Adrienne

"Oh my God your so cute!" A woman squeals, pulling me into a hug.

"Igh Kiada let her go." Tupac says, making her roll her eyes at him.

He brought me to the kitchen where most of the table girls hang out until the food for their tables are ready. The girl who hugged me is pretty, light skinned with brown hair and eyes full of excitement.

"Aye everybody, this is Adrienne. Welcome her to the family, show her the ropes." Tupac says, before going back into the main room, leaving me with the rest of the cooks and waitresses.

"Sorry if that was weird. I'm Kiada." She says, holding a hand out for me to shake. "You can call me Dada if you want to, everybody else does."

I shake her hand and smile.

"Can I call you Adri?" She asks.

"Sure why not." I chuckle, making her hug me again. This one is really friendly.

She takes me around the kitchen introducing me to people who only partly pay attention. All the girls that work here are so pretty. Prettier than me.

"Oh and this is Michael, he's the head cook." She says, tapping him on the shoulder as he flips a burger.

"Mikey this is Adrienne." Kiada says, he doesn't look up until she taps him a second some.

He does a double take, his eyes locking with mine, a smile forming on his face.. He's cute.

I wave shyly. "Its nice to meet you." I say.

We stare at each other for a while before I look down at the burger starting to blacken on the grill.

"The burger Mikey." Kiada chuckles, making him fumble. She pulls me away from him to meet someone else.

After a while she gives me a notepad and a pen. She stuffs some straws in the pocket of my apron and grabs a clipboard off the wall. "So your name isn't on the roster thing yet. You can split tables with me. I have way too many tonight anyway." She says, putting the clipboard back.

"Would Lesane be okay with that?" I ask.

"Who cares. Insane can kiss my ass." She says, I laugh at her half hearted joke. So I'm assuming they have some history.

"The table numbers are hanging above each table. He had to do it like that cause some of these broads are slow, but it'll come in handy since your new." Kiada says.

"Dada come get this plate, you backing us up!" Someone calls her name. She scribbles down some numbers on a napkin and hands it to me before hurrying to the front.

These must be the tables she wants me to do.

My nervousness starts to set in as I realize I'm alone.

"Breathe." I mumble outloud.

I leave the kitchen, looking down at the napkin. I can barely see the number tags above each table because of how dark it is.

Drunk customers bump into me, a few of them asking where the bathroom is, I point them in random directions because I don't know.

Shit. This is gonna take some getting used to.

Tupac

I go up to the balcony where its quieter. I know if I sit by my boys downstairs I won't see no peace and them broads gon be all over a nigga. I just like it better up here because I can see what's going on in the entire club from this spot.

I spot Adrienne.

She's looking down at something.

"Aye Pac, its some niggas at the back, claim they got sum business with you." Q says, standing at the top of the stairs.

"Igh." I say, before following him downstairs and out the back door of the club. The rest of my boys are already out here and I see why, whoever this clown is brought his whole crew with him.

"How may I help y'all today?" I chuckle.

One of the boys steps up. "You know a man by the name of Elliott Wilson?" He asks.

I then recognize his face, but I don't respond.

"You killed my dad." He adds, pulling his gun on me. I just laugh, as my boys pull their guns too.

I gesture for them to put them down, but the boy keeps his pointed at me.

"Your dad stole a lot of money from me Jr. My hard earned money." I say, lighting a cigarette. "And I don't know what you think you came here to do, but it ain't gonna end well for you son."

"You killed the only man that could call me that!" He spits, getting closer to me. My boys raise their guns again.

"Look. It was nun personal. It was business." I say, blowing smoke in his direction.

I place a hand on my gun that's in the waistband of my pants. "Just go home kid." I say, as he keeps his gun on me, tears running down his face. The three boys he brought with him have disappeared.

"Even if you kill me. You won't leave this alley alive." I chuckle.

There's a long moment of silence before he lowers his gun, slowly turning around and walking away from me.

I pull my gun and shoot him in the back of the head.

Niggas like that cause problems.

Ion like problems.

"Clean that up." I say, before going back into the building.

"Girl are you gonna order something? I can't stand here and talk to you all night." I say to Jamie, her and Braden just so happened to be one of the tables Kiada wrote down.

"My bad then bitch." She chuckles. "Everything in here high as hell so just gimme a water."

"You better be glad I'm your waitress cause that's embarrassing." I laugh.

The sound of a gunshot makes me furrow my eyebrows. "Did y'all hear that?" I ask them.

"Hear what?" Braden asks, looking confused, Jamie gives me the same look. I guess I'm just imagining things. "Nothing." I say, before walking away from their table.

I go get Jamie's water and place it on the table.

Something tells me to look up.

There standing on the balcony is Tupac, he nods at me and I wave back.

No one ever told me what time my shift ended so I took it upon myself to sign out at twelve. I go upstairs and find Tupac's office.

I knock on the door but there's no answer, the door is unlocked so I open it.

I walk in on Tupac getting head from some girl in the chair behind his desk. He pulls her up by her hair making her glare at me while wiping her mouth.

"Oh shit I'm sorry." I say, covering my eyes. "I just came to get my bag that I left up here."

"In the closet." He says, I keep my eyes low as I walk over to the closet and grab it. Just as I get to the door Tupac calls my name making me turn around.

"You dismissed." He tells the girl.

She gets up and grabs her purse, bumping into me as she leaves his office, slamming the door behind her.

"That's alot of attitude." I mumble.

Tupac stays silent as he fixes his pants. "You needed something from me?" I ask, still standing at the door.

"Come sit."

I drop my bag and walk over to his desk, sitting in the chair in front of it. He just stares at me. I can tell that he's either really high or really drunk, or both.

Tupac's eyes are red and low and he seems really spaced out.

"How was your first night?" He asks, his words running together slightly.

"It was great, thank you for this." I say. He doesn't respond making me clear my throat. "Kiada seems really nice." I add.

"That bitch ain't shit." He says, making my eyes widen. History confirmed. Tupac opens a cabinet behind him and gets a bottle of Hennessey out of it.

"Maybe you should slow down a little." I say, making him chuckle. "Maybe you should speed up." He pours me a glass.

"No thanks. I need to go." I say, getting up.

"Please.. Just stay and talk to me for a lil while." He says, I know that he's only acting like this because of how drunk he is, but I guess it won't hurt to stay a few extra minutes, he does seem kind of lonely.

"Okay, only a few minutes though."

He gets up from his desk and walks over to the window.

A few minutes goes by and he hasn't said anything. I mean I know he's a quiet man but why'd he ask me to stay if he wasn't going to talk?

"Seems like you got something on your mind. You wanna talk about it?" I ask. Tupac comes back to his desk, sitting in the chair beside me.

He looks at me. His eyes are glossy but not like he's going to cry, its almost like he's tired of something, not physically but emotionally. I want to break eye contact with him but I can't. His eyes are beautiful, and somewhat familiar.

"I'm not a good man." He finally says, looking away from me.

I furrow my eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

He doesn't say anything.

"Tupac, I'm sure your a great man-"

"I'm not." He cuts me off. I decide not to argue with him, instead I just place my hand over his that's resting on his lap. I feel him tense a little.

I look around his office and I notice a few things that I hadn't before. There's a gun sitting on the edge of his desk, but its not the one that's in his waistband right now. He has two.

There's a picture of him and a woman on his desk, it looks like it might be his mom.

There's posters of Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson on the Walls, and some other people that I don't know. In the corner by the closet there's a large running vine plant. Its bunched together, probably because its grown too long.

My eyes shift back to his desk again.

There's a black notebook with a pen parallel to it.

Probably just business stuff in it.

Someone knocks on his office door and I move my hand. "Wassup?" Tupac calls out.

"Everybody looking for you." A female voice says, probably one of the girls I didn't get to meet.

"I'm busy." He says.

There's no response so I assume she walked away.

"I should probably go." I say, standing up, pulling the short skirt down a little. Tupac doesn't protest as I grab my bag.

"Adrienne." He calls my name just as I twist the doorknob. I turn around, but he isn't looking at me, He's staring down at his feet, holding the glass of Hennessey that I never drank. There's a moment of silence as if he's thinking about what to say next.

"I preciate you sittin with me." He says.

"Its no problem." I say, before leaving and closing the door behind me.

Something tells me this man is more troubled than anyone around him knows.