#3 Turn Up for Real (7 page)

I walked straight up to A.V., placed my hand on his chest, rubbed it, felt his abs, and said, “You are so sexy. You got up on that stage, and you made me lose my mind.”

I leaned in and nibbled on his ear a little bit. I didn't even know the guy, but I was all into the challenge. He was smiling.

I continued flirting. “I think you are fine, and you sing darn good too.”

All of a sudden, pandemonium broke out when Taylor rushed beside me and pushed my hand away. “What are you doing? Why are you touching him like that?”

I said, “What do you mean? You know what I'm doing. I'm showing you I can rise to the occasion.”

Taylor confused me when she looked at the stranger and yelled, “How could you stand there and let her do that? You see me here, but you're smiling like you enjoy this.”

He looked away. She dashed off. Then Dayna smiled my way.

“I think the friendship you were building with my girl, trying to be closer to her than me, is over,” Dayna said nastily to my face before following Taylor.

I wanted clarity. Caylen was the only one in the group still around. As I stepped toward her for answers, she dashed away too.

Frustrated, I uttered, “What in the world is going on? They gave me a challenge. I know it seemed weird coming on to you like that, but that's what they wanted me to do. What was I thinking?”

“So you didn't mean it?” he playfully asked.

“I mean, how can I even like you when you told me to mind my own business? Besides, you didn't even tell me your name. But I heard it in the argument, A.V.”

“A.V.? My name is Avery. Avery Hardy.”

Sitting down on the same stairs I was on just weeks earlier to make sense of everything, I said, “I guess I heard it wrong. Avery, what in the world was all that about?”

“Um, I didn't know you guys knew each other,” he said.

“Yeah, I'm in a group with them.”

“It was just the three of them in a group. When did they add another member?”

“So you know them?”

“Taylor is my ex.”

My mouth hung open. “Wait a minute. You're the guy who just broke up with her a couple of days ago?”

Understanding everything, I ran to find them. As soon as I did, Caylen had her arm around Taylor, consoling her. As if Dayna was waiting on me to arrive, she gave me a smirk. I went right up to Taylor.

“I didn't know he was your boyfriend.”

“That's the same guy I was telling you about.”

“I, I, I had no clue he was yours. I mean …”

Taylor lashed out. “What do you mean you had no clue? There were pictures of him all in my room.”

“We weren't in your room long! We spent the majority of the night downstairs! I had no idea what your boyfriend even looked like. Come on, think about this, if I knew he was your man, I wouldn't try to get with him.”

“Yes you would. That's why you were telling me to forget him. I didn't need him, so he'd be free for you to have.”

“That's not true.”

“Sounds like it to me,” Dayna said, wanting to make this a huge problem.

“Who said I was asking you?” I yelled, understanding now that she set me up the whole time.

Taylor looked my way. “Can we just talk about this later? We're going to go on in a few minutes, and I don't want this upsetting me. I saw the way you were looking at him when he was on stage, like you were drooling, wanted to lick him all over or something. It was just nasty. I didn't understand it, but now I get it. You want my boo.”

“Well you kept calling him my boo so I didn't even know his name was Avery.”

“Well, you're calling him Avery now,” Dayna uttered, again adding two cents that no one asked her for.

“Because he just told me his name. Shoot, I thought it was A.V.,” I yelled in the face of the girl whom I wanted to punch.

Dayna said, “Ugh, real convenient. Everyone knows Avery Hardy. He's all over YouTube.”

“Come on, Taylor,” I said, truly not wanting to lose her friendship over this misunderstanding.

Yeah, in my mind I was attracted to this guy, but I never thought I would see him again anyway. So I cut him off, stopped the feelings that I had from flowing, and put him out of my mind. I could do that because I had never had a true girlfriend, only my sisters, but I was enjoying what Taylor and I were building. Certainly, she had to feel that too.

“You've got to forgive me. We've got to get up there and sing,” I said, trying to convince the leader.

“We're not getting up anywhere and singing no note together ever again. You're out of the group,” Taylor coldly blurted out.

She walked away, taking her two goons with her. Dayna looked back and laughed. Other groups backstage that I hadn't even noticed started laughing too. There I stood, all alone, feeling like I'd been bitten with venom and was left there for my dreams to die.

I couldn't believe this. Just when I thought I found a group that I fit in with—maybe not perfectly, but at least fit into—it was too good to be true. They were about to take the stage, and I wasn't going on there with them. How were they going to adjust? When I heard their first note, the harmony with three sounded fine. They were showing me they didn't need me at all, so I needed to get the heck out of there, and that's what I did. I couldn't get out of the theater because Avery stood in my way.

“Wait, wait, wait, let's talk, beautiful,” he placed his arm on my shoulders and said.

“Are you serious? You're calling me beautiful, and my group just dropped me because of you,” I said, smacking his hand away.

“Did you not mean the things you said? Forget them, they're just jealous.”

Huffing and puffing, I said, “Why would you think I want to be with someone who just broke my friend's heart? If you made her all crazy, I'm not going to give you the chance to make me the same way. Move out of my way.”

“You need to let me explain before you just accuse me of whatever she told you. There're two sides to every story last time I checked. Taylor Dale is a stalker. I mean, shucks, she was smothering me. I couldn't take it. A girl looks my way, and she's trying to fight her. I don't call her every hour, and she's crying. So I cut her loose. I wasn't rude, mean, or harsh to her, but there was no way to say it to somebody who honestly wasn't mentally all there. I mean dang, she acted like she owned me. Nobody should be in a relationship like that.”

I rolled my eyes and looked up at the ceiling. I heard what he was saying, but it just wasn't adding up. I mean, he was right. There were two sides to every story. How could I tell if his side was the right one? I did witness firsthand that he broke Taylor's heart, and I wasn't trying to break it all over again.

“Come here, girl,” he said as he grabbed me and then kissed me like somebody out of a movie would.

First it was feeling good. Heck, I never had been kissed before. I didn't know what I was doing. But I didn't ask for the kiss either, so I stepped back and slapped him as hard as I could.

“Hey! What's going on here?” I heard Shelby ask.

“Yeah, what are you doing to my sister?” Sloan demanded, with all my sisters by her side.

“You need to step back,” Shelby said to him.

He put his hands in the air. “Sorry.”

“What's the problem here?” Sloan asked me.

Shaking my head, I said, “It's a whole long story.”

“We didn't hear you sing. Isn't that your group up on stage?” Yuri asked, trying to move past the drama they walked in on.

“You just hit this guy. You're supposed to be on stage with those girls. Something happened. You need to tell us now before we call the police,” Shelby said. “Is he messing with you?”

“I've got this, y'all. Just please, please leave,” I said to my sisters.

“We're not leaving you alone with some guy you just slapped. Obviously he was out of line or you wouldn't have done that,” Shelby told me as her eyes locked on mine.

“You're still here?” Dayna came up to me and said. “We kicked you out. I thought you'd be gone by now.”

“Kicked her out of what?” Shelby asked.

“I'll explain to y'all at home. Let's go,” I uttered, grabbing Sloan's hand, since she was standing near me, to leave.

“Yeah, you better take your sisters and leave,” Dayna called out.

“Excuse me?” Sloan turned around and said.

Fed up and pissed, I said, “Y'all just go on to the car. Let me handle this witch.”

“Handle me? Whatever,” Dayna grunted, almost spitting on me.

Wiping off the mist from my cheek, I said, “You the one who set this whole thing up! You knew Avery was the guy I was talking about.”

“I didn't know anything. Don't try to put words in my mouth,” Dayna lashed back.

I said, “Oh, so you're going to deny it. You can't even woman up and admit that you set this whole thing up, knowing he was the same guy that had just broken up with Taylor!”

“So you like this guy?” Sloan asked.

“Please, Sloan. I told you I would explain this later.”

Dayna laughed. “You need to talk to your sister now because you all up in my face working your neck, you'll get it broken off.”

“I dare you to touch me. You're all talk, but you ain't got no backbone,” I said to Dayna.

She pushed me, and I pushed her back. She pushed me again, and I pushed her back. The next thing you know, the two of us were on the ground tussling, someone from another group waiting to perform was recording it. It was a mess. Two of my sisters grabbed me.

I yelled out, “Naw, let me shut her up.”

Shelby and Ansli pulled me up. Sloan grabbed my bag that had my costume and everything in it. Yuri looked over at me with scratches all on my face, and she shook her head. As we were about to head out, the contestants were being called back on stage. I didn't turn back, but the crowd erupted when Avery's name was called.

“Keep it moving, sis.” Shelby pushed me in the back and said.

In the car, Sloan said, “What in the world, Slade? People got that mess on tape.”

I uttered, “So what? I was supposed to sit there and let her push me? Let her talk to me any ol' kind of way?”

“No, you did what you had to do. I'm just sorry it didn't work out for you,” Yuri said. “I know you really wanted to be in a group.”

“I did, but girls are a trip. I guess I just wanted what you guys have so bad.”

“What do you mean ‘have what we have'?” Ansli asked.

Tears were starting to well up in my eyes as if someone had turned on a faucet.

“You guys always pair up. I'm always the odd man out.”

“You're always with me and Yuri,” Sloan said, clearly not understanding what I was talking about.

I said, “I just don't have a best friend, okay? But I guess I'm learning it ain't nothing wrong with having my sisters. At least it's real. I got to settle for the fact that maybe my dream is not gonna ever come true.”

“Now you're talking silly,” Ansli said. “You're way more talented than me, and if I could make something of my dream then you could do the same. But you've got to be with the right people.”

Knowing she was right and that I was with the right people I uttered, “I don't want to go home right now, you guys.”

“Well let's go get a big, fat burger and some fries,” Yuri said, feeling me.

I smiled and nodded. I was truly thankful for my sisters. The five of us gulped down big juicy burgers with cheese, and during my time with them, I forgot my woes. Eventually, we had to head to the Sharp estate.

As soon as we walked into the house, our parents were sitting there waiting on us—and not because they didn't know where we were. Ansli made sure we checked in. The fight had gone viral. The headline was, “How can Sharp run the city when he can't even control his daughters?” It was just me fighting, but the video made it seem like all of us were out of control.

“Explain this. Somebody tell me what's going on here,” my dad said as he held up his iPad.

“Somebody stepped to Slade wrong, Dad,” Yuri said.

“Yeah, but sweetheart, you can't just fight,” my father responded in a sweet tone.

I stepped up and took responsibility. “I wasn't trying to ruin your campaign, Dad, and I hope I didn't do that, but …”

“But what?” my mom asked. “You just begged me to spend the night with these girls. You were in a group with them, and now you're fighting one of them. What in the world happened?”

“Jealousy,” Shelby uttered.

“Well listen, that doesn't surprise me at all,” my dad said, surprising me. “But you've got to be bigger than that, Slade Angel Sharp. Somebody steps to you wanting to fight, you've got to step back. The stakes are real high.”

“But it ain't cool to punk out, Dad,” I voiced.

“It ain't cool to get a juvenile record either, Slade. And whether I'm the mayor or not, this family is already on front street. I know that's a lot of pressure you girls didn't ask for, but if ever there were five young ladies who could rise to the occasion, it's my girls. Don't let anybody change you from who you are. Slade Sharp doesn't slither on the ground attacking people. That's somebody else's M.O., ya feel?” he said.