Company

Chapter 38

Tae sat Indian style on the plush white king size bed that was in her room of the large hotel-suit, her hair in two long French braids, an oversized plain white t-shirt and a pair of white boy-shorts. A bowl of popcorn to her right, her two phones, iPad to her left, and a gold MacBook Pro in front of her. She fixed the glasses that sat on the bridge of her nose while rolling her middle finger over the smooth mouse pad. ESPN displayed on the large flatscreen tv that was mounted on the wall as background noise.

After the run-in with Dollicia, Tae had gone into one of her 'I need space' moods. This was a space that Drake himself knew all too well, for the simple fact that he would also have these same moods. The second week of ACL Fest came to a closing, he had one more show to do in Austin then it would be back to Cali, back into the studio. Though it was business as usual, Tae had managed to get her "space" by sleeping in her own room, her own bed for three days now. Drake respected her wishes and her spacing, however, it was approaching the fourth day and Drake was due for TLC, not only that but he wanted to know what exactly went on between the two women, and Tae wasn't telling him anything. After the confrontation between the women, Dollicia went quiet, not a peek. She remand to herself and went about her business.

Tae looked over the top of her glasses as a knock on her door, then a few seconds later was opened. Drake's head slowly popped in as his body followed after. He stood in front of Tae leaning against the black wood dresser that was placed in front of the bed. He stood shirtless with gray sweatpants that sat right below his boxer briefs waistband. Tae scanned his body admiring the visible bugle and his large arms, but she remained calm.

"Busy? You got a moment?" He asked in his deep voice as he scanned the devices on her bed that surrounded her.

"For you? Yes." She replied still looking up at him, the light of the MacBook screen making the bottom of her chin and neck glow.

"I'd like to know what happened the night of Niko's birthday, what was that about?" He said back pulling his eyes from her bed to her as he looked her in the eyes. That was the thing about Drake. He didn't beat around the bush or throw out hints of what he wanted to know. When and if he wanted to know something he didn't waste time about it.

"Nothing happened." Once again her reply was simple but was not what Drake wanted to hear.

"I'm not ASKING you to tell me, I'm TELLING you to tell me." He demanded back to her, his eyes almost looking through her with his jaw clenched. He was calm but by the sound of his voice and demand, Tae knew better than to challenge him. She examined him for a few seconds. Pulling her glasses from her face, she then closed the laptop placing it beside her. She leaned back on the heavy large pillows that were propped up behind her.

"I asked Dollicia to reframe from speaking MY name on public sites. She blew me off and did a 2nd interview. I felt disrespected and I do not take kindly to being disrespected. I asked her once, but will not ask her twice. So, I put her in her proper place." Tae spoke slowly, looking him right back in the eyes. She spoke with the same calm but demanding tone of voice he spoke with.

Tae had a new outlook on handling these type of women. Sure she could ignore them, but she knew these women personally and it would be hard to actually ignore them, especially if they were speaking on their relationship. She could either whine and cry about them being mean, or she could hit them where it hurts. So Tae had to become a mean girl. She went from being bullied to doing the bullying, and in this case, she was more than willing to be the 'Regina George' that Dollicia was portraying her to be.

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Tae's little need for 'space' didn't stop Drake from putting on one of the best shows ACL has seen. Towards the ending of the show, Drake let Austin Texas know he had a little surprise for them. The very large crowd grew in excitement as rapper J. Cole made his appearance from backstage as the song 'Can I Hit It In The Morning' played through the large black speakers. Peoples excitement was unmatchable. The crowd grew louder as the two artists performed the song together. The flashing lights went off every second to get an image of Drake and J.Cole together.

"YOU GOTTA DO SOMETHING ELSE!" Drake yelled into the black microphone as he looked in J.Coles direction.

"OH, YOU, YOU GIVING ME THE SHOW?" J. Cole asked back in an extremely deep raspy voice, much deeper than Drake's. He smiled as he looked out at the crowd. Drake stepped back with his arms extended out on either side of him signifying to J. Cole that the stage was his.

J. Cole stepped the very front of the stage the screams echoed, the flashing lights remand going off every few seconds. The instrumentals to his song 'Power Trip' blasted through the speakers J. Coles arms bounced with the beat. Before he could even begin singing the crowd took over and just like with Drake the crowd rapped every word in the song.

Tweets flooded in social media. Videos and pics of the two filled timelines.

"J.COLE JUST CAME OUT!"

"Drake just brought out J. Cole!!!"

"Drake isn't even on stage anymore! HE JUST TURNED THE SHOW TO J.COLE!"

"J. Cole is on stage!! Best night ever!"

Drake stepped back as he nodded and bounced to his friend's music, he no longer stood center stage but off to the side, he had given J. Cole the show to finish out the 'Austin City Limits Festival' as J. Cole finished the last song. Drake appeared back to center stage.

"YA'LL MAKE SOME NOISE FOR J. COLE! ....... I don't know if y'all know, but this is one of the most realest dudes I know in the industry!" Drake screamed into his microphone he had taken his in-ears out as the wire laid over his shoulder. Screams grew even louder than possible. "I don't know if my mother had 2nd kid that I don't know about! But this my brother for real!" Drake continued speaking in the mic as J. Cole closed the gap between them he throwing his head back in laughter, he joined hands with Drake as they dapped one another up, pulling each other into a genuine hug.