Page 1 of Safe Word
Chapter
One
Carteay (Car-T-Ay) Hoyt
“One, two, one, two, three, four,”Sable, my choreographer, counted off for the millionth time.
“Ugh! I’m tired, girl. How many times are we going to go over this?”
“Until you stop moving like you got lead in your feet.”
“Hell, I feel like I do. I’m not a dancer. I’m a singer.”
“You can dance, Carteay. You’re just not focused. What’s wrong?”
“I’m just tired. You know the label has been stressing me the fuck out about this album.”
In less than two months, I was set to premier my sophomore album. I hadn’t had a full night’s sleep since the day we started working on it. After such a phenomenal debut album, my follow-up project was highly anticipated.
Reaching the heights of success only gave me further to fall when the inevitable wrath of failure came creeping in. There were still songs that I hated on the album, but the label wasn’t budging. They wanted to revamp my whole style and sound.They wanted to make me a pop artist, but I wasn’t hearing it. No matter how much they told me I could reach the pinnacle of my career if I were to compromise, I just wasn’t feeling it.
“Well, let’s go over the routine one more time, then we can go grab a drink. Is lover boy picking you up today?”
I rolled my eyes, but before I could answer, my phone rang. With a sudden burst of energy, I dashed across the room, to where my gym bag rested and rifled through it, hoping to catch my phone before it stopped ringing. My hand bumped the hardness of the phone, and I grabbed it, retrieving it right before the call ended. A smile lifted my cheeks when I realized that it was the call that I had been waiting for.
“Are you being summoned?” Sable teased, knowing how annoyed I got with Cy’s persistent calling when he knew I was busy.
“No.” I shook my head as I swiped my phone’s screen to return the missed call.
I bit down on the inside of my cheek as I put the phone to my ear. There weren’t many people who gave me the giddy feeling I got when I talked to my friends. I cherished each and every one of them, especially the ones who I knew before I became famous. It was rare to find someone genuine these days. Everybody wanted something. Everybody wanted to see what they could get out of you.
Kannon was just Kannon. He was funny. He was blunt. Most importantly, he was honest. I’d sent over a copy of my album two days ago and had been nagging the hell out of him for feedback ever since. He told me that he would call me today. He was the one who told me not to compromise my integrity for anyone if my art was more important to me than money.
Him having to fill in for one of the bodyguards on my last tour resulted in us becoming fast friends. He was so down to earth and didn’t give a damn about me being famous. The firsttime he clowned one of my costumes instead of pandering to me and making me think I was the baddest bitch in the world in it, I knew he was someone I could trust.
“So which songs you don’t like, Carrie? I know there has to be a reason you want an expert like me to vet the album before it drops.”
“Which ones did you hate?”
“I didn’t hate any of them, but the first track and number five aren’t you. I can tell in your voice that you hated to sing that up-tempo joint, but I think it will be a radio killer.”
“See why I love you?” I asked him.
He chuckled. “I’m a lovable nigga. Did I get it right though?”
“You did. I hate that fast song, not to mention I’ve been working on a routine for the video for the past four hours, and my feet are killing me. I do think it will be a hit though. We’re supposed to shoot on location next week.”
“You’re a singer, not a dancer. Let them do the counting, and you follow their lead. You don’t have to control every aspect to remain in control, C. Just dance.”
I laughed a little. “Not you making sense for a change.”
“What’s the problem, Carteay? Talk to me.”
“I don’t know. I just keep thinking about our conversation about integrity.”
“A compromise isn’t a lapse in integrity, C. If you like it enough to know it will be a hit, let that be the reason to settle. Now if it was some trash, I would tell you to tell the label to kiss your ass. You know I don’t mind going into villain mode for you.”
I laughed at how serious he was. “I know you would. What about ‘Nothing Like It’?” I asked, wondering what he thought about my favorite song on the album.
