A Little Less than Famous (33 page)

             
“So these are some friends of mine, Charlie Knight and Summer Bells,” Jake said. He continued on before I could ask. “And yeah, her name really is Summer Bells.”

             
I smiled at the both of them, choosing to ignore Jake and his attitude. “Its nice to meet you both. I’m…”

             
“McKinley Evans,” Charlie finished for me, his grin growing impossibly wider. “I know. I saw you on
Crime Scene.
You did a great job.”

             
“Thank you,” I said, feeling slightly off balance.

             
“These two are the smartest people I’ve ever met,” Jake said. “They are both juniors at Stanford.”

             
I raised my eyebrows, impressed, feeling a little ashamed at my forty-five community credits. If Charlie and Summer were juniors in college, they had to have been about twenty to twenty-one years old. I felt even worse. “How’d you guys meet?”

             
“Summer over here as an amazing voice. She recently sang a track on the
Break
soundtrack,” Jake said, wrapping his arm her shoulders in a one-armed hug. “I had to meet the girl behind the amazing voice…and then I learned she had been going out with this guy for a while. She’s seriously going places though.”

             
Summer blushed a brilliant tomato red. I had never seen anyone who blushed like that before and it only made her more attractive. “It was really not that big of a deal,” she said, softly.

             
“Your voice is perfect, Summer,” Charlie said. There was nothing cheesy or forced about the way he said it. He simply said it as if it were a well-known fact. Summer beamed, blushing even more.

             
I turned away; this was not something I could stomach. I saw Justin outside, firing up the grill and made a beeline for him. I was feeling a little too suffocated by all the affection in the room.

             
The party, for lack of a better word, went well. Justin grilled steaks and shrimp (what happened to good ‘ol hot dogs and hamburgers?) and Jake was making various drinks for us. It felt a little bit like a triple date, which was really awkward. Jake and I spent most of the time avoiding each other. Jake kept himself busy with the grill and keeping the drinks coming for Justin and Charlie. I alternated between talking to Ashlee and Summer. Ashlee was nice enough but didn’t contribute much in the way of serious, or even fun, conversation. I felt my eyes start to cross during conversation with her. Summer was really sweet but painfully shy. I wondered how it was possible that she actually sang in front of people.

             
We had moved over to the pool as the night wound down. All of us had taken our shoes off and were dipping our feet in the heated pool. Jake went inside to grab a couple more drink. He came back and handed me the bottle. Our eyes met and I looked away.

             
“Are you going to ignore me all night?” Jake said, taking a swig of his own Corona bottle.

             
“Are you?” I said, slurring my words a little, turning to answer a question directed at me from Justin. I had lost track somewhere during the night of how many drinks I was consuming. This was not like me. I was not a bigger drinker in the slightest.

             
“McKinley,” Jake started to say.

             
“So when do you start filming for
Going Home,
” Justin asked, taking a swig of his Jack and Coke.

             
Jake looked pained, but turned away from me to face Justin. “We start filming this summer. Production starts in April.”

             
“Where are you filming?” Ashlee asked, her eyes wide. It made her eyes look even bigger, as if someone had just surprised her.

             
Jake glanced over at me before answering. “It films…it films in Washington. I’ll be in Washington for about four months.”

             
My mouth fell open and I quickly shut it. “Four months?” I asked.

             
“Your girl is bummed now,” Justin said, bursting out laughing.

             
Jake was going to be spending four months in Washington filming his new movie and I should’ve been extremely happy with that. This gave me an even better excuse to end things with him. All I had to tell him was that I didn’t think it was a good idea to keep dating since he was going to be gone all summer. This was perfect, and handed right to me. So why was I not liking the sound of four months?

             
I smiled. “I think it’ll be just fine.”

             
“Summer had to come down to L.A. to record the song for the
Break
soundtrack and that was really hard,” Charlie said.

             
“I was gone for two weeks,” Summer said, rolling her eyes.

             
“But we got through it!” Charlie protested, laughing. “And besides, I missed you.”

             
“And with that disgusting display of public affection is my cue to exit,” Justin said, eyeing them with disgust. “Come on, Ashlee, you ready to go?”

             
“Oh, sure,” she said, standing up. She smiled at us. “It was super nice meeting you. I’ll have to, like, send you concert tickets sometime so you can come hear me sing.”

             
The rest of us exchanged amused looks before Summer said, politely, “Thanks, Ashlee.”

             
Jake walked the four of them out and came back out to the backyard. I had moved from dipping my legs in the pool to dipping my legs in the hot tub.

             
“Are you still mad?” he asked.

             
“I don’t know. Are you?”

             
Jake sighed. “Are you capable of having a conversation, McKinley?”

             
I pursed my lips. “Fine. Why didn’t you tell me that you were going to be gone for four months?” I gasped, inwardly. What. The. Hell. Did. I. Just. Say?

             
Jake came and sat next to me, the hot water lapping at our legs. “Honestly, because I didn’t think you’d care.”

             
This was hard to answer. I didn’t care. I shouldn’t care. “I would’ve liked to know.”

             
Jake laughed, lacking of all signs of amusement. “You know, I can’t figure you out. You’re hot and cold. One minute, you’re getting mad over me not telling you I’m leaving for four months or getting jealous over Andrea. The next minute, you’re all over Freddie or snapping at me.”

             
“I really don’t want to talk about Andrea,” I said. “I mean, whatever, you can kiss whoever you like, Jake. I just don’t have to like it.” How many drinks had I consumed tonight? I was saying the stupidest things right now. I wasn't thinking clearly.

             
Jake reached over and took my hand in his. “I know. That’s why I told you not to come.”

             
I let go of his hand. “I mean, shit, Jake, that kiss was ridiculous. It wasn’t even in the stupid script. You went a little overboard, don’t you think?”

             
“Yeah, it was a little over the top…”

             
I went on, not wanting him to continue. I could feel myself tilting a little bit. I was definitely a little drunk. “A little? Fuck, Jake, if you want Andrea Tremaine, just go and get her.”

             
“Are you drunk?” Jake said, staring at me.

             
“No,” I lied. “No way. I don’t get drunk.” Normally, I finished to myself.

             
“I know, it was over the top. And Andrea…she was just pissing me off. She kept wiggling every time I picked her up, which made it hard to hold her and then she started saying that shit about me and I just, I stopped thinking. I just wanted to show her. I felt like I had to prove something.”

             
“Oh you showed her,” I said. “You showed us all.”

             
“Jesus, McKinley, I don’t want Andrea back. Yeah, I did last summer, but not anymore.”

             
“Why?” I said, scooting myself closer to him.

             
His arm came sliding around my waist, but he sounded kind of weird when he answered. “Don’t be stupid. You know why. You're the reason why.”

             
“Good,” I said, matter of fact, turning my head so I could kiss him.

             
Jake pulled away, looking pissed. “I don’t get you, McKinley. You don’t want to be my girlfriend; you don’t want to say you’re even dating me. And I’ve been okay with that. I’ve dealt with that because I know that’s just you. But now you’re acting all possessive and jealous and you’re getting pissed at me and I don’t even know why. I can’t deal with this kind of shit.”

             
“I
am
your girlfriend. I…I am your girlfriend,” I said. My voice was definitely slurring by this point. “Shut up now.” I placed my hand around the back of his neck and dragged him toward me. This time
, he
let me and we spent a few moments, kissing. I felt a splash of hot water on my leg and pulled away.

             
“Shit, sorry, Kinley.”

             
I stared at my wet leg for a moment. “No, no, it’s okay.” I started unbuttoning my pants and pulling them off, revealing some fancy lacy underwear I had splurged on a few days earlier.

             
“McKinley, what’re you doing?” Jake asked, his voice strained.

             
“Come on, baby,” I said, slyly. I pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it into the pool. Jake was looking at me, his eyes wide. Now in my bra and panties, I slid into the Jacuzzi.

             
“God damn you, McKinley,” Jake breathed. He stood up, pulling his pants off and yanking his shirt over his head as quickly as he could. He stepped into the Jacuzzi and pulled me toward him. “You’re crazy. And possibly drunk.”

             
“I’m not drunk,” I insisted. “And you find my craziness sexy.” I pressed my fingers into his lower back and pulled him toward me again, running my lips across his chest, up to his neck, across his jawline and back to his lips. I felt him groan against me as he pulled me tighter against him, his hands slipped below the waistband of my panties.

             
“I’ve been wanting this all night,” Jake whispered, his fingers expertly undoing the hook of my bra and letting it fall into the water. I would yell at him for that later; it was an expensive bra.

             
I pulled away from him, using my fingertips to push him lightly so that he fell backwards, sitting down on one of the seats. He looked surprised but pleased as I came over to him, climbed onto his lap, kissing him over and over again.

             
“I am so pissed off at you right now,” Jake said, in between kisses, moving his lips against me.

             
“I know.”

             
“It is so hard to say no to you
,”
he said, sounding both angry and aroused at the same time.

             
I pulled back, looking at him straight in the eye, so aware in that moment of how damn blue they were. “Then don’t say no.”