A Little Less than Famous (12 page)

Before I could react, she had snatched my phone out of my lap. She stared at it for a moment and then threw it at me. I ducked just in time and my phone went straight into the wall, and broke into several pieces.

“Jesus, Am
anda,” I said, standing up. “Are you
going to pay for completely destroying my phone?”

I felt my temper flare up and Amanda kept her scary calm. “You are such a bitch, McKinley.”

“Me, a bitch?” I said, bending over to pick up the larger pieces of my phone. “You destroyed my phone! God! I’m sorry about Jake. He kissed me, okay, and I pushed him away.”

Amanda stared at me, her arms crossed, her blue eyes blazing. Amanda knew me super well; only Luke knew me any better. She was testing me but I knew I was a good liar, I’d always been. “And that was the only time you guys kissed?”

“Yes,” I lied, looking at her straight in the eye.

“Don’t lie to me, McKinley.”

I stared at her a moment longer, her still wet eyes staring back at me. “Okay, I did. I did and I’m sorry, Amanda. It was really stupid of me and I don’t even know why I did it.”

“Oh come
on
, McKinley,” she replied, harshly. “It’s Jake
freakin’
Kennedy.”

“Exactly,” I said, taking a step towards her. “I don’t want to date a guy who is famous. I don’t want that kind of attention and I
definitely
do not want to be on magazine covers.”

“Wow, McKinley, must be nice to be so selfish,” Amanda said, frowning. “You knew how I felt about him, you knew this would hurt me! How could you take Jake Kennedy away from me when I have liked him for years?”

I didn’t know why but it suddenly hit me: Amanda was still stuck in her teenage fantasy. I’d put up with the immaturity for years, had waved it off as cute or adorable but now I was just angry. “Are you kidding me, Amanda? Are you seriously kidding with me right now? You don’t even know him so how can you be in love with him? You’re in love with his
character on his stupid show, God, Amanda, or maybe even the more ridiculous characters he plays in his stupid movies.
When are you going to realize that you’re living in a fantasy? When are you going to realize how stupid you’re being? When are you going to grow up?
I mean, you can’t stand that he chose
me
over
you.
”

For a moment, Amanda’s expression betrayed shock before she replaced it quickly by her mask of calm. “Screw you, McKinley,” she said, her voice remaining steady but tears forming quickly in the corners of her eyes. “Just…screw you.”

“See, reacting like a child all over again,” I pointed out. “You can’t even come up with a viable argument!”

“Shut up, shut up,
shut
up!” Amanda screamed. “God, McKinley, you are so damn selfish. You are always so quick to point the faults of everyone else but you can never see them in yourself. People love you and you can’t even show it back. You know, it’s always about you and I’m just sitting in the background, always second best. And who cares if I don’t even know him? You want him and you got him, and you don’t care about stepping on me in the process. And you want to know the sad part? In a month, you’ll be sick of him, dump and you’ll be left without a boyfriend or a best friend.”

I felt sick to my stomach. “Amanda…”

“Don’t bother,” she cut me off. Before I could say anything else, she turned and ran out of the room, downstairs. I wanted to run after her but I knew that would not be wise to cause trouble in the diner. Instead, I sunk down on the couch and sighed, frustrated.

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The first thing I did after Amanda went sprinting out of Luke’s was go upstairs and pick up the pieces of my phone and to toss the magazine into the trash. I wished I could call Jake
, to tell him off or ask him over, I wasn’t sure. Unfortunately,
I didn’t know his number; it had been saved in my now destroyed phone.

I stayed upstairs for hours, watching trashy TV until Luke had closed the diner and
had come
upstairs.

“Wanna tell me what happened?” Luke said, tucking his hands in his pockets. “Amanda left in a hurry.”

“Apparently I’m the worst best friend ever,” I said, not taking my eyes off the TV.

“What did you do?” Luke said, his voice lacking any tone of judgment or blame.

I sighed. “I told her the truth.”

Luke didn’t say anything for a while and I wondered if he wanted me to continue. I was about to tell him that I didn’t want to talk when he spoke again. “Well, anyway, there is someone here to see you.” He stepped aside to reveal Jake standing in the doorway. My right hand immediately went to my hair, which I was sure was sticking up in a few directions, while my left hand grabbed a pillow to cover my loose tank top and cut-off shorts.

“Hi,” I managed to say.

“Hi,” Jake said back, looking around the apartment. I was suddenly embarrassed of the apartment and the random things Luke had collected over the years, like the green lava lamp or the Darth Vader helmet or the gigantic medieval sword hanging over the TV.
Despite the fact that I had lived there for nearly seventeen years and I had some sort of pride when it came to style, the upstairs apartment remained very much a bachelor pad.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, very aware that Luke was a witness to this conversation and seemed very amused about it.

“You weren’t answering my calls.”

I felt a sort of satisfaction that he had been calling. “Amanda smashed my phone,” I said, in a matter of a fact tone.

“That makes sense then.”

Luke looked back and forth between us and rolled his eyes. “Well then, I’m going into my room now.” He winked at me and then disappeared into his room.
A few minutes later, after opening and closing some drawers, the sound of SportsCenter reached my ears and I knew that he could no longer hear us
.

“You didn’t have to come over,” I said, tucking my bare feet underneath me.

“I was worried, m
ostly that you were mad at me,” he said, coming over to sit next to me on the couch. “I take it that Amanda did not take the magazine cover well.”

I sighed again. “You could say that.
‘
I stole the lo
ve of her life, I betrayed her.’
And I told her she needed to grow up and realize she was acting like a little girl.”

Jake winced. “You were just telling the truth, McKinley. It’s not your fault that she took it so badly.”

“Yeah, she is my best friend, though.”

“I’m worth it,” he said, breezily.

I stared at him, amazed at how sure and uncaring he sounded. “Seriously, Jake?”

“I’m kidding,” he said, quickly. He went on.
“Amanda will get over it, you know once she sees awesome we are together,” Jake said, humor in his voice. I rolled my eyes and started flipping through the channels. “Seriously, though, I came to take you out tonight.”

“Jake, I don’t really feel like going out tonight,” I said. This was partly a lie. I was glad that he had come to see me. I just did not want to go out. I did not want
to risk being caught on camera again.

“I think you’ll want to,” he said. He reached into his jacket and then placed something on the table. I let it sit there for a moment before my curiosity got the best of me. I leaned forward and then looked back at Jake, my eyes wide. He raised his eyebrows.

“Ticket
s to see Ben Wright?” I said, trying to keep my voice level
. I felt my heart slam in my chest. I had never seen Ben Wright in person; he was a jazz legend and getting tickets to his shows was nearly impossible. “How did you get these?”

Jake smirked.
“Well, I am kind of his son’s best friend
.” He reached forward, reaching for the tickets. “But if you want to stay in…”

I snatched the tickets before he even had a chance to grab it. “No, no, I want to go.”

“I had a feeling you might,” Jake said, smiling at me, leaning forwards toward me.

I placed my palms on his chest. “Let me get ready first.” I stood up and walked past him, running my hand gently over his head, feeling how soft his hair was.
What the hell did this guy use in his hair?

When I returned from my room, fifteen minutes later, I had shed my relaxing clothes and changed into a red blouse, black jeans, a leather jacket and black boots. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“You look great,” he said, his voice full of meaning.

I smiled at him. “Thank you.”

We walked out to the parking lot and I made a face. “Did you have to bring the Volante?” I had looked up Jake’s car after riding in it the first time. It
was an Aston-Martin, brand new and
worth almost three hundred thousand dollars. Apparently it could get up to 190 miles pe
r hour, had legit leather seats
that heated up for those cold days, full navigation and computer control, plus a ton of other things that I didn’t even understand.

Jake looked alarmed. “Why, don’t you like it?”

I paused, trying to word it carefully.
“I mean, sure. If you like being completely ostentatious.”

“Well, I
am
Jake Kennedy.”

I groaned. “My Go
d. You’d think you’d
want
to buy a more inconspicuous car. Privacy and all.”

“Well
then
,
let
’s take your car
,” Jake said, walking towards my car.

“My…
car…,”
I said, looking over at it. It was a Honda Civic, only a few years old and completely financed and paid for by myself. I loved my car. It was reliable, good on gas and all mine. Next to Jake’s ridiculously expensive car,
however,
it looked terrible. “Um, no, we can just take your car.”

When we reached the club, we bypassed the huge line wrapping around the building and were taken straight to the table right in the front of the stage. Justin Wright was already sitting there with a girl who loo
ked familiar, though I couldn’t quite
place her face.

“Justin, hey. You remember McKinley, right?”

Justin flashed a smile at me, a smile that was like his amazing father’s. “Yeah, sure. The girl who got pissed at us when we took her spot in line.”

I
brushed him off, feeling slightly embarrassed.
Me and my damn temper.
It always got the best of me.

“Leave her alone, Justin,” Jake laughed, pulling out a chair for me. “You don’t want that temper to come out again.”

“She knows I’m kidding,” Justin said, winking at me. “McKinley, this is Catie.”

I waved to her, smiling. Now
I knew exactly
who she was: Catie Carmichael, t
he lingerie model. She must have been Justin’s new arm candy. There was no way she
was
actually here for Ben Wright, who was not popular with the younger crowd.

Sure enough, Catie turned to Justin, her eyes wide. “Are we still going to that party after this? Jessica is going to be there and I promised her we would go there.”

“Yeah, sure, babe,” Justin said, vaguely.
He turned to Jake and I
. “So are you two together now or what?”