Documentary

by Sand, A. J.

  “I knew you’d like that offer. Do your job, and get to the bottom of the fight and we have a deal.” Nina extended her hand, smiling more than she had since Dylan first walked into the office. “I’m really counting on you.”

  Dylan took Nina’s hand and shook firmly. She told herself she had no more incentive to figure out things with Kai; it was quite the opposite, actually. But why didn’t it feel as amazing as it really seemed?

  How to Deal - Chapter 8

  She was still thinking about the meeting with Nina when Winslow, with Kate, drove her to SFO, but her thoughts faded when Winslow’s hand moved to the temperature dials to increase the heat blowing out of the vents. It was significantly cooler than it had been in days past. Dylan shivered and found comfort in the thought that this would be her last time wearing sweaters and scarves and jeans for a while—really just a week but it was enough. The temperature high would stay around the eighty-degree mark on Maui.

  “Right, Dyl?”

  “What?” Dylan, confused, looked over her shoulder at Kate in the backseat. “What’s right?”

  “I was telling Low that there’s no way you haven’t looked up who Erica is. I found her pretty easily.” Kate gave an enticing wave of her cell phone. Dylan twisted her whole body at the mention of Erica. No, she had not been avoiding finding out who she was. She just hadn’t had the time. Yeah, that’s what it was.

  “What did you find out?” Dylan knew her voice didn’t come out nearly as casually as she wanted. She had rushed through the question, and she knew her friends knew.

  Winslow giggled and flicked her eyes up at Kate to give her an arrogant smile. “Told you Dee was too afraid to find out on her own that she’d hooked up with someone’s boyfriend.”

  “He doesn’t have a girlfriend,” Dylan said, getting defensive but remaining unsure. She slumped down in her seat and redirected her gaze out the window. Of course the theory was bothering her. Kai had punched a wall in sometime after going to meet with Erica. It was possible that they were “in between” a break up and a rekindling of their relationship. Or that cosmic fuckery thing Kate was talking about. Then he shouldn’t have kissed me like that before he left. Dylan gulped down. None of the internal discussion was doing anything other than tightening her throat.

  “Well, dish!” Winslow urged with sudden impatience at Kate. Dylan started to protest, but her interest in the topic won out. She angled herself toward the center of the car again.

  Kate kicked the back of Winslow’s seat. “Here’s a really good article from a really prominent music industry magazine, Razorwire, from earlier this year. Nina Sanchez, of Kai White, LLP, confirmed today that publicist Erica Evigan would no longer be representing the singer. Sanchez stated that it was Evigan’s decision, and that it came about voluntarily. The departure seems abrupt considering that just last fall Evigan attended the Saint Louis Preserve The Arts awards gala with White, where she talked enthusiastically to the media about White’s solo debut effort which was released this past spring. ‘This isn’t some regurgitation of music from his old group; this is blues, it’s rock, it’s soul. This is the album you’ll play at your wedding, on your road trips, during those romantic dinners, and the songs that get stuck in your head, because he’s gunning for every sadness and happiness you’ve felt. Someday it’s going to be a classic.’ She also spoke to us about her recent engagement to music manager, Bryson Ellis. ‘Can you imagine? Music at work. Music at home. Might be a lot for some. Lucky I love it so much!’”

  Dylan tried not to react physically in the presence of her friends, but she was even more confused now. Erica was engaged earlier in the year, which meant that she should’ve been married now or still engaged. Had they called it off? It had been in the early morning hours when Leko interrupted them in L.A., so why was she calling Kai? If she was in trouble, why hadn’t she phoned this Bryson Ellis? Did she need protection from the guy? Was it something she couldn’t talk to him about? Was he out of town? Was he deceased? Were she and Kai having an affair? Was she the one Nina was referring to, the woman who had thrown her career away over a guy? Dylan sighed and ran her fingers down the length of her forehead. Her head was spinning, and she was fixating on too many things she would never get answers to.

  “‘While Erica’s decision saddens me, she is a close friend of mine, and I wish her nothing but the best in her future professional endeavors,’ White said in a statement posted on his website. Industry sources, however, are hinting that the singer was blindsided by Evigan’s resignation and that the company is negotiating behind the scenes to keep her with them.

  “Evigan, a former model known mostly from the popular clothing campaign for trendy online retailer LimaFive, famously moved through the modeling world, booking major campaigns, as her own agent while completing an associate degree in public relations at West Los Angeles College. She also ran a popular lifestyle blog before joining Kai White’s eponymous company last summer.”

  Kate put the phone in her lap and lightly scratched the top of Dylan’s head. “So, they’re just old friends.” She said it like she planned to make all the effort required to protect Dylan’s feelings. She passed her the phone and Dylan gasped at the picture of Erica that accompanied the article, in which she was sandwiched in between Jeremy and Kai. Of course, she was beautiful. Erica had waves of long auburn hair and dark eyes, and she photographed to perfection. Modeling absolutely made sense. She passed the phone back to Kate silently as jealousy pulsed through her.

  “Yeah, see?” Winslow squeezed Dylan’s forearm, and the look on her face indicated that it was part apology for her earlier statement, and part reassurance, too. “You did nothing. His friend was in trouble and he went to help her out. I’m sure that’s all it was.” Winslow sounded unsure though.

  Both her friends gave her expectant glances; they wanted to know what she thought. Dylan expelled an insincere breath of relief that was meant to appease them, and remained silent the rest of the way to the airport. She had seen the look on Kai’s face and heard his voice on the phone. There was more going on here. She knew her friends well enough to know they suspected it too. They were just doing their duty.

  She got teary-eyed when they pulled up to the curb at SFO, and they hugged until the airport police ordered Winslow to move her car. She blew them one last kiss before scampering to the curbside check-in with her belongings. After she trudged through the security line, she passed an ad for Hawaiian Airlines, inviting passengers to experience paradise this winter. She frowned and looked away. She doubted it. Her trip was apparently about to be hell instead.

  Leko was waiting in a black Cadillac Escalade at the curb right outside baggage claim, with a rap song blaring like a homing beacon, when she walked out of Kahului airport. He rounded the car and lifted her into a tight hug that immediately made her feel comfortable and less anxious about being away from everyone she knew. Leko planted a warm kiss on her cheek.

  “Hi!” The absence of Kai mollified her excitement. She had held a little hope that he would be there too, but he wasn’t.

  “Oh shit! My girl, Dylan, is finally here!” Leko announced with infectious enthusiasm to the passing travelers. “It’s so good to see you, baby girl.” He hugged her again before he started tossing her bags in the back. Leko raised his eyebrows at the three rolling suitcases, two totes and one duffel bag.

  “I’m a stereotype, I know,” Dylan said with a sheepish laugh when she climbed into the passenger seat. It was a balmy afternoon in Kahului, and she rejoiced over her decision to change into denim shorts and a pink tank top in the airport lavatory.

  As they coasted along curvy two-lane roads, Dylan absorbed as much scenery as she could, taking in the low-rise commercial buildings, the lush green mountains, and the hazy volcanoes in the distance, which seemed to kiss the tufts of bulbous clouds above. Grassy highlands rose on the left, and jagged cliff sides, slightly more sparse of grass, dipped down to the gray–blue ocean on the right, beyond the guardrail. The
landscape shifted quickly as they drove farther inland, and they plunged into a valley of rocky cliff edges, and passed dusty hills before the land flattened into farms and fields with green so bright they looked like they would glow at night.

  “You’re coming to the deejay battle tonight, right? It’s for charity and it’s Kai’s ‘going on tour’ party,” Leko said. “Should be fun!” The deep grin pulling across his face said she’d be crazy to decline, so she nodded. And she was trying to be less averse to parties again, especially because she was going on tour with a musician. Dylan released a heavy breath. This would be a whirlwind for the next few weeks, and she needed to get used to it.

  The area transitioned to a small town and suddenly people were milling about in stores and shops and outside their homes. “I’m supposed to give you this.” Without looking away from the road, Leko reached into the center console and pulled out an envelope with her name on it. Inside was a ticket to the deejay battle with a note from Nina. “Your name will be on the list for the party. Here’s an extra ticket for you to bring someone.” Dylan nodded, reading between the lines. “Someone who isn’t Kai.”

  “Welcome to your new home,” Leko announced happily when they pulled up in front of a cottage a few minutes later in Lahaina. Dylan got out of the car, in awe, and waited for someone to tell her that it was a joke. She hadn’t done more than skim over Nina’s final email about housing so she had really come in blind. The weekly rent cost was affordable and it was “steps from the beach,” and that had been enough. It had a light brown wood panel exterior, and it was nestled within vast and untouched tropical foliage. It was perched on a soft-sloped mountain near an unpaved, sinuous trail leading down to the sand.

  “Are Jamie and Odette here?” she asked of her new roommates. She was anxious to meet them. Dylan picked up her duffel and totes, still staring at the house in amazement, as she followed Leko to the front door. “You know them, right? Are they cool girls?”

  “I don’t think they’re here. And, yeah, they’re really cool, actually. I’ve known Jamie a long time.” Leko dropped the keys in her hands so that she could do the honors. Her new roommates weren’t home after all, but they had been kind enough to leave her a welcome basket brimming with fruits and candy. Leko took her on a short tour of the place. It was completely wood-paneled on the inside, too, with bright floral décor and large rectangular windows in every room. The living room had sliding glass doors, which opened to a deck that panned across the entire width of the back of the house. She would have an unobstructed view of the sun melting into the ocean every evening. When she walked outside to the deck, she got a friendly greeting from the couple staying next door.

  “Shit…Dylan, I forgot to bring the camera and laptop. I gotta go get them.” Leko was standing behind her, bracing his elbows against the sides of the entryway. “Sorry, it’s been a busy day.”

  “Actually, can I come with? What else am I going to do here by myself? Unpack?” Dylan did a swift raise and drop of her shoulders.

  “That’ll definitely take all day,” he joked. He walked out, hooked his arm around her neck and they descended the deck stairs. Once in the Escalade, they drove close to half an hour before he pulled into a parking lot. She trailed him into a building, where he waved at a secretary and continued down some steps into a basement. Leko placed his finger to his lips before he pulled a heavy door open to the control room of a recording studio. Dylan had never been in one before. Two producers sat at a mixing console, which seemed to have hundreds of dials and buttons, bobbing their heads to music playing in their headphones from the other side of the large plate of glass that separated them from the vocal booth.

  Dylan and Leko took a seat behind them next to a girl who was flipping through a magazine. Dylan’s heart slammed into the back wall of her chest cavity and she held her breath. Kai was in the recording booth, and he washed completely white, struggling through the lyrics when he saw her. He looked incredibly sexy, oozing in natural confidence, especially as his lips slipped into a light smile. Dylan snatched up one of the girl’s magazines in a veiled effort not to smile back. She hated that she reacted to him so easily. She was pissed off. She felt entitled to an explanation about why he had ignored her for so long. No smiles until then.

  One of the producers spoke into a microphone. “You changed that part. It was supposed to be ‘forgotten all the ways you touch/ the way you used to kiss.’”

  “Shit.” After Kai took off the headphones, he stepped out of the booth. “My time’s about up, anyway, dude.” Kai pulled Dylan into a hug when he reached her. She tried to numb herself against the warmth of his body and the way being in his arms felt, but still she pressed her face in his chest until they stepped apart. As much as she wanted to take a cynical view of him, it was likely impossible. “Glad you finally made it.”

  Oh, now we’re so fucking friendly? “Thanks. Good to see you again.” She fidgeted as his gaze hovered around her a little longer before he shook hands with Leko, who took the opportunity to jab him in the stomach.

  Leko cackled when Kai gasped and staggered back from the unexpected blow. “Payback, bitch!”

  “You fucker!” Kai said, laughing as they slapboxed each other for a few minutes, until Leko put him in a headlock. Dylan stepped out of the way of the flailing arms, but she liked seeing Kai in a way she imagined few people did.

  After Kai officially concluded his session, Leko grabbed the equipment she needed, and the three of them walked out to the car. She slid into the backseat, right behind Kai in the passenger seat, hearing Nina’s words of warning clanging over and over in her head. But her good memories from L.A. were far more relentless. The way they had talked and laughed. The feel of his hands. The taste of his mouth. She re-imagined it all until her skin flushed, and an ache of desire pulled at her all over.

  “How’d it go with Nina the other day?” Kai asked, startling her. He was smiling at her over his shoulder. Dylan opened and closed her mouth just once. He was being so casual, like things hadn’t gotten weird in L.A. She wanted whatever had caused his bout of amnesia, and she was willing to pay full price for it.

  “Fine. Just business,” Dylan replied curtly. After several moments of silence when he turned back around, she pretended to fall asleep to eliminate the chances for further conversation, but actually fell asleep in the process. She awoke to the sound of a slamming car door. They were at Kai’s house apparently. It was a huge, ocean front manor on a hill and in a much livelier part of the town. The tangy smells of barbeque were in the air along with loud rock music. Girls in bright bikinis were standing and talking out front near a few large security guards. Kai chatted with Leko just a few feet away from the car before walking back to it.

  “You’re coming tonight, right?” he asked, leaning into the back window.

  Dylan straightened and sat up. A sharp pain fired in her side from the angle she had fallen asleep. “I think so. And tomorrow we can meet up so I can start filming?”

  He nodded. “Yup, come here as early as you can. Call Leko. He’ll pick you up.” She watched as he slipped into the house without diverting any attention to the girls. As Dylan switched to the front seat when Leko got back into the car, she saw more people walking up from the beach and straight toward Kai’s deck.

  “Everyone just kind of hangs out here?” Dylan asked as she put on her seatbelt. She was still amazed at how normal his life seemed.

  “Pretty much. Party here. Hang out. Some live here. I made him hire security for the house. Kai is the only person who still really thinks he can be that skinny kid who grew up on Akuna Boulevard, and he has a habit of taking strays in. Crazy stories end up on the Internet because of it sometimes, but I think he’s been trying to make a new family since he lost his,” Leko said grimly. The honesty of the comment tugged at Dylan’s heart. She could hear the constant drone of voices; there were tons of people there.

  The drive to her house was less than two miles, and she felt more comfortable
knowing Kai wasn’t too far away. Leko told her that the path at the back of the house would lead her straight there. Her new roommates were home, and they greeted her like she was an old friend. They wanted to know all about her immediately and only allowed her to go as far as the living room before plying her with questions.

  Odette Porter was an Australian pro surfer, who usually split her time between Perth and the North Shore of Oahu but was living in Lahaina this winter instead. She was a beautiful blonde with a lithe, athletic build and emerald green eyes. Jamie Tanaka was a college student on Christmas break, too, whose parents owned the house. She was Japanese-American, with dark hair and eyes, and she was petite and slim. Jamie was an old friend of Kai and Leko’s from their high school years, and Odette was her best friend.

  “We were about to go grab some shaved ice. It’s a short drive to downtown. Wanna come?” Jamie asked, stretching as she stood.

  “Yeah, definitely. Let me put this stuff away.”

  The three of them got into Jamie’s car and drove down a main street into a picturesque, moderately busy area lined with simple storefronts common of ocean side towns. There was a kind of shock that came with not hearing the mechanical grind of a big city or inhaling the choking smells. She was used to that from both coasts. Everything about the place seemed easygoing and a lot less stressful than life on the mainland.

  The line for the snow cone shop was spilling outside and down the sidewalk. When they finally made it inside, Dylan was the last of the girls to get to the register. Her phone buzzed suddenly and she tore through her bag, yanking things out with one free hand, to find it. Her parents were probably going crazy wondering why she hadn’t called yet. By the time her fingers closed around her cell, it had gone silent.

  “Oh my God!” the female cashier yelled. “Oh my God, you’re so lucky! I’ve been calling the radio station all week trying to win one of these.”