Who am I?

Chapter 15.

 I was lost reminiscing old memories of coffee houses and best friends when Lin walked up and swung his arm around my shoulders.

"So, where we going?" My face split with a huge grin as I looked dup at him, super excited for what was about to come.

"There is this little café a couple blocks away that I used to spend a crazy amount of time at. The people who own it are practically a second family to me." He looked at me in confusion, "I grew up around here, but my parents moved us to Darien, Connecticut when I turned nine."

He nodded and looked surprised that I had lived around here. I missed it a lot and being back was an amazing walk down memory lane. Lin decided to pull me back into the moment by starting a snowball fight with the rest of the group. I had smartly stayed out of it until Daveed and Oak pelted me on either side of the head, from then on I declared war.

The war raged on for a good ten minutes before I spotted a curly blonde ponytail up ahead. I looked down the body and saw an old red hoodie that would usually be found on serial killers, a pair of ripped blue jeans and beat up black chucks. I immediately left the group a bit and jumped up on a park bench that was nearby, balancing myself on the back rim of it.

"Hey!" They were all giving me strange looks that I just ignored. "You owe me a bottle of cold champagne."

With that she turned around and I was greeted with my old best friend, Ray Johnson. We used to be inseparable until we were nine, which was when my parents moved us away to be closer to their job. They never really approved of our friendship, considering their family was the exact opposite of ours. Even at that age I knew that there were things that my parents couldn't be aware of or they would ban us from hanging out. One of those things was the first and only musical I had ever heard and also the thing that taught me how to rap and sing, In the Heights. We used to listen to it every day after school when we would sit and do our homework in her families little Café, Logic. I spent more time in that café than in my own house those couple years sense my parents were not home until late in the evening and I was too young to be home alone.

"Are you moving?" She yelled back at me in surprise. I nodded ferociously, still balanced on top of the park bench.

"Just a couple papers and I'm on that downtown train!" At that I jumped off of the bench running at her slamming into her wrapping my arms around her neck laughing in her ear.

"I can't believe you're here!" I had been emailing her sense I left, so she knew the gist about what was occurring.

"Me neither! And hopefully I'll be here to stay this time." At this point the cast had met back up with us and were gathered around Ray and I. Lin came over and put his hand on my shoulder, making me turn and look at him.

"You know In the Heights?" He looked like a confused puppy with his hair falling out of the ponytail he had put it in.

"You know In the Heights?" I yelled with excitement, it was a somewhat older musical that died way too quickly so not very many people knew what it was. The others all started to laugh while Ray and I just looked at them in confusion. Jazzy came over and patter our shoulders in a motherly way chuckling a bit,

"Honey, he not only played Usnavi but he also wrote it." I looked back at him in surprise, not knowing how I couldn't have known that.

"No way! Dude, that was my freaking childhood, our freaking childhood. It's the whole reason that I started to write and rap!" I was practically vibrating with excitement at this point and Lin just looked amused and a little honored.

"Well it's good to know that I was somewhat included in your life when you were younger, even if it was just as a writer and performer." My jaw dropped at this, he wasn't just a little in my life; he was the one thing that gave me hope when my parents would leave me at Rays house for hours on end, when the kids would pick on us at school and when my parents ripped away the only life I had only known.

"You practically raised me, well between the Johnsons and you. My parents were only included in my life on the rare days off and when we moved, but I was already nine at that point." I smiled up at him as he grabbed me and pulled me into a tight bear hug, resting his head on top of mine just like he always does. We stayed there for a couple minutes while the others looked on. When we did pull away I figured that I better introduce Ray to everyone.

"Guys, this is my best friend Ray Johnson, her family owns the café that we're going to. Ray, this is Daveed, Oak, Jazzy and Lin, my bio father." I pointed to each of them and they gave a little wave and small hello. She smiled back before grabbing my hand and leading us into the direction of Logic.

"It's really nice to meet you guys, now come on we've missed little rapper over here. The café hasn't been the same without you. And no, don't try to fight it, we need to for old times sake." I glared at the back of her head, knowing exactly what she wanted us to do. Yes I admit it would be super fun but I didn't really want to do it in front of the cast and a whole bunch of strangers.

"What should you not try to fight?" Oak asked, running a little to catch up with us.

"Oh, Marti here used to be one hell of a singer, every Friday night she would sing at Logic, making every person in the crowd get into it, we would have a full house, standing room only late into the night. She would roll in the tips and gave everything to the café, it was really her voice that kept us on our feet. It was amazing, well until her parents found out, but I bet you all can guess what happened then." They all looked at me impressed and excited to see what was about to happen. There was a little small talk, mostly between Ray and me as we got caught up face to face. It wasn't long before I saw the little shop on the corner, fully decked out in skillfully done graffiti, announcing the same of the place, Logic. Ray and I both used to spend hours decorating it, but she was always the artist, and it looked like she still continued to pain today.

She pushed open the front door, letting a soft jingle float through the air announcing our arrival. The very first thing I saw was the stage in the back corner that was raised about two feet off of the ground. At this point I didn't need Ray to drag me anywhere, I was the one dragging her to it. We jumped up and grabbed two mics from the bookcase on the side. When we turned around I saw that the cast had all taken seats near the front, and that there were a good fifteen other people scattered around the little area. Ray plugged in her ipod to a speaker located on the right side of the stage, and I smiled as the first notes floated out of the well-loved speaker. I shared a look with Ray before opening my mouth and letting gout the first note.

Authors Note:

 Hey Inter-webs! I am so excited for this chapter!!! Ray is based off of my best friend who has been helping me write the book and has given me the most amazing ideas, and the motivation to keep writing this. I hope you are liking the story, and have had a great week... Enjoy your Friday!

Davey_Hale