Distractions (D. SWING)

38

His Bad

Nails of mine aggressively tap against the kitchen counter as the tapping of my foot begins to increase. "Why can't I have a normal life? Why can't I have a normal life and a normal boyfriend and do normal shit?" I laugh at the thought of my words. Who am I kidding? Obviously, I'm joking with somebody and I'm starting to think it is myself. Normal and Nel don't belong in the same sentence, unfortunately. There is nothing I can do about it. That's why when your boyfriend suddenly disappears as you're preparing to attend a birthday party, you just have to shake it off and catch the next flight back to New York.

"Huh?"

I wave Jared off as he ties his shoes. "Nothing, boo."

He picked me up from the airport just as I asked. The whole ride back, he told me all that he had to tell. Jared said DeVante's been missing for five and a half days. He said they tried to figure it out without me to keep me from worrying because everybody still thinks I'm pregnant. It's been roughly two weeks since we figured all of that out. I have questions and a lot of them. Even while I was playing like the tenth Jackson sibling with Jan, DeVante was still calling to check in and vice versa. So, I know he isn't dead.

"Let me call him again because you guys are saying he isn't answering but we're on the phone all of the time. He's called me everyday since he left," I tell Jared, confident in the fact that I know my man. I know he'll pick up for me. "Okay, so, I paged him to let him know I'm calling him." Jared sighs as I dial his cellphone's number one more time.

No pick up. So, I don't know he isn't dead.

I put the phone back on the hook with a sigh. Jared stands up, eyebrows raised to the heavens, with puffed cheeks. He exhales for a full second before it turns to a hearty, spitty laugh. "The hell are you laughing at Jared?"

"Laughing soothes the pain," says Jared.

Rolling my eyes, I shake my head without uttering a single word. This is most definitely not the time to be arguing with Jared, of all people. "Look," I say running ny fingers through my hair. I'm itching to cut it, seriously. It's been sitting on my skull heavy. I can chop it all off right now! "If you find him, page me 911. If I find him, I'll page you 911, alright?" Jared nods his head as I walk out of the door, trusting him to lock the door behind himself since we were in my home and not DeVante's. Hey, my place is closer to JFK.

I felt the beginning of all of this was necessary to be spoken so that we all would know why Chanel is driving around New York City. I told Jared that I'd hit all of the lower key places. The last thing I want is to get mobbed (or robbed) in the middle of New York City because I dropped my bodyguards to give all three of us a chance of normal lives. I'd be Dummy of the Year if that happened. Jared, Jared's going to all of the more public places you'd find DeVante. After an hour or two, it became obvious that he wasn't in New York City. I called Jared told him to go ahead and branch out to another borough, Jersey included. It took me a solid fifteen minutes sitting in the McDonald's parking lot to really think of something. You already know what I did once I realized where I'm going...

I drove down the street to the Wendy's drive-thru because I like freckle-faced girls over clowns and after signing five cups, and getting a number five, I jumped my ass on the highway. The five hour drive was worth it. With me driving DeVante's Bentley, there's a copy of all of his important numbers in the glove compartment because according to him; I be forgetting shit sometimes, 'know what I'm sayin', ma? God bless the side affects of heavy marijuana use because who knows, I could've forgotten the address– even though I didn't!

"Lyric," says David.

I sigh, softly smiling at the visual of his presence as I put an extra umph into the speed of my jogging into the building. "Dave." His body language tells me that its an all clear for me to come all the way into the studio building. The last thing I need is to bump into anybody who knows the melody of the Swing Mob's anthem. "You said he's here?"