𝐔𝐏𝐓𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐓 - 𝐝. 𝐬𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠.

CHAPTER SIX.

1991.
DEVANTE SWING.

— "THIS FAME SHIT AIN'T ALL ITS CRACKED UP TO BE, I MISS BALTIMORE ME. I MISS THE OLD DE."

"Hi baby."

"Hi ma." DeVante cracked a small smile at the soft voice at the end of the phone. The phone call was short but sweet and he cherished every second of it. His mom was strictly forbidden to contact De or Dalvin from their father who didn't agree with their choice of music and lifestyle.

Ever since they dropped their debut 'Forever My Lady' album, they've been rising to the top and almost every girl in the world loved at least one member of Jodeci. Especially DeVante.

"What y'all niggas up in here laughing about?" DeVante asked joining the other three in the living area.

"Yo smitten ass." K-Ci smirked making DeVante scrunch his face up. What was K-Ci talking about now.

"What?"

"Dream, we see how you be lookin' at er." Dalvin intruded. "Your feelings comin' back?"

"Of course they is," K-Ci said back, "who y'all think almost every song on the album is about?"

He was right. DeVante couldn't debate with that. He thought back to all those times when he and Dalvin were new students at Baltimore's School of arts she was the nicest girl, social and was both of their first friends.

DeVante was sick to his stomach. North Carolina to Baltimore, what was the point in this move? A bigger church? What was wrong with the small church back in Carolina? It was sickening. And he missed his friends.

He slouched in his seat biting down on his bottom lip softly as his English teacher talked about Shakespeare and things.

"...Now partner up!" He exclaimed. DeVante looked towards the teacher in pure awe. What the fuck did he even just say?

A couple girls came up to the hazel-eyed-boy practically begging to be the mysterious boy's partner.

"Actually...me and Donald are partners?" He heard a soft voice behind his head. "Isn't that right, Donald." He knew it was Dreamy. Everyone around school knew her, whether you were new or not it was hard not to hear about her. She was smart, she was head of the drama club, a social elite, and fuckin' beautiful in the eyes of many.

He took his eyes away from the now saddened girls in front of him and bit down on his lip before managing to get out a simple. "Yeah."

The tall guy she was talking to mugged DeVante a bit before he and the other girls scattered off to find other partners.

"Thank you." She gushed settling in beside him a small smile plastered across her face. "You literally saved me!"

"I did?" He questioned looking over at her.

"Uh-huh. Rickey and I used to go out last year...but obviously we didn't work."

DeVante hadn't listened to another thing she had said, the only thing he was thinking about was how would it feel to kiss her soft lips. All her features excited him, so much that he created a song.

'Come and talk to me.'

DeVante scrunched his face up in protest and sighed.  "Can we talk about somethin' else other than my love life?"

"Yeah, I guess." K-Ci sighed dramatically before peeking up happily. "Which honey you want? Jojo got all the babies makin' they way over here to get it jumpin' off!"

"Didn't y'all just talk about me bein' in love and now—we got rats and roaches and y'all asking girls to come over?" Devanté was confused, they couldn't be this dumb.

"Okay?" K-Ci shrugged a mug on his face as he sighed. "Everybody cone had roaches before!"

"Not everybody," Dalvin side eyed him, "You niggas had roaches in y'all crib?"

Jojo looked over from the television that was playing nothing interesting before raising his thick brow, "hell no, K-CI malnourished ass had them in his room because he was skeeting on—"

"Because I was breeding them!" K-Ci cut him off. Devante didn't even ask, before walking off into the bedroom.

"You was nuttin' on yo carpet?" Dalvin asked him below a whisper.

Devante was stomped the whole night, he couldn't find a muse, he had no inspiration. None at all. He laid back staring at the ceiling for however long, before picking up the phone and dialing one of the only numbers he knew by heart.

"Hello?"

He sighed picking with the thread on the comforter. "Hey Dream, I—uh—I need you. You busy?"

"That nigga up in there on the phone! Bro we got coochie on the way here!"

"K-Ci shut the fuck up!" Jojo bellowed.