© 2017 D.S. Little All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the author, except as permitted by U.S. Copyright law.

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Jericho

@YaraTheWriter: How did you come up with your screenname?

"Damn." I thought pausing from what I was doing. After my manager and I played the new album for the executives at my record company. They were so excited about the new music, that they started releasing press releases along with the first single, Moment of Truth.

It had only been out a couple of hours and was already playing nonstop on iTunes, all over social media, and radio stations across the country. I knew I had another smash on my hands, but I didn't know it would blow up like it was! It was nice to see the fruits of my hard work though, because I put my all into this album.

I was out at a club celebrating with my team. Everybody was so hype to see me out, that they were showing me so much love. I don't know why among everything going on around me, that I clicked on WriteNow when a notification popped up, but I did. I only had one book in my library, Jericho's Heart, so whenever I got a notification it was because Yara had either updated the book or sent me a new message. I hadn't chatted with her in a few days so I wanted to see what she was up to. However, seeing her message caused me to pause. Do I tell her?

Me: if I tell you who I am, will you tell me who you are

There was no response so I figured she went to sleep since it was so late at night and I knew she was in school.

"Aye son, I told you this song was gonna be that hit!" Brendan said drinking out of a bottle.

"You did!" I half-laughed while watching the women on the dance floor eyeing us as they danced.

"I'm taking her home...and her...and her... I need to add a little whipped cream to my sundae with that one right there with the pink dress on." Richie rambled drunkenly.

"Aite nigga, make sure you strap up or your shit gonna be burning again." I shook my head with amusement.

"I already learned my lesson from the last time." He said glaring at me.

I could only laugh harder because I remembered when Richie first started feeling himself after my first album he worked on hit big. Girls threw themselves at him as much as they did me! They seemed to love his Puerto Rican and Black mix. One night, he collected about eight girls after a show in Maryland and took them back to his hotel room. At some point, he stopped using condoms because he ran out. He ended up getting Gonorrhea but didn't know from who because the night had been that wild. His shit was burning so bad that he cried every time he went to the bathroom. Luckily, what he caught could be cured with a shot.

"Haha nigga, you real funny." Richie replied when my laughing continued. "Wait until your ass catches something."

"No woman I mess with ever wants those kinds of problems." I said looking down at my phone. I noticed a new notification and clicked on it.

@YaraTheWriter: I just asked about your screen name.

Me: I just came up with it

I lied hoping that she would drop it.

@YaraTheWriter: Is it just a coincidence that Jericho's new album is Jaren vs. Jericho?

Me: how would I know something like that

@YaraTheWriter: I don't know that is why I am asking you.

Me: it makes sense he would name his second album that

@YaraTheWriter: I guess so...

Me: do you like the song

@YaraTheWriter: I love it!

Me: me too
Me: why u up so late, don't you have class

@YaraTheWriter: I can't sleep

Me: another fight?

@YaraTheWriter: Nah, we're actually good now.

Me: I hope it works out for you

@YaraTheWriter: Where is your girl?

Me: at home

@YaraTheWriter: Where are you?

Me: you asking a lot of questions tonight

@YaraTheWriter: Just having a conversation.

Me: does your man know that you are laying next to him talking to me

I asked the same questions she asked me when Brandy had been lying next to me.

@YaraTheWriter: He's sleeping.

Me: I know what that's all about

@YaraTheWriter: What do you know?

Me: when it's good a nigga will go right to sleep

@YaraTheWriter: Are you saying what you're getting is not good?

Me: wtf

@YaraTheWriter: You are always the one up while she's asleep.

Me: I do most of my work at night

@YaraTheWriter: I bet you do

Me: you got jokes now

I started laughing because every time I talked to Yara, she would always bring a smile to my face. We easily talked as two friends who had known each other for a long time when we actually didn't even know each other's real identity.

@YaraTheWriter: You started it!

Me: you won't tell me who you are

@YaraTheWriter: Nope! I can't.

Me: I'm gonna get it out of you eventually

"Nigga get off of your phone!" TK yelled wrapping an arm around my neck. "Tell Brandy you'll talk to her stuck-up ass when you get home."

I wasn't about to tell my boy that I wasn't talking to Brandy because he would make a bigger deal about it. Though I hated to admit it, I was starting to look forward to my messages from Yara more than the ones from Brandy.

"I'm taking care of business." I told him brushing him off my shoulder so that he couldn't look down at what I was doing.

"Do that shit tomorrow!" TK continued. "You've been stuck in the studio working on this album. You need to be drinking harder than all of us."

"You got it." I said with amusement. He was drunk enough for the both of us already.

"On the real bruh. You need to let that saddity-ass girl go." TK went on with his drunk advice. "You need an around-the-way BK girl on your arm."

"Like your around-the-way BK girl?" I countered with a raised brow.

"See, there you go calling my girl a ho!" I moved his hand out of my face and pushed him forward to where the waitress was passing around more bottles and drinks in VIP.

"Go have another drink." I added as he was already grabbing another drink. Once he was out of sight I went back to finish my conversation with Yara.

@YaraTheWriter: Who I am doesn't matter. You just need to know that I write good books.

Me: you ain't the least bit curious as to who I am

@YaraTheWriter: I am a little curious.
@YaraTheWriter: But not curious enough to tell you who I am.

Me: I'm gonna figure it out

@YaraTheWriter: You can try!

"Jaren." My assistant Courtney called my name and I tore my eyes away from my phone.

"Wassup?" I asked her giving her my undivided attention. Whatever she had to tell me was about business and she was overly excited, so I knew it had to be good news.

"Did you see the emails?"

"What emails?"

"Guess who wants to go on tour with you this summer?" She said ready to squeal the answer before she even got the question out.

"Who?" I didn't feel like trying to guess from the dozens of artists that were out.

"Kendrick!" She said hugging me as if the deal was already done.

That was big because Kendrick was the biggest emcee out besides Drake. He was the most respected lyricist by far. I scrolled through the email traffic to see if I saw anything about it. Kendrick's people had reached out to the record company about us co-headlining a tour together since the both of us were dropping our albums around the same time.

"Now that's whas up." I said as I continued to scroll through the numerous comments from executives. "I gotta see what that paper gonna be like though."

"Of course." She said not able to stop jumping up and down excitedly, "but do you know how many people are gonna run to a concert featuring you and Kendrick!"

"In theory it sounds right, but we gotta get through some red tape before we start making any moves."

"You take the fun out of everything." She pouted rolling her eyes. "Let me have my moment please." She added flinging her bone straight dark hair. She normally wore it conservatively either up in a bun or in a ponytail. Tonight, it was down. "Did you see the email from Brandy's agent?" She asked not as excited.

"About what?" I asked skeptically. If it was up to Brandy's agent he would have us in front of every media outlet. Even if Brandy wasn't trying to capitalize on my success, her agent sure was.

"She has that other movie she shot at the beginning of the year coming out and they want you to attend the movie premiere with her."

I looked at Courtney like she was crazy. "You know I don't do shit like that."

"I know that, but since you and Brandy are getting more serious, I thought you would wanna go." She shrugged.

"That's her thing, I'm all for supporting her, but I don't like that fake Hollywood shit."

"Want me to tell him no?" She asked her fingers ready to relay the message to the over-annoying agent right away.

"Nah, hold off. Let me think about it and talk to B first." I told her. I really didn't want to talk about work anymore because I wanted to get back to celebrating the success of my first single. "No more work for the night! Get back out there and enjoy your night off before I make you do some work."

Courtney worked so hard for me all the time, that I wanted her to enjoy nights like this. When my schedule picked up, she was going to be practically working twenty-four hours a day again. I didn't have to tell her twice either. She placed her phone back in her small purse and began to wiggle her hips back towards the dance floor. I started laughing at her exaggerated moves.

@YaraTheWriter: Why do you care?

Me: why don't you

@YaraTheWriter: It's not important! I like what we have as is.

Me: for now you do

@YaraTheWriter: What's that supposed to mean?

Me: exactly what I said

I waited a few minutes and when she didn't respond I exited out of the app and enjoyed the rest of the night with my people. Funny thing is, as hard as I tried to get Yara out of my head, I couldn't. I really did want to know more about her. Who she really was? Who her parents were? Why they didn't know about her gift? Why she was hiding who she really was? I almost put a song on the album called A Silenced Gift but knew that would have been a dead giveaway. It was still a song I planned to put out eventually, just not on this album.

She seemed like the type of girl that a guy could easily fall in love with, so something had to be wrong with her if she was hiding her identity and always fighting with her boyfriend. For all I knew she could be a complete lunatic with a gift of making up stories. The whole going to school to become a doctor story could have been made up and she could have just been looking for someone to talk to.

When I thought back over our conversations, I couldn't see the girl I had been talking to being crazy or even lying about anything we talked about. I don't know why, but my intuition when it came to her believed that she was very real. Which was weird in the Catfish society we lived in. The problem was, we both had other people in our lives. We had to both be careful about the direction we were going in. That friendship/being cool line was crossed easily if you weren't careful.

Either way, with my album done, my time was going to be limited anyways. And if I accepted this tour with Kadeem I wouldn't have much time to really sit around talking to Yara anyways.