Prologue: Purple Rain

Friends Who Care

Spread out on the bed are pictures of me and Michael. The Oscars afterparty; in the studio when we were recording Ease On Down the Road; my sophomore album release party at Studio 54; Mardi Gras on the Destiny Tour; my first show for my first worldwide tour; our New Years kiss. In between that is a tipped over box full of lavender envelopes with letters from Michael, a bouquet of 50 dried long- stemmed lavender roses he sent to me after our first date. Not to mention I'm surrounded by the roses Prince gave me the other day and that stupid tape he left here.

Im sitting in the center of the room on the floor in front of the TV, wearing Michael's old oversized Jackson 5 sweatshirt, clutching the teddy bear David gave me for my 16th birthday. He got it from England when he was there and he said it reminded him of me. It was lavender and if anyone knows me, its my favorite color. I was eating at a box of chocolates (my 3rd box today). I'm depressed and looking like hell. My hair is matted, I have no makeup on, I haven't shaved, and my eyebrows are an entirely different story.

"Oh darling.....i'll love you forever." a man in the soap opera uttered to the woman sitting across from him. I rolled my eyes.

"Bullshit." I threw a handful of chocolate at the TV and turned the channel to MTV.

-party's over oops out of time.
So tonight I'm gonna party like it 1999.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" I screamed and turned the tv off. Then I heard a knock on the bedroom door.

"Jasmyn, honey this has to stop. Its been a week. You can't stay in there forever" she yelled through the door.

"Go away!" I screamed at her and threw an empty chocolate box at the door for good measure. Hannah punched the door in reply which made me jump.

"You can't stay in there and mope forever." she screamed.

"Oh yes I can! It's one of my many talents, outside of drinking coffee, trusting the wrong people and finding Waldo in puzzle books."  Hannah groaned and hit the door. Everything got quiet for a while. Then I heard whispering outside.

"Open the door love." I heard David say.

"No."

"I have a soy latte." He said.

"A grande?" I asked.

"Yes." He replied. I started walking towards the door.

"And a banana nut muffin?" I pressed my ear to the door.

"Two." and he shook the bag for confirmation. Then I slowly opened the door and stuck my hand out.

"Get her." Hannah said under her breathe and before I had time to react David grabbed me and carried me into the living room, where they had opened all the blinds, therefore blinding me with all the sunlight. He set me on the couch and I curled up pouting with my arms crossed.

"I'm sorry love she made me do it." David explained.

"Ok, Jasmyn you have to get out of that room and we are gonna cheer you up, ok? What makes women feel better no matter what?"

"Cunninglus." David had a huge smile on his face but dropped it soon after he realized we were staring at him. Hannah rolled her eyes and painted a smile back on her face.

"Well what's after that?" I shrugged and David stroked his chin.

"I got nothin'." I threw my hands us

"Yeah head and sex are right next to each other in my book." David said right after me.

" NOOO nasty children....its manicures." She smiled at us both and me and David looked at each other with a confused look on our faces.

"But first...we gotta clean you up girl." Hannah walked over me and attempted to finger detangling a piece of my hair, and I winced when she did it. "because you ain't goin' no where with me looking like you just hopped out the halfway house." I looked up at her and glared.

"Don't look at me like that girl. Would you rather I lie to you? Now gon' to that room and pull yourself together..." She snapped her fingers. "David." and he got up staring at her.

"Sorry love." and he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.

"Is this really necessary?" I yelled as he carried me down the hallway.

"AND SHAVE TOO!! YOU LOOK LIKE A BABY GORILLA." she screamed after me.

We went across the city to an upscale nail salon. Minneapolis's most elite women got their nails done here. A row of uniformed manicurists and their classy clients surround me. Gossiping about friends, relationship complaints, clothing rants fill the place. I'm talking therapy in full session. Hannah is front of her regular nail technician, Monica. Me and David are sitting in the chairs next to her waiting for her to finish so I can go. Not that I was in the mood or anything.

"It was awful. We all thought they'd be walking down the aisle and now they're relationship is in shambles." Hannah said shaking her head. Monica shook her head in agreement and they simultaneously looked over at me. I rolled my eyes and reached to pick up a magazine,the only magazine left on the table considering David had all the good ones stacked up in from of him.

GQ

I opened it. It was a typical Hollywood magazine. Who's dating who and all that jazz. I looked over at David and he was reading "Seventeen".

"This is absolutely fascinating. Love did you know that you can use sugar and water to exfoliate lips." David said in awe. I smiled and turned away from him and started to flip through. I was flipping through until I froze on the Dating section. It was a picture of Michael and Brooke Shields. I gasped.

"Oh my God!" I folded the magazine page and held it up to David. "Do you know who this is!"

"Michael Jackson."

"Not him the bitch next to him." I shook it close to his face. He held my arm steady and squinted at the print

"It says here it's Brooke Shields."

"How long has it been since we broke up? wow.... he's just..wow" I threw the magazine down and walked out.