"What's good with you?" I asked my older brother as he sat in the passenger seat of my car.

"Shit. Getting to this paper." He started counting a stack of money before throwing it in my lap.

"That's for you. 4 racks."

"Yeah?" I raised an eyebrow and he nodded.

"Yeah, you're my baby brother. I gotta make sure you stay laced in these streets."

Saying nothing, I put the stack of money in my sweatpants pockets. I'd put it in with the rest of my stash later.

"..but I think it's time you get out here and start earning your keep. I can't baby you forever, nigga."

"I don't know about all of that.." I trailed off, shaking my head. I wasn't tryna be a dope boy or sell drugs like him. I enjoyed the money but it wasn't worth it.

"Think you too good to hustle?" He asked, sternly.

"Nah, bro. It's just not for me. I told you that."

"So did you move what I gave you?" He asked referring to the weed he'd given me to sell the other day.

"Yeah. It's gone." I shrugged.

"Good." He nodded, patting my shoulder.

"One day you'll get it." He went on.

"What's up though? I heard you going through it on the phone with Montana earlier."

Sighing, I looked straight ahead as I stayed silent.

Me and Monty weren't seeing eye to eye right now. She'd been acting distant lately. It had my mind playing all kinds of tricks on me and I didn't like it.

"Nothing, bro."

"Come on, nigga. I know y'all ain't just best friends no more."

"What that mean?" I looked at him out of the corner of my eye.

"I know y'all be getting it in." He blurted out unexpectedly.

Chuckling to myself, I stayed silent again. I wasn't telling him shit.

"If that's your girl then that's your girl, bro.."

"She's not my girl." I clarified.

"Aight." He out his hands up in defense.

Don't get me wrong, I wanted Monty to be my girl but she was strict on the no titles rule for her own reasons. Wasn't shit I could do to change that.

"Whatchu doing tonight?" He went on to ask and I was just happy the subject was changing.

"Nothing. Probably just kick it with Kace and Milly."

"Y'all little niggas come to the club with us." He suggested, nodding his head over to his crew who were standing on the corner.

"What club?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Little strip joint down the street."

"Nah. I'm good." I shook my head, Montana would kill me if she knew I went.

We had a rule where we couldn't fuck around with anybody else while we were fucking. And I knew myself. I'm weak willed when it comes to a fat ass so I wasn't even going to put myself in no situation like that.

"Hm. I figured." He smirked, getting out of my whip.

"Shut yo' bitch ass up." I joked as he turned around to look at me with furrowed eyebrows and I quickly pulled off.

*

"5,500 dollars." I counted the last bill from the money I'd made from the strip club last night including the house fee.

I couldn't believe I'd made all of this money in one night and I could only thank god.

"Montana." I heard my mother's voice coming up the staircase.

Quickly cleaning all of the ones from my bed, I began to stuff the money under my covers.

"Yeah?" I answered while doing so.

A few moments later, my room door flew opened, making me look up.

"What are you doing?" She asked me as I sat there, trying to act normal while I sat on top of the piles and piles of money.

"Nothing." I shrugged and she nodded.

"Alright. I'm leaving for the day. And clean up this damn house, it's a mess."

"K." I rolled my eyes as she walked out and closed my door behind her.

Letting out a breath I didn't even know that I was holding, I grabbed my phone from my nightstand.

Dialing Teesha's number, I waited and waited before she finally answered.

"Hey, bitch."

"Hey, hoe. Where you at?"

"Just leaving Kace's house."

"Come over." I told her.

"Alright. I'm on my way there now."

Hanging up, I lifted my covers and began to gather all of my money. All I needed to do was dance one more night and I could purchase a used car then work on getting my own apartment.

I smiled to myself, just thinking about it. Things were finally looking up for me.

*

Dancing on my assigned pole for the night, I was in my own world. I'd already made enough for my plans to follow through now all I needed to do was get through the rest of this shift.

Usually. I could care less. I could say less.

Hit your ass with that one word reply like, "Bet"

Guess you got that effect on me. Guess you get the best of me, yeah.

Bring out the worst. You make a bitch have to go in her purse Or go in her trunk and pull out the strap.

I would never shoot you, baby. Maybe just wave it around

All in your face, yeah. Yeah, all in your face, facts

played throughout the club as I slowly wined my body. I could see money raining down, adding on to what I already had. A smile spread across my face as I felt hands on my ass, sliding money down into my thong.

"They're gonna catch me slipping." I sang along softly.

"Montana?" I then heard somebody call me, making me freeze in place.

Slowly turning around, I saw Messiah standing there, looking up at me on the stage. Panicking, I made a run for it off of the stage and toward the back.

"Shit. Shit. Shit." I spoke, nerves taking over my body.

"Oh my god." I felt tears welding up in my eyes.

"Fuck."

"What's going on, Montana?" Chocolate came to the back as I took a seat on the cold bench with my bare ass.

"My boyfriend's br-" I started but stopped correcting myself.

"My best friend's brother just caught me dancing on stage." I explained as tears fell from my eyes.

"Fuck." I complained, my leg bouncing from anxiety.

"He's going to tell him." I stressed, standing to my feet and walking over to the mirror.

"He's going to fucking tell him, Chocolate." I paced the floor.

"Wait. Josiah's brother? The guy you were telling me about before right?"

"Yes." I wiped my face, accidentally smearing my makeup.

Josiah and I haven't been on the best terms since the night I'd dissed him because of the client situation I had. I wasn't mad at him but I knew that he was probably already mad at me and this would just add the cherry on top.

"He's going to fucking kill me, Chocolate." I began to strip out of my attire for tonight. I needed to go home.

"He's not going to kill you." She chuckled.

"No. He's going to kill me." I looked at her seriously with tears in my eyes.

"He doesn't play, Chocolate."

"Well did you say anything to his brother?" She asked and I shook my head as I began to get dressed into my regular clothes.

"Then there's no way he can prove that it was you."

I smacked my lips, rolling my eyes at her shitty advice.

"I'm telling you, just pretend it wasn't you. I've had this problem before.."

"When I was your age, my family found out I was stripping because my uncle came into the club. For the first couple months, I was pretending it wasn't me. I just told my family that nigga was crazy."

"At the end of the day, my stripper name is Chocolate. So technically, it really wasn't me. It was Chocolate."

Shaking my head, I ignored her useless help as I began to grab all of my stuff. I put all of my money in my bag before grabbing my phone from my locker.

Furrowing my eyebrows, I looked down at my phone seeing that I had a bunch of calls from Kace and Teesh.

"What the hell?"

The calls were from hours ago so it couldn't be about the situation that I had at hand.

"What's wrong now?" Chocolate went on to ask.

"Nothing. I have to go. My fees are on the table. I'll see you later." I told her, putting my phone to my ear and leaving.

I quickly left the building, ducking so that I would be seen again. I then made my way to the bus stop.

I called Teesh over and over but she wasn't answering her phone now.

"What the hell is going on tonight?" I said to myself.

A few moments later, Kace was calling me and I quickly answered.

"Hello."

"Montana, Josiah got shot."

"What?"

*