Ugh, the thought of packing sickens me. I just want to lay around all day and be lazy. Welp, my clothes aren't gonna pack themselves. The sooner I pack the sooner I can be out of dodge and start anew. California here I come.
I drift off to sleep on the plane. Soon enough the bumping from the plane's landing wakes me. I look out my window and see beautiful California. I grab my bags from the baggage claim and catch an uber car to my new place. My house is in a beautiful neighborhood. As soon as I walk through my door I notice the chandalier hanging in the middle of the living room. The house is a two story 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom. It has wood floors, a big living room, a kitchen with a breakfast bar. I have my own patio deck and a fire pit. This is a palace to me. Coming from poverty growing up and the whack apartment I was living in back at my old base in North Carolina. I'm excited to decorate and make my home feel like home. My furniture is still wrapped up in plastic. The corps brought it in for me a day early. My car won't be here till tomorrow though. Sucks. I start unwrapping my furniture and arrange my house. I unpack my things and clean a little. I'm exhausted by night time, I order take out and call my best friend, Desi. "So you're coming out tomorrow?" I ask.
"Yasss!" She says excitedly.
"What are we gonna do?"
"I don't know, its LA! Let's do something fun!"
"You're so hype. I don't know? A club?"
"Yeah, that sounds good."
"Nicki coming too?"
"Yes, you knooow."
"Alright. Well I'll see you girls tomorrow. I'm gonna finish eating and head to bed."
"Alright. Good night."
"Night."
Desi has been my bestfriend since our snot nose, sticky hands days. Our mothers are best friends. We've been through a lot together. From petty fights to being there for each other after breakups with assholes. I consider her a sister more than anything. We met Nicki in grade school. We all stuck together through out the years. They're the most loyal females I've met and I'm glad they're my best friends. When I left to the Marines, Desi and Nicki kept me sane during my toughest days. I felt like giving up and coming home during boot camp, but they told me not to give up and stick it out. So I did. And I'm glad I did. My family is proud of me and everyone else in the small town that I come from in South Dakota. My mother can't stop talking me up and telling everyone how proud she is of me and how I'm going far in life. I sure as heck don't want to let her down. I want to continue to make her proud. Which is why I chose to re-enlist and live here. The city of endless opportunities.
My room is dark and cold. Just how I like it. I'm in a deep slumber before I hear my phone ringing and vibrating. I wake up to see who it is. "Hello?" I say half asleep. "Answer the door bitch, we been out here knocking for 30 minutes now!" Desi yells over the phone. Ohh shit. I get up to open the door. "Damn bitch, its hot out there, sweated my edges out." Desi complains. "Titties all sweaty and shit." Nicki chimes in. "Y'all are gross." I laugh. We all hug. "I missed you guys! You guys like my new house?" I ask. "I looove it. It's pretty. We need to come out as often as we can." Desi says looking around. "Yes. I don't mind. I could use the company." I agree. "Oorrr you could get a man. That's good company right there. You need to christen this house." Nicki adds. Me and Desi just stare at her with blank stares. "Uh, no, bitch." I cut her off. We laugh. "I'm just saying. You're in Cali now. Pretty boys every where." She continues. "I don't know about pretty boys. Maybe a handsome young gentleman. I need someone on the same caliber as me." I say. "Okay, you need to have a little fun, but we'll find someone. Hopefully. Let's go get something to eat for now." She says.
We get a bite to eat and go on the little tourist rides through Hollywood after. We explore as much as we can. When we get back to the house there's a big truck with my car in tow. Yess, my car made it! After I get my car we get ready for our night out. I curl my dark brown hair, I wear some high waisted skinny jeans with a gray tank that shows my toned stomach. My choice of shoes are nude pumps. Desi wears a black tank that shows her flat stomach and a short black skirt. She wears black barred open toe heels. Nicki wears a black dress that's transparent, its diamond cut in the middle, so it shows her cleavage and flat stomach, her choice of shoes are black heels. "Damn, we're definitely gonna kill it tonight. Shittin on these hoe's!" Nicki says excitedly. "Riiight." Desi agrees. I just shake my head and laugh. We take a selfie before we leave. When we get in the club, The Hills by The Weeknd has just begun playing. "Ohhh shit! This is my song!" Desi yells. We immediately begin dancing. After the song is over Nicki goes to get drinks at the bar. She walks back over and hands us our drinks. "I overheard someone saying there's NBA players in here." She tells us. "What? Really?" Me and Desi both say. "Yeah, we need to find em and fuck em." She jokes. "What? Shuttup." I push her and we laugh. We drink our drinks and continue dancing. Someone comes up behind Desi. It's some guy. They're talking, but I can't make out what they're saying over the music. "He wants us to come up to their section." Desi tells us. "Who is it?" I ask. "He said he plays for the Clippers." She shrugs in confusion. "Well here's your damn chance Nicki." I joke. "Yaasss bitch yaass!" She yells. Desi looks at me for agreement. "Alright, lets go I guess, but I ain't no fucking groupie!" I say. "Whatever you say." Nicki adds. We follow the guy up to their section. He gives us shots and drinks. We get a little drunk. I see Deandre Jordan sitting over in the corner with some other guys. Holy crap these are Clippers. I think to myself. I better not do anything stupid. I look over to the right of me and I see Blake Griffin standing with some dark haired girl. She's wearing all black, black shirt and jeans. They look like they're definitely flirting. He keeps talking in her ear and grabbing on her. She walks off to somewhere. We're joking around with the guy who brought us over. I still don't know who this guy is. Probably a bench warmer. Deandre and Austin Rivers walk over. We joke around with them too. "Y'all are pretty cool. Where you from?" Deandre asks. "A small town in South Dakota, you wouldn't know it." Desi replies. He laughs. "Ohh yeah, what brings y'all here?" He asks. "My bestfriend, she's a Marine. This is her second term of enlistment. She's stationed here." She tells him. "Which one? Which friend?" He asks confused looking back and forth to me and Nicki. "This one." Desi pulls me forward. "Word. Devil dog huh? Thanks for your service. Whats your name?" He asks. "For sure. Aaliyah." I tell him. Blake walks up and stands behind me as Deandre is shaking my hand talking to me. I stand there uncomfortable, not sure what to do. "Bro, she's a Marine." Deandre tells him. Blake puts his hand on my shoulder. He looks at me. "Thanks for your service, whats your name?" He asks. "Aaliyah." We shake hands. "Are you sure you're a Marine? You're too beautiful." He looks at me. "We can be beautiful too." I tell him. He laughs. "You're name is beautiful too. Do you listen to Aaliyah?" He asks. Dang it, I always get asked this question. OF COURSE I DO! I think to myself. "Yeah, definitely. She's my idol. It's an honor to share the same name." I tell him. "Awesome." He says. He's kind of drunk. He pulls me off to the side. What the fuck is happening? I look back at Desi and Nicki. They look tickled, they give me a thumbs up. I'm really not sure what to do. "So what are you doing after this?" He asks. "Um, I'm not sure." I say. The girl he was with is standing off to the side. She's watching us talk. I laugh a little. "Whats funny?" He asks. "Isn't that your girlfriend or whatever over there?" I ask. He looks at her and makes a nervous face. "Oh, hey." He smiles and waves at her. She walks up. "She's not my girlfriend." He tells me before she comes over. She puts her arm around him. Ugh. "Seems like it." I say in his ear. He looks at me and shakes his head. I walk back over to Desi and Nicki. "What happened?" Nicki asks. "What do you think?" I reply. She looks over and sees the other girl. "Ugh, groupie?" She says annoyed. "Yep." I reply. We talk to the other guys and continue to get drunk. Blake attempts to talk to me again, but fails miserably. Whenever I look over at him I catch him staring at me while the other girl is trying to be all hugged up on him. He looks annoyed. Slow Motion by Trey Songz plays. We dance and twerk. After the song we decide to call it a night. Nicki gives her number to the bench warmer guy. I look back as we wait for Nicki. I catch Blake looking at me again. He smiles at me and waves. I wave back. As soon as we get back to my place I pass out. The next morning I wake up with a slight hang over. Desi and Nicki come up to lay with me. "Oh my gosh last night was crazy." Nicki says. "I guess." I say nonchalantly. "Bitch, you were talking to Blake Griffin, what the fuck." She says laughing. "Eh, I don't know. He seems like a fuck boy, though. With all his groupies or whatever they are. He seems like he likes to entertain that shit and I ain't about that life." I tell her. "Whatever you liked his attention." She says. I roll my eyes, annoyed. "I thought you were gonna fuck an NBA player? What happened?" I joke. "Noooo, I ain't that easy. I'ma play hard to get." She says. "You're definitely gonna be hard to get all the way in South Dakota." I say. "You're such a sassy ass bitch this morning Ally." Desi chimes in. "Damn bitch I thought you were dead over there." I say jokingly. "Whatever slut." We all laugh. We spend the day laying around nursing our hang overs. "What are you doing tomorrow, Al?" Desi asks. "Well I have to go to my new job and see what they have in store for me." I'm dreading it. I just want to hang out with my girls. We hear someone's notifications on their phone going off. We look at our phones. Not mine. "Oh my god. It's the guy from the club last night." Nicki laughs. "What was his name anyway?" I ask. Still don't know who this guy is. "I don't even know." Nicki says as she texts him. "He wants to chill again tonight. Like right now." She tells us. "Uh, ew, we're not even ready or nothing. We look gross." Desi complains. "I'm not going, I have to be to work early tomorrow or I'm probably gonna get my ass handed to me on a silver platter." I continue to watch TV, unbothered by this creep's request to party with us. "Well, I'm going." Nicki gets up off the bed to get ready. "You can't go alone, this is a big city, you could get got." Desi protests. "Come with me then." Nicki continues to scramble around looking for something to wear. Desi looks at me. "Are you gonna be okay alone?" She asks me. "Yeah, I'll be fine, I'm gonna go to sleep after this show is over. The house keys are on the table. Lock the doors on your way out. Let Nicki get that NBA cock she wanted." I joke. "Ha!" Nicki exclaims. They're out the door within 30 minutes. Usually it takes them forever to get ready. Hmm. I'm going to sleep.
I hear my alarm going off, but I'm too tired to get up. Ugh. Its unacceptable for a Marine to be late on their first day of work, or any day for that matter. I take a nice hot shower. Standing under the nice hot spray of water isn't helping. I take the quickest shower possible. I put on my desert cammies, get in my black chevy pick up and rush to work. Hopefully I don't get lost. When I get there my new boss immediately gives me an assignment to do. Assignment for the day: Donate school supplies to kids in need. I could do this. I love tasks like these. My boss gives me the itinerary and I'm out the door. When I get there I meet some fellow Marines. My first time meeting them, we talk for a bit then get down to business. I see other people show up as we're getting things set up. Kids rush to gather around them. Who the fuck is this? I look over and see a few tall guys. I spot Deandre Jordan out first then I see Blake Griffin. These guys again? Hmm. This should be interesting.
