Kendall knew that he had agreed with Bennett that their plan was working on its own, but it wasn't working fast enough for him. He felt awful for what he was about to do, but he had to do it. He took a deep breath and dialed the phone.

*********
She didn't know how they did it. The beach was entirely secluded, and private, and Dak had an even down in San Diego that she was expected to attend, so she really didn't know how the paparazzi had found her surfing in LA with her friends.

She had been so excited to have a day alone with her friends. They had gone out early and been enjoying the sun, sand and surf and then there was a flash. Anna had tried not to lose it, she really did. She tried to ignore it but she couldn't it pissed her off. She had demanded to go home.
"Anna! Anna!" Bennett yelled after her as she stormed out of the car and into the house. She stomped up the steps and into her room and slammed the door shut. She flung herself onto her bed and let out a frustrated groan. She lay there staring at the ceiling until she had calmed down enough to dial the phone.

She tried to call Dak, but it went straight to voice mail. She should have expected it. He was booked solid all day. She was going to call Tracy, but she was still at the beach, and probably wouldn't pick up. She had to think for a moment before finally deciding on who she would call, and dialing the number.

James was looking around his room for his towel. He had thrown it somewhere we he got back from the pool yesterday, but couldn't remember where.

He found it under his bed and was just about to leave when he heard a ringing from Carlos' side of the room. Looking over he saw Carlos' phone lighting up on his dresser. Rolling his eyes, James walked over and answered the phone without checking the caller id.
"Carlos' phone." He said.

"Uh, yeah is Carlos there?"

"Oh, hey Anna, he's down at the pool."

"James? Hey. Uh could you just, have him call me when he gets a chance?"

He wanted to just say sure and hang up, but there was something in her voice that told him, she wasn't okay, and that this phone call was really important. "Is everything okay?" he finally asked.

"Yeah, fine." Anan said.

"Anna, what's wrong?"

He could practically hear her chewing on her lip as she debated talking to him. "It's nothing really, just… I'm having a really hard time with the whole paparazzi thing." She finally admitted.

James sat down on Carlos' bed. "Yeah, it's not always easy."

"Try not ever easy. I don't know how you guys deal with it every day. I'm already going crazy."

James shrugged, not that Anna could see it. "It doesn't really get any easier, but you just have to go on with your life. The more you try to run, or get them to go away, the more material you give them. If you go about doing boring everyday things, they mostly go away."

"Really?" Anna asked skeptically.

"Yeah, I mean we get a lot of it when we're on tour or an album comes out, but when we're back at home doing homework and lying by the pool, they get bored and just move on, to whoever else has something going on."
There was a brief silence. "Thanks James." Anna said.
"Any time."
"I'll talk to you later, 'kay?"

"'Kay."

James hung up the phone, picked up his towel and walked down to the pool. When he got there he tossed Carlos his phone. "You left this in our room."

"Thanks man, did anyone call?" Carlos asked.

"No one important." James said before taking his spot and assuming the tanning position.

Anna got off the phone with James, feeling much better than she had beforehand. She sat on the edge of the bed for a moment just thinking. She looked over at her nightstand and picked up the framed picture of her and Dak. She turned the frame around and took the back off of it, pulling a photo out. She put the frame and its back down and looked at the picture. The people staring back at her were happy and smiling, but they weren't her and Dak. The girl in the picture was Anna, but the boy was James.
She hadn't gotten rid of every picture of James; in fact she hadn't gotten rid of any of them. They all sat in a box at the back of her closet, all but this one. It was her favorite. It had been taken on their third date. They had gone on a double date with Kendall and the girl he had been dating at the time. They had gone to an amusement park. She had gone on her first roller coaster that day. For their one month anniversary James had bought her the frame for the picture, though now it held the picture of her and Dak.

She knew it was wrong but at that moment she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if she were dating James right now instead of Dak.
She hadn't been able to get in contact with Dak when she needed to talk to someone, but she hadn't even been looking for James and he was there. But that wasn't Dak's fault. She knew that if he could have, he would have been there, but she also knew what he would have told her, and it wouldn't have made her feel better. This wasn't the first time she'd freaked out about the paparazzi, and Dak had been there before. He always told her to just ignore them; that she'd get used to it. It never made her feel better.
She tried not to think it but the thought came anyway. 'Maybe I wouldn't mind it so much if I was still with James.'