Manhattan, New York 1985

I toed my heels off and swung my legs onto the bed. I really wanted to take off this dress Prince has me wearing but then I would actually have to find something to wear to bed and getting up is not on my agenda right now. 

I felt all the soreness from the day finally settle into my joints, and I was fully in pain. I had press all day for the album and then Prince decided to send a limo to pick me up tonight for his show. I have no clue as to why but he put me front row center at the concert. I don't what it was about tonight but I finally saw how sexual he was on stage. Here I was super close to the stage and he was performing the whole concert to me and licking his hand and in between his fingers, working his tongue like it was his job, just doing all these sexual gestures. We joked and laughed so much while he was on stage tonight and the crowd had literally no clue. 

He was doing the splits and we made a bet backstage that he couldn't do twenty in a row and knowing our competitive asses we put money on it. However, he split his pants and had no underwear on. He looked so embarrassed but he leaned over the stage edge and said, "That's $300". Asshole. 

So after the many dirty jokes we made backstage, I paid him and one of his bodyguards drove me back to his hotel in a van. The vehicle spun out of control, through three lanes of traffic, and crashed into the medium. Through the grace of God we ended up hitchhiking back. 

And here I am now, in the hotel room lying down, with my eyes closed, trying escape my past midnight thoughts, which always scared me and got way to deep at night. I felt a little uneasy so I opened my eyes and jolted at the sight of Prince, standing over the bed and looking down at me. 

"You ever been in love?"

He chuckled. "Is that how you greet people?"

I shrugged. "Only the ones I like."

He gasped, fake stunned. "Ah so you like me now."

I twisted my mouth, trying not to smile. "Your crazy matches my crazy."

"Hmmmm" he glanced to the ceiling "trying to figure out if that's a compliment or not."

"It depends on your definition of crazy."

"Well what's your definition of crazy?"

I played with the ends of my hair, trying to see if I should let him hear my demented Joker-esque thoughts. I decided to spare him and change the subject. "You never answered the question."

"I asked you one first."

"No I asked you first."

"But I asked the most recent question."

"Your logic is extremely irrelevant right now."

"What's my logic then?"

I groaned at his childishness. "You're so annoying."

"Good then, I only annoy the people I like."

"Once again, your logic...pretty fucked up."

"Wouldn't be the first thing about me that is."

Ouch. That hurts. I pouted, feeling a little bad for him. 

"Nah. Never."

I furrowed my brows. "Never what?"

"I've never been in love."

I scoffed. "Bullshit."

His face dropped. "You don't see the things i've seen and still sleep like a kitten, If you feel shit like love baby."

"Great." I tossed my hair over my shoulder. "Another textbook sociopath."

There was a bit of a silence between us. I debated on whether I was gonna call Michael or not to atleast let him know where I was but he has currently in the studio and i'm sure he's not even thinking about me right now. 

He pecked me on the temple. "Get some sleep.." 

Eventually, us sleeping together became more frequent and frequent. He would just randomly call me up and asked could I come to a show, sometimes I couldn't because I was working but most of the time I made time for him. So he would just fly me out or send a limo to where I was so that after a show we could sleep together, in the literal sense. We've done it before but never as frequently as we did it during that time period. Most of the times, we would just sit in the dark and talk all night, sometimes we would paint or draw together, Prince was really talented at drawing. Suzannah was never around, Hannah was never around, Naomi, Gigi, or Michael wasn't around. It was just men and him in peace, together. Those were some of the most peaceful times in my life. Every conversation got deeper and deeper, we revealed more and more about ourselves and it was the first time I heard Prince open up. At first I just had a feeling he didn't like sleeping alone, but the things he said were what got me to thinking. Maybe he was just lonely. 

"2 million!!!" I handed the check back to her, my eyes still wide as a deer in headlights just thinking about how crazy Michael has to be to give this crazy bitch two million dollars.

Hannah crossed her legs in triumph, tucking the slip of paper back into her purse "Yes bitch!"

My mouth gaped. "He's offering you 2 million to get me to do the video."

"Yes!!! but he won't sign it unless you show up on set. I'm honestly thinking about forging his signature and cashin' this shit in."

"What does he think he can buy me?" 

"Well i'd be kind of happy to be a 2 million dollar bitch."

I scoffed at her greed. "It's the principle of the thing Hannah." I could almost laugh at the fuckery, why now? Why is he coming back now? What does he have up his sleeve now? "You know what I don't understand is why hasn't he called me about this. I mean." I recrossed my legs "what makes him think that you can just talk me into doing anything."

"Well, I am your bestfriend."

"Sometimes I wonder." 

"Oh please I have always looked out for you."

"Have you?..because taking a 2 million dollar check from my ex-boyfriend, that you told me to break up with and then later told me to stay with doesn't exactly count to me." I sometimes wonder why I even keep her around, I swear she makes my life harder. "All my bad love-life related decisions have been because of you."

"Don't even go there with me okay..." she pointed to me sternly. "You're the one that fired me over that ass and what did he do you to because you were sooo over the moon in love? Oh right, be engaged for a year while he was fucking you on the side and feeding you lies."

I turned out the window, I had no time for this. First she tells me to be with Prince, then Michael, now she hates Prince and is working with Michael. I have no clue who her loyalty stand with. I knew I didn't need friends. I mean, I actually miss Naomi and Gigi. Their both working for Bowie right now while he's preparing for his Glass Spider tour. I have no clue why he wanted them, but they were up for it and like many of my friends, it's their dream to sleep with David Bowie. I have no clue why all my friends want to but I tell them all to go for it. He's great in the bedroom, I can tell your from experience.

I looked out the window in awe, passing by the magnolia trees, we didn't stay inside the city of New Orleans, more along the outskirts near the bayou. Our family neighborhood was built generations and generations ahead of me. The houses have been past down to their kids and past down to those people's kids and so on and so forth, some houses are still being built.

All the memories came rushing back at once, the good ones. The 4th of July water fights, the cookouts, the random family basketball games. The family get togethers on top of the hill. Those hot after school days when me, my little cousin Toot, and little brother Steven would just run around the neighborhood playing whatever imaginary game we had decided on for the day, I have more men in my family than women. I've always been more comfortable around boys. 

Good times here, great ones. I squealed, pressing my hands to the window as we passed the cypress trees. I remember climbing those and I remember feeling like shit the day I plummeted to the ground after the a branch snapped.

I remember that day, my dad was mad at me and he was chasing after me. The only I could think of to get away way to climb a tree, which I did. Eventually he went away and told me i'd have to come home eventually. I didn't come home for 2 weeks. I ran into the city and slept in there. I was 7 and it sounds dramatic I know but you don't know my father. No one does.

Trying to shake myself away from the oncoming train of bad thoughts, I refocused myself outside. I could see the strawberry patches in the distance. I remember sneaking in there when I was hungry, but my mom wasn't home for work and I didn't want to go home. 

If I could raise my future children anywhere. It would be right here. All this open country landscape, but Prince would never be up for this. He's such a city boy. 

I chuckled to myself. "Damn Yankee."

I damn near jumped out the car when it stopped. The great thing about my family is that everyone's door was always unlocked. I walked in and my Uncle was standing in the middle of the living room floor.

"Uncle Wayne!!!" I squealed, opening my arms for a hug. "15 years is a long ass time, look at me all grown up now. How you been?"

He slapped me in the chest. "Keep all that monkey mouth to ya' self"

I shot my hands to my chest, highly confused and in very much pain. I looked around for a bit, my family didn't even budge, they just regularly continued their conversations. I didn't know what to say, or what to do. I just froze.

My sister came out of nowhere and grabbed me and pulled me to the side. "Chill he been sayin' this all day we don't know what it mean, just wait a minute til' we figure it out."

"No I'm not gonna chill. I'm gonna talk to him. Y'all not talkin' to him." I pulled out her arms and grabbed Uncle Wayne and pulled him to the side. "Hey Unc...a lot of stuff has changed since you been gone. My singing voice that you said you loved. Well now I'm a big time pop star, making good money. I'm not a baby singing under the covers anymore. Let me take you out so we can get you around some women, get you some drinks, maybe catch up and celebrate your homecoming right."

"Ok.." he patted my back extremely hard, sending me into an instant coughing fit. He walked off leaving me there to die. Asshole. Once I regained the ability to breathe. I made my way around the room, greeting my family and consoling those who were crying. Many of them tried to pitch song ideas, video ideas, movie ideas, just business ideas in general. I tend to ignore them in that case, they've always been trying to get a piece of the pie since I left. Not all of them but I do have a few opportunity seekers in my family. My heart jumped when I saw my father walk into the house, I automatically felt nauseous. I wanted nothing more than to go home but I made myself stay. He is the sole reason I never come around my family as much as I used to. He always told me that if I wanted to leave then I has to stay away from his family, as if I wasn't even his child, like I was hoe off the streets. 

I fought the bile that was threatening to come out. I decided that maybe bread would make it go away. I tore open a roll, watching the steam rise to the top. At this point I was doing anything to not make myself noticeable. However, much like when I go out in public at anytime these days. I failed. I heard my Uncle Johnny yelled my name across the room. 

"Jasmyn? Jas is that you?" 

My eyes widened, but I kept my head down. Maybe if I didn't acknowledge him he would just turn around. See Johnny was on drugs but he found Jesus, but he's one of those people that found Jesus and now that he found him he wants to throw Jesus on everybody. I hate talking to him because for no reason at all he throws religion at me. I do nothing to deserve the conversation, no matter what I say he brings up religion.

I forced a smile on my face, cursing under my breathe as he came closer and closer. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck-Good Morning Johnny."

"Uh, it is a good morning because Jesus woke us up. Hello! Boom! I love him, do you."

Nigga. I couldn't even keep a straight face. "What?" 

I couldn't even focus while I was talking to him. I was on edge the entire time, because my father was making his was around the room and got closer and closer to me and I got more and more sick to the stomach by the second. However, somehow in his ranting, the conversation switched from Cousin Kenny's sudden death, to him being mad at me for moving to L.A.

"See Jasmyn you out there in Hollywood, doing God knows what. Sex. Drugs. Money. Lord knows what you gettin' into. You need to get a relationship wit' God an-"

I put my hand up stopping him before he got started. "Look don't talk to me about a relationship with God ok, I have one. I'm fine. You the one that was on drugs, you get a relationship with God."

"Jasmyn, let me tell you something. I know I was on drugs BUT I found Jesus GRANTED I didn't know him when I was out there suckin' dick for money but i'll tell you somethin-"

"Wait a minute. Wait-Wait a minute! Hol' u-Wait-First of all you not gon' speead past that like you ain't say what you just said. When was this? What year was this?"

He waved his hand dismissively. "It was in the 60s everybody was doin' it."

I tossed my roll into the trash. My appetite went to hell just like this conversation.

He pointed across the room. "Ya' Uncle Thomas was back there with me."

"WHAT!?!" I grabbed as many napkins as I could and wiped my forehead off. He'll never greet me again.

"Aye and guess who else was with me.."

I jammed my fingers into my ears and walked off before I could possibly never be able to see my family again. I went to find my grandpa, he usually jumps out of somewhere and scares me. He's an unusually active 73 year old man.Sometimes he would accidentally reveal himself when he would hide because of his sneeze, his sneeze is the scariest shit I have ever heard in my life. I swear to God, when he sneezes it's a close call. You would think he's about to die.

As soon of the thought of his sneeze crossed my mind, I heard it and I jolted, holding my hand over my heart and I nearly vomited on the floor. I turned to see my grandpa bent over, catching his breathe. 

I ain't seen nobody ever catch they breathe from a sneeze, but I missed him. So I gave him the biggest hug I could. He smelled like beer, as per usual.

"What'cha know stranger." 

I beamed. "Hey Grandad."

"Let me see here.." he whipped out his wallet and pulled out $3, in ones.

"Grandad you don't have to give me money. I have-"

He handed it to me. "Go buy yourself a snack."

I slit my eyes. "Oookay." I tucked it away in my bra. He's been giving me money for the longest, for years, no matter how old I get he's always sliding me two or three dollars.

"Go get me a beer would'ya."

"Grandad you don't need no beer. Have you had any water today?"

"I had some water."

I pursed my lips, knowing he was lying.

"I had some..with my grits this mornin'"

I sighed. "I'll get you one on account of your grieving." I walked out the backdoor to the see even more people outside, only black folks can have a cook out at a wake. This is why I love my family. I reached down the the cooler and I reached way down in, my grandad told me to always reach for the bottom that's where the coldest ones are, which makes perfect sense.

I stood up and I looked across the yard and I saw my father standing there and he had made actual eye contact with me. I shot my hands to my mouth, to contain the bile that had shot up. I dropped the beer and ran to the bathroom.

Here I was feeling like I was a child again, hurled over the toilet, puking in fear. Everday at the end of the school day, I was so scared to come home that I would freak myself out in class to the point where I would throw up. I wrote a poem about it when I was young. I kept all those poems, sometimes I would turn them into songs, sometimes I would try to burn the memories away. I did a good bit of that on the Honeymoon tour. I would have late nights where I would sit in the room with matches (which I tended to play with often, it's a habit I got from my mother, a stress reliever) and burn all the poetry. 

As I washed my hands, I gazed up in the mirrors. I really wished Prince was here with me to make this a little more bearable, but he's preparing for the tour and mixing his album and I shouldn't tear him away from all that.

I wiped away the stray bits of eyeliner under my eye, took a deep breathe and mentally prepared myself to take on the rest of the day. "You can leave right after the funeral Jasmyn, you can leave right after the funeral."

I swung open the door and was met by the same hazel eyes that tormented my nightmares for the past 21 years. A chill went town my spine, and another wave of nausea hit me. 

______

He had taken her to a warehouse. It was where he rehearsed currently, but not for much longer. Paisley Park was a month from being completed. He was directing a band he was working with to open his upcoming tour, Madhouse.

Liliana sat there in awe watching the entire thing. He glanced over at her and he motioned for her to come outside with him and she followed. Then he motioned for her to get into his T-Bird. It was his father's car, held a lot of meaning for him, it was sort of a reappearing motif in his works.

They sat there in the parking lot for a while, no words were exchanged. Liliana looked out the window, a little uncomfortable with what was going on. Prince's head was leaning over the steering wheel and although it was barely audible. He was whispering. She leaned to the side, a little just to hear what he was saying.

"i'm not doing this anymore. I'm not doing this anymore."

She didn't really know what to do so she just set her notebook to the side and just started to talk to him, about thing he would like to talk about, like Minnesota and the Minnesota Twins and the Minnesota weather and how you can't get good Chinese food in Minnesota.

Then he started up the car and they just started driving around Minneapolis, he pointed out to her places from his childhood.

He pointed across her body. "This the bohemian section of Minneapolis and in the 50s, this intersection was called the 7 corners. There used to be a jazz club on every corner, and that's where my father used to play...."

She nodded, looking out the window. "Where'd all the clubs go?"

He shrugged, stopping at a light. "I don't know, torn down, changed into something else."

"Hm...so...how did you and Jasmyn meet?....If you don't mind me asking, it's for work."

"What did she tell you?"

"You guys met at the Minneapolis Music Awards back in 82'."

He smiled, adjusting his grip the steering wheel. "We've met several times, she just has terrible a terrible memory."

He drove her through the ghetto, what little of it there is, Minneapolis is the whitest city in the United States. He pointed out things about his childhood to her, like the yard they played touch football, and the yard where they used to wrestle. The McDonalds that when he was starving he would go inside and just smell the food.

"But for your sake i'll try to keep it simple....I saw her that night at the awards, I was with somebody and she was with somebody but we locked eyes across the room."

Liliana whipped out her notepad. "How did you know those were her eyes?"

"I knew those eyes anywhere." He secretly hoped that if he had kids, their eyes would look just like hers. "I saw her again the next day I believe and.." he couldn't help but snicker at the memory. "It was at the farmers market. I was by the apples..and....I was watching her the entire time she was there, I don't think she noticed it. She's not the most aware all the time. But I uhm...I saw her watching me from the...hmm..I think it was the bananas."

He whipped into a parking lot and turned off the car. "She looked like she was trying her best to decided as to whether she was gonna walk up or.." he started laughing. "Wait until I left..."

She took of her seat belt and pulled her feet to her chest. "Did you guys talk that day?"

"No...but that was the closer than what I got to her the day before. I remember the scent she left when she walked off, it was this sort of tropical mango scent. She smelled like that a lot back then. It was some body mist that she bought almost 20 bottle of, I asked her about it one time and she said that scent relaxed her and that's why she always wore it." Jasmyn has always been in search of comfort, she's been uncomfortable mentally for a long time. "But she smells like cocoa butter now. She covers herself in it every night."

Thinking about it he could smell her right now, when his head was inbetween her thighs he was intoxicated by the cocoa smell. When she would climb on top of him every morning so he would wake up to her smile. He would catch a whiff of her before his eyes adjusted to the light. When she attack him with hugs and kisses after he's been gone all day, her cocoa scent would fill his nose. In a way, that scent became his own remedy. 

"That was the first time I noticed how short she was actually."

Liliana couldn't help but burst into laughter at his anecdote. "Was it really?"

"I mean i'm short but..she's really really short."

She smiled at that, she was glad he could make a little fun of his own height. 

"She makes up for her height for with her confidence, that's another thing I like about her. She may not be sure of herself in everything else but in the studio and on the stage is where she looks the happiest."

"Kind of like how you are..."

He nodded, a smile starting to spread across his feature. "Yeah....she gets me...more than anybody else I would...I would say yeah." She did get him, and she didn't try to change him was the best thing. "And I remember from that day...the uhm..the bounce she had in her step and how her hair bounced along with her and I remember the gleam in those big brown eyes of hers...oh and I remember walking out and I saw her sitting on this bench outside the store. I was gonna talk to her but all she did was wave and walk off."

"Did you follow her?"

He turned his lip up. "I'm a lot of thing but a stalker is not one of them."

She put her hands up in defense. "Sorry sorry...but ...like what caught your eye about her."

"Her love for music....her dedication, her work ethic. She is the hardest working and most musically inclined people I know, she challenges me. She pushes me, she makes me better. I mean she pisses me off but women like that always do...Jerome told me one day...me and her had fought over somethin' stupid. But I called him up and I was said.." he snickered, making a fake phone with his hand. "I said she's crazy and I don't know what to do with her and he said you can't do anything it's Newton's Third Law of Emotion, and I was like What? and he said..For every male action there is a female overreaction. I was still confused so I asked what that meant and he told me when a woman loves you they trip over every little thing you do because they care about you."

"Well that's sweet."

"Ehhh...you get cussed out over drinking her juice and see how much love you feel."

She giggled. "That sounds ridiculous, who cussed somebody out over juice."

"She does!" he rested his head back on the seat. "But that's my babygirl."

And as dramatic and immature as she was that was his babygirl and she would always be that no matter what happened between them. Whether she ended up with him in the end or not he always wanted the best for her and if he couldn't make her happy. He wanted some man to because she deserved it, and even more than that she needed it. She needed some sense of contentment, some sense of happiness. 

"So when did you think bam! she's the one."

The one. He'd never thought about that.

"We just....we connected on a spiritual level. I mean I don't really know how it happened. I couldn't tell you and I don't think she could either. It's just one day the pendulum swung and it stayed there. I don't think i'd be the man that I am now, if I didn't go home to that woman."

__________

"Still trying to hide from me."

I froze, I had no clue what to say. I started into a coughing, vomit threatening to rise again. 

Before I could think, his hands encircled my throat. Tackling me into the bathroom, he kicked the door closed behind him with his foot. 

He slammed my back into the wall, my eyes immediately filled with tears as his huffed and growled just inches from my face. "I spent years in jail because of you."

I kicked and whimpered trying to get away as his big hands choked me tighter and tighter with every word. I felt my feet getting lifted higher and higher off the ground. He wouldn't kill his daughter would he? I kicked at him with all the might in my body but it was becoming less and less as I felt the life actually slipping away from me.

I sent him to jail when he attacked my mother backstage at one of my shows on the Dangerous Woman Tour. I told my mother not to invite him, and low and behold she didn't listen to me. They got into an argument and he gave her yet another black eye with a bloody mouth to match, and I had his ass arrested on spot. To think my mom didn't wanna testify against him, I had to do everything my damn self.

"I told you to stay away from my family, don't come here you ungrateful...little...bitch." he said that word so strongly, that I could tell he'd been holding that in for a while.

There was a knock on the door and his hands shot over my mouth. There was a silence, an extremely long silence. 

"Jasmyn...girl you in there?"

Hannah. I kicked him in the ball with all the power I had left in my body, making him stagger back. I tumbled to the ground, scrambling to my feet trying to get to the door, which looked 5 miles away due to the lack of oxygen reaching my brain. I was almost to the door when I felt him grab me again. 

"Where you think you're going?"

I fought like my life depended on it to get away. I had so many flashbacks to my childhood, that I started screaming. 

"Jasmyn!" She bursted into the bathroom, kicking off her heels. 

I had somehow gotten out of his arms and crawled under her legs and out the door. I curled my legs up to my body watching them as they went at it. My heart started beating so loud that it filled my ear drums. I put my hands on my chest, trying to slow my breathing down so that I could actually breathe. I felt like I was suffocating. I stood on my knees, trying to get air into my body.

I heard a shriek, and I saw Hannah fall into my view. Her blood seeping out of her nose and mouth. I screamed and screamed and screamed as I watched my older brother run into the room and tackle my father before he got to me again. I screamed with every hit until I couldn't scream anymore. My head felt faint and my eyelids became to heavy to keep open. 

Everything went blank.

__________

He threw his head back in laughter. "No actually, she got kicked out of choir in elementary school, she said they told her she sung too loud."

"Gah! I wish I could have half the singing talent she does..."

"She's great isn't she, and she can actually play an instrument." He dipped his spoon into his mashed potatoes. "She told me... the only reason that she knows how to play the piano is because Stevie Wonder does."

"Really."

"Yes..he's her biggest inspiration. At night when she's sleeping, she does the cutest thing, she uhm..." he snickered. "she sings in her sleep."

Liliana's mouth gaped. "What?!"

He put his hand up. "Cross my heart."

"That's so cool."

"She sings a lot of Stevie Wonder, sometimes she'll sing what's she's working on, sometimes she'll sing whatever i'm working on. A lot of nights I don't sleep, I just listen to her. Last night, the words weren't coherent enough, but it was a melody. I put it to instrumentation and put it away. I might write something for her, for her birthday this year or something."

There was a silence between them, the only sound in the car was the sound of her pen on her paper.

"What if everyone around me just left and then it'd be me...i'd be all by myself."

He's been struggling with this fact for a long time, he'd grown used to it but he never enjoyed it. He had a ton of friends but he found himself alone a lot.

"Oh god, well I'm the queen of loneliness." She popped another french fry in her mouth. "Even though it hurts like a bitch, loneliness is self inflicted through isolation. Slowly being encompassed in your own pain to the point of where you get uneasily comfortable in it."

His eyes widened, pausing putting a fry in his mouth..

"It's like a stab wound, you'd do anything to get the knife out but you can't because it's so securely kept. It's oblivion at it's finest. Some people drown their sorrows with drugs or liquor to simmer the painful realization that oh shit, I'm totally alone. For two years, two long years, I practically died in isolation. No friends, not contact with the outside world. A true sufferer of loneliness has nobody but themselves but you have Jasmyn, so you'll never be alone. I can tell you guys have something special...I mean i'm not around much but I can tell by the way you talk about her, you guys are gonna last a long long time."

"Oh shit." he sat up, starting the car up. "She's supposed to call me when she landed and I know she landed earlier and she's probably been blowing up my phone, I have an earful coming I just know it."

He ducked and dodged through the Minneapolis 5 o' clock traffic to get home as soon as he could. He strutted into the house and tossed his keys on the coffee table.  

"Make yourself at home." 

"M'kay."

He hopped up on the counter, crossed his legs, and clicked the voicemail button.

You have 8 new voicemail. First message. 

He snickered. "Yup...she's pissed."

Hannah's gibberish cries made him jump as she cried out his name. He didn't even get to listen to the first message before picked up the phone and called Hannah back. His heart started beating out of his chest as the phone rung on and on and on. She finally picked up on the last ring.

Hannah sniffed. "What took you so long?"

"I was out, what happened? Is she okay?" He hoped and prayed she didn't do anything drastic while she was out there. He knew she hated going home and knew about her relationship with her father. And by all the screaming in the background, he could tell something went down. 

"She and her dad got into it and..." her voice started to crack as she started to cry again. "..she had a panic attack but they couldn't get her to calm down so they rushed her to the hospital...something about near cardia-" he heard a click, the signal was probably lost. He dropped the phone from his ear and before he could think, he grabbed his coat and sprinted out the door. A million thoughts rushing through his head about what could've happened. He jumped into his car and ordered him to drive to the nearest airport. 

___________

I was sitting in Prince's hotel room watching Cujo. I pulled the covers to my chest, shrieking at the sound of the door slamming shut. I looked back to see Prince, returning from the afterparty. 

I put my hands over my chest in relief. "Oh God! Thank God you're here! I'm watching Cujo."

He tossed his jacket on the bed. "Alone?!, you know you don't like scary movies."

"Yes! I know but Batman went off and this was all that was on" I paused the movie and watched him as he sat on the end of the bed and kicked off his heels. "What is wrong with this dog?!" 

"Oooh, did you get to the part where they're trapped in the car and Cujo's throwin' himself at the windshield?"

"No! No! Seriously, what's wrong with the dog?!" I creased my brows in thought, as he walked into the bathroom. I turned my attention back towards the TV. "Wait a minute, what are you doing home so early? The party wasn't supposed to end for another 2-3 hours."

"Oh uh, it got dead."

"Oh, well do you wanna watch the rest of the movie with me?"

"Uh yeah." Prince came out the bathroom, no makeup and glowing as per usual. I was seriously jealous of his skin, he had no pores. 

"Y'know, I never thought I'd say this about a movie, but I really hope this dog dies." Prince brought over a stool an sat it next to the big chair that I was in. "What are you doing over there? Come sit here," I patted the chair. "You protect me." 

"Oh sure, yeah, why not?" He sat on the arm of the chair. I adjusted myself in the the cover, that I had ripped off the now bare bed.

"Okay." I pushed play, all my adrenaline started rushing again. "Okay, that's him! That's him! That's Cujo! That's Cujo!"

"All right, I know! I know. Yeah, it'll be okay."

"Oh my God....What's he gonna do now? I can't watch!" I pulled Prince closer to me, cowering into his chest. "Oh. Seriously, how can you watch this? Aren't you scared?"

He went quiet for a little bit. "Terrified."