Redemption | A Drake Duology (2016)

2 • Compromise

My eyes flew open to the sounds of my phone ringing. I glanced toward the clock that read 3:41am and frowned before rolling over and flipping my pillow to the side that wasn't drenched in the tears that aided my sleep. The melodic beeping and vibrations seemed to go on forever before I finally answered.

"Yeah?" I said groggily.

"It's still early. Wake up girl." Noah chuckled into the line.

"Early my ass," I snapped. "Unlike you, I don't get the luxury of working when I feel like it, so I need my sleep."

"It's nice to hear from you too, Ro."

I didn't mean to be rude; I just wanted to be left alone but I knew if I cut my phone off there would be an amber alert with my name on it by morning. I haven't spoken to my brother in almost three weeks. He was traveling with Aubrey and as I did quite often lately, I avoided any possible confrontation.

"I'm sorry, rough night. What's up?"

"We need you back on the team," He sighed. "Shit is getting wild and we need to secure some paperwork and venue contracts."

"Yeah? Is that what Oliver has been blowing me up about?" I sniggered. "It can't be too bad but then again, he never calls me directly unless it's important."

"It's pretty bad and it doesn't help that Drake hasn't been in the best of moods lately. He's not focused. We've gotten a couple of album worthy songs out of him but not many and we're losing time."

I pulled the phone away from my ear and put Noah on speaker. I scrolled through my notifications seeing missed calls, voicemails, and multiple text messages—all from Aubrey. As I read over them, I wiped away a few stray tears. Most of them were vents about regrets, the rest were apologies for being so reckless.

GrahamCracker 👑💙: I can't believe that I ever gave us a chance. You were supposed to be different. I tried to forgive you but every time I think about it, I hate you more for it.

GrahamCracker 👑💙: I should've left you alone. You're still young, you have your whole life to fall in love with somebody. Obviously, you don't love me.

GrahamCracker 👑💙: Fuck you. I don't want to do this anymore.

GrahamCracker 👑💙: I'm sorry... I'm upset. I didn't mean any of that. I want us to work things out, I'm just having a hard time accepting what we are right now.

This was a lot harder than I expected it to be. He was hurting just as much as I was. If I could bring myself to tell him the truth it wouldn't be this painful but I couldn't. I knew if I did he would put everything in his life on hold just to make sure that I was okay mentally and I didn't want that. He's been making good progress with everything from his music to his label, his businesses and endorsements. That's all he needed on his plate. I could handle myself and my own issues.

"Tell Oliver to anticipate a call from me in the morning. I need to be fully awake if he wants me to work through paperwork," My fingers raked through my hair as I thought of a response for his dilemma with Aubrey. "As far as Driz, I can't do anything about that. Ya'll know him better than I do."

"I'm surprised that he hasn't flown you out already. We are really scrambling," He said a little shocked that it's been so long since I've joined them on a project.

"I told ya'll that I'm the last option. I do have a life, ya' know? Plus, we're trying to avoid the media. I don't want my name plastered everywhere as another one of his many love interests. Last time, it got ugly."