Sky's The Limit

xxxi

"What? He's cute!" she looked at me like I was the crazy one.

"Is not. You need to get your eyes checked," I scoffed while grabbing the remote to my television.

"You just sayin' that because you used to take baths with the nigga and shit," the kiss of her teeth was followed by the final flicker of my lighter.

"I'm sayin' that because he is immature," I corrected her.

She didn't speak until she'd inhaled the burning herb. "Every man is immature at our age. What's one more?"

"Every man isn't immature at our age," I refuted.

"Name one."

"Tony."

"So, if 'Shaan was more like Tony, you'd get with him?" she glanced at me out of the side of her eye.

"Girl, no!" I was appalled.

"Why not?"

"Because Ishaan is just— eugh!" I nearly hurled at the thought.

"You bein' dramatic," she took her second hit.

"I'm not! Ishaan gets around more than a rumor."

Her response was emphasized with smoke. "Well then, hopefully he'll be gettin' around to me soon."

I laughed obnoxiously loud, triggering her to do the same. "Whaat? I'm for real!" she exclaimed.

I could barely contain my laughter, even as she passed the blunt and awaited her next turn.

"I'm for real!" she repeated. "Don't be surprised when I start poppin' up at the I.V. functions, start poppin' up at fuckin' Club Five! You gon' know exactly what I'm there for!"

"You dance wit' the nigga one time, and you ready to stalk him. You need help!" I cackled before taking a drag from Xena's beloved stash.

"No, no, actually," she held her finger up, "we were talkin' all night in the green room, before y'all went on stage."

"Girl, that was a group discussion! Will was tellin' me about them weak ass saltine crackers they had back there," I giggled.

She started cracking up while I took my second hit of weed and passed the blunt back.

"Girl, them snacks were terrible! It was sad! Fuckin' crackers and chips!"

"And one bottle of champagne!" we simultaneously shrieked before our fit of giggles continued.

My night of smoking with Xena was just the thing I needed to de-stress.

It'd felt like forever since I had someone to hang out with, especially another woman. My evenings were typically spent alone, avoiding the phone calls of an ex-boyfriend and writing rhymes. But this was a change of pace that I could get used to.

Contrastively, by Monday, I was diving head-first into the album-making process. Whatever the hell that consisted of.

It was maybe 7:00 in the evening, when we were adjusting to being in a real studio.

I preferred to collect my new experiences at the beginning of the day, but with Ishaan having a new class schedule and Tony making runs all day, it seemed that the only time we'd be able to reconvene in the studio would be in the evenings.

Will and I made it to the studio first, meeting with our new engineer, Jason, and in-house producer who went by the name Kadence.

Jason seemed like an average white dude with the style of a rock enthusiast, but according to Kadence, he was the best of the best when it came to engineering.