Life Unexpected | a.a

C.2

C.2 || My Life Now

Hazel

"I got invited to a birthday party!"Treasure screamed while running into my room at full speed.

"You did? Let mama see."I smiled.

Laughing, I watched her try to climb on my bed with a small sign of struggle on her face. Treasure's only six years old but she'll be seven in August. There ain't a day that goes by whea' I don't wonder whether or not she's really only six years old–the chil' acts my age.

"Why yo' bed so big?"She groaned, making me laugh out loud.

"Why you so small?"

Y'all probably guessed that she was made the night I had drunk sex with that dude that one time–my first time. I shouldn't even call him "that dude" since I know his name now. I'on really like to speak on him though because after I found out I was pregnant, shit got real complicated for me.

As cliche as my story sounds, it's the truth and I'mma tell it how it is.

First of all, my momma and daddy were very disappointed in me getting pregnant at such a young age, so they kicked my ass out. They didn't wanna hea' the drunk sex sob story I tried to tell.

My brother was just leaving for college at the time so he wasn't no help for me in that situation, even though he tried to be. Since I didn't have no place else to go, I ended up staying with my grandma.

All ties with my momma and daddy were broke off during my pregnancy but that didn't mean I struggled. My grandma and brother helped me out as best as they could.

Shit only got harder after Treasure was born.

I was still in high school so I had been juggling between that and a six hour job at McDonald's. Even though I was working my lil ass off, the money wasn't cutting it for the two of us. I didn't wanna beg my brother or my grandma for any 'cause they'd done more than enough for me.

Not to mention after I became known as the pregnant girl at school, I lost all my so called friends. Well, not my ex-boyfriend Damon. When word got around that I was pregnant, he wasn't mean to me or nothing. We didn't get back together but we did become friends again. I was glad to at least have him.

The money issue was still there though and with my grandma retiring, and my brother doing his own thing, at 18 I had to get it on my own.

I met this colorful customer named Amiyah, who just so happened to come to McDonald's for a Big Mac, that ended up offering me a job some place else—Chauncey's Playhouse—also known as a big strip club in Houston.

She understood that I was a rookie, only doing this for my daughter, so I was a bartender. I only got on the pole five times, give or take six. It was good money though so I couldn't complain. My grandma knew I did it but there was no way in hell I could tell my brother. He would've cut the fuck up on me, but only because he wouldn't have understood why I had to do it.

That stripping job gave Treasure and I a nice two bedroom apartment in Slidell, Louisiana. I quit the strip club when Treasure was four because I had enough to move us out of my grandma's place. I kissed Houston goodbye along with some bad memories in it, but I kept in touch with my grandma, brother, Damon, & my friend Amiyah.

"Hea',"Treasure said while shoving the invitation in my face.

"Lawd,"I chuckled,"you had to put it all in my face like that?"

In my times of struggle, I did look for Treasure's father, August, but I never heard from him again after that night. When I woke up that morning after the party, I was at my house with a hang over. I really did try to find him though, even three years after Treasure was born. It was like he dropped off the damn face of the earth.