Back at the mansion, I had walked back down the stairs of shame to the kitchen to finish my breakfast. Our friends were just chowing down.

"You forgot the hot sauce, bro," Johnny said.

I just looked at them with my head hanging down. "Sorry, I'm not in the hot sauce mood right now."

"Want me to cheer you up?" Bell said, jumping out his seat.

"No, I don't...."

"I'm a goofy goober yeah! You're a goofy goober yeah!" Bell sung, danced around, and knocked over a can of pickles, leaving a dark green mess on the floor. As fun as that song was, it did absolutely nothing for me.

"Thanks," I told him, "But I'm not feeling it. Also, you're gonna have to pick those pickles up."

"Awww man," Bell said, "Why are you sad? Did you mess up with Marriam?"

"Yes, yes I did," I held my hands in my face.

"Oh, God!" Johnny hopped out his seat. "Please tell me it was minor. For your life!"

"I don't even know what level," I told them, "All I know is...I really messed up".

Johnny held his heart and fainted right on the ground.

"Don't worry, baby!" Kimberly rushed to his side, put her hands on his chest, and kissed him hard. Johnny then rose back up

"All better!" he cheered.

"I was so worried, baby," Kimberly said, before giving him a tight hug

"What did you do that made her mad?" Johnny asked.

"Accused her of cheating," I told them, avoiding eye contact as much as possible.

"Oh my God, dude," Marina said, "That's like, the ultimate sin."

"This is crazy!" Johnny said, "Now, I know Marriam, and when she loves somebody, she loves them HARD. She's loyal as hell, man!"

"I know," I looked at myself in absolute disgust, "I just let, I just let my insecurities get the best of me, I suppose. How am I gonna fix it?"

"Just start a band," Johnny said, "Like One Di...yeah, like them."

"That's crazy enough to work," I said, "We could start a band, ask her to meet me at Fubway, and play a song for her."

"You got the right idea, man!" Johnny said, "What song?"

"Um, um, um," I shuffled through the playlist in my brain, "When Will I See You Smile Again by Bell Biv Devoe."

"That's good, that's good," Johnny said, "But we need some members. A bass player! A piano man! Some groovin' drums!"

"And all by this afternoon," I added.

"I could play a real smooth bass line," Jonny said, "Only problem? MY GUITAR BURNED DOWN!"

"Sorry," Bell said, looking like a sad puppy.

"We can get you a new one from the store," I said.

"It won't feel the same," he said, throwing on his pout face.

"I don't give a damn!" Jonny said, "We got a whole band to start, and we need to do it now."

"And where the hell are you gonna find those people?" Kimberly said.

I stared in the air for a bit with my hand on my chin. "Shooooot...I don't know."

"You know the Chinga Tu Madre mall?" Marina said.

"Well, yeah," I replied.

"They have a Guitar Center where all the local musicians come to play," she explained, "We can probably get one of them to play for us."

"Oh, forget that," Johnny said, "They like sacrificing chickens and crap."

"None of us have any instruments," I said, "If I gotta sacrifice some chickens to make her happy again, so be it!"

"Ooh, That's how they make chicken nuggets!" Bell said.

"Yeah, kinda," Jonny said, "Now let's roll outta here. we got a band to start!"

Bell looked down on his plate with a frown.

"I'm not done with my food," he said.

"Should've ate faster," Jonny said, "Now let's head out."

Monica guided Thomas out the studio and into the open air. As they left, Grady commented, "Eh, you kinda started it." Thomas leaned on the side of the building, and Monica wiped his face off with some wet wipes.

"You okay now?" she asked him.

"Yeah," Thomas said.

"Good, now do you wanna tell me what the hell just happened in there?"

"I don't know," he scratched his head, "I guess I kinda, I kinda lost control."

"Look, Kenyelle's pretty much all I have to make it in this business, and I can't afford to have anyone screw it up."

"Look, I didn't mean to mess anything up," Thomas said, looking down, "But love, it does funny things to do."

Monica gasped covered her heart. "Love? You...you love me?"

"Yeah," Thomas said, "I loved you for at least two years now, but I could never find the right time to really express it. Plus, I kinda assumed we were just, you know, friends..."

"Thomas," Monica said, "I loved you too, but I thought the same thing. I was waitin' for you to make a move, and do something romantic, but you never did. I mean, I was kinda cool with it, but, but I always wanted more from you".

"I guess we both got each other screwed up, huh?". Thomas got a smile on his face.

"Yeah," Monica said, laughing a bit. "But I don't know. It feels like it's too late."

"No, it's not too late," Thomas then took a long sigh. "I'm willing to take a chance with you, and dedicate myself to you fully. This is the perfect opportunity. I love you, Monica, and I wanna go out with you, what do you say?"

"Jeez," she looked at him, and then at the ground, "I, I don't know, it's a lot to take in at once. I never really knew you had those feelings for me. I mean, I, I had my suspicions before, but now that I know that they're true, I mean, I just, I don't know".

"Just know that no matter what you say, I'll always support you."

"Thanks," Monica told him. "You know, deep down I love you, Thomas, and I just wish that this wasn't the situation to bring it out. It's, It's gonna be kinda weird going from buddies to lovers, but with a guy like you, I...I guess I could take that chance, and uh, see where it goes".

"And I'd take that chance with an awesome girl like you," Thomas said. "Come here."

He picked her and gave her a madly, passionate French kiss while spinning her slowly around, like those romance movies. London and Grady had seen the whole ordeal through the studio corner.

"This is some soap opera stuff right here," London said.

"Who'd knew it happen to us?" Grady added.

Thomas looked at Monica one more time with newfound awe.

"So, uh, you still wanna do Starbucks?"

Monica grabbed his hand and said, "Hell yeah, let's go." Then they trotted along the way.

On the other side of town, LaQuinta sat in her gray and barren dance studio, curled up to herself, with a box of tissues.

She sang to herself, "Well, I'm not gon' cry, I'm not gon' cry, not gon' shed no tears."

A beam of light appeared from the door, highlighting a figure that was entering.

"Customer? Please be a customer!" She pleaded with her hands together on the floor.

"LaQuinta, is that you?". A man in a black and blue suit appeared in front of her, holding a clipboard full of papers.

"The one and only," she said, "What the hell you want?"

He looked at the papers and buried his face in his hands.

"You've been getting absolutely no business since you opened," he said.

"I've been getting hella business, where the hell you've been?" she claimed.

"By who? The damn flies?"

"Shut the hell up, you just mad cause your junk ain't sellin."

He looked at her with a stern look. "My junk is selling lady, yours isn't, and if it doesn't by next week, I'm shutting this place down."

"Wait!" She said, growing a sly look on her face. "You know, I'm just a young lady tryna get into the business, tryna accomplish my dreams." She got up, walked up to him, and started rubbing his shoulders.

"You don't wanna shut down my dreams, do you?"

He pulled away from her, saying, "First off, I'm married, second of all, business is business, I hate to shut you down, but I'm sorry."

As he walked out, LaQuinta raised her middle finger in the air, "Forget you! You missin' out! Bet your wife don't even put it down no more!". She then shrugged and sat back in her corner, with her head hanging down.

"How the hell am I supposed to get people to come here?" she asked herself, "Stupid dummies don't know what they're missin'."

However, someone else stepped in the deserted studio. LaQuinta looked at them carefully.

"And who the hell are you?"

"I'm Jada Lindsay, witch!" she said with a smile.

"I don't give a damn witch," LaQuinta said, "Go back to Mariah's lousy studio. Leave me the hell alone."

"No, I'm here to help out," Jada said. She walked over and sat right next to her.

"Why would you wanna help me?" LaQuinta asked, "I mean, I trashed your whole studio, that's suspicious."

"I know, I know," Jada said, "But I don't like to see a black girl struggling."

LaQuinta looked at her and said, "Lies."

"Look," Jada said, "I came here to help you. If you don't want it, fine."

"No, nononono," LaQuinta shook her head and hands. "Thank..thank you for coming here."

"Alright," Jada said, "But don't tell nobody I'm doing this. They'll get so mad at me".

"Not a problem girl," she said.

Meanwhile, Bell, Jonny, Marina, Gretchen, Johnny, Kimberly, and I strolled through the halls of the Chinga Tu Madre mall. There was a sell on Jordans at Footlocker, so of course, it was packed as hell. And with a bunch of sweaty people around, it was hot as hell too. I would've taken off my jacket, but it's part of my outfit.

"Oh my God!" Marina said, "Look at all of the people!"

"Where the hell they come from?" Jonny asked, "This place is usually drier than a desert."

"The new 11s are out," I said, "So everybody's going crazy."

"Ooh!" Bell said, "I want some!"

"You got Jordan money?" Jonny asked.

"Yeah," Bell replied.

"Where it's at?" Jonny asked.

"In my dreams," Bell said, pointing to his head.

"AAAAHHHH!" Jonny cried out.

"Can you, like, not do that," Gretchen said, "Your breath smells like dog tacos."

"He shouldn't have kissed you so much then," Johnny said.

"You chicken scratch feather duster!" Gretchen yelled before pulling back her purse and slamming Johnny in the dome with it. He stumbled into the mall's water fountain and got his face and shirt drenched. Kimberly's face turned red.

"Don't hit my man, you evil witch!" Kimberly yelled.

"What's your tiny little self gonna do about it?"

BAM!

Gretchen got floored with a red and swollen cheek. Some shades of make-up were on Kimberly's fist. Marina walked over to Gretchen and looked down on her before saying,

"You got knocked the hell out!"

Meanwhile, Kimberly ran over to help Johnny out of the fountain.

"Hubby!" she cried, "This savage just ruined my contour!"

"Yo, can we just chill?" I said, "We came here for a band, not WWE."

"Yeah, you right," Jonny said, "Let's just move on."

As we walked, Kimberly carefully tended to her man's side and patted his back.

"Hubby, hubby, you alright?"

Johnny had no words. Instead, he just coughed up a fish that started flopping on the floor.

"Yeah baby," he said, "I'm fine."

Kimberly started leaning on him even more, crying, "Oh my God! I was so worried about you! Come on, gimme a kiss."

They locked faces, lips, and tongue as Gretchen winced in disgust.

"He just had a fish in his mouth, how do you do that?"

"Like this," Kimberly held him tighter and kissed him even harder. Gretchen pretended to stick her finger down her throat.

We finally walked into Guitar Center, and I heard a jam session that infected my ears immediately. It was the perfect marriage of striking drums, rolling bass, and smooth guitar. All I knew is that we had to go back there.

"Quick, let's go to the jam room!" I said.

"Ooh, I heard they got some good sandwiches in there," Bell said, jumping with excitement, But Jonny was quick to shut him down.

"Not that kind of jam!" he yelled.

"Toe jam?" Bell asked.

"You know, jam session, like you, jammin' to the music, like.."

Jonny did a dance where he bounced off each leg and played air guitar with squinting eyes, going, "Durdurdurrdurrrdurrdurrr!".

Both Bell and the cashier looked at him sideways.

"I don't follow," Bell said, "All I know is...you look like a moron!". He and Marina started pointing and laughing.

"Yeah, like you ain't," Jonny said.

"At least I don't stuff like..." Bell started to mimic him, but a row of drums got in the way. They all tumbled one after another in descending harmony.

The cashier reminded us, "You break, you buy!".

I held my face in my hands, "Let's just go to the jam room, y'all."

Once we walked in, we saw quite a surprise.

"Mike, Macy, Brenda, David, Cooper?" Gretchen said, with her hands on the side of her face.

Macy put down her guitar and said, "Oh my God, haven't seen you guys in a long time, where the hell y'all been?"

"We've just been chillin', man," Johnny said.

"You guys?" Macy asked, raising her eyebrow, "Chilling?"

The group started laughing and guffawing like crazy.

"Anyways," David said, "You guys need some help? Look like y'all hungry."

Gretchen pointed at me and said, "That doofus thought Marriam was cheating on him."

The five teens started looking at each other and sounded off...

"Oh no!"

"Oh no!"

"Oh no!"

"Oh no!"

"Oh no!"

At this point, I knew I screwed up royally, but they wouldn't let me forget.

"This is the biggest screw-ups in the history of screw-ups," David said.

"You pretty much just set yourself on fire," Brenda said.

"Surprised you ain't dead," Macy said.

"I would've been ran away if I was you," Cooper said.

"Enjoy breathing while you can," Mike said.

I shook my head and said, "Look, I know all of that, everybody already told me. But I got a solution, and I need some help with it".

"We usually don't save lives," Brenda said, "But we'll make an exception. How can we help y'all?"

"He wants y'all to play some old 90's R&B song," Gretchen said, rolling her eyes.

"Don't disrespect Bell Biv Devoe like that," I said, "But yeah, you know their song When Will I See You Smile Again?"

"Oh yeah," David said, "That's my jam!"

"We gon' sing the song, and y'all gon' play it for her," I said.

"Hell, I'm in," David said.

"Me too," Brenda said.

"Hold up though," Macy said, "We ain't doing this gig for free though."

"Alright, that's fair," I said, "But uh, how much I owe you?"

"We don't want money though," David said, "You see, my kick game's been all fucked up since my ex set the house on fire, and I'm losin my game with the ladies. No woman's gon talk to you while you wearin' paper towels on your feet, so uh, I need me some of them Jordans."

"We don't got money like that, my dude," I said.

"I thought you earned like five hundred thousand from Fubway," Johnny said.

"All that cash is at the house, man," I said.

"You guys misunderstood," Brenda said, "We want them J's for free."

"I mean, y'all the criminals," I said, "Y'all can do it."

"We in a band now," Cooper said.

"Ah, no," I said while sighing.

"I like doing the wrong thing," Marina said, "It's fun sometimes."

"Besides, you said you'd sacrifice some chickens for her," Johnny said, "I'd say this is a step-down."

Then a thought struck my head. "You know what? Marriam has dons tons of crazy stuff for me. I'mma steal them damn Jordans! For my baby!"

"That's what the hell I'm talkin' about!" Jonny said.

"Yeah! Let's go tear up this mall!" Kimberly cheered. We marched out of Guitar Center and were on our merry way.