A few days later
"What should I wear Aaliyah? I was thinking maybe the suit I wore to my gramps funeral.. well.. that's the only classy outfit I own."
"DeShaun you don't need to dress formally, you're going to be backstage the entire time anyway." Aaliyah sighed, as he poked his head around the bathroom door.
"Yeah, but there might be some hot ladies backstage." He said, wiggling his eyebrows.
"I highly doubt it, now hurry up. We need to leave in five minutes." She huffed, as she finished up straightening her dark hair.
DeShaun listened to Aaliyah's advice and rushed back into his room, changing back into his baggy trousers and sweater.
While he was doing this, Aaliyah admired herself in the bathroom mirror. She was wearing a dark pencil skirt, white blouse and a pale brown coat. She looked more like a secretary or a lawyer, then a world famous R&B star.
15 minutes later
Aaliyah pulled up outside of Marshall's mansion, DeShaun sitting in the back seat like a playful child.
"Sit still, you're making me regret bringing you." Aaliyah huffed, as she waited for Marshall to come to the car.
"Sorry! Im just so nervous."
"Nervous for what DeShaun? You're sitting backstage doing nothing." Aaliyah loudly said, looking at his anxious face from the rear view mirror.
"I just get this way sometimes okay?" He said, his defensiveness soon shifting, once he noticed that Marshall was approaching the car.
He was wearing baggy sweats and a black t shirt, Aaliyah didn't expect anything else from him. He climbed into the passenger seat and smiled, "Shit I feel underdressed."
"No it's perfect." Aaliyah smiled, giving Marshall a small peck on the lips.
"Let's hurry this up, we are going to be late!" DeShaun said in disgust, as he watched them kiss from the back seats.
Marshall rolled his eyes, and looked towards the back seats of the car at DeShaun. "Proof, shut up dude.. you'll understand if you get a girl."
Twenty minutes later they arrived at where the interview was being hosted. It was a studio on the outskirts of Detroit, in an area where none of them had been before.
"Alright, here we are." Marshall said, clutching onto Aaliyah as they walked into the studio, DeShaun and the paparazzi following closely behind them.
"Alright, DeShaun is it? You can stay back here during the interview." The interviewer said to him, once they were inside the building. He beckoned DeShaun over to a dimly lit area of the studio, in which had a small TV displaying what was going on in the main area, of where the interview was going to be happening.
DeShaun wasn't too happy about where he had to stay, but nobody saw him arguing about it. As long as he could watch the interview, he didn't really have a reason to complain.
"Alright, we are going on air, are you ready?" One of the camera crew men said to Aaliyah and Marshall.
They both nodded, and walked into the studio, Aaliyah flattening her skirt with her hands once she was sitting down.
The interviewer had pale shortly cut hair, and long black lashes. She didn't seem as uptight as you may think, but that didn't make Aaliyah feel much more relaxed.
Thankfully, there wasn't an audience in the studio, although this was airing live on television, so there was hundreds of thousands more people watching.
"Aaliyah Haughton and Marshall Mathers everybody!" The interviewer exclaimed, a realistically sounding clap echoing from the speakers.
The camera focused on the interviewer as she started talking. "My name is Beth Carter, and we are here today with an exclusive interview. With the rap god himself and the princess of RNB."
The fake applause machine got even louder, almost making Aaliyah flinch. "So, Aaliyah, have you got any upcoming music?" The interviewer said, beating around the bush to what they really wanted to ask.
"I've got something up my sleeve." She winked, catching the interviewer off guard.
"Are you and Eminem going to be working on any songs together?" She then asked.
"We have no plans to currently." She curtly replied.
"But you and Eminem are so close though, friends isn't it?"
"Actually, we are dating." Marshall answered for her, catching her off guard. The entire studio stopped, smirks appearing on their faces. They knew that their ratings were going to rise now.
"Dating? Did I hear that correctly?" The interviewer said, her face full of shock.
"Yes you did." Marshall said, interrupting her.
"How long have you two been dating?" She then asked, trying to bite off more then she could chew.
"Long enough." Aaliyah sourly said, she didn't want to give too much away to this interviewer.
"Alright then, any thoughts for marriage?" She joked, to which Aaliyah didn't take lightly.
At the interviewers sudden jump in questions, she stood up and walked straight out. Aaliyah didn't care if she was on live TV, she wasn't going to answer anymore of these ridiculous questions.
Marshall followed her out of the place, but didn't say anything. She was way to pissed, to get on her bad side.
"I can't believe them! I thought this was going to go smoothly, but the questions they were asking!"
"I know baby." Marshall murmured, putting his arm around her shoulder.
"There's no need to get upset though. We did it. We told the world."
Aaliyah giggled, and wrapped her arms around Marshall too. There was no way that she could stay mad when she was around him. He somehow always made her feel happy and safe.
"I guess you're right.."
As soon as Aaliyah had dropped Marshall and DeShaun off, she was greeted with the loud ringing of her cell phone.
Dad.
Reluctantly, she picked it up, even though she was trying to drive at the same time.
"Hey dad?" She said, confused at why he could be calling. She was five minutes away from the house, surely whatever he wanted to say to her could wait.
"What was that?"
"What are you talking about?" Aaliyah knew that humouring her dad wasn't going to divert the subject. He'd seen the interview, everyone had.
"That fucking interview. Don't you care about your reputation? Walking out like that? Telling them that you're together? What the hell were you thinking?" He shouted, his voice starting to break up as she headed closer to the house.
"What I do in my life has nothing to do with you." She bravely said, tightening her fingers on the steering wheel, as she began to regret what she had just said.
"If that's the way you are going to be, don't bother coming back tonight, you can stay out of my goddamn house!" He shouted, before abruptly hanging up the phone.
"Rude motherfucker." Aaliyah exclaimed, pulling over and slamming her head into her steering wheel, the loud beep of the car horn echoing around the empty neighbourhood.
Great.
She looked up to see that it was beginning to rain too. Where was she going to go? It was eleven PM, and pouring with rain, and her dad had kicked her out.
Great. Really great.
She had no money on her either, so it's not like she could drive out to a motel. The only thing she could do was drive to Marshall's and ask to stay there for the night.
Of course, he wouldn't say no, but that didn't make Aaliyah feel any more comfortable about the situation. She didn't want to intrude on him, they may be dating, but they needed personal time too.
After a few minutes of aimless driving, she pulled up outside of Marshall's big mansion, and ventured up the driveway and to the front door. Hesitantly, she rang the doorbell, hearing it echo around the empty hallway.
Within a few seconds, the door unlocked and Marshall poked his head around, surprised to see her. "Isn't this a lovely surprise." He chuckled, his laughter dying down after noticing how upset she looked.
He propped the door open wider, beckoning her to come in. "Let's talk about it."
She meekly nodded, and followed Marshall into the living room of his humongous house. He already had the television on, he'd been watching some romantic comedy by the looks of it, but Aaliyah was too tired to question it.
They both fell onto the sofa, and Aaliyah tucked her head into the crook of his shoulder, sighing as he began to play with her hair. "Dad's kicked me out." She mumbled, as if it was surprising.
Marshall didn't seem all that fazed either, he never liked the man at all. "Can't your mom do anything about it?"
"Mom knows her place." She mumbled back, staring at the ground. "I'm going to the Bahamas in a couple months, normally mom, dad or Rashad would come with me to things like that."
"I'll come with you." Marshall suggested.
"There's no point Marshall. I won't be gone for too long." She replied, biting her lip.
Marshall nodded, and kissed her head. "Why are you even going out there?"
"To record a music video, for my song, rock the boat." She hummed, running her fingers through her dark hair.
"Can't you just use them beach backdrops, and realistic lighting?"
"I could, but I want it to be as real as possible, after all, the songs already popular without the music video." She explained to him, watching him nod as she talked.
"Hey Marshall, I'm going to go use your shower, is that alright?" Aaliyah then asked, to which Marshall nodded.
She had been in his shower a few times, but only once or twice alone. It was hard to navigate the upstairs of Marshall's house, especially when it was late at night.
Although, she eventually came across his bedroom, with the bathroom conjoined onto it. She hadn't brought any spare clothes, so she just grabbed a T-shirt of Marshall's and took it in with her.
She sighed in relief, as she felt the room start to steam up, a nice hot shower is what she needed right now. Anything, to get her mind off of her dad.
Unfortunately, she had nothing to distract her, so as the hot water pooled over her, so did distant memories.
October 31st 1990
"Daddy look at my costume!"
Michael let out a comical laugh, and pretended to jump back in fear. "Who are you and what did you do with my little girl you witch!" He playfully seethed, reaching over and tickling her.
She giggled, trying to slap him away, as he continued to tickle her relentlessly. "Daddy!" She shouted between giggles and laughs.
31st May 2001 (present time)
Aaliyah hadn't even noticed that hot tears were rolling down her cheeks, even more so underneath the hot shower head. She let out a deep breath, and wiped all the water from her face before stepping out of the shower.
Once, dried, she put on the baggy Rakim top of his, and admired herself in the bathroom mirror. She looked like she'd cried, even now that her face was dry. Her eyes were red, and her cheeks were puffy, but even so, she put on a smile trying to ignore it.
To her surprise, Marshall was lying on his bed, a smile on his face as she got out of the bathroom. "You look really hot in my clothes." He breathed, watching as she took a seat beside him on the bed.
"Is that so?" She laughed, moving closer to him so he could feel her hot breath on the side of his neck.
With that, he grabbed her wrists and got on top of her, smirking as he noticed her surprised expression. He didn't do anything for a few seconds, he was too busy staring into her eyes.
Aaliyah broke the trance though, once she unbuckled her bra straps. Marshall watched as she did this, magnified with how beautiful she was. He made sure that her shirt was completely taken off, before leaning forward and kissing her.
At first, it was a complete fight for dominance, each of their tongues wrapping around each other, sliding in and out of each others mouths. Aaliyah got tired quicker then Marshall ever could, so she decided to let him take the lead.
He stopped kissing her lips, and moved the hot and sloppy kissed down her neck, making sure to be gentle when he left a few hickeys.
Soon the kisses made their way down to her chest, where Marshall felt himself cupping her breasts before taking short licks, and long sucks of her nipples.
"Fuck Marshall, stop teasing me." She moaned, trying to pull down his trousers. He grinned, pulling them down, before ramming himself into her.
Within three hours, they were done, completely tired out by it all. Aaliyah felt her arm starting to cramp up by how she'd been lying. Marshall was fast asleep, so Aaliyah took this as an opportunity to change back into the clothes she was originally wearing, and go home.
Two months later
Missy glanced at her, with a raised eyebrow, and a comical grin. "You gotta be serious?"
"Of course I'm fucking serious!" Aaliyah exclaimed, burying her hands in her face.
"Maybe it's not what you're thinking, maybe it's just some sort of disease?" Missy said, trying to be sympathetic about the situation.
"A fucking disease?" She shouted, slamming her fist onto the table.
"I'm sorry, you called me for help, I'm not usually doing this sorta shit." She slowly replied, looking into Aaliyah's dark orbs.
"I'm sorry too." Aaliyah said, feeling bad at how she had just shouted at Missy.
Missy sighed, before looking out of the window. "Just tell me everything."
"What is there to tell? I'm late on my period, and I can't stop throwing up." She huffed.
"Maybe you should call off going to the Bahamas. Until you are alright." Missy suggested, but Aaliyah shook her head. "No way, the fans are depending on me."
"Look, I brought this with me too." Aaliyah replied, before reaching into her bag. She pulled out a small box, and Missy already knew what it was.
a pregnancy test.
"Go do it Aaliyah, you need to know." She encouraged, dragging her into the bathroom. Aaliyah sighed, and took it out of the packaging and began to read the instructions.
a few minutes later
"Hey Aaliyah, are you alright in there?" Missy called, but Aaliyah wasn't listening.
She was too busy reading the test results.
...
ONE MORE CHAPTER LEFT, AND A SMALL EPILOGUE!
wow this has been a journey!