(Shantae's POV)
{Sunday February 14, 2021; Valentine's Day}
It's Valentine's Day, a day of love -- for some people at least, and I'm gonna spend the day with my friends at TopGolf. I'm out of bed and looking through my kitchen for some breakfast. I decided to settle on waffles, eggs, bacon, and make a fruit smoothie. I got the ingredients for my meal and I made the waffle batter. As I was mixing it, my phone vibrated on the counter next to me. I stopped mixing and checked it to see Damian texted me. I opened the text and a series of hearts popped up.
Damian: Happy Valentine's Day, mija! ❤❤❤😍
I smiled at his text and replied back.
Me: Happy Valentine's Day! ❤❤🥰 You gonna be my cupid today?
Damian: I'm your cupid everyday 😏🏹
(You liked this message)
Damian: I can't wait to see you. I missed you
Me: Aww, I missed you too. I'm making breakfast so I'll be ready soon
Damian: Take your time, mija. I just got up myself 😅
(You liked this message)
Me: Aight. I'll see you when you get here
While I was on my phone, I also wished my family and friends back at home a happy Valentine's Day. I locked my phone and continued making my waffles. After I finished making my breakfast, I ate it, drank my smoothie and washed the dishes out before going to my room to get my clothes for the day. I decided to go with this.
I put on a little bit of makeup and flat-ironed my blonde and black skunk hair, putting it in two low pigtails with a side bang. I checked myself out in the mirror and was fully satisfied with my look. I grabbed my phone and texted Damian and told him I was ready. While I waited for him, I sat on the couch and played my Switch to pass time.
A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. I closed the game on my Switch and turned it off before getting up. I answered the door and there stood a smiling Damian Priest in my doorway. "Hola, chica." He greeted me with a grin. "Hey." I smiled back. "You look beautiful as always." He started off with a compliment, making me smile. "Thanks." "Sorry, I was a little late. I had to make a pit stop." He revealed a bouquet of red roses and box of chocolates. I reacted with a beaming smile. "Aww, Damian! That's so sweet! Thank you." I say happily as I gladly took the roses and chocolates. "And that's not all, mija. I think you would really appreciate this." He smiled at me. "What?" I looked at him. He then proceeded to show me what else he got. And when I saw it, I let out the biggest gasp of my life! "Happy Valentine's Day!" Damian beamed. He's holding a jumbo plushie of RuRu from Treasure's Truz Line characters. It looks like this.
Treasure is my favorite kpop boy group and Haruto is my bias. His character is RuRu and I've always wanted to get my hands on a plush, but I haven't had luck getting one. I can't believe Damian got me one! And in jumbo size, too! "You really got RuRu for me?" I was still shocked as I held the plush. He's so fluffy!!! "I know how much you love Treasure so I wanted to get one for you." Damian grinned at my reaction. "And I see you love it. You look like you're about to cry." He added with a chuckle. "I am. I've always wanted one. He's so cute! How did you get it, though? When I tried to get one, they were all sold out. Even the other ones were gone. Did they restock?" I asked. "Maybe. I looked online and that was the last one for the RuRu plushies. And it wasn't cheap either." He told me. "I'm sure it wasn't. Treasure Makers are buying them out like crazy." I replied. "You guys must really like this group." He says. "What's not to like about Treasure? They're awesome! Thank you, Damian. This is so sweet of you." I thanked him again with a hug. "No problem, princesa." He says back to me, returning the hug with his arms wrapped around my small waist.
"Now," I walked to the counter and set the stuff down. "Don't think I didn't get you anything. I got it right here." I told him. "You don't have to, muñeca. This is a day where men give women gifts. It's all about you today." He said to me. I looked back at him with a blank stare. "Men deserve gifts and appreciation, too. Now come here." I motioned him to come in. Damian had a flustered smile on his face when I said that. He walked up to me just as I grabbed the small box on the counter. "Here. Open it." I handed him the small box. "Okay." Damian took the box and I smiled as I watched him open his gift. When he opened the box, his smile stayed plastered on his face and his eyes grew wide. "Whoa!" He was surprised with what he saw. I got him a silver customized chain that has an open-etched skull pendant adorned with rhinestone eyes and a rhinestone on the forehead.
"You like it?" I asked him. "I love it. This is so cool. Thank you, mija." He thanked me. "Here, let me put it on you." I say to him. He handed me the chain and I went behind him. He bent down a little bit so I could reach his neck. I moved his hair and put the chain on him. "There. It looks good on you." I went around in front of him and made sure the pendant was in front as he stood back up. "I really like this necklace. It's so cool." His grin never left his face. "I'm glad you do. And I love the gifts you gave me." I said to him. "I'm glad you like them." He nodded at me. "I'ma put these away and we'll go." I said, putting the chocolate box in the freezer, the roses in water, and the RuRu plush on my bed.
After all that, I went back to Damian. "All good?" He asked me. "Mhm." I nodded with a hum, grabbing my purse. "Alright. Let's go, mija." He grinned, holding his arm out to me. I smiled and we linked arms as we left my house. I locked up the house and we got into his black Challenger. As we drove to TopGolf to meet the rest of our friends, we were bonding and vibing. At one point, Purple Rain came on Damian's playlist. "Yes!" I was vibing. "Can't go wrong with Prince." Damian turned it up. I started singing along to the song.
I never meant to cause you any sorrow
I never meant to cause you any pain
I only wanted one time to see you laughing
I only wanted to see you laughing in the purple rain
Purple rain, purple rain
I just so happened to look towards Damian's direction and I saw him looking at me with a impressed/shocked look on his face. "What?" I chuckled. "Okay. You're a great athlete, you can dance, and now you're telling me you can sing. What can't you do?" He said, impressed. I smiled timidly. "Thanks. I usually get shy about my singing." I said. "No, mija. You have a really nice voice. You should sing more." Damian said to me. I kept my smile as I blushed a bit. We arrived and met up with Montez and Bianca, Keith and Mia, Matt and Lisa (his wife), and Rhea and Demetri (her boyfriend). "Hey hey hey!" I chirped as we approached them. "Hey, girl!" Bianca greeted me first. "Whaddup!" Damian says. "Love the fit, chica! Giving very much early 2000s." Bianca gestured to my outfit. "Thanks. That's what I was going for. That's my era." I smiled. "Took y'all long enough." Keith said to us. "My bad. I made a stop on the way to pick her up." Damian says to him.
"And by the way, I found out that babygirl over here sings." He says, nudging me. I chuckled at what he said. "Shantae sings and dances all the time. And very good at it, too." Mia tells him. "Which is why we can't sing with her. She puts us to shame." Bianca added on. I shrugged, "Dancing, yes. Singing, meh -- I'm alright." I said nonchalantly. "Liar." Rhea says, making me laugh. "Seriously, where's the album?" Montez says. "What are you not good at?" Damian questioned me, shocked. "Being ugly." I answered, making my friends laugh. "Girl, I--" Bianca chuckled. "She's not wrong." Mia agreed with me. "And as for an album, I don't know. I'll think about it." I said.
After fooling around and goofing off, we eventually play some golf. We had so much fun goofing around and acting like crackheads. "Tae, wanna take a shot?" Mia offered when they ordered drinks. "I can't. I'm 20." I reminded her. "And you're turning 21 this year, so we're gonna train you." Demetri says to me. "What??" I burst into laughter. "Yes, we're gonna train you to handle drinking. Come on, we won't snitch." Damian egged on. "Y'all are bad influences." I chuckled, shaking my head. "We're tryna help you out." Bianca says to me. "I'll drink on my birthday. Not right now. I wanna get the full experience." I told her. We kept hanging out and we played a little bit in the arcade section. After TopGolf, we all went out to eat. I always have fun with my friends. They're all so fun to hang out with. Even though they can be bad influences sometimes.
We eventually called it a night and Damian was driving me home. "Thank you for taking me out today. I had fun." I told him. "No problem, princesa. I'm glad you had fun. There's more dates from where that came from." He gave me a smile. I smiled back at him, "I'd love that." Damian chuckled. "To be honest, I'm really happy you agreed to be my date today. These past few Valentine's Days have been a little lonely for me. I don't mean to get emo on you, but....it's true." He admitted as he continued driving. "Aww, I'm glad I made it better for you. You don't deserve to be alone." I say to him. "I really don't get why Austin treated you the way he did. You're sweet and I can tell you're a loving person and he treats you like garbage. That makes me sick." He shook his head. "I don't know either." I sighed. "I gave him no reason to treat me like that but he decided to. It is what it is at this point. I just hope he leaves me alone. I don't wanna deal with him anymore." I added on.
Damian was gonna say something to me but he spotted something. "Yo..." He says. "What?" I looked at him. He had a puzzled look on his face. "Your house didn't look like this when we left." He says. I looked out the window of the car and we were approaching my house. But my house looked like it was broken into! The windows were shattered and the front door was wide freakin open! And it was vandalized. The word 'SLUT' was spray painted on the house. Fighting words, I see. There's only one person I know that would be insane enough to do this. Y'all know who I'm talking about.
"Really, bruh? My fuckin house??" I exasperated as Damian slowed down. "This asshole." I heard Damian say. I took my phone out of my purse and as soon as the car stopped, I hopped out and went up the walkway to the house. There were glass shards from the window all over the front of my house and the window sill. I started recording everything on my phone. Because I'm gonna need some evidence when I file a restraining order on this mothafucker. And also expose him.
"This fool really came to my house and did all of this. Glass is everywhere." I filmed the glass all over the ground as I walked towards the door. "All my windows are gone." I looked at where my windows used to be and now they're just hollow spaces with sharp glass edges. "Be careful, bebecita." Damian came from behind me and put his arm in front of me so I wouldn't hurt myself. "I got it." I reassured him, stepping around the glass. "I can't believe this shit." I walked up to the door and before I went inside, I saw 'Mella is Money' spray painted on the door along with Austin's initials.
"And the bimbo was here, too? They really deserve each other. They're so stupid." I shook my head as I went inside. "All this because you dumped him. Unbelievable." Damian went inside with me. "When I said he's insane, I wasn't lying. He has some serious issues." I told him. I looked around inside my house and everything --and I mean everything-- was destroyed. More glass on the floor. My couch and chairs were torn up with the stuffing coming out of them. The table was flipped and broken in half. There were more offensive words spray painted on my walls. The whole inside of my house looked like a hurricane came in. I couldn't even speak, I was stunned by what I'm seeing as I'm recording this. "Shit." Damian cussed under his breath as I walked around the living room. "I knew he was crazy but damn." I looked around more. I checked my freezer and the chocolates Damian had given me today are gone. The fucker probably ate them. My refrigerator was unplugged and all the food is splattered all over the floor. This is beyond insane. I looked at my entertainment center and not only are both my tv and tv stand broken, I also saw that my PS5, XBox, and Nintendo Switch were gone. Consoles, controllers, cables, all of it. Gone. Nowhere to be seen.
"Not only is he batshit crazy, he's a kleptomaniac. That PS5 wasn't cheap nor was it easy to get!" I'm pissed at this point. I fought my hardest to get that PS5. "He stole your games, too?" Damian went over to me. "They're gone, Damian." I said with a stressed sigh. "I'ma go check my room and see what else that 'ahmaqu (dickhead) stole from me." I walked to my room. I also stopped recording on my phone. I think I got more than enough evidence. "'ahmaqu?" Damian questioned. "Means 'dickhead' in Arabic." I informed him. "Oh. I didn't know you speak other languages other than Spanish." He says. "I can speak a few different languages." I replied. I went into my room and as expected, everything was destroyed. My bed was torn apart with the stuffing coming out of the mattress. The windows were broken. The TV was shattered. All of my other plushies were ripped and destroyed.
Speaking of plushies, what I also found was that the RuRu plush that Damian gave me was no longer on my bed. "Noo!! Not RuRu too!!" I lamented. "What happened?" Damian came to me. "RuRu's gone!!" I sniveled, feeling upset. "What? Your Treasure plushie? You sure?" He looked around my room, searching for the jumbo sized marshmallow-looking plushie. "I put him on my bed before we left. And now he's gone! Carmella must've taken him." I said sadly with my voice cracking. "Dammit! That was the last one in stock, too." Damian sighed. I know what you're thinking. 'Girl, I know you're not crying over a damn plushie.' RuRu is not just a plushie, okay? If you're a Teume (Treasure stan) like me and you managed to get a Truz plush, you would guard it with your life! I love Treasure and I love their Truz characters. RuRu's my favorite among the 12 of them and I've always wanted one. Now that I finally get one, I'm highly upset that this bald-headed, wanna-be princess, homie-hopping bimbo had the audacity to get her filthy paws on it! When I see her, it's on sight!! Trust that! No one touches my stuff without my permission and gets away with it!
Damian saw the sadness on my face. "Hey, don't be sad, princesa. We'll get him back." He tells me. "I know how much that plush means to you. Worst case scenario it's damaged when we find it, I'll find a way to fix it for you." He reassured me and lifted my chin up. I looked up at him, "Really?" I asked. "Of course, mija. We'll get your RuRu back." He insisted with a reassuring smile. I sighed with a small smile. "Alright." I nodded. "There you go. Are you done looking around? Clearly, you can't stay here." Damian says. "I know I can't stay. I'm just gonna see what else is missing and what I can still take with me." I told him. He nodded and I went over to the closet. Half of my clothes were missing, some of my shoes were gone, all of my jewelry were gone, too. At least Austin has some decency to leave me some clothes to wear. I sighed, feeling stressed from this whole situation as I took all of my clothes down from the hangers and drawers, along with the remaining shoes I have left. I left the closet and went back to Damian.
"Half my clothes and shoes are missing and all of my jewelry is nowhere to be found. Now I know what I'm looking for when I storm his dressing room tomorrow." I said to him. "He just took everything." He says. "You okay?" Damian noticed my listless demeanor. "Mhm." I hummed in response. "Just pissed." I said apathetically as he pulled me into a hug. I couldn't hug him back because my arms were full but I let him hold me. "Alright, mamita. I'm so sorry this happened. Let's get you out of here. You can stay with me." He says. I just simply nodded my head and Damian pecked me on the head. I didn't expect him to do that but I didn't really mind. It put a smile on my face and made my heart flutter. He then helped me carry all my clothes and shoes out of my house and load them in his car. Luckily, Damian had an extra duffle bag so I put my clothes in it. The shoes couldn't fit, though.
We drove away from my house and I was silent. Damian glanced at me and rubbed my arm. "Poor baby. Siento que te haya hecho eso. (I'm sorry he did that to you.)" He says. "Don't be sorry. We both didn't expect this to happen. And staying with you doesn't sound too bad. Thanks for taking me in." I say back, giving him a small smile on the last part. Damian smiled back at me, "You can stay as long as you want, mamas." He said. I grinned at the nickname he called me. We continued driving to Damian's house and we lightened the mood by joking with each other. I got a DM on IG from Bad Bunny, along with my family, friends, and fans, regarding my video footage of my house that I posted on my story. They were all asking if I was okay and if I was safe. I reassured them, telling them I'm okay and safe with Damian. We arrived at Damian's house and he parked his black Challenger. "Just a heads up, mano. I don't really sleep in a lot of clothes. So if you see me walking around with just a shirt and my boy shorts, that's why." I said as we got out of the car and I grabbed the duffle bag and my shoes.
Damian chuckled, "It's fine, mama. Whatever makes you feel comfortable." He says. Damian locked his car and we went inside. Damian's house looks cool. He has a whole bunch of weapons on his wall and it's so cool. "Welcome to my home." He says as he closes the door. "Cool! I like the weapons on the wall." I pointed out, looking at the weapons. "Thanks. I'm a big fan of hand-to-hand combat weapons, as you can see." He says. "It looks like you have every melee weapon in the world." I scanned through his collection. "You can say that." Damian chuckled. "I like to call my house Zombie Invasion starter kit." He added on. I nodded, "Yeah, cause you got everything you need. Food, water, weapons, karate. You're set." I agreed, making him laugh when I mentioned karate. "I remember making half of these out of paper in middle school." I added on. "Oh, you were one of those kids." He chuckled. "Yup." I nodded, laughing.
"You can put your stuff in my room. Follow me." Damian motioned me to follow him. I did and he led me to his room. I put my duffle bag and shoes in his closet. I decided to get changed so I opened the duffle bag and took out something comfortable. I settled on a black Pikachu muscle t-shirt and yellow Pikachu boy shorts. "I'ma get changed. I'll be back." I said to Damian, who was sitting on the bed and scrolling through a movie selection. I went through my purse and got my makeup wipes and my toothbrush and toothpaste. "Alright. You know where the bathroom is?" He asked. "Yeah, it's right there." I pointed to the door across the room, which was opened and it revealed the bathroom. "Good, you're paying attention." He smiled. "I'll put a movie on while your changing." He tells me as I walked to the bathroom.
"Aight." I nodded, closing the door. I changed out of my clothes and into my muscle t-shirt and boy shorts. I took off my chain and earrings before taking off my makeup and brushing my teeth. I looked at my hair and realized I don't have my stuff for my hair routine anymore. No brush, no comb, no durag. Nothing. And I also need that stuff for Raw tomorrow. "Fuck..." I mouthed in frustration. Well, I gotta sleep with it down like this for the night. Hopefully it won't get too messy in the morning. I grabbed my dirty clothes and left the bathroom. "Hey, you're back." He says as I put my dirty clothes in a separate bag. "Did you pick a movie?" I asked him, plopping in the bed beside him. "Yeah, I did. Zoolander." He said. "Ay, okay." I settled in bed with him. Damian turned off lights and we watching the movie together until we fell asleep.