A Little Less than Famous (19 page)

Jake laughed softly. I felt him roll away from me and the bed bounced a little as he got up. The door to the bathroom opened and a few moments later, was followed by the sound of the toilet flushing. I heard him make his way across the room and out the door. I buried my head further into my pillow, feeling relieved that he had left me alone to go back to s
leep. That is, until, about ten
minutes later, I heard him return and then the sound of the curtains being yanked to the side and the bright California sun came streaming in through those glass doors.

“I hate you,” I said, covering my face with a pillow.

“No, you don’t,” Jake said, lifting the pillow and kissing my forehead before pushing the pillow back into my face.

I laughed and threw the pillow off my face. I sat up, poised to throw the pillow b
ack at him. I stopped
almost immediately and then put it back on the bed. “Did…did you just bring me breakfast in bed?” I asked, slowly, pulling the covers up to my chest, my voice a little strangled.
No one ever, not even when I was sick, had brought me breakfast in bed.

“Yeah,” Jake asked, looking at me curiously. Maybe it was because my voice sounded so funny. “Is that okay?”

“Yeah,” I said, squeaking a little. I cleared my throat. “Um, yeah, yeah.” I smiled, rolling my eyes. “Of course, it’s fine.”

He smiled at me and brought the tray over the bed. I looked down at the selection in front of me: a perfect omelet, topped with equally perfe
ct avocado slices, a few slivers
of bacon and a t
oasted English muffin, with what looked like a mimosa
on the side. “Did you make this?” I asked, taking a bite of the bacon.

He laughed. “Of course not. Though if it makes the gesture more grand, of course I did.”

I ro
lled my eyes again. “God, you are
so ridiculous. Well, tell Carmen that I said thank you. This is delicious.”

“I’ll let her know,” Jake said, one of his arms snaking around my waist as he pressed his lips to my bare shoulder.  “Happy Birthday, McKinley.”

“Thanks,” I said, smiling at him. “This isn’t so bad.”

Jake pulled away, a full out grin on his face
. He stood up and started walking backwards toward the bathroom. “Oh that’s just the beginning. Just you
wait. Finish up that breakfast;
we have things to do!” He disappeared into
the bathroom. “Oh and McKinley?
” He peeked his head out real quick. “You could always join me.” He winked and disappeared again.

I shook my head and turned back to my breakfast, whi
ch was
super
delicious. I suppose
d
that was a perk of being a celebrity, having a gourmet chef at your beck and call. I inhaled the omelet, bacon and English muffin quickly. I hadn’t realized I had been that hungry. I was just finishing up when I heard the shower turn off. I crawled out of the huge bed and rifled through my purse for the change of clothes I had brought with me.

“Top drawer on your left,” Jake called from the bathroom. I raised my eyebrow, but set down my purse any way and crossed the room to the chest of drawers. I pulled out the top one and noticed that it was full of clothes…girls’ clothes.

I smirked. “Do you just keep a stock of girls’ clothes in this drawer for all the girls that stay the night or what?”

Jake came out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped his neck and his chest bare, only dressed in a pair of shorts. He winked at me. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Whatever,” I laughed. “What should I wear? Since I don’t really know what’s going on today?”

“Something comfortable,” Jake said, vaguely. “Really comfortable.”

“So helpful, Jake,” I laughed. I looked at him, in shorts and decided to join him and yanked out a pair of shorts from the drawer. It was an unseasonably warm day for the end of November. That was California, though. I sifted through the shirts in the drawer and yanked out a blue tank top with silver stars on it. This one was probably going home with me. Clutching the clothes to my chest, I moved past him, to the bathroom to change. “I still hate surprises!” I called out to him.

We had been driving on the freeway for about a half hour before I finally spoke up. “Okay, I give up. Where on earth are we going?”

“I’m not telling you,” Jake said, laughing. He looked really uncomfortable behind the wheel of my car. The tiptop of his head brushed the ceiling and his legs looked cramped under the steering wheel. He had insisted on taking my car, in order to be incognito, which left me wondering where we were going that we couldn’t take his fancy car. “We’re almost there, anyway.” He pulled off the freeway, went down a few streets, taking a sharp left and pulling into a small parking lot.

I raised my eyebrow as I
read the sign in front of the car: Hollyridge Trail. “Are we hiking?”

“Is that a problem?” Jake said, a smirk on his face as he put the car in park.

“No,” I said slowly. “But that does seem like a random thing to do on a birthday.”

“That’s because you do
n’t know where we are hiking to
,” Jake said, getting out of the car. “Come on. I brought waters and everything, so let’s do this.”

I stared at him for a moment, and then got out of my car. “All right, fine, let’s do this.” I watched him curiously as he pulled a backpack out of the trunk of the car and slipped it on, over his back. He didn’t even look himself to me. He was in a pair of shorts and a Lakers t-shirt, sunglasses on. I’d never seen him loo
k more like an ordinary guy than
I had right now.

“Why are you staring at me?” Jake asked.

“I’m not,” I said, turning away from him.

“Hi, are you Jake Kennedy?”
             

Jake and I turned around and saw a young girl standing there, maybe twelve or thirteen years old. She looked nervous as hell, glancing behind her at her parents, who w
ere smiling encouragingly
.

Jake smiled at her. “Yeah, I am.” It was the first time I had heard him admit to a stranger who he was. Most of the time, he denied it, preferring to stay incognito.
Truthfully, though, he looked more relaxed than I had seen him in weeks.
“What’s your name?”

“Peyton,” she said, twirling a piece of her hair with her finger. “Could I…could I get a picture?”

Jake loo
ked past her and saw what I saw
;
her mom holding her camera and looking hopeful. “Yeah, definitely, of course.” Peyton’s mom’s face lit up and she rushed forward with the camera.

“Oh my god, thank you!” Peyton gushed, throwing her arms around him. Jake looked really uncomfortable and I couldn’t help but laugh.
There was something awesome about seeing Jake in awkward situations.
The four of them turned to look at me, and Peyton’s eyes grew wider. “Oh my god, are you McKinley Evans?”

“Oh,
um, yes?” I said, uncertainly, hoping she wouldn’t hug me as well.

“Oh my god, its both of you together!” Peyton squealed excitedly. She came over to me. “You’re Jake’s new girlfriend! You’re
sooo
much prettier than Andrea Tremaine!”

“Um, thanks,” I said, feeling super awkward and trying to ignore the amused look on Jake’s face.

“Can I please take a picture with both of you?” Peyton asked, almost pleading with us.

Jake looked at me, expectantly, and I nodded, feeling silly. “Yeah, of course, Peyton.” We both came over to stand next to Peyton and the three of us posed together while her mom snapped a few pictures.

Peyton snatched the camera out of her mom’s hand and scrutinized the picture closely. “Oh
,
this is so awesome! None of my friends are going to believe I got a picture with Jake Kennedy
and
McKinley Evans together! Not even the paparazzi can get a picture of you together! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Before either of us could react, Peyton threw her arms around both of us and flaunted off.

“Okay, well that was kind of
weird,” I said, shaking my head. I chose to ignore
Jake laughing. “I know you’re used to it though.”

“Ten bucks says that picture hits the stands in a few days,” Jake laughed.

I made a face. “Fantastic.” Just then, I felt a buzzing in my pocket. I pull
ed my phone
out and glanced at the caller ID. My mouth dropped open.

“Who is it?” Jake asked, walking over. “McKinley, who is it?”

I waved him off, and pressed the call button. “Hello?”

“Hi McKinley.”

“Amanda, hi
.” Jake looked up at me, shocked. “Um, what’s up?”

There was an extremely long pause and I wond
ered for a moment whether
she’d hung up on me. “Happy Birthday, McKinley.” There was another pause. “I always call you on your birthday.”

“Amanda, thank you,” I said, sincerely. “You have no idea how much that means to me.”

“Yeah, well.”

“Amanda, I’m really…”

Amanda cut in quickly. “Look
,
I just called to wish you happy birthday. That’s it.”

“Wait, no…” I said, tears forming in the very corners of my eyes. “Hello? Amanda?”  There was silence. She had hung up. “Dammit.”

“Are you okay?” Jake said, coming closer to me.

I wiped at my eyes angrily. “Yes, I’m fine.”

“McKinley…”

“Jake,
I said that
I’m fine,” I snapped. He took a step back, his mouth a fine line. I took a deep breath and after I had calmed myself down, I felt bad. “Let’s do this, okay?” He didn’t say anything. I walked over to him and slipped my hand in his. “Come on, let’s go.” I grinned up at him, biting my lip, knowing how much he liked that.

He grinned back. “All right. Come on. You ready?” I nodded, enthusiastically.

Almost an hour later, after several steep hills, the amazingly awful stench of horse poop and even more steep hills, I was not feeling
nearly
as happy or as enthusiastic. I had no idea where we were going and I felt almost like we were going in circles. I spotted a rock and sat down on it. “Okay, I’m done. I can’t go any farther.”

Jake turned around, and grinned at me. “Tired, are we?” I nodded, glaring at him. He
didn’t even look like he’d
broken a sweat.
It was all those nights at the gym.
He walked back to me and stopped in front of me. “We’re almost there.”

“Yeah, right, almost there,” I grumbled. “It’s probably another good mile away, whatever it is.”

“You know, I don’t think people are supposed to be this grumpy on their birthdays,” Jake said, thoughtfully, ignoring my glaring. He pointed. “Do you see that fence right there? It’s just around the corner, I promise.” He offered his hand to me. I slipped my hand into his and let him pull me up.

“Okay, but you promised,” I said, following him as he walked away. We turned the corner and came up to a fence, with a big sign, saying “no trespassing, private property”. I went closer to the fence and then gasped. “Are we where I think we are?” Jake nodded, looking at me carefully, waiting for my reaction. “Crap, its huge.” I pressed my face closer to the fence, peering through. “Can we only see the back?”

Jake came to stand next to me. “Yeah, unfortunately. The Hollywood sign is on private property and you can’t get close to it.” He pointed up, where several cameras were pointed at the sign. “This is as close as you can get.”