Naya
Life comes at you fast, at least that was what I was learning. After my wonderful surprise for Odell was a success I spent my four free days literally snuggled up under him. Wherever he went I was there I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible before I needed to head off again. O didn't mind either in fact he found it adorable that I didn't want to leave his side something bout feeling appreciated and wanted.
When it was time to leave again I was devastated I felt as though everything had happened so quickly. All that time we spent together felt like it was all just a dream. This made me want Football season to be over quicker so we could spend time together but I knew that was me being selfish. He had to go work as well as me the sad part about all of this was that while his season was almost done my career was beginning to get busier.
When we landed at LAX we were met with a little surprise. Marcel and Jamal had flown out to Cali to be with Nattie which was cute but, it also made me feel bad. Here Nattie was with me focusing on my career when she had a family she needed to get back to at home I was taking her away from that.
"Auntie Yaya" Mally greeted jumping into my arms "Hi baby I missed you" I say giving him kisses all over his face "I missed you too" he copied my actions doing what I did to him to me. "Sup Cel you look tired as hell" I commented looking over at Jamal's father. He stood at around 5'11 looking like a typical light skin with his fade.
"So I guess we are not getting a two bedroom suite y'all can have your own room" I said disgusted at how lovey dovey the two were doing "Mally and I will sleep together you guys can have your alone time"
"I wasn't saying nothing when you was all over Od-" Nattie began to say but was cut off by a suddenly upset Jamal "mommy why is there always people with cameras around" he complained pointing to the men that stood out in the open snapping pictures of us. "Because baby they love auntie and want to see into her life" she gave an ugly explanation she made it seem like I liked them being around.
"Aight let's go before they get closer" I said putting Jamal down and holding his hand, we searched for our driver while His parents handled the luggage. "Auntie look that mans hiding behind the car" he yelled giving up the paparazzi's hiding spot. "Naya how excited are you to be on Ellen?"
"What do you think about the whole josh Norman and Odell situation?" "Are you going on tour soon the fans want to know" the questions kept coming they drew attention to us because now there were people looking on seeing what was happening.
"Guys back up please you're scaring him" I said motioning to Jamal who was now clutching on to my arms for dear life but that didn't matter to them "Yo move back! You're bout to get decked in the throat if you don't move that camera out his face" I threatened pushing the man away from us. Thankfully airport security came out helping us clear the way and safely get to the car "thank you" I said to the driver who held the door open for us, I let Jamal go in first before I went after.
"You okay?" I asked hugging him he nodded laying his head on my arm. A couple minutes later the door opened and Marcel and Nattie climbed in "you alright Mally?" Was the first thing she asked climbing over me to see him "yes mommy I'm okay just tired" he answered laying back down.
When we got to the hotel we wasted no time in ordering room service and I was beyond hungry and tired at that.
The next day I was the first to wake up next my nephew who's legs somehow found its saw over mine for comfort. Quietly getting up I phone Nattie to make sure she was up as well the we ordered breakfast. As planned I had my own room which I shared with Malloy while his parents got one across the hall from us. As the day went by I began to become more productive after breakfast I added a FaceTime call with Odell then I text Mila checking in on her and then lastly I began to get ready. I had an appearance at Ellen that I had to be at and even though that wasn't until a couple hours later I still needed to make sure I wasn't late.
"How do I look" Mally came out my bathroom in some blue jeans a white tee and a grey cardigan, this little boy knew how to dress himself. "Mommy said I had to look nice for Tv" he said "I think you look nice" he complimented I was in black pant suit with dark lipstick on. "Thank you babe" I say blowing him a kiss "I don't think mommy is ready yet cause the room is locked" he said shrugging his shoulders and showing me the room key he had "it won't let me open the door the lock is on it" I shook my head once I realized what Nattie was doing.
She was trying to get a quickie in as if last night was t enough "your mother always take a long time to get dressed she just has to finish her makeup then she'll be ready" I say covering for her. While we waited I caught up with Scooter letting him know I was ready and was now heading off to the interview.
"You guys ready?!" A knocked came on my door followed by Natalia's loud mouth Jamal ran over to the door quickly opening it "yes mommy were ready we've been ready for a long time" he said with a hand on his hip "alright well then let's go the driver is waiting for us outside" in guessing she didn't catch the attitude he had given her or if she did she chose to just ignore it.
"You locked your son out the room for sex" I accused the two whispering since Jamal was walking up ahead. "Desperate times call for desperate measures" Marcel shrugged holding the door for the elevator. Nasty asses
Once we got in the car I sat by the window seat while Mally sat in the middle and Nattie sat on the other side with Marcel in the passenger seat. Of course LA traffic was no joke it was a good think we left out early because we were stuck in traffic for 45 minutes. When we got to the Warner Brothers Lot we were escorted to Ellen's studio where the show would be kept. There I was given a pass for my family and shown to my dressing room where I got mic'd up. Scooter showed up 10 minutes later to make sure I was alright and support.
"Look it's about to start" I pointed out to the tv screen in the room that showed the stage. We watched for a while as she spoke about the new Emoji update from apple and also interviewed a little boy who's name was demarjay I believe. He was a kid trainer who was all about working out and staying fit it was actually cute to watch especially when he spoke about why he began start training people and he was Jamaican so that made it better.
After a few more minutes the producers knocked on my door letting me know I would be on in five minutes, that was when my nerves completely began to kick in "holy shit" I mumbled shaking my hands hoping to calm myself down. "You're gonna do great, just be yourself Ellen already loves you" Scooter said calming me down a bit by now Nattie had gone to the audience to sit while the boys stayed in the dressing room so I was by myself except for Scooter.
"Please welcome Naya Anderson" she introduced before I knew it my feet were heading towards the stage waving at the audience as I went to go sit "wait let me hug you" I said once I realized she had stood up to give me a hug "I was waiting to see if you were a hugger or not" she joked making me shake my head "oh yeah I'm definitely a hugger but sometimes my family hates it apparently I get too close to their personal space" I said crossing my legs.
"It's finally so nice yo meet you" she said smiling "you as well I still can't believe this is happening right now" I hyperventilate a bit "you look a bit nervous" she joked letting me know it was obvious "can you tell oh gosh Scooter was trying to calm me down but as you can tell that didn't work" I say retelling what happened a few seconds ago.
"You should be" she laughed but took it back "no I'm just playing you don't have to be nervous" she comforted offering me water. "So you are a singer" I nodded answering her question "both your single My love for you and don't kill the fun went number one" she announced which caused the audience to cheer "don't kill the fun featuring Chris brown actually dethroned My love for you for the number one spot so basically you were competing with yourself" she read off her card I nodded once more smiling big as ever.
"Yes it was a competition until Justin came along and knocked me to number two" I said playfully rolling my eyes "no I'm just playing I love him but yeah it was nice to see that it was at number one for a long time so I'm happy about that" I added taking a sip of the water that was on the table.
"You're not from California are you?" She asked I nodded once more "I was born in the Bay Area, Oakland but then moved across the world to New York so I guess I represent both the east and west coast"
"So tell me about yourself how old are you, who's your celebrity crush what's your relationship status" she popped the last question in quickly almost catching me off guard but I knew better I knew she was going to bring it up. "I am 22 years old, a Pisces so my birthday is coming up" I said winking "umm my celebrity crush is Usher I don't know ever since I was young I've just been in love with him he's just so smooth and sexy" usher was my dream guy growing up, I will never forget the first time I heard you make me wanna that song was on repeat to the point where my brother had to buy me the CD and a CD player.
"Usher that's a new one and your status" she said not forgetting about that question "I am currently taken" I answered this brought a smirk to her face "by who?" She asked I could see the audience members staring into my soul. "Wooo did it just get hot up here" I said fanning myself with my hand that earned a laugh from the audience.
"Lemme take a guess" I nodded telling her to go for it even though I'm pretty sure she knew. "Is it a football player who happens to be the wide receiver for the giants?" She knowingly asked "I don't know it might be" I played along.
"Hmm does his name rhyme with and for the record I'm going out on a limb here does it rhyme with Bodell yeckham"
"Yes it's Odell" I finally gave in not able to contain the smile on my face "how did you guys meet" I shook my head laughing at the memory "don't judge but we actually met at the club" that wasn't the ideal place to meet your partner but it happened to me.
"No judgement Portia and I actually met at this dog sitting club so yeah definitely can't judge" she held her hands up "so umm how's that going for you guys" I saw her nod at something but I didn't quite catch it "really good actually he's honestly just a sweetheart and I'm so happy I met him" the audience awed at my words but I soon found out it was also at the picture of Odell and I on the screen behind me. It was a picture of the both of us from a couple days ago, we had went to go get ice cream and the cameras caught him feeding me a spoon of his. Next a picture of us from when we went bowling appeared both of us smiling from ear to ear as I sat on his lap.
"Wow you are blushing right now" she teased resulting in me holding my head down to hide my face, my body had suddenly gotten hot and my heart was beating super fast. "was there no other seat available?" She asked referring to me seating on his lap "see what had happened was" I began to say only to see her shake her head "uh huh, you guys are a beautiful couple and I wish you both nothing love and happiness in your future"
"Thank you" I my voice came out squeaking still as I tried to get back to normal. After the relationship talk we went on to talk about what it was like working with Scooter and being friends with Justin and how I felt to be performing at jingle ball and the New Years concert in Miami. At the end of the day Scooter pushed his clients and that was because he knew they had the potential to be great. So while I might be mad at him booking me all these events back to back in the end it's gonna be a great outcome.
"You have an album coming out yes?" I nodded "yes I actually ended up changing it from its original title to this one which is LoveSexyFierce each song on the album is either about being in love loving someone. The sexy is being alluring bringing out that sexual side and fierce being a bad Bi- I mean just a powerful sexy woman" I say explaining why the name was significant to me and also catching myself so that's I didn't curse on tv.
"Naya's album drops January 6th but since she's feeling a little generous we are giving you an exclusive pre order of the album so you will get to listen to the album 2 days before everyone else and we are also giving you tickets to see her and other artist perform at the staples Center for jingle jam on December 22nd" the crowd went crazy as Ellen told them about their gifts.
When the cameras cut I stood up telling Ellen thank you and giving her a hug "thank you for having me" I say letting her know I had fun "thank you for coming, you're such a sweet girl and I can't wait to hear the album"
With that I went to the crowd to say hi to a couple fans a take some pictures after I headed back to my dressing room where I changed into some jeans and a loose tee Nattie and the others changed as well.
"Awesome job announcing the album and Jingle Ball" Scooter gave me a hug with a huge smile on his face "we have a meeting tomorrow to discuss tour but besides that I just wanna say I'm so proud of you watching you succeed in life makes me so happy because I know what your life was like before this" he spoke bringing up the past.
"Thanks to you too without your help I couldn't have gotten this far" I thanked giving his props. After I said my good byes to everyone I met Nattie them the back where we got into the car heading back to the hotel.
"Where we going?" I asked once I realized the car was going the complete opposite way from where the hotel was. "Going to Grandmas real quick she wants to see Mally" she said as if it was no big deal "what the fuck why would you do some shit like that" I said growing upset thankfully Jamal was half asleep so he wasn't really paying much attention to my cursing.
"Chill out its only for like 30 minutes then we can go plus Nana wants to see you she's been asking for you every time I talk to her" I looked at her as if she was crazy I could care less who's been asking for me or not. "She kicked me out and wanted nothing to do with me until she started hearing my name on the radio and tv so please explain to me why I would want to see this woman and her self centered child" I spat there were very few people to make my temper boil and my mother and grandmother were some of those people.
I didn't always hate them at one time in my life those two were the people I looked up to my grandma was the one who taught me how to cook curry goat and jerk chicken she ended up moving in after my dad left and my mom was the one who thought us how to dance and took us out to places. Let's start out with she was a nurse by day and a stripper at night so during the day she would spend time with us when she could then at nights she would tuck us into bed and go make money to provide for us. As a older woman now I still couldn't knock her hustle she did whatever she could to provide for her family. Unfortunately she was doing more than just providing for us when she rarely came home anymore everyone began to get suspicious. I remember one time my Nana called the police thinking she got kidnapped but we later found out she was good she came home a couple days later yelling asking why we were checking for her.
After that it became a routine we all came accustomed to at this point I would see her like twice a month and that was only when she dropped money off to my nana for us. When I was around 10 we found out my mom had found a man he was young with no kids so she didn't tell him she had any eventually money stopped coming in from her and my brother took matters into his own hands he started working at least two jobs to try and help out. My sister and I would go around the neighborhood asking people if they needed any help around their house. It was sad and embarrassing but we were making it work. At around 12 yrs old things got worse my grandmother began to get annoyed at us free loading off of her. The job she was working wasn't paying her nearly enough to provide for us and pay the bills and my brother couldn't give us money since he had gone off to college all the way to the east coast on a scholarship. So that's when she contacted her daughter and the two decided it would be best to send us across the country to go live with a man I hadn't spoken to in years. In a way I couldn't complain my father had lived in the Bronx which was about an hour and a half away from the school my brother was going to. Nattie and I would take the subway to go visit him or my dad would pick him up for the weekend. I had to say the move had brought my siblings and my father closer eventually, brother also started to stay with us when he was off from school. As time went by we barely kept in contact with the people from the west coast we were beginning to make a life for us on the east.
"You can stay in the car I promise I'll be quick" She promised giving me a look of sympathy. When the car came to a full stop I sighed taking in my surroundings that were very much familiar we were parked in front of my old house. The three bedroom house still stood tall except instead of the chipped blue paint it was a clean ivory house. I knew Nattie had helped them out it didn't take a genius to figure that one out. Nattie had a soft spot when it came to family when she turned 18 she reached out to my Nana and mom for closure and got to hear their side of the story that's how the two reconnected. They've tried to do the same with me but I refused, they believed I was only hurt at the fact that they shipped me off to New York but it was much deeper than that. It was my brothers death that really pushed it all over the edge.
"Mally wake up baby" Nattie shook her son for him to wake up from his nap. Not long after the three left the car with me still inside of it, I watched out the tinted windows as they knocked on the door waiting for it to be open. A older woman who I hardly recognized opened it, my nana she looked young as ever no grey hair what so ever on her head and not many wrinkles as from what I could see.
"Not going in ma'am?" The driver asked looking through the rear view mirror at me I shook my head "no I'm good right here" grabbing my phone texting Rob and Tez to see if they were available. Since I'm here I might as well say hi to them.
I don't know how much time had gone by since they left, I was too occupied playing Panda pop with the AC on blast. What I did notice though was a grey Toyota Camry pulling into the drive way. My aunt emerged from the drivers side and a short hair woman from the passenger side. My eyes stayed glued to their every move once I realized who it was she cut her hair? For some reason when I saw their heads turn towards the car my first instincts were to duck and that's exactly what I did. I probably stayed of the floor of the car for about 2 minutes before I went back to sit, the poor driver probably thought I was crazy.
Bout two minutes later I saw my aunt come outside the house but she didn't go towards her car she came towards mine. I couldn't even think of what to do anymore should I duck again? Should I tell the driver to drive off? Everything I was thinking of didn't go as plan because she was already too close to the car so instead I locked the door since it was the only logical thing that came to mind.
"Missy I know you're not sitting in this hot ass car by yourself when you could be socializing with your family" she said knocking on the window I stayed still hoping that if I didn't say anything she would go away but of course that wasn't the case so I rolled down the window seeing her upset face.
"Hey aunt Gina how you been" I said forcing a smile her way "girl if you don't get out the car and give me a hug" she said sternly not taking no for an answer. Sighing I unlocked the doors slowing taking my time to get out. "Oooh I haven't seen you in so long what you been up to?" She asked squeezing me tight aunt Gina was actually one of my fav aunts, we weren't related by blood she married my uncle when I was young so she's been around for a long time. I had nothing against the woman I just didn't do a good job in keeping in touch with her.
"I'm good you?" I say keeping the smile on my face "Why I gotta hear from my nephew that you here sitting in the car by yo self why don't you come inside" she offered but I shook my head.
"I'm okay you know I don't really wanna get into all that little mess in there" I say motioning towards the house, she shook her head at me but I knew she understood "girl I know but there's gonna come a time where you're gonna have to deal with the situation and it's better to do it sooner than later" she advised I knew she was right but I didn't want to hear that. "I will when I'm ready" I mumbled not wanting to speak on it anymore.
"Anyway what's this I hear about you and that football player" she folded her arms leaning against the car i immediately smiled at the mention of Odell's name "oh you know that's my lil homie" I joked playing it off "just kidding that's my boo thang" I answered blushing a bit.
"I see he cute and he real muscular I bet he has no trouble picking your tiny ass up" I rolled my eyes at her comment "always tryna play me like you weren't part of the itty bitty committee before you got work done" I argued reminding her that she was once like me before she got her butt done. "Shhh nobody need to be knowing that" she hushed me as if the whole block didn't already know her growing up.
"Now I'm nosy as hell so I know you been having some ex problems" she brought up the Abbie situation "you remember how I handled that bitch that tried to talk to your uncle" when she said that I bursted out laughing because I remember quite well what had happened. My uncle David who's ex was his baby mother had it bad. The woman wouldn't leave him alone to the point where he would sometimes hide over at our house so she couldn't find him. That was until Aunt Gina came into the picture the minute she heard about the baby mother bothering him for more than their child she snapped. She fought any and everything in her sight until she reached his baby mother I heard she even tried to stab her but I don't know if that part was true. Still to this day people don't mess with my uncle anymore cause they know my aunt to be crazy if anyone messed with her man she would be the one to come after them.
"You need to tell that bitch to stay in her place and if she don't you need to fly your ass out to her and beat it" she urged showing me how I needed to handle the situation "auntie I can't be doing that" I say laughing at the thought.
"Well shit I will do it for you I'm a old bitch but I can still knock somebody out just ask Jrs nappy headed mother" she said referring to my cousins mother "you're a mess" I shook my head at her behavior I guess my uncle loved them crazy.
We ended up staying outside just talking until Jamal and the rest came outside from the house "Anyway Ima let you go live your lavish life but don't keep forgetting bout me" I nodded telling her I wouldn't especially since I had saved her number in my phone. I stayed in my spot when I saw my grandmother and Mother walk out the house as well. They didn't come over to the car though they stayed by the house hugging the others goodbye. As Nattie walked my way a saw my Mom clutch her heart and wave at me, but I didn't do it back I just acted as if I didn't notice it.
"You had fun baby?" I asked Jamal as we entered the car "yeah Grandma and Nana were showing me pictures of you and mommy when you guys were babies" He told me his eyes lit as he spoke about the experience. "Nana said you were a trouble maker and you and mommy loved to fight" of course she did "nuh huh mommy was the one always wanting to fight me it was cause I was prettier" I half joked only for Mila to roll her eyes at me giving me a dry laugh. She knew most of our fight were because I loved to call her names just because I knew she had a short temper and that it would get under her skin.
On the car ride home I knew I couldn't be mad at Nattie for coming here she wanted her son to know his grandmothers and have a relationship with them and I respected that she was giving him something she and I never had.
"I Love you Sister dear" I randomly said blowing her a kiss and winking. It caught her off guard but nonetheless she caught the kiss and brought it to her heart. "Yeah I love your annoying ass too" at the end of the day we could never stay mad at each other she was my right hand my go to and everything I could have asked for in a sister.
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Shoutout to Shadesiab for the idea of the crazy aunt thanks girl!
What y'all think about this chapter? And Naya revealing a little bit more about her relationship with her mom and Grandmother??👀👀👀