Too Young: A ChriLiyah Story

Chapter 3

On Monday morning, Chris was prepping for his first day of classes. Chris was in the living room packing up his bookbag. Shad came out of his room in basketball shorts, awoken from the noise.

"You all set?" Shad asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah I'm good. Mad I gotta go early to pick up my books though."

"Hold up..." Shad grabbed some papers off the tv stand. "Can you put these flyers up around campus?" He handed them to Chris. Chris rejected them.

"Nuh uh, I'm not doing your job for you nigga" Chris pushed Shad's hands out the way and walked to the kitchen.

"You're staying here rent-free and you can't even do that though..." Shad snuck the flyers in Chris's bag then zipped it back up.

"Sorry man but it's my first day, can't be worrying about that." Chris finished his juice. He changed the subject. "Don't you only work nights? What you gonna do all day?"

"Oh don't worry about that, I'll find something to do," Shad said as he rubbed his hands together.

"Alright then, I'm out" Chris dapped up Shad, grabbed his bookbag and left out.

After class, Chris came back to the apartment looking for Shad. "Yo Shad! Where you at?" He looked around the living room and saw Shad's keys still sitting on the counter. He put his bag down on the couch and walked towards Shad's room. "Where you at son?" Chris knocked on Shad's door. He put his hand on the doorknob and noticed it was unlocked so he opened it. But Shad wasn't in there. "What the..."

"Oh hey Chris." Shad said. Chris jumped.

"Nigga where the fuck did you just come from?" Chris asked, startled.

"That room." Shad pointed at a room on the end of the hallway.

"What's in there?" Chris started to walk towards the room. Shad pushed the door open.

"It's my studio." They both walked inside.

"No wonder you couldn't hear me." The walls were covered with noise-cancelling panels.

"Oh my bad man, what was it?"

"Nah, forget that, it's nothing." Chris looked around the studio and smirked. "You still rap?"

"Yep". Chris bust out laughing. "What's so funny?" Shad asked, unamused.

"Remember back in middle school? 'Bow Wow Wow yippe yo yippe yay'" Chris chuckled. "You still do that shit?"

"Man I'm way better than that now, shut up." Shad pushed Chris out the way and sat in front of his computer.

"Uh huh, sure" Chris said, skeptical. He folded his arms.

"Check this out," Shad said excited. He turned on his song called Set It Off and started getting buck to it in his seat.

"Okay, I'll admit, you can flow a bit" Chris subtly bobbed his head to the beat.

"Exactly." Shad swung his chair around to face Chris. "So I'm working on this new song, and I need someone to sing the hook. You up for it?"

"Me?" Chris pointed at his chest. "I don't sing for real, just playing."

"Nah man back in the day you swore you were Lil' Usher. Remember that? You'd stand outside the school singing and dancing to Caught Up." Shad got up and tried to do a cheap imitation of Chris, gliding across the floor and singing the song with sub-par vocals. Chris laughed.

"I was way better than THAT, move." Chris started singing Caught Up and pop locking. Shad chuckled and clapped.

"Yes, so you still have a voice, hop on this track with me."