season five, episode 20
"The Final Advisory" PT 2
•
Noon hadn't struck and Dalvin and K-Ci walked into the room, on a mission to catch everyone's attention.
"Somebody's pregnant!" K-Ci blurted, causing the girls to all share glances amongst each other.
"....what—" DeVante and JoJo said simultaneously with senses of slight panic.
"Dalvin was dreamin' 'bout fish which could only mean one thing—one of y'all is pregnant!" K-Ci explained as Dalvin nodded.
Sharae rolled her eyes. "Shut up, K-Ci. Maybe you're the one who's pregnant."
"Nah," Sonia shook her head. "He's too skinny to be pregnant."
"Well damn, we're sorry," Dalvin put his hands up. "You know what they say—dreams come true, so we thought it was a premonition. I guess not though. Imma head back to sleep," he went back upstairs.
"...I just wanted to apologize to everyone for allowing him to pull me into his nonsense," K-Ci unnecessarily announced, shamefully walking off.
•
A frustrated Dalvin sat at the soundboard, looking at Kass in the booth through the glass. "I think we should take a break from recording."
"Why?" She questioned. "I feel like I'm doing a good job."
"Well I'm not really feelin' this. I know talent and I don't really think you have it," he mumbled.
Kass took her headphones off, forcing a laugh. "What are you tryna say?"
"You can't sing."
"What?"
"You. Can't. Sing!" Dalvin repeated again. "You should just stick to what you're doing now cause you ain't gon' go far with a singing career. If you were to release a song, everyone would be clownin' me cause we go together. I don't wanna be embarrassed."
"Well guess what, Dalvin? You can't sing either," Kass shot back. "You talkin' 'bout being embarrassed, you wanna know what's embarrassing? Having a boyfriend who's name isn't even in the group name. Having a boyfriend who just stands there to look cute and tells people he's there to play the drums to be included. Having a boyfriend with stale eyebrows. Believe me, I can continue to go on, but the worst of all just might be having a boyfriend who doesn't believe in me!"
Dalvin shook his head, attempting to not let her words bother him. "You just sayin' that cause you're mad. I sing better than you, ten times better actually. I ain't gon' let your bitter attitude get to me, so just get out the booth so we can go."
Kass stormed out the recording booth, snatched her things up, and breezed past him. Dalvin couldn't do anything but laugh at her attitude, following behind her.
They traveled back to the house in silence not saying a word to each other. Similarly, they weren't the only couple who wasn't seeing eye to eye.
"What's her name?" Tanai asked, leaning against the counter.
DeVante looked at her for a split second before averting his attention elsewhere. "I don't know what you talkin' 'bout."
"Of course you do!" Tanai tried to convince him. "I'm talkin' 'bout the bitch who's been repeatedly paging you and calling you back to back that you sneak off to go see that you think I don't know about. What's her name? I'll also need her address cause Imma go kick her ass right after I'm done with you."
"You been drinkin'? Cause you trippin' right now, Tanai. Go lay down."
"....did you just call me Tanai—???"
"That's your name, right?"
Tanai rolled her eyes at the smart remark. "You never call me that. I'm Nai to you. The only time you call me my actual name is when you're serious or you're irritated with me."
"Yeah, and I'm seriously irritated with you right now," DeVante mumbled. "You can calm down. Regardless of what I'm doin', it ain't like you'd leave me anyway."
"Wanna bet?"
"I do, but it ain't no need for that cause it's not what you think."
"So what is it?"
The dispute went no further once multiple loud knocks came into contact with the front door. Dalvin took it upon himself to open it, revealing a very distressed Sonia with Santos in her arms. Tears uncontrollably streamed down her face which gained the attention and concern of everyone.
"Sonia, what's goin' on?"
"Where is JoJo?!" She dodged the question, frantically coming all the way into the house.
He walked into the room, automatically going over to her. "I'm right here, what's wrong?"
"I'm getting deported!"
"What?" Kass said in disbelief.
"Deported?" DeVante repeated.
"Yes," Sonia sniffed. "Deported."
"For what?" Tanai's face went together in confusion. "Didn't you come here when you were like...seven?"
"Yes! ICE is saying they apparently don't have any documents declaring my family and I's verification of U.S citizenship. That's even worse on me because of when I went off to go to UTT, left there to stay in Florida, then came back here in New York, so now they think I'm up to something skeptical," Sonia explained, continuing to cry as JoJo attempted to calm her down.
K-Ci ignorantly cackled. "Damn, it was nice knowin' you!"
"Do me a favor and take Sonia upstairs. I'll be up there in a minute," JoJo directed Kass and Tanai.
Once he was sure they were out of view, he cocked his hand back and sent a rough slap upside K-Ci's head, causing his neck to jolt forward along with his black cap falling off. The DeGrate brothers stood there perplexed, watching what was about to go down.
K-Ci swiftly picked his cap up, shooting up to his feet afterwards. "What you hit me for?!"
"You always runnin' ya' damn mouth and you never think before you speak! That's your damn problem! You always gotta say somethin' unnecessary!" JoJo went off.
"You mad cause of what I said?" K-Ci scoffed. "It ain't that deep. Sonia don't like me anyway."
"And you wonder why! Cause like I said, you always got somethin' to say!"
K-Ci shook his head, barely paying his brother any mind. "Whatever, Jo. I know you better not put ya' hands on me again or we gon' be fightin' in this bitch."
"Well I guess we just 'bout to be fightin' in this bitch," JoJo lunged at him but luckily, Dalvin and DeVante ran over.
"You really tryna fight me right now, JoJo? You really wanna try it?" K-Ci took a few steps forward.
Dalvin blocked him. "Aight, let's chill. We brothers, we ain't supposed to be actin' out like this."
"I ain't tryna hear all that! I'm sick of him!" JoJo tried to get out of DeVante's grip.
"Y'all need to chill, go in separate rooms or somethin'."
K-Ci continued to shout as Dalvin dragged him away. "You lucky DeVante and Dalvin here cause if they wasn't, that'd be yo' ass!"
"Once again, all you doin' is talkin'! If you really 'bout it then prove it!" JoJo taunted.
The DeGrate brothers tried their best to drag them away from each other and that still didn't stop the shouting remarks from the Haileys.
•
Approximately three days had passed by and tension in certain bonds still ran high. Nevertheless, that didn't stop everyone from doing their typical norms.
All four girls had the radio blasting as they did their own rendition to Jade's 'Don't Walk Away'. They were in the middle of the second verse when the radio suddenly cut off and they saw Dalvin standing by it.
"Don't touch my damn stereo!" Kass walked over, turning it back on.
Dalvin turned it back off. "I know you ain't still mad at me for what happened a couple days ago? The situation was never that serious."
Kass crossed her arms. "Yes I am still mad at you and the situation was that serious. I don't care how you look at it."
"Anyway...." Sonia turned to Tanai and Sharae. "I appreciate all of you for making me have fun before I have to leave. You're good friends."
"Girl, that's what we're here for!" Sharae said cheerfully. "And the fun ain't start yet! Just wait till my party tonight, I can't wait!"
"Since y'all are such good friends, y'all should get together and help Kass with an outfit. You know she can't dress," Dalvin made an attempt at a joke but Kass didn't crack a smile.
"You got one more time, Dalvin."
Tanai laughed to herself. "Luckily, DeVante doesn't have to worry about an outfit cause he's not going to the party."
"Says who?" DeVante came into the room.
"Says me," Tanai replied sternly. "There are clearly gonna be women at this party and I don't need you being all up in anymore hoes' faces."
"If you don't wanna see me at the party, then don't look my way," DeVante sarcastically shot back. "Better yet—don't show up. I ain't gotta see you and you ain't gotta see me, that way we both happy."
Sonia and Sharae stood behind, shifting their eyes between them each time one of them talked, awkwardly absorbing the interaction.
"You're really sitting up here tryna argue with me instead of just telling me what the truth is? All I wanna know is if there's another girl. Tell me the truth and we can squash everything right now."
"....I can't."
Sonia and Sharae shared a look, letting their facial expressions do all the talking.
"If my lady told me she ain't want me going anywhere, I'd listen. That's the difference between me and you, De," K-Ci instigated, waltzing into the room.
"Mind your business, K-Ci," Dalvin dictated.
K-Ci turned his head to look at him. "You mind your business, Dalvin! I don't know why you worried 'bout me and what I gotta say when you need to be worryin' about Kass lettin' yo' ass outta the doghouse."
"I think we should all mind our business..." Sharae spoke up, scratching her head.
Sonia looked at her in shock. "Never thought I'd hear the day you'd say that."
"I didn't think I'd ever say that either," Sharae surprised herself.
"I ain't worried 'bout these low lives," K-Ci referred to his band members. "Imma see you later on tonight, aight? Wear that blue two-piece skirt set I like!"
"I will! Me and Sonia are about to leave, so we'll see y'all later," Sharae gave him a quick kiss before her and Sonia turned to the door, heading out.
•
It felt like time had been going by very slowly but night finally hit, meaning it was party time. All but one had managed to get ready and make it outside in a suitable amount of time.
K-Ci ended up going back in the house to see what the hold up was. "Tanai! You almost ready? We 'bout to leave!"
She descended down the steps and stopped in the middle, being practically ready excluding her lack of shoes or jewelry.
"Yes, I'm almost done. I need help!" One pair of shoes were in her left hand with another pair in her right. "What goes better with this outfit? You think I should wear the black peep toes with silver straps and pair it with silver jewelry, or wear the simple black pumps and pair it with gold jewelry?"
K-Ci took two sips of his bottle of Hennessy, looking back and forth between the options then taking a minute to observe her emerald green dress of velvet material with a high slit on the right side.
"Go with the black pumps, but wear the silver jewelry with it."
"Okay, thanks K!" Tanai turned to make her way upstairs but she stopped for a second, finally acknowledging the alcoholic beverage. "Are you getting drunk before you get drunk...?"
"That's the only way to do it," K-Ci lifted up the bottle, laughing. "You want some?"
"...no, but I'll be out in a second. I'll meet y'all outside," she responded and went back up the stairs while K-Ci left out the house.
It took her no longer than two minutes to finally finish getting ready, placing her black shades over her eyes and grabbing her Louis Vuitton clutch before hurriedly racing out into the nightly spring atmosphere.
There was a limo parked out front which she assumed was the way of transportation for everyone, so she went up to it. Before she could get inside, DeVante appeared out of nowhere and blocked her.
"What you doin'?"
"I'm about to get in the limo. What does it look like I'm doing?" Tanai rolled her eyes, attempting to reach for the door of the vehicle.
DeVante stopped her again. "You ain't ridin' in the limo. Your ride is over there with the others," he nodded over to a black car that wasn't parked too far down the street.
Tanai looked at him like he was crazy, proceeding to trying all the other limo doors but they were locked from the inside. Defeated, she rolled her eyes and finally went over to the black Escalade. Once she climbed inside, she seen that K-Ci and Kass were already in there waiting for her.
"He sent you here too, huh?" K-Ci took a sip from his drink as the foreign driver pulled off.
"I don't even wanna talk about him right now," Tanai crossed her arms.
Kass shook her head, scoffing. "I don't know what it is 'bout them DeGrates, but their attitudes have been terrible lately."
"Look," K-Ci began. "Don't let nobody ruin y'all night tonight, I don't care what they do. Have fun cause that's exactly what we there to do. Look at me! I got my Hennessy bottle, I rolled up a dime and sparked it—and I'm feelin' great! The night's just gettin' started."
"You know what? I needed to hear that," Kass admitted.
Tanai sat up, suddenly alert. She didn't say anything but K-Ci noticed the change in her mood.
"What's wrong?"
"Something doesn't feel right."
"What you mean?" K-Ci asked for a further explanation.
Before he could get a response, the driver lost control of the car. They began to swerve every which way down the road and it's like everything happened in slow motion...
•
The dreadful day had finally came. Friends, family, fellow celebrities—such as Tupac Shakur, Martin Lawrence, Al B. Sure, Mary J. Blige, Chantè Moore, and others—were all over the place. Not one person had a smile on their face either. The vibe was very gloomy for upcoming reasons.
The reporters were being careless as usual. Continuously shoving microphones and yelling, "JoJo! DeVante! Dalvin!" every five seconds.
The first two members simply ignored and brushed past them, climbing into the limo. "Look, we appreciate the concern and support our fans have for us, but if you wanna ask us how we feel about things right now—don't. We need some time to ourselves for a little bit," a hoarse Dalvin told them sternly before getting into the limo as it took off moments later.
The ride was fairly quiet until JoJo decided to say something.
"Well...the hard part is over."
"It's not." DeVante harshly denied. "It's just gettin' started."
Dalvin sighed, laying his head back against the seats. Something in him told him not to say anything, but he went against it. "DeVante—"
"DeVante what?" His brother cut him off. "Don't even try to say nothin' to me right now. Ain't nothin' gon' change the way I feel 'bout any of this."
"It's not your fault, you know," JoJo persuaded.
Death comes in three's. Unfortunately, nobody made it on the night of the party just days prior. Tanai died first on impact due to her hitting her head on impact while Kass was dead on arrival because of the amount of blood she lost.
As for K-Ci, he managed to hold on until he got to the hospital. Not too long after he got there, he was gone.
"It might as well be," DeVante responded dryly. "I'm the one who split us up and told them they couldn't ride in the limo. Sharae ain't even bother to look at me when the service was goin' on."
"Now that ain't have nothing to do with you," Dalvin defended. "She ain't even let me hug her—that's how distraught she was. You saw how she broke down crying in there, she lost two of her friends and her boyfriend."
"Seein' LaVaughna in there caught me off guard. For a second, I thought she was—" DeVante cut himself off. "Y'all know who I was gon' say. This don't even feel real, I feel like I'm dreamin'."
Dalvin shook his head, co-signing. "One wild dream I need to wake up from."
"This ain't no dream, this a nightmare." JoJo sighed. "This was my last day seeing Sonia since she leaves tomorrow morning."
A somber silence slithered it's way into the limo as it continued to cruise down the street with no one saying anything for a good three minutes, with a series of thoughts speeding through their clouded minds.
"I know this ain't the time but....where do we go from here?" Dalvin broke the quietness. "Group wise. K-Ci ain't here so....what do we do? Disband?"
"I think we should just take a break for now," DeVante stared out the window. "We need to take some time to ourselves for a while anyway."
Dalvin sat up, figuring he'd try to lighten the mood. "Kass might be dead, Tanai might be dead, K-Ci might be dead, but look on the bright side—"
DeVante and JoJo shot him a quick glare which automatically made him stop talking.
"Bright side? What bright side?" JoJo questioned repulsively.
"And ain't no 'might be'," DeVante said secondly. "They are."
"Let me finish," Dalvin said, continuing the statement he started. "They might be dead but we still got memories of them all and they won't be forgotten. The most we can do is stay strong for them. Let's think of them as our guardian angels. Y'all probably ain't gon' say it back, but I love y'all."
His band mates heard the words he was saying but chose to remain silent.
"And at the end of the day, the three of us still have each other. That's all that matters."
•
THE END.
...or is it?