Pop Life: Volume 2

Chapter 22

My mom and I watched as the group of guys stuffed their faces happily. My mom had only smiled at them as she watched. I looked at them as if they were eating as if it would be their last damn meal and with Nelson sitting smack in the center of the four others it looked almost like the painting of Jesus and his disciples except more update and with African American males. I shook my head at Jerome who somehow managed to get sauce everywhere on his face but not in his mouth. Men. You can take man from the cave but you can't take the cave out the man I guess. At last the silence was broken.

  "So! How is it guys?" My mom asked as she still looked on.

  "Ith sho good misth Lorraine! Tank you!" Dez attempted to say with his mouth full of food and pasta sauce plastered on his lips.

  "Well thank you Dezzy! That means a lot coming from you." She said as she pointed at his sauce stained face.

  "Hey Mrs. J! Is there's room for seconds?" Andre asked as he stood up from the table.

  "No need to ask you know there's plenty. Go help yourself."

  "Sweet thanks!"

He grabbed his plate and made his way to the stove.

  "Hey man don't eat all of it I want seconds too!" Morris said as he quickly stood up and followed behind Andre.

My mom watched and giggled a little at them before she turned her attention to Prince.

  "So Skippy how ya doin'?"

  "I guess I'm doin' alright. Been a little stressed about some things but other than that I'm good." He said giving my mom a somewhat convincing smile.

  "Now what would have you so stressed sweetheart?" She asked.

Jerome gave the wrong answer before Prince even had a moment to choose his words without causing a panic.

  "Skip's been trying to keep this guy named Marcus away from Regan."

The whole room fell awkwardly silent. Nice job Jerome. The plan was not to alarm my mom about Marcus. Now I'll have to explain before I was ready.

  "Who's Marcus? Are you in some sort of trouble honey?"

I gave Jerome the death stare from across the table. On the inside I really wanted to choke Tricky to sleep like Homer would do Bart but unfortunately this was not the place and now was not the time. I had to come up with a really good excuse and fast.

  "No Ma! Everything is fine! He was just some guy I met a long time ago that still won't take no for an answer."

We all waited for my mom to take the bait. It felt like we were waiting forever.

  "I guess he feels like he can win you over even if you are dating a very talented musician. Skippy you better shut those guys down!" She said giving Prince a warm smile.

Thank god she bought it. Otherwise this can of worms wouldn't just be open the can would be crushed and the worms would have gotten away. Prince and I looked at each other in relief as Morris elbowed the hell out of Jerome for saying way more than he should have. Andre and Dez looked like they wanted to take him out back and knock him into the middle of next year for running his big mouth. On one hand I kind of wanted to see what big secret Prince had for getting rid of Marcus however it was all in bad timing and in bad taste to bring up such a touchy subject in front of my mother who has no idea about the near rape experience I have endured back on campus in LA. She has more than enough to worry about. The awkward silence filled the room again as we all glanced at one another quickly hoping that one of us would find something else to talk about before my mom began asking more questions.

"So! Andre! How are you doing with the song you and Prince started last weekend? Prince played the new chords for me and they sound amazing!" I said to as I shoved a huge chunk of meatball between my cheeks.

Andre quickly caught on a followed my lead.

"It's coming along pretty good! We're gonna lay down the track in a few more days. You know how much of a perfectionist Skip is." He said sitting down at the table with his mountain of pasta and sauce.

After a while Prince added his two cents to make this faux story more believable.

"If anything the song will be more than perfect if we can get Morris on drums this time." He said as he pointed his fork over to Morris who was scarfing down his second helping of spaghetti.

"Yeah man! Let me get on those bacon skins!" He said as he chewed.

My mom smiled again as she watched them talk about this imaginary song. I wouldn't be surprised if this song came to life.

"Well it's good to hear you boys are working. I can't believe that I watched you little boys grow into fine young men. It almost makes me want to cry and break out the baby book!"

"Awww Ma don't be weird. Please? You promised not to do that!" I whined as she went to the living room to get the giant stack of photo albums of our childhood.

"Come on Regan it will be fun! Beside I missed the days when you lost all your fronts at once and had a lisp for a four months." Andre said.

"Shut up forehead! At least my front teeth grew in!" I snapped at him from the other side of the tiny royal blue kitchen table.

"Yo Skip man getcha girl!" Andre said as he pointed at me.

Prince just shook his head and laughed at me and Andre's banter.

"What happened to you two being in love?" Prince said.

"In love with what!?!?!?" I shouted in disgust.

"Come on baby you can't deny all of this!" Andre said in overly dramatic lust as he rubbed his hands down his body.

I scrunched my face at him and shook my head.

"Ew Andre please stop you looked like a cracked out sex fiend!" I told him.

The rest of the guys erupted in laugher as Andre was stoned with shock. My mom called for us soon after.

"Regan be a dear and cut the boys some cake and have them come in the living room!" She said.

"Yes ma'am!" I called back.

"You heard her Mighty Mouse cut that cake and let's get to it!" Dez said waving me to the cake on the counter top next to the stove."

"Right away your highness!" I said sarcastically.

We all filed over to the cake and I cut each one of us a slice and went to the living room to take an embarrassing stroll down memory lane with my mom.