Fireworks 3 and 4

Chapter Thirteen

AUBRIHAR: Have you seen the recent pics of Aubrey? He looks so sad. I wonder if he and Rihanna are in an argument.

AUBRIHSZN: Rihanna, where are you Mom? We haven't seen a photo of you in forever.

LINKUPDADDI: I found more photos of Drake and Rih in the club last night. Look at my parents!

KEV3DIT2: Rihanna seen wearing orange camo pants, and Aubrey seen wearing camo the very next day. Everything accidentally on purpose, ya'll. AubrihSZN eleven is in session. Check the next podcast for predictions on how this will all play out. You guys thought he was with Mia? Mia? He was just helping get her career off the ground because he was nice like that. Aubrey himself told you all that he's loved Rihanna since he was twenty-two years old, but you guys want to keep playing. Tune in to the next podcast, scheduled for this weekend.

    Mia scrolled through the Instagram silliness. Fans cosigning the reuniting of Drake and Rihanna. There were some fans here and there who felt sympathy for Mia, and wondered what went wrong. Media outlets stayed in her inbox, letting her know that if she needed a platform to tell the story, they were more than willing to oblige.

    Temporarily ending things with Drake opened her schedule a great deal more. Why he'd wanted her to join him for this charade, she didn't know. It was difficult to sell the lie of being back with Rihanna when she was waiting for him in a hotel room they shared.

    A few gossip blogs were trying to sell the story that she and Travis were now involved. It seemed that Travis and his team were in no hurry to dispel those rumors. Most likely that was because those rumors would help him to keep supporting his woman.

    And how can he do that? Mia wondered as she boarded a plane bound for Los Angeles. He explained that by supporting Rihanna, he was watching the money pile up for both of them, but how doesn't it kill him inside whenever he sees her with Aubrey? How doesn't it kill him inside to have to sneak into side entrances? Why does he bother to show up at all, if he knows that she has signed up to sell a pipedream to gullible fans?

    She clapped a pair of headphones over her ears and leaned her head back. Even though she was flying first class, passengers still tugged on the sleeve of her shirt, or nudged her to say hi. They still asked for autographs, still asked for pictures, and still snapped photos of her without her permission. This was her life now.

    But I'm not a big enough deal to give him the press she wants, she thought angrily. I guess I need to be on another level for that. She sat up a little straighter in her chair at that last thought.

    Broken conversations were happening all around here. Somewhere towards the back of the plane, a baby was crying. The sound was overwhelmed by the different sounds generated by the plane, so it was faint. But it was there. Flight attendants spoke and joked with each other while passengers continued to board. One of the business executives was playing a video game on his phone. It wasn't a myth: men never really grew up.

    But amidst all of this, Mia's mind was racing. The gears in her head were turning, forming comprehensive plans as to what she was going to do. The sounds in the plane muted, and she slowly moved her headphones off of her ears. I'm not currently at the level of stardom that would help him to fight any of his battles, but I can be. Just because I don't have any clothing deals or makeup lines or shoe deals doesn't mean that I can't have any. I just have to... Her eyes narrowed. I just have to get there. I just have to make the right moves, make sure my performances are top notch, start shooting music videos - real, legit music videos. And if I'm doing all of that, then I'd also have to go on my own tour, not one that I'm co-headlining. If I want to do it, I can do it. I just have to line up my chess pieces on the board the right way.

    Her thoughts were racing as the final passengers boarded and as the pilot introduced himself over the intercom.

    As the plane took off, Mia placed her headphones back over her ears, smiling. My poor baby thinks that he has to forge alliances with every poppin' rapper emerging onto the scene and promote fictional relationships in order to win his "battles," but I'm going to show him how to really win. It's time for me to become a boss ass bitch. She closed her eyes and whispered, "Checkmate."