ꨄThe Debutanteꨄ

8.

3rd Person POV

One Week Later

...

Hakeem rapped in the studio this morning with passion. His lyrics flowed quickly over a smooth guitar hip hop beat. Cookie, Lucious, Jamal, and Anika all stood outside of it, bobbing their heads to the beat. Once the song came to an end, Hakeem let out a chuckle, being pleased with himself on how successful the song was. He walked out of the room, and Jamal walked up to him. "See, told you those new beats are fire." Said Jamal, dapping his brother up. After that, his father approached him, and did the same.

"See, now this is what I'm talking about. This has been one of the most successful moments in Empire. The fans are eating it up. Jamal's single is number one right now. I didn't think you two would pull it off, but you've been getting it done. Keep it up." Said Lucious, and Cookie lightly smirked as she playfully tapped shoulders with Anika, the two of them standing next to one another. Anika repeated the action back to Cookie.

"I'll leave you two to it." Said Lucious, as he and the boys headed towards the exit. "Y'all are killing it, for real." Smiled Hakeem, pointing at the two of them as he backed towards the door. Then, it was just Anika and Cookie. "I'm so proud of my baby, making it number one on the charts." Said Cookie, smiling and putting her hands to her mouth in a praying gesture.

"It's a great achievement. You both should be proud." Said Anika. "Seems like Lucious is proud too." Said Anika. Cookie fanned the thought of him away, then scrunching her nose. "That ole' salty dog. He's happy as long as he has big bills coming his way." She said, sitting down at the sound board. Anika nodded, then sitting down next to her. "Sounds about right." She chuckled. "He can be a bit overwhelming sometimes." Said Anika.

"Oh, you think I don't know? That man will destroy the world if it means he can get what's going on in his head right in front of him. He can be really overwhelming when he's got ideas." Said Cookie. Anika shook her head. "Enough about him." She said with some sort of annoyance. Cookie looked at her in surprise. "Oh, really? You tired of talking about your man all of a sudden? I thought you loved hearing about him." Said Cookie grinning.

"Sometimes, he overwhelms me too. It feels nice to have my own space and do my own thing without his direction. The only time I get to have that is when I'm here." Said Anika. "Oh, because you can input your own music sense right?" Asked Cookie. "Well...not just that." Trailed off Anika. "As you have probably been able to tell, even though me and Lucious are a couple, I don't feel like Empire is a piece of mine. I just feel like an employee. I don't bond with anyone outside of work, and I don't even have friends inside of work." She said.

"But after me and you started to do this, I have something actually...fun to do at work. And a piece of it is unique to me." She said. Cookie nodded. "Makes sense." She said, looking down at the soundboard. Anika turned to stare at her, although Cookie didn't notice. "And there's also another reason.." Said Anika.

"Oh yeah? What's the other reason?" Asked Cookie. "Well, you actually...surprisingly enough...are the only person here that I've actually created a bond with. In some sort of way. Even though it's slight, fragile, and fresh, I still feel like it's there. I appreciate having another woman to talk to." Said Anika.

Cookie turned to look her in her eyes, then let out a single chuckle. "Really?" She asked. Anika nodded slowly. "Wow, that's...good to hear. No one likes to have a broke down boring ass job. I mean I myself might know a lot of people, but I don't consider them all to be my friends. Me and them only talk briefly here and there, but you're the only woman here that I talk to consistently rather than occasionally. Since we've been working together for some time now." Said Cookie.