Stories Of Us (Tarasia)

The Artist's New Muse (1)

Taraji

"You're late!" Regina yells as I walk into the club. She brings me into a tight hug jumping up and down while spinning us in circles. "I'm sorry!" She finally lets go of me looking at me with a huge smile. "Happy birthday!" I tell her, taking in her outfit. She's wearing a beautiful, long, silk tan dress. I look around the club seeing groups of both of our closest friends. She takes my arm and starts walking with me.

"So girl. I was nervous you weren't going to come, because you know I chose you to do my crowning, so if you weren't here then I wouldn't be crowned." The entire crowning thing was a tradition she made up after her 20th birthday. So every 20 that she turns, she picks a special person out of that year to put a crown on her head in front of a bunch of people before she takes her first shot of the new age. It's really confusing, but kind of cute. "I'm sorry," I tell her, as she speeds up our pace to wherever we are going.

"If you had missed it, I would have had someone do it. But then, it would be bad luck, because they weren't my person of the year. This is my last 20 and I really don't want that bad juju." She finishes, turning the corner into a private room with a banner above it that reads: Birthday Girl's Bunker.

We walk into the pink room and rush over to a black case. She opens the case with a key that was stuffed between her dress and the nipple covers she has on. She unlocks the box showing me a beautiful tiara that I'm sure is filled with real diamonds.

"Damn," I say to her, "This is the biggest one you've gotten so far."

"Yea, it's the biggest, because it's the last." I see her eyes start to get watery and I yank her into a big hug. "This is going to be the best birthday you'll ever have. And after this, we can start making a new tradition for your 30s." I pull back a little, holding on to her forearms. She laughs to herself and looks down at her feet.

"I'm getting so old, ugh." She tells me, causing me to jerk my head back in a frown. "Hey watch it, we're the same age. If you're old, then I'm old." She looks to the left with her head still down and cuts her eyes at me. I pop her arms and open my mouth wide.  She laughs again and pulls me back into a hug, "I love you girl."

"I love you too." I told her. "Okay, I'm going to go tell the DJ that you're ready for your coronation." I walk away, maneuvering my way through the crowd. I wave and smile to a few of my friends on my way to the source of the club's music. I walk up to the DJ making him aware of the time it is. I sent off the guards in the back to go get the tiara for me to have when I finish my speech.

"Hello everyone," I say on the mic, "Today, we are here to celebrate an amazing and incredible human being. I've known this woman for 12 years of my life, and every single year gets better with her around. During her 20th birthday planning, she threw out the idea of coming out with a diamond tiara with her name in it. She told me it was because she wanted to really feel like a princess on her special day. She wanted to blind people with the amount of bling on her head. I introduced the idea of having someone incredibly special be the one to crown her in front of a crowd, like a coronation. So, for the past 9 years, she has had her favorite people of the year crown her. I was that lucky person for 7, and then she decided to betray me with her boyfriend last year. He's still cool I guess." I hear chuckles and laughs from the crowd. "But for her final coronation, she wanted no other person to do it for her, besides me. I'm so honored that I get to know this incredible human being. This light in people's lives. I've watched her come up from a shy teenager singing in the church choir, to now being one of our cities favorite news anchors. My heart has been full of my bestfriend for more than a decade now, and we have an entire life to continue with. So now, put your hands together for the incredible, amazing, showstopping, heartwarming... Regina Hall!" I hear the raging applause of the crowd as two guards and my bestfriend walk up to the platform I'm standing on.