JUVIA BLUE LANGSTON
manhattan, new york

juvia, shayera and rory walked through the school hallways talking about any and everything. "so, juju, what are you gonna do for your birthday?" rory asked. juvia shrugged her shoulders. "i haven't really thought about it." shayera and rory furrowed their brows. juvia's birthday was her favorite thing in the world. the second her birthday was over, she'd begin planning her next one.

"is there anything that you want to do?" shayera asked as the trio walked into their fourth and final class of the day, spanish. juvia shook her head as she sat down in her seat. "i think i wanna just chill this year." she said as she pulled out her spanish notebook and her lucky pink mechanical pencil.

dd walked up to the group and hugged all the girls before sitting down himself. "soooo, you wanna just stay home?" rory asked. once again, juvia shrugged her shoulders. "i'm not in the mood to celebrate." juvia was lowkey getting tired of talking about her birthday.

rory and shay could sense that juvia was getting annoyed, so they dropped the topic and began talking about other things. "where's notti?" shay asked dd who was busy typing away on his phone. "he should be comin. he was talking to ms.shank last time i spoke to him." he answered still occupied with his phone. "are you still being mean to ethan?" juvia asked.

"nah, nah. me and him on good terms, for the most part." juvia didn't reply and just decided to grab her hello kitty notepad out of her bookbag and think of some song lyrics. just as she opened her notepad, she got a message from masani.

juvia didn't even realize that ethan and ddot came and sat at their table. she looked up and felt the awkward tension between the group. shayera looked irritated, ddot looked defeated and rory, dd and ethan looked uncomfortable. "um, what happened?" juvia whispered to notti who was sitting beside her. "shit if i know." notti replied as he twirled a piece of his ponytail.

"are you busy after school?" notti shook his head since he had nothing to do after school. "wanna come to the studio with me?" notti's eyes lit up. "you deadass gon let me come to the stu with you?" juvia laughed at notti's excitement. juvia used to sing around notti all the time when they were together and he always told her that she needed to record a song. even though her first song was somewhat a diss to him, he still listened to it at least once a day.

juvia figured that today she would hang around notti and see what she wanted to do as far as her relationship with him. she couldn't lie though, just having this small conversation with notti made her really miss him. he was always her biggest supporter even if he didn't realize it.

"yeah." she laughed. "i want you to see the stuff i've been working on." notti wanted to hug her, but he didn't want to overwhelm her. so instead, he just smiled at her. "i wish school would hurry up and end." juvia laughed at his eagerness to hear her sing. "here." juvia handed notti her ipad and beats. he looked at her confusingly. "put my headphones on and press play." notti didn't know what he was about to hear, but he followed her directions with no further questions.

words couldn't describe the emotions notti was feeling hearing juvia sing. she had the most angelic voice he'd ever heard. from the lyrics, he could tell the song was about him. the song could be considered a diss to him, but he cared nothing about that. he was just happy that juvia took his advice and turned her hobby into a job that she'd actually enjoy.

"i'm just like them?" he asked with a laugh. juvia smiled and lightly pushed notti's shoulder. "nah, never that." notti prayed for times like these. to laugh and joke with juvia again. to be in her presence. to hear her voice and be the reason she's smiling. he missed her more than words could describe. "imma warn you though, the song your gonna hear me record today, is definitely about you." - "of course it is, it's me after all." notti laughed which made juvia laugh. "you still on that fake cocky shit, huh?"

rory looked over and saw juvia and notti laughed and getting along just like old times. "so cute." she said to herself as she pulled her phone out and snuck a photo of the two. she was one hundred percent sending it to the groupchat after school. "you okay, honeybun?" rory asked shayera who looked so annoyed. "yeah ry, i'm just irritated. like why couldn't he have sat anywhere else? it's hella empty seats over there." shayera stressed as she pointed to an empty table. she made sure she spoke loud enough for ddot to hear her.

shayera sighed. "i gotta calm down, yo. imma end up making everything weird for everyone if i don't get over this shit." rory put her hand on shay's shoulder. "baby, we not worried about anything being weird or awkward. all of us understand that you need time to heal from what he did." shayera nodded her head at rory's words. she was so blessed to have the friends she has.

"i know, but i'm not gonna stop being around him just cause of what he did. at the end of the day, we all friends and the same way we didn't stop hanging around notti, we don't have to stop hanging around him. that don't mean i'm not rey be the meanest bitch towards him though." shayera and rory broke into a small laughter.

"bye guys, sani is giving me a ride." she hugged the girls and gave them both kisses on the cheek. "okay, text us when you get home." juvia nodded her head at her best-friends as she made her way
over to the boys. "bye, david and darrian." she quickly hugged the boys before grabbing notti's hand. she wasn't sure why she did that, but it felt right. "you not mad at me anymore?" ddot asked. "not mad, just disappointed in you, d. you know i don't condone cheating. i gotta go though, just text me if you wanna talk." she smiled at ddot who gave her a weak smile back. she let notti dap them up before dragging him to masani's blacked out audi truck.

notti opened the passenger door for juvia who smiled at him for the kind gesture. once juvia got into the car, notti got in the back. "oh, so this is ethan?" masani spoke with a smile. "hello, i'm masani, juvia's manager." - "hello." notti replied feeling nervous under her gaze. he could tell that she wasn't too keen on him. "uh, sani?" juvia interrupted. masani hummed in response as she turned around to face juvia. "you think we could go to mcdonald's? i'm hungry." masani nodded her head and began to pull away from the kids school.

as they were waiting in the drive through, juvia noticed that masani was on her phone much more than she usually was. which obviously wasn't a problem, but masani was always smiling and giggling at her phone. "who got you smiling that hard?" juvia laughed looking at how giddy her manager looked. "oh, no one." masani dismissed as she continued to eagerly type on her phone.

"i bet i can guess who it is." juvia challenged. "oh really?" masani responded with amusement. "it's so obvious." juvia patted masani's shoulder and she went onto her own phone. masani squinted her eyes thinking about juvia's words. was it really that obvious?

eventually the trio walked into the studio with bags of mcdonald's in hand. "hi hi." juvia spoke as she saw multiple people she didn't recognize. "o-m-g, yana!" juvia smiled hugging her older cousin. until a couple weeks ago, yana was living in atlanta to further her own music career. she was a singer, songwriter and producer. she was a triple threat. she came back to new york about three weeks ago and juvia has seen her almost everyday since then. juvia had a hugeeee family, but yana has always been her favorite cousin.

"junie!" yana smiled as she hugged her little cousin who she just saw yesterday. yana, with the help of masani, have been helping juvia with her songwriting. yana tried to introduce producing to juvia, but juvia felt that was too much for her and singing was much easier. "oh, you remember ethan right?" juvia asked as she brung notti beside her. "oh, yeah. this your boyfriend right?" notti and juvia looked at each other. "no, we broke up, but we still friends." juvia answered while rubbing her left arm.

yana took juvia and notti's nervousness. she could tell that they broke up for a bad reason, but she wasn't going to press them to tell her. if juvia wants to tell her, then she'll wait until then. "well, let's get started. me and sani wanna introduce you to some people." yana got up from her chair as she guided the two teens to the two men that were on the other side of the room. "oh, ethan, you make music too right?" notti nodded his head. "well, this might be beneficial for you too."

after about an hour of meeting new producers and talking about their plans for juvia's music career, it was finally time for her to step into the booth.

juvia placed the thick black headphones onto her head and took a deep breath. she felt a little nervous about notti seeing her actually singing in a professional level. "okay, junie, you ready?" yana asked. juvia nodded her head in response and soon she heard the melodic instrumental fill her ears.

(play the song up top!)

"memories sinkin, deep in, leakin in my mine. all the time tried to forget you, thought i could
get you to be mine. memories sinkin, deep in, leakin in my mine. all of the time i can't forget to try to forget you in my mine." juvia couldn't lie, she felt weird singing songs about her and notti with him in the room. she honestly thought she'd never speak to him again.

"pretending i have the patience. pretending there is enough time for waiting. remembering when we kept it all so basic. i wanna go back so that i could taste it. what do i care for? you were not there anymore. i was not careful. this is all your fault. you let me fall." yana turned around and saw notti looking solely at juvia. "this about you?" she asked snapping notti out of his trance. "yeah." he replied with a voice laced in guilt. yana felt a little sadden by notti. she could tell that whatever caused them to break up was eating away at him slowly. "i don't know the ins and outs of y'all relationship, but don't beat yourself up about it." she placed her hand on his shoulder and gave him a kind smile. "it's hard not too." he sighed.

"buried alive here inside a nightmare. living a life where you're gone. there is no light here. it'll be light years until my minds clear. i did it all for love, i did it all. i'd trade it all for you, i'd trade it all. but what do i care for? what are you here for? if you're not there when i call? i was not careful and that's all your fault. you let me fall."

notti looked back up at juvia. "it's hard to not beat myself up when i hear her singing about all the pain i caused her." yana didn't respond to notti. she honestly didn't even know what to say to that. "yeah, that's true. but think about it this way, just imagine how comfortable juvia is with you for her to be singing about her emotions in front of you. you gotta stop beating yourself up. if juju can forgive you, then you gotta figure yourself too." notti smiled at yana. "you right, thank you." yana smiled back at him and turned around to face juvia who was going into the third verse.

"this ain't how it's supposed to be, you and me supposed to be. remember when it be just you and me in your crib smoking trees." notti smiled at the memories of him and juvia hotboxing in his room. "like you took control of me. you had a hold of me. had me so gone, baby. yeah, you had me giving me all of me. now it's all over, it's all done. should've never told ya, you're the one. i'll be all right, i will be just fine. i'll be okay once you get out my mind."

about a minute later, juvia wrapped up the song and came out of the booth. "soooo, what y'all think?" juvia smiled looking at notti, yana, masani and the two new producers eric and nathan.

"you already know you killed it." yana smiled as she patted her cousins shoulder. juvia looked at notti hoping he'd speak next. he didn't say anything, but he did smile at her indicating that he liked the song. he wasn't about to express his complete feelings about the song until the two teenagers were alone.

after about an hour, juvia's studio session was over, and her and notti were currently walking home. "i still don't see why you didn't wanna take a uber." notti mumbled as he shoved his hands into his coat pockets trying to get warm. "cause we haven't done this in awhile." she answered seeing her cold breath in the air.

"i really did miss you, juvia." notti blurted out feeling sentimental and somewhat vulnerable. "i deadass thought i was never gonna be able to redeem myself from what happened." juvia frowned thinking about notti's birthday. she honestly wasn't trying to hear about what happened for the billionth time, but she knew that she had to hear notti out. after all, she had been ducking and dodging him for the past month now.

"a nigga was losing his mind without you. i felt like i couldn't breathe." notti laughed causing juvia to join in. "foreal though. i deadass thought i was gonna die from heartbreak or something." juvia stopped in her tracks. she knew that notti was crashing out without her in his life, but to hear him say it himself was pulling at her heart. "i'm sorry." juvia made intense eye contact with ethan to let him know she was being serious. notti furrowed his groomed brows. he didn't understand why she was apologizing.

"i know that your wondering why i'm apologizing to you," notti smiled hearing that juvia could still read his thoughts. "but i'm apologizing because i never took the time to hear you out until a couple days ago. i was being immature and-" notti immediately placed juvia's face into his hands. "nah baby, ion wanna hear you apologizing for that." she smiled at the infamous nickname that made her heart melt. "you had every right to act the way you did, especially because i couldn't prove myself to you. i'm not mad at you. i could never be mad at you, juvia. you know that." they both smiled at each other. they both finally felt complete again.

MIYANAH "YANA" WILLIAMS
twenty five - african american
"she's my cousin, of course she'll be great."
socials: therealyanawilliams