A Little Less than Famous (2 page)

Jake Kennedy was
the most popular male actor, especially for pre-teen, teenage and young adult girls. He started on the show
Crime Scene
when he was 12
years old as Mike Jr., the son of Detective Mike Matlock (played by the ever so talented Cam Daniels), and slowly climbed the popularity charts, as he grew older and hotter. Now he was one of the main chara
cters on the show, dazzling wome
n-and some men-as newbie detective Mikey Matlock.
He was known more for his horrible acting skills, and his ability to seize every shirtless moment on television.
Amanda was absolutely obsessed with Jake and covered her walls with pictures of him, as if she was a thirteen-year-old ins
tead of being nearly twenty-two
.

"You know, it being a crappy show doesn't really stop you from watching with me every Thursday night," Amanda said, slyly.

"I do not watch for Jake Kennedy," I said, shortly.

"Oh yes," Amanda said, looking up from the magazine, a smile on her face. "You watch for Mr. Cam Daniels."

I shrugged. "Wh
at can I say? Cam Daniels is a very talented actor and
a fine looking man."

Now it was Amanda's turn to roll her eyes. "Let's just go okay?" She turned at the sound of the bells hitting the front door as it s
wung open. "Ah, perfect. Crystal
is here to take over for lunch shift and we can go to Disneyland finally!" She hopped
off
the stool, wiping off invisible dust off her denim shorts.

I smiled at Crystal
, as she pushed her way through the swinging
door
and stored her purse under the counter. I untied my apron and tossed in the bin labeled "to be washed". As usual, it was overflowing, which meant I'd most likely be up late, cleaning aprons and dishtowels so we'd have enough for the next day. I grabbed my purse
and my keys. "All right, Crystal
, I'm out of here. It's been a fairly slow morning but you know how lunch can get sometimes. Luke is upstairs, working on payroll though if you need him."

"Sounds good to me," Crystal
said, tying on her apron. She pulled her hair back, stick
ing a pencil in the bun. Crystal
was the only waitress besides me that Luke's Diner employed; she was just graduated from high school, with a toddler, and she was a hard worker. She was also one of my favorite people in the world. Even though she was young and had a kid, she didn’t let people judge her or take advantage of her. She wa
s gorgeous and extremely smart, except, she said, when it came to the options of birth control and boyfriends. However, she loved her daughter, Addy, and
Addy was adored by all.

"Text me if you need me," I called over my shoulder as Amanda and I walked out the front door.

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"I told you," I said, grumpily, my arms folded tight across my chest. "I told you that it was going to be busy."

"Do you always have to be so moody?" Amanda said, unaffected by my moodiness and merely checking her reflection in the window that ran along the side of the line we were waiting in.

"I'm just saying. An hour and
a half wait for Space Mountain is pretty ridiculous. Do you
realize that I can come any day in Ja
nuary and wait only 20 minutes?
This is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous."

"
Yeah, you said that already.
Why do you have to complain so much?"

"Because I hate long lines," I said.

"No, you just like to complain. And look, we're almost there," Amanda said, soothingly, pointing at the very few people in line in front of us.

"Thank god, finally," I said, feeling extremely pleased that I had finally made it to the front. I stepped up to the attendant. "Two, please."

He held his hand up to me. "We'll get you on in just a moment, ma'am." He waved over a couple of young guys from the exit to take the seats.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" I said, my temper flaring. "Why do they get to go first? We've been waiting for almost two hours now!"

"Ma'am, we'll get you on in just a moment," the attendant repeated, looking slightly nervous. I tended to get that vibe from some people sometimes. Even though I wa
sn’t very tall-maybe only about
five-foot
four-
and a redhead to boot, when my temper flared, I tended to scare people a little.

"I'm twenty-two
, not exactly old, so seriously, the 'ma'am' thing is a little unapp
reciated," I said. I pushed past
him and went up to the guys who were starting to sit down. "Excuse me, but those are our seats. We've been waiting a long time."

"Oh god, no, McKinley, they can have them," Amanda said, looking horrified. She pulled me back and whispered in my ear. "McKinley, that’s Jake Kennedy!" She smiled brilliantly. "You'll have to excuse my best friend; she's having a bad day."

I looked past Amanda and saw that one of the boys was indeed Jake Kennedy. The first thing I noticed was that longish black hair and the second thing I noticed were those blue eyes that stared at girls from big screens all over the country. I flushed a little at the sight of him but my temper flared up a bit more. I hated w
hen people received
special treatment.

"You know, I don't really care who he is," I said, sharply. "He's famous so he can just cut people in line? That's bullshit."

Amanda was tugging at my arm while still trying to smile prettily and appear cute. "McKinley, please..."

"Ma'am...miss," the attendant amended quickly, "I'm going to have to ask you to
leave." He grabbed my arm-
g
ently, of course-
and pushed me in the direction of the exit.

"You know what? Fine. Fine!" I said, throwing my hands up in the air. I turned on my heel and walked out, through the exit doors and back into the sun. I sat on a bench, taking deep breaths.

"Oh my god, McKinley, I can't take you anywhere," Amanda said, coming out after me. "That was Jake Kennedy! Jake. Kennedy. The boy of my dreams!"
She looked alternately angry and excited all at the same time.

"You know, I really don't care, Amanda," I said, rolling my eyes. "And you don't even know him."

"You probably totally just ruined my chances with the most amazing boy ever," Amanda said, sitting next to me.

I started to laugh but stopped myself just in time and merely snorted. Even at twent
y-one
, Amanda was completely convinced that she was going to marry Jake Kennedy and that they'd be perfect for each other. As much as I wanted to laugh, she was serious and she was my best friend. Suddenly, we were cast in shadow.

"Hey."

We both looked up and I nearly jumped in surprise. Beside me, I heard Amanda gasp happily. "Oh, hi," I said, shortly. I felt Amanda sit up straighter next to me. Jake Kennedy was standing in front of us, talking to us.

"Sorry about everything in there," he said. "I'm Jake, by the way." He stuck out his hand.

I stared at it for a moment and then up at him. "Yeah, I know. I'm not stupid."

Amanda scowled at me and then turned back to Jake. "Hi Jake, I'm Amanda James; this is my best friend, McKinley Evans."

Jake smiled down at us, perfect white teeth against his tan skin. His arm fell carelessly back down to his side, as if
he hadn’t noticed that I had completely ignored his attempt at a handshake
. "Look, I feel really bad about cutting in front of you in line. We were wondering..."

"We?" I asked.

"Oh, sorry, this is my best friend, Justi
n Wright," Jake said. He indicated
to the boy next to him, a tall, blonde guy who looked
highly
amused, a smirk barely playing at the corner of his full mouth. "His dad is..."

"Ben Wright. Yeah, I know," I interrupted.

Jake looked at me, puzzled. "You know Ben Wright?"

"McKinley loves ja
zz," Amanda spoke up. For a brief moment,
I was incredibly impressed that Amanda remembered anything to do with jazz, like Ben Wright.

Jake was still looking at me strangely until Justin nudged him. "Well, anyway, we were wondering if you girls wanted to join us.
We have special passes so there are no wait times.”

Amanda looked like a five-year-old who had been told that Christmas had come early. Right as she was poised to answer, I burst out laughing. "You aren't serious, are you?"

Jake and Justin exchanged looks. "Well, yeah. W
e'd love if you joined us," Justin
said, slowly.

I paused, biting my lip to keep from smiling. "Um, no, we're okay."

A look of surprise passed across Jake's face and I almost started laughing again. The poor guy had probably never heard the word
no
before.

"McKinley," Amanda hissed under her breath.

I took her arm in mine. "We should be going. It was
so
nice meeting you." I flashed a smile and started walking away. Amanda pulled away from me and started scribbling something on a
wrinkled
receipt she'd pulled from her pocket. She walked back up to Jake, with all the confidence in the w
orld, and placed it in his palm
.

"I'm Amanda, you should call me sometime," Amanda said, her hand placed on her curvy hip. She stood almost as tall as Jake, who looked to be at least six feet tall, but being tall wasn't exactly a setback for Amanda. She took her tall stature in stride, though it help
ed that she was blonde and blue-
eyed, and tan from the insane amount of running she did. She had been the captain of the cross country and track team in high school. "It was nice meeting you guys."

"It was nice meeting you, Amanda," Jake said, smiling. He looked around her at me and his smile grew wider. "Nice meeting you too, McKinley."

I smiled sarcastically at him and, grabbing Amanda's arm, started walking away. When we were enough distance away, I scowled at Amanda. "You are completely unbelievable, you know that?"

"Me?" Amanda said, moodily. "Why do you always have to do that?"

"Interrupt your flirt session with a celebrity? I didn't realize that I'd interrupted your fli
rt sessions with Christian Bale
or anything," I said, stopping to look at the wait time for Star Tours
. I decided that it was not too long and
walked into the line.

"Oh come on, McKinley, don't be such a jerk, we totally could've hung out with those two today. I mean, aren't you obsessed with Ben Wright? Dating his son would be pretty awesome, wouldn't it?" Amanda said, slyly.

I scoffed at this. "Okay, seriously, Amanda, this Jake Kennedy obsession is pretty ridiculous. Guys like that don't date girls like us," I pointed out.

Amanda frowned. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Come on, Jake Kennedy isn’t going to start dating some girl who works at the Macy’s make-up counter and has a mother who is in jail.”

Amanda’s mouth became a thin line. “It could happen.”

I immediately felt bad. “You’re right. It could happen.”

My mom had left me behind at five years old and from then on, finding friends wasn't exactly easy. People just really didn't understand much why I was living with someone who wasn't related to me in any shape or form. Then I met Amanda, in 5th grade. She had just moved to Brea from Fresno and snapped at anyone who came her way. She wanted to be alone all the time but looked incredibly lonely. I found out through the grapevine that her mom had gone to jail, for some unknown crime, and she was shuttled to her aunt's house to live. She, like me, was abandoned.