#3 Lost in You (fan fic - in progress)

Chapter Seven

"Lo Beckham is part of GZBG?" I asked Deyvon incredulously.

Deyvon shrugged. "Yea. He's real low key about it but he writes and produces a lot of the music for the artists who come through. He doesn't hang much... but he always comes to work. Real talented."

I have no idea if Lo even noticed me. The room was so crowded and filled with the sounds of his music. Deyvon managed to flag down the artist, Theory, after he was done on the mic so we could show him what we had done so far. I could barely concentrate on what the two men were discussing however. The vibe in the room had shifted again and a singer with a soft sultry voice was now on the mic. Her tone melded perfectly with the live band causing the entire room to mellow out too. Bodies swayed and gyrated to the bass rhythm.  Lo had moved out from behind the sound board and was now seated in a plastic chair above the rest of the band on a makeshift platform at the furthest point from me. He still held all of my attention. He had pulled off his t shirt showing off that set of perfect abs and the scrawling tattoos underneath. He was smoking and playing a bass guitar, oblivious to anything but the warm notes of the love song they were making together, his head down and nodding to the beat. Instead of selling my artwork, I was busy eyeing Lo and sorting through all of the rapid thoughts running through my head. I figured he was at the skater party just to smoke out. But apparently, this was the reason he was around them. He was an artist... just like me. Every time I thought I had him figured out, he found some way to surprise me with something else. I finally had to admit that I was truly intrigued.

Luckily my paintings spoke for themselves because Theory was more than excited about our collab.

"This is great! Ya'll just took the vision straight out my head."

"Cool." Deyvon smirked. "Exactly what we were going for. We just need to put the finishing touches and they should be ready..."

"And when this album blows up. Ya'll gettin' all the credit for the visuals." Theory was still staring and smiling as he leafed back through the pics in the portfolio. "And actually, I was hoping to do some real eccentric electic animation shit for the video for my first single. I definitely want ya'll."

"No doubt!" Deyvon responded excitedly. "Animation is right up my alley. We'd definitely be down for that! Right Jay??"

"Yea. Sure." I nodded my head only half listening.

"Good. I'll let ya'll know once we get the budget together." Theory took the pics and moved away as the music ended. "Lemme show my boy who produced most of the album. EH! Lo! Come look at this shit D and his girl did for my album cover!!"

The smile on my face faded as Lo stood up from his chair locking eyes with me as Deyvon pulled me that way behind him and Theory. I couldn't tell what he was thinking but he surely wasn't excited to see me standing with the two young men.  He looked away and took the paintings from Theory. He looked the paintings over and said, "This shits dope. Ya'll did this?"

"Yea man. Wassup?" Deyvon greeted Lo and then indicated me. "This is my girlfriend, Jay. She did all the backgrounds."

"Yea." Theory added excitedly. "These visuals definitely fit your beats. Especially the bangin vibe of the backgrounds. Im floored. I told them we should collab for the video... like I was telling you Lo, I want animation."

"Yea. I can see that." Lo handed the pictures towards me instead of back to Theory. I was avoiding his eyes but also trying not to stare at his abs either. I could feel him staring intensely at me though. "I think we fit perfectly together."

I took the paintings, not missing the innuendo behind those words. Apparently the other two men didn't catch it because they were on to talking about the release of Theory's first single. I put my hand on Deyvon's arm and whispered in his ear that I was going to find a bathroom.