Confessions of a Bunny

Shawna "Onyx" Frost

"I am loyal to those that are loyal to me!!"

"Ms. Frost you can come in! Thank you for coming in on short notice I wanted to talk to you about your performance. My performance! Yes, on the sales floor it's come to me on more than a few occasions that you are loud talking the customers and that...wait hold on a minute who would say that I am always courteous to the customers. You assumed that this was a negative conversation Ms. Frost it's not. It's not! No, it's not, it's positive we've gotten dozens of complements on your performance, and I called you in to let you know we're giving you a promotion! A promotion! Yes, a promotion!"

I opened my eyes to see the alarm clocking going off on the nightstand. Ugh this 5:45 shit is ridiculous, I mumbled to myself before setting up and stretching careful not to wake Romello. I looked at him sleeping like he'd spend all day at work when in reality his ass was sitting in the house all damn day watching tv and collecting unemployment checks. I rolled my eyes and slipped out of the bed and went to the bathroom to get ready if I wanted to make it to work on time, I had to get myself showered and ready before making sure that Mercedes was ready as well by 7:15 in order to drop her off at her friend's house and beat the traffic heading across town. After showering and oiling up my body I went to wake her up, "Mercedes! Mercedes baby get up you don't want to be late to school. I don't want to go to school Mom" she said rolling over. "I don't wanna go to work, but if you want to eat and wear them clothes in that closet I gotta go. You got 3 minutes to be up and, in that bathroom, before I come back in here. Yes ma'am" she said sighing loudly. She was the product of my relationship with my high school sweetheart Anthony. I was 15 going on 16 and he was 17 going on 18. We thought we had it all figured out till the day that blue plus sign showed up on the test. After that he became distant and then before I knew it, he was in the wind, and I was stuck with a baby as a sophomore in high school. Luckily for me I had a very supportive family that helped me to raise her while I finished high school. I never thought about going to college so as soon as I crossed that stage my main focus was getting money for us to survive.

"Merced...oh" I said seeing that she was already in the bathroom. I finished getting dressed and checked the local news to see how the traffic was, even though I didn't have to be to work till 8:30, I still had to check cause getting into downtown is a bitch and I don't want to be late. While I was listening to the news, I made Mercedes breakfast and lunch before seeing her bounce into the kitchen. "Morning Momma! Morning baby I said as she kissed my cheek. I made you some eggs eat up we got a few minutes before we have to be out the door. Yes, ma'am she said eating. Mama is Melo going to pick me up after school or am I going to Courtney's house. You can go to Courtney's house, and I'll pick you up from there, Melo has an appointment today. Oh, ok" she said smiling. She really likes Melo even though he wasn't her father she took to him, and he took to her as well. Although he's been a big help, I wish he'd use more initiative to look for his own employment. When we first met, he had a decent job with the city and then they started doing layoffs. He was the first to go and hasn't bounced back since. I've tried to be supportive but after a while support don't pay the bills and it don't support him eating me out of house and home either. He needed to get a job and he needed to do it quick too. "Alright squirt it's time to go" I said peeping that it was already getting close to 7:10. I watched as she emptied her plate and put it in the sink before grabbing her bag and we were out the door by 7:15 on our way to work and her friend's house. "Bye baby I love you! I love you too mom. Tell Courtney's mom I'll pick you up later and I'll have the money too. Ok" she said disappearing into the modest house. I would love to drop her off at school every day but with the traffic I can't, so I drop her off at her friend's house and her mother takes them. Every two weeks I give her some money for gas and after school snacks to offset the cost of her having to do that for me.