Fan Fiction |
by distant origin
“I thought you had paperwork to finish,” Ken said, walking closer towards her.
Dana took out the earphones she was wearing. As she did, a few strands of her hair in the messy ponytail she wore, fell loose. Ken suddenly had the urge to tuck them behind her ears, but she did it herself. “This is paper, isn’t it?” she said, gesturing to the notebook on her lap. She smiled guiltily at him.
He smiled. “What are you doing here?” he asked, jumping up to sit on the ledge beside her.
“I could ask you the same thing. Aren’t you supposed to be out with Jerry and Vanness?”
Ken shrugged. “I didn’t feel like it,” he said, and glanced down at the notebook she was holding. “What are you doing?”
“It’s nothing important,” she said as she quickly shut the notebook and put it along with the earphones in the bag that was beside her.
“Then why are you hiding it?”
“No special reason,” she said, shaking her head. “I just don’t trust you,” she added, teasing.
He chuckled and thought she’d never looked cuter as she had then. “Where’s Jeff?” he had to ask before he thought of anything else about her.
“Still at work,” she said. “He’s a really busy person.”
“Really? What does he do?”
“Oh, just some computer stuff,” she replied. “He programs for Sun Systems.”
“Really, then how’d you meet?” he asked.
“Well, the dark room in our university was two doors away from the computer lab,” she said. “You do the math.”
He laughed. “So you went to college together?”
“We met at college,” she said, thinking that was a more accurate way of putting it. “And then we decided the band thing was a good idea because he played guitar and had a friend who played bass, but didn’t know anyone who played the drums and the keyboard until Jake and I came along,” she said, referring to the other member of their band, the keyboardist.
“And Jake is…?”
“My next-door neighbor,” she said. “Or, at least he was until he and his girlfriend moved to their own apartment near Sunset Strip last year.”
Ken nodded. “Doesn’t that make it difficult?”
She shook her head. “No,” she said. “He’s got a car anyway. Plus, we’re not really serious about the band. I mean, we don’t want to be famous or anything, we’ve all got other careers to think about. It’s really just for fun. But you’re not really interested in that, are you?” she asked.
He chuckled again. “Not really, no,” he said. “I just didn’t want to—“
“Have awkward silences?” she asked, cutting him off. “I know the feeling,” she said, not waiting for him to agree to what she first said.
He nodded anyway, surprised at how well she could read him. “So what were you writing anyway?” he asked, returning to the subject of her notebook.
“Plans for world domination,” she joked and Ken laughed.
“No, seriously,” he asked.
“Seriously?” she repeated, and then looked at him seriously. “Well the uh record company was actually offering the job to direct you to my boss at the company I work in,” she said. It wasn’t the answer to his question, but she knew it was what he wanted to hear. “He didn’t want it. Said it was too commercial. We’re a company that makes mostly art films, by the way, though only one of my films has been shown in one of the art theaters downtown, and I even just co-directed it,” she said softly. “I haven’t really done anything worth the credit Dave’s giving me,” she said. “I’m only just 22 after all. I’m just starting.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Ken asked, this time genuinely curious.
“Because I know you still don’t like how I’m doing things with your video,” she said. “I know you don’t want it to look amateur. But really, I’m doing the best I can.”
“I think you’re doing a great job,” he said. “It’s obvious. You’ve got the whole crew blown away by your talent.”
She nodded as she turned to look at the mountains dismissively. “I know you’re just saying that so I’d feel better,” she said. “But thanks.”
“I’m not—“he paused, knowing he wouldn’t be able to convince her anyway. He looked at the mountains as well and saw the Hollywood sign lit. “Have you ever seen it up close?” he asked, nodding his head towards the sign.
She nodded. “I made a documentary about the history of Hollywood in college. That’s where I stood as I narrated it, right beside the H.”
“That must’ve been cool,” he said.
“It was,” she said. “It was also cliché.”
Ken raised his eyebrows as he looked at her. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, my professor didn’t like it. Said I wasn’t creative enough and that tons of documentaries have been made about Hollywood with that sign at the beginning or end,” she explained, and then shrugged. “I didn’t really want him to like it. I just wanted to see the sign up close,” she said, smiling.
Ken smiled, feeling hers was infectious, and looked at the sign again, imagining Dana standing beside the H, smiling at him. He laughed silently at the thought.
Dana laughed too, but for a different reason. “You know what I realized just now?” she asked, looking up at him, though she didn’t wait for an answer. “I’ve never told anyone before that I just wanted to see the sign up close. Not even Jeff,” she said, remembering. “They were all so sympathetic about my bad grade that I felt that if I told them I didn’t really care, it’d be as if their sympathies would just go to waste.”
“Lucky I’m not sympathetic then,” Ken joked, expecting her to say that she didn’t mean it like that.
But she just nodded and looked back at the mountains.
He furrowed his eyebrows. “Hey,” he said. “I’m not NOT sympathetic,” he declared, feeling a little offended.
“I know,” she said, nodding, although she didn’t look like she believed it.
“I’m not,” he insisted, and then realized she might take it the wrong way. “I mean, I am. I mean, you know, I mean, I, uh, I can be,” he stuttered, annoyed with himself for being confused.
Dana raised an eyebrow at him. She smiled, guessing that Ken was one of those people who always had to make sure what people were thinking about him. “I know,” she repeated in a dubious tone. Ken furrowed his eyebrows even more. She still didn’t sound like she really knew. He shifted closer towards her and turned his head so he could look at her from the front. “Then why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what?” she asked, smiling mischievously. She was just teasing this time. Ken was really cute when he looked confused. Funny, she quickly amended to herself. Ken was really FUNNY when he was confused. Not cute.
“Like that!” Ken said, almost pouting his lips like a spoiled brat. He then quickly turned towards the mountains. “Fine,” he said stubbornly.
Dana laughed, not expecting the ‘serious’ member of F4 to be so childish. “I’m sorry,” she said, moving closer towards him to place her hand lightly on his forearm. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
Ken looked down at her hand on his arm, and then looked up at her, right away noticing that her blue-green eyes were sparkling. He tried not to be distracted by them. “You know you could be really annoying sometimes,” he said grouchily.
“I said I was sorry,” she said, drawing back her arm and turning the other way.
Ken looked at her back and immediately felt guilty like he had when they were at the Walk of Fame. How does she do that to him anyway? “Look, what I really meant was that, it’s kind of cute,” he suddenly said.
Dana was taken aback.
So was Ken.
She turned her head to look at him and saw his chocolate-brown eyes looking straight into hers. She suddenly felt a shiver run up her spine, and then realized how close to each other they were. She blinked and somehow snapped back to reality. She rolled her eyes as she frowned. “Cute is such an overrated word,” she said, turning her face away, although, Ken noticed, not moving the rest of her body an inch farther.