A Little Less than Famous (4 page)

The boy looked side to side before pulling his hood off. My mouth fell open slightly in surprise. I recovered myself quickly and f
ixed a bored looked on my face, refusing to play into this.

"Well, if it isn't Jake Kennedy," I said, flatly.

"Can you maybe not talk so loud
ly
?" Jake asked, ne
rvously, glancing over at Iris, who was one of the only people in the diner.

"
Sorry," I said, picking up my iP
hone and browsing through Amazon again. "Are you looking for Amanda?"

Jake stared at me for a moment and then smiled
brilliantly, white even teeth. Nobody had teeth like that.
"Actually, I came here looking for you."

I raised my eyebrow at him. "Really now? Why?"

"No special reason," Jake said, taking a sip of his coffee.

I stared at him for a moment. "How exactly did you find me anyway?"

"Your shirt," he answered, picking up the menu and flipping through it. "You were wearing your Luke's Diner shirt and I looked it up online. Who's Luke?"

"The owner," I said, quickly. "You
know, that kind of behavior could be classified under the behaviors of a stalker, I don’t know if you know that
."

Jake shrugged and continued looking at the menu.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I suppose
d
when you were a celebrity, what you did didn't matter as long as you got what you wanted. "Are you going to order any food or what?"

Jake looked up, surprised, most likely at my tone.
"You really intrigue me, you know that?"

I burst out laughing and saw Iris look over at us.
Was this really a pick up line?
"
You intrigue me
?" I asked, giggling. "Really, Jake? You couldn't come up with anything better?"

Jake didn't look too fazed at my laugh; instead, he
continued to just stare at me, that blue-eyed stare that captured the hearts of millions of viewers every Thursday night.
"What are you doing after this?"

"Are you asking me out?" I asked, the smile on my face getting bigger.

"Yes," Jake said, honestly. I took this moment to study him. Of course I had seen him all over TV and magazines and that horrible Robin Hood movie he had done last summer. But outside of that, sitting at the counter of Luke's
Diner, he looked so different and n
ormal.
He could be any other guy in the world, sitting in my diner, in a hoodie and jeans.

"I'm flattered, Jake, really. But no thank you," I said.

"Wait. Really?" Jake looked confused.
This was definitely not the answer he had been expecting.

I almost burst out laughing again. "Yes, really." I looked o
ver his shoulder and saw Crystal
coming in. "And on that note, I must be going." I turned around, took off my apron and grabbed my backpack from underneath the counter.

"Wait, where are you going?" Jake asked, alarmed, standing up.

"I have to go to school," I said, slowly. "I don't make thousands of dollars an episode. I have to go to school so I don't end up as a welcome girl at Wal-Mart.
" I stepped aside to let Crystal behind the counter. "Hey Crys
."

"Hey McKinley," she
said, slowly,
looking curiously at Jake. "Hey,
aren't you..."

"No, I'm not," Jake interrupted her. "McKinley..."

"Okay!" I said. "I'm going to school now." I hurried past both of them and out to my car. I drove out of the parking lot before anyone, especially Jake Kennedy, could follow.

Getting to school was a relief. I had one three-hour history class to lose myself in. I slid into a seat near the front and pulled my notebook out of my backpack. I zoned out, waiting for class to start until I noticed someone come in to talk to my professor, engaging him in an enthusiastic conversation. "Oh you've got to be k
idding me,
"
I muttered, under my breath.
I jumped out of my seat and nearly sprinted to the front.

My professor, a man of about fif
ty, who
had
seemed pretentious from the very first day of class, was smiling, something
that I had yet to see him do
. "Well, I'd be happy to let you join the class today. I didn't know you were so interested in history."

Jake flashed that million-dollar smile. "I love history, sir. And my friend here said it was a great class."

The two of them turned to look at me and I placed a fake smile on my face.
I was good at these; I could put that smile on my face in seconds flat and no one knew it wasn’t real.

"Well, thank you, miss...
”
the professor said, glancing down at the roster sheet.

"Evans," I supplied. "McKinley Evans."

The
professor glanced down at the roster and then back
up at us. "Well, you two better get to your seats."

I spun around and stormed back to my seat, Jake close at my heels, reminding me of the way a puppy follows its owner. "What the hell are you doing here?" I hissed under my breath, aware that several people were staring in our direction.

"Well, you took off so quickly,"
Jake
whispered back.

"You're following me!" I accused him. "Aren't you?"

"Is it obvious?" Jake asked, his eyebrow raised.

"Why?" I asked, my eyes on the notes being written on the board. "It’s kind of creeping me out."

"You know, most girls would be really happy right now if they were you."

"
Okay,
I am
not
most girls," I stated, quickly, disgusted at his arrogance.

"Miss Evans. Mr. Kennedy, can we keep it down please?"
Of course my professor knew who Jake Kennedy was, even though I’m sure his viewing tastes leaned more toward CNN and less towards crime soaps like
Crime Scene.

I turned away from Jake and ignored him the rest of class, just taking notes. Every once in awhile I could see Jake trying to get my attention but I kept my eyes on the lecture notes. As soon as we were dismissed, I threw my notebook back in my backpack and started heading to the door.

"McKinley, hold on, wait up."

I was filled with a feeling...not fear, but anxiety. I had an automatic distrust of people and I felt a certain amount of unease at the fact that Jake Kennedy was following me. One, I'd never had any guy actually follow me and two, why on earth was the famous guy who could have any girl in the world following me?
Did he really have nothing better to do?

I turned around to face him. "You need to leave me alone, seriously,
Jake.
Y
ou
follow
ing me is kind of weird, even if the slightest bit flattering, and
," I paused and most of my anger disappeared. "Amanda really likes you. I know that she doesn't really know you..."

"Exactly," Jake cut in. "Amanda knows absolutely nothing about me so ho
w is it that she’s so convinced that the two of us will make a good couple
?"

"And me?" I asked. "How am I any different?"

"Because you don't fawn over me like every other girl...like Amanda," Jake explained. "And it only m
akes me want to get to know you more.
"

I opened my mouth to respond and then shut it, frowning.
I was saved from having to respond by a girl walking up to us.
Thinking that she needed to get past us-we were blocking the door fairly well-I stepped aside. She ignored me and looked right at Jake.

"Um, hi. Are you Jake Kennedy?" she asked, breathlessly.

"No, I'm..."

"Yeah, he is," I interrupted. I looked over her shoulder back into the classroom. "Hey guys, its Jake Kennedy."

A few girls actually shrieked and suddenly Jake was surrounded by a bunch of people, mostly girls but a few boys as well. I allowed myself a small victory smile before slipping away.

*
             
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*

"McKinley."

I looked up from my homework. "Hi, Luke."

Luke came over and sat on my bed. He had c
hanged so little in the seventeen
years I had lived with him. He had the same dark brown hair; so da
rk it was almost black, and blue-gray
eyes. He still had a small mole under his left eye and he was still pretty fit from lifting all the heavy boxes on delivery days because he trusted no one else to do it. The only thing I noticed was that he
was
older; his hair was thinning slightly and he had small wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.

He picked up the book sitting on my nightstand and flipped through it before looking at me. "Your grandma emailed me again today, said you haven't responded to any of her emails."

I made a face but didn't answer.

"She's your only family, McKinley."

"You're my family," I mumbled.

He smiled, patting my knee. "Thank you. But you know what I mean. She's your only actual family that we know of."

I sighed. "I know. I get that. It
’
s
just...where was she twenty-two
years ago?"

Luke ran a hand through his hair and sat back. "Be fair, McKinley. She didn't know your name
,
for one thing. She didn't even know if you were a boy or a girl. She thought you were still with your mother and she definitely had no idea who I was. She was just looking for a ch
ild about your age, born to Corinna
E
vans, in around November of 1990
. That's really not a lot to
go on, especially since Corinna has been gone since '95
."

"And probably changed her name," I said, looking up at him, as if waiting for him to contradict me. I knew that Luke and Uncle had looked for my mom for years, not because they hated having me around, but because they felt that they could at least say they tried. No sign of her ever showed up. She had never had any bank accounts, not trusting people with the little money she ever had and no matter what they tried, she just seemed to not even exist.

"Exactly. So give her a break, McKinley. She just wants to get to know you. And she's on the other side of the country, in North Carolina for heaven's sake. Its not like she's asking you to go to her knitting club with her every Thursday afternoon. It’s just writing an email. She's your grandmother."

"All right, all right. I'll email her," I said, resigned.

"Now?"

"No," I answered. Luke raised his eyebrows at me. "By the end of the weekend, I promise."

"Are you ready to go?" Amanda said, suddenly peeking into my room.

"Yeah, let's do this," I said, picking up my phone from the bedside table and slipping into my back pocket.
I kissed Luke on the top of his
head. "I'll be back later tonight."