was walking down the street. She was staring at the cloudless blue sky, wishing that the ground beneath her would just swallow her up. Just ahead of her was her ex, - and he was walking in her direction. inconspicuously slipped on her sunglasses and continued in the direction she was heading. just walked right past her. Behind him was one of his mates, .
"!" said loudly. "It's great to see you again!"
"Yeah, it's great to see you too, echoed weakly.
yelled to , "Oi, ! Get your butt back here! Look who I found!"
But didn't even bother to turn around, or look and just continued to walk.
tried to act as if she didn't care whether he turned around or not, but knew better.
Fortunately for ... , and arrived at where she and were standing.
"Hey !" they chorused.
"Hi." said to them. "How've you guys been?"
"Everything's been great!" replied, "What about you? Have you been okay since you-" stopped mid-sentence realising that he'd said the wrong thing.
"It's okay, . You can say it. Since I broke up with , right?"
nodded.
"Thanks for the concern, ! But I've been fine! I can live without him- the world doesn't revolve around him! As a matter of fact, I'm starting to go out with other guys." fibbed.

's face lit up when that she was starting to go out with other guys. That meant that he had a chance! He had liked her from the start, that was no secret- at least not to , and anyway.
"That's great ! I mean, you and were a great couple when you were together, but this could be the beginning of something really fantastic!" said sensitively.
"So is it true what I hear about you being 's choreographer?" asked.
"Yep, it's true! I am their choreographer.. and it's great fun! The guys are pretty cool!"
's face fell. "You're not by any chance dating one of them, are you?" he asked.
"No, , what would make you think that? I'd go out with you before I went out with them!" told him honestly.
"Really?"
nodded.
"So would you be willing to be my partner at a party I'm attending next week?" questioned.
"Where and when is it?" wanted to know.
"Saturday night, Carlton Hotel." replied.
"Sure, I'd love to! I'll call you during the week and we can arrange something!"
glanced at his watch, and tapped on the shoulder, "Sorry to interrupt, but we've really got to get going! We're due at the studios in fifteen minutes!"
grinned at them, "I've still got to do the rest of my shopping, so I guess I'll be seeing you guys around." she said before walking away.
She couldn't lie to herself, she still loved after all they'd been through and she was willing to let him back into her life, she only hoped that it would not be too late.

* * * * The night of the party * * * *

Hundreds of screaming fans lined the sides of the red carpet. Security guards did their best to keep the fans behind the barriers erected. Being the sweet, kind Irish lads that they are, and the rest of Westlife decided to sign some autographs.
turned to , "You can head on inside if want. The lads and I are probably going to sign a few autographs first."
shook her head, "It's fine, I'll just wait here until you're finished."
leaned over and gave her a peck on the cheek. "Thanks." he whispered, and continued signing autographs.
The flash of the cameras almost blinded them as they continued up the rest of the red carpet. Every paper wanted to get a picture of 's new female companion. And what made this story extra terrific was the fact that this was the girl had been going out with only a few weeks ago. This news of their break-up was still fresh in people's minds. And to add to that, and his female companion looked happy to be with each other. They were laughing and joking, having the time of their lives and oblivious to everything around them.

, however, felt uncomfortable with the whole situation. While he watched and laughing, joking and generally just having a good time, he felt something nag at him. And he couldn't make it go away. He was surprised that he was still able to feel this way about .
Get a grip on yourself, ! he thought.
did not like this one bit. He decided that it would probably be best if he drown his sorrow... or was it anger? Well, whatever it was, he decided to drown it.

glanced warily at who was drinking like there was no tomorrow. Well, at the rate he was drinking, he'd either be dead the next morning, or so hungover he wouldn't be able to wake up. So it was a pretty accurate description of what he was doing. looked in 's direction. He was socialising with members of . approahced them in order to get a better look at who was talking to.
Spotting her, waved her over. When she got there, he began to introduce his new friends to her.
", I'd like you meet and from ."
did a little bow which made laugh. extended his hand, and when did the same, he bent down and kissed it.
laughed and introduced herself.
"Well, as you know, I'm . I'm a choreographer."
Meanwhile sent and the thumbs up sign and a grateful look from behind 's back.

looked on in envy. What the hell did think he was doing, and what was doing flirting with , and like that. 's eyes wandered up and down 's body. She was dressed to kill, wearing a little black mini-skirt and a top which was barely there. He could tell that at least half of the guys in the room wanted her. For that matter, so did he.
Totally bolloxed, he stumbled over to where and the others were standing. Rudely pulling her to one side he began to yell at her.
"Jaysus , you're such a god-damn slut. First you slept with me, and now your flirting with and those two pricks from . Just wait till they find out that you're a whore... sleeping with boyband members so you can be on the front page of some trashy newspaper!"
"You pig!" exclaimed, slapping him on the face, before turning on her heel to leave the room.
A large crowd of people had witnessed what had happened and shook their heads disapprovingly at , while others including , , , , and all ran off after .
stared at everyone around him in a state of confusion. He was so drunk he had no idea what was happened. He could only feel a stinging sensation in his cheek. Thinking really hard, he was finally able to remember some of what had happen. had slapped him across the cheek, and that was about all he could remember.

stalked out of the club shaking with anger. What had she ever done to deserve this? Of course, she knew that he had been drunk when he had accussed her of being a slut, but that wasn't an excuse.
"!" yelled after her, "Don't go!"
broke into a run hoping that they would not follow her. , , and also broke into a run, staying as close behind her as they could.
's ankles were killing her by now, and she made a mental note never to run in a pair of stilettos again. She contemplated stopping to take them off, but realised that if she did, and the others would catch up with her.
Just leave me alone! she thought. Too busy thinking about what she was going to do, she didn't notice a crack in the pavement in front of her. She screamed, as she lost her balance and fell fowards head first...

burst forward and caught before she fell.
"Now what was that all about?" he asked her.
"To tell the truth, I don't know!" she replied. "I just felt that I had to get away from it all."
looked her straight in the eye. "You're trying to run away from your feelings for because you're afraid of being hurt like the first time! But... but..."
Leaning forward, he pulled her in for a long, deep kiss. ", I'm not sure how to tell you this, but... well... that it... IthinkI'minlovewithyou!" blurted out.
"I'm sorry , but I just don't feel the same way! You're right, after all this time, I'm still in love with ! I wish it wasn't that way... but it is. So, we're both gonna have to learn to live with that fact."

And with that, walked away. The sound of blaring horns, and a bright light meant that was indeed too late, because only seconds later, found lying lifelessly on the middle of the road.