Hanging out
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━06. Growing Emotions
After last night, Kemi's family had went back to New York, but Lamar had promised to come back to spend the weekend with him the day before his show.
Speaking of which, he had to go to the venue in order to set up for the show this coming Friday—he was excited about it. This was something he got on his own without his dad's influence and it felt really good.
He quickly got dressed, wearing a simple black buttoned up shirt, some ripped jeans and a white jean jacket, paired with a scarf.
He walked out the door, locking it when Adonis walked down the stairs, wearing a white wife beater, and some jogging pants, noticing Kemi he smiled.
"Hey." Turning around, Kemi smiled looking at him.
"What's up?"
"Nothing, I uh was about to head to the gym, you know training and all—you bout to head somewhere?" He motioned toward Kemi's outfit.
"Yeah, rehearsal, with the show coming up in a couple of days, they want me to start practicing now so we don't have any mistakes on the big day." He chuckled, Adonis nodded.
"That's what's up—hit me up when you get back, when can hang out or something."
"Ite bet." He nodded, smiling Adonis jogged off while Kemi watched, there was no denying his attraction to the man, Adonis was sweet, caring and he listened.
But Kemi was here for one reason and that reason only, for his career could he really allow himself to be in a relationship while trying to achieve his dream?
"You ready?" Katlyn walked out her apartment, dressed in a full black body dress.
"Yeah, let's go."
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"Kemi finally, these fools can't set up shit without you." Kemi's head choreographer tells him, he stepped off the stage looking at the group of dancers, along with the band members with a shake of his head.
"It shouldn't be that hard, just follow the music." Taking off his jacket, he walked up on the stage.
"Well apparently they can't do that so, we might as well get this rehearsal started." Nodding Kemi walked up to the mic.
"Alright let's start." The music started, playing with the loud bass coming in through the speakers.
"Put your hands up when they turn up the bass"
The beat dropped, and they all started dancing on the stage, Kemi jumped up and down, bobbing his head before grabbing his mic as the sound decreased.
"Oh my, stay on the grind, everything will be mine, including you mm." He sings, rolling his hips to the music.
"Make his mic higher." Mr. Jackson walked up behind them staring at the young man.
"Got my eyes on the prize, wanna make you realize, goal is the sky, it's what I do."
"Oh." Belting, on the note, he detached the mic walking around the stage.
"I said that I would show, Everybody what they should already know."
"I grew up, stood up and now I'm ready to go."
"Turn it up!" He shouted to the band, they all started playing louder, as the beat increased.
"Ready set go"
"Ready to go"
"Ready set go"
"Ready to go go go"
"I'm ready to go go go"
Once again the beat dropped and he bust out dancing, he jumped around, leaning his head back as the began to dance around with the background dancers.
"He's a wild one when it's time to perform." Mr. Jackson says beside Katlyn who chuckled.
"He's the best, he turns it on when it's time to turn it on. He's going to be making you a lot of money." Patting his chest she walked toward the stage as the music died down.
"You look like you're about to break your damn neck trying to dance." She joked, he shot a bird at her sitting on the stage.
"This shit ain't for the weak, I feel like I'm out of shape and I don't even weigh that much."
"You better start working out, cause soon you gone be going on them tours! And you ain't gone have time to rest." She pushed his shoulder.
"Well damn me then, cause I can't deal." Katelyn shook her head at him when he noticed he was checking his phone with a smile.
"Who got you smiling?" Lifting her eyebrow she crossed her arms, he shook his head with a smile.
"It's nothing, Donnie just was reminding me that after rehearsing we're supposed to be hanging out."
"Hmm...you've been hanging out with this guy for a while am I sensing the love word?" She grinned, he plucked her on the forehead.
"No the absolute hell you're not, he's cool, real he understands what it means to live in your father's shadow." He shrugged.
"You like him."
"Maybe I do, but I don't know if I want anything to happen—I mean we just got in Philly two weeks ago, ain't that's a little bit too soon to be dating somebody?" He raised an eyebrow.
"There's no timeline on when it's possible to fall in love O'Kemi. You've been single for the last three years, ain't having no sex, no kissing or anything trust me when I say this...you need a partner."
"But what if he's just like the last, I'm tired of dealing with ain't shit niggas, maybe I can go back to dating girls." He huffed, lying down on the stage.
"Sweetheart, the ship sailed a long ass time ago, I believe when you got a dick stuck in your ass for the first time." Patting his stomach he flicked her off.
"You think you funny, I will kick you dead in your fucking face." He laughed.
"You're abusive and it's not funny, it should be studied." She tells him.
"It already is—abusive father Remember?" He reminded her.
"Have you spoken to him ever since you've left?" She questioned, earning a snort.
"I'd be surprise if he even came to the show, that man don't care about me, all he thinks about is how his money can fix everything, tried to fix my sexuality with his money, tried to fix my career with his money and I didn't want any of that shit."
"You've been through a lot Kemi, something that no child should ever experience—but self isolation is never the answer." She grabbed his hand.
"You have a man, out there who has taken an interest in you, not O'Kemi Brooks the son of Quinton Brooks, but Kemi Brooks the artist on the rise."
"Maybe this is gods way, of blessing you with Donnie. Think about it, your life stories are very similar, he's working to become a world champion and your working you way on becoming one of the best artist in the world." She softly tells him.
"I guess."
"Promise me you won't push him away."
"I can't promise that."
"O'Kemi."
"Fine! I promise I will attempt not to push him away."
"I can take that." She shrugged, he rolled his eyes with a smile.
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Immediately when Kemi he took a shower, he was sweaty and stink, two things that were going to freak him out if he didn't wash right away.
He stepped out the shower, throwing on a white tank top, and some jogging pants, just something simple—he walked down the hallway where a knock was heard making him smile.
He opened the door seeing Donnie, he chuckled seeing the man look at him.
"Wassup."
"Hey." Donnie greeted him, he allowed him inside making him raise an eyebrow.
"What's up, is it cool?" He asked looking around the apartment that looked so different from his.
"I wouldn't have left the door open if it wasn't genius!" Kemi walked into the kitchen, grabbing something to drink.
"Smells good in here."
"What do fighters even drink? Energy drinks?" Kemi muttered loud enough for Donnie to hear him, he laughed rolling his eyes.
"You like Kool-Aid? Bit ghetto but I don't drink all that juice shit." He looked at Donnie, he nodded his head.
"Yeah, Kool-Aid is good. Thank you." He says while he continued to gazed around the apartment.
"No problem."
"So this is the house."
"Yep, this is it."
"It's very you, neat, clean put together with a lot of plants." He looked over at the piano that was sitting in the corner of the room.
"What you working on?" He questioned, Kemi chuckled walking over toward him.
"It's nothing big, I just started it when I got home but uh...it's basically this beat I've been playing around with."
He hit play on the keyboard, allowing the instrumental to play through the speakers—Donnie nodded feeling the beat before he looked at Kemi with a smile.
"Aye, aye." He spoke into the mic making Kemi chuckle as he began to rap.
"Uh, uh, uh...it's ya boy Donni-a from L.A to Philly-A." He rapped making Kemi bust out laughing.
"Philly the home of the cheesstake, oh I want a cheestake, I'm so hungry, hungry for the title I settle for a cheesecake, cheesecake, the cake that you make." He continued to rap with a big smile.
"Cake that you got." He looked at Kemi with a grin, before he noticed the music stopped playing.
"Where the beat go?"
"You might need to stick to one profession cause I don't know what the hell that was." Kemi laughed leaning his head on Donnie's shoulder who rolled his eyes.
"You cap, I killed that, just ended your entire career right there."
"Aw, don't make that face you can't be good at everything." He teased playing with Donnie's chin.
"Alright bet."
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Now, sitting in the living room, Kemi and Donnie sat at the keyboard playing around with some beats, well Donnie was watching Kemi play around with some beats.
"This new?" He questioned, Kemi nodded playing the beat a little louder.
"It goes like this, dollar, dollar bill, ya'll everybody lookin' for somethin." He sung, into the mic.
"Can make you wanna kill, ya'll you can't get somethin' for nothin'"
"Work hard and play even harder"
"Gotta save up all my nickels and quarters"
"Can't ask you for a handout."
"It's time to be a man now."
"That's hot, check you out." Donnie smiled, as the beat just kept playing.
"It's going to be so dope, once I finish it—there's this part in there with a live trumpet." He walked around the living room when the beat dropped.
"Whoo, yeah!" Donnie laughed, bobbing his head to the instrumental making Kemi smile.
"You think that's dope, check this out." He played something much more sensual.
"This, sexy." Donnie chuckled, Kemi winked at him with a laugh before lying on the ground allowing the music to fill his eyes.
He closed his eyes, but felt when Donnie laid next to him, he didn't say anything but Donnie stared up at the ceiling before looking over at Kemi.
Donnie moved over kissing Kemi on the cheek, causing his eyes to snap ope. He let a smile take over his face before looking over at Donnie as they stared at one another.
His eyes flicked down to Donnie's lips, before looking back up at him—their eyes were settled on one another, maybe he could achieve his dream while still perusing something with this man in front of him.
H shifted on his side, before leaning up as he leaned forward, his lips softly meeting Donnie's in the middle, it was a short and steady kiss that spoke a lot.
Slowly pulling back, he smiled at Donnie who smiled back.
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It's been a couple days since Donnie and Kemi kissed, they've both been busy, Donnie's been training and Kemi's been rehearsing for the show which was tomorrow.
But they have been keeping in touch though, Donnie told him his first fight was in six weeks and he wanted him to come and of course Kemi said yeah.
He was spending some time with his neighbor Bianca who also had progressive hearing loss, and she's been teaching him some stuff, like how to read lips and stuff like that.
Plus she was in the music industry too, he sat in the window while he wrote in his song journal, fixing up some lyrics for a couple of his songs when he heard a door shut causing him to lean over.
"Hey!" He shouted, Donnie who was packing his stuff up looked up at him with a smile.
"Hey."
"So you're moving?" He raised his eyebrow, confused they haven't really talked about that.
"Yeah, today's been crazy I didn't get a chance to tell you, but um, imma be living with my uncle for a while training for my next fight." He explained.
Kemi looked at him with a blank stare, making Donnie raise an eyebrow.
"What?"
"Now I may be deaf but I ain't blind that's your uncle?" He looked at the old man, who was nowhere near Donnie's skin complexion.
"Why you say it like that?"
"He's white Donnie." He bluntly states, making the man laugh.
"Yeah, a long time."
"H-he's gonna be staying with men and when we ain't training you're welcome to come on over." He told Kemi who smiled.
"Cool, thank you—nice to meet you." The man nodded going back inside his truck, when Donnie noticed Kemi's expression.
"Why you keep giving me that look?"
"I'm just trying to figure out when you were going to tell me that your uncle is Rocky Balboa?"
"Imma call you!" Donnie promises, humming he nodded.
"Ight, I'm not gone hold my breath on it though—you still coming to the show tomorrow correct?"
"Of course!" Donnie, shouted getting inside the truck where Rocky looked at him.
"So, you like men?" He awkwardly says.
"No, I like him there's a difference." Donnie corrected making Rocky nod.
"You do know that's the son of Quincy Brooks right?" Rocky informed him.
"No shit, you serious?" Donnie stated at him in shock. Before he looked up at Kemi now noticing the similarities between him and his father.
"He did say, music was in his bloodline."
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