Where Would I Be Without My Baby?

Scene 6: Get It Together 💋

Serenity.

Peace.

Stillness.

Three things Gaia searched her whole life to find. She was the sage burning, zen searching, meditating weird girl people laughed at. Her freckles, the thickness of her eyebrows, her hair that she typically kept in a bun high on her head because when it was down folks stared a little too hard.. it was all a joke or pun that Gaia was always victim to.

It was strange how quick, fast and in a hurry people forgot that she was special. Niggas forgot that same Carter last name that rang in the streets was also the same blood that coursed through her veins.. it was almost as if people couldn't wait to pick her apart.

She remembered the first time someone made her feel insignificant like it was yesterday.. her name was Shy. Gaia made just been transfer to the local elementary school in the middle of the year, first couple of weeks were fine. Nobody said much to her, they all talked about her but never a word in her face. Her parents had taught her that if someone wasn't brave enough to speak to you face to face then they didn't deserve your energy.

Gaia was a stuck up, uppity, big headed, soup cooker lip having little girl who sat by herself at lunch and played alone at recess.  Every little corny line they could think of Gaia was it but to Gaia she knew she was still special. People only hated on you when you were fly otherwise they wouldn't even look your way.

Silently she took the torment. As long as nobody placed hands on her she was fine. Her father told her from jump; he ran the city and nobody was to harm a hair on her head. But if someone was brave enough to hit her? Hit them back and harder, make them regret it.

Shy was the first to cross the line, she stepped to Gaia pulled a bow out of her hair and pushed her laughing as she did so. She called her "ugly" and told Gaia that her daddy couldn't help her now.  Shy's laughter stopped when Gaia gave her a bruised cheekbone.

And it was a wrap, nobody else bothered her that year but each year somebody always tested her until Gaia reached high school and she had beat enough girl's asses that they stopped testing her chin searching for clout.

She was grown now but every then and now Gaia got that antsy feeling she got whenever she was talked about instead of being directly spoken to. It never truly leaves for good before its brief departure ends. Mostly she stuck to myself to avoid being a center of attention but invisibility didn't pay her mothers hospital bills, rent or the light bill.

Gaia never went to college, she didn't have a trade, she didn't do hair or makeup. She was simply a regular whole black girl in the hood who took care of her mother. Her mother's cancer took hold of the woman before Gaia cold ever figure out what she wanted to do with her life and two years later her mother was still fighting a now losing battle and Gaia was pressed for cash with limited options.

As she looked on at her reflection in the dirty mirror and dim light she barely recognized herself. Her mother would kill her if she saw her, body exposed with the intention to attract a wandering eye and cold hard cash.

Money was the root of all evil, her mother would tell her but right now Gaia only saw it as a solution to all her problems.

Swisha Sweet's was hotspot Sunday through Saturday more dirty money rolled through the doors of stripclub than even the United States Treasury would lose count. It was the last place Gaia ever thought she would end up but instead she was preparing to put on a show.

Her legs were completely bare, every inch of cinnamon brown thighs and legs were exposed. Her upper body was covered in a lace bodysuit that left very much to the imagination... her nipples were covered with pasties and despite the tightness of the bodysuit her breasts still jiggled with every step. 
There wasn't a piece of fabric laying on her body she felt she could hide behind.