Sensibilities | Deetranada AU

quandary

The Next Morning

Dee packs her bag, sitting down on the bed and waking her phone. She hums to herself, feeling significantly better than yesterday. She texts Nova quickly before she can change her mind. She grabs her things, pausing by the bathroom on the way. 'I'm gone,' she says to Jermaine. The running water and his voice echoing, she shakes her head, continuing on. 

Downstairs, she greets Jae and Roscoe with a smile. 'Hey y'all,' she says, placing her plate down, piled with food. 'Somebody in a better mood,' Roscoe notes, his usual mouth full of food on full display. 'And somebody need to get some damn manners,' she jokes back. Jae laughs as Roscoe continues eating, being purposefully obnoxious.

She ignores him, starting to eat. 'Must've been that Nov,' Jae says with a wink. 'Girl, shut up!' she replies with a giggle. 'Uh huh, exactly.' She sighs, rolling her eyes at Jae's assumptions. 'He should be here soon, wifey done came in.'

Dee looks in the direction Jae nods, seeing Nia walk to the fruits quickly, grabbing a banana and leaving just as fast. 'Hmph, bet she used to grab--.' 'You loud as fuck, Jae,' Dee interrupts. Jae shrugs, unbothered. 'Not my fault she a--' 'Jae!' she yells. Jae laughs.

********

'Aight, so DJ Prince is gonna spin the tracks and when the beat changes, you keep going,' JD explains. Dee stands in front of Jermaine, focused, ready. She looks a few people down, Nova in front of Ekko and Nia beside him. She admires him, unable to stop a smile from growing as he volunteers to go first.

She watches him, following JD across the stage as he spits. He stumbles during one of the beat changes but it's barely noticeable once he catches the beat. Everyone claps as he finishes, walking down the stairs, out of breath. As he walks back to Ekko, their eyes meet. She gives a small smile before looking away, not wanting to see if he returned it.

As the exercise continues, she starts to feel more nervous. The beats keep going at random, going longer or shorter depending on what the DJ feels like doing. It's fine, you can spit over anything. She shakes her head, one of the last few people approaching the stage. It's the girl everyone's nicknamed Iggy, for obvious reasons.

As she begins, she's isn't doing too bad, at least from her normal performances but then the beat changes and she doesn't. 'I got all these people that keep sayin' that they know me,' Tally says, at least three seconds off the beat. Dee cringes as she refuses to change her flow, keeping the same pace. Shorty makin' a fool of herself. 

The beat changes again, speeding up and she tries again. It works for a moment but then she stumbles over her words. A few loud snickers come from the lineup and Tally turns to face them, breaking her flow. 'Keep going,' JD prompts, already on the other side of the stage. More laughter comes and instead of continuing, she dashes off stage and out of the doors, her manager not far behind.

Roscoe and Jae laugh but Dee tries to hold hers in, knowing the feeling of having people laugh in your face for trying. Their managers reprimand them, each getting a silent threat. Dee shakes her head, looking back to the door where Tally exited. But shorty really jetted out, damn.  She doesn't have long to contemplate when JD calls her name. 'You got this, sis,' Jermaine says, giving a small push.

As she makes her way to the stage, she tries to ignore the many eyes on her, her excitement drowning out the feelings of doubt. 'You ready?' JD asks. She nods, taking a deep breath before the beat starts and letting loose.