I take a moment to watch as my sparkly and pink tinted nails sign another album cover. A young girl stands in front of me, face wet with course black hair and a shiny face, one that reminds me of Trevon's sister. Like she was lathered head to toe in coconut oil. She uses the back of her hand to wipe her eyes. 

"Aw, sweetie. Don't cry." I smile up at her. 

"I love your music so much and you're so pretty." She sniffles and turns to her Mother behind her. Her Mom gives her a supporting smile and I wave to say 'Hi'. The line behind the security tape only grows as the closing of the signing approaches. 

"Well thank you. I think you're very pretty also." I respond. I get up and give her a small hug, the hug is awkward with the big table in between us, but I can tell the little girl is grateful for it. She waves goodbye and the coordinator motions for the next person in line to come to the table. There is a steady volume of loudness with the large group of people waiting for their album to be signed. This mall is so much bigger than the other one and so many more people are here. I have at least 100 or so cameras and phones taking footage of everything I do and every move I make. You think I would be used to this because it's been months and the popularity has only grown, but I still find myself getting nervous, not wanting to do something strange or act a certain way. Anyway that can be spoken about on TV. 

At all these events, my main goal is to make the fans happy but there is a second goal. Something many people don't even care to think about, something fans take for granted from upcoming celebrities. The second goal is to not look nervous, to not give them something to talk about on the morning recap. Sometimes I forget to pull in my stomach, even though it's already flat. Casey says to always give the appearance of as thin as you can be. 

That's a sad thing to hear from someone who has worked with so many stars in the past. I have it easy already being small, what about the people who have some weight on them? How do they deal with those remarks? Show business, I guess. 

A young man, about my age walks up to the table with a calm smile on his lips. I greet him casually and shake his hand. He holds on a little longer than I expected and it causes me to look up. He lets go and I realize he has light eyes and a firm jaw. The kid is beautiful. I almost roll my eyes at the beauty. Because it seems unnecessary to be this attractive and wait on line to see me. 

"Sage." He greets. 

"Nice to meet you, Sage." I say pulling my eyes away from his and printing my autograph on the album. 

"I really liked the project, especially 'Tease me.'" His voice is as smooth as velvet. I chuckle. 

Satan get thee behind me. 

"Tease me" is the only song on the album that hints at any kind of sexuality. It's relaxing and erotic but not too insane, not too visual, just right. I avoid his eyes and hand him the signed album. 

"Nice to meet you." I can see his smile through my side eye. He hovers until I look at him. 

"We'll meet again, Chanel." He winks and leaves the line. 

Blaco sits to my right on his phone. He looks up momentarily and shakes his head. I exhale a breath as if I am about to whistle. 

"Okay?" I mumble. 

"Get used to it." He breathes already exhausted. 

"Next in line." I hear the coordinator say. 

I check my phone briefly, but while doing so, from the side of my eye I can see a person running towards me full speed. My head shoots up to see a man headed right to me with a look of disgust on his face and his hands in fists, his mouth pulled back into a snarl. 

I scream out and only see Blaco's body jump in front of me. But the man doesn't even make it to my table, Remus is already holding the man up by his jacket. He throws him onto the floor tiles and I hear the bang of his head colliding with the hard surface. Remus has him pinned. My heart is racing and it beats in my throat. The people around me gasp and scream but it all seems so delayed. My hands are firmly grasping Blaco's shirt, I hold on to him tightly. I can hear the man screaming and yelling. Somebody's radio goes off. 

"We need police and security in the far west end of the mall, by exit 4D." 

I don't know who makes the command but a radio responds as the noise around me grows louder and louder. As cameras and phones capture everything going wrong. 

"Copy, sending back up." 

"What the fuck?" I mumble to Blaco. 

"I don't know." Blaco says, standing up. 

"Get up." He commands me. I stand to my feet and 3 security guards are immediately to my side. Remus still has the man pinned down, he sits on top of him and folds his arm back, as he pushes his head into the concrete. 

"Ahh! You're hurting me, get the fuck off of me!" The man yells. 

In a matter of seconds, police are parting the crowd to get to the hostility. The white man with the small eyes and hard face, with big arms, relieves Remus and pins the man down while retrieving hand cuffs from his back pocket. 

The other officer, dark skinned and bulky speaks into his radio. 

"The suspect is Lamar Press, send in more officers. Uhm, we have a line here. Send in crowd control." He speaks clearly. 

They know him? How did they already know who it was? What has he done before? 

I run my fingers through my hair. One of the security guards question me. 

"Are you okay, Chanel?" They ask. 

Cameras are flashing from every direction. I am almost blinded by them. My eyes remain on the man on the floor. As a few more police officers come through the main entrance, they stand by the scattered line of fans. One of them come over to myself and Blaco, one of them begin talking to Remus. 

"Sorry about this, Chanel. Can you please explain to me what just happened? And I have to apologize again because you're going to be explaining this maybe another five times today." The officer says. 

"I really don't even know. I just saw someone running towards me and then Remus pinned him down, that's all I saw." I rub the back of my neck, a look of fear still plastered on my face I'm sure. The multiple people recording and the cameras flashing meant little to me, I wasn't focused on them now, mainly because confusion and fear were the most dominant things in my head right now.

"Okay, so we know this man very very well. His name is Lamar Press, he's been arrested multiple times for public disturbance, stealing, public nudity, he's not all the way there. Thankfully he didn't have any weapons on him, we don't know why he was running towards you but we are treating this very seriously, just because we don't know his intentions." The officer says, looking from myself to Blaco. 

"I'm going to write up a formal report now, instead of having you come down to the station." He finishes. 

I look to my side and Lamar now has two police on either side of him, walking him out of the mall. 

"You can do the formal report now or if you want to finish your signing, I can come back to you later and we can sit down. I would need your manager there too."

I take a deep breath and look at the remaining fans, it's almost the same number of people that were there before the whole thing happened. They're so dedicated, they deserve to see me. I don't know how long they have even been online. 

"What are you thinking? Do you want to finish the signing?" Blaco asks, looking at me with soft eyes.

"Yea, I want to finish. I just need a few minutes to calm down. How long is the report going to take?" I ask the Officer. 

"Not long, I just need all the details you can think of, shouldn't take more than ten minutes for each of you." He shrugs. 

"Can we have a 30 minute break on the signing? Just need some water and some time to get myself together." I say to Blaco. 

"Of course sweetie, do you want to announce it or do you want me to do it?" He questions. 

"I'll do it. It seems more genuine." I walk away from Blaco. 

As I step in front of my table, everyone quiets down in seconds. 

"Hey guys, I don't really know what just happened." I see a few cameras light up as the flash goes on. "I don't want to end the album signing because I really appreciate y'all coming out to see me and I appreciate you buying the album. I do need a couple minutes to get myself together cause that was a little scary for all of us, I think." I laugh nervously and they laugh with me. 

"Take a brief intermission of 30 minutes, I promise I will sign everyone who came here up until seven tonight. Thanks y'all. I be right back." I end. 

The crowd roars in applause. 

Someone screams 'I love you' and I quickly follow the Officer downstairs, along with mall security and Blaco. 

"You handled that very well. I'm proud of you." Blaco says as we walk. 

"You did, that was very professional." The Officer chimes in. 

"Thank you." I breathe. 

_________________________________ 

I lay in my big bed that feels like a cloud from Heaven after days like this. My feet hurt from the heels I've had to walk around in, my head hurts from a mad man trying to get me mid-signing, I don't want to check social media because I've been trending on every social media website for at least 6 hours. The clock reads midnight. Mom is in her room, I was waiting to tell her the whole story because I knew she would be worried sick and I wanted to let her know that I was fine, but of course the media did that way before I could. She headed to me the second she knew I was home. 

Then she pulled my head to her chest, wrapped herself around me and fell asleep. I was asleep with her for a while, but a bad dream woke me up. 

Lamar had a gun in the dream, he wasn't running this time. I spotted him in the crowd of fans and he already had the gun aimed at me, by the time I see him, it's too late. 

It's too late for Remus to catch him, too late for Blaco to jump in front of me. It could have been a gun. It could have been too late. 

My subconscious is a bitch. Why must it imagine the worst possible thing in the book? 

Because I'm preparing you for what could happen.

It speaks back to me in a harsh and firm tone. 

But nothing happened. I respond in my head then I speak it out into the world. 

"Nothing happened. You're good." I mumble. 

"You're good, Chanel." I say again. 

My phone vibrates and scares the shit out me. 

"Shit." I breathe holding my chest. I gotta calm down. I spent the whole signing like this, even though there was extra security there after the incident. 

Devin's name is displayed on the top of my phone screen. I almost don't want to answer because I just want to keep looking at the fact that he even still has my number. 

I slide the button before my phone sends it to voicemale. 

"Hello." I say. My voice sounds tired. 

"I'm sorry. Did I wake you?" His smooth and silk voice was missed. I know because my heart sinks momentarily. He was missed. I clear my throat. 

"Nah, what's up?" I ask. It sounds cold and even though I don't intend it to be, I let it slide. A part of me wanted to make him feel guilty for not calling. Make him feel like a shitty friend. I battle on whether to listen to that part of me as I often do. 

"I wanted to check if you were alright, your name is all over the me-" I cut him off. 

"I'm fine." I end. 

It's quit on both ends. The quietness allows me to think up the big boobed, dark skinned beauty with the small face. Abra. How is Abra? How is this girl that stole my friend away from me? 

"It's good to hear from you.." He says faintly. It feels like he's whispering. It feels like he waited until midnight to call. It feels like he is talking to my while Abra is asleep next to him or maybe even on his chest. 

I look up at the ceiling. 

"Sucks that it takes me almost getting attacked to hear from you." I say with distaste in my voice. 

"Two way street." He spits back, fast. 

"Too Hollywood for me, now?" He questions. 

"I was too Hollywood before I got to Hollywood, so I haven't changed. Can you say the same?" I ask slick. 

I hear a chuckle. 

"I'm glad you're doing well. I missed you." That one sounds sincere. It warms me. I speak, hoping that my voice doesn't lose its edge. 

"Missed you too, Devin." I failed. 

"You came to Albany and did even attempt to see me." There is both sadness and anger in his words. 

"Trev just got out of jail, my mind wasn't..." I trail off. 

"On me." He finishes. "I didn't cross your mind at all?" 

"My mind wasn't on anything or anyone but him. Plus, I didn't want to interrupt you and what's her name." I shrug off. 

"You know her name." He sighs. 

"How is she?" I ask. 

"Well." He answers. 

That 'well' holds a lot i'm sure. That 'well' probably means amazing. The sex is probably 'well'. The kisses are probably 'well'. She probably cooks,cleans, supports and looks out for him and doesn't hurt him or go love somebody else. I roll my eyes at 'well.' 

"How is he?" Devin asks in the silence. 

"Well." I respond, petty. 

"Okay, well good to hear you're okay. I won't hold you. I'll be in Cali in a few weeks. Did you want to catch up?" He questions. 

"Why are you coming to Cali in a few weeks?" I respond surprised but confused. 

"I can't come just to visit you?" He laughs. 

"Don't flirt with me." I state blankly. 

"I have somewhat of a business meeting. Let's put it that way." 

"Okay, business man. Maybe we can go get a drink." I say suddenly looking forward to it. 

"Ok, may I bring Abra?" He asks. 

I wait a few moments for my blood pressure to settle down. I wait until I know what to say without being disrespectful. I wait until my mind stops going Dis nigga ain't deadass right now. 

"Uhm.." I begin. 

"I was kidding, Chanel. I'll see you soon." 

"Ha-." I laugh not amused and dry.

I imagine his sheepish smile and shake my head as he laughs himself into a fit.