“Of course it’s me, let me in already, would you?” she said, shaking her head, a six-pack of Mike’s Hard Lemonade, my favorite, in her hands.
I stepped back, letting her pass. She came into my room, setting the six-pack on my desk, and sitting down in the chair, easily, as if it hadn’t been months since she had done so. She pulled two bottles out of the pack, popped them open and held one out to me. I stared at her for a moment.
“Well, aren’t you going to take one?” she asked, rolling her eyes, and tossing her blond hair over one shoulder.
I reached forward and took the drink from her. “What are you doing here?”
“What do you think I’m doing here?” Amanda said, staring at me in disbelief. “I heard your mom was back in town and I came straight over. Well, after I grabbed us a six pack, of course.”
“But…you’re mad at me. You’ve been mad at me for months…” I sputtered.
Amanda looked a little embarrassed at that. “Yeah, well, I was mad. But I was also stupid. I mean, come on, McKinley, I couldn’t let a boy get in the way of our friendship.”
I sat down on the bed, taking a healthy sip of my drink. “You had every right to be mad though. I wasn’t exactly innocent.”
She shrugged. “No, you weren’t. But I was irrational and unreasonable. Mike has been showing me that.”
“Mike? Who is Mike?” I asked, confused.
Amanda blushed, taking a drink from her bottle to hide her smile. “Well, he’s my boyfriend.”
“Your boyfriend?” I said, surprised and happy at the same time. “When did this happen?”
“Never mind that right now,” Amanda said, waving me off. “We’ll talk about Mike later. What about your mom?”
I sighed, turning away from her and tipping the bottle back as I took a drink. “I didn’t even know how to react, you know? So I just yelled at her. I was a bitch.”
Amanda unfolded herself from my desk chair and came over to sit next to me on the bed. “McKinley, you haven’t seen her in twenty years. That’s an extremely long time…and she left you! You had every right to be angry.”
“I know I do!” I said, indignantly. “It’s just…she says she is here because she wants to see me. Not for money or any of that, which is what I would’ve expected. No, she said she wants to see me and she sounded sincere. But I just don’t know what to believe.”
“Luke said she wants to meet you for lunch, just to talk,” Amanda said, carefully.
I fiddled with the label on my bottle, staring at a spot on the wall across from me. “I’m pretty sure Luke would not be happy about that.”
Amanda shook her head. “It’s not about Luke, McKinley, it’s about you. Yes, Luke is trying to do his best by you because he loves you and he wants to protect you but it’s ultimately up to you.”
“What about you? What do you think I should do?” I asked her, bringing my knees up my chest and wrapping my arms tightly around them.
Amanda hesitated. “I don’t know, McKinley. Part of me wants you to go so you can know, so you can just know her, even if only for a moment. But then part of me wants you to stay far away because she’s been gone for so long.”
“I’m just…I can’t help but be extremely curious,” I admitted. “I want to hate her, I want to yell and to scream at her for leaving. But I also want her. There’s still a tiny part of my five-year-old self that wants her to come back.” I shook my head.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and glanced at the screen; it was a text message from Jake. I cleared it and tossed my phone on the bed beside me.
“You can answer that,” Amanda said, a smile creeping on her face.
“No, it’s fine,” I said.
“No, I promise you its fine,” Amanda said, picking up my phone and placing it in my hands. “It doesn’t bother me anymore.” She sighed dramatically, brushing her hair out of her face. “You were right. I was being so stupid, thinking Jake Kennedy was mine. I was acting like a child. And anyone with a pair of eyes can see how happy you are with him.”
I snorted. “You’ve been reading way too many gossip rags, Amanda.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m not reading anything. I’m looking at those pictures of the two of you that seem to crop up everywhere.”
“The ones of us at the premieres and stuff?” I asked, incredulously. “Amanda, those are posed beyond belief!”
Amanda rolled her eyes at me. “Would you stop it? I’m talking about the shots of you guys all over the place, eating dinner, shopping and stuff. McKinley, I’ve never seen you like that. I’ve never seen you so happy. And that’s when I knew I was being stupid. You weren’t doing this to hurt me, to betray me. You were doing it because you’re in love.”
I burst out laughing. “In love? Are you serious?”
“God, McKinley, are you blind? Of course, you’re in love! It’s so obvious! Why do you think the gossip rags don’t believe your little ‘we’re just friends’ line?” Amanda said, her voice full of annoyance.
“I am not in love,” I said, firmly, a smile still on my face. “Definitely not. I’m just having fun.”
“Is the sex good?” she asked, a smile on her own face.
I nodded, my smile growing a little mischievous. Finally, I could actually tell Amanda everything.
“Is he fun to be with? Does he make you laugh? Do you feel better around him?” Amanda shot off.
“Well, yeah, but…”
“Well then!” Amanda said, throwing up her hands. “What else do you need to know?”
“I am most definitely not in love with Jake Kennedy,” I said, firmly, feeling as if I was repeating myself. “I don’t fall in love with anyone. And I’ve definitely had good sex, and fun and laughter with other boys and I didn’t love them either.”
“Fine,” Amanda said, raising her eyebrows at me. “Just don’t come crying to me when you screw this up.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Enough about Jake and me. None of that is new. What about this Mike guy?”
Amanda’s impatient manner disappeared and was quickly replaced by a shy smile. “Mike is just…he’s just great.”
“Where did you meet him?” I asked, turning full on the bed to face her, ready to drop the subject of my mom and definitely ready drop the subject of Jake.
“At work. He came up to my counter under the pretense of buying his mom some make-up. Of course, we got to talking and he asked me out.”
“Where did he take you?”
Amanda laughed. “It’s the funniest thing! He actually works over at the gun range so he took me there and taught me how to shoot a gun. Me, shooting a gun! Then we went out to lunch later. It was so much fun.”
I smiled and responded at all the appropriate moments while Amanda gushed about her new boy. I was excited and happy to have her sitting with me, back as my best friend, as if nothing had ever happened between us. As I sat there and listened to her, I was able to lose myself in my thoughts and mull over the things she had said. I was contemplating whether or not to go and meet with my mom. And whether I liked it or not, I was also thinking about what she had said about Jake and I.
* * * * * *
The next day, my mom came back into the café. As soon as she walked in, Iris, Robert and Diane all turned to her and then turned back to me. Iris made a quick movement, as if to stand up. I shook my head slightly, refilling her coffee. My mom nodded at Iris as she passed; I couldn’t tell if she remembered her or if she was just being polite. She sat right in front of me, in Dave’s usual spot. I glanced at my phone and noted that it was late enough that he was probably not coming in.
“Hi,” she said, to me, setting her purse on the counter in front of me.
“Hi,” I said back, carefully. “Can I get you something?”
“Coffee would be nice,” she answered, folding her hands in front of her. I glanced down at her hands, noticing how much her age showed in her hands, especially when compared with mine. I was five year
s older than she was when she left me, and that was baffling to me. I pulled out a mug and poured her some coffee and slid it across the counter to her. She smiled gratefully and dumped four half and half creamers into it and one packet of Splenda. I felt a fizzle in my stomach as I realized that was exactly how I took my coffee. “Thank you, Kinley.”
“Please don’t call me that,” I said, shortly.
“Does no one call you that anymore?” my mom asked, frowning, a crease appearing above her brows, something that I didn’t remember.
“No, no one does,” I said. Except Jake. “So please, do not call me that.”
“McKinley, please just give me a chance.”
I sighed. “It’s kind of hard to do that, Mom. You left kind of a long time ago. Luke adopted me because we couldn’t find you. It’s hard to just welcome you with open arms.”
“I do know that,” she said. “It’s hard to come back in here and face you. Maybe that’s why I’ve stayed away for so long. How do you come back to the child you left behind?”
I stared at her for a long moment. I wanted to believe her. I wanted to believe her more than I had ever believed anything in my life. “I just don’t know what to say.”
“How about this?” she said and I felt the lump in my throat grow larger. My mom had always said that when I was younger. How about this? She would say and then proceed to come up with a plan that usually wasn’t much better than the original but came out sounding better. She could usually get anyone to agree to things with that phrase. “Why don’t I let you get back to work? I know you’re busy with things and we can meet up for lunch sometime later this week.”
I opened my mouth, ready to say no. I had a knee-jerk response for her how about this plans. Even my five-year-old mind knew that my mom knew how to manipulate people. I heard the bells above the door clang, and I turned to see who had come in. I felt a smile creep across my face as Jake crossed the room and made his way over to me.
My mom frowned and looked over her shoulder to see what I was smiling at. “What are you…oh,” she said, turning back to me, her eyebrow raised.
I ignored her as Jake came over to me. He leaned across the counter, placing a quick, chaste kiss on my lips. “Hi there.”
“Hi,” I said, pouring him a cup of coffee.
“Hi Iris,” Jake called down the counter. She waved to him, without looking up from her work and we both shook our heads. “You almost off?”
I nodded. “As soon as Crystal gets here, which should be any minute now.”
“McKinley,” my mom interrupted. “How does Friday at noon sound?”
We both turned to look at her. “I’m filming Friday,” I said, slowly.
“Saturday?” she asked. “I could give you your Christmas present. Its only a week away.”
“Fine, Saturday,” I agreed.
“Great, Saturday. How about Tony’s? I remember that was your favorite when you were younger,” she said, a smile spreading across her face.
“Yeah, that’s fine,” I answered, feeling a moment of annoyance at her remembering that sort of information.
“Kinley?” Jake asked, looking from my mom to me and then back to my mom. There was a flash of something in her eyes as she registered what he had called me, and my lack of response to it.
I sighed. “This is Jake Kennedy. Jake, this is Corinna Evans. My mom.”
Jake’s face went from curious to surprise to angry in a matter of seconds. He looked over at me, studying my face, as if looking for something specific in my face. I nodded, as if reassuring him. When he turned back to my mom, he had a friendly open smile on his face and I marveled for a moment at his acting abilities. “Hi, nice to meet you,” he said, extending his hand out to her.
“Nice to meet you as well,” my mom answered, shaking his hand, looking a little flustered for a middle-aged woman meeting a young hot actor. Jake Kennedy had that effect. “I’m happy I was able to meet McKinley’s boyfriend.”
“He’s not…” I started to say.
“I think we should be going now, Kinley,” Jake said, interrupting me. “See, Crystal is here now.”
“Right,” I agreed, grabbing my purse from underneath the counter.
“I’ll see you Saturday then, at noon, at Tony’s?” my mom asked, spinning in her stool as we began to walk towards the door.
I paused. “Yes. I’ll see you then.”
“I don’t like it.”
I rolled my eyes, flipping through one of Jake’s video game magazines, which had been sitting on the table in his trailer. “You’ve said that already.”
“I just don’t like it. This woman leaves you in a diner when you’re five years old and then comes back out of nowhere, suddenly, and wants to see you again? And this literally has nothing to do with the fact that you’re dating-uh, hanging out-with me or that you’re suddenly acting on a primetime television show?”
I put down the magazine. “Jake, I know, okay? I know. You’re preaching to the choir right now.”
He stopped pacing and came to sit next to me on the sofa. “Doesn’t it bother you?”
“Of course it does,” I said, curtly. “But what am I supposed to do, Jake? I haven’t seen her since I was a little kid and…I have to know.”
He slipped his hand in mine. “I just don’t want you to get hurt,” he said, echoing the words Amanda had said the night before.
“I’m fine,” I said, airily. “Seriously, it’s going to be okay.”
“You think that you can just wave things off, McKinley, and that no one can see what you’re really feeling. You can admit that not everything is okay all the time,” Jake said.
“Jake, I’m fine,” I snapped at him, pulling my hand out of his and standing up. “Why can’t you accept that I’m fine?”
“Because I know you’re not, but that you always need to act tough,” he said, looking up at him. I turned away from him, my arms folded tightly across my chest. “But fine, if you don’t want to talk about it, if you want to pretend that everything is fine when it’s not, then okay. I can play that game. But I don’t want to.”
“You know what, Jake? It’s not really about what you want,” I said, picking up my purse from the table in front of us and walking towards to the door.
Jake jumped up, and grabbed my arm before I could make it through the door. “Hey, come on, don’t leave.” He pulled me around to look at him. “Let’s just forget about it right now, okay?”
“And do what?” I asked, feeling cross.
“You could help me decide what roles I want to go for this summer,” he suggested, indicating the stacks of scripts sitting on the table. Crime Scene was to finish filming the current season in late January and then Jake would be free to work on films until filming for Crime Scene recommenced in August. Jake’s agent, Seth, had sent over an extremely heavy package of scripts. He’d also sent some scripts my way but wasn’t sure how to feel about that yet. So far, Jake had narrowed it down to three.
The first was the typical Jake Kennedy type of film; over-the-top action film with lots of explosions and shallow plotline. This one had made to it the pile, in my opinion, because it was something he was used to and it was a guaranteed role. His name alone would bring in the money and it wouldn’t matter if the film was actually good or not.
The second was a romantic comedy. The plotline of this movie wasn’t award winning or overly original but it was cute and funny. It was a typical boy meets girl sort of story, taking place in New York City, which would be a great opportunity for Jake to get out of California for a bit and it was definitely something different from what he was used to. It was rumored that Isabelle Monroe was slated to play the female lead, but despite that, it was still a good choice. It was geared toward Jake’s audience and it had the potential to be much, much better than the first choice.
The third was the best choice, I thought, and also the most risky. It was a more serious role, a half drama, half comedy based on a best selling novel about a
young twenty-something, planning his estranged father’s funeral and discovering more about him than he ever knew. It was an amazing book and I was secretly hoping for this one. Seth had said that the directors had been thinking of Jake for the lead role and was really hoping he would audition. I had a feeling that this was the reason it had made it into the pile. I knew that this was completely away from what he was used to and he felt uneasy about approaching that kind of role.
I sat down on the couch and spread out the three scripts so that they were all facing me. “Honestly, I think you should audition for all them. It leaves your options open. But I don’t think you should do Assassin, Jake. It’s old, and its tired.”
A Little Less than Famous Page 18