ONNAXOFF

Chapter 42 (Part 1)

Jessie

When we finally get out of bed and make our way down to the hotel café for breakfast, Cash and Freddie are already sitting down at a table near the entrance. Abel bags us a table in a more secluded corner while I go to get us coffee. I deposit the cups on the table and flop down opposite him. 

“Careful, it's hot.” I say as he grabs the one nearest to him.
He ignores my warning and takes a big gulp. The scalding liquid coursing down his throat doesn’t even begin to wipe the joyful look off his face.

“You had a show yesterday, another one the night before and another tonight. How are you not dead right now?" I use my own steaming mug to warm my hands.

“I am. But tonight's the last night. And three shows, back to back to back, at the O2? What a way to go out.” He says, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

"Clearly, I need these more than you do." I take his sunglasses off the table and cover my own sensitive eyes. “So last night is all a bit of a blur, but please tell me I dreamt the part where I met Jhene Aiko and made a complete fool of myself.”

"You mean when you hugged her like a thousand times and called her a 'sexy fairy'? No, that happened." He laughs. 

"Oh no." I cringe.

"Girl, that was just the start. Later, Aubrey played us some new instrumentals that he's been working on and the next thing I know, you were freestyling over them."

"I was what?!"

"You heard me." He smirks.

"Freestyling as in rapping? What the fuck was I rapping?"

"A lot of it was clearly ripped off from Kendrick Lamar, but you kept saying something about having 'green eyes like dolla signs' and then throwing up gang signs." He recounts gleefully. That explains why Hawk laughingly pointed out that my eyes look more red than green this morning.

I exhale heavily. "Oh God. Why didn't you stop me?"

"Stop you? I wish I'd recorded it. I thought I was gonna die laughing."

"You know, a good boyfriend would not have let me embarrass myself in front of everyone." I grumble.

"And a good girlfriend wouldn't have gotten wasted and had all the fun while I was having a sober day." He replies. Touché.

"Ugh, well you don't have to worry about that anymore.  I'm never drinking again." I groan.

“But tonight's the last show! Tonight, I’m going to get seriously fucked up. It's tradition."

“I know, I still remember the last night of the Kiss Land tour. I've never seen you so out of it.” I recall the fateful night before my allergic reaction.

“Yeah, maybe not that fucked up.” His energy falters a bit. He takes a thoughtful gulp of coffee and asks, "So what you doing today?"

“I was planning on going to Eli’s house."

“Oh cool. We can drop you off.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I don’t mind. Anything for my number 1 fan.” He takes another long gulp of his coffee. “Plus, I wanna say hi to him.”

"Number 1 fan?" I scoff. "Bitch, please. At this point, I can't stand your music. I didn't even go to last night's show."

"Bullshit. I saw you there, remember?"

"You saw me backstage. But did you see me in the crowd?" He narrows his eyes at me. Obviously, he can't see individual faces in the crowd. "No, I didn't think so."