Nouveau

Chapter 5: The Sift

Tremaine

Who was she?

Fresh out the shower, he doused his face with water from the bathroom faucet. This wasn't the first time he had a dream that was as painfully vivid as the one he had a few weeks ago. He was just caught off guard. He hadn't had one of those dreams in months. Tremaine never spoke directly to anyone about those rare dreams he had. He could feel her. Smell her. Hell, he even knew what she taste like. But he couldn't figure out for the life of him, why he could never see her face. It was perplexing him to no end.

Ever since then, he had been off his game. Like clockwork, he had begun tuning everyone out at the wrong times, and taking a trip to La La land backstage at performances. He had to get himself together, and he had to do it quickly. What was it? He remembered having a conversation with his mom and grandma about premonitions and dreams.

"Whatever God is trying to tell you, you better pay attention. We can be our own worst enemy sometimes"

Tremaine recalled his mother scolding him when he asked about repetitive dreams, and if she thought they meant something. The concerned look on his face at the time must have been what caused her instant change in demeanor.

"Oh yeah, they mean something. You just have to figure out what," his grandmother gently spoke.

He chuckled lightly because he didn't think the creator had anything to do with the type of dreams he was having. 

"That shit was crazy" he took in his reflection in the mirror, licked his lips, and dried his face off with a washcloth from the counter.

His towel was tucked at the waist, while he clasped a gold chain with a continent replica of Africa around his neck.

"Let me hop on the snap real quick"

Tremaine opened the app and turned the front camera of his IPhone on. He pressed the screen, and begin sorting through the facial filters and came across one that stretched the midline of his face. It made his eyes look huge and his jaw line look like it was evenly squared.

"Let me tell yu sum-ting my pretty baby. Your love is for me, and for me only. Do not say yu love wit nobody, alright?" He was genuinely goofy.

"Oh, watch out when I put the sexy filter on." His eyebrows peaked as he tilted his face to the left, and quickly grazed his tongue across his bottom lip.

"I got my after-shower curls turnt wayyy up. Look at that. Oh. Ohh. Oh, Ohhh, that boy got good hair." Tremaine smiled and released a short laugh. 

He posted the two snaps to his story one after the other, and returned to the front camera in the app. He wanted to find one more filter. Tremaine was taken back by the filter he stumbled across. Hell nah.

"What the FUCK is this?" He held a straight face into the camera as the filter simulated large brown eyes, an inset of tan and deep brown sparse hairs, and a leathered snout. 

"I'm a gorilla, in-a, fu-cking coupe." And proceeded to snort like an ape.

The snap ended because he was laughing so hard at himself, "Yooooo! What the fuck" Tremaine was balled over suffering from one of those silent laughs.

Pulling himself together, he walked out of the restroom. Tremaine plopped onto his hotel bed, and rested his head between his arms as he relaxed on his stomach. It was times like these that he'd wished he had someone to call his. He wanted someone who was attentive, but not clingy. A woman who was so in tuned with his work ethic, she knew when to tell him to slow down and get rest. He wanted her to be available to him, but not totally encompassed in what he had going on. Was that asking for too much?