Caught Up in the Drama

by ReShonda Tate Billingsley

Taraji groaned and rolled her eyes. “Fine. Come on,” she said, stomping off. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to fool with these stupid high school girls,” she muttered.

  Mona’s words rang in my head, and I knew I was now on Taraji’s bad side.

  7

  Alexis

  I couldn’t tell everything that was going on, but judging from the way Camille was covering herself and the scowl on that Taraji lady’s face, I could tell it wasn’t good.

  When Camille emerged from the dressing room ten minutes later, she looked a whole lot better. Granted, the dress she had changed into was still short, but it wasn’t so hoochie. It was a short-sleeve royal blue silk number that hung off one shoulder. A rope belt was tied around the waist, and the back was cut low and dipped down to the small of her back, stopping at the top of her behind. But at least the front was covered.

  I gave Camille a thumbs-up and mouthed “Much better.” I nudged Jasmine, who gave her a smile as well. Camille seemed to relax as she made her way back over to Sisco.

  “Is that better?” Sisco asked her.

  “Much,” Camille replied with a smile.

  “Do you need anything else, Princess Camille?” Taraji snapped.

  “No, I’m fine,” Camille said.

  “Then do you think we can get started now?”

  Camille took a deep breath. I hoped she wasn’t letting that Taraji woman get to her. This was her time to shine, and I wanted her to be on top of her game.

  Camille loosened up when Sisco took her hand and led her onto the set. I glanced over at Xavier. Maybe his being here wasn’t such a good idea, because he stood with his lips awfully tight. I could tell it was taking everything in his power not to get upset.

  Jasmine must’ve noticed it too, because she looked at me and nodded. Angel was too giddy to notice a thing.

  The music started up, bringing our attention back to the set. Camille was in place, and honestly, she looked like she was born for this.

  The song was a slow, up-tempo melody called “Just One More Chance.” I could tell right away that it was going to be a hit.

  Sisco finished up his solo part, then turned to Camille, who was doing a sexy strut like she was just passing in front of him. Sisco sang something about being sorry, and Camille, with attitude in full force, sang back, asking why she should give him another chance.

  Angel clutched my arm, trying to contain her excitement. She was doing what I call a quiet scream.

  “Girl, chill,” I whispered.

  “Okay, okay,” she said. “I’m just so proud of her.”

  “She is doing good,” Jasmine said, nodding with a big smile across her face.

  Someone standing in front of us holding a clipboard turned around and hissed, “Ssshhhh.”

  We all covered our mouths and continued watching Camille. Sisco sang some more before Camille finally decided to go ahead and give him a chance. When she sang about “loving her right or not loving her at all,” I thought I was going to cry. My girl nailed it.

  Sisco closed up the song promising to love her forever as he leaned in close. He was a good actor, because he sure looked like he was about to plant a deep kiss on her. I was expecting the director to yell “cut” at any moment. My eyes suddenly grew wide when their lips met. He pulled her close and kissed her as the music died down. I don’t know if Camille had known the kiss was coming—she sure hadn’t said anything to us about it—but she didn’t miss a beat as she got into the kiss.

  Only when Sisco pulled away from Camille did I see the stunned look on her face. “Can your man kiss you like that?” Sisco said, smiling mischievously.

  Before Camille could respond, Xavier rushed toward the set.

  The grin left Sisco’s face as Xavier tackled him to the floor.

  “Xavier!” Camille screamed.

  Total chaos broke out. Two big, burly guys came out of nowhere. They jumped on Xavier and pinned him on the floor. Sisco was screaming and cursing as he struggled to get up. Taraji was yelling that this was exactly why she “wanted to keep the set closed.” And my heart dropped when I noticed tears streaming down Camille’s face.

  Jasmine and Angel must’ve known exactly what I was thinking, because we all raced to Camille’s side.

  “Please don’t hurt him,” she cried when Sisco kicked Xavier in the side.

  “Who is this boy, and why is he attacking my artist?” the director bellowed.

  “He’s my boyfriend,” Camille whimpered. “I don’t know what happened.”

  “Get him out of here before I catch a case,” Sisco snapped, trying to calm himself down.

  Xavier was still struggling, although it wasn’t doing him any good. The big bodyguard had Xavier’s arms pinned behind his back.

  They pulled him up, then dragged him out toward the back. Camille immediately began to follow him.

  “And just where do you think you’re going?” Taraji hissed.

  “I . . . I need to go check on my—on Xavier,” she sniffed.

  “Little girl, you have been more trouble than you’re worth.” Taraji stepped closer. “Right about now, the only person you need to be trying to pacify is Sisco, because I guarantee you, you don’t want to make him mad. If you go after that thug, you can forget about this video.”

  Camille paused and looked helplessly at us. I knew she wanted to go after Xavier, but I understood her dilemma.

  “Look, we’ll go check on Xavier,” Jasmine said, stepping forward. “You just go handle your business.”

  “If I were you, I’d listen to your friends,” Taraji said before stomping off.

  “Seriously,” I said. “We’ll go after Xavier, make sure he calms down. That lady is right. Sisco is not going to like getting embarrassed like that, so you might need to go smooth that over.”

  Camille glanced over at Sisco, who was pacing back and forth, his hands clenched. Several people were trying to calm him down.

  “Go on, we got your back,” Angel said.

  Camille took a deep breath. “Okay, thank you so much. Please tell Xavier I didn’t know he was gonna kiss me. I’ll call you guys later, okay?”

  We all gave her a quick hug. I only hoped that she could get through to Sisco, because Xavier might’ve just ruined her one chance at stardom.

  8

  Alexis

  I was so sick of what had become a normal day in my household.

  “I said I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” my dad screamed right before I heard a door slam.

  “Fine!” I heard my mother say as another door slammed.

  I was on the phone with Camille, lying on my bed listening to the daily ritual of my parents fighting. Camille was talking about her hair, of all things. I was finding it hard to concentrate on what she was saying while the commotion was going on in the other room.

  “Earth to Alexis! Hel-lo! Are you even listening to me? I was trying to ask for your advice about what to do,” Camille whined on the other end of the phone.

  I shook off the tears building behind my eyelids. “I’m sorry, girl, my parents are at it again, and it’s driving me crazy. I just don’t know what to do at this point.”

  I was about to tell Camille what was going on at my house, but as usual, she quickly turned the conversation back to her.

  “Girl, your parents will work it out, but what should I do? The stylist said my hair needs to be spiced up. She thought I should go honey brown like Tyra Banks. Come to think of it, all the stars have that blondish, honey brown flavor— Beyoncé, Christina Milian. So maybe that is the way to go.”

  I was too through. She’d been talking about her hair for the past thirty minutes. She’d gotten rid of that crazy weave and was trying to figure out what else to do.

  Right about now, though, Camille’s hair was the least of my problems. I had drama of my own that she obviously didn’t seem to care about.

  “So what do you think?” she asked again.

  “I think I’m getting off the phone.”r />
  I hung up on Camille before she could say another word. My head was buzzing as I lay back on my bed and thought about the fighting going on between my parents.

  The house was eerily quiet. My dad must have stormed out into the night. It wasn’t the first time that had happened. I could hear my mom walking down the hall on her way past my room. I heard her sniffling, which concerned me a lot more than the usual dramatic, fit-for-Hollywood crying spells that she usually had.

  I jumped off the bed and flung open my door. “Mom, are you okay?”

  I was a little shocked at my mother’s appearance. Her hair was smashed to one side of her face, and her eyes were red and puffy. I could tell she had been crying a while.

  She pulled her robe tighter and looked at me with sad eyes. “I’m okay, Lexi.”

  As I looked at her, the tears I’d been fighting back found their way out. This was not the woman I knew as my mom. That woman was always confident, poised, and well put together. She would never let anyone disrespect her, and she definitely didn’t get upset and cry because things weren’t going her way. She just found a way to make them work how she wanted them to work. It broke my heart to see her so defeated.

  “Mom, I can tell you’ve been crying. I know we’ve grown apart over the past few years, but I am still your daughter,” I said, easing toward her. “Plus, I hear you and Dad arguing all the time. I’m not a little girl anymore. I know what’s going on.”

  My mom took a deep breath. “Lexi, don’t worry about it. This is between your dad and me. You’re too young to understand.”

  “Actually, no, I’m not,” I replied firmly. “I’m seventeen years old, so I am well aware of what’s going on. I’m not a kid anymore, and I deserve to know what’s happening in my own family.”

  “Sweetheart, I can’t deal with this right now,” she said, turning to walk away from me.

  “Are you and Dad getting a divorce?”

  The question stopped her in her tracks. She was silent for too long. Now I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear the answer.

  She turned back around to face me. “To be honest with you, baby, it is an option,” she said tearfully. She walked me into my room, and we sat down on my bed.

  “I don’t want you to worry, but your dad and I have talked about it. You know that things have not been good for a long time, but we are trying to work through our problems. We both know how hard a divorce would be on you and your . . .” She let her words trail off. My mom always had a hard time talking about my sister. “Well, tomorrow, when your dad is home, the three of us will all sit down and talk about some things. But for now, I want you to try to get some sleep and try not to worry.”

  “I could say the same thing to you,” I said softly. I was trying to wrap my mind around the fact that my parents might actually be divorcing. No, I told myself, that’s not what they wanted to talk about. I convinced myself that they wanted to apologize for the way things had been and talk about how we could all make it right.

  My mom kissed me on my forehead. “I’ll try to sleep if you will,” she promised. She attempted a smile as she backed out of my room.

  I lay back down on my bed and contemplated calling one of my girls. As I reached for the phone, though, I changed my mind. Jasmine couldn’t talk on the phone this late. Angel was probably putting Angelica to sleep, and Camille was too caught up in her own drama to worry about mine. I looked at my bedroom window, hoping to see headlights that would tell me my father had decided to turn around and come back home. I watched for a long time, but it stayed dark. I had never felt so all alone.

  9

  Camille

  Today we were going to be shooting the last part of the video over, because Sisco hadn’t wanted to do anything after yesterday’s disaster with Xavier. The director had said we’d just start fresh today.

  I was so glad my girls decided to come, though for some reason Alexis didn’t seem her usual self. I was still a little bummed out. Xavier had broken up with me by text. I’d tried to call him, but he’d slammed the phone down in my face. Normally, I would’ve called him back and gone off, but I was going to give him a pass, since I knew he was pretty upset about Sisco kissing me.

  Speaking of the kiss, I’d been thinking about it all night long. Yeah, I knew it was all part of Sisco’s act, but if this time a month ago someone had told me I’d be kissing Sisco, I’d have thought they were crazy.

  “Are you all right?” Angel asked. We’d just made our way into the parking lot. I’d been pretty much quiet the whole way over here.

  “I’m okay. I just hope me and Xavier can get through this, because he’s a good guy.”

  “He is,” Angel added. “And he’ll get over the whole kissing thing.”

  “I don’t know,” Jasmine said doubtfully. Alexis and Angel shot her the evil eye, and she turned her lip up.

  “All I know is when everything is said and done, Xavier is the one who will be there for you,” Jasmine retorted. “Sisco will be gone on to his next video vixen. So don’t kick Xavier to the curb.”

  “I am not a video vixen,” I protested.

  “I’m just saying, Sisco has a million girls throwing themselves at him.”

  “I’m not throwing myself at him,” I snapped. “I’m not dumping Xavier for Sisco. He quit me, remember?”

  “It’s not your fault that Sisco kissed you,” Angel said helpfully.

  “I know,” I replied, getting frustrated all over again.

  “But it is her fault that she had her tongue down his throat as much as he was slobbing all over her,” Jasmine said.

  “Shut up, Jasmine. I did not have my tongue down his throat. It was just a regular old kiss.”

  “Umph, I ain’t never had a regular old kiss like that,” Jasmine giggled.

  Alexis broke in. “Okay, Jaz, don’t make it any worse. You know Camille feels bad as it is.”

  “All right, all right. I’m sorry. I was just messing with you.” Jasmine threw up her hands apologetically. “But seriously, don’t sweat it. Yeah, Xavier is mad, but he’ll get over it. Right now you’re about to blow up, and you can’t let some jealous boyfriend ruin that for you.”

  I sighed and leaned back. Jasmine was right. My mind drifted back to the chemistry that Sisco and I had in the video shoot. I couldn’t deny it, we looked good together. And although the kiss had caught me off guard, it had been nice.

  I finally got a hold of my thoughts. This was all an act. It’s not like me and Sisco ever stood a chance of being together in real life.

  “We’re here,” Alexis said, pulling into a parking spot.

  We were giggling and laughing as we approached the security guard.

  “Hi, I’m Camille Harris,” I said.

  “Hey,” the tall, muscular guy said as he stepped back to let me pass. “You don’t have to introduce yourself to me, baby girl. I saw you yesterday. You’re the next big star.”

  I smiled as I led the way in. But as soon as I turned to walk off, I heard Jasmine say, “Excuse me?”

  I looked back to see that the guard had stepped in front of Jasmine, Angel and Alexis, blocking their path.

  “Oh, they’re with me,” I said.

  “Okay,” he said, without moving.

  “Okay, then move,” Jasmine snapped.

  “I’m not goin’ to be able to do that, little lady.” He crossed his stocky arms across his chest.

  “What? We were here yesterday,” Alexis said.

  “And I hope you enjoyed it,” he replied.

  “There must be some kind of mistake,” I said, walking back up to the security guard. “These are my friends, and they’re here with me.”

  “They’re not getting in,” he said with finality. Before I could say anything, I saw Taraji strutting toward us.

  “Taraji, I’m so glad you’re here,” I said. “He won’t let my friends in.”

  “I know,” she responded sharply. “Come on, you need to go get dressed. Thanks to your boyfriend’s atta
ck yesterday, Sisco isn’t in the mood to shoot, so we’re just going to shoot some promotional stuff. Let’s go.” She kept walking.

  “Taraji!” I called after her. “What’s going on? Why can’t my friends come in?”

  She spun around like she was irritated that she even had to explain anything to me. “Look here, girl, you’re lucky that we’re even letting you come back after that disaster with your boyfriend. I can’t tell you the last time I saw Sisco that mad. So, sorry, but there’s no room for your friends. The set is closed.”

  My mouth dropped open. “You mean they can’t come in?”

  “What part of no don’t you get, the n or the o?”

  “But—”

  “But you’re late. And you’re hanging on by a thread yourself. If I were you, I’d tell your little friends good-bye and get to the dressing room.”

  “Camille, go on,” Alexis said. “We’ll be fine.”

  “No, we won’t,” Jasmine snapped. “We didn’t do anything.”

  I felt so bad as I pleadingly looked at Taraji.

  “I do not have time to stand out here and debate with some ghetto high school girls.”

  “Ghetto? You want me to show you what we do in the ghetto?” Jasmine asked, taking a step forward.

  Thank God Alexis stepped up and stopped her. “For real, Camille, you go on. We’ll catch up with you later.”

  “Listen to your friends,” Taraji told me nonchalantly. “Or better yet, why don’t you just go with them?” She spun off and walked away before I could respond.

  “Are you guys sure about me going on?” I asked.

  “We’re fine,” Angel said. “And it’s not like you have a lot of choices.”

  “Jasmine?”

  “I’m all right,” she said, waving me off. The attitude was still evident all over her face, but I knew she wasn’t mad at me. Jasmine worked real hard to keep her temper at bay, so she probably was upset that she’d let Taraji get to her.

  “Do you need me to come back and pick you up?” Alexis asked.

  “Nah, I’ll just call my mom,” I said, suddenly wishing I had the money to get my old car fixed. It hadn’t worked in about a year. I was definitely going to see if my mom would let me buy a car with the money I made from the video shoot.