"So, where do you know him from?" Matt said as they pulled his car up in front of DeShauns house. They could hear the bass of the music bumping from all the way inside the house. Cars lined the street, they were a little late it looked like. They found a spot in between 2 cars in his driveway and got out.

"High school, before, yanno." She said, looking up at the huge house party before them.

"Cool. DeShaun right?"

"Yeah." She said as they started up the lawn. "I still cant believe this. Im scared because I wont know anyone but him here, ah!" She giggled.

"Its aight, this'll be fun." He said, as they walked up the stairs and rang the doorbell.

"Yeah, itll be fun." She said, as he rang the doorbell again. It was hot out, really nice summer night, especially one for a party.

"Wheres DeShaun? The doorbell is going off like fucking crazy." Marshall said, holding a bottle of Bacardi in one hand, as he walked up to one of their friends, Jason. Jason shrugged and Marshall sighed and walked over to the door, opening it.

"Hey, DeShauns party, right?" Matt asked.

"Yeah..." Marshall said, not recognizing them as anyone he knew. He stepped aside, letting them walk past him. The guy grinned at him, and the girl just gave him a weird look. They were about halfway in the house, Lataya was still standing more in the doorway than in the house, and she stopped walking, just to stop and stare at Marshall.

She knew him, but, who was it? It was someone she knew, she was positive of that. She stared at him for a minute, familiarity consuming her. Those eyes, blue and deep, and beautiful, beautiful eyes. But where did she see them before? That nose, how it turns up, her jaw dropped. Was this who she thought it was? But, that wouldnt happen, that couldnt happen. This couldnt be-

"Marshall!" Someone called out behind him. Marshall turned around to see who yelled his name and watched one of his friends walk past him and nod at him in greeting. He nodded back and then looked back at Lataya, still not knowing who she was, and waited for her to walk in so that he could shut the door.

"Hey, why dont you shut the door when your ready to come in, aight?" He yelled over the music. Matt was staring at the two, not knowing what Lataya was staring at Marshall for, and he was obviously confused, as was Marshall. Lataya didnt say anything for a second, her mouth was wide open in awe. "What?" Marshall asked, getting self conscience. "Do I have something up my nose or some shit?"

"Oh my god." She said, feeling faint. "Marshall, Mathers." She said, taking deep breaths.

"Oh, another fan eh? Look, I dont-" He started.

"Oh my fucking GOD!" She yelled suddenly. Marshall jumped, getting a little scared of her. "Marshall FUCKING MATHERS!" She squealed.

"Uh," He looked around nervously, wondering where a security gaurd was. He always had one around him. He knew it was a bad idea to answer DeShauns door, you never know what kind of crazy people would show up.

"Oh god, Marshall, its me!" She laughed and threw her arms around him. He didnt return the hug, because he wasnt quite sure who the hell this was, and he looked at Matt behind her who shrugged and shook his head. He looked back down at her, the brown hair, the way she came right up to his chin, he frowned. Something familiar about her hug.

"Lataya, what are you doing?" Matt asked. Immediatly Marshalls eyes widened and he looked down at the woman hugging him. Lataya? He knew her!

"Lataya?!" He exclaimed, hugging her back. She nodded. "Lataya Woodson?!"

"Yes! Marshall oh my GOD!" She squealed and didnt want to let go of him. He felt so right holding her again. It had been years since she had felt him hold her. She blinked when she remembered Matt, and let go, pulling away from quickly. "What the fuck are you doing here?!" She asked, backing up near Matt who put his arm around her.

"I should be asking you that!" He laughed. "What ARE you doing here?"

"I met up with DeShaun, last tuesday night, or really early wednesday, anyways our cars hit each other." She laughed. "This is my fiance, Matt. Matt, this is Marshall."

"Hey." Marshall said, shaking hands with Matt, who nodded. "Whoa, who in hell would of thought I would see you here?"

"I dont know, DeShaun!" She laughed. "He knew we would both be here and conviently forgot to tell us both."

"I have to remind myself to beat the shit out of him for this." Marshall laughed. "This is fucking weird. Woa, how longs it been?"

"Like," She looked at Matt. "13 years? 12 years? I dont know! But its been a while!"

"Holy shit. So, your engaged now huh?" He asked. She nodded and tightened her arm around Matt.

"For 3 months now." She grinned at him.

"Thats awesome."

"I heard you was married." She said, smiling at him, and wondering what his reaction would be.

"Oh yeah, to Kim. The bitch. She kicked me the fuck out last week sometime, still wont let me back in the house." He laughed. "Thats what I get for starting a fight with her."

"Aww. I sorry." She said, looking down.

"Yeah." He coughed. "So, lets actually walk in the house ok?"

"Oh yeah!" She laughed. "Im sorry."

"Its alright." He said as she stepped aside and he closed the door. "You laugh alot."

"I was put in a mental hospital!" She said jokingly.

"Yeah," He cleared his throat uneasily. "Um, when did you get out?"

"Like, 2 or 3 years ago." She shrugged. "Im really glad to be out. It was horrible in there, I swear, it was like, hell without satan."

"Im sorry." He said, looking down.

"Dont be." She said. "Its not your fault." She looked at Matt who looked bored. "We are totally boring you huh hun?" She asked.

"Not really." He grinned at her.

"Well, lets all go find some beer or something, aight?" Marshall asked. They nodded and took off towards a cooler. They got beer, and Marshall got another bottle of Bacardi, and they all stood around looking at each other.

Matt realized that they were old friends, and felt sort of awkward, so he figured he would go off and mingle for a bit. "Hey guys, Im gonna go hang around and shit, I'll catch you in a bit Shorty?" He looked at Lataya who nodded.

"Okay," She said grinning at him. He walked away and looked around at all the people dancing and talking on the sides of the room, the loud music in the background.

"Um, you wanna talk? We can go sit outside, I think theres people out there too, but it wont be as crowded and loud." Marshall shrugged.

"Sure." Lataya nodded and they walked out DeShauns back door, and onto the patio. People that knew Marshall were slapping him 5 and saying hello to him on the way out, and Lataya noticed that things werent the same as they were back when they were kids. He had lots of people talking to him, and stuff. When they were kids it was just him DeShaun and Lataya, and their parties were never this big. They had done good for themselves, and they had all changed alot.

They walked down the stairs to the deck near the pool, about 10 girls were all either in the pool or laying on lounge chairs talking to guys. It was dark but there was lights near the pool and lawn, so it was lit up, though dim as it was. They walked down the deck and found a quiet bench near the side of the pool.

"So, hows life treatin you?" Marshall asked after a second of silence.

"Pretty good, I guess. Yourself?"

"Good." He nodded. They were silent for a second. "Im sorry, about that scene in the hospital room. I shouldnt have called you selfish."

"No, you were right." She shook her head. "Selfish people do commit suicide. And, Im sorry that I had to put you and DeShaun through all that, you know? I mean, I just, I just dont know why I did that. Maybe I belonged in the hospital, to clear my head and stuff."

"No, Laya," He said, causing her to grin widely. He noticed and looked at her. "What?"

"Nothing, Nothing." She giggled. "Its just, no ones called me Laya in years, your the only one that calls me it."

"Oh." He grinned. "Well, like I was saying, You know as well as I do, you didnt belong there. You shouldnt have been there, you know it. So dont try and deny it. And you were in there for that long? God, how did you stay sane?"

"Was never sane to begin with Marshall. Why do you think I was in there? Sane people just dont go there yanno. A sane person in there is like a needle in a haystack."

"It was a mistake, it was my fault you was in there."

"No, it wasnt. I slit my wrists and my throat, not you." She argued.

"In a way, I feel like it was my fault. Because you called and I hung up on you." He said, looking down.

"Look, I really dont wanna get into this again. Please dont blame yourself ok? For me?" She asked.

"Okay." He nodded. "So, what was it like in there?"

She laughed. "I get that question alot. Yeah, well it was hard to eat considering there were no forks or knives, only spoons, if we were lucky. And we had to have group therapy every day. And when I wasnt in group therapy I was in my room with my roomate who talked to plants."

Marshall tried not to laugh. "Oh, it, it sounds interesting." He coughed, trying to keep his laughter back.

"You can laugh, go ahead, you know you want to!" She laughed.

"Your right!" He laughed. "Thats crazy."

"You think thats bad? Some girl thought she was a girraffe, and she ate that girls plants, there was a huge riot, it was insane." She laughed. "No pun intended."

"Damn, it sounds like fun kinda."

"Trust me, it wasnt. You know, we had to sleep in a straight jacket. We didnt get much visitors, only on holidays. And like, they watched you constantly. I felt like a fucking goldfish!"

"Im sorry. Didnt it get boring?"

"Oh yeah, sometimes. Most of the time I amused myself by watched Rita, the girl that talked to plants, talk to Fred. Her begonia." She nodded. "And when I was bored, I just thought about life and stuff. And like, I dont know. I guess my life wasnt that bad to begin with, I mean, I had you and D, and like I guess there was just a limit to how much I could take, and I reached it and went insane."

"Your not insane. You were never insane and you never will be. You were upset." He protested.

"Sane people dont slit their wrists Marshall. They just DONT." She sighed. "Its ok though."

"Well, yeah." He sighed and looked down. "You know a few years ago, I tried to overdose on pills." He said, looking up to see her reaction.

"Oh my god, why?" She asked, suddenly feeling bad.

"Because, life was going like shit. I had no job, Kim took Hailie away. I just, I couldnt stand it anymore so I just took like 14 asprins, some advil, like 20 excedrin, and like, threw them all up, and I was ok. But still really sick. But I was ok."

"Thank god." She said taking a deep breath.

"Yeah. But listen, this is a really morbid conversation." He laughed.

"Yeah! Well, so tell me about your daughter, Hailie." She said, taking it upon herself to change the subject. Immediatly Marshall grinned at the mention of Hailie, and Lataya could see that everything DeShaun said about Hailie being everything to him, was true.

"Well, do you wanna see pictures?" He asked. She nodded and he pulled out his wallet, setting his Bacardi down on the bench beside him. "This is her when she was 2, on the easter bunnys lap." He said, pointing to the first picture.

"Aw!" Lataya said, leaning over to look closer at it. "Shes adorable! Look at those pig tails, aww!" She laughed and pointed to the picture. "Is that you!? On the easter bunnys lap with her?!"

"Shut up," He said, quickly switching the picture. "She was scared ok?"

"Aww!" She laughed and looked down at the next picture.

"Thats her, last christmas. On her birthday. Shes blowing out the candles."

"She has cake all over her face, oh my god! Thats so completely and utterly adorable." Lataya said in a baby talk voice.

"Yeah, shes cute." He said, grinning. He was so proud of Hailie. "And this one," He turned to the next picture. "Thats us, me and Hai."

"Oh my god." She looked closer at the picture. Marshall was holding Hailie, and they were both grinning. Marshall had a hat on backwards and no shirt, and Hailie had on a hat that looked to big for her, and Marshall was giving the peace sign, and Hailie was holding onto his hand trying to imitate him. "Thats so adorable." She said, staring at the picture. "Shes so cute Marshall!"

"Thanks. Shes so sweet. You should meet her sometime, you'd love her."

"Im sure I would, she looks so cute."

"Yeah. Shes her daddys girl." He said proudly.

"Uh oh." Lataya teased, and he bumped his shoulder into hers playfully.

"Shut up you bitch." He laughed.

"Haha. You know you love me." She grinned. His grin faded and turned into a more serious look, and he cleared his throat.

"Yeah so, um, your engaged to Matt huh?" He changed the subject, knowing that he really did love her, even though she meant it as a joke. But he couldnt love her right? He loved Kim, was it possible to love two completely different people?

"Yeah, hes great." She nodded. "I dont have any kids or any of that fun stuff, but I dont know. Ive had boring life."

"Um, no, having a roomate that talked to plants, isnt exactly boring." He laughed.

"Yeah but Im not some, world famous rapper either." She said, raising both eyebrows.

"Yeah. Remeber? We would always fool around with each other about me being a rapper?" He asked, laughing.

"Yeah, you would get so mad!" She said, laughing.

"Its ok though. I knew you were kidding." He laughed and put his arm around her, grinning. It felt like old times, and Kim was forgotten. He liked sitting like this, and it was innocent, because they werent doing anything, and it didnt mean anything. Friends sat like this. Old friends, new friends, friends. Although the feeling he had for her was NOT innocent, but, no one had to know about that except for him. Not even DeShaun.

Lataya noticed his arm around her shoulders, and she looked down, feeling guilty. Since she had seen Marshall she had these old feelings coming up again, making her start liking him again. But she was engaged, to Matt! She couldnt tell anyone about this, tihs had to be it. She moved away from him slightly and shrugged his arm off, feeling uncomfortable with it. She didnt know why she felt guilty, she wasnt doing anything wrong, but it felt wrong.

Marshall looked at Lataya and licked his lips. She moved away from him, damn. He was enjoying that moment. He could never just put his arm around Kim at a party like this. She was so, social. She would be all over the place, drinking, smoking, dancing with guys, right in front of his face. She was never this calm.

"Hey, maybe sometime next weekend, if your not busy, you and Matt wanna go like, out to dinner or some shit?" Marshall asked, panicking inside his head for reasons he wasnt quite sure of.

Lataya smiled,"Sure. Thatd be great," She nodded. "Ill just check with Matt to see if hes busy."

"Yeah, where is he anyway?" Marshall asked, looking around the pool area. Matt was probably still inside though.

"I dont know, he loves parties. Hes always off somewhere, meeting new people, doing something." She shrugged.

Sounds like Kim, Marshall thought to himself. "So, you dont like to go to parties?"

"Ah, its not that. I dont mind going to parties and stuff really, but like, I dont know I guess I just like sitting down and talking, like this, alot better." She sighed. "But hes got alot of friends, so we have alot of parties to go to, and, its just crazy."

"Yeah." Marshall looked down at his beer and swooshed it around restlessly in the bottle. He didnt like parties either, he liked going to them from time to time but he was more of a quiet person, believe it or not.

"Yeah." Lataya said. "Yourself?"

"Oh, I like some parties. You just get sick of them after a while though, after going to so many like I do. This party heres about to be broken up by the cops I bet. DeShauns parties always are. But yeah, so, I try to avoid parties whenever I can. Yanno?"

"Yeah." She nodded and laughed. "Well, I hope your not bored with me, yanno, staying out here where its quieter and calmer-" She was cut off by a girl screaming, and they looked up to see a guy push her in the pool. "Well, maybe not exactly calmer," She said slowly. "But you know."

"Yeah I do, and dont worry, your definatly not boring me. Trust me, if I was bored I would find some way to get out of this situation." He paused and looked at his watch. "Oh shit, look its almost 11:30, I should get back to the hotel, ahh!" He said playfully.

She laughed. "You asshole," She sighed. "So, tell me about this whole rapper deal thing."

"Oh, my 'rapper deal thing', you know, since your using the technical terms for it." They both laughed. "Well, yeah, Dr Dre heard me rapping on a-"

"DR DRE!?" She exclaimed, grabbing his shoulder. His eyes widened and he cleared his throat uneasily, inching away from her slowly.

"Um, yes, yes, Dr Dre..." He said slowly, and then remembered that Lataya worshipped NWA as a kid, and chuckled a little bit. "You still obsessed with him?"

"Im not OBSESSED with HIM." She coughed. "I like Ice Cube."

"Haha! Ice Cube, yeah I remember, your locker was-" He trailed off shaking his head. "Well it was pretty bad. OBSESSION." He coughed, teasing her.

"Shut up! It was NOT!" She laughed.

"Was to. Oh no your right, you just found pleasure in stalking them and knowing their every move." He nodded.

"Oh shut UP Marshall." She rolled her eyes and giggled. "Tell me about Dre."

"Ha! What the fuck is there to say about that mothafucker? Well, hes, hes great, and um, he knows everything." He said matter of factly.

"He knows EVERYTHING?" She asked doubtfully.

"Pretty much." Marshall nodded.

"So, how did you get him to hear you? What were you saying before I interrupted you?" She laughed.

"Oh yeah, um, he heard me rapping on a radio station, in LA. On the sway and tech show. And he liked what he heard so he called and asked me to fly down for a few days in LA and he was gonna help me with my album. It was like, unreal. It was so fucking awesome. And then like, he produced alot of my tracks, I produced 3 on the Slim Shady lp-my first album, but I didnt get any producer credits. Its ok though. And like, from there everything just went up yanno." He explained.

"Whoa. Dr Dre." She said, as if mezmorized.

"Ah, your still on that?!"

"No! Haha, Im just kidding, that was a cool way to get found I guess. Im glad you got big."

"So am I, Dre litterally saved my life." He sighed.

"What? How?"

"Well, because, I dropped out of school like, right after you left. And like, I didnt have a good job or education or any of that shit. I worked down at Gilberts." He said.

"Oh! Remember we used to make fun of that waitress that worked there?!" Lataya asked laughing.

"Yeah, we would all go down there everyday just to see what crazy hairstyle she had!" He laughed, remembering the old times. It felt good thinking about those times. Times when things werent so hard and everything.

"Ohh! She was so, WEIRD!" Lataya giggled.

"Look like, she stuck her finger in a light socket or something!" He laughed and she slapped his shoulder playfully.

"Dont be mean!"

"But its so fun!" He laughed. "C'mon, you know she looked like that!"

"Well, she did, but Im not one to talk. Ugh, Im so ugly, I feel bad making fun of her!" She laughed.

"Lataya, your not ugly." He said seriously, suddenly his smile fading. She shook her head. "Your not, remember, how I said you were the most beautiful girl that I had ever seen? Back when we were kids?"

"Yeah?" She replied boredly, not wanting a lecture.

"Well, now your the most beautiful woman Ive ever seen." He grinned at her.

"Marshall, thank you. But your obviously blind." She sighed. "Lets just forget about this conversation here, and change the subject."

"No, I want you to remember that. I meant it. So, next time you think your ugly, remember that I dont."

"Thanks but," She was going to argue with him when Matt approached them.

"Hey guys." Matt said, sitting down next to Lataya.

"Hey." Marshall and Lataya said at the same time.

"Where ya been?" Lataya asked, putting her arm around him.

"Around." He shrugged. "You guys talk?"

"Yup." She said. "I wanna see D. Marshall, do you have ANY idea where that boy is?"

"I dont, sorry." He shook his head. "We can go find him though."

"Okay. I wanna introduce him to Matt. Oh, Matt! Next weekend Marshall invited us to go out with him, to dinner or something?"

"Ah, Next weekend isnt good for me. Im going to NYC Friday, to visit my mother. Uhm, maybe when I get back we can all go out. Or, like, if you wanna go with him, you can." He shrugged.

Marshall raised an eyebrow. What the fuck was that? 'If you wanna go with him, you CAN.' What was she? His 3 year old? Lataya wouldnt let him talk to her like that. He sounded possesive. He looked to Lataya, waiting her response to that.

"Well sure, Ill go." She nodded. His jaw dropped, she didnt get mad at all? Whoa. No one ever told Lataya what to do. This was weird. He pretended not to notice it, maybe it wasnt such a big deal.

"So, its a plan than?" He asked. She nodded. "Okay, Ill call you later this week then. But lets go find DeShaun."

"Alright." Lataya laughed.

They walked up through the backyard, up the stairs and into the house. People where everywhere, crowding the kitchen, loud music banging. They walked into the livingroom and Marshall spotted DeShaun sitting on the stairs that led upstairs with his girlfriend, Cherise.

"Hey!" Marshall yelled over the music. DeShaun stood up, so did Cherise.

"Hey man, Oh! Lataya! I see you found our girl!" DeShaun laughed and leaned over, hugging Lataya again, the shock of the situation still not hitting him since tuesday. It was so unbelievable. Too good to be true.

"Yeah!" She grinned.

"Lataya, this is Cherise, my girlfriend. Cherise, this is Lataya, you remember I told you about her." DeShaun introduced them.

"Yeah! Hi!" Cherise said perkily. Marshall grinned. He always teased Cherise about prosac.

"Hey." Lataya smiled at her. "This is my fiancee Matt. Matt, this is DeShaun, and he just introduced Cherise." She said, as Matt leaned over and shook DeShauns hand, and then Cherises.

Marshall watched them all talking, suddenly becoming quiet. Her and DeShaun were laughing and talking, like old times. Matt, Marshall and Cherise just watched them. They were amazing to watch, for some reason. How well they knew each other, the way they got along.

It felt great to see Lataya again, he never expected to see her after that day at the hospital. It was a pleasant surprise though. He always would have thought that if he saw Lataya again, she would be mad at him. She acted mad in the hospital room, so he wasnt sure how she would act if they saw each other again. But she wasnt mad at all, and he was glad, because he really liked her alot, as friends of course. It would be wrong to like her as more than just a friend, he was married, and she was engaged. He didnt want to screw anyones relationship up.

Plus she didnt like him as more than a friend either. They were adults now, more mature, and they could handle being friends without having crushes on each other. The way she looked at Matt, showed him that she really did love Matt. He didnt want to say or do anything to screw it up. But he couldnt wait to go out next weekend, to dinner with her. As friends, of course.