three years later..
"Yara, someone spilled a couple drinks in one of the sections upstairs. Whenever you're finished cleaning here, you can just make your way up there before someone slips and fall."
"Yes ma'am." Yara replied, quickly wiping down as many tables as she could, before pushing her janitor cart up the small ramp that led to all of the upstairs sections. Once she finally got upstairs she swallowed the nervous lump that sat in her throat. She skimmed the area and walked towards the area where the bouncers were.
"Oh they spilled some shit in this section. I hope you got your mop." One said, guarding the spill so that nobody would fall. He was aggravated by everyone in his section, because it was a whole group of girls who were drunk and looking for male attention.
"Yes sir I do." Yara mumbled, mentally thanking herself that she had just made fresh mop water. She first used paper towels to soak as much alcohol as she could up. This technique was always smarter to her, because if she went straight into mopping it would just spread and soak up in the mop.
"Aye Ms. Janitor you need to go tend to them restrooms because they look a mess!" One of the girls shouted at Yara. Yara only nodded her head, feeling her heart beat speed up. She was always nervous around big crowds especially girls, because she felt like a sore thumb.
"Hello? Did you hear me?! You can't talk?" The same girl shouted, now getting the attention of everyone in her section.
"Yes ma'am, I'll get right to it." Yara replied, trying to sound audible. Once the girls did hear her voice, they all laughed at the tone and the way she sounded.
"Grown ass woman, but sound like a little ass baby. Girl tighten up."
"Chill y'all drunk ass out. What y'all getting out of messing with her? Finish enjoying y'all little night before I put all y'all ass out." The bouncer mugged. They all waved him off before they started to secretly record Yara mop up the area.
"Yara, when you gone start taking up for yourself? Stop letting people talk to you any kind of way." He added, turning his attention to Yara who was almost finished mopping up the area. He always found himself defending Yara against the girls who came in the club and picked on her.
"I don't really know how. I just try to ignore them." Yara replied.
"You sound like a baby, but it's cute." The bouncer, also known as Tu Velo, shrugged.
Yara only nodded her head putting all of her cleaning supplies back on the cart. She didn't find talking like a baby cute or a good compliment. She simply hated her voice, and no matter how many times she tried to change her voice it never worked in her favor.
"Thanks for defending me." She said before leaving the section, making her way to the bathrooms. This is what she did six days a week, seven hours each day. She had been a janitor at the hottest club in Atlanta for around six months now. After applying at several fast food places and not getting the job, she begged the owner of the club for a janitoral position.
Yara had just turned twenty-one, and her dream was to become a restaurant owner or own her own food truck. She loved to cook and bake. She was only getting paid $9.25 a hour, but she was going to save up every last penny to invest in her dream.
"Damn bitch you need to watch where you going with that big ass janitor cart!" A girl mugged, accidentally walking into Yara's cart.
"You walked into her dummy." One of the managers of the club, Niara, mugged. "Matter fact you can leave, you will not disrespect my employees."
"The bitch need to watch where she going then."
~
Yara watched as most of the other employees rushed to their cars and chewed on the inside of her cheek. She adjusted her bags over her shoulder and started her walk to nowhere in particular. "God please protect me tonight as I try and find somewhere to lay my head." She prayed.
