Trisha drops her bags at the entrance of the door, her mouth wide open, her eyes roaming the new and well polished, not to mention decorated house. 

"Ho-ly-shit." She finally says. 

I laugh and pick her bags up from the door then wiggle out of my shoes to take them to the guest room. 

"It's gorgeous Chan! I'm in love." She says taking a tour of her own. I hear her footsteps walk into the living room, then I hear them cross back to the kitchen and backyard. 

I drop her things in the lavender colored guest room with dim lights and calm lavender sheets that smell like they just got taken out of the laundry, and they did. 

"Come upstairs!" I yell. 

She does as told, following my voice. 

"Girl you ain't tell me you have a pool." She squeaks. 

"Yea, we can go swimming tomorrow." I say.  I still haven't been in the pool myself, and it's been weeks. It just looks so pretty and calm. 

She glances at the room and flops down onto the soft bed, head first. 

"Ughhhh." She moans. 

I laugh watching her. 

"Girl, I might never leave." Trish says honestly. 

"Good, move in with me." I say jokingly. She laughs but my laugh has fled. My face is serious. My eyes are sure. I look at her and confused by the silence she looks up at me. 

"I'm serious." I say. "Move in." I repeat firm but pleading. 

"Girl, you know I want to but I can't do that. I still have stuff left at home that I have to sort out, I still gotta finish school, Carmine is still in the house by himself. He's gettin old, I can't leave him up on the block by himself." The words escape her mouth slow as her eyes stare off into the space. She thought about everything I didn't. But it still didn't put things into perspective for me. 

"I'll bring Carmine here, and get him a small apartment a few minutes away. You can apply to a fashion school here. Trisha, please. I need my best friend, I hate having you so far away from me." I say leaning my back against the wall. I fold my arms and bring them up to my chest. 

She looks stiff. Trisha stands up seeming to be deep in thought. After a few moments she shakes her head. 

"I would love to Chan but that's not how this all works. I can't run off to Hollywood with you, I'm not the one making all this money. I'll be there when you need me and I'll fly back when you miss me too bad, but I gotta live my own life too. A life you pushed me to go for and now I'm focused on it. I want to finish and make you proud." She stands in front of me and she talks low, looking right into my eyes. 

"I'm already proud." I say defensive. 

"Prouder." She corrects. 

"We will talk about it later." I say fanning it off. 

"No we won't cause I gave you an answer." Trisha says firmly and annoyed now. 

I don't want to fight about it. I let it go. 

I pull her hand all the way to my room and open the door. 

The smell of my honey candle greets us as the door opens into a warm and cozy room with the tapestry of the strong black woman staring back at us. Trisha loves it so much, all I hear is a loud gasp. 

"I think this is my favorite room in the entire house." She squeals. 

"You can have it if you move in wi-" 

"Stop it." She interjects. 

I roll my eyes. 

She turns around to me with a large smile on her face.

"I'm so proud of you, I really feel like crying right now. " She says, I see the sparkle in her eyes and grab her into a hug. 

"Thank you. Don't start crying." I say holding her tightly. She hugs back. 

"I missed youuuu." I whine. 

"I know, I'm here now. Let's fuck shit up." She laughs and sniffles as a few tears had escaped. 

"Lets!" 

__________________________________________ 

It's the best Pop and R&B singer, Yaya's birthday and I surprisingly got an invitation in the mail a few days after I won the BET award. I picked out a sparkly gold dress weeks in advance and Trisha paired it with heels from French designer D'jaju. Many celebrities would be there, I still think the word celebrity doesn't apply to me. It feels weird considering myself one of them. 

Trisha wears a black dress with gold jewelry complimenting the dress well. Around her waist is a gold belt and she wears black pumps by Calvin Klein, who I didn't even know made shoes for women. 

After Trisha and I beat our face with the best make up out, we open up snap and model one time. My huge speakers are loud through out the house and we open the bottle of mango Amsterdam vodka, then mix it with mango-pineapple Snapple. With the taste of alcohol barely present, our new drink creation began to set in. 

I angle my phone and hold down the middle button to take a snapchat video. 

"Hey y'all, check out my new house. It's liiiittt." I turn the camera so the viewers can see the house and Trisha runs into the view and starts twerking. 

"Heyyyy, ay, ay, ay - looka-dat-booty-gah-dahm." I laugh. 

The video ends and we laugh too hard at our shenanigans. Maybe we don't even need to go to Yaya's party. We were having a blast all on our own. 

"Shots!" Trisha screams. Her voice echos through the loud kitchen. 

"Wait, I didn't even eat nothin bih!" I retort, opening up my refrigerator. 

Empty. 

"Damn, where's Devin to buy me groceries when you need him?" I chuckle. 

Trisha busts out laughing. Her head back, her hands hold her stomach. 

"You the odee asshole. I saw him and his new girl the other day. Cause Mac invited me to that B is for Beauty fashion show and he was there with her." Trisha, lifts up her dress and jumps up on top of my counter. She opens the pantry and pulls out a can. 

"You got ravioli. You want that?" She asks. 

My mind is stuck temporarily on Devin and Abra. I imagine the dark skin girl with curly hair and big boobs. I imagine her small face and almond shaped eyes, her thick lips. She looked like me, but my boobs are far from big. 

"Yea." I answer distant. "Does he look like he's in love?" I ask, taking a sip of my drink. 

"Yea, actually. They were happy as fuck." She chuckles. 

I press my lips into a hard line and feel my stomach sink to the bottom of my designer shoes. I tip my half full red solo cup to my head and finish the rest in two gulps. I feel the mixed drink warm my stomach. 

Trisha looks at me with wide eyes. 

"Did you say shots?" I ask. 

She leaves the ravioli on the counter and books it to the two pink shot glasses on the counter. She fills them to the brim with New Amsterdam and we cheers to a good night. 

We throw the shots back and I watch Trisha's face grimace. 

"Bleh." She says wiping the sides of her mouth. 

"Chaser." I shake my hands and squirm as the disgusting taste won't leave my mouth. She pushes the mango snapple towards me.

We open the ravioli and kill the small can in merely seconds. 

"Still hungry." I say annoyed. 

"You got another can of it." Trisha says, jumping up on the counter again. 

"Mehh!" I say stretching my hands out like a baby. She passes me the can and we eat the ravioli straight from the container. 

I laugh at her mouth, covered in its red sauce. 

"Don't get it on your dress. That dress is expensive as shit." I say to her. 

"We gotta go to this party before we get there and it's over. I'm tryna find me a celebrity boy friend. You feel me?" Trisha jokes. 

My security guard, Remus said he doesn't mind driving us there. I told him that he can have the night off but stumbling drunk out of my house didn't give him much of a choice to leave. Ma would kill him herself if anything happened to me. 

Remus passes me and Trisha two bottles of water. 

We pour the water out the window when he isn't paying attention and fill it with the rest of the Amsterdam Trisha had in her purse. 

"Ahaaaaa! We so smart!" She laughs obnoxiously. 

"Shhhh! Shh!" I whisper, laughing myself. 

We arrive at Yaya's house and Remus shows my invitation to the security guard at the gate. 

"Oooo gated community. Wonder who else lives here." I sing. 

"It's all Yaya's. I've been here before." Remus says. 

Trisha and I look at each other baffled. The property seemed to stretch for miles before the big house opened up before us. 

"All this land is hers? What do you do with all this land? " I ask clueless. 

Remus shrugs and looks around at us. 

When he looks around, he sees Trisha sip the water bottle and cringe. 

His face loses any color it had. 

"What's in that water bottle?" He asks annoyed and frustrated. 

Trisha's face is frozen. Her eyes looking like a deer caught in the headlights. 

I damn near lose my mind, laughing so hard I am heaving. 

"Stop, stop, stop." I say tapping Remus's arm. "Please don't talk. I can't breathe." 

Trisha's chuckle is silent. 

"I'm not letting you girls out this car until you at least appear to be sober." Remus says pulling up to the entrance of Yaya's house. You can hear the loud music from the front. Her house looks like a castle. The steps alone leading up to the front door were kind of exaggerated. 

Trish and I stop laughing and adjusts our dresses and fix our hair. We sit quietly, not saying a single word. 

"If you girls think that this is what appearing to be sober is, then I don't know." Remus shakes his head. 

Trisha and I stay frozen in our seats. Back straight, straight face on, silent. 

"Okay." Remus says like a Father who is completely over it. 

He comes out of the SUV and opens the door so we can climb out. Casually he helps us. 

I don't feel as drunk as I am until I stand. Still, I am drunk enough to see Nazir Craft staring at Trisha and I exit the car. 

Remus checks to make sure my phone is charged before driving off. 

As Trisha walks to my side, she freezes in her tracks. 

Nazir stares back and waves casually. 

"Oh my God. Is that the nigga from that Romeo and Juliet movie remake?" She questions. 

"Yup." I answer. 

Nazir's perfect blonde hair and blue eyes make him look like some sort of powdered up barbie doll, but he was beautiful in himself. Maybe even more beautiful than any of the white women here. He walks over to us as we walk towards the Cinderella stairs. 

"Do you ladies need some help?" He questions in his British accent. 

I should have known he was really British. His accent was too perfect in the movie. 

"Don't lose a shoe." He laughs. 

"That's crazy. These stairs definitely remind me of Cinderella." I chuckle. 

"Thank you for helping us. Heels can be a lil tricky." Trisha speaks. 

Nazir laughs. 

When we are finally at the top of the stairs, he pulls the large white doors open for us. 

"Thank you, Romeo!" Trisha says. 

He chuckles hearty. 

The place is packed with socialites and TV personalities, as well as producers and stars that I know the face of but not the name. 

Don't fan girl, don't fan girl. Relax. 

My head is a bit jumbled but I am definitely more sober than I was a few minutes ago. 

Trisha is quiet, but my arms are wrapped around hers. She takes in the amazing house and all the beautiful people. The high ceilings, the staircases the twirl up unto the next floor of the house. Everything looks marble. I should have known Yaya lives like a true princess. 

We mingle and chat and mingle and chat. A lot of people congratulate me on my two awards and comment on how fast I've risen to fame. But mostly they just talk about themselves and what they're up to. 

A few of them seem a little snobby. I look around for Yaya, but I don't see her. Does she show up to her own parties? It would be kind of dope if she didn't. If she's so famous that she doesn't even show up to her own shit. 

I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn around confused. Trisha is still connected to my arm, she's the only one I really know here. I turn and a small head with long dreads and an assortment of accessories greets me with a big smile.

"Ahhhh!" I hear Trisha scream first. "Ma baby!!!" 

D'tello laughs and hugs her first since she jumps in front of me. 

I hug him tightly after. 

"Oh my God, D. I can't tell you how refreshing it is to see you here. Everyone is a little... you know." I shrug. 

"Stuck up? Too rich?" He questions. I nod twice. 

"There's some cool people here, you just gotta find them. It's great to see you again Chanel, congrats on the awards." D'tello's smile is so genuine, I can see why Trisha is melting right next to me.  

"Thank you. It's been a crazy couple months but I've enjoyed it." I think about the good more than the bad. 

"I see you sporting a lot of my clothes and I also want to say thank you for that. Business has been doing great and it helps to have a beautiful model such as your self and the lovely lady Trish. 

D'tello kisses Trisha's hand. I can feel her heart spilling onto my designer heels. 

His voice is as slow and controlled as I remember and he looks the same, though he is wearing a navy blue suit with a white collard shirt, he managed to still look casual and chill. This was more of a cocktail party than it was a party party. People just walked around mingling and drinking. 

I still feel blessed to be here. But boredom would set in sometimes soon I'm sure. I shift my weight to my other foot as Trisha asks D'tello about new trends popping up in Soho. I stumble back as the room feels a bit uneven but no one notices. 

I hear a laugh on a distant side of the room. Something fake and squeaky. Heat flies into my fists as I turn around and see Mila dressed in bright red. 

Trisha follows my eyes and looks back at me with a devilish smile. That smile contains so much that it would take an hour to describe what I saw in it. Trisha's loyalty has always been unwavering. She's always been protective over me. Putting my beef before her own.

I can see that look on her face. The look that I often saw when me and her were fighting, something a little evil, something dangerous. This look was amplified now, ten times over. She tilts her head to the side cutely, and fluffs her hair.

"Hey! Mila!" Trisha calls. Mila's head turns towards us and her smile slowly disappears.