“Okay, but if you need a ride, hollah.”
“Bye, Ma!”
“Bye, y’all.”
“Bye, Daddy!”
“You gots to chill,” he smiled.
“Bye, Mom-Mom—”
Mom-Mom screamed, “It’s Delicious!”
SPIN IT…
Track 5
“Oh…hell…to da nawl!” Naja yelled as we sat in the front row at Continental Arena, feeling like hip-hop princesses and looking twice as fly. “Is that,” she continued, “Lil Wayne hugged up on Trina?” Naja shoved her soda in my hand, causing the ice in the cup to rattle about. “Here, hold this, ’cause in a minute it’s about to be on and poppin’. How Lil Wayne gon’ take her back?”
Naja stood up from her seat and I snatched her back down. “What the—?” She was outta pocket! “Gurl, you straight trippin’. you can’t go runnin’ up on Lil Wayne!”
“Why not? He can get it, too. I don’t believe this.” For a minute I thought she had tears in her eyes. “I can’t believe Lil Wayne didn’t wait for me.”
“Wait for you?” Was this fool crazy?
“Yeah.”
Was she sniffling? Hold it…I knew that couldn’t be a tear I saw.
“After,” she sniffed, “I didn’t make the second season of Flavor of Love, I wrote Lil Wayne and told him we were meant to be and that I’d be eighteen next year, so he should wait for me…And here he is, gettin’ it in wit’ Trina? Knowing she was droppin’ it for Young Buck, too? I swear, nobody listens to Kya or 50 Cent.”
All I did was stare. There were no words for her. It was official: Naja’s common sense was twisted.
“This is some bullshit, you know that, right?” Naja wiped her eyes, then looked to the side of us and stared as if she’d just seen a ghost. “Wait…a minute…wait…a minute. Didn’t I tell that big head ho to stay away from my man?!” Naja whipped her neck toward me. “Oh it’s ’bout to be a misunderstanding.”
“You need to calm down before you blow something.”
“Oh, I’ma blow something alright.” She pounded her fist at Rihanna.
“Keep it up and they gon’ arrest you.”
I wasn’t sure what she said in response because the lights went down and the crowd started screaming. Lloyd, Haneef’s opening act, took the stage and Naja started panting, “Lloyd! I love you! It’s me, it’s Naja, I call your record company every day! I’m all over your MySpace page. Did you get my friend request?! I wanna be your number one friend. Lloyd, did you get my email?!”
“Would you shut up?!” I’d thought I was the world’s best groupie, but all along, my best friend had me beat.
Lloyd and the crowd were singing his hit song together. People were yelling and screaming, and some girls were even crying. His band was fantastic and just as he went to sing his last song, Jordin Sparks joined him on stage.
“Oh hell, no, he didn’t?!” Naja snapped. “I know he didn’t bypass me for American Idol’s rendition of Big Bird?”
“Now you need to apologize for that,” I said surprised. “You know she can sing!”
“Well, if singing is what matters, then why is Rihanna with Chris Brown?”
I ignored her. I’d had enough of her insulting people. Once she saw I was ignoring her, she started enjoying the concert and singing along. As Lloyd and his entourage left the stage, Trey Songz hopped on and Naja passed out.
I fanned her. “You better learn to breathe again, because here comes Haneef!” She sat up and we both started screaming. The entire place went completely black, and then spotlights shot back and forth across the audience.
Everyone was yelling and holding up their lighters and flashlights, the streams of light and flickering flames seemed to illuminate the sky. Girls were crying, “I love you, Haneef!”
“Hmph,” I shouted. “Not like I do!”
Naja and I started bumping shoulders and throwing our arms in the air as the dancers came onstage and did some of the flyest hip-hop moves I’d ever seen. And right when they were in the midst of gettin’ down wit’ the get down, a spotlight streamed center stage, and there was a cloud of smoke and an array of helicopter noises.
“Attention,” a computerized male voice radiated the arena. “Calling all cars—calling all cars—hip-hop sensation Haneef—is wanted…” The voice repeated itself, Haneef was lowered onto the stage, and the crowd went ballistic!
Naja and I were screaming at the top of our lungs as Haneef started dancing and singing my favorite song, “All for You.”
“Jeeeeee’susssssss!!!!!!” I started to hyperventilate. I looked to see where fresh air could be found, and guess who was staring right in my face? You guessed it: Ciera.
I rolled my eyes, like chick, please, and commenced to getting my groove on again.
I couldn’t believe this was happening to me and for the first time in my life, I forgot about all the adult responsibilities I had. And instead of feeling grown, I knew then, like at no other time in my life, that that was what seventeen was supposed to feel like.
Haneef sang three songs: one remix, one from his new album, and a throwback. Afterwards, he slowed the music down and started talking to the audience, while his band continued to play in the background. “Jersey! How’s everybody tonight?!”
The crowd shouted, “Alright!” in response.
“Y’all look good out there!” He shielded his hands over his eyes like a visor and looked into the audience. “Well, on the radio yesterday I promised I would bring a hottie onstage with me to sing. Y’all ready for that?”
“Yeah!” the crowd shouted back.
I started cheesin’and Najah whispered, “Look at Ciera.”
Ciera was straightening her clothes and hair as if she were sure her name was going to be called.
“And I decided,” Haneef said, “to let my homeboy Chris Brown pull out a name for me.”
Chris Brown walked onstage and Naja screamed, “I love you, Chris! To hell with Rihanna! It’s all about me and you! I love you!”
Chris Brown reached into a spinning barrel of names and handed one to Haneef.
Ciera stood up and mouthed to her friends, “Told you,” then proceeded to wink at me.
“Elite Parker!” Haneef said into the microphone, while shielding his eyes again. “Come on and rock this with me!”
“What did he say?” Had he just called my name?
“Elite,” he repeated.
I looked around. Had he really just called my name?
“Is Elite here tonight?” he asked again.
“Right here!” Naja pointed, pushing me on the shoulder. “Right here, this is my best friend! She is just like my sister! Here she is, right here!”
Security came over, placed a microphone headset on me, and that’s when I knew the moment was for real. I screamed in excitement at the top of my lungs.
Once onstage, Haneef walked over and grabbed my hand, then started slow dancing with me, and the next thing I knew he was singing, “Rather fall in love with a girl that’s made for me…” and on he went.
I was in such a daze that I forgot about