Cracks

3

We had passed through Delaware now, and we were about. I had the aux, playing some old Jhené Aiko. Shaad was driving still. I asked him at the roadhouse if he wanted to switch off, but he said he was fine, so I believed him.

"You... you got any um....uh, Homeshake? Can you play some next?", he said, looking ahead at the road.

"Of course I do, that's all I bump sometimes", I said with a smile. I put him on to Homeshake. He loved it.

"Thanks, can you play every single thing?"

For a second I thought he meant all of the songs, but he meant the song titled "every single thing". I laughed, "sure, Rashaad". I searched it and pressed play next.

Once Jhené's song went off, "every single thing" started playing. I looked out the window. I had goosebumps

"Can we turn the A.C off for a while? It's freezing", I said.

"Of course, yeah", Rashaad said, pressing the button. I rolled my window down and warm air blew in. "Thanks", I said.

The beat of the song came in and I danced a little. If I was home alone, I'd be hitting all the worst dance moves I could do, dancing around the house like no one was watching, but there wasn't enough room for that at the moment, and if there was, I'd still do them. Rashaad was one of my closest friends, I knew he was someone who wouldn't ever judge.

We were both enjoying the music, then out of nowhere, it stopped. Rashaad looked at me, but I was just as confused as he was. I grabbed my phone and it was turning off. It died.

"Aw fuck", I muttered.

"What happened?", Rashaad asked. I put the phone down by the side of me. "It just died, do you have a charger?

"I lent it to Faith before we left Phil's house", he said sighing.

"Darn....", I said.

"We're almost there, like 30 minutes away, so lets just... talk I guess", he laughed.

"About?", I asked.

"Inform me on the whats new in your life", he said, "its been a while since we've had a wholesome conversation, how's life?"

"Its pretty cool", I laughed, "same old, same old... How's yours?"

"Eh... its a'ight", Rashaad said, shrugging, "kinda just dragging, you know?"

"Oh, so you drag now, huh?", I said, smirking, and pushing him in the shoulder.

"I try, I try", Shaad laughed and giggled,"tryna get my clout up, I've been going to more parties, trying to find more ways to get my music out there, but i'm too shy". I nodded. "Plus, you know, most of the people in Baltimore listen to the same old thing... its rare that you find a large group of people who like what I make, 'cause I'm 'too soft' for these niggas, and even the girls, 'cause all they wanna listen to is Sneaky T. Its rough out here", he added, with a sigh.

"I like your music, Shaad", I said, softly, "we all do", I added, reffering to our friend group.

He laughed, "Thanks, but honestly i wish that was enough"

"I know, but just remember that If you need any support we all got your back", I said, smiling at him, "We'll do whatever it takes to help you. We always have... and we always will"