never there Chapter 6: fame whore, a lords of dogtown fanfic

I don't own Lords of Dogtown, or any of the music I use. I realize that many of my chapters start off in the morning and I'm trying to stop.

A bright ray of golden sunlight was shining through the window. It cascaded across our faces like a warm bath. My legs were tangled around in his, while his arms held me tightly. I could feel his hot breath on my forehead with my face being buried in his neck. I breathed in deeply, and smelled him. That sweet smell of wood, and his skin was so soft. I knew he was still asleep and didn't want to wake him, but I was beginning to get uncomfortable in this position. My eyes fluttered open, and the lashes tickled his Adams Apple. I shifted my head upwards to try and place it on a pillow, but he caught the movement. He gave a grunt and his eyes slowly opened. His lips curved into a small smile as he said sleepily,

"Morning." All I could do was smile back at him for fear of morning breath. I gestured to the door and he released me to turn over to his other side, no doubt falling asleep once again.

As I climbed out of his bed quietly, I couldn't help but think of how nice it was to just sleep with him and not have him pine for sex. I walked slowly down the hall in the clothes I had worn the night before. Thankfully, Phalaine was off at work so I exited the house without a disturbance.

I walked down the steps of his place and headed in the direction of P.O.P. I had a feeling Skip might be there, just waiting for waves, and I wanted to talk to him about how I performed at Del Mar.

The pale blue waves smashed against the sand. The gentle breeze came warmly onto my face as I walked into the sand. I saw Skip sitting on his board out in the water, but it was flat.

"Skip! Man there's no use!" I heard Chino shouting.

"I know! I know!" Skip yelled back. A few of his friends began paddling in at this remark, but Skip's head did a fleeting sweep of the ocean, before finally giving in. He came in sighing, when Chino pointed at me.

"Maggot! Where've you been?" Skip called out, as I walked over to his side. He shook his shaggy, wet hair, splattering me with droplets of water.

"Just around, you know," I said drying my cheek, which was the wettest. "Hey, Skip, I was wondering… about Del Mar."

"What about it?"

"How do you think I did?"

"You're one of the best on the team, but…" he paused and looked for the first time I had known him, like he was choosing his words. "You're always messing around with it, man. Gotta get serious to win." I considered this. Jay had fun with it, but he was much better than I was, and could do that. Otherwise most of them did take it seriously, and Skip Engblom had actually said something that made sense.

"Yeah, I get it. You're right."

"I know I am. Go do something useful, alright? I got important things to do," he finished waving me away.

"Peggy, hey!" I called at her, after she had almost hit me while I was sliding up the side of the pool on my board.

"Kimber! Get over here!" the girl cried, jumping out of the empty pool and going into the house. I stood there, bewildered by this demanding new behavior of hers. "Now!" she yelled, coming back into the doorway. I did not direct my body to actually obey the demand of Peggy's, yet it followed. I maneuvered my way out of the pool and into the eccentric house. It had a high ceiling and beautiful stone walls. Peggy made her way down one of its many hallways, with me at her heels. She took a right through a wooden door, which lead to a very wide bedroom. The bed was a king with a deep blue comforter, which complimented the light blue walls. Peggy spun me onto the bed and gave me a hard look.

"Tell me."

"What?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Who he is!" she said excitedly at the prospect of a new boyfriend.

"Peggs, I'm not with anyone," I said firmly.

"Yes, you so are," she smirked.

"No, seriously," I sighed on the inside, was it always so obvious? "If I had a new guy, you'd know before me."

With that I pushed myself off the bed and through the door, back out to the pool, with her following me, thinking over what she had just heard. A few wolf-whistles met my ears as Peggy and I exited the house together. Tony ran up to me, a dopey grin in place.

"How was it?" he said laughing.

"Oh, shut up," I grumbled, not in the mood for this. I found myself wishing that Jay and I were alone. He, meanwhile, stood with his board propped up into his hand staring at the scene of hormonal guys, but not partaking in it. I took a leap into the drained pool, grabbed my own board, and took off. He smiled a small smile obviously knowing what a showoff I was.

I strutted inside the small house, cramped with people. I recognized the heads of my three best friends on Tony's couch drinking beer. I made my way through the people towards them and perched myself on the arm of the couch. They looked up at me and grinned. Jay handed me his beer, as he was closest (which I hade done on purpose), and I took a sip. A tingle shot down my spine that had nothing to do with the bubbly liquid. The taste of his lips remained on the plastic cup, tantalizingly sweet. I gave it back to him and his hand brushed mine, sending another electric shock wave. I bit my lip. It was all I could do to keep myself from pouncing on top of him.

"Dudes, lets go get high," I stated. Instantly they stood and I led the way to Tony's room. It had both he and Kathy's bed parallel from each other, decorated to their own liking. I sat myself down on Kathy's bed with Jay as Stacy and Tony sat on the other. Tony pulled a white joint out of his pocket and lit it. It was slowly passed around until it reached me. I took it gratefully and held in my puff of smoke. It burned my throat as I released it and took another breath. Slowly the joint came to an end, as my senses slowly burned out as well. We left the room back to the party. A new song was playing.

Feeling so tired, can't understand it

Just had a fortnight's sleep

I'm feeling so tired, I'm so distracted

Ain't touched a thing all week.

I'm feeling drunk, juiced up and sloppy

Ain't touched a drink all night

I'm feeling hungry, can't see the reason

Just ate a horse meat pie

A voice I had not heard in what seemed like forever rang in my ear.

"Hey, I haven't seen you around." I turned to see the sleek black hair and blue eyes.

"Hey man," I slurred happily. I was too high to remember that I had practically broken contact with him, instead of breaking up with him properly.

"Are you excited to see me?" he smiled, obviously thinking I would laugh.

"Oh, well Ryan, I'm just… surprised," I said, forcing a small grin. It came out as a grimace. I saw Jay out of the corner of my eye, watching us closely. I felt my mind slide a little into place.

Yeah, when you call my name

I salivate like a Pavlov dog

Yeah, when you lay me out

My heart is beating louder

Than a big bass drum, alright

Yeah, you got to mix it child

You got to fix it, must be love

It's a bitch, alright

He seemed to pick up on my utter embarrassment. His smile became smaller and his eyes scanned the room landing on Jay. He had noticed Jay looking at us. Ryan glanced at me, back to Jay and finally figured it out. Jay's eyes did not waver under the glare of Ryan's.

"Kimber, who's that?" he asked raising his eyebrows in a dangerous manner.

"That's Jay, you remember him," I said glancing at the floor, hoping I would not let anything slip.

Sometimes I'm sexy, move like a stud

Like I'm kicking the stall all night

Sometimes I'm so shy, got to be worked on

Don't have no bark or bite, alright

Yeah, when you call my name

I salivate like a Pavlov dog

Yeah, when you lay me out,

My heart is bumpin' louder

Than a big bass drum, alright

Mick Jagger finished the song with more 'hey's and 'yeah's and one more 'alright.' I wished I could finish this embarrassing moment like he had finished that song. Jay approached us and turned his back on Ryan to lock eyes with me.

"Hey, babe."

"Man, I'm talking to her here!" Ryan said, shoving Jay in the shoulder. He had obviously been drinking, because Ryan was not aggressive normally.

"Yeah man I can see that," Jay said nonchalantly, turning to face Ryan.

"Give us some space then."

"Fuck," I whispered to myself, jumping in the middle of them with my arms out on either side of me, going into their chests. The jump had made my head spin, and I wondered for a second what I was doing, standing in the middle of two guys.

"Kimber, get out of this!" Jay said, and for the first time when he was high, he had become angry. He did not look at me. I realized that many people in the vicinity had began to watch us.

"Jay," I purred in his ear. "Just let it go. Please."

"Yeah, pussy, just let it go!" Ryan jeered.

"Kimber, move!" he yelled at me, but Ryan pushed me aside, and I being unprepared, fell to the ground. "What did you just do?" Jay asked menacingly.

"Whatever man, I'm out of here."

But before Ryan could leave, Jay lunged clumsily at him, punching him square in the jaw. I sprang to my feet, well aware everyone was now watching hard, and I called out,

"Stacy! Tony!" The two ran to the front of the population watching and flung themselves onto Jay and Ryan. Stace managed to get a hold on Jay while Tony grabbed Ryan.

"Dude, chill!" Stacy said to Jay, who was panting. He nodded and glared at me. I faltered under his glare, and trembled a little. Jay released himself from Stacy and left the house. Stacy came up to me, with a disdainful look.

"You better follow him," he told me solemnly.

"I know," I replied frowning a little, but left the party anyway. Many whispers reached my ears, and I was sure I knew whom and what they were about.

When I walked outside he was nowhere to be seen. It didn't matter, for I had a vague idea of where he was.

The full moon was reflected in the deep blue of the ocean. A rock shattered the calmness of the water and ripples broke through it, eventually evaporating. I did not need to search for the person whom had thrown the rock. I trudged through the sand and reached him.

"Jay," I said, but when he didn't cut me off or yell, I froze. That was as far as I had planned. "Um…" I began again. "Listen, I'm sorry." He grunted and threw another rock. The splash of it sent more ripples and a chill through me. I stood there in silence, staring out at the ocean. A few minutes of quiet later he spoke.

"Sorry? That's it?" he would not give me the courtesy of looking at me.

"What do you want?" I wondered out loud.

"Oh I don't know… how about that guy's a dick and don't worry about him?" I was surprised. Was that his way of saying apologize?

"Why should I apologize? What did I do? And you need to get a hold of yourself, God…" I trailed off still staring at only the side of his face.

He chose not to answer my first two questions."A hold of myself, huh?" Another rock was thrown, and still he didn't look at me. "Look, we don't even need to break anything, because there's nothing to break. So you can leave now."

"Jay… look I don't know what you're talking about," he finally looked at me and it shocked me. His eyes, normally so light and happy, were full of anger and hatred. Cold hatred, that seemed to make everything disappear.

"Hpmph," was all the sound he made, and then he turned his head back to the sea. Suddenly, frustration and anger to match Jay's swooped inside of me and I wanted to tackle him. But, I knew that would only make it worse. So I decided to scream.

"Look at me!" His head snapped around, eyes still hating me, but said nothing. I took advantage and pushed my lips onto his, trying to put what I couldn't say into the kiss. I tried to communicate the way I felt for him and show him that I was sorry, though I had no idea what I had done. He froze for a second under my impulse but gave in, placing his strong hands on the back of my head.

I broke the kiss and looked into his topaz eyes. The coldness had gone, but he still looked conflicted. I couldn't stand it.

"Jay, I don't know what the hell I did, but I'm not sorry," I said, not letting go of the fact that I thought I was innocent. His face remained close to mine, his hand still cupping my head, as he simply gazed at me. I waited for what seemed like a minute, and he said nothing, just stared. "Forget it," I said, my anger flooding back. I tried to leave but he caught me around my waist and whispered,

"You live that way," he pointed the other direction.

"I know that," I said indignantly.

"Then where are you going?"

"I… um…" I muttered, looking back at my black and white checkered Vans. I shrugged my shoulders. I felt the warmth of his touch as he titled my head back up to look at him. And for the first time I saw his face clearly in the moonlight. It was the face of comfort when I was depressed, the features of glee when I wished to have fun, and the shapes of every feeling in between. I needed to get a grip on myself. Why was I falling so hard, just to break up? I would never settle down. I knew then that was how it would end and I still wanted him, with every fiber of my being. And he kissed me, and it contained the passion and excitement. The sweetness of his mouth was perfectly in synched with what my own was doing. Finally, I felt the need for air. He took my hand and pulled me down to the sand. He lay down and I settled my own head on his chest, letting the beauty of the deep blue, sky wash over us, mingled with the pure white crescent moon and the twinkling stars. They seemed to smile down at us, in an annoyingly knowing way I could not explain, but as if they knew our futures.

My back was stiff and I felt grainy all over my body. It was a very uncomfortable position. I opened my eyes and they stung viciously. I shut them quickly, sat up and rubbed them hard with my hands. Immediately I realized my mistake. My hands were covered with sand, which had seeped through my eyelids, forcing them to burn even more violently. I staggered in the direction I thought the ocean might be, when I felt someone grab me around the waist. I jumped and gave a little shriek, but could not open my eyes. I flung my arms wildly around hoping to hit my attacker.

"Whoa, dude take it easy, Kimber," Jay said in an easy-going voice, while taking my wrists gently in his hands. I relaxed a little.

"My-eyes-hurt," I staggered out. I felt insanely childish.

"Come here," he said pulling me by the hand. I realized that we were no longer in the sand, but the solid, flat ground of the parking lot.

"What? Where? Jay?" I asked blindly.

"Ugh… just shut up… I have to sneak you in the back…" he muttered. I heard a door creak open and Jay led me into cool air and the smell of pancakes wafted toward me. He took a sharp turn and I heard another door open, hang open for a second and then him yank me hard. I heard the sound of running water and he placed my hands underneath it. I felt the grains of sand roll off my hands, and bent over to put my face under the water. It was cool and I rubbed the sand off of my eyes. I came up and opened them. In the cracked, rusty, old mirror, I saw my drained face. Jays face stood expectantly by mine, staring into my eyes through the mirror. It shocked me the way he looked at me. No other guy could do that. But then I took a closer look at myself, and was a little amazed.

Even with my eyes red and puffy, I did not look half bad. My dark hair hung straight and shiny, only in the slightest frizzy. My eyes were bright and lips pink. My olive skin seemed to give off a glow, and my cheeks were rosy.

"You ready?" he grinned, still looking through the mirror. I didn't smile back but walked through the door and out into the diner.

"We're eating. I'm hungry," I stated heading to a booth. I sat down on the plastic and watched him sit. He was wearing a plain black shirt and some faded jeans. He too, was covered in sand. His golden hair glimmered in the faint light and his topaz eyes were watching mine, watching his. He picked up a menu and perused it. I took my own and looked it over.

"Um… I'm getting the chocolate chip pancakes," I told him, setting down the menu. "What about you?"

"Omelet," he said tonelessly. "So, Kimber, you think everyone knows? I wouldn't mind… now we can get it on," he laughed.

"Ugh… whatever," I grumbled. That wasn't what I wanted to hear right now. We sat in silence for a few minutes, before he broke it.

"Kimber, I-" but he was cut off by the waitress. She had a pouf of frizzy brown hair, was smacking on gum, and was very large.

"What can I get ya?" she asked, bored.

We ordered and she walked away, clearly annoyed.

"I don't have any money," I told him.

"I don't either," he replied.

"Dine and Dash?"

"Exactly."

"You remember when we were 12, and we tried that for the first time, but left T.A. there?"

"Oh my God, yes," he laughed. "And then we saw him later and he had to wash dishes."

"Yeah," I reminisced. Then I thought of the party at Biniak's place later tonight.

"You coming to Biniak's?" I said, as the waitress came over and set our food down. I drowned my pancakes in syrup, watching him over our glasses of water.

"Hell yeah," he said while stuffing the entire omelet into his mouth and smacking loudly.

"There they are!"

"Can you believe it? Her with Him?"

"I heard he beat a guy because he was talking about her."

The whispers carried through the room and hit my ears like poison. How could I hear them? The house was so full of music it should have been impossible. But unfortunately, nothing was ever that easy.

"Shit," I muttered. Jay looked at me stupidly and asked,

"What? Something wrong?"

"Yes, you dillhole, everyone is talking about us."

"You should like that," he said with a smirk.

"Huh?" I asked. He better not say what I thought he would say.

"Well, you love to be the center of attention, don't think I haven't noticed."

"Fuck off," I said, but inside I was slightly elated. So he thought he knew me?

We weaved our way to where Tony, Stacy, Biniak, Sid, and a girl I didn't know stood.

They were laughing at something amusing when we approached.

"Hey," I smiled.

"Well, if it isn't the lovers," Biniak crowed. He was all for making me look like an idiot.

"Yeah right. I would never be with him," I laughed while flipping my hair.

"Oh as if. I was at the party last night! I saw the whole thing," said the girl. Her voice

was annoyingly high and her red hair seemed to bounce with each word.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Kimber," Biniak said. "This is Fawn."

"Ew," I sighed. "Well, I don't care. Hey have you guys heard from Skip?" Fawn looked

angry but said nothing.

"Nope. I think he's mad at us," Stacy replied.

"Why would he be?" Jay questioned.

"I don't know that's his problem," Stacy said, taking another swig of beer and looking

around for someone. At that moment, Kathy Alva glided over to us and took Stacy by the

waist to lean into a kiss. It was disgusting. I noted how Jay determinedly looked away,

and wondered why.

"Oh god," I whispered to myself. "I need a fucking drink."

"Yeah, no lie there, baby. You were up all night on your back. That must be real

uncomfortable." Tony said, and at that same time began moaning in an imitation of me.

I simply rolled my eyes and said with relish,

"Yeah, I was. After I did that dirty and sweaty and hot deed with your dad it really wore me out."

"Whatever," he answered. I turned to go retrieve a beer and made it all the way to the keg in the corner before I realized Tony was following me. He grabbed my arm and pulled me to look at him.

"Bastard, what?"

"You and Jay are together right?"

"No! Why does everybody think that?"

"You know why. But that's not what I'm trying to tell you. I know my sister a hell of a lot better than you and I'm just saying…watch out."

"Look Alva, I don't need your advice."

"Maybe you do," he added before pumping me out a cup of beer and returning to the party.

Another filler! The next one I'm working on isn't I promise.

But unless I get reviews it might not be posted for a long time. Just saying, tell your friends! Haha.

-lette.