A Little Less than Famous Page 5

  “Has anything else caught your eye, in your classes or anything?”

  I laughed and shook my head. “No. I mean, I take classes, I enjoy some and hate others and I get through them. But none of them grab me. Nothing says, this is something you could do for the rest of your life.”

  “But the diner?”

  I pursed my lips and thought about it. “Yeah, I can see myself doing this for the rest of my life. I love the diner and I love the job. And I love my family here. But my family isn’t always going to be here.”

  Luke just looked at me, waiting for me to continue speaking. If there was one person who could get me to talk, it was Luke. Amanda was my best friend, and knew me well, but not like Luke. Luke wasn’t always my dad but he was my absolute best friend and he knew it didn’t take much to get me to start talking.

  “I just don’t want to be in this place, not living, not experiencing anything while Diane or Robert or Oliver or Cassandra come and go. I love this place but is this the only place that I am ever going to know?”

  “You know, you’re always more than welcome to take time off, McKinley. I ran this diner for awhile before you started working here,” he said, running a hand through his hair.

  I waved off the offer. “Its fine. I love every minute that I spend here, even with kids throwing French fries at the ceiling and that old Russian lady who needs her soup microwaved to scalding hot.”

  “So?”

  “I don’t know,” I sighed. “I go to school because I feel like it’s the right thing to do. Maybe I should get a degree in restaurant management, though I really don’t need it. I guess it keeps me busy.”

  Luke nodded. “I just want to make sure you’re doing what you want to do. Living your life the way you want it, not the way you think I want you to.”

  “That was kind of a confusing statement,” I said, lightly, ignoring the affection that was squeezing my chest hard.

  “I know you got it,” Luke said, smiling.

  “Sometimes I just wish something exciting would happen here,” I admitted, refusing to even mention Jake Kennedy. That was not what I meant by exciting. That was categorized under annoying and ridiculous.

  Luke looked up at me as if he had heard my thoughts. “Someone came by the diner the other day looking for you and I sent him down to Ricky’s party. That seems exciting.”

  I laughed, pushing myself off my dresser and heading toward the door. “I am so not going there,” I tossed over my shoulder. “And neither are you.”

  * * * * * *

  "So, spill the beans," Cassandra said, putting her book down when I came to refill her coffee.

  "What beans?" I asked her, raising her eyebrows.

  "Iris said a really cute guy came in during lunch, flirted with you and then followed you out when you left," Cassandra said, slyly. "Who was he?"

  "Oh, no body," I said, waving it off.

  "Oh, McKinley, always a new boy in your life," Cassandra said, shaking her head. "As long as you don't keep Gabriel. I just do not like the feel of him. He has a saltine cracker personality." I stared at her, ignoring the frantic waving coming from the James Dean table. "You know, he is bland. He has literally no personality."

  "Right?" I said, loudly. Someone who finally got it. "God, I thought I was the only one who noticed!" I looked over at the man waving his arms at me. How could someone have so much energy at six-thirty in the morning? "Hold on." I went over to the man, took his order and then returned to Cassandra. "Gabriel is so boring!"

  "Yes, he is. You could do so much better," she said, scrawling a few lines in her poetry notebook. She looked up and her brown eyes widened. "Oh my god, is that Jake Kennedy?"

  I closed my eyes and counted to ten before opening them and turning around and shrieking loudly. Jake was standing right in front of me. "Jesus, Jake, must you stand so close? Its kind of creepy."

  "Sorry, I was excited to see you," he said, putting his hands in his pockets, that stupid confident smirk all over his face. He obviously had no qualms with stalking a girl at her work. What girl wouldn’t want Jake Kennedy randomly showing up like this?

  I heard Cassandra clear her throat behind me. I turned to her and saw her, staring at me pointedly, a small smile on her face.

  "Right," I said. "Jake, this is Cassandra Wu. Cass, this is Jake Kennedy."

  Cassandra scratched out the last few words she had written, her smile growing bigger. "I see that."

  "Nice to meet you," Jake said, reaching out to shake her hand. Cassandra stared at it for a moment before shaking it quickly.

  "You know, Jake, this is getting a little out of hand, don't you think?" I said, pushing past him and walking to the counter.

  "What do you mean?" he asked, right at my heels.

  I sighed. "Following me around? I mean, don't you have a job? Don't you have episodes to film?"

  I grabbed the hot plate with the waving-man's vegetable omelet and some silverware. I used my hip to open the swinging door between the dining room and back counter. I paused, right in front of his table. "Here you go, sir, one veggie omelet," I said, smiling, and setting it down in front of him. "Be careful, the plate is super hot. Anything else that I can do for you?"

  "More coffee?" he asked, barely glancing up from his newspaper. He reached out for his plate to pull it closer and quickly pulled back his fingers, blowing on them. I rolled my eyes and walked back to the counter, saying "Sure."

  "You know that's kind of why I'm here," Jake said, continuing the conversation as if it had never been interrupted. "My job, I mean. I wanted to show you something."

  "Really, Jake?" I asked, exasperated. "I can't just leave. This is my job. I'm the only wait staff here."

  "Go."

  I turned and saw Luke standing at the foot of the stairs, looking very bed ruffled.

  "What?"

  "Go ahead, go. I've got the rest of the morning,"

  "But Luke..." I protested. "Its morning rush and the delivery is this afternoon."

  "And I told you, I've got this handled. I've been working here since before you were born," Luke said, an amused look on his face. "Go."

  I looked between Luke's barely hidden amusement and Jake's barely concealed hope. I sighed again. "The man at James Dean needs more coffee." Luke's smile grew even wider. I made a face and took off my apron and tossed it aside. I looked at Jake. "I have to go upstairs and change." I started up the stairs and then paused. "And get me some coffee to go," I added, looking pointedly at Luke.

  About twenty minutes later, as we were heading up the 210 freeway, I turned to look at Jake, who had driven in silence, not even any music on the radio. "So where is it that we are going exactly?"

  "Can't tell you. Its a surprise," he said, changing lanes to jump into the carpool lane.

  "You know, I'm not a big surprise person," I remarked.

  "You don't like surprises," Jake asked, flatly. I was amused to find that he drove with two hands on the wheel, in the ten and two positions. I didn't think anyone drove like that except new drivers and old people.

  "No, I don't," I answered, snuggling into my seat, which, conveniently had a seat warmer. I was trying to ignore the lack of necessity of seat warmers in Southern California and just enjoy the warmth that was seeping through my legs and butt.

  "Are you insane?" Jake asked, laughing. "What kind of girl doesn't like surprises?"

  I laughed. "This one? And a hint, calling a girl insane is totally not the way to impress her."

  Jake laughed and smiled at me. Despite myself, I found myself smiling back.

  We continued driving on the 210 before switching to the 134 and taking an exit in Burbank. After taking a couple turns here and there, we veered off the main road and went around a couple super-winding turns before taking a sharp right onto a driveway. It went on for a couple hundred feet and then we were met by a guardhouse. Jake pulled up to the house and rolled down his window.

  A man came out and leaned over to peak into the window. Jake
had driven a car that was so low to the ground that I constantly feared for the underside. "You're late, Jake," the guard said. He was extremely tall, it had to have been hard for him to lean down so far, and on the thin side and he looked like the last person I'd want to be guarding anything.

  "I'm always late," he remarked, casually.

  The guard looked past him at me. He flipped his sunglasses up and stared at me. "Who is the girl?"

  "McKinley Evans meet Tom Barnes," Jake said.

  Tom stared at me for a moment before addressing Jake again. "She your new girl?"

  "No way," I blurted out. Jake raised his eyebrows at me, barely visible over his presumably expensive sunglasses.

  "Andrea is not going to like this..." Tom muttered under his breath.

  Jake looked pained for a moment before smoothing out his features and smiling again. “Can we go through?"

  Tom returned to his little guardhouse and the gate slid open. Jake pulled through.

  "Oh god," I said, reality finally sinking in. "We're not at...we can't be at..."

  Jake looked over at me. "Well, I've seen you at action at Luke's, I thought you should see me in action."

  "Jake, the entire world sees you in action every Thursday night."

  "This is completely different." He reached for his door handle. "Come on."

  I hesitated, my hand hovering over the door handle of my passenger door. It was so small that it just blended in with the rest of the door. This entire car baffled me. "Jake, what kind of car is this?"

  "Its a DBS Volante." I stared at him blankly. "An Aston-Martin?" I continued my blank stare. "It’s an extremely expensive car and you should be stoked that you got to ride in it. Just come on, okay?" I continued to hesitate. "What else are you going to do? Sit in my car until I am done." I glared at him. "Yeah, that's what I thought." This time he got out of the car and started walking away, his hands tucked casually in his pockets. I sighed before getting out, shutting the passenger door extremely carefully and jogging slightly to catch up with him.

  He led me to a huge building marked with an insignificant number four painted on the side. We walked past the building and up to a white and blue trailer. We climbed up the steps to a door that had Jake’s name written on it.

  "Come on in," Jake said, pushing the door open. "Um, McKinley?"

  I was stuck in place, staring at the door that was attached to the even larger trailer that was across from Jake's.

  Jake looked back and laughed at me, taking me by the elbow. "You'll meet Cam later, I promise. Come on." He pulled me into his dressing room. There was a huge couch in the corner, an even bigger flat screen TV with what looked like a Wii and a PlayStation 3. There was also a round dining room table, a bookshelf crammed with books, Blu-rays and video games, a salon chair in front of a mirror and a table in front of that. There was also a woman there, probably in her mid-thirties, sitting in the salon chair, reading Entertainment Weekly.

  "You are so late," she remarked, dryly, not looking up from her magazine.

  "Yeah, I know," Jake answered, taking off his jacket and tossing it aside. "Go ahead and sit where ever you'd like."

  The woman looked up from her magazine. "Who's the girl?"

  "Is anyone here capable of addressing me directly?" I asked to no one in particular.

  The woman stared at me and then smirked. "Andrea is not going to be happy."

  Jake sighed before he answered. "McKinley, this is my insufferable stylist-slash-cousin, Wendy Martin. Wendy, this is McKinley Evans."

  "Hi," I said.

  "Hello," Wendy said, a smile still on her face. "Come on, let’s get your uniform on, and get you on set. Please tell me you read the script."

  "Of course I did," Jake said, sounding insulted. "I'm interrogating someone over the disappearance of someone else. Its in the bag."

  I rolled my eyes. "Is he always so damn cocky?"

  Wendy laughed, applying powder to Jake's face. "Yes." Jake opened his mouth to protest and she cut him off. "You are. It must be all those girls following him like lost puppies." She looked at me, pointedly.

  "Hey, don't look at me," I said, probably sounding grumpy. "He is the one who kidnapped me from work and brought me here."

  Wendy raised her eyebrows but didn't comment. "Okay, Jake, you're done. Get out of here; they're filming scene six in ten minutes."

  Jake hopped off the stool. "Come on, McKinley." I got off the couch and followed him out the door, down a couple hallways and onto the set.

  "Whoa,” I said, stopping short. I had seen the set on TV a million times but to see it in person was a totally different view.

  “Yeah, its pretty cool,” Jake said, guiding me through a ton of people and over to a row of chairs. “You can sit right here, when I’m filming. No one will mind.”

  “Morning, Jake.”

  We turned around and I almost gasped in excitement.

  “Oh, hey Cam,” Jake said, smiling.

  Cam smiled and I felt my heart slam in my chest. The guy was old enough to be my father but he was sexy in a refined, old-fashioned way, not the metrosexual way of the recent times. He was the only celebrity I could get speechless in front of, except Ben Wright.

  “Who is this?” Cam asked, nodding in my direction.

  Despite my awe, I sighed impatiently. Someone eventually was going to address me directly, I was sure of it.

  “Cam, this is McKinley Evans. McKinley, you know who Cam is.”

  I smiled shyly and stuck out my hand. “Hi.”

  “Hi,” Cam said and I felt a slight thrill as Cam shook my hand. “You an extra?”

  “Oh, God no.” I laughed. “I’m here with Jake.”

  Cam looked at Jake, his eyebrow raised. His sexy eyebrow. “Does Andrea know about your new girlfriend?”

  “I am not his girlfriend,” I said, pointedly at the same time as Jake said, “No.”

  Cam looked at me. “Oh, man, Andrea is not going to be happy about you.” He took a sip from his bottled water and walked away, shaking his head.

  “Okay, what is the deal with your ex-girlfriend?” I asked Jake, sitting in the chair.

  Jake looked uncomfortable. “Nothing. Just sit here, okay?”

  I paused, wanting to push the issue further, but instead, I just nodded. “Okay.”

  Jake smiled. “Ready to watch a master at work?”

  “Sure,” I said, smirking. Someone called Jake’s name and he walked away to the set. One thing I had to admit, he looked really good from behind.

  Watching Jake and Cam film an interrogation scene with some unknown actress was really interesting at first. Then it got really boring. Then it became extremely painful.

  Jake was so dramatic, overly so, as if he had never acted a day in his life. His enunciation was over the top, his movements erratic and he was entirely too sure of himself, conveying absolutely no emotion. Next to Cam, he looked like a fool.

  The director announced a break and suddenly the set was a blur of movement. Jake came back over to me, taking a water bottle from someone on the way.

  “So,” Jake started to say but he was immediately interrupted by a voice saying,” hello Jake.”

  Jake and I both looked behind us. I immediately turned back around and rolled my eyes. Beside me, I felt Jake tense up. Don’t answer, don’t answer, don’t answer, I said silently to myself.

  “Hi Andrea,” he said and I sighed.

  “You were doing really great on the scene,” she said, taking a seat and crossing her extremely long legs.

  “Thank you,” Jake said. His face betrayed no emotion but his voice said it all; he still cared way too much. “Are you on next?”

  “Yeah, we’re doing scene nine, me and you,” she said, leaning forward, leaving a great view of her ample chest.

  Jake nodded but didn’t respond. He was too mesmerized. For someone who was so confident-too confident-when talking to me, he was acting pretty damn stupid with her. I cleared my throat, loudly, staring in the o
pposite direction of the two of them.

  I felt Andrea’s gaze move toward me and I was almost sure that she was glaring at me. “And what is this?”

  Inside, anger burned. I had a flaming temper but I had learned to control it over the years. A remark like that in high school would’ve earned a quick punch to the face. I merely yawned.

  Jake turned to me as if just remembering that I was there. I turned my gaze on him and flashed him a smile that I saved for when I wanted things to go my way. Jake bit his lip but inevitably smiled back.