Fireworks 3 and 4

Fireworks: Forever Chapter 6ixteen

    Nicki Minaj could count on one hand the amount of people she trusted. There were two people at the top of that list, and one of them was too busy to listen to her vent. The other best friend was taking sweet time in finishing a meal that had been delivered to the house nearly an hour ago. Just taking sweet time while Nicki was nearly bursting with the need to vent.

    She stood staring at her reflection in the dining room mirror - and not for the purpose of critiquing her hair, fit, or makeup. As she stared in her reflection now, she didn't see the fully made up rap goddess that the rest of the world saw. She saw the real woman behind the entertainment personalities she'd created. In that reflection, she also saw the version of her that existed before she'd become a successful rapper. Buried underneath the inches upon inches of hair, designer threads and perfectly applied cat eyeliner was the girl who'd dreamt about being an entertainer. That version of her wouldn't have settled for anything less; she was a natural-born entertainer, after all. If she'd been forced to work some boring 9-5 job, she would've been the office clown who kept everyone else laughing. A true performer, through and through...one who valued art and presentation above all else. That version of me assumed record labels and the executives in the industry worked the jobs they did because they felt the same way, she thought now. Sure, I knew entertainment executives wanted to make money. But I didn't know that the bottom line was all they cared about. I didn't know they were willing to sell the public on complete bullshit, talentless artists perpetuating harmful stereotypes to the public, all just to make a buck and push an agenda. I was so naive. It didn't help that the few artists to talk about fuckery like this had their interviews swept under the rug.

    Adjusting her sleeveless, asymmetrical multicolored crop top, she released a deep sigh. 

    "What's wrong?" her best friend's high-pitched voice piped up.

    "Other than everything?" Nicki returned. "I'm going through the craziest time in my life - which is really saying something, by the way - and I keep asking myself all these questions about it. But I'm not even asking myself the right questions."

    Her friend gave her a puzzled look.

    "Like for instance," she said, whirling around while holding up a solitary index finger. "Did everyone else get a storyline is insane as mine? Or do they just really have it out for me?"

    Her friend's mouth opened with a prepared response.

    Nicki wagged her index finger. "Never mind, don't answer that. What the label is asking of me is impossible. What, gradually cause issues in my marriage, only to leave my husband and be with Drake? Come on, chii, that ship has beyond sailed. That ship has sunken to the bottom of the sea with little chances of it being recovered, honey. I don't know why the label, the fans, the public, hell, everyone insists on putting me and Drake in this awkward position."

    As if realizing that speaking wasn't required at this juncture, her friend blankly stared at her. 

    "And you already know how Big Ken is going to respond to this shit. He and his goons will probably run up on Drake and...take matters into their own hands. Why would the label demand that we can't let the people we love know what's going on? As if we're not capable of acting a part? Not letting our loved ones in on these wild plots is going to result in straight up carnage. Ugh." She paced the length of the dining room. "They did say that we could request adjustments be made to our storylines, and I'm going to have to demand that. There's just no way this would work. I wish I had an idea of the storylines everyone else got, but everyone's gone into hiding. No one is talking about this, even though we were told we could speak with each other about it. No one wants to, as if speaking the words aloud makes it real. And...it does, I guess." She chewed her bottom lip in contemplation. "What do you think I should do?"