Chapter 20 - Girls Night

A/N Warning: This chapter contains mature themes.

Marshall's POV:

— September 20th

The time is currently 9:55 in the morning, and I'm fucking tired. I woke up early this morning to finish packing because I was too tired to finish yesterday. And then I had Paul up in my ear at the ass crack of dawn telling me I better be careful and a whole bunch of other bullshit. Then I had to pickup Hailie so that we could ride to the airport together, which wasn't really an issue, but in all honesty, I was stressed out.

So we - Hailie, Anthony, Denaun, Ryan, myself, and some security - were all sat on the jet preparing for take off. It was gonna be a long flight. 5 hours to be exact. Everyone else were either talking to each other or busy on their phones. So I put my headphones on and closed my eyes to relax.

— Later That Day, 3:08PM

"Ladies and gentlemen, this private jet welcomes you to thee fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. The local time is currently 3:08pm. For your safety and the safety of those around you, please remain seated with your belt fastened and keep the aisles clear until landing. Thank you, and enjoy your stay." The flight attendant announced, forcing me out of my deep sleep.

I did as I was told until we landed, where I undid my seatbelt so we could all get off the plane. I stretched my limbs before stepping off the plane and getting into the car that was waiting for all of us.

"You remember the plan, right?" I looked at my daughter.

"Yes, dad. I won't tell her that you're staying at the hotel and reinstate that you really had to finish some work for the album." She recited back to me.

"Good. Now when we get to this hotel I'm going to be staying with the guys tonight so none of us get caught. You know I can't leave those bozos alone, they'll probably go out and be seen. You still having a girls night with Sadé?"

"Mhmm." She replied with a head nod.

"Alright. Have fun, but not too much fun." I said sternly, looking out the window at the road.

"Dad! I'm not a little girl anymore. I'm not going to do anything crazy." She protested, throwing her hands in the air.

"So. I don't care how old you get. You're still my little girl." I nudged her, making her let out a chuckle, "I love you."

"I love you too, dad." She smiled at me.

I don't care how overprotective I may seem at times. I'd do anything for any one of my daughters. And I'd also let them know how much I love and care for them every chance I get. Like I did just now.

We continued our way to the hotel in comfortable silence. Once we all arrived, we all went to our respective rooms. I took a quick shower and changed my clothes from the flight into something more comfortable. I headed to Naunie's room where all the boys were. This is where I would be for most of the night.

I just can't wait to see Sadé, it's been weeks. This day can't go by any slower!

Sadé's POV:

I was getting ready to go out to have a nice little dinner and chit chat with Jo tonight. It was just going to be us two since Bama & Hailie weren't in Vegas yet. Jo and I had arrived sometime last night.

I was in the middle of curling my hair when my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID before setting the curling iron down on the bathroom counter. It was my sister, Trinity. She was 7 years older than me, but we still had a close relationship despite our age gap. I swiped my phone to answer, putting it on speaker so I can continue what I was doing.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Sadé. Happy early birthday, sis." She spoke through the phone.

"Thank you." I said sheepishly, "What's up?"

"Umm. Don't be mad, okay?" She sighed.

"Okay..." I nervously laughed.

"We can't make it to Vegas. We can't come to your party." She let out sympathetically.

Instantly I felt my chest tighten and my smile drop. I felt like I could cry right about now.

"Whose 'we'? Everyone? Even you?" I asked, stopping everything I was just doing as I was now fully invested into the conversation.

"Sadé, everyone. Me, Malik, our cousins, grandma, everyone. I'm sorry!" She explained.

So by everyone she meant all the family I had invited, which was very little. That included her, my brother - Malik, my cousins, and my grandmother. Granted, I didn't invite any other family members considering this is vegas and it can get crazy. But I did invite the ones I absolutely wanted here with me to celebrate and found appropriate for the occasion.

"What?! Why?" I raised my voice, trying to keep my temper at bay.

"Because we couldn't afford the flights there and back." She mumbled.

"What do you mean you couldn't afford it?" I frowned.

"We couldn't afford it. Not all of us. I even volunteered to help pay for everyone else's tickets. I tried. I- "

"AFFORD IT?" I let out bitterly.

"There's no excuse as to why y'all can't afford it. There's no reason as to why y'all can't come and be here for me for one day out of the year. It's not like you all work. I pay for everything! I pay everyone's bills. I paid for the homes everyone lives in. I paid for all the new cars everyone drives. I literally worked my ass off day and night just so that I can make it out of the hood for ALL of us! I'm the YOUNGEST one in the family and I'm the ONLY one that constantly makes sure EVERYONE is straight. The fuck you mean y'all can't afford fucking flights? I SEND YOU ALL $100k A MONTH FOR WHATEVER YOU WANT. EVERYTHING IS PAID FOR IN FULL. WHERE IS ALL THE MONEY GOING? You couldn't tell me this sooner? You don't think I would've paid for it myself? You guys always pull some shit! It's ALWAYS something with somebody. Nobody in this family is ever there for me. Nobody supports me. And yet I STILL provide for ALL of you. And you can't show up for me for ONE day? Are you serious?" I rage out.

Truth be told, I don't know what I expected from them. I should've known this was going to happen because it always does. And I know this isn't my sisters fault, because she's always been the only one to support me out of all of them. Genuinely. But the fact that she can't come either pisses me off.

Like where did the money go? It's not like they pay for necessities because they don't. I do. So anything they get from me is either theirs to use however they want or to save up. How can they not afford to come? That's literally impossible. I know damn well they can afford it. They just didn't want to. Or should I say my grandmother doesn't want to. She's always been greedy and was money hungry. So she probably just didn't want to spend the money because it would've "cost too much." That's must've been what Trinity meant when she said "not all of us."

Ever since my mom passed when I was younger, it's like I became the black sheep of the family. My grandmother treated me completely differently than everyone else. It's like she began to hate me. Like something just switched. And she freaking brain washes them all into doing whatever she says. So if she wasn't coming then neither was anyone else.

I can't believe it yet I'm not surprised in the slightest.

"Calm down. I know it's a bad situation, but you know how it is." She tried to reason with me.

"I really don't know, but whatever. Just leave me alone. I don't care anymore." And with that I hung up.

I wasn't interested in anything that she had to say. I wasn't going to waste my energy or drain my happiness on the issue. I wasn't going to waste my time explaining how I felt to her. She already knew how I felt just like everyone else. Nobody cared though. They never have. So I'm going to do what I do best: not tell anyone how I feel and keep everything bottled up. Just suck it up and keep it pushing.

I go back to curling my hair, but I'm literally crying as I'm doing it, my vision blurred. I'm just so exhausted. So angry. So hurt. I just wish my family cared or at least understood me. Unfortunately, this is real life and fairy tales don't exist.

I fix my makeup and slip on a black silk dress with black heels. I look at myself in the mirror to make sure I look good before heading out the hotel room. I meet Jordyn in the lobby, and we leave to dinner.

— Back at the Hotel, Later That Night

Me and Jordyn had just gotten back from dinner, and it was so nice. We had so much fun and it was a great way for me to take my mind off of what happened earlier.

It was now dark out when we stepped off the elevator as we began to walk back towards my room. I got right in front of my door when I noticed something blocked the area. I bent down to pick it up.

Roses. A huge bouquet of roses, my all time favorite flowers. I looked at Jo and she just smiled.

"Read the card." She urged.

I fished around for the note until I found it.

"Sadé,

I got pretty flowers for a pretty girl. I hope you love the flowers. I'm sorry I can't make it, but I hope you have fun.

See you soon,Marshall ♡"

I couldn't help but cheese. Marshall is such a big softie despite his public reputation. I know he couldn't be here, which saddened me, but he had work to do. I wouldn't want him to compromise anything he had going just to please me.

"Jo, can you take a picture of me please?" I asked, handing her my phone.

"Sure. Show that booty, girl!" She joked as she snapped a few shots of me.

I looked through them quickly before texting Marshall & sending him a selfie and full body picture.

I also decided that I'd update my instagram feed since it's been a while. It's not like anyone would know it's from him anyways.

We finally walked into the room, me going in first. As soon as I turned the lights on I was in for a surprise. I sat the flowers down, looking up.

"HEY BITCH!" Alabama yelled.

"SADÉ!" Hailie yelled in unison.

"Ahhhh! Oh my gosh." I squealed.

I ran to the both of them, hugging them tight. I haven't seen either of them in forever. I missed them both so much. We finally let go of each other as I looked around the room. They had decorated it with balloons, a birthday cake, desserts, games/activities, and of course alcohol. This is one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me. Not even my own blood has taken the time out to do anything like this.

I couldn't help but let some tears fall. I was just so overwhelmed with happiness. After all that happened today, I couldn't help it. Over the years I learned that sometimes family isn't always by blood, but is by heart & who is there for you. This couldn't be more true right now.

"I love you girls. You too Hailie. You're one of the girls now too!" I tell them, all four of us in one big group hug.

"Awww, we love you too Sae." Hailie said softly.

"Alright. Let's all put on our matching pajamas. And let's all get this girls night started!" Jordyn exclaimed taking a shot.

We all got changed into our silk pajamas set. I wore the rose gold one, Jo the white one, Hai the gold one, and Bama the brown one. We then started our girls night.

— Sometime Later That Night

We had all been taking shots and dancing to music, enjoying each other company. We had all decided that it was about time to cut the cake after they had all sang to me their makeshift birthday song. It was all types of wonky because of the drinks we had previously shared, making us tipsy.

"Okay...I think that's enough of the singing. You all sound like the three blind mice." I grinned.

"Sadé?..." Bama look at me seriously, but in a state of confusion.

"What?" I asked back equally confused.

"You said the three blind mice." She responded.

"Yea. What's your point? You all sounded just like them?" I say dumbfounded, taking a sip of my drink.

"Girl, you said BLIND not DEAF. They can still sing and speak!" She said with absurdity.

"Ohhhh." I say a bit dazed out, "You know what I meant." I tried to stifle a laugh.

However, when everyone bursted out laughing I couldn't contain mines anymore.

"Okay, enough of that. We need to get some content from tonight for your social media since that's kind of your whole career." My manager, Jordyn, said.

"Okay, that's fine with me. We've all been posting to social media throughout the night anyways." I shrug.

"Oh Sadé, why don't you do the birthday trends from tiktok and instagram?" Hailie suggested.

"I haven't seen it. What trends?"

She proceeded to show me the two videos she thought I should recreate since they were currently going viral. I agreed.

The first one was me putting a candle in the cake, except I would pretend the candle is a blunt in my mouth as someone sparks it up for me. The second trend, was me pouring a bottle of champagne into a glass in front of the '21' birthday balloons over Nicki Minaj's voiceover.

We got everything setup for the two trends, the girls helping me and Jo out.

"3,2,1" Jo mouthed as I placed the candle between my lips, signaling Hailie to light it up.

I then took the candle from between my lips, placing in the cake before blowing it out. I smiled and striked a pose as the video ended.

"Everyone, it's my birthday." Rang out from the speakers as Jo looped the sound with the video.

"Got it." Jo confirmed, meaning we didn't have to do a retake.

We then went into the bedroom where we set up the second video shoot for my tiktok. I got into the bed, covering my face & body, only exposing my arms.

"You look like someone doing hand puppets." Bama giggled as we did the first take of the video.

This cased me to crack up, messing up the movements, meaning I'd have to retake it.

"Bama stop laughing. You're messing me up!" I joined her in a fit of giggles.

"Alright. Let's try that again." She said, calming down.

I covered myself back up again, Hailie passing me the glass, Bama passing me the bottle of champagne. We tried to get the video right for the second time, but I ended up spilling the Champagne all over the bed because I couldn't see anything and missed the cup. Once again, we all found this as the most hilarious thing in the world in our intoxicated state of minds.

We tried to get the video right one final time, finally succeeding. Third times a charm I guess.

"I just wanted to say, happy birthday to such an icon. You are great. You deserve everything good under the sun." Nicki's voice played as Jo recorded the video.

We all sat, eating the cake, and took a look at the two videos, seeing if they came out good. Once we were content with the outcome, I posted them to my tiktok and Instagram reels for everyone see.

We continued on the night by taking shots and drinking any and everything. I mean we had Jell-O shots, wine, Hennessy, Jack Daniels, glittery vodka drinks, etc. We were wasted. All the games we played were drinking games: drunk uno, a makeshift board game, and drunk jenga. So that definitely didn't help the situation.

We were just all a hot mess. Slurred words, giggles, stupid jokes, and tears of happiness were spilled all about. We were just high on life's vibes and having a really lit time. It was approaching 1 in the morning when we all ended up passing out for the night.

I love these girls like sisters, was my last thought before my eyes fluttered shut as I blacked out.