Never Surrender to the streets

Chapter 1

                                                                        Sienna 1

The music from each speaker blasting so loud that the bottles on the wall shake from the music's bass. My song begins to play, letting me know it's time to perform onstage. The DJ announces my name. "Coming to the stage right now IS Ivy, but if you're nasty, call her Ms. Ivy." "Fellas, get your wallets ready; she's gonna bring you so much joy you're going to be thinking it's wrong" You would think by now I would get tired of hearing my name. I hate strip clubs with a passion. Yet here I am, showing my ass off to these trifling people to make money. I have been working here at vanity grand for about a while now. I couldn't find a real job paying enough for my son Josiah's tuition. Then adding regular bills on top of his tuition would crush me financially. For as long as my son can remember, I have held the two of us down. Being both mommy and daddy day in and out has been pure exhausting.

Especially when I watched my mother go through the same thing with my brother and me, when my dad decided to cheat on my mother and have three other kids after me; at first, it crushed my mother. My mother Eva decided she had had enough by leaving him. Things were tough for us at the beginning of my mother's independence. My mom, Eva struggled to keep a job being a housekeeper. Her little checks could barely keep us in our home. She did the best thing she thought she could do for us. My mother Eva dropped King and me off at our grandmother Mabel's house in uptown Philly and never looked back. Growing up at my grandmother's house wasn't easy for us. Grandma was different from my parents. She was hard on us. We had to do chores and attend church with her weekly. Living in uptown only motivated my brother to get out on his own. My brother King tried to be like our dad by hustling on the streets. Don't get me wrong; King was smart. He did great in school, but his only flaw was that he never attended every day. Naturally, he dropped out of school. King had always surrounded himself with a tight circle. With King being preoccupied, it was easy to sneak my boyfriend Rihmeek in and out of the house.

A few days before my high school graduation, I was pregnant. I told Rihmeek I was pregnant. My grandmother overheard me telling him and kicked me out of the house. I went to stay with Rihmeek in his apartment. King was pissed about the pregnancy. King and I got into a really bad argument over who my baby daddy was. Before I could tell him the truth; he was gunned down while I was on the phone with him. I went through such a deep depression about my brother's death. It didn't matter I was pregnant and in love. I was alone in this world without my brother. Rihmeek tried to do his best with our little family. He paid for my apartment, the baby's clothes, and everything for my son. That all came crashing down when his dumb ass got locked up, and now I have to provide for the both of us.

I try to be friendly and be there for my family from a distance. I couldn't take their judgmental looks anymore and stopped coming around them altogether. Months after I graduated from high school, I gave birth to Josiah. Sometimes I feel like nobody knows what I go through to raise my son alone. Each day my son asks me about his dad; I can only say he's away on business.

The DJ announced my stage name again for the third time, "Ms. Ivy," which brought me back to reality. "Take a deep breath, Sienna," I walk onto the stage to my song of choice for the night, "HoustonAtlantaVegas" by Drake. I had on my light blue outfit since blue is my favorite color. The outfit I had on tonight was beyond sexy. My outfit was baby blue Moschino teddy bears with rhinestones covering the triangle bikini top and triangle g-string bottoms teddy my mini skirt. Attached to my mini skirt were my garter belts. With my blue light-up platform clear heels on, I made my way down the stage. The men in this place were precisely the same, the married man who hides his wedding ring, the hustler, the man with several children by different women, the broke and busted, the alcoholic, and the man old enough to be somebody's grandpop. Moving my body seductively, I soon climb onto the pole, moving my hips slowly, grinding the pole. I made my way to the middle of the pole, then flipped myself upside down, allowing the pole to be in between my butt and legs. Once I amazed the men with my usual trick, I turned myself right side up and slid more than halfway down the pole to end my performance with a split that caused me to bounce. The DJ re-announces my name as I leave the stage. "That was Ms. Ivy," I give her a round of applause. Fellas, don't forget to tip your bartenders and bottle servers."