Miriam Sinclair was in hell. What was hell, exactly? Being stuck in a car with her wealthy, spoiled cousin. Her cousin, Ashley, convinced her parents to let her cousin, Miriam, ride with her to meet Ashley's favorite band Big Time Rush. Being the pompous parents of Ashley, they told Miriam of how Ashley only has her learner's permit and needed an adult in the car. She reluctantly agreed and was riding passenger to her fifteen-year old cousin. The two were polar opposites. Ashley looked way older than her age and Miriam looked as if she could be taking trigonometry with Ashley. It frustrated her to no end that she was a woman of twenty-three yet she had the body of a teen. She knew any onlooker would assume she was the teenager and Ashley the adult.

It was obvious these two were oil and water. Ashley was like any other teenage girl. She listen to all the top 40 hits, shop, text for hours on end, not really caring about the bill her prominent parents get every month. Miriam, on the other hand, was an old soul. She loved old jazz and blues and electronica, soul and world music, watching countless old black and white movies, preferably silent films, and taking a liking to the simpler things in life. She silently cursed as her cousin almost ran a stop-sign. That bottle of wine she had would be calling her name tonight. The silence in the car was long and torturous. Ashley finally decided to turn on the radio, which made Miriam's teeth grind…it was a Keri Hilson song.

"Miriam, why do you listen to old people music? I mean, I'm pretty sure even people your age listen to Britney Spears. Ooh, you would love her new song!"

"I listen to modern artists…they're just in a different genre." she had to fight the urge to reach into her bag for her much-needed cigarette. It was going to be a long day. "Where are we going again?"

"I wanna see Big Time Rush. Their album is awesome! We can listen to them now. Just look though my iPhone." Miriam was scrolling through Ashley's iPhone appalled at her crap taste in music. She found the artist and almost gagged when the first song started playing. She would definitely do some musical cleansing tonight. "What do you think?"

"No comment." Miriam knew she spoke blasphemy to her cousin. She could tell Ashley was offended.

"Well, at least the people I listen to didn't die twenty years ago." Miriam just let the catty comment roll off. They reached the store, and when Ashley parked and sent a text to her friends that she arrived. "Emma just texted me saying they saved me a spot! I can't wait to meet James. Oh, you don't have to hang around if you don't want to."

"Yeah, I was going to look to see if they had any Godard films."

"Who's that?"

"Jean-Luc Godard? One of the greatest directors of twentieth-century French cinema?"

"Whatever…." Ashley gave her an annoyed eye roll.

They got of the car and entered the building. Of course, Miriam was not surprised when Ashley pretended to not know her and bee-lined toward her friends. She was fine by that. Her head was already throbbing with screaming teenage and young girls anticipating a glimpse of the band. It did pique her interest in who the hell they were losing their minds over. She found a poster advertising today's meet and greet. The first thing that came to her mind was they looked like college rapists. Not the 'sneak around in the bushes and stalk you' kind, but the disgusting frat-boy 'I'm gonna to get into a passed-out drunk, underage girls panties' type rapists. Miriam scoffed as she made her way downstairs to the movie section.

The time had arrived for the boys to make their debut in Chicago. They all walked out and was immediately bombarded with high-pitched wails. Most of them wanting James to take off his shirt. It had been a long road for the guys. Now, being an international success made every sacrifice to move from Minnesota to Los Angeles worth it. Carlos noticed that when their names were announced one by one, his got the least screams. Part of him accepted he was not the hot one in the group, but he was becoming uncomfortable with being labeled 'The Short One' of the group. It was three hours of signing autographs, taking pictures, accepting fake marriage proposals when Big Time Rush was allowed an hour break. Everyone went to the employee section of the store making sure their heavy security was in use.

"Our fans are really hyped today." Logan was grabbing a cheese cube from the numerous food platters they requested.

"I know. We get to spend a few weeks in this great city to record our new album. It's gonna be sweet!" Kendall grabbed a water bottle.

Carlos wanted to go outside and get some air. He walked to the exit and made sure the coast was clear for him to go outside. Carlos took in a deep breath of Chicago air, but soon regretted it since he was near the company dumpsters. He look around and saw that even in an alley, the place had a certain gritty charm to it. Making the album in Chicago was an odd choice, but the producer Gustavo collaborates with lives in the city and hates flying. Suddenly, Carlos smells smoke and notices it's coming from a person. He looked closely at the figure he actually towers over. Finally someone shorter than he is. It was a big afro that caught his eye. It was massive and it made the person match his height. Another puff of smoke blew in Carlos' direction before he coughed.

"Um…excuse me…do you mind…putting that out?"

"No…." Carlos saw the person halfway turn to him before puffing on the cigarette again.

"Well, I don't smoke, and I like to live a bit longer without getting second-hand smoke." he was trying to be polite as possible, but one of his pet peeves were people blowing smoke in his face.

Miriam didn't know who the jerk was, but she wanted to clock him. How dare some teenager is preaching to her about the dangers of smoking. He didn't understand. Spending hours and hours hearing screaming girls was enough to break down. She wasn't a regular smoker, just from time to time when shit got too stressful she would smoke to relax. The guy was rambling some more until Miriam had enough. She took one last drag and threw it to the ground.

"Look, I don't need some kid to lecture me about morals. I'm stressed out and if I want to smoke that cigarette to ease stress, I'll do it!" she stared him in the face ready to finish giving the guy a piece of her mind but paused when she realized it was one of the guys she saw earlier on the poster. "You're one of those guys...the ones signing the autographs today."

"That would be me." great he was discovered. Though, she didn't look like a fan. She would be screaming by now.

"Great, Ashley is gonna piss me off even more today."

"Ashley?"

"Yeah, she's my cousin...she loves your music. She keeps talking about some guy named James...you're not James, are you?"

"Nope, my name is Carlos. James is the one all the girls love. He's The Hot One."

"And what are you?"

"The Short One. I'm an adult and people still treat me like a kid."

"Same here. I'm so sick of everyone calling me shorty...I mean, when a guy says 'ay yo shorty' to some other girl, it's not literal."

"Yeah, whenever there's a photo-shoot, I'm always in the front."

"Poor you, I have a baby-face and my shortness. People always ask me what I'm going to do after I graduate high school."

"I get that too."

"At least you don't have creepy old men hitting on you because they think you're some naïve teenager they can molest."

"I have the reverse. I have teenage girls want to sleep with me because they forget that I'm over twenty-one."

"Ugh, don't even say twenty-one. I get carded everywhere I go. I don't even try anymore. I pull out my ID before they ask."

"It's finally nice to meet someone who understands how it feels to be short."

"Just because we are vertically challenged does not mean we are alike. We are just two people who happen to be short. And besides, you're taller than me."

"Please, by three inches. To the bloggers, I'm called 'The Keebler Elf'."

"Four inches...I'm barely 5'2''...I'm wearing wedges."

"So, miss 5'2'', do you have a name?"

"Why do you want to know my name? I'm not a fan. My snotty cousin is."

"Come on...I'm tired of being the only one in the Short People Club. Please?" Miriam rolled her eyes at Carlos' sad eyes. She wanted to smack the expression off his face.

"Miriam. The name's Miriam."

"What kind of name is Miriam?"

"What kind of name is Carlos?"

"It's a normal one."

"I was named after an African musician, Miriam Makeba. Sounds pretty normal to me."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Miriam."

"Whatever..." Miriam felt her jean pocket vibrate. She took out her phone and saw it was her cousin. "Listen, I gotta go. Thank you for wasting my cig."

"Hey, maybe if you could give me your number..."

"No way in hell..." Miriam walked back inside to another hallway.

Carlos wanted to slap himself for sounding like an idiot. Despite the fact she was rude and she smoked, he thought she was cute. Her coco-caramel skin and massive Afro made him look past her hard demeanor. He was about to enter when he saw a piece of red paper at his foot. He picked it up and saw it was a napkin for a place named 'Gin Alley'. He knew he would not get Miriam out of his head , and he had to see her again. He had to win her over somehow.