Limelight

Chapter Twenty-Seven

He managed to get Aaliyah to open up a little about how she was feeling about it and did his best to be there for her. It was hard, despite being able to understand. He'd been in this industry since he was a kid. He knew about the prejudice and the controversy and the media's two-dimensional view of his character. Xavier Adams could only ever be one thing. He could never be an honest man or a complex being with feelings and thoughts and awareness. He couldn't believe how the world responded when news broke out about his arrest in the twenty-seventeen. They were making memes and jokes on Twitter about him being abused and drunk and then sent to Juvie. It was horrible and after seeing an awful joke about dropping the soap, he threw his phone into a wall, breaking it. But no one would ever know that, because the public no matter how much they're told could never be able to see beyond someone's status or fame. Never be able to see celebrities as more as a product they use for their pleasure. He had to deal with it, but now Aaliyah had to, and he hated it. But Xavier would make sure that as his mother was there for him, he would be there for Aaliyah.

         Maybe Malcolm would be there for her too. Earlier in the week, after Aaliyah had gone on a break to see Jenny, Malcolm came to the Red Room to see him.

          Xavier had still been a little frustrated with Malcolm too, but he was a lot better than Aaliyah at keeping his anger in check. "Hey Malcolm," He said in a cool voice. Not really looking at him and focusing on his soundboard, "Need anything?"

         "Just advice," He said in a weary voice, and when Xavier looked over his shoulder at Malcolm taking a seat on the sofa behind him, he saw his anxiety rolling off of his power suit in waves.

          Xavier cocked a brow spinning around in his chair to face Malcolm. "You want advice from me?" He asked in a dubious voice.

          Malcolm let out a low chuckle. "That's not too hard to believe, right?" He asked with a small, tired smile, "You are quite smart, Xavier, regardless of what the tabloids have to say. And I know that out of everyone, Aaliyah would talk to you about anything."

          This was the second time Xavier was hearing something like this. First from Blair and now from Malcolm. He wondered what it was everyone was seeing between them. As far as Xavier knew, they were just songwriting partners. He cared about Aaliyah definitely, more than he did most people, but he didn't think Aaliyah felt the same way, not when she had people like Jacks and Blair in her life. But apparently, he was wrong.

         "So this is about Lia?"

         Malcolm nodded slowly, his expression grave. "I've barely seen her this week since the incident," He started, his voice concerned, "Blair hasn't talked to her either. She's avoiding the both of us, and I know that it's my fault, but I've been seeing how social media has been treating her this week and they haven't been too kind to her. I just want to know if she's okay."

          Xavier sighed. "She's a lot worse than she's making it out to be," He started, trying to be as honest as possible, "She's hurting. She showed me some of her DMs and people are giving her hell for what's going on? She doesn't know what to do about it. I think I saw her about to cry, but she'd never admit to that—"

          "This is awful," Malcolm groaned, running a hand down his face in a regretful tone.

          "Yes," Xavier said in a low voice avoiding Malcolm's eyes, "It is."

          "I've been wanting to talk to her, but I wouldn't even know where to begin," Malcolm said rambling on, "She's in this problem because of a decision she had no part of, and I treated it like it was nothing. She told us all that this was bad, but it was like we had a wall up to hearing any of it. And she called us family, I just feel so terrible for her—"