Chapter 5 #2
For some strange reason Shell thought that he was talking to her. “Oh, I’m Roshell.” She smiled from ear to ear, just knowing that she had been chosen out of all seven of us.
The man frowned. “No, I’m talking to this pretty little thing with this long hair. Is that all you?” he asked me.
The expression on Shell’s face immediately changed. I knew that she was embarrassed. Really, if I was her I would have brushed that shit off, because it wasn’t like I was excited about getting attention from a man old enough to be my grandpa.
“Who me?” I asked, playing crazy.
“Yeah, you.” He smiled revealing a mouth full of gold.
He was a handsome older man, but nonetheless he was old. He was well dressed like he had a bit of money. Tisha would have loved him, but then again he wasn’t ugly enough so she might have passed. “I’m Keisha.” I lied. He didn’t need to know shit about me.
“Keisha, huh? Okay, Keisha, I know that y’all supposed to make a little money dancing for these niggas, but I have a proposition for you and you only.”
“What?” I asked feeling some bullshit coming.
“For five hundred dollars you can give me a private session for just two hours.”
“Bitch, you better get that money!” Shell hurried to say once she heard him say five hundred. Did she not hear the way he said session? My pussy was not for sale.
“Nah, I’ll pass.” I shook my head.
He grabbed his heart as if I’d broken it. “That’s too bad. I think that you would have enjoyed it more than you think.”
“I guess we’ll never know.” I said with my hands on my hips.
A few of the girls gave me a nudge, I guess trying to get me to reconsider.
But that was dead wood. At that very moment I could kind of see what Jahrein was talking about too, but I’d never tell him that.
How did we go from dancing to fucking old men for money?
The old man took us to the back of the club to a room where we could change clothes. It was small as hell and I was sweating trying to dress in that closed in area with seven other chicks.
After debating with myself I decided to wear a black bikini swim suit and the clear stilettos that I’d borrowed from Red, without her knowing. I wore my hair down and rubbed my body down with baby oil.
“Get it bitch!” Dashia blurted as she slapped my ass. “We know who about to break these niggas tonight.” She continued on. The one thing that I could say about her was that she wasn’t a hater.
I looked in the mirror and was satisfied with my appearance, but then I became nervous. It wasn’t that I was ashamed of my body, but I wasn’t completely comfortable with strange niggas touching me, which I was sure that they were going to do.
“I might need to bring some mace just in case these niggas try to act up.” I said to no one in particular.
“Bitch, please. We’re eight deep. If anything pops off we all gon get down.” Shell told me.
“Alright.” I relaxed. “Well, let’s do this.” I said as I opened the door and headed back towards the main part of the club. All the girls followed me.
I hadn’t even made it past the pool tables when I heard. “You in the black. Yeah, you. I got a hundred for you right now.” Some chubby light skinned dude said to me. I made my way over to him.
The deejay started playing Back dat Ass Up by Juvenile, so that’s exactly what I did.
I backed that ass up all in his face. I could tell that he was enjoying every minute of it.
It wasn’t that bad. I just imagined that I was at a regular party dancing in my swim suit.
Other guys had begun to gather around waiting their turn.
After two songs I’d earned a hundred dollars plus some.
As I gathered all the bills that fell from my bikini I felt a strong hand grab my arm. I was about to go off, until I looked up. Jahrein was standing there with the ugliest look on his face. I was speechless.
“What the fuck are you doing?!” he barked.
“J…Ja..Ja l…le..let me explain.” I stuttered.
“Shut the fuck up.” He gritted as he wrapped his hand in my hair and started trying to drag me out of the club.
“Let me go!” I screamed. He was about to break my damn neck.
“Say, homeboy let her go.” My chubby dance partner spat as he tried to come to my rescue, and pry himself between me and Jah.
Without even letting me go Jahrein shoved the dude so hard that he crashed into a table. I was waiting for the dude to hop back on his feet, and redeem himself but it never happened. He just rolled around in pain, as if he’d been jumped by ten niggas.
“Punk ass nigga.” Jahrein seethed as he hocked up and spat on the man. “Let's go.” he pulled me away.
After he successfully dragged me outside Jahrein wrapped his hands around my neck, and cut off my air supply. No one tried to stop him. My girls had long ago stopped trying to help me when Jah went off. For the most part their help usually didn’t help much, anyway.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” He seethed. “Why was you in there shaking your ass for them niggas?”
I couldn’t say a word as he manhandled me in front of an entire club. “Get your muthafuckin ass in this car.”
I really got it that night in front of people I didn’t even know.
Jahrein was livid, which he had every reason to be.
Still, I wasn’t going out like that, so I fought a losing battle until he finally managed to shove me in his car.
I was so tired of him, and I really had trouble figuring out how he knew where to find me.
It just didn’t make sense. Houston is a big city, but I couldn’t do a damn thing without my crazy ass baby daddy finding out.
Jahrein acted a plum fool that night and once Ray-Ray found out about me being at a strip club he didn’t even try to intervene.
He just allowed Jah to torture me in our room.
I know he heard me whimpering like a little puppy, as Jahrein ranted and raged for hours.
That was when I realized that I was in that one alone.
Back to present…
When we pulled up in front of Shell’s house T-Boy was sitting outside. He walked over to the car and snatched the driver’s door open. “Bitch, you said that you was gon be gone for a hour!” he barked as he slapped her.
That nigga was known to whip her ass. I for damn sure wasn’t going to get in that shit.
In the past I had, but she always went back to him.
Then Jahrein insisted that I mind my business, because it was gonna be some real problems if he ever touched me.
The nigga was unstable, because he stayed smoking those sherms. Wet heads were too unpredictable, and I personally knew a few that had murdered their own family members.
So, I grabbed my baby and my merchandise and hauled ass.
We struggled down the street. When I got to our yard I made my way to the garage and hid my products. Then we went inside the house. We found Red knocked out on the couch, probably full of those handle bars. Xanax pills were her best friends.
All the men in the house were nowhere to be found. Jalero was outside somewhere, while my daddy and Jahrein were probably somewhere in the streets hoeing.
We made it to our room and got cozy in the bed. Jahrein Junior had shitted on himself and his ass was funky. I changed his stinky self, while I called my number one customer.
“Tasha, I got those two pairs of jeans that you wanted.” I told her as I propped my phone between my head and shoulder.
“You did? Well, how much you want for them?”
“A hundred for both pair. Each was ninety so you can’t beat that.” I gamed, as I sprinkled some baby powder on Junior’s little butt.
“That’s a bet. When can I get them?”
“Um, come see me sometime today.”
“A’ight. I’ll be there in an hour.”
“Alright.” I agreed, as I hung up and placed a fresh diaper on Jahrein Jr. I then called three more customers, and basically had all my clothes sold when I hung up the last call.
One by one, all four chicks came and paid for their clothes.
I made four hundred dollars. That was going to last me for a while.
I only stole to keep cash in my pockets.
I wasn’t greedy and didn’t want any store to become too familiar with my face.
I had a nice stash and didn’t have to depend on anybody for shit.
I was getting bored so I called Delvin, my friend from school.
He was 6’3, caramel, had green eyes, and a sexy ass body.
All the bitches at school wanted him. He had paper and a nice trophy truck.
He wanted me in the worse way, mainly because I seemed unavailable.
At least that’s what I felt. He bought my lunch every day, gave me rides, and sometimes gave me a few ends.
We never had sex, but I sometimes imagined what it would feel like with him.
I was just scared that he might not know how to keep his mouth closed.
That was a chance that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take.
My hesitation wasn’t really about Jahrein.
I just didn’t want some immature boy talking my business.
In many ways, I felt that I was single, or at least I wanted to act like I was.
I often told myself that I just lived with the father of my child who did whatever the fuck he pleased.
So, doing me wouldn’t be such a bad thing, if I decided to.
“Hey, boy what’s up?” I asked my friend as he answered his phone.
He breathed into the phone. “Main, pissed.”
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“Okay, check this out, huh. I was chilling at my truck, right. We was on Reed Rd. and Scott at the fish market. That’s when the nigga Jahrein rolls up on me.”
“For what?”
“Okay, act like you don't know. Because of you. This nigga actually pulled a pistol on me. He was talking about I better stay away from you or he’s gonna blast my ass.” Delvin explained.
“What? How the fuck is that nigga gon do some shit like that? We aint together!” I vented. The truth was that I kind of didn’t want to be with him at times, but in every sense of the word we were still together.