15 Seconds Of Fame

FOUR

Kailani Hale

"Such a waste of time and now I'm on my knees," a familiar voice sang from behind me, making me jump and knock a chair off from a table. I swiftly turned my body to face the voice after the chair fell to the ground.

"Beautiful voice," the brown-haired man said, walking over to the couch and having a seat, "Perhaps you were made for the music industry, after all."

I cleared my throat and gained back my composure before scrambling to pick up the fallen chair, "I didn't hear you come in," I said. I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks.

"Hello to you, too, Kai," he said, taking something out of his pocket, which was revealed to be a cellphone in a book cover.

How middle-aged of you, Charlie.

"Hey, Charlie." I went to stand behind the counter, "We're not actually open yet, there's a sign outside that says 'we're closed', but I guess since you were so nice to me last night, I'll let it slide."

"Forgive me, I just had to duck in here after seeing a group following me around town. My car is parked three blocks from here," he said in one breath. I raised an eyebrow at him, "I'm not trying to sound like an ass, I just like to have time to myself, sometimes." I'd momentarily forgotten that he wasn't just an average person who could walk around in public, undisturbed.

"Oh yeah, you're super famous, or whatever. " I began to warm up the problematic machine that sat on the counter, "Shouldn't you be in the city working on a solo album, or something?"

"Who said I was going solo?"

"A few websites, People's magazine, too," I said, not realising that I had just exposed myself for researching after meeting him yesterday. He smiled, cheekily, "I may have done some homework on you, Charlie St John." his smile was contagious.

"Right," he smirked, "I would've done my homework on you too, but I may have lost that napkin you gave me with your details on it."

"I'll just give them to you again," I said before searching through some of the drawers for a pen and piece of paper to write on, but stopped, "Wait, would you like me to give them to you, again?"

"Absolutely not.". He stood up and walked to the front side of the counter, "Kidding." I rolled my eyes at him and wrote on the paper. He proceeded to ask my more questions about 15 Seconds of Fame.

"I'm just the guitarist and occasionally back-up vocals. Our lead singer, Zoey, has an amazing voice, though." I wasn't going to deny her the credit where it was due.

"That's a shame. You'll just have to sing for me again, sometime," he suggested. There was something almost flirtatious in his eyes, something I couldn't explain. I handed him the piece of paper with blue ink scribed onto it.

"While you're here, can I get you anything?" I offered, trying to shrug away the weakness his dimples caused me. He leaned on the counter with his forearms against the mahogany countertop, scanning through the overhead menu behind me.

It was sort of surreal to have someone so famous in the café and I found myself staring at his portrait; his defined jawline, the stubble from the night before was absent, his thin curls that stuck out from underneath his beanie were still there and his piercing eyes that stared into my soul each time we made eye contact. What had gotten into me? Was I star-struck?

His eyes broke away from the menu to look at me, "Can you make hot chocolate as delicious as your friend from last night?" he was referring to Evan. I'd finally ridden him from my thought, only to be reminded by Charlie.