Priceless Inspirations Read Online Free PDF

That was my idea of a popular guy. When I met Dream, all I knew about him was that he’d just performed at my school’s talent show. Even after we’d started chilling together a bit, I didn’t know much about all that. I didn’t ask much about it either. We talked on a different level than that. In the beginning, what I knew about Dream was just that he was charming and sweet and fun to be around. He was still not my type, but he was gentle and kind to me.
    I don’t remember why I called him that first time, but I did. Then it got to be like a habit. I would hit him on the pager when he came from school. He’d call and we’d talk for hours, talking about everything you can think of.
    That’s how we discovered that we’re related-sort of. My aunt’s husband’s daughter’s (my cousin by marriage) uncle was Dream’s stepfather. You got it? My cousin-in-law and Dream were cousins by marriage. Or something like that. We used to call each other “cousin” because his stepfather was sort of my uncle. My cousin-in-law even lived in Dream’s neighborhood. I’d go over there and spend some time at her house, then I’d meet Dream and we’d spend a little time talking and kissing. He was very affectionate.
    Even then, I didn’t know he was as well-known as he was. At school, I had all of these girls running up in my face asking me, “Are you dating Dream?” or “Are you dating Wayne?” Depending on which question they asked, they got different answers. If they asked me if I was dating Dream, I said “yes.” If they asked me if I was dating “Wayne” I said “no.” I didn’t know they were the same guy. It even cost me my friendship with a girl that I was tight with. She had been dating this guy named “Wayne” and she wanted to keep dating him ‘cause he was paying her mama’s bills and buying her all kinds of stuff that she was constantly bragging to her friends about. When she asked me if I was seeing him, I said “no.” Then, when she saw me with him, she stopped speaking to me. She thought I was being dirty. I honestly didn’t know him as Wayne. I called him Dream. To this day I call him Dream.
    When I realized that Dream was the one paying that girl’s family’s bills, it was the first time I realized that he had real money. I knew he always had cash, but I didn’t know where it was coming from. He was always trying to buy me presents, things like designer backpacks to match my tennis shoes and that kind of thing. He bought me and my cousin stuff all the time, but he never said much about his money. He didn’t say, “I just signed a record deal.” He didn’t say anything. He just kept buying me stuff.
    When Keith found out that Dream was spending time with me, he only had one question for Dream--“You have sex with her?”
    Dream didn’t answer that question. He was a man. Keith had no business asking. He was a boy.
    Toya’s Priceless Gem: A real man doesn’t talk about who he did what with. Only boys need to brag .
    When I heard about what Keith had asked Dream about me, I was mad. I was even madder when they became friends after that. Then it went around school that I dated and had sex with guys’ friends, and that I was just a jump-off who would go from boy to boy until I had dated everyone in the crew. The haters were running me down constantly, saying spiteful stuff about me. The truth was that Dream and Keith hadn’t even known each other until the day Keith walked up to Dream and asked him if I’d slept with him.
    All the talk and Keith and the haters actually just brought me and Dream closer together.
    A little while later, he invited me on a trip to Houston with him as a part of Cash Money Record’s promotion tour of his ħ’rst album with Hot Boys . I told my Aunt Lisa a big old lie. I told her that I was staying with my cousin Demetria for the weekend, and then I boarded the plane without so much as a dime of my own in my pocket.
    It was stupid and dangerous. He