All Falls Down: Kehlani/ You

Intro

Kehlani POV

At a young age my aunt instilled the ideology that college is the only way that I'll make it in the real world. In her eyes that's what was best for me.

Wanting to do the best by her, I went above and beyond to reach the heights my aunt wanted me to reach. It seemed like I was on a high rise, always placed in advanced classes and never getting below an A.

That motivation that I once had seemed to evaporate the day I step foot into high school. My once A average slowly dwindled to a low B. To some it wasn't bad, but to me I felt like I was letting my aunt down.

My transition into high school was fast and abrupt which led me to the wrong crowd. Everyday was I was getting into something new and every week brought a new argument with my aunt. One argument pushed me over.

She wanted the old Kehlani and at the time I wasn't ready to be a an all star student. The pressure was getting to be too much so I ran. Not to far, my friends had parents that allowed me to sleep and eat at their house for free.

I still went to school because I was unable to betray my self conscious. My aunt kept tabs on me through my teachers. She gave them notes to pass on to me but I never opened them.

At fourteen I felt as if I had no passion, nothing to work towards, until one day I found it. I was at one of my friends house for her birthday party. Music was playing quietly in the background.

While everyone was talking and dancing, I was sat near the speaker ingesting every melody, lyric and tone. I stayed in the same spot for three hours listening to artist like Brandy, Musiq Soulchild and Mariah Carey.

The next day I had told my aunt what I wanted for the first time. This lead her to shoot my ideas down. I never let up. To prove that I was serious I got back on top of my grades. I even graduated with a 3.8 gpa.

Still my aunt disapproved of my passion. At an attempt to pursue my own I went behind her back. My aunt was aware that I got a job at a local diner but she didn't know how I was spending the money I accumulated. I would by clothes here and there but a majority of my purchases went towards music related items.

My paychecks weren't to big so I bought everything from either a pawn shop or thrift store. By the end of my senior summer I had enough equipment to build a mini studio.

I didn't revel any of my purchases items until it was time for me to move into my dorm at UCLA. It was in my dorm room when I told my aunt what I would be majoring in.

Like before she disapproved of my decisions but claimed that since I was an adult I could do whatever. We somewhat broke ties after that day the only upside to the situation was that I could pursue my dream by majoring in music.

But the major that I majored in don't make no money

Y/n Hill POV

It's always been me, my sister, my dad and this music store. I never met my mom but from what I heard from my dad she was a great singer. She left after my sister was born. She felt like kids would slow down her potential music career.

My mom let dad have full creative control over my sisters name. My dad said he named my sister Alexis because he couldn't afford a car at the time. It's a strange thought process but my dad is a strange man.

Having two kids by the age of 22 was no easy task but my dad managed to do it. We stayed with our grandma a lot and she taught us a lot about music. At the age of three is when started to play the piano and added the guitar later on when I was 12. Alexis always leaned towards sports so she would be running around with dad while I was cooped inside.

When our grandmother died she left my dad a small pop up shop that use to be her flower shop. Our father into a music store as a way to store and memorialize his late mother. He let Alexis and I name the store and at the ages five and six, we agreed on Soul Sound.

My childhood was different than most because I grew up being treated as a boy because I had a male part. As I got older, my chest began to develop small lumps. My voice changed but it didn't get very deep, just slightly. The doctors ran test and it turned out that I am intersex.

Growing up was hard at first before I met my Dani in eight grade. She stayed by my side all the way through high school.

Rather than being a college student I decided to work at the music store. I found peace with listening to music all day and helping people find new artist. Now at nineteen I fully own Soul Sound while my dad travels the states as a truck driver. Alexis got a full ride scholarship to UCLA to play volleyball.

Soul Sound has become my number one priority. The small business only brought in enough money to pay rent and fed me so I turned a large supply closet into my room.

It wasn't the dream to some, but it was the dream to me