A Little Less than Famous (5 page)

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"You know, I think you were right," Amanda said.

"Hmm?" I said, vaguely. I had a beer in my hand and I was watching Gabriel play beer pong against one of his friends. It was one of Gabriel's favorite things to do at parties and he usually was pretty wasted by the end of the night. I liked a drink here and there but I didn't like getting drunk. I'd had enough of that in high school.

"You were right about this party. It's very lame," Amanda said, making a face. "I'm so bored."

"At least you look cute," I said, trying to make her feel better. She had an off-the-shoulder yellow blouse and dark jeans paired with ballet flats.

"Thanks. I do, don’t I?” she said brightly.
“
Fat lot of good it is doing me, there are no good prospects here." She looked over at me. "You look super cute, too."

"Well, thanks, Amanda," I said. I'd put on a sparkly white loose fitting tank with black skinny jeans and black knee-high boots.
The weather was still unbearably hot, but this was usual for California in August and wearing pants wasn’t so abnormal.

"Hey babe," Gabriel said, coming over and wrapping his arms around my waist. "Did you see me win against Todd?"

I stepped away, carefully so that his arms slid off my waist in a less than obvious way. "Yeah, I did." He leaned down for a kiss and I met him half way.
I was such a sucker for a kiss and I was not afraid to admit.
"And it's McKinley, remember? Not babe."

"Right" Gabriel said, his smile becoming a little strained. "You need another beer?"

"No, I'm okay for right now," I answered, taking a sip. I started picking at the bottle label.

"I could use one," Amanda said, holding up her bottle. Gabriel nodded and squeezed my hand before making his way to the coolers. "If you don't want him, I'll take him."

"Nah," I said, shaking my head. "I think I'll keep him for now. The sex is good at least."

" I could tell you were a romantic when I met you."

Amanda and I both turned around at the same time. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Amanda's mouth fall open in surprise. "You have got to be kidding me," I said, flatly.

"Oh, wow, hi. Hi Jake. Jake Kennedy," Amanda breathed excitedly. She turned to me. "Ohmygod, McKinley, did you invite him?"

I didn't answer. I was glaring at Jake, but I had to admit that the presence of him in front of me caused butterflies to emerge in my stomach. He was dressed casually in jeans,
a
dark shirt and
a
leather jacket. "Hey McKinley," he said, "how's the party?"

"How the hell did you know I was here?" I blurted out.

"Luke? The owner of the diner? He told me you were going to be here," he explained.

"Luke told you?" I asked suspiciously. "How did you talk to Luke?"

"I went to the diner and asked for you. I told him that I was a friend of yours from school and he sent me here."

"You know, that's kind of shady," I said. "Why were you looking for me, anyway? Wait, don't answer that."

Jake shuffled back and forth and for the first time, I noticed legitimate vulnerability from him, not something that could be read from a script. For some reason I felt a sudden tug, an urge to put my arms around him and this angered me. He looked back up at me. "Did you want to take a walk?"

"Um, n..."

"Yes, she does," Amanda interrupted. She leaned forward and whispered in my ear. "Please, go talk to him! Talk to him about me, please." She leaned back. "Go, go, take a walk, I'll keep Gabriel distracted."

"Gabriel?" Jake questioned.

"Her boyfriend," Amanda supplied, pushing me gently towards him.

"He is not my boyfriend," I said, automatically. I took a deep breath. "Gabriel isn't going to notice I'm gone anyhow. Yeah, we can go for a walk."

We made our way through the house, squeezing past people. A couple times, I felt Jake's hand on my back and I could feel myself tense against it. We finally made it to the front door and let ourselves out.

"Do you actually mind if we just sit?" Jake asked. "I'm really exhausted. It was a long shoot today."

"Um, sure," I said, walking ov
er to a low wall separating Will
's yard from the neighbor’s and sat down. "So..."

"So...you like living with Luke?"

I stared at him for a second. "How did you know...
”

"He told me."

"Oh," I said, for lack of anything better to say. I let the silence sit for a moment. "Yeah, I do. Like living with Luke. I have for most of my life."

"Where are your parents?"

I drew in a breath. "My dad died when I was two years old."

"And your mom?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" Jake asked curiously. "What do you mean, you don't know?"

"I just don't know, okay?" I snapped. I looked at his wounded face and sighed. "She left me at the diner when I was five. Luke took me in when she never came back for me."

"Oh, I'm sorry,"
Jake
said, looking
extremely
sorry for asking.

"Its fine. I reall
y don't think about it anymore.”
I paused. "What about your parents?"

Jake sighed, leaning back on his hands. "My mom is a second grade teacher in Anaheim and my dad is an accountant."

"Wow." I laughed. "So suburban."

He laughed. "I know. I don't think either one of them expected me to be...well..."

"Famous?" I supplied.

He smiled sheepishly. "Well, yeah. It was way unexpected."

"How did it happen anyway?" I asked. "I don't really know how it works."

"It was...so random. Someone approached us at the beach one day, said I'd be good at commercials. My mom thought it was hilarious but my dad was really curious. He called, got me agent and in less than a month, I was lined up for a commercial and some print work. Less than a year after that,
I was doing random soap opera work and then when I was 12,
my agent lined up the audition at
Crime Scene
to play Cam Daniel's son. I never thought I'd actually get it. Or that the show would continue to last so long."

"Longest running detective show on television," I remarked, casually, looking up at the sky.

"Oh, are you a fan?" he asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"No, actually, I do not watch your show," I said, wryly, trying to hide the bit of amusement I felt at the question. "Amanda is a big fan. You would make her whole night if you gave her an autograph."
And ask her out. That’s what I really should’ve said, but I didn’t.

Jake laughed. "I think I can do that."

"Does it feel weird giving your autograph out?" I asked. "I mean, I can't imagine signing my name for anyone. The only people who want my signature are those people who sit outside grocery stores."

Jake laughed again. "I always try to avoid making eye contact with those people."

We fell silent and I could feel the awkwardness creeping in around us. I heard different calls of laughter from the backyard and I searched through my mental catalog of something to talk about with this boy, this boy who graced magazine covers and billboards. I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out.

"Kind of awkward, isn't it?" Jake asked.

"A little," I admitted. "I'm not really sure what to say to you. I mean, you're a big celebrity. I work at a diner."

"Yeah, I guess. I'm not that big of a celebrity," he said, shrugging his shoulders.

I raised my eyebrow at him. "Oh yeah? I'm thinking all those movies you've done says different."

"Yeah but how many of those movies were actually good?"

I frowned. Jake Kennedy was known for terrible action movies known more explosions and nonsensical plot lines. Jake may have been voted
People
Magazine's Sexiest Man of the Year but he was not kn
own for his superb acting skills
or for picking good movies to work on.

"Oh, come on, don't be too harsh on yourself," I said, feeling like a lie to Jake Kennedy was completely absurd. "You are pretty kick ass as Mikey on
Crime Scene."

"So you do watch the show, huh?" Jake said, teasing.

"Everyone with a television watches that show, Jake," I said, laughing. "And now while I watch it for Cam Daniels, everyone else obsesses over you and all the cases you try to solve. Girls drool for you and get jealous every time your on-again, off-again relationship with Andrea Tremaine is on again."

Jake's face clouded over at the mention of his ex-girlfriend.

"Hey Jake?"

He turned to me, his blue eyes burning. "Yeah?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure." He swallowed hard. "Of course."

"What happened with Andrea Tremaine?"

He pulled back. "What do you mean? What makes you think anything happened?"

"Um because you look like you just found out Christmas was cancelled every time her name comes up?"

Jake laughed humorlessly. "You mean, you haven't read it all over the gossip rags?"

I thought of the pile of magazines that lay around my room, a product of Amanda's celebrity obsession. "Um, no?"

"We broke up. Not a big deal. We've been growing apart for awhile; our careers were going in way different directions." This was true enough; Andrea Tremaine had just won a Golden Globe for best supporting actress. "But I wasn't happy about it. I really cared about her. But shit happens."

"Okay..." I said, slowly.

"I'm not done yet. Mere four days after we called things off, only two days after our publicists confirmed it to the media, she was engaged to some film director from Scotland."

"Ouch," I said, wincing.

"Yeah," Jake agreed
, his voice hollow. "He's nineteen
years older than h
er. And...four days later?
There's no way that she hadn't cheated on me."

I wanted to disagree with him, tell him he was wrong, but he was right. There was no way someone got engaged after only four days. The only logical explanation was that she had cheated on him. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. He had leaned back, and his shirt had lifted enough to show a strip of bare stomach. I felt a blush flush in my cheeks and I turned away to hide it.

Jake cleared his throat. "So, McKinley, can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah," I said, quickly and a little bit warily.

"Do you really watch
Crime Scene?"
I nodded. "Am I...am I good? On the show, I mean?"

I burst out laughing; I couldn't even help it. "Oh my god, Jake, really?"