Worth Fighting For GXG

one

Beyoncé Knowles
Downtown Houston TX, 2021

The humid streets of Houston. You either grow to love them or hate them.

In my case, it was home for most of my life. New York was supposed to be my new beginning- instead it just ended up being an early finish.

The old lady at the corner store talked my ear off about her son as usual. My daily routine started to look the same: Store and talking to Mrs. Loretta, home, "work", repeat. The older woman began to amp up with the intensity of her story, using her hands to express her dismay. Apparently her son was getting married to a guy, and Mrs. Loretta isn't too happy about it.

I slightly tuned her out as I peeped these two men just- staring in the corner of eye. The taller darkskin pointed to me as he looked at something on the shorter one's phone.

"Yoo- I told you that was her!" The taller one shouted, yet the shorter one looked unimpressed and stalked towards me while smacking his lips. "Mcht whatever" He turned back to me. "Hey are you Giselle- the UFC fighter that quit???"

I simply chuckled and came up with the excuse that ended up being one for years.
A pathetic one. "No but I get that a lot!" After it happened, it wasn't uncommon for people to let their curiosity guide them to me, Shit, I couldn't blame them. That shit was embarrassing and literally career ending. lucky for me, with my less-fit appearance, I had learned over time to be pretty convincing, leading others to flush in embarrassment and immediately apologize. In a way, running from all my problems took a little shame away from my abundance of it. And just like that, that part of my identity was permanently behind me.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by the taller darkskin looking at me skeptically, as if he figured me out. His brown eyes attempted to intimidate. "SEE I TOLD YOU NIGGA, NOW YOU OWE ME 20!" The shorter one broke the ongoing tension I was afraid would never end. I used this opportunity to walk off, quietly saying bye to Mrs. Loretta in the process.

My nearly numb feet planted themselves on the floor of my apartment. Houston never got cold. ever. But the recent front made going outside almost unbearable. I broke out of my thoughts to check the cause for silence, Shawn was sleeping. I heavily sighed as I cleared out my schedule for tonight which would've otherwise consisted of yelling and dishes being smashed.

Quietly, I walked over to the locked liquor cabinet and obtained a bottle. Sitting on the floor, I did what I normally would, sulk. I never envisioned my life coming to.. whatever this was. My parents had always had high hopes for me and my sister. Shit, I lived up to their hopes: doing well in school, never taking interest in boys until Shawn and following my dreams.

Kinda

I now felt like I was struggling to even exist. I was simply.. floating

The sound of ice clinking against glass caused my eyes to snap above me. Shawn was standing there, freshly awoken and motioning for me to stand up.

"Get up." He sternly demanded. I slowly dragged my tipsy body to the chair next to me, Shawn standing opposite of me against the counter.

"Do you see what's missing from my neck?" My inebriated state slurred my words and thoughts... and how serious I took this conversation.

"Your chin?" I started to laugh loudly, damn near cackling in grumpy's face. My eyes lifted from my hands and turned up to Shawn's expression.

"Don't fucking play with me Beyoncé, what is missing from my neck!" He screamed, it was at this moment I realized the question was probably rhetorical, so I stayed silent.

"My fucking 14-karat golden gloves pendant, Bey. That I have to hock for cash to pay off these old ass expenses!"

"And what the fuck does that have to do with me, Jay?" I rebutted. I didn't bother wasting my energy with this conversation... that happened every week. Shawn was the type to do something "nice", yet never let you forget about it.

"Because your pussy ass won't get back in the fucking ring G! We could be making alllll of this money back with your fights, yet we're still struggling because of YOU!!"

With every phrase he walked closer to my face. I smelt all of liquor and post-nap on his breath, spit flying in my face.

See? Unserious.

"Not gonna happen..." I trailed with a yawn. As always, I got up and tuned him out. Yet his stubborn ass was hot on my trail.

"Listen, Bey... You were fucking born to fight, that shit was literally god-given and you're gonna give up on me to scrub rich ass toilets all day??"

"Shawn I'm not having this conversation with you.. goodnight." He clearly wouldn't take no as my answer.

"I dropped ALL of my fighters for you G. And what do you do? You pussy out and leave me carrying the fucking bag!"

I was at the point where I was jumping at the opportunity to defend my name.

"You know why you have no damn fighters Shawn? Because you're a lousy ass manager. You're fucking drunk that couldn't manage a popsicle stand if you tried!" We were all in each other's face now.

"That's what you fucking think of me, huh gis?" In that moment, Shawn roughly grabbed my neck, looking me straight in the eye. Not that I didn't deserve it... shit was getting heated.

I nodded, standing on what I said and like clockwork, we started kissing. Well.. he was kissing me and I was more-or-less standing there. Shawn began to kiss down my neck and my tipsy mind shut out every other event after that..

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I promise next chapter will be Nicki's POV, I just needed to get another chapter out to kind of explain Bey's background😭

Comment please!!!!

-Syd💕