Beachwood (h.s.)

Admirer

As soon as I get home I put my keys on the small table by the door, and go to the kitchen to start dinner. My apartment was a studio about 20 minutes from the office with no traffic. The kitchen is along the same wall as the front door, with a small dining table with four chairs in the middle of the area. My apartment is adorned with warm tones. A lot of light pinks, burnt oranges and with pops of green from the different plants around the space. A blue couch sits in the middle of the room, with a book case/ storage cabinet dividing my bed from the rest of the studio. The space was cozy, but I like it this way as it is a lot easier to manage a space like this when you're on your own. I really liked to keep things tidy when I can. I open the fridge and take out some ingredients for a vegetable stir fry. Broccoli, carrots, shiitake mushrooms and some tofu. My phone rings and I see Mack facetiming me I quickly answer and set my phone down propping it against the wall so that I can start cooking. 

"Helloooooo!" she yells into the phone with her nose in the camera. I laugh as I take out my rice cooker. We have always looked pretty similar, especially when we were younger. We have the same small button nose and big, dark eyes. The biggest difference was our face shapes, mine was more of a circular face while hers was a bit more ovular.

"Hey wild child, how's it going?" I put the some rice in the pot and rinse it with water until it goes clear. 

"Ugh, junior year sucks so far. Mom is really getting on me for not starting SAT prep in the summer, but I don't even need to study that much. On the PSAT last year I got a 1460." I see her dark brown pupils roll upwards as she types something on her computer. "My AP english teacher is already assigning us timed writes and this is only the fourth day of school."

I push the button to start the rice before turning back to my phone. "Yeah get used to that. When I was in english we had in class timed writes every week. You have Ms. J though right? She really helps you prep for the AP exam. I got a 5 I think." I say, the sound of my voice accompanied with the chopping sound of my knife against the cutting board. 

"Yeah I know you did, Mom keeps reminding me." She says, the clicking of her keyboard never faltering. "But anyways, Harry Styles." She stops typing to look at the screen, a glimmer of excitement crosses her face. "Please tell me everything." 

I let out a breath, smiling and shaking my head at her. "Not much to say Mack, He just came for an appointment. I didn't really interact with him a lot. Just scheduled his next appointment." I say looking down at the carrots I was currently julienning. Even though sometimes it was a bother to help my mom in the kitchen, I'm really grateful that she taught me all of these knife skills and some of her recipes. It was really nice to be able to cook meals that I used to have at home, and I could also impress people with some authentic Chinese dishes if I ever had people to cook for, which was usually never.

"WAIT." she shrieked. "You're going to see him on a regular basis?" her eyes were wide and she was practically jumping out of her seat.

"Yeah I guess so. I didn't really think about that." I smile. Sometimes I forgot how much of a fan girl she is. Mack is usually very level headed, but when it comes to celebrities, she is transformed into a different person. I remember when I first moved to LA, she'd text me everyday asking if I had seen anyone famous. The answer was always no of course, but she was a lot younger and thought that celebrities were the main population of Los Angeles. Even though we lived in California, we had only been to LA a handful of times, as my parents were usually working. My mom was a nurse at a nursing home, and my dad was a partner at an architecture firm. They both had grown up in San Francisco, and decided to settle down and stay in the Richmond District to raise a family.

"So what's he like?" she asks raising her eyebrows at me.

"He's very polite," I say. "He seems like he genuinely cares about his fans." I smile remembering the short conversation I had with him earlier. He really seemed like a good guy. Not that I had expected him to be a rude person, but you never know with people.