Everything Happens At 2:04 AM

Chapter Forty-Five: Take The Wheel.

Excusing Caleb and me as innocently as one possibly could in this household, I nodded over for him to follow me into the hallway.

"Little Octavia." He gushed, looking up at a picture of me and two of my cousins. Ten-year-old me was striking a pose in Nigerian wear and gele, a head tie wrapped around my hair.

I snorted. "Of course. I was such a diva."

"The print is sick," He commented on the design of the clothing. "They don't sell stuff like this at stores, no?"

"They have Nigerian stores that sell fabric like this or we know people back home who send it. My mom used to buy the fabric and make clothes out of it for me, Ni and Daniel to wear to church or parties when we were younger."

Caleb's eyes moved over to more pictures of my family with close friends and extended family. I almost scoffed at the memories that were rising with each picture. "I used to help her. We have a sewing machine in the basement. I would've stayed there forever as a kid just wanting to make clothes with her. There's a picture where we're all wearing the same..." My feet took me to the small family picture where we all posed in the exact same print.

"That's sick." Caleb grinned before laughing at my brother's face in the photo. "Why does Daniel look like that?"

"He was crying," I rolled my eyes, trying to remember a time where Daniel wasn't bawling between when he was born to when he was ten. "I don't know why. The little idiot cried a million times when we were kids. I think I stole his toy-I don't know I was like eight at the time."

Caleb's eyes flickered to another picture on the wall. Another family portrait-this time extended with a couple of additions of my family. His eyes flickered between my dad and the man on the other side of me and my cousins. "This was your uncle?"

"Yeah," Despite the heavy feeling in my heart at the sight of his picture, my lips quirked up. "He was a good man." I stared at the picture a moment longer before peering at Caleb. "A really good guy. You know, he'd tell me what I should do besides acting."

"About that," Caleb looked at me inquisitively, crossing his arms. "What's going on there? Like why the sudden decision to do something more than acting?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "A couple of months ago, I was talking to Sydney when I told her about just wanting to do something more than acting. It was just a thought that I kept thinking about for a while. Just a second hand thought I'd like to explore. Something new. Do you get what I mean?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Don't get me wrong, I love acting," I assured. "It's exciting, it challenges me, but I know that I could do other things. I've always liked the idea of breaking boundaries and I want to do something like that outside of acting. Other actors do things besides acting too. They use their platform and such. I think I want to do something like that."

"Well," Caleb said tentatively. "You told me you wanted to be an entrepreneur if you weren't acting, no?"

I narrowed my eyes at him in awe. "How do you remember that, but you didn't remember if you packed socks?"

"Important details are the ones that matter usually." He smirked, leaving me amused. "But you said that yeah?"

"Yes. I told you that in Italy."

"I know you don't want to do anything involving singing, but what about fashion?" The corner of his lip quirked up in a half-smile.  "Like, start your own fashion line. People would definitely buy clothes you'd create."

I opened my mouth to speak but he was on a roll here, getting excited. "Krystal. She does makeup. Ask her about the idea of starting your own line but I'm sure you already know people in the industry itself, like Angie and who she works with, and Royce does model and marketing-that counts for something plus you're you. You know like a million people and networking is your thing-"