The Unusual Suspects Book 2

Toya

Not even gonna lie, this was a captivating experience. Watching Iris at her first shoot was so very inspiring. Like I could really see myself designing for people more and more when I got to see how everything flows behind the scenes. It's one thing to see your creations but to be a part of the process would be surreal.                                                                                                                                            "You over here looking like a proud mom." Dom said as she walked up beside me.                                "I'm just taking it all in. This moment is almost magical." I said to her.                                                        "It is, I'm really happy she gets a chance to get her shine on. It's like she does a lot in terms of making sure everyone else is straight, that this is everything she needed and then some. It's real when they say focus on you until the focus is on you." Dom said.                                                                   "That was a cute play on words." I said and we both laughed. "But from a poet, it's expected. But yes I am proud of the wild child." I stated.                                                                                                           "Me too because as much doubt that she was in, I hope this all wipes that away."                               "Doubt?" I said questioning her whole mindset.                                                                                                      "It took a lot of convincing to get her here. She never saw herself as a model until we explained to her all the reasons she should give a try. She's so used to being lowkey doing what she do. But this, this puts her front and center. It's refreshing to know she's in a better setting."                               "I'm surprised to hear that from you." I said and she kind of gave me the side eye. "I'm just saying because most people that are accustomed to the lifestyle don't view it in a different type of light." I said to her and she smirked.                                                                                                                         "Toya...I know you may not know this, so I'll let you in. I grew up like you. My dad was a successful stock broker, so even though a lot of my life was in Detroit, it wasn't in the slums. We were in the suburbs. We weren't family of thugs or needed to sell drugs or anything like that. My brother chose the life he chose to be protected in the D. When he got here, running into Tony and Justin is how he ended up continuing that path. My dad remained oblivious to what was going on up until his death. So regardless of how it turned out, it didn't have to be that way. Nature vs Nurture." she said and even though it was sweetly put, I felt the vibes.                                    "Listen, I didn't mean any disrespect when I said what I said. It's just how unphased you seemed to be when it came to any of it."                                                                                                                                       "Unphased because I allow people to be who they are and move how they wish. Part of the reason why me and Jay had so many issues is due to what they do. I learned to give people space to be who they are and when they're ready to evolve, they will. When you try to alter that, they end up resenting you because it disrupts their process. Plus, you learn more when you sit back and observe than you would trying to change the outcome. I let things flow naturally because it allows what's to come and what's to go, to go. If I didn't move like that, I would still be being gaslighted into believing my feelings weren't valid or I am the problem. Toya, respectfully, you'd be better viewed if you listened to understand instead of listening to respond. There's a lot of assumptions, but no flat out facts. Again, the tension isn't from my end, but somehow we always stumble into it. So either you just don't want to be cool or you have a person vendetta."      "I don't have a personal vendetta against you. I don't even attempt to come off like I'm judging, but it's hard to go off of anything when you're so quiet. A person can only jump to conclusions when they have nothing else to go off of." I said to her and she smiled.                                                         "You have nothing to go off because you'd rather talk about me instead of talking to me. You know what though...we're here for Iris, so I'm gonna focus on our girl. As for us...when you decide you want to be an adult, I guess we'll get down to whatever this animosity is because I'm not about to keep faking the funk. Take care Toya." she said as she walked down towards the photographer and I just let them words resonate. What's odd is the old me would've just had so much to say and me now...I really couldn't give her a reason as to why it was always like this with her and I. It may really be the closeness between her and Tony. I mean I probably should look at her as more like a sister but I don't know if there's really a way for her to be loyal to the both of us at this time. But then again...maybe that doesn't make sense because Charles is loyal to us both, he didn't even judge me for admitting when I first started feeling Dox. But maybe that's because he met us at the same time. My brain had literally been a clusterfuck of so much lately that I really wasn't focused on what was going on in front of me. My intentions were to be here for Iris and support and I need to focus back on that. I looked up and Iris was walking over to me. "You did great honey!" I exclaimed as she walked over and I hugged her.                                                    "Thanks boo! I tried, I thought this was gonna be a little harder than it actually turned out to be." "Girl you are a natural. Definitely would never be able to tell that this was your first shoot." I said. "Yeah Dom said I had a presence up there like I been here before." she said as she took a seat.        "You do. But of course our Puerto Rican Princess can do it all." I said and the three of us shared a laugh. "Only you're way prettier than Joseline." I added.