Page 129 of Love U Down II

“If you can’t perform, you’re not going to!” I barked. “You not about to get on stage huffing and fucking puffing under my name or brand. You sound flat? Cut. You forget your verse? Cut. You show up late? Cut. Get this shit right or take y’all asses home. I’ll let Myome, Charm, and Rome perform by their fucking selves before I let y’all get on this fucking stage and play!”

I crossed my arms over my chest and looked between the artists as they huffed while jogging. I’d blocked out a gym slot and everyone was doing cardio.

Myome felt like I was being dramatic but I didn’t. Everyone had mandatory cardio every morning, my veteran performers included. Everyone had an hour of performance practice in the afternoon where they performed full out with live vocals and choreography.

If they were going to be on stage, I needed to know how they would perform and what they’d look like. It was a lot of their first time even being on a full size stage. I couldn’t warm them up to performing in front of a significant crowd but I wanted them to be so confident about everything else that even if they got nervous, their vocals and movement would be second nature.

“Sundaze, you’re up.” I pointed at River and she wiped sweat from her forehead before singing her portion of the song.

Slowly her bandmates joined in, each of them singing their part to completion.

I nodded when they finished.

“Drop down to two and hydrate,” I instructed. “Charm, go.” I nodded and clapped on tempo and she took a quick breath before starting to sing. I pointed at Dashawn when she finished. “Go.”

I let each of them perform a song while jogging, then hydrate, rotating them out.

I had three people missing from practice this morning; Rome, Merch, and Genie. I was annoyed but holding it together. There was nothing I could do about them missing practice. If they didn’t prove they deserved to be on stage, they wouldn’t be. It was that simple. I wasn’t begging anyone to do their job. I knew I’d make my money back on Merch and Rome regardless and afterwards I’d drop their asses from my label.

I heard the door open behind me and scoffed and shook my head when I caught sight of Rome and Merch.

“What’s up?” Rome walked up to me and held his hand out.

I looked him up and down but didn’t dap him.

“You think you got special treatment because you’re my brother?” I continued to clap on beat and Dashawn rapped.

“Nah but I think I’ve proven that I can perform, Drix.” He chuckled. “We did a whole fucking tour.”

“When I say shit is mandatory for the label and you’re a part of the label that means it’s mandatory for you. And nigga,youbarely even got an offer.” I turned and met Merch’s gaze. “Don’t let Rome get you dropped,” I warned. “Get on the fucking treadmill.”

He cleared his throat and nodded as he hurried toward a treadmill.

“You good?” Rome asked.

“I’m trying to establish professionalism and that’s hard to do when half my team is made up of the people I care about but I’m trying, alright?”

“Yeah.”

“Then be a team player and act like you’re part of the team.”

“A’ight. I got you. For real.”

“Thank you.” I nudged my head toward the treadmill and pointed at Honey. “New stage, go.”

The trio started slowly and Rome made his way to the treadmill beside Merch, started it, and hopped on.

We ran through the entire group as many times as we could in the allotted hour then I had everyone slow down while I commented about how they’d sounded.

Once we finished everyone headed out and I made my way to Myome who had her head tilted back and was pouring water down her throat. She was wearing a pair of leggings and a sports bra beneath a cropped shirt that lifted significantly depending on how she moved. Even covered in sweat she looked amazing to me.

“You good?” I checked.

“Mhm.” She nodded and lifted her arms above her head.

“If you need an accommodation, we can make it work, Yo.”

“Are you offering me favoritism?” She wagged her eyebrows.