"So the release date for the album is finally set. Would you like to tell your fans the date and title?" Kimberly Evans smiles at me and the audience on the talk show go insane.

I smile dashingly. "My album 'The Come Up' will be released on February 7th on apple music!" The audience roars in applause.

"You heard it here first! Chanel will be releasing 'The Come Up' on the 7th of February, only a week away. I know you must be so excited to finally give your fans a full body of music to listen to." Kimberly says.

"Most definitely. We were going to drop a mixtape first but I told Mac I wanted to go for the full album. I think I have amazing fans that really deserve the most, especially with helping me through the hard times I've had." I nod.

I move my straight hair behind my ears and look out at the audience. A little girl waves excited that I looked at her and I smile big and wave back.

"You're very responsive to your fans too, which is always a good thing." Kimberly says.

"Yea, wouldn't be here without them." I answer.

"So in the past couple weeks we've been hearing about this new formed friendship with Mila London and a lot of fans wanted to know if you guys have a song together on the album." Kimberly looks at me deviously and I chuckle.

"Mila and I are really cool. She's a fun person. I guess you guys will just have to wait and see for yourself." I put my hands up in surrender.

"Aww, she won't tell us." Kimberly pouts at the camera.

"Nope!" I respond, pretending to zip my lips and throw away the key.

"So you released your song 'Nothing Without You', which is still doing great by the way." I nod and say thank you.

"In the last verse you say, and I have the lyrics right in front of me..." She looks down at her little notepad.

"The Ville can't be the same without you

Locked and unloaded behind those bars

I promise to be the anchor that grounds you

I promise to never chain up my heart

You took the key when they took your freedom

You bailed me out and I left you in

But if you can't hear me calling

Call back, I'll answer on the first ring" Kimberly puts down her notepad.

"There are so many who just want to know who you were talking about. Those are very personal lyrics so we, on the show.." Kimberly motions around. "We wanted to give you the opportunity to explain the lyrics if you wanted to.

I look at Kimberly briefly and smile, then turn my head backstage to look at my publicist, Casey Rithers. Mac sent her with me and they prepped me on how to answer questions about the accident and Flex and everything personal, but they didn't prep me to answer anything about Trev. I was told that Casey would be at every interview from this point on.

Casey responds quickly. She shakes her head and I turn back to Kim who looks a little confused.

"Sorry." I laugh apologetically. "Asking for permission." I joke. But I wasn't joking at all.

"Maybe I'll explain those lyrics another time, but yes they are very personal lyrics and I still hope people can relate to them and find some kind of comfort in it. That is always the plan with any song that I do." I glance at my publicist and she gives me a stern thumbs up for wiggling my way out.

"So tel us about the singing. Where did that come from?" Kimberly clutches her heart and laughs. I return the laugh a little more calm and uneasy.

"I've always loved to sing but I didn't start taking it seriously or even training my voice until about a year ago when the whole thing with Flex started. I was more focused on poetry." I answer honestly.

"Yes, we have heard that poetry was your strong suit. How did it go from poetry to rap to singing?" Kimberly questions.

"It's very easy for Poetry to mix with rap because rap to me is a form of poetry. Every poem has a certain flow and rhythm, much like every rap song. It's just that rap has a beat behind it sometimes, but poetry has it's own beat, you know? They're very interconnected, so that switch wasn't too hard to make." I use my hands to explain myself and I look from Kimberly to the audience and sometimes made eye contact with the cameras, like the publicist trained me to.

"The singing part was experimental and Mac, being the amazing mentor that he is, says why not just make you one of the most versatile artists out there? And so we worked on mastering that." I concluded.

"Wow so it sounds like it all came together just in time?" Kimberly looks amazed.

"Yea, I got really lucky." I respond noticing it for myself once I have spoken it.

"There you have it! Chanel Little, 'The Come Up' will be released on February 7th, thank you for coming on the show Chanel!" Kimberly says excited.

"Thank you for having me." I smile back and get up to give Kimberly an air kiss.

They go to commercial break but I stick around to perform Nothing Without You at the end of the show. Before I perform, Blaco pulls me to the side and hands me a bottle of water. I open it and take a few gulps.

"Do you need to warm up? Are you good?" He asks me.

I shake my head. "I'm fine." I respond.

"2 minutes." They shout on set.

"Good job, you're getting better at these interviews." He nods proud.

"Thank you." I answer. I take a few deep breaths. My publicist comes over with a smile.

"Good job. Make sure when you're performing you work with the cameras. Don't switch your attention too fast from one to the other but evenly distribute the time you give to each. Remember your facial expressions are everything, this is live TV." She says.

"Make up?" My publicist calls.

Two girls come over and adjust my hair, then add more blush to my cheeks and more gloss to my lips.

"20 seconds." They call on set. I am handed my microphone.

__________________________________________

"I'm really tired Ma." I stand to my feet and stretch my arms above my head. I hear my limbs crack. It feels like I haven't slept in days. I know for a fact that I haven't slept for more then 4 hours a night for the past week. The studio smells like pizza and soda but the studio also smells like freshly printed paper. The flyers for my album stare back at me. My hair is straightened, I am wearing a silver Givenchi choker with a fitted black top and blue lipstick. At first I thought the blue lipstick was a bit much but after the pictures were edited, I realized I loved it. I owe the entire look to Casey. I have been signing flyers with my autograph for at least 4 hours. These flyers go to the fans who pre-ordered the album.

I've autographed so many flyers that it feels like my hand is about to fall off. The last of the album was mixed down and ready to go, features, beats, interludes all of it. I was completely tired even with Mac's pep talks and speeches.

"Working day and night is what this business is about." He would say whenever he told me to do something and I made a groaning sound.

The last week has been the hardest part of this entire process. Promotion on top of promotion, interviews, shows, appearances. Every night it was something different. Something that required me to be out of my bed until four in the morning and back in the studio before 9 AM. Mom has been dealing with it pretty well, making me food, making sure I eat right. Making sure I take little naps when Mac isn't watching.

Trisha is back in school, working on her fashion show. I miss her now more than I ever have before, just because it all seems like too much without her. I haven't seen anyone but Mom, Blaco, Casey and Mac for the last few days. I've grown to love them more but after the album release, I'd like to take a break from them as well.

Devin's been in school a lot more, working hard towards graduating. Mac gave him his blessings to take some time out to make sure he passes all his classes. I think he wants to offer Devin a job right after he graduates. He deserves it.

The other secretary brings in another pile of flyers and I throw the marker across the room and walk out of the studio. Mom and the secretary remain there, frozen and silent.

I close the studio door behind me and begin walking to the lobby.

"She's a little tired and stressed out. Don't worry bout it." I hear Mom's soft voice explaining to the secretary who I have probably scared.

"No, no. It's not your fault." She chuckles politely.

I sit in one of the lobby couches, curl up and begin to doze off. Half an hour passes and I feel a nudge on my leg. My eyes flutter open and I see Mac, but his head is turned to the side, he isn't even looking at me, just waking me up.

"Let's go." He motions back to studio C.

"Mac, I need sleep. I'm going to lose my mind." I say warningly.

"Sign the rest of the flyers then go home and sleep." He says in an obvious manner.

"Then come back here by 9 AM?" I ask stressed already.

"Come back at 1 PM. But you better be ready to work and make up those four hours I'm giving you. And you BETTER be sleeping." He gives me the eye.

"Yea, yea." I reply, falling back asleep.

"Alright, if you won't listen to me, maybe there's someone else you'll listen to." Mac laughs.

I am zoning out when I hear his footsteps walking away. I don't know what he means by that and I don't care. I feel my breathing slowing down and my brain going right back into REM. At least another hour passes before I hear a deep and full voice.

"Girl!" He doesn't have to yell because his voice is loud enough.

"If you don't wake your spoiled bratty ass up and go sign them damn flyers!" My eyes shoot open and I sit up immediately in disbelief.

"Flex!" I scream and get ready to jump on him when Mac pulls me back by my arm.

"Ay! He's not as strong as he looks!" He warns cautiously then lets m go.

I wrap my arms around Flex's neck and hug him tightly anyway. He winces but he doesn't let me go.

"I missed you so much." I say burying my face into his neck. I want to cry so I do. The tears stream down and as I let him go, I hug his whole arm laughing.

"I missed you too baby girl. Good to see you." He smiles that big smile, white teeth contrasting his dark skin, his dreads brushing against his shoulders.

I let go his arm and hug his abdomen carefully, placing the force on his chest. He even smells like Flex. He holds my head to his chest and I can feel his hand massaging my scalp.

"Why you misbehaving?" He asks quietly but finds humor in it. "Stubborn little girl. You here giving Mac a hard time?"

Mac shakes his head, laughing.

"No, I ain't do nothing. Oh my God, how do you feel? I'm missed you so much Flex, I don't know what to do right now." I laugh and wipe the tears from my eyes.

"I'm good. I'm a soldier. I'm from the real hood. Ain't no bullets stoppin me." He puffs up his chest.

I roll my eyes and wipe the other tears that managed to escape.

"Ahh man, I missed that lil attitude." He pushes my head away playfully.

Everything was getting better. Things were coming together, as tired and frustrated as I may be. Flex being here just made up for everything I was lacking.

"Have you seen Ma yet?" I ask excited.

He puts his finger to his lips. "Nah not yet. Where she at?" He mumbles.

Mac and I point to studio C.

Flex walks with a small limp to studio C and opens the door, I follow behind him. Ma is knocked out on the chair across from the flyers. She was trying to sign the flyers for me, she came pretty close. I look at Flex who was smiling now and I almost burst with happiness knowing that in the next 10 seconds, my mother would have a smile so big that it would cure everything bad in the world.

Flex rubs her shoulder lightly.

"Baby." He mumbles. Her body moves slightly but she is still asleep.

"Baby, wake up." He says, rubbing her shoulder a little harder. Mom's eyes flicker open and she stares at him like she's seen a ghost.

"Oh my God." I hear her mumble. She sits up finally and rub her eyes.

"Oh my God." She says again. In seconds she is up and wrapped up in his arms. She tears up as fast as I did.

"Oh my God! What are you doing here? You didn't even tell me you were out yet or anything. What are you doi-" She kisses him a dozen times and he just looks at her with every kind of love possible in this world. He kisses back.

"What are you doing?" She repeats but her kisses are all over his face now. Mac and I laugh. Flex's wipes tears from both her eyes, holding her face in his hand.

"Why y'all cry so much? Why y'all be crying?" He laughs looking from me to my Mother.

Ma laughs. "Shut up, you know why we cryin." She hugs him tight again.

"You gotta stop crying so I can ask you something, I gotta ask you something." He keeps saying. He wipes the remainder of Mom's tears away.

"What could you possibly want to ask me right now." She sniffles.

Flex reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a small black box.

I feel my mouth drop open and Ma just stares at him in shock.

"I can't get down on one knee right now, might bleed out." He laughs and I hear his voice crack only slightly.

"But you've given new purpose to my life. You've given me something to fight for and I'll tell you right now, that's the only reason I'm alive. Sasha Chanel Ingo, will you make me the happiest man in the world? Will you marry me?"

Mom's face is completely filled with tears. She nods aggressively. She nods quickly. She wipes her face with the back of her arm.

"Yes." She mouths but the word is hidden under her tears.

"Yes." She says more audible.

Flex takes the ring out of the box and slides it onto her finger.

I am laughing and crying all at once. I look around and the entire office is in studio C including the secretary and janitor. We applaud and I go in to hug them both like a 5 year old who just found out she has a new Father. Except this isn't my new Father. This is my Father, period. He has been my Father this whole time.

Mac pops a bottle of Champagne and we drink to the soon to be Brians.