**** Heard this interview that made me cry when Aug was asked a question about his mother, he started to cry. It also seems like he's going through a lot of stuff. I think fame is a real big adjustment for him. Stay encouraged Aug and know that you got people that really love you all around the country. The folks reading this, are some of those people. You can listen here -If the link doesn't work, I posted it on my profile.
http://gimmesomemo.com/2014/07/24/my-emotional-interview-with-august-alsina-2/
Carriage, Amb's Father, Love Lock Bridge, and Jackson 5 song (really listen if you can) in M/M. ****
AMBER P.O.V. –
“Where are we going August?”
We started the day off with a nice boat cruise, then spent the latter half picking up gifts for everybody. We dropped the bags off at the hotel, and now he supposedly had a surprise.
I noticed him smirk at the man behind the front desk at the hotel as we left out. I don’t know what that was about.
“Just keep your eyes closed.” He said walking behind me with his hands over my eyes.
“Are we almost there?”
“Yeah, calm down.” He said, slurping on a jolly rancher he had in his mouth.
We walked a couple more steps then he directed me to stop.
“Can I open my eyes now?”
“Amb, just chill. Stay right here.”
“Where are you going? I’m not about to be left standing here at night by myself.”
I heard what seemed like a horse make a sound.
“What was that?”
“Just stay here babe. Damn. And don’t open your eyes.”
“Fine.”
He let me go and I felt him in front of me waving his hand to see if I could see him.
I smacked his hand. “My eyes are closed.”
“Aight. Just checking.” He chuckled.
I stood there alone. My hair in a large curly fro. The night breeze blowing my peach halter maxi dress.
I heard him whispering to somebody, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. All I heard was, “Yeah that’s where we going.”
The horse made a loud sound again. Okay, what the hell was this.
“August!” I was getting a little scared.
I felt him come behind me and wrap his arms around my waist. He lightly sucked on my neck and as he pulled his lips away he whispered, “Open your eyes.”
I opened my eyes and was speechless at what I saw. I covered my mouth with shock.
It was a white Cinderella-Like carriage that lit up, headed by a beautiful white horse. The carriage driver tipped his hat to me. “Good evening Madame.”
“Goo....Good evening.” I couldn’t seem to get the words out, not taking my eyes off the carriage.
August cleared his throat loudly.
“What?” I said not taking my eyes off the carriage hypnotized by its beauty and the memory it held for me.
“What you mean what? Don’t a nigga get a thank you or some shit?”
I shook myself awake from my day dream, and turned to hug August.
“Sorry baby. Thank you. It’s beautiful.”
“That’s it. A hug?”
I lightly pecked his lips, and ran my hands through his hair.
The carriage driver held out his hand to help me in. I got in and sat down. August got in and sat next to me.
The carriage driver preceded to get into his seat at the front and we took off down the road.
“What made you think of this?”
“Nick, the man who work at the front desk. This morning while you were getting ready, I went down there to ask him a few questions. He was real cool. He told me he was from America and moved to Paris a few years ago. I told him I wanted to do something nice for you our last night, and he told me about this and where we’re going.”
“Where are we going?” I looked around in the carriage like how little kids do when they sit on their knees looking out the back seat of a car. Only I just stayed in my seat and turned around.
“Don’t worry about that.” Aug looked at me weird. “You really feeling this ain’t you?”
“I guess so.” I gave a faint smile, turned around, and laid my body back on his chest.
He had one arm stretched on the top of the seat. The other on the arm rest, looking out the carriage. We took in the city as we heard the horses footsteps against the cobble stone.
It was quiet. Mainly on my part. This whole thing opened up an old wound I had deep in my heart. It wasn’t something he would know. We never discussed it.
And the more we rode. The more I wanted to break down right there. But I held it in. This was an incredibly sweet gesture on Aug’s part. And I didn’t want to ruin the moment with my sob stories.
“Babe, why you so quiet?” He kissed my forehead.
“This just reminds me of my dad. That’s all.”
“And when am I gonna meet him. He not as crazy as your mama is he?” Aug joked.
“Naw, he wasn’t.” I chuckled a little.
“Wasn’t?” Aug got serious.
“Yeah, he died.” I felt my voice break a little.
“My bad baby.”
“It’s ok. You didn’t know.” He took his arm that was on top of the seat and rested it on my chest.
AUGUST P.O.V. –
I was beginning to realize I had shared a lot more of my life with Amb than she did with me. There was a lot of stuff I didn’t know about her, like this whole father thing for instance. She was very tight-lipped. I didn’t take it personal tho. I knew in time she would eventually tell me the things she wanted me to know. Everybody doesn’t share things about their past that easily.
I wanted to ask her about it, but it seemed to bother her a lot. And I know how I get when I talk about my brother, so I just let it be. If she wanted me to know, she’d tell me.
“You know Cinderella was my favorite movie when I was a kid.” She played with my fingers. I don’t know what was up with her and my hands. She stayed doing that, especially when she had something important to say or we had intimate conversations.
But I didn’t mind. It was rather relaxing to be honest. Her hands were soft to the touch and them against mine, just felt right.
“I thought it would’ve been Beauty and the Beast.”
“Why?” She looked up at me with my index finger in her hand.
“Cause you resemble the beast.”
She mean mugged me.
“That’s not funny Triple A. A.K.A. Triple Ass.”
“Ey. Watch yo mouth. For I give you some mo’ of this act right.”
“Sex does not control me. Thank you very much.”
“Is that why you was…” I shook like I was having a seizure.
She elbowed me and rolled her eyes.
“Whatever.”
I let out an ugly hyena laugh. “Oh shit.”
I slapped my knee and tried to catch my breath from laughing so hard.
“I hope you savored every moment. That’s the last you getting for a long time.”
“Please. You wouldn’t be able to last that long.”
“No, you wouldn’t be able to last that long.”
“Please I can last twenty years if I have to.”
“Right.” She rolled her eyes.
I smirked.
There was another moment of silence as we rode through the Paris night.
“What you thinking about?” I asked her.
“How my dad, I don’t care how many times I would ask to watch Cinderella, would let me snuggle next to him and watch it. He never said no.” Amb started to beam with joy as she retold the story.
“I thought about him and me, when I saw you and the girls on the couch the other night. It was so beautiful to see you all. I miss that. With my dad.” Her voice trailed off a little.
“Just curious, what happened to him?” I looked down at her and rubbed my hand back and forth on her chest.
There was a moment of silence. She just played with my fingers as she always did.
“You ain’t got to answer if you don’t want to.”
“No, it’s ok. When I was five he got locked up. They said he killed this black cop, but it wasn’t him. It turned out to be his white partner that killed him, but since the force was racist at that time, they covered it up. Blaming my dad who just happened to be walking that night and witnessed the whole thing. He got 40 years.”
“Damn.” And I thought my niggas had it bad.
“Before he left to do his bid, he told me he was going away for a long time. I said, why daddy? He said, Amb I got to go get your carriage ready. Gotta make sure they make your dress and get you some glass slippers that fit.”
“And he said, but I’m gonna come back. And when I do, we’re gonna have a big ball and dance all night. And I said, like Cinderella daddy? And he said, better. Cause we black folks, we got rhythm. Cinderella white.”
We both laughed.
“He said we ain’t gon have none of that white folks rich music at our ball. We gone throw in some Marvin Gaye. Some Isley Brothers. Some Funkadelic. Some Sam Cooke. Some Stevie. We gon have a soul ball. And I would be like daddy, there ain’t no soul ball. And he said, yes it is cause I’m gon make it one. And I said, but what is going to be our big song? Every ball has a big song. He said, Jackson 5– With A Child’s Heart. And he played that song and we danced. Imagining we were at the ball.”
“I never heard that.”
Amb pulled out her phone and played the song for me. She sang along. She had a beautiful voice, I never heard her sing before.
With a child's heart
Go face the worries of the day
With a child's heart
Turn each problem into play
No need to worry, no need to fear
Just being alive makes it all so very clear
Amber slowly turned the song off.
“I noticed he was crying and I didn’t know why. So I asked him, and he said because it’s going to be hard for me to be away from you. And I said, but daddy you gonna be back. And he just shook his head.”
“ I didn’t understand why he was gone until I got in sixth grade when my mother finally told me. But he wouldn’t let us come visit him. He didn’t want me to see him like that.. But when I got in high-school, me and Omari skipped school and went to go visit. I did that like every Tuesday until they called my Mama and told her I was skipping school.”
Amber laughed at the memories.
“But I would always tell him that when I got old enough, I was going to be a lawyer to get him out. And he would smile and say “Alright Johnny. I’m counting on you.” Referring to Johnny Cochran ya know. Well you can imagine how I felt on my law school graduation day, we got a call from the Georgia Department of Corrections saying he died. Heart attack they say. I think it was heartbreak. Spending all that time in a cold cell. Alone. Knowing he didn’t commit the crime they had him locked up for.”
I felt tears on my hands, as they fell from Amber’s eyes.
“Ey baby. Don’t do that.” I tried to comfort her.
“Everything alright madame?” The driver turned around as he heard Amber’s cries.
“Yeah we good.” I responded to him.
She sat up off of me. I rubbed her back.
“August, that’s the only reason I still do this. If it wasn’t for my dad, I would’ve quit a long time ago. I rather be in some corporate office reading contracts. Not doing no criminal law. My heart, it can’t take it. I’m too sensitive for it. I’ve seen people’s lives ruined, by me winning cases. But I wake up, every day and do it, because I always wonder to myself, what if the person I’m helping is in the same predicament as my dad.”
“And I can guarantee your father is proud of you for that. Every nigga you get off ain’t gon be innocent. But that’s okay. Cause in that bunch, its some niggas who are. And by you doing your job, you giving them a second chance at life. So don’t feel bad about what you do. Aight Johnny?” I smiled.
“Thank you baby. ” She smiled back.
“Don’t be crying on me like that. I hate seeing that shit.”
She smirked.
“The only crying you allowed to do is when I’m rupturing that cervix.”
“You have no chill at all.” She shook her head at my inappropriate comment.
The carriage stopped at our destination.
“Pont des Arts.” Her face lit up.
We arrived at Pont des Arts, or the Love Lock Bridge.
Nick had told me it was a pedestrian bridge above the River Seine. It was a place where couples wrote their names on locks, locked it to the bridge and threw the key at the bottom of the river. Thus, symbolizing their love was locked away forever.
Our carriage driver waited as we got out and walked to the bridge.
“Oh my God. This completely skipped my mind. I totally forgot about this. Do we need to get a lock?”
“Nah, I already got one. And a marker” I pulled out a heart-shaped lock and marker Nick gave me.
“I’m having second thoughts tho.” I joked.
She gave me a straight face.
“I mean, when I throw away this key it means our love is locked forever. What if I want to try something else?”
“Then you’re going to try my foot up your ass.” She snatched the lock and marker from me and wrote “Amb” on it.
I wrote “Aug.” And what I thought was a pretty good picture of an anchor.
“What is that” she laughed?”
“Why you laughing?”
“What is that?”
“It’s an anchor?”
“Why does it look like a ‘W’?”
“Don’t talk about my skills.”
She shook her head laughed, then put the lock on the bridge.
“Now we throw away this key?”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t do it. I need to sow my wild oats some mo.”
“August.” She put her hands on her hips.
“Kiss the key.” I held it out to her.
“Let’s do it at the same time.”
We kissed the key at the same time, then threw it in the river.
“So I guess that means one day you gon be Amber Patrice Alsina.”
“Riley-Alsina.”
“Oh you on that new age feminist shit?”
“What? Can’t I keep my original last name too?”
“Only for your dad.”
“Yeah for my dad.” She smiled. “Thank you baby for this. It means a lot.”
“I’m a real nigga and this is the shit we do.” I said arrogantly flexing.
“I’m gone.” She walked back to the carriage.
“Amb.” I called after her laughing. I stopped for a moment looking up at the sky. I gave a salute to my big bro. I imagined he was the star shining brightest.
“I found that shit Mel. I found that shit. And a nigga ain’t letting go.”