Black Ice

xi

eleven | crystal

I was out cold, lost in a dream where I was eating gumbo and po boys. Just as I was going for a couple of beignets, the ringing of a telephone shook me out of my fantasy.

Adrenaline pumped through me at the fright I'd been given, a deep sigh escaping as I gathered my bearings.

My head throbbed with vigor, a hangover encroaching on my headspace as the phone rang and rang and rang.

"Issac!" I chucked a pillow over to his side of the room, not caring if it landed or not before reluctantly answering the phone myself.

"Hello?" I muttered into the receiver.

"I bet y'all niggas sleepin' like babies after the shit y'all pulled, huh?"

"Stephen?" I was slow to sit up, and once I was risen, the pillow I'd sent over to Ice boomeranged right back, hitting me square in the head.

"Quit! It's Stephen!" I hissed as Ice slowly got out of bed.

"Where is everybody? Go get everybody up," Stephen ordered.

"Stephen, what is this about? It's like six o'clock in the morning," I whined while wiping the sleep from my eyes.

"Well, it's seven o'clock in New York. Seven o'clock in the goddamned morning, and I got niggas riding my dick before I'm even in my office because you all didn't do what the fuck you were supposed to at that radio station!"

His reprimanding only worsened my hangover, "Stephen, please. Can you just—"

"Crystal, get. the fuck. up and get them niggas."

"Okay... hold on," I mumbled before setting the receiver down next to the phone and dragging myself out of bed.

"What's up?" Ice inquired with a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth.

"We're about to get our asses handed to us," I muttered while heading for the door. I used the deadbolt of the door as a stopper, knowing I was too tired to fiddle with a room key.

I shuffled across the hall, where I knocked and knocked and banged and banged until the door was opened.

Antonio answered, wearing pajama pants and a cotton white tank top. He leaned against the door jamb with a sharp, tired inhale.

"Don't you look cute," was his way of saying good morning.

"Stephen's on the phone. He wants to talk to us."

"Everybody?" he inquired while rubbing his eyes.

His brain must've not been on yet. "Yes, everybody. Get Shaan up. Now, please," I answered.

"A'ight," he didn't even wait for the door to close before starting to shout, "Shaan, get the fuck up!"

I traveled back across the hall, letting the door bounce on its deadbolt upon entry. I searched my bag for a pill that would alleviate my headache and asked Issac to put the phone on speaker.

Too tired to go searching for water, I forced the pills down dry just as Antonio and Shaan ventured in, properly closing the door behind them.

The boys greeted Ice before sitting. Shaan sat on my roommate's bed while Tony sat on mine. We gathered around the phone, and once I was settled next to Tony, I raspily announced that we were all present as Stephen requested.

"Okay so now that you're all here, explain to me why the fuck y'all are promoting the wrong single."

"Well—"