Page 94 of Are You Going to Love Me

He felt the energy of the crowd swell in his chest as he made his way down to the stage. The DJ spun his stamped introduction, Eden’s voice. “Trae Way.”

“Heavy, heavy is the head. Hold that shit steady. Niggas want my soul that don’t know I’m protected already. Swaggin’ through Trae Way, target on my back. Head of a g gon’ cost them more than a rack!” The moment the mic was in Maximus’ hand, he transformed into Trae Way MB, working the stage like he’d been doing this for years. Ending the impromptu set with Poppi’s Girl, Maximus knew that his anxiety and glimpses of self-doubt could never exist in what he was destined to do.

The party continued to the studio where Lucci dropped more game on Maximus, Haddon was on the board mixing a beat, and Charlie and Brody were chatting it up about their roles in all of this. Maximus and Lucci were shoulder-to-shoulder, waiting for the beat to flood their headphones.

Maximus’s raspiness opened the song. “I told Lucci I was on some freestyle type shit.”

The beat dropped, prompting Maximus to lay down his bar effortlessly. “Trae Way nigga go figga. That gangsta nigga just got a whole lot bigga. Chains on my neck got a whole lot thicka. Been lookin’ at my past in a rearview like damn nigga. Look at the shit you escaped. Look at the shit you maintained. Look at them snakes and them bitches trying to put dirt on your name.No papers, no snitching, just a whole lot of Trae Way pimpin’. Rolling through with a thorough chick mouth slick and won’t take a nigga shit. Just a Trae Way nigga go figga.”

“Go figga, Lucci still runnin’ the west. Whole LO on his chest. 50thand Husten got the whole world trippin’. Twisting my lady up like I throw my set up. Still Azul. Still got heart. Still that same gangsta nigga from the start. Been in the mud, been in the trenches, been shaking these niggas like I do these bitches. Lucci untouchable. Lucci unfuckwithable. Lucci big papa. Lucci still that LO nigga go figga.”

“Go figga, go figga. Go figga. That Trae Way nigga winnin’ go figga.”

“Go figga, go figga, go figga. Big LO nigga still shakin’, go figga.”

“Nah drop that shit yesterday!” Haddon shouted from the board.

Maximus removed the headphones from his ears and roamed into the studio with everyone else.

“Nigga that shit fire!” Brody whooped.

A proud expression covered Keon’s face. “Drop that shit.”

Jay Lucci looked at Maximus. “We dropping it? You can spare a day to shoot part of the video tomorrow?”

“Hell yeah!” Maximus jeered. “How much I owe you for a Jay Lucci feature?”

“Fuck out my face, nigga,” Jay Lucci huffed, hitting his chest with the back of his hand. “I see you, nigga. I believe in you. Take that shit and fly, aight?”

Maximus let a gracious smile cross his face. “Heard you.”

Once Haddon was done mixing it and sent it, Maximus forwarded it to Eden along with a text.

Maximus: Stay up for me?

Eden: What if I was busy? You know, doing something?

Maximus: Doing what?

Eden: For me to know and you to find out

Maximus: Oh your trying to bring that nigga out

Eden: Who me? never

Maximus: Heard you

Once Maximus was back in his hotel room, he FaceTimed Eden, who, for kicks and giggles, didn’t answer until the last ring.

“Gone for a day and a half, and we goin’ backwards?” he joked, his nervous system calming at the sight of her face.

Eden giggled. “No. Don’t activate your crazy. It’s too late over here for that. That track, it’s amazing. Do you know what a Jay Lucci feature is about to do?”

Her excitement solidified his. “I can’t believe this shit. Speaking of which, we gon’ shoot half the video tomorrow, the rest in Trae Way. You cool with that?”

“Why wouldn’t I be okay with that? You got waves to make. Go make them,” Eden encouraged, but he felt her. The nervousness in her transferred. The fear of losing one another to the current, having just found their anchor. “You better believe it. You're about to take off. I can’t wait to watch it. You’re going up to the moon.”

Maximus studied her before asking, “Where you gon’ be?”

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