Chapter 8: The Talk

Saturday Afternoon- Jason

4:19 P.M.

My heart dropped at the message I received:


Um, yeah. We do need to talk.


She knows. She has to know! "She...she messaged me back," I say slowly.

"Great! What'd she say?" asked Raymond.

"Wait, you texted?" Caiden asked, confused, looking up from his phone. He'd gone back to doing whatever it is that he does on his phone. "What did you say?"

"I told her that we needed to talk," I replied, "And she said, 'yeah we do'."

"'We need to talk'?" asked Caiden. "Bro, you sound like you're breaking up with her!"

"Well they do need to talk," said Raymond. "So I'm guessing that she found out who you are?"

"Yeah," I sighed. "Why else would she agree that we need to talk?" I put my face in my hands and sighed again. "Wait! Maybe it's something to do with school!"

"School?" Raymond asked, confused.

"Yeah, she goes to Roosevelt Academy!" I said.

"Where is that?" asked Caiden.

I just looked at him. Caiden is very smart, but forgets things easily—especially if it has nothing to do with our music.

"That's the school you said we were transferring to," I said in disbelief. Wait, what if Caiden got the name of the school wrong?

"Oh! Oh, yeah," he exclaimed. "I knew that sounded familiar!"

I rolled my eyes.

"But why would she want to talk to you about school?" asked Raymond.

"I don't know," I said, "it may not even be about school at all."

"Well, let me know how it goes, bro," said Caiden. "I wanna go down into the studio and mess around with some beats."

We have a studio right here in our home. It makes recording a lot easier, and we all love going down there so Raymond said, "I'll join you. We'll let Jay talk to his girl in peace."

I really wanted to call her and talk, but I knew it'd be better to talk in person. But where could we go to talk? I really hate going out in public more than I have to, especially without my brothers. Could I bring her here? No, not with Caiden and Raymond lurking around. They'd hit on her for sure. I don't want to subject her to that—especially since she knows I'm a celebrity. I'm not ready for her to see my world just yet... maybe not even at all. Maybe... I could meet her at her house? I decided to call and ask.




Saturday Afternoon- Tamia

5:09 P.M.

*Knock-knock*

It was him. I slowly got up and walked towards the front door. I took a deep breath and opened it. There he was. Jason Draper. At my front door. The Jason Draper. Before, he was just some sweet guy that I met at the mall and became friends with. Now, there was a celebrity standing at my door. But he didn't look like a celebrity—at least not the ones I've seen before. He was in the same clothes from the mall, minus the hat.

Now I thought that I'd be too timid to say anything. I thought that I'd be back to my old awkward self. I even thought that I'd be star-struck, having a superstar at my door. But it wasn't like that. Once again, his presence made me comfortable. Like I've known him all my life. Like he really was my friend.

Jokingly, but confidently, I say, "What? No doorbell?" (In reference to him knocking instead of ringing the doorbell.)

At first he just stared at me with his big, beautiful brown eyes. Then a smile appeared on his face as he said, "I guess I'm just old-fashioned."

"Well come in," I said.

He slowly walks in and looks around my house. I wondered what was going through his mind. Was my house too small? I'm sure he lives in a ginormous mansion. Now that I knew he was a celebrity, I wondered what he thought of me. Was I too poor? Did he come to say that we can't be friends? I had to stop overthinking.

Just then, Jason turns to me and says, "There's something I wanna tell you."

I knew what he was going to say, but I didn't know if I wanted to hear it. Immediately and without thinking I say, "That you're a celebrity?"

His eyes, which had been staring at the ground looked up at me. He said, "You knew..." his eyes trailed back down to the floor. "H-how long..." he started very hesitantly. "How long have you known?" he asked.

"For maybe about forty-five minutes now," I said. Wait, did he think that I always knew and didn't say anything?

Speaking up again, I said, "I know you heard my friend Morrissa talking on the phone today. But like I told you, I don't listen to contemporary music. So I truly had no idea who you were. When we left the mall, we went back to her place and she played me some of your songs and showed me pictures of you. At first I wasn't sure, but then..."

I noticed that Jason was looking at me again.

"Look, I would never use you or befriend you just because of your fame. I'm not like that. I wouldn't betray you... like you did me," I said hesitantly. Now I was looking down at the floor.

Jason took me by the hand and motioned me towards the sofa. "I wasn't trying to betray you," he said sincerely as we sat down. "I-I just didn't know how to tell you. You were the first person to see me for me and not my fame... and I've never had that. I didn't want you to look at me differently until I could figure out how to tell you. I'm sorry."

My heart melted. I honestly didn't know what to say. This guy really was genuine. He did want to tell me! But I still felt a little uneasy. He was still a celebrity, not my special friend anymore. I'd have to share him with the world. And he'd be gone on tours and whatnot?