Heavy Nights Like This

ch, 6

Barbie and Gabby decided to grab some food at a restaurant in downtown LA. "Me and you need to have a come-to-jesus, sis." Gabby said as Barbie approached the table. "Damn, can I sit down first? How about maybe a 'hey' or 'how are you'?" Barbie chuckled, laying her purse strap on the back of her chair and sitting down.

"I'm too emotionally invested in this friendship to watch you ruin yourself." Gabby continued, "I won't have it." Barbie nodded and picked up the menu to find something to eat, "I'm really in the mood for some pasta, and maybe they'll bring out some bread while you tell me what the hell you're talking about, Gabrielle."

"I'm talking about Bird." Gabby replied, in a lower voice than she spoke before. Barbie frowned, "Why would you be talking about him?" Gabby rolled her eyes, "Barbie girl, I've known you since we were seven, you can't fool me. Tell me what's going on." "Is this about me liking his picture? It came up on my explore page, it was an accident." She shrugged, as their waiter approached. They ordered and the waiter took their menus.

          "This is about the picture, the crying. The disappearing in Miami..." Barbie shook her head as if she was confused, "That is a whole ass married man, sis." Gabby rolled her eyes, "Well, you just remember that, ok? He wasn't man enough for you, remember the song?" Barbie sucked her teeth, "I wrote the damn song. Yes, I remember."

          The girls switched subjects and enjoyed their food once it came. "How's album #2 coming along?" Gabby asked. Barbie twirled her food on her fork, "It's hard to say. Being on tour and trying to piece it together is so hard. I'm constantly sending emails back and forth with the label, I feel so uninvolved." Gabby frowned, "Well that's not good, it's your album. You should be the main one involved."

"I just— I don't have a good feeling about this one. It worries me that I'm going to have a sophomore slump." Gabby waved her hand and shook her head, "That's nonsense. This album is going to be great, it will do better than your first one, you will have all the success your heart can handle." Barbie smiled and grabbed Gabby's hand, intertwining their fingers, "I'm so lucky to have a bestie like you."

          "I agree." Gabby laughed, making Barbie suck her teeth and pull her hand away. "Have you picked you cover yet?" Barbie twisted her lips, "Yea, I think so. I'm going to go with the first one I showed you, the yellow." Gabby nodded and continued to eat her food, "I like it."

After her show, Barbie was exhausted. She was driven home and didn't even bother to take her makeup or stage fit off. She plopped on her couch face first and let her slippers slide off of her feet. As soon as she closed her eyes, her phone lit up. She groaned and looked at the screen. She saw it was from Bird, but before she could even read it, he was calling her.

She took a deep breath and swiped to answer the call, placing it on speaker phone and resting her head on the couch again, "Yes, Bird?" She mumbled. He took a second to reply, "I didn't think you were going to pick up." "Well I did and I'm really tired, so can you plea—" Bird interrupted, "Let me come see you. I'm in Portland, I can get on a plane and be there in two hours."

          She blew out a long breath, "Bird, what did I say in Miami?" "I just want to talk to you, that's all. Don't you think we need to have a conversation? It's not like you reply to my messages." Barbie replied, "I've been busy, I wanted to text you back." "Well, now you can just say it in person." She groaned in frustration, "Alright, fine. I'll see you when you get here."

About three hours passed and Barbie was going back and forth with herself. She was about to call Bird and tell him not to come when her door buzzed, "It's me, let me up." She looked at her monitor and saw Bird standing at the gate outside with flowers. Barbie frowned and pressed the button on her speaker, "Um, Bird, I thought about it and I can't let you in..." He chuckled and scratched his forehead, "Why not, Barbie?"

          "I want to be fully over you and able to control myself the next time that we're together." She explained, "I was serious when I said that we're over." "Barbie, I just flew here... to see you. I brought you flowers." He said, putting them in the camera. "I'm sorry, I really am."

          "You're serious right now?" Barbie felt her eyes swelling up, "You're going to make me cry, Bird." He sucked his teeth, "Nah, none of that playing the victim shit, Barb. You like to play with people's emotions. You're just selfish." "You're married!" She stressed, her voice cracking.

"And you been knew that, you was still riding my dick like I was single. I came here to talk to you because I care about you and your feelings but you don't give a fuck about nobody but yourself so now I'm over it. I'm about to go home to my wife and you can play these games with someone else."

"Bird..." she said, but he had already let his button go. He sat the flowers on the ground and walked away. She rushed to try to catch up to him but once she got to the gate, he was long gone. She sighed picked up the flowers and went back inside.