.

'You're a gutter wench,' Adam said. 'You just had to go and ruin it.'

She laughed. 'You know you were thinking it too.'

He shrugged. 'Maybe.'

'She's beautiful,' said Riley, watching as Saffron mingled with the crowd.

'I noticed.'

Riley reached up and ran a hand over his curly black hair. He looked at her to find she was giving him her best puppy-dogs, to which he promptly shook his head.

'I know that look. The answer's no.'

She pouted. 'But it's my birthday.'

'Clem would slice off my gonads and wear them as cufflinks.'

'And still have room for the buttons.'

'For that, you're definitely not getting a beer.'

'I'm seventeen,' she complained.

'Uhuh, which is still four years from twenty-one.'

She gave his arm a squeeze. 'Just a small beer. I won't let Clem see me. C'mon, it's not like I haven't had a drink before.'

He sighed and shook his head. When it came to Riley he'd always been a sucker. Since the night he first met her. She had been fourteen, he eighteen and like he and Ryan, she'd lied about her age so she could get into the clubs to perform her music. They'd clicked right away. He'd been into her music and her. But she wasn't interested in anything romantic. Within days they'd put their heads together, wrote a few songs and before they knew it had started their own band.

'You're determined to get me fired,' he sighed. 'But fine, one small beer.'

While Adam got her beer, Riley glanced around at all the many faces. But there was no sign of the face that she wanted to see.

Billie hadn't come.

She was drowning in her own self-pity when she noticed a guy sitting in the far corner of the rooftop. He was so incredibly hot that for a second she felt her heart skip, and then she realized she recognized him. It was the actor/musician, Jared Leto. His light brown, chin-length hair was mussed-up, like he'd just rolled out of bed and he was dressed in faded jeans and a casual white shirt, unbuttoned halfway. There was something animal in the way he was slouching in the seat. She couldn't keep her eyes off him. But then he was a beautiful guy.

Adam reappeared and she grabbed his arm just as he handed her the beer. His eyes darted around thinking that Clem must be in view. 'What?' he panicked. 'Did he see me?'

'The babe in the corner,' she said nodding. 'Jared Leto?'

Adam looked and nodded. 'Looks like him.'