Please excuse any grammatical errors.

January 20, 1992

~Tia's P.O.V~

         The flight home was good. I had a first class ticket, but people around noticed me from being the director of the 'Juice' film, and being Tupac's date to the Premiere. I spoke some but for the most part I got tired of them and got quiet. They asked me so many questions.

          I touched down in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm from Gary, but as soon as I got my first big check, I left. My mother and brother came with me, but don't live with me. I had some other business to handle. I love to read. I recently read 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X' and I would definitely LOVE to make a film about Malcolm X. He is/was the epitome of a changed man. I've even started writing a script for it. My favorite quote of his is, 'Who Taught You To Hate Yourselves?'. In that quote he mentioned so many thing that are prevalent this day and age. But my favorite part was when he mentioned us black women. The quote goes:

"The most disrespected person in America, is the black woman.
The most un-protected person in America is the black woman.
The most neglected person in America, is the black woman."

          I entered my Atlanta home and, dropped my bags by the door. I went into the kitchen and washed my hands. Washing hands when coming from outside is a MUST. I showered, washed and conditioned my hair, twisted it, and got dressed. As soon as I finished I picked up the phone and dialed the number. It rang for a few seconds and then someone answered it.

"How may I help you? State your reason for calling, please."

"Hello, I'm Tia Andrews and my purpose for calling is because I was told by Spike Lee, to call whenever I got the chance for business purposes." I responded.

"Oh, yes Ms. Andrews I've been expecting your call. I'll direct to his phone line." She replied and the phone was clicked over to another line.

"Hello," I heard Spike Lee on the other end.

"Hello, Mr. Lee. This is Tia Andrews and you told me to call when I had the chance to."

"Oh, yes. Tia, thanks for calling, do you have any new film ideas?"

"Yes, I was thinking that maybe we could collaborate on a Malcolm X film. I think the perfect person to play him is Denzel Washington, but I don't have those kind of connections." I told him.

"That sounds great! Have you started a script yet?"

"Yes, in fact I'm have written about two-fourths of it."

"Okay, why don't you come to my office, sayyy... The second of next month. By then you'd probably be finished with the script, and we can go over it. We could edit it, and start the casting. As for having Denzel as the lead, I'll see what I can do. Okay?"

"Yes, sir. Thank you." I said smiling so hard that my cheeks began to hurt. He gave me the address, and I wrote it down on the pad near my telephone.

"Have a nice day."

"You have a nice day too." I said and he hung up, and I put the phone on the hook. I had to be BACK to New York by the second of February.

"OH MY GOODNESS!" I yelled out into the air, jumping up and down. I grabbed my notebook that had the script in it, sat at my desk and began to write more.

January 24, 1992

~DeVanté's P.O.V~

          Sometimes the me and the guys stay at a hotel since it's much closer to the main Interscope studio located in New York. We mostly do it when the weather is bad. But we didn't this time we just drove from our condo/apartment complex. I had a few songs I wanted to record so we're going to the studio today. We were recoding a song I had recently wrote and we were recording it. Well, attempting to. These niggas keep fucking around.

"Come on y'all stop fucking around and let's get this song done!" I yelled frustrated.

"Who got your draws in a bunch?" Dalvin asked.

"Probably that bitch." K-Ci said laughing.

I frowned at him, "Fuck you say?" I said in menacingly, turning my head to the side squinting my eyes at him.

"Yo, chill! I'm just fucking with you!" K-Ci said throwing his hands up. "Damn, you really like shorty, huh?"

"Duhh, nigga! Look at him." Dalvin said to K-Ci.

"Can y'all stop worrying about me and get these damn vocals done?" I said rubbing my hands over my face frustratingly.

"Nahh, first tell us what's up with you." Dalvin asked, sitting in the chair next to me.

"Time is money, Dalvin. We paying for these studio sessions from our pockets. Maybe I'll tell y'all later, as of right now we need to be taking advantage of this studio time." I said in a solemn tone.

"Okay!" Dalvin said throwing his hands up and going back into the booth with the rest of them.

"Play the track!"K-Ci said through the mic. I flicked the button and the beat began to play. My already recorded voice played, then they began to harmonise.

          We had FINALLY finished recording the last song for today and got up to go. It was now night time. As we walked out of room 4C, I spotted a familiar bald head.

"Yo, Pac," I called out to him.

He turned around and saw us. "Aw, wassup y'all," he said as we made our way closer.

"What you doing here, this the first time seeing you at this studio." I said, as he dapped all of us up.

"I just got signed." He said to us.

"Oh. Do you happen to have Tia's number? I didn't get a chance to ask her yesterday."

"She told me you took her to the airport. Yeah, I have it. Why, you want it?" He said to me.

"Yeah." I nodded my head.

"Why for?" Pac asked.

"I-" Luckily I was cut off, because I was stuck on what to actually say.

"I'm just fucking with you!" He laughed patting my shoulder. He got the notebook he had in his hands and wrote it down in a corner of a sheet, and ripped it out.

"Thanks dawg!" I dapped him up, "Do you think she'll be up?" I asked him.

"She should be," he looked at his rolex on his wrist.

"Alright, thanks again. See ya!" I said from down the hall in a hurry. Dalvin, K-Ci, and JoJo attempted to catch up with me. I left the building and was about to drive off.

"Ayyee nigga," they yelled beating on the windows.

"You was about to leave us." JoJo said as I unlocked the door.

"Oh, nahhh! I can't believe y'all think that!" I said lying through my got damn teeth. I forgot about them as quick as they came. Pause...💀

Yeah, you was." K-Ci said to me scowling.

"Okay, I did! But y'all completely slipped my mind," I said defensively.

"Yeah, that's because ol' girl slipped right into it." Dalvin laughed.

"Yo, your ass is really sweating that girl. So hard you forgot about the boys, that were right behind you." K-Ci said shaking his head.

"She has a name K-Ci," I said, and began to heat the car up. I even forgot to do that.

"See, you even forgetting to heat up your car. Your BRAND NEW car." JoJo said putting emphasis on brand new.

"Shorty is fine, smart and-- you get the point, but man you're losing ye marbles. Your marbles are all scattered and guess who they happen to surround? Tia." Dalvin said to me, which is true I need to steady myself right now.

"Yeah, man. YOU ARE LOSING IT," JoJo said.

"You're right, Dal. I need to get a grip. But, y'all don't understand." I said about to put the car in drive.

"But I do," Dalvin said.

"No, you don't..." I trailed off.

"But I do, I'm in love myself." Dalvin said. We all looked at him wide eyed.

"With who!?" We all asked at the same time.

"Well, y'all remember Tionne- well T-Boz, right?" He asked.

We nodded prodding him to continue. "Well, we've been dating for almost a year now." Dalvin let out.

"Word?" K-Ci said to him.

"For real?" JoJo asked.

"Yo, you dead ass!?" I asked.

"I am!" Dalvin laughed.

          I'm pissed! We're brothers and we tell each other everything! How could he not tell me, I mean we argue but most of the time it's all jive. We just be playing. But he didn't even trust me to tell me. It's not like I tell K-Ci and them things he tells me personally. So, I can't seem to understand why he kept this from me. I didn't say another word as I drove off quickly, causing their backs, and head to hit the seat. They asses should have put on their seatbelts.

"Ahh, come on man!" K-Ci yelled at me.

"What is your problem!?" Dalvin said. I stayed silent and continued to drive off to our condo/apartment complex.

"He tripping." Dalvin said noticing I wasn't going to speak.

          They continued to speak, while I stayed silent. We made it to our complex and we all got out. I locked the door and headed inside the building. When I made it to Dalvin and I's door I unlocked it and closed it in his face. I heard it open behind me.

"Yo man! What they fuck is your problem?!" He yelled at me angrily. "I ain't did shit to yo ass!" He continued, and slammed the door.

"I think, you know." I said with my head slightly down looking at him through the top of my eyes.

"What? You mad because I ain't tell you?" He lowered his voice looking at me. He got his answer when stayed silent.

"Look the reason I ain't tell you is-"

"Because you don't trust me." I said to him, banging my chest.

"No! I do trust you, you're my brother! My BLOOD brother. Of course I trust you." He said putting emphasis on blood. His voice cracked, and his eyes started to water.

"Then what is it?" I asked completely looking up at him.

"It was because I didn't think we'd last this long. I didn't even know I loved her until it was almost too late. I was planning on telling you a bit sooner than today but you been out of it lately. Doing your own thing." He said, now full on crying.

"I'm sorry man, for overreacting." I said and hugged him. I patted his back until he.

"What did you mean, almost too late?" I asked.

"She was in the hospital, I thought she was about to die, man. She's battling Sickle Cell Anemia and it's serious." He cried harder. Damn...

"I'm sorry." I continued to hug him.

"You good bro!" He broke the hug, wiped his pimp tears and turned around to lock the door.

"A'ight man, I'm 'bout to clock out." Dalvin said lowly.

"You sure you good?" I asked him.

"I promise I'm fine now." He said lowly, "I just need some sleep, it's been a LONG day." He slightly laughed.

"A'ight, goodnight bro!" I patted his back as he went into his room and shut the door.

"Damn, I'm an idiot." I thought out loud. I went into my room, and shut the door. I jumped into my bed and pulled the little piece of paper out. Hopefully she's up, because it's almost eleven. The phone rang for a minute, when I was about to hang up heard her answer.

"Hello," she spoke into the phone.

"Hey, Tia. This is DeVanté."

"Donald, how'd you get my number?" Tia asked me.

"I have my ways," I chuckled at her. Then I heard a moan in the background. Is she watching porn!?👀👀

"What was that?" I asked laughing.

"I-uh nothing!" She said nervously.

"You over there watching porn?" I said in a full blown laugh.

"GOSH NO! Boy that was YOU moaning!"

"Me? No it wasn't." I said confused.

"But it was I'm listening to 'Stay'." She said embarrassed.

"Oh, someone finally decided to get the album, and listen to NEW MUSIC, I see." I said teasingly.

"Mmhm, I did. I went to the record store yesterday and bought it." I could hear her cheesing through the phone.

"I dig it! So, how do you like it?"

"I like it, its a bit-NO very sexual especially this song."

"I know! So what are your favorite tracks?" I asked interested.

"I like them all, I've been playing them back to back. But, my top five picks are 'Stay', 'Gotta Love', 'U & I', and 'Come & Talk To Me'." She shyly replied.

"Hmm, interesting."

"How so?"

"You picked some of the most sexual one out of the album. I wasn't expecting that from you."

"Expect the unexpected." She said lowly. Damn, it's like that!? I'm turned on! I turned on my back.

"So, what were you doing before I called?" I asked clearing my throat.

"I was making dinner, listening to music. YOUR music," she said in a joking manner.

"You're cooking at this time of night?" I paused to look at the clock above my bedroom door. "It's after eleven o'clock!"

"I was too focused on working that I lost track of time. I haven't eaten anything today. So, I had to eat late. Sometimes you just gotta eat late or not eat at all," she replied. I wouldn't mind eating late either, because I'm starving...😏😏😏

"I feel ye on that. You need to take it easy on yourself though." I softly said to her.

"I know, but when I'm focused, I'm focused. I be so into it, nothing can stop me." She said. Does she know how she's sounding right now? I took all of what she said and my mind went left.

"Mmhm," I moaned out.

"Are you okay?"

I cleared my throat, "I- I'm fine!" I forced out.

"You sure you sound like you're in pain or something," she asked. I looked down at myself. Oh, I'm in pain alright. My penis was erect under my jeans, but the jeans were restraining me.

"Oh, no. I'm just eating something," I lied.

"Oh, okay." She laughed out loud.

"Yeah, so what was you over there cooking up?" I asked.

"Some' slight," her Midwestern accent came out again.

"Some' slight? Like was." I mocked.

"Grilled chicken breast, rice, cabbage, and cornbread." She replied.

"Mmm, that's sounds good. Makes me want to just get up, and go to North Carolina. Just to have my mama cooking!" I laughed.

She smacked those luscious lips of hers, "Man, you are to much!" She laughed. I sure am, and she gon' be saying that at some point in time. 'it's too much!'

"I hope you don't kind my eating over the phone? Cause a woman is starving over here." She said.

"So am I," I thought licking my lips. Oh shit, I said that out loud.

"Then why don't you eat something?" She asked. I can't you're too far away.

"I don't mind," I cleared my throat, again, not answering her question.

"Are you getting sick, you keep clearing your throat?" Tia asked me.

"Yeah, probably just a slight cold." I lied to her.

"Just drink some hot herbal tea, with some ricola. You'll be fine then." Tia said reassuring me.

"I'll do just that."

          We talked on the phone for about thirty minutes longer. She told me she was coming back on the first of next month. Best believe when we got off, I took a shower to get off. A COLD one.

Word Count: 2,710

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