Documentary

by Sand, A. J.

  Wes’ eyes widened. “Does Kai know?” Leko shook his head.

  “Chase and J here too?”

  Leko shrugged. “I hope not.”

  “Fuck…” Wes growled. “Can we ever just have a nice time? Meet some girls…” Wes puckered his lips at Dylan and she smirked. “…Have some drinks.”

  Leko laughed silently. “And you know how security is at this place. A couple hundred will get them in, list or no list. Get Abel. I’d rather we just kill the situation before Kai finds out.”

  Wes nodded as Leko walked away. “But if all else fails with Kai, feel free to date a surfer. Not Abel though, or any of them who aren’t named Wesley Abraham Elliott.” He winked before he, too, walked away. Dylan was still laughing when the bartender set down two plastic cups of shooters.

  “Hey, good to see you again,” a woman’s cheery voice said.

  After she paid, Dylan turned to the sound and flashed a friendly smile at the girl from the shaved ice store. “Tiffany, right? You made it. We never officially met. I’m Dylan.” She wiped her sweaty palm on her dress before offering her hand.

  Tiffany was sitting with her legs crossed on a bar stool, and her large eyes hinted at a question when they shook hands. Her wishful gaze shot out to the dance floor, and Dylan knew what she wanted without looking.

  “I was about to take these shots to my friends. You should come over and meet Kai White,” Dylan said as a reluctant offer.

  Tiffany hopped down to the floor. “Could I?” Her eyes rounded with hope at the possibility. “Wow! Two really cool things in the same day! I feel like I’m dreaming, or something. You’re so nice.”

  “Yeah, sure. That’s me, Miss Nice.” Dylan pressed out a smile, as close to casual as she could form, as her throat tightened. Introducing him to another girl would read as her official stance on their status, and she wouldn’t be able to take back what she had said about their work relationship. But she just didn’t want to introduce them, period. Not when Tiffany was this stunning. Her tar-black hair was almost down to her waist, and her hazel eyes shimmered beautifully under the lights. She was wearing a silver bandage skirt and a black tube top. Dylan gulped the bunching in her throat down and led the way to the dance floor. The corners of her eyes burned when she remembered she would have to make the introduction in front of an audience. An audience that was apparently rooting for their pairing.

  “This is Tiffany, guys,” Dylan said with a forced smile to Kai, Jamie, Odette and a guy Odette was snuggled against, as she passed around the test tube shooters. “We met earlier today when we went to get snow cones, and I gave her my ticket.”

  Tiffany flipped her hair off her shoulders and stretched her hand out to Kai alone, who was standing on the opposite side of their small circle. Within a few minutes, Leko, Abel and Wes re-joined the group, looking tense, before they claimed their shots. After snatching up the last shot, the one meant for Dylan, Tiffany went to stand next to Kai without speaking to anyone else. Of course. Take my guy. Take my drink. Within seconds, Tiffany and Kai were having a private conversation and detaching from the group. A sharp pain dug into Dylan’s side then slowly coated the inside of her stomach like spilled syrup. She had known Tiffany’s aim, but that didn’t mean it hurt any less. Dylan ignored the puzzled glances from Jamie and Odette and gave Leko a nonchalant smile when he cocked an eyebrow, clearly bewildered, too.

  “Everything all right at the door?” she whispered.

  Leko nodded twice. “Yeah. Just some douchebag trying to get into something he wasn’t invited to. It’s handled. Wes is a pretty boy, and he doesn’t really like any confrontation that might lead to a fight most of the time, so I knew he’d fix it fast.”

  “You wanna dance?” she asked him. She didn’t feel like talking anymore. The girls would inquire, and if she really started talking, she knew she would cry. It was those damn shots. No, it was watching Kai and Tiffany laugh, and the way he pushed her hair aside to whisper into her ear, and how Tiffany’s hand stroked his stomach when she leaned in to tell him something. It was all the things she couldn’t actually do with him. Bitch just downed my shot too.

  “Yeah. Let’s dance, baby girl.” At least Leko would keep his thoughts to himself. He twirled her around to another part of the room, the scene with Tiffany apparently already (pretended to be) forgotten by him. As they spun, she pressed her face against his shoulder, felt a series of heavy convulsions in her chest and was grateful that she was in a dark room.

  Dylan was loaded up on a mix of water and extra-strength Tylenol when she headed out for her morning walk/run. She cranked up a skull-shattering mix by French deejay David Guetta on her iPhone. She needed to either clear her head or drown out her thoughts. Running definitely wasn’t the cure for what she felt—and she felt like shit—but the crisp morning air was therapeutic, and each time her soles connected with the earth, it weakened the edges of her melancholy. The trail was well worn on the mountain, without a blade of grass poking through, and there were a few pebbles scattered over the dirt, but it bisected a paved path once she was level with the beach. The mountain had a soft enough incline that the run back up wouldn’t be treacherous. Even after partying, she was still on a two-hour time difference, and she was out so early that she caught the tail end of a beautiful sunrise before the sky was fully washed in blue. She ran straight down to the beach and did a somewhat rigorous jog through the sand until she was sweaty enough for her clothes to plaster her skin.

  She wanted to outrun the memories of last night. Like Kai and Tiffany strolling hand in hand toward the exit before the end of the night, but Dylan was mostly embarrassed for crying at the party, even if Leko had been the only one to know. She hoped that Jamie and Odette forgot what they saw last night, too, because they were intoxicated.

  Or just really good friends.

  When she was just too fatigued to continue running, she sat in the sand and watched a few surfers cope with moderate waves. Maybe one of them could provide the distraction to make her forget about Kai. Dylan fisted shallow ditches in the sand and groaned. She was starting to feel ridiculous. She was hung up on a guy, not in mourning for him, so she knew she needed to tone down the “woe is me” attitude. Dylan turned off the music on her iPhone and dialed Kate. When she answered, she called Winslow on conference. They turned out to be worse than her mother and sister.

  “Tell me everything. How’s Kai? How was your first day? Is Hawaii just amazing? Does he have cute friends?” Kate fired off.

  “Did you find out more about Erica?” Winslow asked. “Are you calling from Kai’s bed? What was it like? Tell me everything!” Dylan demanded that they take turns, but she answered all their questions. Like the amazing friends they were, they reassured and comforted her about what had happened at the party, but Winslow was quick to tell her exactly what she needed to hear.

  “I know I teased you about him before, but maybe you should let it go, Dee, before it starts. There are too many girls around him. He seems like a slut. So do those twins. You’re literally on an island of misfit sluts.”

  Dylan stood and brushed her butt off before she stepped back onto the trail. The cool morning air was lifting, but she was so soaked with sweat that it felt like she was wading through cold water.

  “Low!” Kate said in a reprimanding tone. “Wanting and liking sex doesn’t make you a slut. And this isn’t the 1950’s—”

  “Save your ‘sexual liberation’ lecture,” Winslow said after a long sigh. “I know I’m the old married lady whose experience is one guy and something battery operated, but I was kidding.”

  “Nothing’s wrong with figuring out what you like out there,” Kate continued. “But Kai probably has way more baggage than you need to be bothered with for these few weeks: Erica, his career is sort of in shambles, this fascination with punching. FYI, he beat up another guy…in an alley. No cosmic fuckery in sight, Dyl. None. I’m sure there are other guys out there. ”

  Everything Kate and Winslow was saying m
ade sense, and she had drawn the same conclusion during the run, but certain feelings were the hardest to switch off right away, especially because she had sensed a growing connection with him every time they talked. And she’d hate to lose that.

  Dylan turned the key to the house and bumped the door open with her hip. “Yeah, I know. It’s a new day. It’s a silly crush. I’ll get over it.” The words didn’t feel genuine yet, though. She waved to Odette, who looked like a mop of hair on top of a robe on her way back to her room from the bathroom. “Love you both. I’ve got a long day ahead. Bye.”

  Dylan jumped straight into the shower, and once out and dressed, she noticed a morning email from Nina requesting her tentative filming schedule, and detailing her expectations for progress updates at the end of each day. She responded affirmatively with her plan and then spent some time fiddling around with the camera. It was a black Sony Handycam High-Definition camcorder and probably more than three thousand dollars. This was one of the cameras she had been saving up for, and she would guard it with her life. On her way out, she spotted Jamie’s open bedroom door. Jamie waved her in before she even had a chance to knock out of courtesy. Dylan was surprised that Jamie was awake because she and Odette had left her at the party making out with Abel. Dylan turned the camera on Jamie and she blocked her face immediately.

  “You’re evil!” Jamie did her best to dodge the lens. “I look like shit right now.”

  Dylan shut it off, laughing. “Sorry. I’ll delete it, but you definitely don’t look like shit. I just wanted to check it out before I used it for real. I’m on my way to Kai’s.” She had told Leko last night not to worry about picking her up. It was 10 A.M., and she was unsure of how Kai’s night had ended—she really didn’t want to think about it—but she wanted to get a jumpstart on collecting video. The more film she had to work with, the better.

  Jamie’s yawn died on a sweet smile, and she collapsed on her bed after she offered Dylan the seat at her desk. “How’s it going?” she asked.

  “Good.” Dylan turned around to face her and shrugged. “Nervous about today. I just hope Nina likes it.” An anxious feeling fired through her gut like a bullet train at the thought of Nina picking through her work and scowling at flaws.

  Jamie released a labored giggle. “Totally not what I meant and you know it. Kai probably won’t give me the lowdown, so you better.”

  “On what?”

  “On what last night was all about! The Tiffany thing?” Jamie made a face like she had just swallowed a whole ice cube before she bored into her with a searching gaze, pursing her lips. “I thought y’all were…”

  “Nothing. We’re just working together.” Dylan’s voice climbed up an octave. She meant it, and she hadn’t wanted to sound so guilty, but her mind was traitorous.

  “So, you’re not going to tell me?” Jamie pouted and batted her lashes, but it was more like extended blinks because she was so worn out. She might have actually fallen asleep during one.

  “I already did. We’re working together and that’s all it is.”

  Jamie didn’t look like she was buying it, but Dylan was happy to see that she was too exhausted to put up a fight, and Jamie changed the subject. “I can’t believe you’re leaving soon, but the good news is, Dette and I are going to the Miami date of Kai’s tour for Wintervention.”

  “I’m so glad you guys are coming!” Dylan said excitedly.

  “Oooh! Well since you and Kai are just ‘co-workers,’ I can definitely introduce you to our friend, Blake. He lives down there. We’re staying with him, me and Dette and some other people.” Jamie walked to the desk and shifted her laptop toward her slightly. After logging into her Facebook account, she pulled up a photo from one of her albums. “It’s this guy’s house. He’s cute, right?” It was a picture of Jamie in a pool with several other people, and she tapped her finger over the image of a guy with a shaved head.

  “These are some of my friends who’ll probably be in Miami too.” Jamie pointed at each person. “Blake, Lisa, Jer—”

  “That’s Jeremy Bunyan,” Dylan said, part statement, part question. She touched the image of the guy with his arm around Blake’s neck. She recognized his face immediately, even though the photo was probably several years old. His blond hair was a lot longer then and he was leaner than he was currently.

  “Mmhmm. Yup. The one and only. He hasn’t been around obviously because of…you know…the alley thing.” Jamie stood upright. “Soo…” She got quiet until Dylan looked up. “Did Kai talk about that whole situation yet?”

  Dylan shook her head, realizing that Kai was keeping the details of his fight with Jeremy from both Jamie and Leko. She didn’t understand how Nina expected her to get Kai to talk to her about something that he wasn’t even talking to his good friends about.

  “He’s being weird.” Jamie released a defeated sigh and leaned down again. “Anyway, that’s Naylaini, you already know Kai, Darby, Crystal. That’s Erica. We don’t really talk anymore. She probably won’t come—”

  “Kai’s Erica,” Dylan blurted out. It was the same girl she had seen in the photo on the website on Kate’s phone. Jamie raised her eyebrows before diving back into her bed.

  “I guess you could call her that. She was his publicist and his friend, and she was my friend, too. All of our friend.”

  “When we were in L.A., he went to see her. She called him when we were at the Lava Surf party, and he just…went,” Dylan explained. She hoped Jamie would provide some insight into the nature of Kai and Erica’s relationship. She chomped on her lip nervously and looked down at her own folded hands for a few seconds.

  “She called him? What do you mean he just went? He left the party?” Jamie looked stunned and more awake than she had since Dylan walked into the room. “Did he say how she was? I haven’t heard from or seen her in months.” Dylan heard the mattress springs adjust as Jamie sat up with her eyes full of concern.

  Dylan shook her head. “I didn’t ask. But he did go to wherever she was.”

  “I still don’t get it. I reached out, but…” Jamie’s voice trailed off. “She kind of just stopped talking to all of us. I tried to find out if something happened, and no one knew. I know she works for Razorwire now because I read all her articles, and that’s all I know.” Jamie’s voice cracked as if something inside of her had actually broken. The unknown reason for the end of the friendship had hurt her. Still was hurting her. “She cut all of us off. He’s never said they were back in contact.”

  “He seemed really caught off guard.” Dylan was unsure what to think. Kai was keeping even more secrets from Jamie. “Hey…were they ever…?” Dylan couldn’t help asking. She dropped her gaze and stared at her hands again without completing the question.

  “Together? Like a couple? They were close, and maybe closer than a girl would want her boyfriend to be with a girl who wasn’t her, but I never saw anything and they always said they weren’t. Her fiancé, Bryson, never got jealous. There were rumors all in the tabloids that they were having this super intense affair. It would be intense, of course, because Kai tends to love hard. Breakups mess him up, and he was messed up after Erica left. I had never seen him like that before. But anyway, they always denied they were together to the tabloids. We all used to joke about it, even Bryson, but we never took it seriously. The craziest thing I heard—I really shouldn’t read that shit because they’re my friends—was that she was pregnant with his kid and that’s why she quit or was fired. And that she and Kai signed a non-disclosure agreement stating that she couldn’t come forward with the information for ten years as long as he paid child support.”

  The explanation made Dylan’s thoughts clump together. Her head was spinning, and a grim feeling settled in her stomach. Dylan rubbed the front of her forehead. She hadn’t been sheltered growing up. Tons of people had kids young and before they got married. She had gone to high school with a few who had four-year-olds now. And she wasn’t completely averse to dating a guy with a kid, but not at t
wenty; that situation was beyond her readiness. She also felt sick at the thought of a guy keeping his kid a secret, especially after the girl’s life had changed so much. No, Kai was better than that…wasn’t he? He was. A guy who had lost both his mother and father wouldn’t do that to another kid.

  Jamie held her hands up suddenly in what seemed like an attempt to save Kai in Dylan’s mind. “Whoa. It’s not true. It was just something people wrote to explain why she left so suddenly. Complete crap,” she said quickly, looking guilty. “He’s too good of a friend to be keeping something like that from me...I think.” Dylan saw in Jamie’s eyes the fear that the seeds of the rumor would fall too far down into Dylan’s mind to pluck out. “Stupid story. Anyway, I miss her so much though, and I hope she’s okay.”

  Dylan pitched herself to her feet. She needed a break from this conversation. “I should go. I bet it’ll be a long day.”

  Are you okay, hon?”

  The air in Dylan’s chest knotted, and sadness hung just below the surface. She really didn’t want to talk about Kai and Erica anymore. “Just worried about the project.” Dylan held a tight smile as she pretended that she didn’t know what Jamie was referring to. “Shouldn’t take me long to get the hang of using this camera.” Jamie could take a hint, she thought.

  Jamie’s gaze was hooked onto her as she backed toward the door. “If work gets too hectic, and you need to talk, give me a call, okay?” Jamie said, scanning her with a knowing, thoughtful look. “I do some wedding photography during the break since so many people are here getting married over the holidays, but my cell is on.”

  Dylan appreciated that and she smiled. “I should be fine, but I’ll give you a call.” She shoved the camcorder into her tote and walked out into the hallway. Odette’s door was closed so she continued to the deck. She took the trail down the mountain to the paved walkway along the beach. Along the way, Dylan stopped, feeling compelled to stare at the outlying mountains that appeared to be sitting over the ocean. And the ocean. It glimmered like a million diamonds were waiting beneath. She even loved how the waves shattered on the jagged rocks. Did anyone ever get used to this? People had claimed spots on the sand, and the ocean was peppered with brave surfers, but the rougher waves alone decided who the victors were. Kai’s house was situated past a split in the path that went down the beach and also continued as a private walkway for the houses.