Long Island's Rising Popstar

Chapter 7: This Girl Ain't Worth It

Was she ghosting him?

No way. There was no way. She was the one! At least, he thought she was. But his parents loved her! She was basically part of the family, and they were already thinking about marriage.

Ok, he had to slow down. The first question to ask was why Niayrah would even begin to ignore him in the first place.

Was it about Harlem's Paradise? His job with Eczavier? How much did she know? Did she know anything at all? Was it unrelated?

The rapper sighed. Maybe he was taking this too far. Niayrah had supported him all the way through his first meet with Mr. Stokes, and it was perfectly possible that she was just sick or something.

But still, if she wasn't....

Before going to bed that night, Fresh made a deal with himself that he would go by her house tomorrow before his first session with Young Ferb, just to check on his girl. That would be ok, right?

Even with that, the unsettling outcome stayed in his mind as he looked up at the ceiling. It would be catastrophic if he found out she was... no, he didn't want to think about that. From the day that Jay met Niayrah, he knew she would be the one. If the opposite turned out to be true, they'd have to break up. And without her there, he didn't know what to do.

Matt was right when he had said that other day that it was bad to dwell on things, on people. But this was one person that kept Jaelen up all night.

Luckily, he fell asleep before midnight, but he would have been lying if he said it wasn't hard to close his eyes with all the nervousness in the pit of his stomach. He even woke up feeling a little sick. Nevertheless, he got up and took a shower after making sure he wasn't actually sick. No, he was fine. Just nervous.

Jay walked out into the kitchen to get a piece of toast and a bowl of cereal before he left for the day. Tanya was already up, giving her son a smile. "And how is my son this morning?"

"I don't know." Fresh shrugged, already showing signs of moping that he didn't have the last time his parents saw him.

The woman gave her son a glance. "You don't know? What's wrong, honey? You feeling ok?"

"Yeah, I checked. I'm alright." He replied, trying not to sound monotone and failing.

Tanya turned towards Jay. "Ok, what is going on? You were all happy last night, you're gonna perform this next weekend, everything's great." She walked over to the table where he sat. "Did... oh no. Are you not performing after all? Is it cancelled?"

Fresh's eyes widened. "No, no, no. Mom, the concert's not cancelled. I'm still doing the show."

"Then why are you down? You know I don't like it when you don't tell me things."

Jay took a deep breath. "It's Niayrah. I think she's ignoring me."

Tanya scoffed. "Come on, baby. She's not ignoring you. Maybe she's just sick or something."

"That's what I thought. But she would tell me. She usually does."

"Sometimes people don't pick up their phone in bed."

"We don't even know if she's sick!" Fresh blurted out. "I texted her 2 days ago, and again last night, and I still got nothing back. I'm worried." He wasn't crying, but he was close. "I'm gonna check on her today."

"Oh, Jay. You don't need to check on her, she's probably just fine."

"Well, I'm gonna." Tanya set a plate of food down in front of him. "If she's fine, her parents will let me know."