I see 'Drya looking very much pregnant in the baby aisle with someone very familiar, his laugh confirming he's AJ. I walk up and she slowly turns, both of them smiling at me. "Deléon! How have you been in the past few months?" she excitedly greets me, extending her arms for a quick hug. 

I embrace her gently, being careful of her belly. "Good, but you look very much pregnant." 

"What's up, Crayola?" AJ greets me with a respectful handshake. 

"Not much. You got me numba cuz I gotta talk to you in private bout the night you two were at the club wit Erik round seven months ago," I tell them. 

"Lemme check my phone, double check if it's the right digits," she says, pulling up my contact info and handing me her phone.  

I quickly correct it and hand it back. "Now it's right." 

"Thanks, Del. I'll buzz you when we get back to the house and settle in." She gives me another affectionate squeeze from my side and AJ hugs me from the other side. 

"See you lata," I say, squeezing them back. 

Once I get home, I sit down and pull my old photos from under the coffee table in search of a specific set of em. I find the photos of Nick, AJ and I in her backyard in Orlando, realizing her cousin Chris in the background making funny faces and I smile. That was the day he dragged me from Tampa to Orlando, after they had come back from Sweden to meet her and my eldest brother having picked me up the night before for me to meet her after talkin bout her for years and hadn't met her until then. I flip the picture over and read the date in her beautiful script:June 29, 1995, smiling even bigger than before. 

I remember the phone call from Nick the day he came to Orlando after Sweden. "Crayola, you have to meet her, come on." 

"Maybe me brother will kidnap me." 

"Aw, man, she is beautiful." 

I look at Brent. "Who is this girl?" 

Brent's eyes bug out. "She's a knockout. She was with Bones, but he screwed up and she's with Nick. Long story. You know that picture he keeps in his desk in his room of the girl with honey eyes and long dark hair?" 

"Yeah." 

"That's her." 

"You talkin bout her, Nick?" 

"Yeah, man. You have to meet her." 

"I'll talk to me brother and be out there today." 

"Thanks. See you when you get there. We leave my house and will be at that address for a little while." 

I got there and sure enough, I see her almost look alike cousin, Molly. "You must be 'Drya." 

"Nope, I'm Molly." She quickly scribbles something down. "This is where she went with Nick and them, they just left." 

I climb into the car and give it to my brother. "I know right where it is. Trying to find Jafakin is just like finding a white Jamaican in our country," he comments, both of us laughing at his honest joke. 

We pull into a cul de sac and I hear Nick's laugh, following it to the back yard through an open gate. He's holding his hands in front of him, looking down at something. I walk closer and see a girl in his arms. "Jafakin!" 

He looks over his shoulder, smiling and approaches me with her hand in his, pretty much dragging her along. "Crayola, what's up? This is Cassandrya. Cassie, this is Deléon, but I call him Crayola," Jafakin introduced us. 

We had talked for a couple hours and then she begs Kevin to take a photo of the three of us, unbeknownst to us had been Chris with a funny look plastered on his face while we smiled nice with bunny ears by our heads and they gave me moose antlers. "I'll give you a copy when they're developed." 

That had been a day of laughs and a deep discussion or two, all of us being ourselves. Her family is completely nuts, but so much fun! It's usually a fun time with all her cousins and her around, even if it's just her. 

My phone rings just as I get to the end of the album with a picture of her with AJ and I months ago. It screams with her favorite song, making me answer sooner. "You all settled, woman?" 

"As settled as we can get, so feel free to swing by. I'm texting you the address now," she informs me, my phone beeps. 

I nod. "Headin out in five wit my photo albums for a trip down memory lane, woman." 

"Oooh, boy. Making me relive my braces again," she groans. 

"Yeah, woman, but only from after comin back from Sweden da first time up till the last time you were at me club." 

"Most of them are awesome," she comments and I can hear the genuine smile in her voice. 

"Maybe we can add more to it." 

"Maybe so." 

I peek at the address she sent me. "Be there in ten, lady." 

"See you then." 

She still hates talking on the phone since she finished school. She and Jafakin talked on the phone many times a day, each being about an hour on average. She has been the first to hang up since. 

I grab the albums and shove them into a bookbag, heading to see her. AJ and I had become friends, only talking when Nick got us together and respecting each other's privacy. The entire time she gave AJ his first chance, I had no clue who he was with or would take off to see when she would call where we would be. He always called her something in Spanish, talking to her in only that because it was what they would do. He'd hang up and say he had to go see her. It wasn't until after she had left for Julliard that he'd spend more time with his friends and he would get two calls a day, one in the morning and one after nine at night.  

Until now I refused to even be brought into these memoirs, having been there for Nick from our third grade year in the background and stayed outta sight and mind of the paparazzo. I didn't want the harassment of them or fans, but I do enjoy some of the perks of knowing all of them. I've been on tours, gone to award shows, had fun at photo shoots and made them laugh during interviews when they needed to be kinda serious. 

She's been there since before conception of the group Jafakin is in, just as much as her cousin's and being a support for both as well for Aaron. When they had success, she celebrated; but when they had something fall through or go wrong, she would lift their spirits by saying something good to encourage them to keep trying.  

She and I have always been there for the eleven of them, good or bad from early on and there had never been bad blood. She knows Jafakin lies and I just found out from AJ she had rolled face that night, Aaron confirming his brother had bragged about it to him just last week. I text her real quick at a red light, asking if AJ had brought it up in the past few days and she confirms it. 

As soon as I get there, I take a seat on the other side of the coffee table with my bag beside me. I see her charge; Deven is almost always wearing something cheetah print and I bust her balls every chance I get. "-said to stay away," she complains, her voice cracking. 

"How much of that print ya got? Got any zebra or leopard prints?" 

"Fuck off, Crayola," Deven fires back, her middle finger poking from her fist. 

"I'm good. Miss Kirky, I need to talk to you." 

"Deven, all I can say is that you should go home and focus on Jack and Harry. Just avoid him like the plague unless it's for professional reasons." 

She escorted Deven out to her car and comes back in, waddling the entire way. She sits next to AJ, cuddled to his side on the couch. "I found out last week that Jafakin had lied about the 'vitamins' he told me not to tell anyone about it had been Molly." 

"Molly? Oh, MDMA! That asshole." 

"He laughed like a crazed lunatic when we said she's pregnant about three and a half months earlier," AJ informs me. 

"Lemme guess, Howie and Kevin were upset and Brian was disappointed," I comment. 

"Yeah." 

She groans, looking exhausted. "Just wait till they hear about this." 

"Ready for a trip down memory lane?" I ask, placing the five albums on the table. 

"I have braces in some." 

AJ grins. "I remember those." 

"I had them forever," she exaggerates, slowly moving. 

"How much longer?" I ask. 

"Month and a half, Deléon." 

"Seven and a half already gone?" 

"Didn't know if I was until three and a half months ago when we told the rest of his group, but the dad knows and isn't talking to me right now, either." 

"Well, if it's JC's, it makes sense." 

"He doesn't even know I'm expecting," she explains, waving the thought off. She grabs her phone, quickly checking something and mutters a string of vulgarities. 

"What's wrong, baby?" AJ inquires, gently rubbing her side. 

"The due date also matches up with the last time JC and I-" 

"It's alright, DNA can be done." 

She sighs. "I guess." 

"How do you keep track?" I dare to ask, AJ giving me a look that says I don't want to know.  

She opens her phone, the calendar open already. I see J on some days, E on others, and A on the past year. "That's how." She wiggles her fingers for her phone and I place it in her hand.  

"J is JC, A is AJ and E is Erik?" 

"Exactly, Deléon. You always could decode that kinda thing nearly effortlessly from the jump." 

"Unless you wrote in Spanish, up until AJ and Howie taught me how to read, write and speak it. By then, you knew Op-Top and Jafakin was learning it already."