When We Meet Again

And Then There Was One (age 16)

Rihanna POV

"Rihanna, do you see this?" Chris Brown asked.

"Yeah. I saw it online the other day." Truthfully, I have known about it for almost 2 weeks now. If I had told Chris about it, he would have diverted all of his attention to music.

I was being greedy and selfish. Chris would sing to me and he was good at it. No. He was amazing. His voice was enough to poke at and shake my heart.

"Let's compete." He stated.

At first I thought, does he hear himself? But when I considered Chris' love towards writing and singing music, I couldn't say no. "Okay," I smiled, "Let's do this."

This is how we grew up. If Chris wanted to do something, he'd do it. Crazy enough as it sounds. Regardless of what it was, I'd do it with him.

I love Chris and he loves me. As long as I know that. We can get through anything. It's been like that for as long as I could remember. He was my hero, my best friend, and we were destined to be.

I leaned back in the couch and looked around the place. Chris had moved out of his parents house and followed me to New York about half a year ago.

When my mom remarried and told me we were moving to New York, I was pretty excited about going to the Big Apple. But my excitement didn't last. It couldn't last. How could I be glad about leaving this place? Leaving Chris? How would I tell him? How would I even bring it up? What would become of us?

As those thoughts roamed my mind until the very last second, I never brought myself to tell him.

I was a terrible and horrible girl. It still doesn't even make sense to me that the words never slipped from my lips and yet, here he is with me. Happy and smiling.

We had moved out of the city and into a 2 bedroom apartment in the Bronx. It was bigger than my old house. Maybe it was because there were two bedrooms now.

Chris would call my cell phone everyday and I could never pick it up. No. More like I wouldn't. I felt guilty and I didn't deserve to even think about him. But how could I not. If I wasn't thinking about food or sleeping, my mind would suddenly drift off to Chris. My mind and body weren't two peas in a pod. They were two bees from different hives.

My mom would play my voicemail to me and I would break down. Asking myself why I was so cruel, heartless, and numb to his feelings?

But there was one message he sent everyday that always stood out. I would always listen to it as a sign of hope. "Don't worry Rihanna, I'm coming." Those words meant that our boats were drifting closer, and closer, and closer. I wouldn't cry anymore. My second mommy was coming. A new light of hope was shinning on us. No matter how far we were from one another, I just knew he too was shinning with hope.

I had been living in my new apartment for a little less than three months when I heard a knock at my door. I remember carelessly opening the door and like instinct, falling into his arms. Chris was with me. He was my soulmate and when I saw his face at my door that day... I knew he had forgiven me and was ready to hold my hand. Tighter, but gentler, than ever before.

Ocassionally, I would ask him how he found me. I know he went through hardships, but he would just shake it off by saying, "You're my other half and the magnet in our hearts brought us together." He was a joker. My joker.

"I've been working on a new song." Chris said to me.

"Oh really. It's probably great."

He laughed and smiled. "And how do you know that?"

"Because your my bae. And bae don't make bad music." I said proudly.

2 MONTHS LATER

It was the day of MTV's Annual Young Artists Competition. We were going to sing Chris' song.

"Chris Brown and Rihanna." The loudspeaker was calling our names. We were next.

While holding hands, we walked onto stage together and the judges asked us a few questions. "What will you be singing for us today?"

Chris then replied, "This is an original song called, No Air."

We started to sing the duet. Throughout the entire song, we made eye contact with one another and refused to loosen the grip of our hands.

Performing was the best part of my day. But I could help but admit it. Today wasn't my best day. I considered myself an artist. Definitely better than the average bunch, but for some reason. I was holding back. I didn't give it my all. Perhaps, deep inside, fame and recognition wasn't what I wanted. I wanted to live a free life loving him. If the only way to do that was to lower my level, I was up for it.

But if we got pushed into the music industry, our lives would change forever.

And those haunting changes, like a wish, became a reality.

Although we entered the competition as a duet. We left as solos. The fingers we once intertwined so delicately would eventually cripple and lose sight. Why? Because the other hand that binded them together was now unreachable and it would remain that way for a long time. Too long.