Page 8

nariah

. . .

A Few Years Later

Grabbing Lox by the hand I hopped up on the couch and peered out into the crowd. Stax was packed wall to wall thanks to me. Chucky fat ass had booked me for a hosting, and I wanted to say no but the money he was putting down made me change my mind.

“It’s a whole lot of niggas in here.” My lil sister Lariah sang from beside me.

“Too fucking many.” I frowned. “I plan on dipping out after I get my bread.”

“We know.” Her and her best friend Kiara heckled.

It had been a minute since I had blessed Stax with my presence. Shit to be honest I was banned from this piece of shit for like two years after Julius ran down on Chucky for disrespecting me.

I remember that day like it was yesterday.

Julius and I had been together for over a year and with the way his rap career had taken off, he felt like it was no longer safe for me to continue working here.

I lightweight didn’t disagree with him because with him being who he was naturally I became popular.

Julius was real big on showing off his “wifey” which caused people to be intrigued with our relationship.

When my name started to buzz and folks started paying me to come to their club, Chucky decided to I guess you can say, make me the face of Stax.

Julius had mentioned me quitting a few times, because he couldn’t always be here to make sure nothing happened to me, and I wasn’t trying to walk around with security.

Chucky promised him he would make sure nobody bothered me while I was at the club and the nigga did everything but that.

Things were cool for a lil minute until niggas started to get handsy.

Julius pressed Chucky ‘bout it and he said something along the lines of me being half naked on my social media pages so I should’ve known it would happen.

Julius beat his ass in the middle of his club which led to Chucky trespassing both of us.

I didn’t give a fuck ‘cause I no longer felt safe after that incident so me quitting was inevitable.

“Y’all act like I’m not graduating in a few hours.”

“Girl, everybody know you ‘bout to graduate.” Lariah retorted. “We tryna party before you fly out with Juice. Ain’t no telling the next time I’mma get the chance to come home.”

When Lariah graduated high school, she ended up moving out of state so she could attend Howard University.

She had her own shit going on and didn’t get the chance to come home often.

So since they had come down for my graduation I was trying to show them a good time, but my ass didn’t plan on being here long.

Julius kept his word and didn’t let what he had going on interfere with me finishing school. Anytime he was booked for a show out of town, and I couldn’t come because of school shit he never got mad about it because anytime I was on break, I traveled with him.

Both of us had demanding schedules so we made sure to prioritize each other any chance we got.

Two years into our relationship I found out Julius had stepped out on me which resulted in me leaving.

No lie three months after I left his ass, I found out I was pregnant.

He apologized and promised not to do it again and to prove how serious he was, he bought me a house.

Did I think that was the only time he’d been unfaithful?

Nawl, I didn’t but without solid proof what could I do.

Either the nigga was good at hiding the shit or he really was being faithful.

I wanted to believe the latter, but niggas lied a lot and Julius was no exception.

In the event that he was fucking off, the nigga was better off hiding it.

If I found out he was out here dogging me out I was packing up my shit and leaving him.

Leaning over Lariah pointed. “Here come ya boy.”

Rolling my eyes over to where she was pointing, I frowned my face up. It had been a minute since I’d seen Chucky but clearly nothing had changed. He was still fat as fuck and the way he was casually running his hands over his head, the nigga still thought he was God’s gift.

Trailing behind him was a few bottle girls carrying a sign that said Congratulations Nariah. The nigga was looking up at me smiling but I didn’t see nothing in his hands. Propping my hands on my hip I waited for him to step into the section.

The bottle girls did their lil routine and when they were done, they sat the bottles on the table and dipped. Chucky fat funky ass was still standing there like this was a reunion or something.

Before he could even open his mouth, I was asking.

“Where the fuck the rest of my money at?” Normally when anyone booked me for a hosting, they had to give me twenty percent up front and I got the rest after I fulfilled my contractual obligations.

Chucky ass ain’t get the same privileges, I made him give me half of my money before I even posted the club flyer on my page.

“Calm down I got your bread.” He smiled, making my skin crawl. Holding his hand out he cheesed. “It’s been a minute.”

“Not enough.” Holding my hand out I flexed my fingers. “Ain’t no talking until I get the rest of my money.”

“I got you. I was coming to chop it up with you ‘bout hosting my sons twenty-first birthday party.”

“I guess you not hearing what I’m saying. Ain’t no business without my money. Bring me that and I’ll have my agency reach out to you.”

“Aight Nariah.” He huffed before turning to walk off.

“I can’t stand that creep.”

“Me either.” Grabbing the bottle of 1942 out of the bucket, I popped it open and took a shot.

I planned on turning up with my sister for a few hours before sliding out.

I didn’t want to be too fucked up in the morning ‘cause I didn’t want to hear Julius’s mouth.

My family as well as his were staying at the house tonight because he was throwing me a party tomorrow after graduation.

I was standing in the middle of my section twerking when the DJ started playing Julius’s newest single.

It seemed like everybody in the club was rapping that shit to the top of their lungs.

Seeing them turning up to my man’s music just felt different.

I knew Julius was destined for greatness but the way his fans sold out his shows date after date made me proud.

My man was living his dream, and I was happy that he’d gotten everything he wanted.

The spotlights in the club started to flash sparking the crowd to start cheering. I was peering around trying to see what all the commotion was until I spotted Julius trekking through the club with roses in his hands and his crew following closely behind him.

My coochie did that lil thing she did anytime my man was near. Julius looked damn good in the blue and white One Million Clothing short set he had on.

“He play so much.” I beamed. One of the contingencies in my contract with Chucky was he had to let Julius come to my hosting, his ass was so eager to book me that he was willing to do whatever I asked.

Julius claimed he couldn’t come tonight because he had a session at the studio, which is why he sent Lox with me as security.

It took a few minutes for them to make it through the club but when they did the gang of niggas he brought with him filled my empty section up.

“Congratulations baby.” He smirked as he neared me. Holding the flowers out he tucked his bottom lip between his teeth. “You out here looking good as fuck.” He flirted.

Glancing down at the white Diesel jersey top and cut up denim shorts I whined. “Stop Julius.” My outfit of choice for the night was basic compared to the stuff I usually wore when I had a booking. Taking the flowers out of his hand, I sat them on the couch and threw myself into his arms.

“Having fun?”

“Fuck no.” I laughed.

Leaning back, he stared into my eyes. “Why not?”

“Chucky fat ass ain’t brought me my money yet.”

“Bet.” He nodded before calling for Tito.

“Please don’t get started Julius. We don’t need the negative press right now.”

“Ain’t shit. Say Tito go get that bag from Chucky and make sure you tell that nigga next time we gone need it up front.”

“Say less.” Tito chuckled before ambling out of the section.

Burying my head in his chest I shook it. “That man gone trespass our ass again.”

“I’on give a fuck. I ain’t want you back in this bitch to begin with. You the one tryna let bygones be bygones. Fuck his big ass. And you talking ‘bout don’t get started like you wasn’t gone call me anyway.”

“I’m glad you know.” I laughed and glanced up at him. “I’m happy you came.”

“You know I wasn’t ‘bout to let you come here by yourself.”

“But you sent Lox.”

“Yeah, just until I was able to get out of the studio.”

Standing on my tippy toes I pecked his lips. “Thank you for showing up.”

“I’mma always push up on you. Believe that.” Grabbing a handful of my ass he shook it. “You niggas order a bottle or something. My girl ‘bout to graduate in a few hours. It’s time to party.”

My initial plan was to leave after a few hours but after Tito came back with the rest of my money, Julius hopped on the mic and blessed the crowd with a little performance. His presence was exactly what I needed to let my hair down and have fun.

Sitting on the floor waiting for my row to be called up had me damn near in tears. I wanted to say it had been easy going to school full time while juggling being a mom, the girlfriend to a successful rapper, and an influencer but there was nothing easy about it.

There had been plenty of times where I would have to leave class and hop on a flight so that I could go to a hosting. Wake up hungover and have to fly back home so that I could jump into mommy mode.