How Do U Want It?

vi

"You know what that sound like? It sound like a whale dyin'." O'Shea obnoxiously blurted out from his seat on the floor. He was so into the tv in my room, I'm surprised he was even paying attention to my keyboard playing.

"Shut up! You need to get out, I can't concentrate with them stupid cartoons in the background." I purposely banged on the black and white piano keys, trying to pester with O'Shea.

"I'm not goin' nowhere. They hoggin' the tv downstairs, and the tv in Dre's room is ... off limits at the moment." O'Shea's words trailed off as he neared the end of his sentence.

I frowned and stood up from the keyboard, going to sit down next to Cube on the wooden floor. "Why? What's wrong with Dre's tv?"

Cube looked like he was about to laugh. "Lay and him, they went in there about 20 minutes ago, and ain't been out since." I scrunched my nose up at his words. Lay was Dre's girlfriend, her name was Michel'le, but we called her Lay for short.

"I shouldn't have asked." I laughed, getting up from the floor. I walked out of my room and chuckled at the sight of Dre's locked door, then proceeded to go down the steps.

I was on a hunch to look for Eazy, I didn't care what he was doing. He was gonna teach me how to play the keyboard today, foreal this time. "Eric Lynn Wright!" I shout as I stood in front of the tv in a heroic pose.

"Why you gotta say my whole government name? And move out the way youngin'." Eazy huffed, while Yella burst out laughing.

"Teach me how to play the keyboard! I won't take no for an answer!" I pleaded Eazy and he straightened his hat.

"Alright, I did promise you I'll teach you."

I smiled at his words and practically dragged him up to my room. "Get out, shay shay." I teased Cube with his nickname.

"Don't call me that shit." Cube rolled his eyes.

"But shay shay." I pouted and he ignored me.

"Okay, I guess you startin' to like the dyin' whale sounds." I said, sticking my tongue out.

"Eazy, are you finally gone teach her? She can't play for nothin'!" Cube busted out laughing. I folded my arms and huffed, while Eazy laughed along with Cube.

"Aight, stop fuckin' around." Eazy slapped Cube's shoulder then came over to the stool in front of my keyboard. I pulled a chair that sat in the corner of my room and placed it next to Eazy.

"So, what do you wanna know, youngin'?" Eazy said to me as he started to tap the black and white keys rhythmically.

"Everything! I wanna play as good as you." I pouted.

He nodded and mumbled an, "Aight."

"First, you gotta label your keys, that's how I learned. You got a marker?" Eazy stopped messing with the instrument and gave me a glance.

I nodded and got up from the wooden chair, going to my bookbag, which was now collecting dust since it was summer, and I grabbed a black marker. I went back to my former place and gave the marker to Eazy. He started writing on the keys, labeling them with their corresponding letter. A, B,C,D,E, and F. "Why'd you stop at F? And why are you writing on it?" I asked, him frowning.

"Well, I only labeled 5 keys 'cause I wanna show you somethin'. And hush up, it'll come off. It'll help you learn, youngin'." Eazy explained to me.

Eazy placed his hand over the keys that followed F, covering them up. "A, B,C,D E and F. This set of keys is called a chord. It's a certain part of the keyboard that plays a certain sound. See, I'm at the end of the keyboard, so this is the deepest sound it'll play," Eazy ran his fingers over the 5 keys, a deep low sound vibrating the speakers, "These skinny black keys? Those are flats and majors." I listened intently and nodded my head, confirming that I was catching on to what he was saying.

Now, he started to write the first 5 letters again, on the next 5 keys, then on the next, then on the next. The letters repeated about 5 times. "Okay, now A-F, that's a whole chord. So you have 5 different chords. Do you remember what these black keys were called?" Eazy rested his copper brown eyes on me.

"Yeah, flats and majors."

He nodded, "So, if this black key is above our B key, that's called a B flat. If I go over here to the key that's over the D, what would that be called?"

"A D major."

"What about this C?"

"C flat."

"Good job youngin'." Eazy gave me a pat on the back.

"So, what now? I got all the basics it seems like." I slouched in the chair, letting out a breath.

"You gotta start learnin' songs. I'm gonna give you somethin' easy. Like the birthday song, that's easy." Eazy pondered for a second before starting to play 'Happy Birthday'. I watched him closely, trying to remember the keys.

Once he finished, Eazy directed my hands to the correct chords. He yelled them out as I tried to play the song. I messed up a few times, because I was nervous. Eazy gave me reassuring comfort, telling me that it was okay. He jabbed at me, "Even players fuck up sometimes." Earning a laugh from me.

After a while, Cube started side busting and started getting hype because I finally knew a little bit about the keyboard. He didn't have to hear that dying whale noise anymore.

Dre even bust in my room with a polaroid, taking a picture of us on the keyboard, and Eazy shouted at him telling him to get his ass out. They could all be so hilarious sometimes, I was happy where I was. I was happy with them.

We played for about 2 hours, and my back started aching, so I told everyone to get out my room for the moment, so I could lay down for a while. And I started to get to thinking.

For some reason my mind traveled back to when Tupac came over my house, that's the last thing I wanted to think about, but it was too late now.

It's been about a month or two since it's happened, and I thought about it non stop. I haven't seen Tupac since then. Not even when I went to go hang out with Faith and Big. I started to think he went away or something, but Big confirmed otherwise. He said Pac just hasn't been around, but he's still around, if you catch the drift. I shrugged it off, I wanted to see him but at the same time I never wanted to see him again.

Maybe Tupac wasn't using me because he missed Jada, what if he genuinely liked me? Either way, it was still wrong, he has a girlfriend. Or at least he did, last time I checked. Jada and Pac's relationship status was unknown to me, she's still out of town I think. Fuck. I just didn't know. I didn't know anything as of right now.

We had school in 2 weeks, and I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to face Pac, but at the same time I was anxious to see him. And there was no escaping it either. Considering the fact that our lockers were about 2 or 3 units away from each other. And I had almost every class with him.

How great.