She woke and got dressed for work, still perturbed about her date, if you could call it that, with David and his order that she just cancel her plans because he said so. She worked her shift and half expected him to walk into her work most of the day but the closer it got to the end of her shift, the more she concluded that her paranoia wasn't warranted. Once she'd finished her shift, he wouldn't know where she was anyways.

'Hey Star.' Dylan said walking in to replace her for the night shift and butterflies surged in her stomach hearing him say her name.

'Hey.' She smiled back at him. 'What are you doing tonight, after work? I'd like to talk to you.'

'Ah, I'm not doing anything.' He responded.

'I'll come back at closing. I'll see you then?' She gently touched his hand.

'Sure.' He said, and he went off to put his bag away in the staff room. He came out and went on the floor and she went to retrieve her bag and left the store.

Walking down the street, she felt conflicted. She was happy Dylan was keen to speak to her, but if she was honest with herself, her thoughts were still consumed by David, only her excitement over the man in black had now morphed into a mild concern with her not understanding his actions or more so his motivations. She wondered if she should go home before meeting with Dylan, or just hang around in town, it was Friday night and the mid-winter Festival was happening along Main Beach. She decided to stay and revel with the people bustling along the Boardwalk and wander through the pop-up stalls that had sprung up in the parking lot, but despite her distractions, she struggled to get David out of her head. His demand of her was so odd, especially as he hardly knew her, and she found the way he looked at her before he left very disconcerting which made her feel almost uncomfortable even thinking about it now. The sun went down and she made her way through the crowds down onto the beach where there were fire dancers, a laser light show, and a grand finale of fireworks which kept her occupied. She wandered the sand and bumped into her friend Maggie, who she hadn't seen since she'd moved out.

'Maggie, oh my God! How are you?' Star said hugging her friend.

'Hey Star, I'm good, how are you? I'm so sorry about my mother, she's such a cow. Where are you living now?'

'I have a little place in Watsonville.' She said looking down when her friend screwed up her nose at the news. 'But I'm really happy there and I have a job, and a boyfriend, kind of.'

'A boyfriend?! Oh come, walk and talk with me and tell me all about him.' Star and Maggie walked along the beach and Star told her all about Dylan and her work. 'What happened to those guys you were talking with that night? That guy in the long black jacket and the hottie with long dark hair? Did you ever see them again?'

'That's another thing I wanted to tell you about. That night, that you saw me with them, I didn't tell you but, I kissed one of them.'

'What? Why didn't you tell me? Which one? Not my Greek God…' Maggie excitedly shrieked.

'No,' Star laughed, 'the jacket guy, his name is David.'

'Why didn't you tell me? Oh my God, no wonder you were all stupid after that!'

'I didn't tell you because it was weird. I'd just come out from dancing by the stage and I went to walk past them to the beach and he reached out and grabbed me and pulled me to him.' Star looked at her friend and saw a worried look on her face.

'Okaaay…' Maggie said with her eyebrows creased.

'Then he touched the side of my face and he pulled my head to his and he kissed me.'

'What? Without saying anything?' Star shook her head. 'And you let him?'

'I didn't really have a choice but then he let me go and they walked off, right, then the next night, I went for a drink at Marley's on the corner and I tried to buy a vodka tonic.'

'But you're underage?'

'I know, I was ID'd but suddenly a waiter came running up to me with a vodka tonic and said someone had bought it for me and pointed towards the door and I saw him and his friends leaving.'

'Wait, so they bought you a drink and just left?'

'Uh-huh, it gets worse, I saw him again, and again, he said nothing to me and just walked around me in the middle of the crowd at the stage and touched my hair.'

'He touched your hair?' The more Star told Maggie, the more embarrassed she felt.

'Yeah.'

'You know this is starting to sound really creepy, right?' Maggie lowered her eyes at her friend.

'He showed up at my house.' Star admitted, and Maggie stopped walking. 'And at my work.'

'Oh, Star…'

'I didn't even tell him where I lived or worked, I'm not 100% sure how he found out.'

'Star, you need to tell the Police.'

'I can't, I went out with him.' She bit her bottom lip, and almost cringed at the response she was about to get.

'You what? Why?! The guy sounds like a creep.'

'I don't know, he kissed me both times, at my house, and when he does, my knees buckle, and I feel numb. No one has ever made me feel like that before and when he looks at me, I feel like I can't breathe.'

'Where did he take you?' Maggie asked genuinely interested.

'To a taco stand.' Star admitted, and Maggie burst out laughing.

'A taco stand?!'

'Yeah, and he barely spoke to me, he hadn't even told me his name until that night. He didn't even eat with me, he just stood and watched me eat.' She was struggling to justify her attraction to him after everything she'd told her friend had happened and she realised how strange the man was.

Oh, Star, he's a freak, why would you want to be with a man who treats you like that?'

'OK, I know but imagine if the hot dark-haired man was showing an interest in you and buying you drinks and kissing you like you were the last person on Earth? What if when he looked at you it made your heart bang against your ribcage?'

'You sound like you're in love.' Star didn't know how to answer that because she was embarrassed, how could she be in love with someone who she didn't even know? But she felt like she was. 'What about Dylan? He sounds really nice and sweet and normal. And he took you to an actual restaurant.'

'He got a bit annoyed that I got so distracted by David and I haven't spoken to him since he took me out to dinner. I'm talking to him tonight.'

'I want you to ignore David from now on, go and be with Dylan and be happy. Seriously, he's already treating you better than stalker David is.' Maggie looked down at her watch. 'Oh, I gotta go! Please, lets catch up soon.' She gave Star a quick hug and began to walk off. 'And I want an invite to the wedding!' She called out before she became just another head in the crowd. Star walked back up to the Boardwalk and meandered along past the rides towards the parking lot and as she crossed the vast space, she noticed one of David's friends, the young-looking man with the colourful jacket. He was sitting upon a large motorcycle, similar to David's and he was watching her with a very serious expression. She glanced around but she couldn't see David or any of his other friends, but something told her they weren't very far away. She decided she should go and meet Dylan sooner rather than later and they should get away from the waterfront, because she wanted to talk to him without any distraction.