Lost One

11

❝SHANTEY❞

               The screen of the MACBOOK showcased the stout woman walking in slow motion with the video edit over to the set up DMG production team created for the solo close-up interview. The woman settled herself in the director's chair barstool and the camera angled ahead of her, revealing the clear skin of the cedar brown beauty. The hair on the mid-fifty year old was a natural looking wig installed and a ring pierced on left side of her top lip. The yellow in her earrings matched her GUCCI sandals with a VALENTINO GARAVANI crepe minidress on her build.

               The slow-mo was over as the instrumental of her song ❝Attention❞ faded out. "Milan Rock. I was an old friend of Shantey's auntie Sunni back in the day; around '98 to the early 2000s. I was introduced to Shantey when she around fifteen. I used to do her hair—shit, really everybody around the LBC. I was the go-to hairstylist. One day I was doing Shantey's hair and I heard her singing. That girl could blow, you hear me? And had the pipes of a grown ass woman. Hearing her, I was impressed as soon as I heard it. She told me it was only a dream of hers and I could tell she didn't really believe she can be more than what she was and I wanted to prove how far she could really go.."

               The song fades back in lowly with Milan talking over it. "I was friends with someone at a management company that's managed a lot of artists in the music industry and I wanted him to meet her and listen and feel what everyone else feels when her angelic voice sings. He loved her after hearing her, but of course with her having a baby it almost became a problem. But with Shantey's convincing and showing her hunger for it, he gave in and signed her. It all went fast because RCA wanted to meet her so that Summer he needed her in New York and a tagged along just to keep and eye on her and Sunni trusted me to protect her niece. And if I would've knew that little girl would be taken advantage of, I would've kept her home and safe with her family.."

               The slow-mo edit had her blinking slowly with the camera zooming into her regretful eyes. The music fades out once again and Milan started. "He was somebody that I trusted and I actually trusted him with Shantey. That is until I would see the gifts he would give her and the way he would look at her. Shantey was just a teenage girl that loves to wear her platform sandals, small tees, and low rise jeans. But he rather dressed her in attire that made her go from seventeen to twenty-five. She might've been small but the way the makeup artist were do her up you'd swear she was just a short adult. The first time that I start to notice was the night of a industry party. He wanted to introduce her to the scene and he brought her this curve enhancing dress and expensive ass MANOLO heels. And I should've said something then but Shantey was so happy.

               "..But as her guardian in New York, that shouldn't have stopped me from outing what I felt in my heart. That night she came back I was up ready to hear about all the famous people she saw because she was excited to go. I just knew she was gone come jump on my bed and tell me everything. But she never came in. I heard the shower and she just went to lay down and the next morning she wasn't the same overexcited Shantey she was when she left. She had cold wall up. I even asked her how it went and she told me "Cool" and left for the studio. So I called him and asked what happen and he put it on her childhood crush was acting "Hollywood" and "didn't want to talk to her" so being naive, I believed that because that really can crush the spirits of teen girl that has this crush on a celebrity and they are different than they showcase..

               "..So I took that but the longer we were in New York, Shantey became mean, angry. She would purposely argue with me just so we can be on bad terms. But now that I look back at, it wasn't about us being on "bad terms" it was about me paying too much attention. Shantey not a dumb girl and she knew the blinders to what was going on was coming off me and she had to do something about that. I start to realize that.. that seventeen year old girl was protecting me; keeping me blinded because she knows if he found out I knew, the level he would go to protect that image. She was brave. He knew what she went through as a child and became those men that used her underage body."