Cross My Heart, Hope To Die

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"Okay." I said. Malcolm and Trevor took the girls back to school early so they could prepare. Jamal, Queeny, Octavia, and I rode in the escalade there. We got out and reporters were everywhere.

"You good, ma." Jamal said reaching out his arm for support.

I took it, "I'm fine, really." I tuned out the questions being screamed at me and focused on my breathing.

"We got seats in the front. Here at the end we're throwing red roses at them." Malcolm informed approaching us.

"They don't have thorns, right?" Jamal asked handing me bouquet.

"Nope, we double checked they've been cut off and trimmed down." He said. Once we got to the front row Lucious, Thirsty, Andre, Rhonda, and Hakeem rearranged their seats so I didn't it by Lucious.

"I actually want to sit by your father." I said. Lucious looked at me but didn't say anything Hakeem gave up his seat and I sat down next to Lucious.

"Let me check your pulse." Octavia said taking my hand. She looked at her watch and felt my pulse through my wrist. "Good." She left and took her seat next to Queeny.

"Thank you for Octavia and the nutritionist helping Trevor." I said.

"You don't need to thank me, you know I'd do anything for you." He said quietly. I turned my body so I could really look at him.

"You haven't visited me. It's not your fault." I said. He turned to me with a chuckle and looked at me quietly.

"Don't do that." He whispered.

"Hold my hand." I told him.

"No." He declined staring at me. I stared back. My eyes feel with tears, one fell and Lucious wiped it away immediately. He took my hand in his and kissed it. A pretty woman ran up to us,

"Hello, I'm Jennifer Lopez, Lola's dance teacher. I need for Lola's family to follow me backstage. She's really upset." Jamal was the first up and we followed. Lucious held my hand all the way there.

"She said she'd be here. She promised." She cried out in her daddy's arms.

"Who?" Lucious asked.

"Her mom." He replied.

"Baby, it's going to be okay." Queeny said rubbing her back.

"I want to go home. I don't want to dance." She said wiping her face.

"Okay." Jamal said.

"Hell no. She's dancing. You're dancing little girl. Your mom may not be here but we are. We'll be in the front row every time because we love you. You hear me, you got everything you need standing right in front of you. Stop crying and get out there."

"Okay, Glama." She said wiping her face again. She took her teacher hand and walked off.

"Where's her mom?" I asked.

"I don't know. Her sister said she found herself some rich boyfriend. I heard he was throwing a party tonight maybe she'd rather be there." Jamal answered. We went back to our seats right before they started. Little girls in gold dresses and little boys came out on different ends of the stage but Lola and a young boy was front and center. She was so focused and she glided across the floor like an angel. Jamal had whispered that they were dancing to a mashup of the 2017 Beauty and the Beast soundtrack. After the dancing, they took a bow and we threw roses onto the stage.

"Come on. We got to go change, Destiny game is about to start." Queeny said grabbing me by my hand. We went to the bathrooms, already having our dresses off, we threw on our jerseys. When we walked out the Lyon family was waiting. We headed to the basketball court. Octavia had casually checked my pulse rate again. Thirsty had a section of at the bottom 3 of the bleachers blocked off by some of Lucious security for us, Drake's crew was there. We all settled in the space provided and waited for the game to begin. A fuss began at the bottom of the stairs, people starting running and falling at our feet.

"Thirsty find out what's going on. Andre, give your mama your seat." Lucious said. We stood up and made the switch. Now sitting in the 2nd bleacher next to Rhonda I could see a little better into the crowd forming my the door. As soon as Andre sat down a woman fell in Andre's lap. She didn't even apologize she just ran off. We heard Thirsty before we seen him,

"Please take a step back. Be respectful this is a children's game. The crowd parted and Lil Wayne came in with Nicki following close behind she held onto him tightly, Rihanna was right behind her with Chris Brown following. Then Jay-Z and Beyoncé entered. They all looked so shocked.

"Who knew people act like this at children's game." Chris Brown said.

"It's good to see you Cookie." Rihanna said. I got down and she gave me the first hug and everybody followed except Nicki.

"You look healthy." She said.

"I feel healthy. I heard one of your songs, I think it's called I lied. I loved it" I said.

"Yeah. Cookie, I'm sorry about that night and everything you're going through now." She said.

"It wasn't your fault. Lets sit down, they were suppose to start 10 minutes ago." I said. She nodded. She sat in the second row and I joined her. The game began, everybody was videoing us instead of their children. Nicki was going live on Instagram to let everybody see Drake coaching. They won the game with Destiny making the winning shot. Lucious had more security arrive since the crowd outside and inside got bigger. We went on the court afterwards and everybody was passing Destiny around. She ended up on Lucious shoulder and then Drake was bombarded with congrats on his first win. After that we all got in our individual cars and went to IHOP (Destiny's pick). Restaurant was shocked, most of them probably never seen this many famous people in person all at once in their life.