Hello, Atlanta! Nick and Aaron are here-Nick for the charity game and Aaron to talk to me. I'm currently waiting for Leslie to come pick me up, Aaron in tow. We're heading to the mall and she's going to do some stuff for Nick while Aaron and I walk around, talking.
"Where are they?" I ask myself, checking my watch again. They're always five minutes late at the very least. They pull up in a tinted Escalade, black. I blink, looking at the ceiling and shaking my head for a second before texting Aaron to ensure it's them. I receive a conformation text and leave the hotel, jumping in the passenger seat. "Hey, Les. Thanks. Acey," I say, hugging her and looking behind her seat, patting his hand to get his attention.
"Hey, Jazz," he greets, a smile appearing on his face once he locks eyes with me.
"Sup? You aight?"
"I'm good."
"You look sapped."
"Nah, didn't sleep too great last night."
I purse my lips and nod, turning back around to buckle up before she takes off. "What do you wanna do, kid?"
"Check out some things for the Grammys."
"What do you mean?"
"For after the show."
"Ahhhh, gotcha." The rest of the ride is almost in silence, not including the radio.
I get so lost in my thoughts, I don't even realize that we've pulled up at the mall. Aaron knocks on the window, pulling me from the thoughts that took over my brain. He has his baseball cap and shades on. I grab mine from my lap, slipping the shades on and twisting my hair up to pin it under the cap and exit the SUV. "Trapped in your thoughts again?" he asks.
"Something like that."
Once we get inside the mall, Leslie darts off to do what Nick requested and leaves us to talk alone. We slowly walk down toward one end of the mall. "Nick has been cheating again."
"I knew he wouldn't stay faithful the second we got back. What he doesn't know won't kill him."
"Yeah, I know what you-," he starts, quickly stopping in his tracks. "Whoa! What?!" he shrieks at me, scrunching up his face.
"You heard me," I say, yanking him by his arm to make him move again. "I have my bit of fun when he's not there."
"But you're the good girl!" he says loudly.
"Please, only a handful of people know me better that."
"I'm not one, I never know anything."
"Here's something you didn't know, I'm only partly innocent, not as much as the media claims."
"So the press saying you're the same as when you first started dancing is only part true?"
"Yup, Nick thinks the press is right and three people know other wise."
"Well, I guess the press is wrong about him, too," he says, pulling a CD and a CD player out of his sweatshirt pocket.
"Got lunch chilling in there, too?" I joke as he sets it up.
"No, but you should listen to this," he tells me, handing me the ear buds and I put them in my ears.
"Yeah, here," he says, handing me the disc in a blank case. "What are you going to do?" he asks, watching me warily.
"He wants to record this? I want to make him understand that this is personal. If this gets leaked and we're together, we wouldn't be after it's out there," I tell him, waving the case around.
Nick has some damn nerve even recording this, never mind releasing it. You think you could spot a very pissed off teenage girlfriend of a celebrity, but I'm not that obvious. I plaster a smile on my face and focus on what Aaron and I came for, joking and laughing the rest of the day. I do appreciate his looking out for me, but he doesn't need to suffer for something he didn't do. Leslie meets up with us in the food court about an hour later and chow down on subs. We all get Italian subs, different dressings on them. Leslie gets mustard, Aaron gets mayo and I get honey mustard. "Why did you two have to talk face to face?" she casually asks.
I pull the CD out and Aaron pulls out the player, loading it in it so she can listen to it. I hand her the earbuds and she listens to it, her face dropping before her eyes fill with rage. "That's why," I announce as she hands the earbuds back and I put the disc back in its case, shoving it back into my bag.
"I hope you're going to teach him a good lesson," she tells me. "Of course, he's not my boyfriend and he should be grateful for that. That's still fucking dirty."
Whoa! Leslie just swore. "I know and that's why the good Carter brother informed me. Nick is going to have more than a lesson and he will regret this, trust and believe."
"I know we're going to be able to figure when he gets cornered over this," Aaron says, smirking after.
"You'll really know, he's probably going to be heated for a few days after I get through with this," I say, taking a huge gulp of my soda after.
"You're just evil, girl," Leslie comments, having caught the gist of it.
"Dealing with him, I have to be."
We laugh and switch subjects. "I have a new album I'm working on."
"Cool, how far done is it?"
"Only a handful of tracks have been laid down."
"It's a start."
"I could use a song and every single one I come across, it doesn't grab me like it should," he confides in me.
I think for a minute. "I might have some you could use."
