Heavy Nights Like This

ch, 7

six months later

          "I would just like to thank all of you for coming out tonight, this album means so much to me. I appreciate all the support, all the love, everything. Thank you!" Barbie handed the mic back to dj as crowd of her peers cheered. Her album was dropping at midnight and she was enjoying her album release party.

          The private lounge was full of about 200 guests, including names like Ciara, Teyana Taylor, Rotimi, Kehlani, and Jhené Aiko. She was so nervous for people to hear her music, she could barely sit still. She came off tour and got busy; writing, recording, scrapping anything that was mediocre and forming a body of work she could be proud of.

As her older music played in the background, she watched people sing along and dance. She checked her phone and saw that it was 11:46pm. She didn't have long before everybody was listening to her new album. Gabby stood beside her and squeezed her hand, "This is amazing, Barb. I'm so excited for everyone to hear it."

"You think everyone is going to like it, like really like it?" She asked, giving her friend a worried look. Gabby laughed, "I haven't seen you this nervous since your first time on stage. Yes, I'm positive everyone in the world is going to be blown away." Barbie nodded and looked around the room at all the guests.

One person who caught her eye was Miami Sparrows player, Darien Cooke. She was surprised to see him, being that they made it to the playoffs which started in a week. He approached her and gave her a hug, "Congrats,
Barb." She embraced him happily, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be training or practicing or something?" His tall, lanky figure towered over her, "Yea, but I had to come show my favorite artist some love first."

"Thank you, Cooke. I'm really happy you came." She smiled. He stuck his index finger in the air as if he remembered something, "Aye, I got a message for you." He pulled out his phone and went to his messages. He scrolled a little and started to read, "I told Bird I was coming tonight and he said 'tell her that I'm extremely proud of her and she deserves all the success in the world. No matter what, I'm still her biggest cheerleader'."

Barbie hadn't seen or heard from Bird in months. She blocked him and deleted his number to keep herself from contacting him and tried to move on. She didn't even notice when she stopped thinking about him all the time.

"Well you tell him that I said thank you. I really appreciate that." She replied, taking a sip of champagne. "Fa'sho, fa'sho. Well, ima let you get back to doing your thing. Just know I'm proud of you, keep grinding. Keep being great."
"You just know that we need a championship this year." He laughed, "Of course, baby. Ain't no other options."

          She talked to a few more people and at midnight, the dj switched to her new album and played each track one by one. While she was already trending on twitter most of the day for the anticipation of the album, once the album dropped, it took over almost half of the trending topics.

          She was overwhelmed with happiness over the response to the album, just by the people at her release party. Once the party was over, she knew she was too pumped to go home. Her, Gabby, and a few other friends decided to hit up her friend Petey's beach house in Malibu and get lit.

          It was about 5am and still pretty dark outside. They had Barbie's new album blasting through the house's surround sound as they danced and passed bottles of Hennessy and Vodka back and forth on the beach. They were having a great time when they heard a police siren.

Two police officers made their way around the beach house and to the back where they were. "Hello, officers. Is there a problem?" A drunken Barbie asked, trying to keep her composure. She had an extreme fear of cops since she was little and always tried to stay away from them at all costs.

"What are y'all doing out here?" One asked, holding both hands on his belt. "Well, I'm—" Barbie started but Petey, just as drunk as she was, cut her off, "This is my property. We can be here if we want to." The second officer started to walk closer, "Put those bottles down or we'll arrest you for public intoxication."

"Do it look like we in public? This is a private property, fuck outta here..." Gabby slurred. Barbie shot her a look, "Shut up, Gabby. Please." Petey shook his head, "Nah, she right. We not bothering nobody." The officer sighed, "We got a complaint about loud music." Barbie quickly replied, "We'll turn the music down."

"We need to see some ID." The second officer replied. Petey groaned, "It's in the house." The officer nodded his head towards the house, "Let's go. The rest of you stay here and don't move." He warned, giving a small nod to the other cop. Barbie, Gabby, and their friends Georgia, Aaron, and Cam stood there as Petey and the officer disappeared in the house.

Not even a minute later, gunshots rang through the air and the inside of the house lit up like the Fourth of July. "Petey!" Barbie gasped, about to rush inside but the cop stopped her. He warned them to stay put before rushing into the house himself. They were all holding their breath and Barbie was squeezing Gabby's hand.

"Everything's ok, everything is ok." Gabby mumbled repeatedly, holding her heart. After what seemed like forever, one cop came out and ushered them to the front of the house, cuffed them with zip ties and made them sit on the curb. "So you're just not going to tell us anything?" Cam asked, looking up the the officer. The officer looked back at her and paused for a moment before speaking, "He's not breathing, we've called for backup."

"Backup? Call the fucking ambulance, you dickhead!" Gabby screamed. "Do you wanna sit in the back of my cop car?" Barbie put her face in her lap and began to cry hysterically. "Please call the ambulance." Aaron begged him. He sighed, "When backup gets here, we'll decide what to do next."