Fireworks 1 and 2

Chapter Thirty-One

    "Where's your girl?"

    "Mia is meeting with Oliver."

    "The fun shit." Noah laughed, seating himself at the sound engineering board and flexing his fingers.

    "The fun shit," Drake repeated, sitting beside him.

    Noah twisted from side to side in his chair. "This album. Do you have a vision yet of what you want the story to be?"

    Drake leaned back in his chair, pursing his lips in thought. Each album for him was a complete body of work, a snapshot of where he was at that point in his life. He wanted this album to be no different. The question was, where was he at in his life? He chewed on his bottom lip as he thought. His conversation earlier that morning with Mia came to mind. He tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair.

    Noah studied him. "You have an idea, I can see it."

    "The idea I have would piss off the fans who are more into my rapping."

    "Take Care 2?" Noah asked.

    Drake stared back at him wordlessly, continuing to tap on the arms of the chair.

    "You did Take Care," Noah said, "and you did Nothing Was the Same. And on Nothing Was the Same, you were happy with where you were at."

    Drake chewed the inside of his cheek, rocking back and forth in the chair. He tilted his head back and stared up at the ceiling.

    "The girl is doing this to you," Noah guessed.

    Drake stroked his chin thoughtfully. "She's doing a lot to me."

    Noah held his hands up.

    "Not...like that, man," Drake was quick to say. "I mean...making me think. I don't know. She's...a good girl."

    "Keep her that way," Noah said, giving him a knowing look.

    Drake nodded. He shifted in his seat, leaning heavily on one of the arms of the chair. "All right so the concept that I'm thinking is...a guy, right? I mean...of course, a guy. Me. At the height of his career. Wants love. Wants love from a particular girl, but feels like he can't pursue that right now."

    Noah crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. "Are you talking...mostly ballads?"

    Drake ran a hand over his head. "I don't know, man. I don't even know what I'm talking."

    "The last album had everyone hype," Noah said, tapping his foot on the floor. "I don't know if you want to bring them down from that hype with an album that is mostly ballads."

    "Or is that the perfect time to hit them with an album that is mostly ballads?" Drake countered while still staring up at the ceiling. He felt like he should have a hang of how to please his audience but there was no telling. Timing was everything. There was no set formula as to when to drop an album like Take Care versus an album more like If You're Reading This It's Too Late, which had more confrontational tracks on it. There was no way to predict what listeners would embrace and what they'd write off.

    Noah continued to tap his foot on the floor. "If you feel this is what you need to do, you know I'm on board. Just letting you know, that it's possible that they're going to want to hear more of the confrontational you. That's most likely what they're expecting."

    Drake balled his hands into fists and rubbed his eyes. "That's a rabbit hole I refuse to fall into. If I lock myself into the box of making art that I think they want to hear, it's a box I'll be locked in for the rest of my career."

    "That rhymes. Possible lyric?" Noah quipped, pointing a finger at him.

    Drake laughed. "Seriously. I write about what is going on in my life. They either relate to it or they don't. Am I wrong?"

    Noah shook his head. "It's how you've been doing things so far."

    Drake nodded. "Right. No reason to change up now." The more he thought about it, the more right it felt. "Right now, that is the headspace I'm in. Tired of the hoes, tired of the females who use me and tired of using them to fill whatever void I think I have. Tired of the fakeness in the industry. Tired of feeling like I have to feel...alone...just to be successful. You know? I somehow got it in my head that I have to stay single. During the height and peak of my career, I should be single. No obligations. But...a relationship isn't just an obligation. It's having someone there to support you, someone to stand in your corner. Someone to take care of you when you do go home, someone to share your accomplishments with. And when you fight battles, you're not fighting them alone when you're with someone. You have someone right there, fighting for you - no with you. And...I miss having that. You know? So..."

    Noah glanced over at him. "So...?"

    "So, the question, or the theme for this album...I guess...would be...Can I have the money? And the fame? And the success? And have love, too? Or is it asking for too much? Or would everything crumble if I added one more blessing on top of it all?" Drake looked over at Noah.

    A slow smile crept onto Noah's face. He nodded slowly. "All right," he said, rocking in his chair while cracking his knuckles. "With that spin on it...I think we could make that concept for the album work."

    Drake lowered his gaze, still in thought. Weighing the question he'd proposed for his album in his own mind.

    "When is she going to start helping you write?"

    "I figure tomorrow," Drake replied, distracted by his own thoughts. "I didn't want to pile too much on her all at once. You remember how detailed those contracts are. She'll probably be overwhelmed with it all. She snapped on me for having security hold onto her phone."

    "Who wouldn't snap on you for that, in this day and age?" Noah asked, cracking up.

    Drake shrugged, grinning. "You know why I have that policy in place."

    Noah nodded, wiping the smile from his face. "I do. I do." He ran a hand over his face. "So you and the girl. Are you..."

    Drake shook his head. "We agreed to keep things professional."

    "Heard she slept in your room last night..." Noah made a display of looking everywhere else in the room other than in his friend's eyes.

    "Nothing happened," Drake informed him.

    Noah hoisted an eyebrow. "She was able to resist you?"

    "Shut up, man," Drake said, chuckling and standing.

    "She was able to resist the seductive wiles of Drake? ChampagnePapi? Drizzy?"

    "She was...kind of mean to me, man," Drake said, rubbing the back of his neck.

    Noah pointed at him. "She's the one."

    "Haaaaa," Drake sang out, walking away from the studio area.

    "Mark my words, and I know you hear me!" Noah shouted after him. "She's the one!"

    Drake lifted a hand in the air as he rounded the corner and exited the studio.