𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐏 || 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟎𝐬 '

' 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐅𝐔𝐋 '

ATLANTA, GEORGIA
October 9, 2002

"I just wanna know why you didn't tell me." Blaze followed Kiara around her apartment, as she ignored him and continued on with her phone conversation while she packed her things for California, which was only 2 days away.

"I can't believe he's still complaining about this." Shawnna scoffed on the other end of the line. She had been listening to Blaze for about 10 minutes now still bitching about Kiara 'signing up to shake her ass for rappers' without informing him.

Kiara rolled her eyes and shook her head. "He ain't shut the fuck up since we left Rinx that day. I'm 'bout to-" Kiara's sentence was cut short when Blaze snatched the phone away from her. "Nigga, are you crazy?! Gimme my shit!"

"Aye why you ain't tell me you was helping her become a stripper, Rashawnna?"

"It's a video girl. And because it ain't my place to say shit to you, Ezra." Shawnna spat back through the phone and kissed her teeth. "Look, tell Ki I'll talk to her later. Y'all giving me a headache. The shit ain't even that serious." She concluded and quickly hung up.

"Gimme this." Kiara roughly grabbed her cellular device back from Blaze. "How many times do I have to tell you I didn't say anything because we didn't think it was actually gonna happen. Like forreal, Ezra. Jamie and I are just regular girls who seemed to get lucky. We didn't think we would ever get chosen to be in no damn music video."

"Maaan, Ki do you see how beautiful you are? Of course niggas would choose you to do that type of shit." Blaze stepped closer to Kiara and held her waist. "I'm happy for you, aight? I know how you and Jamie can be quite adventurous sometimes, so it ain't a shock to me that y'all wanted to do this. You just know how protective I am of you."

"Yeah, protective and jealous." Kiara playfully smirked and wrapped her arms around Blaze's neck, who only smacked his lips in return. "There's nothing for you to be jealous of or to worry about, okay? No one could ever take your place. I don't care how famous or rich they are, they're not you. If I really wanted some shit to go down, I wouldn't have agreed to this being a group trip."

Blaze sighed and nodded, realizing that he was making a big deal out of nothing. He knew he had a solid girl. Kiara's been down for him even when he used to do her dirty. He's been working hard to try to right all of his past mistakes and be a better man. He just acted the way he did, picking little fights with her and shit because he was afraid that one of these days, she was gonna end up doing him the same way he did her. That was far from Kiara's mind, however. She was in love with Blaze and couldn't see her going the rest of her life without him.

"I hear you, baby. And I'm sorry for doubting you. Just-... yo, next time just tell me when you wake up deciding on a new career path for yaself, aight?"

Kiara snickered and hit his shoulder. "This isn't a new career, dummy. It's just for fun. We just wanna see how it's like. Plus, we're getting paid $500 an hour just to dance in the background. Ain't no way I was turning that down."

Blaze's eyes widened, hearing for the first time the amount of money the girls were going to be making. "Well, shittt. For fye-hunnid-dollaz an hour you might as well make this shit your career." He jokingly stated.

Kiara's nokia vibrated in her hand and she brought her arm down from Blaze's neck to flip it open, seeing a text from Jamie saying that her and Aryah were now downstairs outside of her apartment building.