Fireworks 1 and 2

Chapter Five

    They exited the cabana, and bass-heavy music pulsed around them. Mia quickly spotted her friends, and they headed over to rejoin them.

    Bri and Desirae looked her over, checking to see if one hair or piece of clothing was out of place.

    A tall, dark-haired man with a well-trimmed beard and narrow, kind eyes approached Drake and spoke into his ear. "Meg is on the phone. There's an issue with the fansite." He pressed a white and gold iPhone into Drake's hand.

    Drake, looking confused, said, "I don't know anything about websites, so I won't be much of a help, but I'll talk to her." He lifted the phone to his ear. "Hello? Yeah. Ryan just handed me the phone. What's up?"

    He listened to what the person on the other end of the line had to say.

    "Well, we definitely want to get the site back up, yeah. Hold on a minute." He covered the speaker of the phone with one hand and turned to Mia. "I have to take this call, but enjoy yourselves and I'll be back in a bit."

    The three girls nodded.

    Immediately, Bri honed in on her. "What happened in there? There are beds in there, aren't there? What did you guys do?"

    Desirae planted her hands on her hips. "Did you make out with him?"

    Mia laughed. "Nothing like that," she said. "He invited me to his house in Calabasas. He wants me to write songs with him."

    Bri's eye widened. "Are you serious? How did the conversation start?" Bri asked.

    "He asked me about my life and said he looked up my videos on YouTube after the kid asked for my autograph," Mia replied.

    "I still think that was pretty disrespectful," Bri muttered. "Drake is standing there and you ask someone else for their autograph?" She felt her friends' eyes on her. "No offense, Mia. You're a great songwriter, and you have a great voice, too, but it's OVOFest. And the reason for OVOFest was standing right there. And the kid walks right past him so he could hit on you."

    "The kid was like fifteen," Mia said. "He was just excited to meet someone he's seen on YouTube. He wasn't hitting on me."

    "When boys are fifteen, the only thing on their brains are boobs," Bri theorized. "Boobs and butts."

    "Tits and ass," Desirae emphasized.

    Mia shook her head at both of them. "Did you guys dance at all? Or did you stand here this whole time talking nonsense?"

    "We danced a little," Desirae replied. "Bri wanted to go swimming but was too chicken."

    "I wasn't too chicken." Bri argued. "What had happened was, I just got my hair relaxed and didn't want to fuck it up for a two-minute swim. There's still a whole nother day of OVOFest left and I'm not trying to show up looking like a tumbleweed."

    A brown-skinned man approached them and introduced himself as Nicholas. He had two friends with him. While he spoke to Mia, his friends gravitated towards Bri and Desirae, and introduced themselves.

    "Are you enjoying yourself?" Nicholas asked Mia.

    The server returned with her drink. She fished around for her wallet in her purse, but the server shook his head. "Drake is taking care of all of your drinks."

    "Oh...thank you." She closed her purse and sipped her drink.

    Nicholas chuckled. "Drake? The Drake? Is covering your drinks?"