Still Here

Chapter Four

"Hello?"

"Aubrey?"

"No, this is Donovan, the new assistant."

"Oh, hi! I'm Sandi, Aubrey's mother. Is he available?"

"Give me one second." Donovan put his hand over the receiver. "It's your mom," he whispered to Aubrey.

"Oh." Aubrey took the phone, feeling sorry for brushing off his mother. "Hey, Mom."

"Hi, Aubrey. I was just calling to say hello. Did I catch you at the wrong time...again?"

"You could never catch me at the wrong time," Aubrey assured her.

"So how's everything going?"

"Things are going great actually," Aubrey said, stepping out of the room for some privacy. "Keanna and Shiloh moved in because Shiloh's starting school soon."

"I miss my little Shiloh! I'll have to come see her! How's Keanna?"

"Keanna's giving me a hard time as usual. You should swing by sometime. They'd love that," Aubrey suggested.

"I'll see what I can do. I'm a little busy tonight."

"Well, I won't interrupt your plans. I know you've got things to do."

"I know you've got things to do too."

The line went quiet. Aubrey found it highly unusual for his mother to be silent at all.

"Aubrey, I wanna tell you something," Sandi said, her voice beginning to shake.

"You alright? What's going on?"

"I went to the doctor the other day and..."

"Yo, Aubs!" Chubbs yelled. "Noel did something to the track and no one knows what it is, but it sounds good."

"A'ight. One second."

"No. You have to hear it now."

"I gotta go, Mom. I'll call you later, okay?"

"Yeah. I love you."

"Love you too."

Aubrey hung up and entered the studio, amused by the extremely hyped faces his friends had on.

"What'd you do?" Aubrey asked walking over to Noel.

"I don't know. Just listen."
                           ♤♤♤
Everyone agreed that it was lunchtime at around noon. Jahron invited Aubrey and Donovan to lunch but Aubrey declined. He preferred to eat in the studio today.

"There's a food court in here?" Donovan gasped.

"Sure is. When I designed this, I was getting ready to retire from the rap game. And because I was still somewhat famous, I couldn't go out and eat without being stopped. So I put a food court in here so I could get my food without leaving the studio. Smart huh?" Aubrey joked.

"Really smart," Donovan said.

"You get food for free by the way. Just show them this." Aubrey handed Donovan a credit card of some sort. "I forgot to give that to you."

"Thanks. I'll be eatin' good now!"

"Yeah, you will," Aubrey laughed.

The two ordered food and took a seat on the outside balcony area. Aubrey did his best to forget about the unanswered texts and emails he had and tried to focus on eating.

"How you doin' so far?" Aubrey asked eating some of his side salad.

"I'm good. Your friends are interesting," Donovan replied.