Documentary (8 page)

“Can you believe that? All this time I just assumed that Jeremy was
really
behind those words ‘cause he was making sweet, sweet love to my ears when it was actually Kai,” she said. Kate had both of Jeremy Bunyan’s LPs and also the second Evernight one.

“I read that during my research,” Dylan said, plopping down on the floor across from Kate. She had her own pile of books situated.

“The guy who was vomiting on stage and fighting people wrote those songs. I’m so intrigued,” Kate continued as she went over her study notes. “I have a list of questions I’ll have to insist that you ask. He wrote ‘Moonlight Hour’! Do you know how many times Ryan and I have done it to ‘Moonlight Hour’?”

“No, Katie,
‘cause you never invite me,” Dylan said sarcastically. She tapped the mouse on her MacBook to wake it. “And you want to know more about Mr. Crazy
Crazy?”

Kate shrugged and used a remote to turn the music back up.
Dylan’s own interest in Kai was piquing more each day. He had settled for essentially singing back up in a band that he held far more power in than anyone had ever known at the time. But maybe he was far too irresponsible to be trusted with leading a band, or maybe he didn’t want it.

“Dee, come here!” Winslow called from her compact kitchen after several minutes. “Need your opinion.” She had been cooking since finals started. It was her way to cope with the stress, and Dylan and Kate were completely incapable of fe
nding for themselves outside the dorms, so it worked out for everyone.

Dylan danced her way into the kitchen. Winslow was waiting with a cooking spoon in one hand and her other one just below it to prevent sauce from spilling to the floor. Dylan lowered her lips to it, inhaling the various sharp spices that culminated into a bold flavor.

“Vegetarian chili. Not bad, eh?” Kate was in the process of breaking up with meat, and Dylan and Winslow were skeptical but supportive.

             
“I didn’t know such things were possible,” Dylan remarked a bit exaggeratedly. “Katie, come here.” Winslow grabbed bowls from the cabinets. “Savor it. This is what you’ll be missing when you’re having an awful time in Maui and wherever you’re jet-setting to with your rock star boyfriend,” Winslow said with a playful scowl. Dylan offered her a sincere pout.

             
“
Win
-nee,” Dylan lilted. “I’ll call you every day.”

             
“What am I? Chopped liver?” Kate asked as she leaned in the archway between the kitchen and the dining room.

             
“No, chopped tofu in your case.” Dylan swatted her friend’s butt on the way out to the dining table. As they ate, they recalled incidents from freshman year. Dylan’s ringing cell phone in the living room became her salvation from her own embarrassing retelling of a story. She stared at her cell phone flashing an unknown number. She was undecided about answering, afraid it was one of the marketing calls plaguing students who had signed up with a local sandwich shop’s membership program. She asked her friends if either of them knew what area code “808” was, but the phone had already stopped ringing, and she set it down on the coffee table before returning to her friends.

             
“No idea,” Winslow said.

             
“Oh well, hopefully they’ll leave a message,” Dylan said, shrugging as she sat.

             
Kate did her signature fun-ending clap after looking at the wall clock. “Back to studying, ladies. No woman left behind.”

Dylan stood and tuned Winslow’s
stereo to something mellower before joining them on the living room floor. With all the excitement she had ahead of her, it was impossible to devote her attention to academics. And, of course, there was the occasional fantasy about Kai that floated into her thoughts, and those were more distracting than anything else. She thought back to the way he had smiled at her in the quad, and her insides seized in a straight line from her heart to her stomach.

She forced the disrupting thoughts to the back of her mind; she would reward herself with a full-blown, steamy daydream later when the work was done. Now, she had to deal with the incomplete Microsoft Word document on her laptop and being no closer to completing her Gender and Sexuality in Popular Films paper
final than she had been when she first got to Winslow’s apartment.

             
She jumped out of her worries when Kate nudged her. When Dylan looked up, her friend was excited and staring at her cell phone. Dylan furrowed her brow in anticipation. Only two things got Kate that excited: a “Free food-Vegetarians welcome” sign and Ryan.

             
“What’s up? And shouldn’t you be studying too?” Dylan asked.

“No! And you won’t want to either in a sec. You should call that number back. ‘808’ is Hawaii.”

Background noise broke through the cell phone instead of a voice when the ringing ceased finally. Dylan wondered if it was someone on Kai’s side who wanted to talk to her more
about project logistics before she got there. Nina had sent her so much information already, and she was emailing Dylan nearly on the hour, every hour. Dylan stepped out onto Winslow’s balcony with a throw from the linen closet because it was freezing out.

             
“Hey. Dylan?” The surprising sound of Kai’s voice pushed all her words back down in her throat like a flattened accordion. Intense heat singed her on the inside. “Dylan…you there? It’s Kai.”

             
Freaking Kai White called me, and I just called him back.
She had held it together during the video chats, but she was grateful that he wasn’t physically present to see the goofy look on her face. She coughed, which loosened up her vocal cords, and she bundled up on one of the chairs, tucking her feet under her so that she was completely covered up. “Yeah, hey. How are you?”

             
“Pretty good right now. I might be better in a few seconds,” he said, laughing. “What are you doing tonight?”

             
Dylan hopped to her feet. “Umm…” A fluttering feeling gathered in her chest. Was he about to ask her out? She would obviously have to turn it down, but she did like to think that he was thinking about it.

             
“Can you fly down to L.A. tonight? Lava Surf is having this party with some of the surfers they sponsor, and some of their media people. They put together my site and my artist page on their website. Be great if y’all could meet,” Kai said. “You didn’t really have a chance at your school.”

             
“Uhh…” Dylan pulled the phone away from her ear to check out the time. It was a little after 1 P.M. She put it back up to her head. “Um, I…” She definitely still had that paper to write, among a few other things, like not taking the irresponsible route at the end of the semester. She’d lose hours if she went, and she needed to put in several more to finesse the paper into something that would get her at least an A- and maintain her GPA. The paper grade was the only grade in the class. She was still studying for her two exams, but at least she was nearly done with Jordan’s take-home.

And
this was technically for work.

             
“I’ll book the ticket. There’s a 7:25 P.M. with some seats left out of SFO. You’d be back there tomorrow, late afternoon. Is that cool?”

             
She could already tell she would love this job. Dylan shook her head in delighted disbelief. He had managed to charm her so many times since they met.

“I’m not twenty-one yet. I can’t actually get into any parties.” In reality,
her three hundred dollar fake ID was almost flawless.

“It’s at a huge house in Manhattan Bea
ch. Spell your last name for me please. Gimme your birthday too,” Kai said. She could hear keyboard keys clicking in the background.

Dylan laughed. “Kai, I have finals
—”

“Tonight?”

Dylan gestured at her friends through the sliding glass door, and Kate gestured back urgently, wanting to know what was going on.

“
Kai. Los Angeles. Tonight,”
she mouthed back slowly and exaggeratedly so that she understood. Kate tapped Winslow and the two of them barreled for the balcony.
“No, none tonight.” Even as she hesitated, she knew her mind was pulling her in the direction of going. L.A. was only a little over an hour by plane gate to gate.
It’ll be good for me to get to know the people around him.
It was very much doable.

“Great. C-A-R-R-O-L-L?”

Turning away from the apartment, Dylan rubbed her forehead, a little disoriented from the sudden rush of hormones. “Yeah.” She also told him her birth date.

“You can stay at the house in one of the guest bedrooms. I know the owner. She’s cool with it. I stay there all the time when I’m in L.A. You won’t get much sleep though.” He whispered the last part.

Dylan blushed. “What? Why?”

“Those parties tend to go all night.”

Kate and Winslow became animated, which looked ridiculous because they were completely silent. They were gripping each other and jumping up and down. The balcony rumbled, and Dylan hoped that it was secure. The building was kind of ancient; the original structure had survived both the disastrous quakes of 1906 and 1989, but still. 

“Anyway, the airline should be emailing you in a bit. My best friend, Lek, will pick you up from the airport. See ya.” And then Kai was gone.
What just happened?
She couldn’t stop smiling when she got off the phone. Her cheeks, frozen in that plumped up position, were getting a workout.

“What? What?” the girls yelled simultaneously. Dylan
shooed them back into the place, afraid that they would start jumping again, and the three of them would crash to the ground.             

Dylan pivoted past them to pace around the apartment. “I’m flying down to L.A. to
go to a party with Kai tonight—a work party. He booked a ticket for me.” She still couldn’t believe it, even though she had just heard it from him herself. A wave of doubt smashed into her immediately. “I don’t know if I should actually go. I probably shouldn’t go. I can pay him back.”

“Dylan Kimberly Carroll, you are going to that party,” Kate said
adamantly and in frustration, interrupting Dylan’s compulsive steps by grabbing her arm. Dylan chuckled at her for going with the maternal full name reprimand. “And you’re going to have an amazing time.”

“Dee, you’re allowed to have a lif
e, you know, even though Mac’s—” Winslow started to say, a little too unapologetically for Dylan’s sensitivities.

“Low!” Kate admonished Winslow with a whip of her head in her direction. Dylan
was looking at her too, annoyed and ready to tell her that she didn’t give a fuck about her opinion on the matter, but Winslow’s expression quickly melted into compassion.

“That came out wrong,” Winslow said softly, remorsefully. She squeezed Dylan’s arm. “I just…you don’t have fun anymore. You never go out. You’re never doing anything that doesn’t have to do with school. I just want you to start having fun again…like you used to.”

Dylan nodded, understanding, but Winslow’s wish was easier said than done. Having fun and straying away from something her brother would never get to do always brought guilt these days.

“Dude, Kai fucking White just called and invited you to a party in L.A, completely out of the blue. Can we just celebrate that for a second?” Kate pleaded, trying to lighten the mood. And after a pause of silence, the three of them started screaming and jumping up and down together.

L .A. – Chapter 5

Dylan and Meleko, Kai’s best friend and self-proclaimed “Jack of all trades,” pulled up to a swanky, modern house perched along The Strand, the twenty-two-mile long bike trail that traced the Pacific Ocean in Southern California. The house was set away from the rest and bathed in “Lava purple” spotlights. Dylan was wearing purple too, in a strapless mini dress that was hugging her slight hourglass figure.

Leko
helped her out of the enormous rented black Land Rover. He had chatted non-stop in the car on the way from the airport. He was a native Hawaiian of Polynesian descent, and the childhood best friend of Kai. They had become friends shortly after Kai’s family moved from Nashville to Oahu.
“I stopped him from getting beat up in school when he was just a skinny, quiet kid,”
he had told her during the ride.
“Still do that, mostly.”

             
Soft techno music emanated from the three-story beauty that could’ve easily doubled as a work of art, and surely the architect considered it so. It had the kind of Mediterranean flair—stucco, red tiled roof and arched windows—she was used to seeing in Northern California. She watched weak waves brush along the shore, but it was far too cold to even consider checking out the beach. Seeing it from the house’s sundeck would more than suffice.

             
“Hey, Lek!” As they started for the front door, a young woman walked over and smashed her mouth against Leko’s. He seemed stunned for a moment, but went with it, pulling her against him. Dylan giggled in amusement and stepped away to continue to the door. She sucked in a slow breath to settle her nerves. It was a party; she could walk in alone. She would have to work with some of these people, so there was no sense in being shy. At one time, she, Kate and Winslow were usually the first ones in, last ones out. She really did like parties
before
, but they sort of seemed trivial these days
.
She had started making distinctions between her “before” and “after” lives with Mac’s death smack in the middle.