"Addicted"

Chapter Two : Origins

                                           1996
                              ( 24 years ago)

Monica Johnson was not the type of girl to be hanging around rappers and dope boys. She came from a religous family, and grew up in a very strict household. Maybe that's part of what drew her to the kind of life she never had. Still though, she was far from sheltered. Her parents raised her in a run down town, ravaged with prostitution and drugs. They always dreamed she would make it out of there and have a better life then they did. Thats why they pushed her so hard. It worked too, because she graduated with honors, the top of her class. She was going to be attending collage in the fall. The people she surrounded herself with were another story.
Crystal Thomson was practically her polar opposite. She was a party girl, who didn't care about grades or acedemics. She was too pre-occupied getting high, and trying to sleep her way into a record deal. Despite their differences, they had been best friends since 5th grade. Monica was the only white girl at her school, and Crystal always looked out for her.
Crystal had somehow convinced Monica to come with her to this little studio. It was run out of this dude's house that crytsal was messin' with. He was a beat man, and a producer for alot of local small town artists. Everybody called it The basement , since it was set up in his basement.
They pulled up to the place, and walked up to the front door. Crystal knocked, and a man with tattoos covering his entire body answered the door.
Crystal spoke first, " Heyy, we here to see Marques . He said we could come through. "
He nodded his head, and gestured for them to come inside. When they first walked in the air was filled with smoke. Some other men sat on a near by coach, playing video games. They were drinking, and yelling across the room. The man with the tattoos led the girls down the hall to the basement door. They walked down the stairs, and into the studio. Crystal walked over to Marques , who was sitting by the recording equipment. Monica awkwardly took a seat on the coach. That's when she saw him for the first time. He was in the recording booth, with his headphones on, rapping into the mic. She was instantly mesmerized.
He set the headphones down, and walked out of the recording booth. There was several other people in the room, but the only one Monica saw was Malik.
" Who's yo' friend ?" Malik said, pointing at Monica. She was suddenly so nervous, she wasn't used to feeling this way. She wanted to get ahead of her anxiety, so she quickly responded;
" I'm Monica. "
He looked her up and down. He smiled , and she almost melted into the coach as he walked over to her. She was beautiful, there was no question. But she wasn't the type of girl to flaunt her "assets". She was still wearing her school uniforn, long skirt, crew neck hoodie. High socks, and loffers. Still, somehow she was the sexiest woman he had ever seen.
"Are you just gonna keep starin' ?" Monica said in a sort of playful tone. He laughed a little.
Then he responded, " Sorry, It's just...   you like the most beautiful girl I ever seen." He looked her straight in her eyes as he said it. His confidance and charisma was hypnatizing.
She rolled her eyes, but couldn't hold back a smile as she said, "Boy, quit playin." She brushed him off , trying to play off her attration. He wasn't the type of guy she would ever go for, but there was just something about him.
Crystal and Marques came over and sat on the coach. Crystal sat on the right side of Monica , and Malik sat on her other side in the only empty spot. Marques pulled out a blunt and started to light it. He hit it a few times, then pased it to Crystal. She went to pass it to Monica next, but she said she was good. Malik reached over her to grab the blunt, he sas so close she could smell him. They all continued smoking. When the blunt was gone Crystal starting whispering in Maques's ear, and they both got up and started to walk towards the stairs.
"I'll be right back girl, you good here for a minute ?" Crystal asked Monica. She didn't really want to sit there alone with Malik, he made her nervous. She didn't want to be extra though, so she agreed, hesitantly.
They left the room, and Monica instantly felt the walls closing in on her. She kept wondering if he would talk to her, and what he would say. Soon she got her answer when he said, "So where you from lil mama, you don't look like you from around here."
Her guard went up, and she said defensivly,
"Actually, I am from here. Born and raised. My daddy's the minister at the royal baptist church on maple ave. I probably know more about these streets then you do."
He laughed , and replied in a playful tone, "I don't know about all that shawty. You might know about the city that exists in yo world, but It's two worlds around here. Yours, and mine, are completely different." He got a little closer as he said it, looking right into her hazel eyes. "I don't know if a good girl like you could handle my world."
She looked back into his eyes, she was starting to like the way he made her heart race. It excited her in a way she had never felt before. She smirked a little, and said, "You'd be suprised what i can handle."
He glanced away slightly, grinning from ear to ear. "You somethin' different Nica." He said boldy giving her a little pet name. Monica started to think he might be something different too. But it wasn't untill she heard his music, his real music, that she really knew he was it. "I been workin on this lil' love song, I don't wana have my boys listen to that sappy shit so, maybe you could be the perfect person for me to show it to."
She was almost blushing, "A love song huh? Sure, okay. Let's here it then."
He got up from the coach and walked over by the recording booth. He started messing with some of the dials, and a beat starting playing. The moment he started singing she was hypnotized. She could listen to his voice for hours. It felt like he had wrote the words just for her, they touched her soul. He looked into her eyes still, as he sang. She couldn't escape his gaze. She didn't want to. When he finished singing there was a thick, tense heat in the air. The sparks between them were lighting up the whole basement. They suddenly sizzed out when Crystal and Marques walked back downstairs.
Crystal kissed Maques, and then waved her arm motioning for Monica to come with her, "Common girl we fina bounce."
She wanted to stay in that little moment forever, but she got up to leave with her friend anyways. Before they left, Malik said, "Maybe you can come by the studio again sometime, hear some more of my songs n' shit."
Monica smiled, "Yeah, I'd like that."