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Forty Six

October, 1999

It had been a few months since Warped Tour, and everything was going really well. Not just in the Marshall department, but in every aspect of my life. DeShaun and Sharonda had their baby boy about a week ago, who was the absolute cutest little thing I had ever laid eyes on since Isaiah. Devon had pretty much completely gotten off my back, which I was thankful as fuck about, and my work was going incredibly amazing. So much so that I was even given a project out in L.A. to go and work on for a week. I was nervous though. I had never been away from Isaiah for that long, I felt bad about leaving my mom with him for a whole week, and this project I was working on was for a major music video. Prior to this, I had only been working on small stuff for the company, random people from Detroit that would commission us, or stupid local TV commercials. 

I had always known that the company did big music videos for certain people, but I just never figured I would be working on one, let alone so soon. I had only been actively working with them again for six months, and they were already sending me out to L.A.! Not to mention, the dance style they wanted was more salsa inspired, and while I had some experience with that, it wasn't much. But there was no way in hell I could turn down a weeks worth of 24/7 pay, and a free trip to L.A.! I mean, who would?! 

As I was packing what felt like my entire life away into multiple suitcases, I heard my phone start to ring out in the kitchen. At least I think it's my phone? I'm not sure. I finally got myself a cellphone, considering the large pay cheque I was about to receive, and I still wasn't used to the ring of it. 

I wondered out towards where I heard the ringing, smiling at Isaiah who was peacefully playing on the living room floor with his blocks as I grabbed my phone from off the kitchen table. Flipping it open, I reluctantly hit the talk button, unsure if this was the correct way of answering it? "Hello?" I said meekly, hoping I hadn't just accidentally hung up on whoever was calling. I'm pretty sure it was Marshall, considering I recognized the number, but I still hadn't figured out how to add people into my contact list yet. 

"Yo! Whatchu doin'?" Yup. Definitely Marshall. 

"Not much, just packin'. I got a flight out to L.A. tomorrow morning." 

"Yeah! I just got off the phone with your mom, why you ain't tell me you was comin' out here?! I'm in L.A. 'til Tuesday." 

My eyebrows scrunched together. "What? Really? How? I just saw you like, a week ago?" 

He chuckled. "This is how we do it now. I be flyin' out here for only a day sometimes." 

"Oh. Well what are you doin' out there?" 

"Ah, just workin' on some stuff for this album, and we're finalizing the label on Monday so I had to come out to sign some papers and shit for it." 

"Oh right! 'Course. I forgot about that. Are you excited or what?" I smiled to myself.

"Hell yeah, I'm so stoked for it. It's gonna be fuckin' dope once we finally get it up and runnin'." 

"You gonna sign D12?" I asked playfully. 

"Yo of course! Come on now, Ti." 

I laughed. "Good, just makin' sure." 

"Why you comin' out here though? What's goin' on?" 

"Well I just got this random work assignment to go out there and do some choreo for a music video." 

"No shit! Who's it for?!" He asked excitedly. 

I shrugged. "I honestly have no idea. Some artist I've never heard of before, I think she's pretty new. Jennifer Lopez? Do you know her?" 

"Mm..." He trailed off as if he was thinking. "Nah, I ain't think so. What's she do? Pop?"