Chocolate Filing: The Life of a Whore

Charter One

Edgewood, Summer of '07

I looked at myself in the mirror one last time before stepping out. My jean skirt hugged my hips perfectly and I added my older sister Shatia's black tank top to my ensemble with my cool grey Air Jordan 3 Retros. For years I had been the silent type. Kids from school didn't notice I was in the room until I spoke and even then there was a chance I was ignored. I never had a problem with being miss invisible until the beginning of this year. I'm a junior now at Edgewood Preparatory Academy and I felt it was time to maybe put myself out there. I switched up my wardrobe to what I saw a lot of the popular girls wearing and asked my older sister to perm my long yet nappy tresses. It was like I was an entirely new person and everyone noticed. Which is why my outfit has to be perfect for the first high school party I've ever attended.

"Aye YoYo, stop hoggin' up the damn bathroom!", Shatia yelled on the other side of the bathroom door. I rolled my eyes and continued to doll myself up, putting on a coat of clear lipgloss that I stole from her book bag. The sound of the doorknob turning made me giggle. I knew better than to have the door unlocked for her to just barge in. We were both going to the same party but I took so much time trying to perfect everything that Shatia had very little time to get ready. However, I couldn't bring myself to care since she could very well have gone into our mother's master bathroom to get herself together.

My mother worked three jobs most of my life. Within the last year though, she was laid off by the one she was consistent with. I was used to my mother barely being home before but now she's always here. I like her being around more but Shatia hates it. She avoids my mother every chance she gets. I would sometimes ask why and all Shatia would say was 'you're too young to understand'. I'm fifteen now; how old does she expect me to be before she starts explaining to me this tension? I'm sure that's the only reason she hadn't gone to use my mother's bathroom.

I ran my fingers through my bone-straight hair then the door swung open, hitting me on my left side and knocking me to the floor. Shatia stood over me with a butter knife in her hand letting me know she had used it to unlock the door from the outside. Her expression told me she was more than annoyed.

"What the fuck are you ... do you have on my tank top?" She asked me.

She looked at the sink and picked up the tube of gloss then looked back at me in disgust.

"Bitch I don't know where your mouth been at!" She yelled.

I got up off the floor and fixed my skirt back over my hips. "You and I both know I don't do stuff like that."

"Could have fooled me the way you dressed. Who you trying to impress?"

I shrugged. Shatia always told me that I should always be myself and not worry about what the kids at school say. She doesn't know how it is though. She was the star player of the J.V. basketball team and is now varsity. She's the only senior in her class with all her credits with at least four scholarships to top schools. Everyone loves her and she always gets invited to everything. She doesn't know how it is to only have someone speak to you when they want the answers to the homework assignment. Or to have boys look over you because they're more interested in the girl whose breasts are so pushed up they can damn near suffocate her. To have only one friend that you've had since first grade and the only reason you're still friends is because of the years you have under your belt. Shatia sighed then grabbed a comb and started styling my hair.

"You don't have to do all this for people to like you, Ysobel."

"How would you know? Kids at school kiss the ground you walk on."

"Yeah, but that isn't important to me. And it shouldn't be important to you."

"I just ... I'm not pretty like the other girls."