Troy –
As promised, Marliss and Raymond joined us in The Big Easy just in case some mess popped off. Medicated or not, everybody knew I was at the point where I wasn't just going to let anybody gang up on me or push me around, that I would fight back if necessary. They didn't want that. They wouldn't put their hands on Leann or Ava, but they would make sure they stayed at a safe distance from me and my sister.
Daddy, stating that he had a bad feeling as well, packed a few things and met us as well.
"Troy, with all that you have coming up, what's the thing you're most excited about when you and Fly Girl finish the tour?"
I smiled politely, shrugging my shoulders. "More than likely, it'll be getting back in the studio. At this point, that's what I miss most. Being in a studio, singing and playing around with different vocal tricks and techniques, figuring out how I want to sound. Now that I've found my love for singing again, and confidence to do it alone, I'm anxious for all of that. I've also been creating some really good songs. I feel they're good anyway, along with getting two great ones from my older sister."
"And usually, you two are a pair on the red carpet or in interviews, when you're not both with your significant others." I nodded. "But who's this strapping gentleman with you right now?"
I smiled, looking up at Daddy as he wrapped his arms around me. "This is my father. He's filling in for Torii while she spends a few hours with her daughter before the show tonight."
"Very lovely, and how are you Mr. Mercier?"
I gently pushed him forward, urging him to speak. "I'm great, thank you. Very happy to be with my daughters and very proud of them for everything they've accomplished."
"How have you been feeling about the past events and your girls deciding to ride things out with the label, completing this final project and tour before they're able to go their own way."
He looked at me and I smiled, urging him to give his honest opinion. "Well, I'm not necessarily happy about certain things that have been said and done to them. With the way they've been treated by peers, as well as some of the adults they've had to work with and for, but I think that they've handled themselves very well throughout all of it. I'm just glad that they will be coming out of the whole thing stronger, a little wiser. More confident and hardworking. I'm glad that they still have great heads on their shoulders and that they haven't lost their way completely. They grew up a little faster than I would have liked, but I think they're fantastic young women."
"It's always so amazing to see such amazing bonds between todays starlets and their parents. Have you always been close?"
I nodded, smiling when he pulled me into a tight hug. "Most definitely. I think that if he wasn't working and steadily moving up in his own career back home in Tennessee, he and our step-mother and our little brothers would have moved to California as soon as we did. We spend as much time as possible together, and being around those who truly know and love us, it keeps us grounded as well. You can't get into this business and forget about who afforded you the chance to be where you are. I mean, that's credited to MCA and Brandy Monroe, Chauncey Howard and others of course; but our father could have very easily told Torii and I 'no, not yet' or something of that nature if he felt the need to do so. Especially with how often we got in trouble the week of those original auditions." Daddy laughed, nodding his head as he admitted that he'd thought about punishing us that weekend. "He's always been supportive, both he and our step-mother, and they've gone out of their way for us so there's no way we would ever stray from them or act is if they're not as important and instrumental to our success."
The interviewer nodded. "Amazing. And, the last thing I want to ask is about tonight's show here in New Orleans. Is there anything major we can expect tonight?"
I shook my head, honestly unsure because I hadn't bothered to look at the set list yet. "Nothing aside from the usual. Of course, new songs to promote the final album. Torii and I are doing two songs from our EP, but as it was supposed to be in all of the Hometown Nights, the shows are set around whoever's hometown it is. Memphis, for Torii and I as representatives of Tennessee, and specifically Mount Pleasant where we're from. Phoenix for Ava. New Orleans for Leann, so it'll be her night tonight. If they stick with the original plan, the focus will be on her for a great majority of the night. There have been some switch-ups so far, and only a few weeks into the tour, but I don't suspect any changes tonight." If anything, I'm hoping tonight goes right because I don't feel like hearing Leann's mouth. I'd heard and had enough on the bus.
After taking pictures, I thanked the kind interviewer and made my way back towards the arena where we were performing. Daddy was following close behind, going on and on about all of the foods he wanted to try while he was still out here.
"How about a Daddy-Daughter lunch date tomorrow? It's been a long time since I've been able to eat the way I want, and I want to go all out."
"Lunch date, yes. You getting off of whatever diet your doctors have you on, no." I groaned, slightly upset that even he wouldn't let me and my inner fat girl be happy.
As we walked through the main doors, we spotted Brandy and Harrison pacing back and forth. "Oh look, the one who needs to be resting shows up, but the one who needs to be here is nowhere to be found."
I stopped walking and looked directly at Brandy. "Well damn, I didn't do anything to piss you off. What's with the attitude?"
She took a deep breath, probably the first time she's done so all day. "Do you know where Leann is?"
"Nah, I don't keep up with dogs."
"Troy, that's not nice."
I looked at my daddy before shrugging my shoulders. "You would want to be concerned Troy. The four of you are billed, one of you misses and you all pay."
"Tuh, we've been paying for her and Ava since the second album, why should we expect anything different?"
"Troy, this is serious!"
"Well what do you want me to do about it Brandy? I'm not anybody's mama, nor am I anyone's keeper. So..." I waited for an explanation of what she wanted me to do about someone I didn't even like being missing.
It wasn't hard to figure out or consider where Leann MIGHT be. And if she wasn't there... good for her for having self-restraint and control for once in her adult life. Who am I to tell a grown woman where or where not to go in a city that she knows better than anyone else in our crew?
And who am I to sit here and watch someone and their every move. Specifically, someone I did not care about. I had my own things to worry about.
Stepping past Brandy and Harrison, shaking my head at the worried look etched across his face, I walked into the main performance area and headed towards the stage where Torii and Ava were already doing vocal warm-ups.
Getting on stage, I waved to Preston. Our original drummer from our very first tour. I was happy to see him back, thrilled that MCA allowed him to work with us again, following a brief incident and scandal involving him and Ava. He was one of the few musicians we'd worked with that never tried to do his own thing, without ours or MCA's knowledge. One of the few that was able to keep up with us, or get us back on track if we happened to mess up. Him, along with the current band that we have now.
Standing next to my sister, I rolled up the sleeves of my shirt and looked at her. Torii's smile was amazing, and for the first time in weeks I could tell that she was happy again. I know that it all had to do with Raymond and Riley being around, but that was a good enough reason for me.
She'd been stressed. Worried about me and oddly fearful of Leann's empty ass threats and wishes. And all I wanted was for Torii to smile, enjoy herself, even with all of the drama surrounding us again.
"Excited about tonight?"
"Excited about who's going to be in the audience. I cannot believe someone told Ms. Angela Winbush that I spoke of her at the last show and she immediately got a ticket to see us down here. Ugh, just getting that phone call from her was enough, saying that she appreciates me and that she adores my voice. I had no clue she even listened to us. And get this, get this..." Torii jumped up and down and I laughed, loving how adorable she looked as she got excited. "She wants me to write a couple of songs with her. Troy, do you know what this means? I'm writing songs with The Female Lyrical Gawd."
"Yeeeees! Now between you and Marliss and his friendship with Ronald Isley, one of y'all should be able to get me that connect to Smokey Robinson. Something." I was so serious. He hadn't looked my way since that Tammi and Marvin presentation Marliss and I did as teenagers, and I was low-key hurt and pressed over meeting him.
She laughed, standing still again as Brandy walked in with her hand over her mouth. She was red in the face, so there was no doubt that she'd been on her phone and yelling at someone.
"The shenanigans just won't stop until I'm blue in the face and dead. Oh, don't worry about Brandy. She's just a dumb white blonde, she won't mind being walked all over." Torii and I looked at one another, shrugging our shoulders before we returned our gazes to Brandy. "Lord, once this is over, I am never leaving my husband or my kids again. Screw the industry, the money, the headaches. Screw it all."
"Uh, Brandy..."
"I don't want to hear it, Ava. I don't want to hear anything." She clapped her hands together, taking a seat on the front row. "Get to work, let's get this rehearsal and sound check over with. Show starts in less than three hours."
Time passed quickly, and as show time approached, Leann was still a no-show. Brandy gave up hope, and decided to walk around with a scowl on her face; binge eating as she stressed over how this would be explained to promoters and how to spin it if the media decided they didn't want to play nice with their assumptions of where Leann might have been all day and night.
Feeling someone nudge me, I turned to see Torii. "What's wrong with you?"
"I wish I could binge eat, the way that I used to."
"Seriously, you're thinking about food?"
I nodded. "I'm always thinking about food. I'm constantly going up and down in weight, and I'm barely even eating good food. It's not fair." Just as Brandy began to walk past us, I grabbed her arms and pulled her to me, randomly bursting into song. "I wanna be ... where the food is. I wanna see it, wanna taste it... savoring all of the, what's that word again? Oh, flavooooor." Torii fell out, doubling over. "All pastry puffs! All zebra cakes! All of the red beans and rice in the woooooorld. One day I'll be... able to eat... real food a-gaaaaain."
"Troy..."
I smiled, stepping back as I did a light tap. "Cheer up, Brandy! Smile, or something. This whole depressed and woe-is-me thing is not you. I need Badass Brandy back. The Brandy that isn't fazed by foolishness. The Brandy that brushes other people's incompetence off of her shoulders! What have you always told me, specifically when I get down about this whole MS ordeal?"
She sighed, cracking the first smile I've seen from her in days. "It's never as bad as we make it. Things work out the way that they're meant to."
"Exactly. If she shows, whatever. If she doesn't, whatever. We've been through and bounced back from a whole lot worse, haven't we? At this point, we're the poster group for paying back on canceled and terrible shows. We still get through it. Come on, give me a real smile or I'll remix a Pocahontas song next."
"Please, no. Don't." I laughed, hugging her before she finally calmed down and excused herself.
Just as they were about to call us on stage, one of the back exit doors opened and Leann walked in. Ava let out a sigh of relief, probably glad we wouldn't have to pay a no-show fine for one member, while Torii and I just stared blankly. She took steps towards us, looking as if she were wobbling, as if she would tip over at any moment, but she remained upright. A scowl on her face, eyes red from what I could tell in the lighting that she'd stepped into. Her fist clenched, hair disheveled, and the unmistakable stench of marijuana.
As if I hadn't just brightened her mood a little, Brandy was speeding past us and yelling. "Where the hell have you been all day?! You just take off after we arrive and no one can reach you? Miss rehearsals and sound check? Look at you! Ugh, I am so tired. Beyond tired. What were you thinking?"
"I'm here, ain't I? You should be glad."
Brandy groaned, running her fingers through her hair before she walked off. Leann looked back and forth between Torii, Ava, and I before rolling her eyes and heading towards the dressing room. "Thinking what I'm thinking, Troy?"
"Mmhm. But you know what? I'm not in the mood to do extra to help her pull things off. Let her make a fool of herself." I headed to my own dressing room, hoping to catch Marliss before he went to sit out in the audience with Daddy.