His Past, Her Present, Their Future

Numb

"You stole my heart...and now its numb..." – Danni

Devante

October 2000

Charlotte, North Carolina

"Negative."

    "Negative."

    "Y'all are the two stupidest, dumbest niggas that I know. Just dumb!" I ain't kill Brooke. I should've and hid her body in the fuckin' ocean. Nah. I had to play shit smart. I finished up my lil rehab program and took my ass back to North Carolina. I linked up with K-Ci so we could get tested. With Brooke tellin' me that she has herpes and ol' girl we screwed in '93 having HIV, I wanted to get tested. No lie, K-Ci and I were nervous as fuck. We ain't need anything screwing with our mental. When our tests coming back negative, I fell to my knees and thanked God, something I haven't done in years. JoJo and Dalvin came with us for support. Of course, they were clowning us, but none of that ain't affect our moods.

    "Hey jackass," K-Ci calls out to his brother. "You can kiss my ass. Let a brutha celebrate by going to the strip club and buying a whole lotta drinks." K-Ci and JoJo are living in the moment. Both of their recent albums hit platinum and they are currently working on their third album. I am proud of my brothers. They worked hard for their fame, but when it comes to drinking, that shit is affecting them in the long run. Constant issues in their love life, issues with their vocals, K-Ci and JoJo not showing up to the studio, and then embarrassing theirselves on stage when they perform. I hate seeing them like that, for real. I try talking some sense into them, but shit, I have my own problems of my own; same with Dalvin.

    "Nah." I disagreed. "Bruh, we need to contact that broad and have a conversation with the bitch. Once we figure shit out with ol' girl, then I can finally leave Brooke's blackmailing ass."

    "Mannnn..." K-Ci whines. "I'on want to do that, that ain't my problem―"

    "It is your problem dumb ass when ol' girl goin' around lyin' and shit about one of us being her child's father. I just want to once and for all forget about the situation and move the fuck on in my life."

    Smacking his lips, K-Ci replies. "You always talkin' 'bout your life, shit nigga, what about my life? You don't think this shit is haunting me too? I drink and smoke to hide the pain? How you think ma and pops felt when they found out about the shit?"

    "Instead of y'all talkin' about the shit, go handle y'all business." Dalvin suggests, stuffing a mouth full of fries in his mouth. After leaving the clinic, we all decided to stop by our neighborhood corner store that sold homemade burgers, fries, and all that good shit.

    "Fuck that." JoJo comments, smacking on a bag of Lay's chips. "We need to get back in the studio. And y'all two lite brite idiots gone help us too." He says, pointing to me and Dalvin.

    Dalvin and I literally stopped eating just to stare at our childhood friends with disappointment. Knowing those two, they probably haven't started working on their project. The difference between Jodeci and the K-Ci and JoJo franchise, is they have writers and shit who write the songs while they sing it. Jodeci is different. When I write my shit, I have to literally feel the shit in my balls in order for me to spent countless days writing it and producing it. I'm not saying that Jodeci is better than K-Ci and JoJo, I blame the industry. You can't hire writers and call their writing legendary.

    "How many songs have y'all fools started recording?" I ask.

    K-Ci and JoJo looked at each other and then shrugged their shoulders. JoJo spoke first. "Shitttt...about...one or two―"