"What do you mean you're not feeling it?"

Tone and she were hanging out at her place, doing what they always do, making out, but he was not into it. She kept kissing and cuddling against him, and he barely said a word and kept moving away from her.

This must be the time when he was going to break up with her. She was ready.

"Not like that No, not you, it's me."

"You? What's wrong? Just be honest if you're going to dump me-"

"No! Nola why do you always think I'm going to dump you? I'm going through some shit right now..."

Her sister breaking up his group and him deciding to go solo. She knew he was hurt about it, but it sounded like a good idea to her.

"What do you want me to do? How can I help? You want me to talk to Sarena?"

"That won't help. I made the decision, I could have left with my boys, and we could get a deal somewhere else, but I know Icee believes in me, and...it's a lot of pressure. Being a solo artist, all eyes are on me. Shit gotta be tight, and I have to represent working with Icee."

She had no clue about music. She liked listening to it, was about all she could do. Singing to it if she liked the song. How to make a good song worthy of being recorded, was not her forte.

But she knew someone who knew more about music than her.

"You haven't met my brother CJ. He writes songs." She grabbed her phone and started texting him. "He's back in college, but maybe if he is free-"

"He writes songs? Like raps?"

"No, he sings, but I'm sure he can still help."

"I can write my own rhymes, just...doing it all alone feels different. All I know is to watch some of the greatest to ever do it. Like Icee. Or old heads like Nas, Tupac, Biggie."

"You don't want to sound like any of them, especially Icee."

He groaned, pushing her. "I know that."

"Hey, CJ is done with classes today, he said let's meet up at the mall."

She did not need to be told twice to go to the mall. Since her sister's mall opened, it was her favorite spot to hang out. She ran across some old high school friends she had not seen since graduation, and they would text and chat and hang out, so she wasn't home alone doing nothing most days.

CJ was already at the food court, eating a burrito when they walked up.

"Hey, brother."

"Hey sister," he greeted her.

"Babe, you want something to eat, my man's burrito over there looking fiyah," Tone said.

"Sure, I'll take a burrito bowl, with chicken, you know what I like in it."

"I got you," he said, kissing her and then walking off.

She smiled and sat at the table with CJ.

"Why are you all smiles? That's your boy?"

"That's Tone, isn't he hot?"

"Man, I told you I ain't gay so why you askin-"

"You don't have to be gay to appreciate a nice-looking guy."

"Long as he treating my sis right, I don't care what he looking like. Y'all good? What's up?"

"He is stressing out after Sarena broke up his rap group. Then she signed him solo. He never wanted to be solo."

"Shit, that's where the money at anyway." CJ went back to eating his burrito.

"I told him you could help him with his music. You know, you have an ear for it, so just...I don't know, listen to whatever he has been working on. I'm not saying he can't do it by himself, I think he needs-"

"Hold up sis, did he ask for my help or something? Are you not gonna let my man reach out for help? Let that man be the man."

She rolled her eyes at him. Men and their egos. She reached over and grabbed one of her brother's chips and dipped it in his guacamole.

"What are you working on since Sarena signed you?"

"Shit." He didn't say anything else, kept eating and ignoring her.

In the last few weeks, she got to know CJ well, but he still was very guarded. He never told her his deep feelings or many personal things about himself. He would talk about school or weird things he saw on social media, but nothing too personal. Nothing about his mother, nothing about their father, not even what he worked on musically.

Did he not want to be a superstar?

Tone walked over with her food and his burrito, taking a seat beside her.

"Tone, this is my...baby brother CJ Kelly."

"Baby? Girl, I am two months younger than you."

"Damn, poppa was a rolling stone, huh?" Tone chuckled.

"You don't have to talk about him around me, I'm cool on that dude. What kind of man doesn't take care of his six daughters? Leaves his baby girl? Never told me I had fam? I'm good with him."

Well, that was that. Probably more than he ever said about their father. CJ seemed to have no problems opening up to Tone.

"CJ, you really feel that way?"

"Sis, after hanging with you and my sisters on Christmas, I felt like I wanted to hurt the man, keeping me away from y'all. Like, damn, I'm an uncle and shit. They don't even know me. What would have happened if you guys didn't get famous?"

"I'm not famous."

"She's modest," Tone kissed her cheek. "I think it's cool y'all found each other and are the same age."

"I'll be twenty-one soon! I can't wait!"

"Right behind you, sis!" CJ gave her a fist ump. "Let's party it up too."

"Y'all look alike," Tone said.

"No we don't!" they both said at the same time, and she laughed.

"Yo, ghetto twins!"

"So Tone, my sister told me about your group and shit, tough break. But hey, soldier on. Don't let shit distract you and put the work in. Get that paper."

"It's not about the money for me," Tone said, "I mean, I want it, don't get, me wrong. The first thing I would do is buy my momma a nice house. Something real rich rich. Then I want to invest it in other things, like Icee. Then Imma hook my girl up." He said that with an elbow to her.

"Me? No, you do not have to buy me anything."

"So what are you working on?" CJ asked.

"Shit. Everything I wrote since I have been on my own is garbage. My rhymes flowed freely with my boys, now what the fuck do I have to rap about? I'm all alone, fucking hungry, and I just wanta bust some heads I'm so angry and shit, bruh. Like, much respect to y'all sis Sarena, but... does she even know what the fuck she doing?"

"I don't know her well...but so far, I like her," CJ said. "She didn't give me a record deal, record an album and just rest on my laurels, or my last name. Nope, she wants me to show and prove I deserve to be there, wait my turn, and show her my real talent. I'm willing to do that."

She raised an eyebrow at her brother. "What's that?"

"I'm a writer. I write songs. I've already written a couple for Tennille I submitted for her new album."

How did she not know about that?

"You write rap?" Tone asked.

He shrugged. "Writing is writing, I write everything."

"You want to help a brother out?"

"If it gets me in the studio so I can show big sister I'm ready for this."

"Oh! So cool! My boyfriend and my baby brother can do a song together." She smiled loving the thought. She was dating a semi-celebrity...or a celebrity in the making, and her brother could be big as well.

They continued talking about the song Tone already had written, about how far he had come, how he was close to his dreams, on top of the world, but had so much anger about his life. Typical Gen Z type song, cocky but with much anger and depression. Tone wanted to have it all, but he wanted it his way.

She loved the song, Mad at the World. The words were somewhat rough, but the story he told was deep. She knew a lot of people her age would dig what he was going through.

She looked around at the mall, wondering if they should let someone hear the lyrics, just a random person, to see if Tone was going in the right direction. Maybe she loved everything he did because she thought he was awesome. Maybe CJ loved everything he wrote because he was being nice.

A fresh pair of ears would help him, maybe building his confidence up.

Her guards, trying to be inconspicuous, were sitting a few tables over from them. They were older, in their thirties, they would not understand the vibe of the song.

She saw a group of teenagers, playing on their phones as they shared a basket of fries. Other than that, she did not see many young people her age. A guy was sitting at one table, hoodie over his head, phone held up as if he was recording...like he was recording her.

She jumped up. It was him! She knew it was him, she felt it in her bones.

She took off running towards him, but he jumped up and ran off. She did not look behind her to see if the guys or her guards were following, she had to catch him. The guy ran through the mall fast, like he was in shape and ran a lot, whereas, she lounged on her ass and did nothing all day. Running was hard and she was out of breath, but determination kept her going.

Soon, she heard the guys behind her.

"Nola!"

Then the guards ran full speed toward the guy who had now run outside of the mall. She stopped running when Tone put his arms around her.

"Who was that and why are you chasing him?"

"I think that's TA?"

"What?" Tone knew most of what happened with her sisters and TA, but she had not told him everything and she did not want him to know everything.

"TA from Fact Iz?" CJ asked.

She told CJ even less, only that he was after her and her sisters, not that they attacked and nearly killed him and why. He did not need to know that his newly found sisters, minus her, were tough as nails and deadly weapons.

"Babe, that didn't look like him, and he sure as hell did not run like him."

"He was recording us. Me! That bastard sat in my sisters' mall and stalked me."

"Nola, you don't know for sure if that was him or not."

"Then I need to find out." She walked toward the exit doors the guy ran through. Once outside, no one was around. It was a cold mid-January day, a weekday, and a lot of teenagers were still in school for the day. There were lots of cars in the mall, meaning the stay-at-home moms and dads were in the mall.

She did not see her guards. They all walked around to look. Where did the guy go? Did her guards catch him? And if they didn't, what good were they?

"No, it was probably a fan. Recognized you from all the KStyle ads, knows you're a Kelly sister and wanted to get it on video."

"Tone, how can you not take this serious? He wants to hurt me and my sisters because of what we did."

"What did you do?" CJ asked.

"I'll tell you about it later, but not now."

As they walked some more, around the corner, her guards appeared.

"Well?"

"It wasn't him," one said.

"You didn't catch him? How do you-"

"Got a good look at his face. No scar. No hair, darker-skinned than Tucker. Trust us, we know what this guy looks like, Victor would have our heads if we missed him."

"But he could have fixed his face and darkened his skin as a disguise! You guys did not get a good look at him, he ran so fast."

"Nola, we got this, okay," her guard said. "People like to record random people they see out all the time. We'll let Victor know to be on the lookout if anyone downloads any footage of you and-"

"That's not enough!" she yelled at him.

Tucker was still out there. If he was watching her, he was watching the rest of her sisters. What would she do if she came face to face with him? She could barely run a few feet before her chest felt like it was burning.

She could not fight, Victor only taught her the bare minimum in self-defense when she was sixteen. Never having to fight or use those methods, she felt she would be a weakling in contact with someone evil like Tucker.

"Guys, let's just go."

"But we were having fun hanging out," CJ said.

"Why don't you two go hang, finish the song, and I'll just go home. I'm tired. I need to lay down."

"You sure babe?" Tone asked her.

"Positive." She turned to her guards. "Let's go."

But she did not want to go home. She was not that tired. She needed to take matters into her own hands and get more lessons from Victor.

A/N: So Tucker (cause y'all know that was him) was sitting in Kitty's mall stalking Nola? And if he has his eyes on one, you know he has his eyes on the others. We don't know where he will show up next.