Book 1: She's a Keeper | August Alsina (fin)

4

Cydney Michaels

"It still looks the same," I said as we pulled into the back parking lot of Andretti's.

I undid my seatbelt and fixed myself up before stepping out the Range. Surprisingly, August hadn't beaten me to opening my door. Instead he was checking a few messages on his phone.

"C'mon, slowpoke!" I said through the rolled up window as if he could hear me clearly. He looked up at me flashing his grill with that perfect smile, before slipping his phone into his pocket and stepping out.

"Aight, aight." He waved me off and walked towards me. "You ready ta go in I see."

"Mhm,"  I mumbled excitedly. "Look, there's T." I pointed out the biggest guy talking in the group to a few people who I assumed to be the managers of the place.

We walked over to the small crowd before August received much love from the people around him, explaining how everything was gonna go with him being here, up to the meeting of the fans around six. We walked in through the back entrance, going through the motions of getting to the center of everything.

"So what you tryna do first?" I checked the time seeing it was just now noon, and I haven't eaten yet.

"Eat."

"You always hungry I see," He mumbled before speaking up as I threw him glares, "let's go then."

We walked over the the diner part of the building and grabbed a booth in the back, waiting to be served. "So why Andretti's?" He asked looking at the menu.

"My brother use used to bring me here a lot before he died. He'd always been a fan of cars, he wanted to be on of those guys working at Ptap or something like that." I didn't bother looking at the menu, seeing as nothing's changed so my usual Brickyard Burger and fries would do.

"If youon mind me askin," he started hinting at what he wanted to know without wanting to ask. "Y'een gotta ansa tho.." He added.

"No, it's fine. He um, got killed."

"What happened?"

"It was like five years ago. He, Jordan, would always walk me home from dance Tuesday through Thursday since my mom would be at work. The dance studio was only a few blocks from our house and I hated that I had to walk through the worse parts of the subdivision to get where we lived which wasn't any better. So I'd always take the offer of him walking with me. But this one time, he walked me, was just different." I said as the waitress came over to ask for our orders.

"Two sprites?" August said asking me if that was okay and I nodded, while the waitress took the order. She'd left and came back quickly with the drinks.

"August Alsina?" She questioned, smiling real hard. "I wasn't sure if it was you or not,"

He simply nodded acknowledging her.

"I'm such a huge fan, do you think you could sig--"

"Listen," August said cutting her off, "I don't wanna be rude or nuthin',  but it'd 'preciate it if you could hold off until after we eat. I can sign whateva, maybe take a few pics or sum." He compromised. "Whatever you want, just after the food?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Are you guys ready to order?"

We both nodded leaving August to order a basket of nachos and for me, the burger I wanted with a side of fries. "Thank ya, ma."

"Sorry 'bout that." He said apologetically.

"It's fine. I like the way you handled that."

"Just tryna not be a stuck up celebrity," he smiled, "go ahead, ma."