Time to Shine

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Authors: Nikki Carter

BOOK: Time to Shine
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Also by Nikki Carter
 
 
STEP TO THIS
 
IT IS WHAT IT IS
 
IT'S ALL GOOD
 
COOL LIKE THAT
 
NOT A GOOD LOOK
 
ALL THE WRONG MOVES
 
DOING MY OWN THING
 
ON THE FLIP SIDE
 
 
Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation
Time to Shine
A Fab Life Novel
NIKKI CARTER
Dafina KTeen Books
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Acknowledgments
Hey everybody! I hope y'all enjoy Sunday's new adventure, 'cause I sure had a blast writing it. I want to thank everyone who helped make it possible! God, my hubby, Brent (Crock-Pot chef—yeah!), my babies (Briana, Brittany, Brynn, Brent II, Brooke), and the entire team at Kensington Books (especially Mercedes)!
I'm blessed to have some ride-or-die friends like Sunday has, so I have to shout them out! Shawana, Lil' Robin, Lee-Lee, Tippy T, Dee, and Rhonda—love y'all to a million little pieces!
I want to thank my Twitter crew, Boss Tionna Smalls, Brittany Howard, Nikki Turner, Jaelyn, and Jasmine's World. Thanks for the retweets, ladies!
To all of my readers, and to every teacher and librarian who recommends my books: Thank you!
Enjoy....
1
“S
unday Tolliver! Are you on your way to Mystique and Zillionaire's wedding?”
The paparazzo catches me off guard by jumping from behind a building as I exit my parked car in front of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in downtown Atlanta. Really? This bird is hiding at four o'clock in the morning trying to get the scoop? I mean who is checking for Mystique wedding details at four in the morning? And anyway this is not the location for Mystique's wedding. It's actually one of the decoy spots. I will be picked up by another car to take me to the final location.
“I'm on my way into this church,” I say.
The annoyed almost-reporter cocks her head to one side and sucks her teeth. She looks like she doesn't know whether or not to believe me. I certainly don't look like I'm going to a wedding. I'm wearing sweatpants, and my hair is in a loose bun on the top of my head. But there's a full wardrobe and makeup crew at the real venue, so I don't have to worry about looking glam right now.
“You're one of her bridesmaids, aren't you?” the reporter girl asks.
I lean in closely and whisper, “I'll never tell.”
The frustrated reporter rolls her eyes again and storms off, perhaps looking for someone more willing to spill their guts about the so-called wedding of the year.
I won't share the details because, as a pop star myself, I don't like my business in the streets (or on the Internet) either.
I stride away from the irritated blogger chick. She can be camped out here for the next few hours and she won't be any closer to the truth than she is now. The plan is for members of the wedding party to be picked up by shuttle bus at four-thirty in the morning. Then we will be taken to the top-secret wedding location. The wedding party doesn't even know where it is.
I can't believe Mystique was able to pull off something this complex when she and Zac (Zillionaire) only decided to get married a few weeks ago. News of Zac's love child hit the blogs and the next thing you know those two are going to the chapel, getting married.
When she asked me to be her maid of honor, I was kind of shocked. It's not like we're really close or anything like that. She gave me my first record deal and basically introduced me to the world as her protégée, but something happened in these past few months. All of a sudden she got competitive, and did a couple of things that could be construed as hateration.
I duck into the church and hand my car keys to a security guy standing at the door. He will be in charge of driving my car from the church to another parking area—not where the wedding will be held—but another fake location to throw off the paparazzi. Yeah, it's super cloak and dagger up in this piece.
Then I see him.
The new ex-boyfriend of mine. Sam.
Ugh.
Like, can I ask a side bar question? Why do boys have to lie all the time? Sam told me that he didn't hook up with Rielle on prom night, and that was a big, fat, gigantic lie. He says he only lied because he didn't think I'd be his girlfriend if I knew, and he's probably right. I would've soooo kept it moving. But now, I really like (almost kind of love) Sam and he's hurt me.
Maybe I would've believed that he was all done with Rielle after prom, but apparently he's still dealing with her. He even bought her a laptop! Do I care that he did it because she's poor and her grandmother heard that he got a million-plus-dollar check? Um, no. We do not do good deeds for side pieces.
And why is he smiling at me? Ugh. I can't stand him.
He's Zac's best man, for some ridiculous reason. They aren't even friends. At all. Sam is his employee. Zac and Mystique are probably trying to orchestrate a reunion or some stupidity like that. But I don't care. Not trying to hear that.
Sam crosses the church sanctuary to where I'm standing in the back. He's still smiling like an idiot. I roll my eyes.
“So, they're sending a car for us,” he says. “It should be here soon.”
I give him a tight nod and start playing with my iPhone. I make a huge production out of putting my earbuds in, so he can tell that I'm listening to my music.
I wish my girls Gia, Piper, and Meagan were here with me. They didn't rank high enough on the celebrity list to get an invite to Mystique's wedding. They're not celebrities at all—they're my friends from Spelman. Gia is my roommate.
Mystique told me that I could invite one of them as my guest since I don't have a date, but I decided against it. The two I didn't invite would inevitably be mad at me, and I'm anti-drama right now.
So, I invited DeShawn. He's a hottie who goes to Georgia State and plays on the football team with Gia's boyfriend, Ricky. DeShawn also models and was in one of my music videos. He's cool, he's a friend, and he flirts with me. It doesn't matter that I'm not in the boyfriend type mood. Having DeShawn with me at the wedding will, at least, keep Sam out of my face. I hope.
The wedding guests have to park their cars at a different location, and then they'll be driven to the top-secret wedding location by another shuttle bus. Mystique has sold exclusive rights to her wedding photos to
People
magazine, so it's, like, imperative that nobody take any pictures—paparazzi or guests. They're even hijacking people's cell phones at the door.
It's that serious.
After a few minutes, I hear another car pull up outside the church. Sam and I are given dark jackets and baseball caps to put on, as we exit the back of the building. We look like some ghetto spies.
Once we're in the car, I notice that the driver is one of Zac's security guys. He drives us through Atlanta to a beautiful castle on Peachtree, called Rhodes Hall.
“I can't believe they're getting married here. Right in the middle of everything!” I exclaim to no one in particular.
Sam replies, “This is the perfect location. No one would even suspect that they were getting married this close to downtown Atlanta.”
I narrow my eyes in Sam's direction. I was not talking to him. Okay . . . so I know there are only two other people in the car besides me, and since I don't know the driver, it's pretty logical for Sam to assume that I'm talking to him.
But, since he also knows that I can't stand his guts right now, he shouldn't assume anything.
We're dropped off at the back gate of the castle, but since it's still dark outside no one can see us. Amazingly, there are no paparazzi hiding here. Maybe, it's because we took a roundabout way to get here. The church where we got picked up from is like ten minutes from the actual venue, but it took us forty minutes to get here.
When Sam and I walk into the building . . . wait. I do not like “Sam and I” put together in one sentence. That is so . . .
ugh!
When I walk into the building (we don't care what Sam is doing) I see Mystique barking out orders like the Bridezilla from the pits of Hades.
“Mother, please tell me that my veil is here. The custom-made diamond-encrusted veil that cost three million dollars to produce is here, right? Because if it's not here, someone's head is gonna roll.”
Ms. Layla, Mystique's mom, puts a hand on her daughter's back. It's a calming move, but it doesn't seem like it works.
“Honey, the veil is here. I just unpacked it. It is with Zac's security team now. Try to stay calm. You don't want to look frazzled in your wedding photos.”
“Okay, mother . . . I'm trying. I'm really trying. Where's Sunday? Is she here yet?”
“Present and accounted for,” I say from the back of the room.
Mystique flies back to greet me and embraces me with a bear hug. Who is this? I'm afraid I have not met this emotional and affectionate person masquerading as Mystique.
“Sunday, I'm so glad you're here. I can't have anything else going wrong.”
“I'm here too,” Sam says.
Mystique smiles at Sam and then says to me, “Sunday . . . can you please, please be nice to Sam today? I want you smiling in my pictures.”
I reply through clenched teeth. “I'll try.”
Mystique seems to accept my reply. I'm glad because it's the best I can do. She rushes off to fuss at the florist, who apparently has brought an incorrect flower.
“Does this look like a calla lily?” Mystique asks in a high pitched roar.
I take a seat and wait for someone to tell me what to do. I don't want to get in Mystique's path. Not today.
I know that if I ever get married (and that is so not in the plans any time soon), I don't want it to be like this.

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