𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐲, 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 ¹

twenty three.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
rehearsal

Royalty

next day

The argument Royalty had with Blake yesterday was still on her mind. She'd never seen him so angry before, and it wasn't even necessary. All she did was not reply to his text for sixty seconds. Why was that such a big deal?

She felt bad afterwards because maybe she was disregarding Blake. He never did that to her, so she had tried to apologize, but he started ignoring her. Thanks to that, she finally had the inspiration to write her first song.

She was laying down in bed, writing the lyrics with a proud smirk on her face.

I ain't shy
Move it double time
You tryna hold me tight
But I'mma fly high like Superman, you heard right

It's gone be, what it's gone be
No controlling me
You gone get what I give, take it like a freebie

Let me rock, babe
You can't make me stop, babe
Fire like a bang bang
Let me rock, babe
You go do your own thing
Don't worry 'bout nothing
(Don't worry about it, baby)

That was just the beginning. She also wrote in some background adlibs for Tiana since she needed to be included somehow. She was going to love it.

Royalty continued writing down lyrics while laughing because this was coming so easy to her now. She had Blake to thank.

Suddenly, Cookie came into her room. "Hey, baby."

"Oh hey, mom."

"What are you doing?"

"Finally writing some lyrics down. Here, look."

She handed Cookie the notepad and she read the lyrics. "Woah."

Royalty frowned. "You don't like it?"

"No, I love it. I'm just hoping this isn't about someone specific." She gave Ro a serious look. "Do I have to beat someone's ass?"

"Well...that song is about Blake. He's Hakeem's best friend, and he wants to be with me."

"Nope! Don't even think about it!"

"Why?"

"Because he's Hakeem's best friend. That's a red flag right there."

Royalty laughed hard and sat up. "Blake's cool though. The only issue is that he doesn't give me space. He gets mad if I don't reply back immediately."

"He sounds controlling, Ro. I'm not about to let no man control you, so leave him alone," Cookie ordered.

Royalty frowned down at her bed. "Yeah...maybe I need to. Anyway, did you need something?"

Cookie spoke kindly. "I wanted to say thank you for standing up for me. You want your father to make me CEO, and that means a lot."

"Your money helped build Empire, so you deserve it more than the rest of us."

"But don't you wanna be CEO like your brothers?"

"Nope, I don't wanna be in charge. I told dad that, but of course he wasn't having it. He's forcing me to compete because 'every Lyon should strive to be on top.'"

Cookie snorted. "Yup, that sounds like Lucious. I actually don't disagree with him. You should want to be your own boss."

"If the opportunity comes around, then maybe I'll take it. But right now, I want to focus on making some music."