Chapter 6: We Need to Talk

Saturday Afternoon, 3:48 P.M. | Tamia

"You met a guy at the mall?" Sierra squealed in delight.

We'd made it back to Morrissa's house, and I was telling my girls all about my interesting encounter with Jason. Morrissa and Vie both live in the same LA neighborhood as me (Horseshoe Bend), so we all just live a few minutes away from each other.

"Yeah," I replied, "but it's not like that!"

"But you gave him your number," Morrissa said, smiling.

"He's only a friend!" I retorted.

"Is he cute?" asked Vie.

I just smiled, not replying.

"Oh my gosh, he is!" screamed Morrissa. "What does he look like? What's his name?"

"His name is Jason and I don't know, he's about 5'8 or 5'9, brown skin..."

At this point, Morrissa and Vie looked at each other, smiling.

"So... could this be the end of you and Larry?" Morrissa asked, turning back to me.

"What? No!" I said. "Jason and I are just friends! Plus, he has a girlfriend!"

"I still can't believe that you gave him your number," Morrissa said excitedly.

"It's the dress!" squealed Vie. "Tamia is stepping out of her shell and doing bold things! The old Tamia would have never done that! I like this new Tamia."

"There is no 'new' me," I say, trying to convince myself. But I don't know... talking to a cute stranger in the mall and giving him my number is something that I wouldn't usually do.

"Annnyway...." Morrissa said, "We need to keep this 'new you' energy going, so we need to discuss next month's concert that you will be attending and enjoying."

Vie laughed. "Yeah, we're definitely going to make a fangirl out of you!"

"Starting with their music!" Morrissa exclaimed.

"Okay, sure," I said. I couldn't help but wonder if Jason would like to attend the concert with me— just as a friend like with Morrissa and Vie. Hmm, is he even into boybands? Probably not.

Morrissa pulled out her phone and started playing a song by The Draper Brothers called If I Don't Love You This Way. "This is my favorite song of their Reflections album, but it doesn't have a music video yet," she said.

"Yet?" giggled Vie, "How are you so sure that they'll be releasing a video for this song?"

"I can feel it!" laughed Morrissa.

Talking about their songs and music videos made me realize something— I don't even know what these guys look like!

"You know," I say, "y'all talk about how gorgeous these guys are, but you haven't even shown me a picture!"

They looked at each other and squealed in unison, "You're right!"

Vie immediately pulled out her phone to pull up pictures from various social media accounts. "Here you go," she says, handing me her phone, "The Draper Brothers: Ray, Jay, and Cay."

I take the phone from her and examine the picture. Hmm, they are kind of cute. Especially— wait a minute...

Vie and Morrissa must have noticed my expression because they were smiling really hard at this point.

"So, what's the verdict?" asks Morrissa. "Who do you think is the cutest?"

Immediately after she asks I say, "Y'all the one in the middle looks like the guy I met in the mall today..."

They quickly grabbed the phone from me to confirm whom I was referring to.

Then Vie says, "You met a guy that looks like Jason Draper?"

Morrissa cuts in, "Wait, didn't you say that that guy's name was Jason?"

Both of their mouths slowly opened in shock. My heart sank. No, it couldn't be. I did not meet, befriend, and give my phone number to a celebrity.

Saturday Afternoon, 3:48 P.M. | Jason

After I left Tamia, I soon found Raymond and Caiden and we headed home. Luckily, they had done all they'd plan to do and were ready to leave.

We had been home for a little while we I remembered something. "Uh, Caiden?" I ask my younger brother.

"What's up?" he asks nonchalantly.

"I heard that we're doing a show here in LA next month. When were you going to tell us?"

"Oh I already knew," says Raymond. "Actually it was my idea. Caiden agreed immediately and set everything up."

"So you guys weren't going to tell me?" I asked.

"Yeah, we were, eventually," said Caiden. "But wait, how did you find out?"

I hadn't told my brothers about Tamia yet. I wasn't sure if I wanted to, but I did need some advice on how to break it to her that I'm a celebrity.

"He met a girl," Raymond said slyly, likely because he noticed the smile that crept across my face.

"Alright man!" Caiden exclaimed as he reached over to high-five me. "But wait, what about that girl, umm... Denise?"

"Onise," I corrected.

"You still talk to her?" asked Raymond. "I guess not anymore since you met someone else!"

"She's still my girlfriend," I say. "Remember, we started dating before the tour? And how do you even know that I met someone else? I never even said that."

"You never denied it either," Caiden said. "Bro, what's her name? How does she look?"

"Caiden, it's not all about looks man," I said, even though I thought Tamia was gorgeous.

"Oh so she's ugly?" Caiden asked, sounding bummed.

"No!" I argued immediately.

"Wow, he really does like her!" Raymond said.

"She's just a friend!" I said.

"You're defending her pretty hard, bro," said Raymond. "Plus, you did say that you 'met someone else'. Is this the end of you and Onise?"

"I hope so," said Caiden. "That girl talks too much."

I was beginning to see that I may not get the advice that I needed from my brothers. But, when I really needed them, they always came through.

"Guys, I really need some advice," I say to them. "She doesn't know that I'm a celebrity and she really wants to be my friend. She says that I'm down to earth and so different from other guys she's met. She gave me her phone number and everything. I want to keep my fame a secret, but I also don't want to keep any secrets from her. She trusts me. I don't know what to do."

At this point my brothers became more sympathetic.

"Just call her and tell her man," said Raymond.

"Yeah," continued Caiden, "if she's really meant to be your friend, she'll understand. Although, I don't see how she didn't recognize you. Not to sound full of myself, but we're a pretty big deal in the music industry!"

"She doesn't listen to contemporary music," I replied. "But her friends do. What if they expose who I am before I do? What if she never wants to see me again?"

"Bro, calm down," said Raymond.

"Hey, does she have social media?" asks Caiden.

"I don't know, I didn't ask," I replied.

"Bro, find your phone and let me help you!" said Caiden.

I laughed. "I actually have it on me," I say as I pull it out of my pocket. The first thing I did when we got home was find my phone and put Tamia's number in it. "Wait, you're not gonna call her for me, are you?"

"No," replied Caiden, "but you can use a person's phone number to find them on social media."

"Really?" I asked. I honestly didn't know that.

"Yeah," said Caiden, "Now what's her name?"

"Tamia," I say.

"That sounds sexy," said Raymond.

"Chill, bro." I say, super defensively.

"Found her," said Caiden. "And she's hot!"

I quickly grab my phone from him. It was her. Hmm, she's not too active on social media either. Ten followers and following ten people. Probably her friends and family. I begin to browse through her pictures and followers. Yes, I guess you can say I was snooping. According to my brothers, I'm naturally nosy. I just say I'm curious. Maybe too curious for my own good, because I have often found out things that I didn't want or need to know.

By now, I've come across a picture of her and her boyfriend. Great. Without even thinking, I go to his page. Larry. Scrolling through his page, I find no pictures of Tamia. Hmm, interesting. Well, I guess I can't say too much. I don't have many pictures of Onise. But he's way more active on social media than I am, and still... no pictures of Tamia? Are they happy together?

I quickly go back to Tamia's page. I notice Raymond looking over my shoulder. "Man, she is hot!" he says.

"You should definitely follow her," said Caiden. "I know she'll follow you back!"

"But she'll also find out that I'm a celebrity," I said.

"Hey! Then you won't have to tell her anything," said Raymond. "She'll figure it out for herself!"

"You're off the hook man!" exclaimed Caiden.

"No," I argue. "She doesn't need to find out like that."

I take a deep breath and decide to send her a text message. I'm sure by now her friends have revealed my face to her, therefore revealing my identity. I couldn't put this off any longer. I had to tell her, or at least find out if she already knew. She had no way of contacting me. So I open up a new message and type:

Hey! It's Jason.

Umm... we need to talk.