Truth or Dare (17 page)

M
embership had its privileges. Membership in the “It Clique,” that is.

“Maya! Are you and J. Love back together?” the photographer shouted in my direction, just as the flash went off.

It didn't take long before security was all over him, dragging him and his camera out.

I kept my signature smile, but I didn't miss how everyone was staring my way. Oh, yeah, I loved my life as the go-to chick in the entertainment industry. And I didn't even need to be in L.A. to claim that title. I was kicking butt and taking names from right here in Miami.

I, the fantabulous Maya Morgan, had made a household name of myself as host of
Rumor Central
and though many had tried to knock me off my throne, no one had succeeded. That's why I was once again sitting in the VIP with the hottest rapper in the country by my side, and paparazzi sneaking in, trying to get my picture.

I glanced over at J. Love and he winked. I knew he was on cloud nine, because he'd been trying and trying to get me to give him a second chance. Long story on why we broke up in the first place, and I wasn't trying to give him another chance. But J. Love didn't get where he is by taking no for an answer. He kept after me and I finally broke down and agreed to go to this MTV party that we'd both been invited to. One of my BFFs, Kennedi, was here, too, even though I hadn't seen her butt in the last thirty minutes.

I knew the paparazzi would eat it up if they saw me and J. Love back together. And I was right on the money, too, since the man they had just escorted out was trying desperately to keep taking pictures as they tossed him out.

“Hey, babe, you need anything?” J. Love asked as he stood. We both were used to the paparazzi, so it really wasn't that big of a deal.

“No, I'm good,” I replied.

“You sure you don't want something to drink?” he asked me again. He'd been trying to pump liquor in me since I'd walked in the door. “This is some good stuff,” he added as he held up his cup. I turned up my nose. I didn't need to drink to be cool. I'd said it before and I'll say it again. I don't need anything to take me off my A game.

I glanced to my left and saw a girl passed out in a booth in the corner—her legs were gaped wide open and someone was taking a picture of her. She would be on YouTube before she woke up. No, that wouldn't be me. I worked too hard to build the Maya Morgan brand and I wasn't going to blow it over a glass of Patrón.

“No, J. Me and my water are just fine,” I said.

“That's why your skin is so beautiful,” he said, smiling at me. “All that water you drink.”

I smiled. I wanted to say,
Tell me something I don't know
, but I'd been trying to curb my confidence since
Teen People
had recently done an article calling me “arrogant.” I couldn't help it—I was all that. And I knew it. But Tamara, my boss at the TV station, suggested I bring the confidence down a notch.

“Well, well, well, if it isn't Miss Maya ‘Snitch' Morgan.”

I turned around to the voice coming from behind me. I rolled my eyes at the sight of the one person in the industry I simply could not stand: actress Paula Olympia.

I couldn't stand her because she couldn't stand me and she made sure to tell anyone who would listen how she really felt about me. Paula had been on a hit TV show eight years ago, but her star had definitely fallen. So, I didn't sweat that one-hit wonder and her funky attitude because as the comedian Katt Williams said, “If you don't have haters, then you ain't doing your job.”

“What's up, Paula? Nice dress,” I said, looking her up and down. “Isn't that the new collection at Target?”

She put her hands on her hips and wiggled her neck. “Whatever, Maya.” She held her hand up as if she was blowing me off, before turning to J. “What's up, J.?” she said, smiling flirtatiously.

“It's all good,” he said. Either he was blind and dumb, or he was just trying to ignore her while he was acting like he couldn't tell she was flirting with him.

“How you been?” Paula smiled again as she fingered his chest. My eyebrow rose.

“I'm cool.” J. Love stepped away from her and over to me. “Um, hey, babe, I'm going to go and get something to drink,” he said, making a hasty exit. Guess he wasn't so dumb after all.

“Anything else I can help you with?” I finally told Paula. She was messing up my mood.

“No, I'm just saying hello,” she said with an attitude. “Waiting on my boo.”

“Okay, but why don't you go wait on your
boo
somewhere else?” I said, turning back to look out on the dance floor.

“You know you're always asking for the scoop. Maybe you'll want this one,” she said.

As if I'd want anything Paula Olympia had to offer.

“Paula, if it involves you, I'm good,” I told her.

She ignored me and kept talking. “I just thought you'd like to know that Demond Cash and I are an item.”

That made me do a double take. Demond Cash—the A-list actor? What he wanted with her D-list behind was beyond me, but I wasn't going to let her see that I was fazed.

“Okay, good for you,” I finally replied. “When you become somebody that is worthy of being on my show, I'll look into that. Until then, later.” I stood and pushed her aside. If she wouldn't leave, I would. I made my way around the club to see if I could spot Kennedi. I also needed to see if I could roll up on some dirt. I was always in gossip girl mode, and since this party had everybody who was anybody, I was bound to find some dirt up in here.

I saw one of my old friends and went to talk to her for a few minutes, and then decided that I needed to get back to the VIP because this being down here with the common folk wasn't cutting it. I made my way back up the stairs and had just rounded the corner when I saw J. Love and Paula deep in conversation.

“What's going on?” I said, approaching them. J. Love jumped back, but Paula let out a smile.

“Just sitting here, catching up,” she replied.

I looked at him and crossed my arms. If he told me he used to date Paula Olympia, I'd be too done.

“So, you're going to give me a call sometime?” Paula asked him.

“Uh, nah, I'm good.” J. looked nervous as all get-out.

I couldn't help it—I stepped in her face. “Really, Paula? Like seriously, you want to go there?” I told her.

“My, does the little girl feel threatened by a real woman?”

I didn't know how old Paula was—the tabloids said she was twenty-two, but I'd bet a hundred dollars she was at least thirty-two.

“I would never be threatened by your desperate behind.” I usually didn't do any arguing over a guy. Period. But Paula had rubbed me the wrong way.

“Rawr,” she said, making a clawing motion in my direction. “Sounds like the cat is jealous.”

“Jealous of you? Get real.”

This party was definitely becoming whack. Now that I knew they'd let Paula Olympia in the VIP, it was changing my perspective on everything.

We stared at each other as Demond approached. “Yo, what's up?” he said. “Is something wrong?” He looked back and forth between the two of us. “Hey, Maya Morgan,” he said, recognizing me. “What's going on?” He stuck his hand out to shake my hand. I didn't take my eyes off of Paula.

Demond's gaze shifted back and forth between us as we glared at each other.

“Okay, what's up?” he asked.

“Your date is what's up,” I said, not taking my eyes off of her. This one-hit wonder was about to learn I was not the one to mess with.

Demond put his arm around her. “What is my girl over here doing?”

“You need to get ‘your girl' before she gets slapped.” I was never one for violence, but I wasn't about to be played either, especially when I was sure someone around us was rolling on their camera phone.

“Oh, who's going to slap me?” Paula asked.

“Disrespect me again and see. You know J. Love is here with me and you got one more time to roll up on him . . .” I wasn't even into J. Love like that, but I could just see the headline: P
AULA PUNKS
M
AYA
.
No, ma'am.

“Yo, hold up, what?” Demond said, dropping his arm from around her neck. “What do you mean roll up on your man?”

“Nothing baby,” Paula said, pulling his arm. She suddenly no longer looked confident. She actually looked, I don't know, scared.

“No, what's she talking about?” he asked, jerking away.

“I'm talking about your girl right here flirting with my date, trying to get his number so they can go out, while you're just across the room.” I turned my lips up in her direction. Yes, I just cold busted her.

“What?” Paula acted shocked. “Babe, she's just running her mouth. Don't listen to her.”

Demond's happy demeanor had disappeared and he looked burning mad. He didn't say a word as he grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the VIP and toward the back.

J. Love just stood there like he didn't know what to say or do. Kennedi, who I hadn't even seen approach, leaned over and said, “You think you should've done that?”

I side-eyed her. “Girl, please. In the words of Kevin Hart, she gon' learn today,” I said, before picking up my bottled water and returning to my seat.

I
t was time to call it a night. Paula had ruined the mood and I hadn't even been able to enjoy myself the past fifteen minutes. J. Love was trying his best to get me to go to some after party with him. But I was a little salty with him because while he hadn't encouraged Paula, he'd done nothing to shut her down. That wasn't a good move for him. He was already on my bad side because of the way we'd broken up. He'd treated me like crap when somebody had told him that I'd leaked something to the press. Turned out it was a hacker/stalker, but the fact that he hadn't even given me the benefit of the doubt had severely damaged our relationship. Every time I tried to give him another chance, he did something like this to make me mad. But I couldn't deny the fact that J. Love was all that and then some. Not to mention the fact that his record was the hottest joint in the country right now. Still, I'd blessed him with my presence enough.

“You ready to go?” I asked Kennedi.

“Yeah,” she said. She'd been in a foul mood herself most of the evening. I think it had something to do with her new boyfriend, Kendrick. Even though she kept denying it, she really wanted to go out with him tonight since she'd just gotten back in town. (Kennedi, my BFF since like forever, had just moved back to Miami from Orlando.) But Kendrick had had to go
out
of town, so Kennedi had been stuck hanging out with me. When she'd told me that, I had straight given her the side-eye. Nobody had to be
stuck
doing anything with me. It was a privilege to be with Maya Morgan. But since she was my BFF and I knew she was mad at Kendrick, I'd let her make it.

“Yeah, let's go,” Kennedi said.

I said good-bye to J. and promised to call him later. He wanted me to wait so he could walk me out, but his manager wanted him to meet some bigwig at MTV and I didn't feel like waiting.

“I still can't believe they had a party with no valet parking,” I said as I thought about the two-block trek we had to pick up my car. “Where they do that at?” I moaned. I probably needed the exercise. I had missed my Pilates class this week so I sucked it up.

Kennedi and I joked about some of the people at the party as we were walking. We had just rounded the corner when Kennedi stopped and grabbed my arm. “Isn't that your girl?” she said, pointing.

I looked to the right and saw Paula and Demond deep in conversation and he did
not
look happy. In fact, he leaned in front of her and jabbed his finger in her face.

“Whoa,” Kennedi said, pulling me back so they couldn't see us.

“Oh, snap!” I replied as I fumbled to get my iPhone out of my clutch. Paula and Demond were going at it. Oh, I was definitely about to record this. Now that iPhones were in high definition we could easily use this video on my show. I stepped to the side and zoomed in as much as the camera would go as the two of them argued.

“Dang, I wish I could hear what they were saying,” Kennedi whispered.

“Shh!” I motioned toward her. I didn't need any extra noise in my video.

“You got me messed up!” Demond screamed. That definitely was loud enough for us to hear. It was what happened next that almost made me drop my camera phone. He hauled off and hit Paula so hard he sent her hurtling to the ground. He then reached down, picked her up by her hair, and slammed her up against the wall.

While I desperately wanted to keep filming, that was one thing I couldn't stand: a guy putting his hands on a girl. So, I knew that I needed to step in.

“Hey, what's going on?” I asked, stepping around the corner.

Demond glared at Paula, but did release her. She scrambled to pull herself together.

“Is everything all right?” I said, walking up to them.

“What's up, Maya? I was just having words with my girl,” Demond said.

“Are you all right?” I asked, looking at Paula.

Paula cut her eyes at me. “Why don't you mind your own business?” she snapped. “Oh, I forgot, your janky behind doesn't know how.”

“Wow,” I replied, my eyes fluttering in shock. “I'm over here trying to keep you from getting your behind beat and you want to snap on me?”

“Like I said, don't worry about what's going on over here,” she said, glaring at me like I was the one who just Floyd Mayweathered her behind.

I couldn't believe this chick. I actually had to stop and do a double take. Then I threw my hands up.

“I hope you have a good night,” I said, before turning and stomping off.

Kennedi turned and took off after me.

“She's lucky I don't fight,” I huffed. “Because I'd knock her in her other jaw.”

“Calm down,” Kennedi said. “They're just having beef. That's all.”

I shook my head as we neared my car. “You better believe you're going to see this on
Rumor Central
first thing Monday morning.”

“Maybe you shouldn't do that,” Kennedi said.

I stopped and stared at her. Since when was
she
the one trying to worry about someone's feelings, especially someone like Paula Olympia?

“Really, K?” I said. “Did you not just see the way she acted toward me? And this was
after
she tried to push up on my man earlier.”

“You said yourself that you don't even like J. Love like that.”

“She totally disrespected me.”

“So? It's not like you're in some gang or something. I'm just saying leave it alone.”

I looked at my friend and raised an eyebrow. Yeah, Kendrick had her all messed up because there's no way the Kennedi I knew would ever have let something like that go.

“All I'm saying,” Kennedi continued, “is that you should . . .” She stopped speaking midsentence as her gaze went across the parking lot.

I turned to see what she was staring at, but there was no one there but a guy and girl cuddled up against a black Escalade.

Kennedi squinted in their direction, then mumbled, “Oh, I don't think so,” before stomping off toward the couple.

“Kennedi, what's going on?” I asked, scurrying to catch up with her.

She didn't say anything as she stomped across the parking lot like a girl on a mission. I had no idea what had my BFF in a rage, but I took off after her, determined to find out.