On the Come Up(105)

But I wasn’t going around telling people I’d mess them up.

There’s a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Sonny calls with a mouth full of chips.

Scrap, of all people, peeks into the greenroom. “Ay, Bri? You got a minute?”

I straighten up. “Yeah. What you doing here?”

Scrap gives Malik and Sonny quick nods. “Had to come see my new favorite rapper perform. Plus, your boy is the reason you here tonight, you know?”

I raise my eyebrows. “Nah, I don’t know.”

“I’m the one told you to make a banger!” Scrap says. “I told you it had to be catchy, too. I know, I know. I’m a genius, right?”

On what planet? “Umm . . . yeah. Sure.”

“Just give me my shout-out onstage and we good,” he claims. “I got somebody who wanna holla at you.”

He hands me his phone.

There is no way this is who I think it is. “Hello?”

“Now, see, I ain’t been gone long, and you already ain’t sounding like yourself,” Aunt Pooh says. “How you gon’ be a superstar tonight, sounding all soft and shit?”

“Shut up.” I laugh, and she joins in. I almost forgot what her laugh sounds like. “Damn. I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” she says. “Ay, look, I ain’t got a lot of time, but I had to talk to you. Scrap told me you performing tonight. Go in there and kill it, a’ight? If you choke again, I’m gon’ bust outta here just to whoop your ass. On my momma.”

That’s her way of saying, “I love you.” I don’t tell her about the Crowns. She doesn’t need that on her right now. “Don’t worry. I’ve got this.”

“You know I may be getting out sooner than later, right?” she says. “My attorney thinks he can get me the minimum. Especially since I ain’t got no violent offenses.”

That they know about. But hey, I’ll take it. “That’s dope.”

Supreme comes back. He seems to stare at Scrap. Scrap gives him an up-and-down like, “We got a problem?”

Supreme turns to me and points to his watch.

“I gotta go,” I tell Aunt Pooh.

“A’ight. Go kill it,” Aunt Pooh says. “Sky’s still the limit, superstar.”

“We’ll see them chumps on top,” I finish for her. “I love you.”

“Sentimental ass, I love you, too. Now go do your thing.”

My eyes prickle as I pass Scrap his phone. “Thank you,” I tell him.

“Don’t mention it,” he says. “Go kill it. For Pooh.”

Malik, Sonny, and I follow Supreme into the hallway. Supreme wraps an arm around me and pulls me close into his side.

“Look at you, hanging with GDs,” he whispers. “Trying to make it look authentic like I suggested, huh?”

I move away from him. “Nah, I don’t do that.”

We step into the gym and a rush of sound and lights hit us. There’s barely room to move in here, yet somehow the crowd clears a path for us. Supreme leads me toward the boxing ring. Like outside in the line, people give me palm slaps or pat my back along the way. Anything to touch me, as if it’s their way of wishing me luck.

“All right, y’all. She got her start right here in the Ring,” Hype says to the crowd as I make my way over. “Ever since, she’s been on the come up, pun intended.”

He’s so much cornier than I realized.

“Here to perform her new single, give it up for Bri, y’all!”

I hold my fist out to Sonny and Malik. They knock theirs against it, we give each other dap, and chunk the deuces. We’re still the Unholy Trinity.

“Bam!” we say.

“Don’t choke this time,” Sonny adds. “I don’t wanna have to disown you.”

I purse my lips. He cheeses.

Supreme lifts the ropes so I can climb into the Ring and hands me a mic. The spotlight hits me, just like it did all those weeks ago. The screams are deafening.

I squint and look around the crowd. My brother, Jojo, and Kayla are right beside the Ring. Sonny and Malik join them. James and Supreme are next to them. Scrap’s found a spot not too far away. A ways back behind him, something glistens.

A mouth full of silver teeth smiles at me. The Crown in a gray beanie holds my dad’s pendant and makes a kissy-face at me. His friends smirk and snicker.

Scrap follows my gaze. I don’t hear him, but I read his lips. “Aw, hell nah.”

He catches my eyes and silently asks a deadly question: “Want me to handle that?”

“Sooo . . . you not gon’ introduce yourself or nothing?” Hype asks. I forgot he was here. Shit, I forgot where I was. “Don’t tell me you’re about to choke again. Gotta call you Lady Chokes-a-Lot.”

He plays a drum kick. Who the hell told this guy he was funny?

The Crown holds the chain up higher for me to see. His friends crack up.

Scrap once again silently asks, “Want me to handle that?”

“Y’all wanna hear this song, right?” Hype calls to the crowd. The answer is yeah. “Let’s get it, then!”

The beat starts.

I’m supposed to go right into the hook and then do the verses Dee-Nice wrote. Supreme and James watch me with amused expressions, and it’s as if I’m their pet, about to perform a trick.