50 Shades of Drake 3 and 4

Torn: Chapter Eighty-Two

    Jonny let out a gut-busting laugh.

    More heads turned in their direction.

    Aubrey elbowed him in the stomach. The thing about elbowing Jonny in the stomach is that it caused you more harm than it did him. His stomach was nearly as solid as a wall of bricks. Cursing under his breath, Aubrey rubbed his elbow. "It's not funny, man."

    "It's not?" Jonny asked, his laughter subsiding. "I haven't heard you say that in...Jesus, how long has it been since I've heard you say that?"

    "Close to three years," Aubrey said without hesitation.

    Jonny's brows rose.

    "The last time I asked was after Robyn."

    Jonny's expression sobered immediately. "Right. Yeah. All right, so...you need to talk. Let's talk, then. Get suited up and meet me by the weight benches."

    Aubrey nodded and clapped him on the back as he walked past. "Thanks, man."

    "What are friends for?" Jonny asked, picking up a clipboard from the fitness center's front desk.

~~~~~~

    "I'm going to assume this is about that pretty young thing I met at your mom's house," Jonny said while spotting Aubrey.

    Aubrey raised gloved hands to the barbell above his chest. He'd almost forgotten that Jonny had met Destiny, shortly after returning to Toronto from D.C. His mother had thrown him a "Thank God My Son Isn't Dead" party. Jonny had been there; so had most of his other friends, along with his family. "You would be correct," Aubrey said, wrapping his fingers around a barbell with three hundred pounds balanced on the outer ends of it.

    Jonny placed his fingers beneath the bar, not adding any pressure to the bar. His touch to the bar was light. "Oliver mentioned how you're all caught up in this girl."

    "I am," Aubrey confirmed, raising the barbell from its rack and holding it steady before bringing it down closer to his chest.

    "So, what's the problem?"

    What's the problem? Aubrey wondered to himself, while pushing the bar upwards. He's probably expecting one of the common answers that men give when being asked that question. "What's wrong with your girl?" The usual answers were, "My girl is nagging me too much/My girl isn't nagging me enough/My girl wants to take it to the next step and I'm not ready/My girl thinks we should slow down for a bit." The predicament Aubrey found himself in wasn't a simple one that could be explained in one or two sentences. While his friends had a basic knowledge and understanding that he enjoyed kink, many of them didn't know specifics.

    "That many problems, huh?" Jonny asked.

    "I don't know where to start," Aubrey said, bringing the barbell back down to his chest.

    "So let her go."

    All of a sudden, it was as if the weight of the world was resting on that one barbell. Aubrey struggled to push the bar back up. Once it was in the rack, he carefully sat up and twisted around on the bench, placing both sneakered feet on the mat. "I can't let her go."

    "Because?" Jonny prompted.

    "Because I love her."

    Jonny stroked his chin in contemplation. "It sounds like your love for her outweighs the concerns you have over whatever problems you have with her."

    Aubrey smiled at Jonny trying to help, even though the information he had was limited. "My love for her outweighs my desire to take my next breath."

    Jonny walked around the bench and sat beside his friend. "Wow. I haven't heard you talk like that since...since..."

    "Since I was known by the world as Drake," Aubrey finished for him.

    Jonny nodded. "Yeah."

    Aubrey rested his elbows on his knees. "You'd probably be happy to know that I'm writing again."

    Jonny's eyes grew round with disbelief. "Really?"

    "Yes."

    "'Yes,'" Jonny mimicked, laughing. "My boy, so proper. No slang anywhere to be found."

    Aubrey punched him in the arm. "I'm a business professional. What do you expect?"

    "Nothing less," Jonny responded. "You've always had the knack for the proper talk. I just...didn't know your speech could get even more proper than it was already."

    Aubrey watched two girls climb onto stairclimbing machines several yards away.

    "How does it feel?" Jonny asked him. "To be writing again?"

    "It feels good," Aubrey admitted. "Writing feels like home. It feels good to be singing again. It feels right. I'm thinking of releasing an album."

    "Wow."

    "I know." Aubrey linked his hands together. "I thought that part of my life was done. My objective was to just...groom the artists under my label. Help them progress. The life of an entertainer stopped appealing to me. This whole time I've been itching to write, but I've denied myself that. If I wasn't going to release anything, what was the point in writing it?"

    "For yourself," Jonny answered. "Getting your feelings out. Your emotions have always been intense as shit. No good can come from keeping those caged inside yourself, man. Creating a piece of art for you to keep just for yourself...nothing at all wrong with that. You've done it before."

    "I have," Aubrey said, his voice growing quiet. "But..."

    "You want your cake and you want to eat it, too," Jonny told him.

    "What else are you supposed to do with cake?" Aubrey countered.

    Jonny rolled his eyes. "What I mean is, you want to write your music and release it, but not have the life of a superstar."

    "Exactly."

    "If you make good art and release good art, then all of the craziness is going to come with it," Jonny said. "People will be fascinated by you, just as they've always been. The more you try to hide from the public, the crazier they'll become for you. That's how it is. That's how it's been. What you need to do is think to yourself...break it down the same way you did with the girl. Your love for writing music and releasing music - does it outweigh how much you hate the fakeness in the industry?"

    "Not by much," Aubrey muttered.

    "That's something you have to sort out, then," Jonny said. "Because if you're going to be writing and releasing music, I've got a suggestion."

    Aubrey gave him his undivided attention.

    "Take back OVOFest. Make it yours again. Stop allowing other people to run it. It hasn't been the same since the last time we were involved with it. Claim it. Hell, if you're dropping new shit, you should even perform. Plan for it next year. I'm done. The whole crew would be."

    Aubrey smiled. "Bring back OVOFest, huh?" he asked.

    "Yup. And that girl you love? You should bring her with you."

    Aubrey's smile stretched, but then faltered. I'd love to bring her with me, but with the way things are going, Destiny and I might not be able to last until next year. "There's one more thing that I wanted to ask you about," he said slowly.

    "You already know you can ask me anything," Jonny said.

    "How does it feel to be a father?" Aubrey asked.

    Jonny's mouth dropped open.