Chapter 8 #2
Charlie made her way to the edge of the stage, where Demi stood with DJ at his side. He picked her up, hands under her armpits, and lowered her off the stage.
“You can unspell a nigga any time, Bird,” he said.
She giggled and then looked at DJ. “How’d I do?”
DJ shrugged. “Can we go now? This is stupid and boring. There aren’t even any kids here.”
Charlie deflated a little. “We can go. This isn’t really something he’d enjoy.”
“Go do your thing with the media. Lot of people want to get to know you in here, Bird. I’ll occupy this guy.” Demi pulled his son under his arm, trapping him as he roughhoused him.
“Come on, little nuts. Let’s go. Let’s see if the DJ will teach you how to spin,” Demi said.
“Really?” DJ asked, perking up.
“You still want to be a DJ when you grow up, right?” Demi challenged. “Or you changed your mind, cuz if you changed your mind, I won’t ask.”
“Come on, Dad! Please! Ask him! Can I go live on my page while I do it?”
Demi chuckled. “Yeah, man, flex on your little friends,” Demi stated. “I’m around if you need me,” he said to Charlie before delivering a quick kiss and walking off with his son.
Charlie was relieved when Stassi broke through the crowd.
“Oh my godddd, you did so good! The album sounds bomb,” Stassi complimented.
“I can’t believe you didn’t give me a heads up about all this.”
“They knew better than to tell me. I have so much to fucking tell you,” Stassi said.
Their time was interrupted as a popular blogger known as Zeewiththetea came walking up. “Charlie, I’d love a minute of your time to give my Z babies first look at you, sis. You’re beautiful, and unlike a lot of these new girls, you can sing!”
Charlie looked at Stassi apologetically. “You want to hang out until I’m done? I won’t be long. I feel like we need to catch up.”
“Do your thing. We’ll catch up later. I’ma grab a drink and then head out. I just wanted to make sure I came through to show you my support. Tonight is your big night, Charlie. You worked hard for this. Shine, sis!” Stassi turned to the blogger. “She’s all yours.”
It was the sisterhood for Charlie. It was the letting bygones be bygones for her. Stassi was the one person who had loved her unconditionally. Just like every other disagreement they had ever had, this one was forgiven.
“So, Charlie, you look beautiful tonight! I’ve got to get a picture of you for my blog!” The camera flashed before she could even prepare and three more cameras from other publications followed suit.
“Thank you,” Charlie answered sweetly. “I still can’t believe any of this.”
“Your songs are so passionate, and when you sing them, you can tell you mean every word. Is ‘Addict 4 U’ about label owner, Demitrius Sky?”
“Oh, you jump right into it, huh?” Charlie asked.
Before Charlie could answer, she heard the DJ take the microphone.
“Yo! Yo! My little homie, DJ, is going to take over the 1’s and 2’s. He’s the underboss, so I got to give him a shot to shout out the crowd and the lady of the evening. Li’l man, you want to show Charlie some love? What you think about the album so far?”
Charlie looked toward DJ and Demi. She smiled as DJ took the mic.
“All these people here are showing her love but she don’t deserve it. She’s out here sleeping with married men, and she broke up our family. She’s trash. Nobody cares about her music.”
Charlie lost air.
“Damn,” Zeewiththetea mumbled. Charlie was mortified. “Do you have a comment for that?” The blogger pushed.
Every person in the club turned her way, looking at her with judgment. Speculation filled the air.
Demi snatched the microphone from his son’s hands and grabbed his elbow sternly as he escorted him out a side door.
“I… I didn’t…it wasn’t…”
Day came to her rescue. “No comment,” he said before pulling her into the VIP room.
As soon as Charlie saw DJ sitting on the velvet couch inside, she rushed over to him.
“Why would you say that? I’ve been nothing but nice to you! Why would you tell everyone that?!” Charlie was screaming and crying and pointing her finger as she chastised him.
Demi stood and intercepted Charlie. “Chill, Bird. I know it’s bad, but I need you to calm down.”
“Calm down?!” Charlie shouted. “Your son is out of line! His spoiled-ass is sitting over there listening to his mama bad-mouth me!”
“Bird, stop,” Demi said, trying to mitigate the situation. “I’m going to talk to him.”
“Talk to him? He needs his little ass whooped!” Charlie shouted. “My album release is ruined. Nobody’s going to hear the music now. They won’t even care about it. All they’ll see is the girl who slept with the head of the label and broke up his marriage.”
“You’re out of fucking line, Bird. Lower your voice when talking to my son.” Demi was stoic but his tone was deadly and Charlie recoiled in offense. “He’s a kid, Bird. He made a mistake.”
“He made a choice, Demi. He got on the mic and embarrassed me,” Charlie whispered in disbelief. “He’s never going to like me. His mom has programmed him to hate me.”
DJ sat with his head down, and Demi turned to look at him.
“He’s just a kid, Bird,” Demi said. “You need to check yourself. He’s telling his perspective. It’s his truth. Divorce hurts. That’s on me to fix. I’ma fix it, but you can’t blame him for the feelings adults put on him. Take it out on me. It’s on me.”
Day stood by the door silently, finessing his chin as he gave Demi room to address his family.
“This is bad,” Day said, finally interrupting. “Every piece of media in that room has already reported the headline on their social media.”
“Fix it,” Demi ordered.
Day nodded, eyes on his phone, his annoyance on high as he stabbed letters onto his text thread as he tried to do damage control. “I’ma try. Side chicks don’t get the most grace these days. I’ll bring in the PR team.”
Side chicks, Charlie thought, scoffing. Even with a ring on her finger, she would always be a part of the side chick club.
“Now the whole world will be praying on my downfall,” Charlie whispered, eyes brimming with tears. “Take me home, please.”
Her reputation and release were ruined, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.