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East Highland was a small town.

In small towns, word gets around quick.

Mariah hadn't thought much about what happened at the carnival with Maddy and that slenderman kid up until Isabella was telling her that some kid from East Highland High was expelled yesterday for choking his girlfriend at the carnival.

One of Isabella's side pieces worked for East Highland High as a security guard, and supposedly he was in the principal's office when Nate Jacobs got expelled for choking Maddy Perez at the carnival on Saturday.

Well, he was temporarily expelled, he would be permanently if he was found guilty, which he still wasn't. Nobody knew anything.

Except for Mariah. She knew he was guilty. And Nate knew that she was the only one that knew he was guilty.

And he was gonna do everything he could to make sure it stayed that way.

"You didn't see anything at the carnival?" Isabella wondered from where she took selfies in the kitchen.

Mariah shrugged her slouched shoulders as she banded up the money she made last night at the club, sat at the table while Isabella waited for Mouse. They were the only ones home, and although they didn't quite get along because Isabella was a bitch and Mariah was a bitch back, they had their sister moments whenever they were alone.

Mouse was picking Reyna up from a playdate, and Carlos was asleep in his crib, so they weren't exactly alone, but they might as well have been since the baby was asleep and not being annoying.

"You were too busy with your new guy, huh?" Isabella smirked back at Mariah. "He's hot, I get why you left Danny for him."

"I didn't leave Danny for him," Mariah told her and laughed. "I left Danny cause he's a piece of shit."

"Okay but like, you got with this guy straight after you left Danny soooo," Isabella pointed out. "You moved on hella quick."

"I moved on wayyy before we broke up," Mariah told her.

She understood what people meant when they said they weren't sad over a break up, because they had broken up and moved on in their head way before they actually broken up.

That was her case now. And she didn't even know it until she and Danny were over.

She should've known when she started temporarily crushing on her clients. Mariah would develop tiny crushes on the hot guys she would give private dances.

But those lil crushes always faded because she almost never saw the guys ever again.

Until she met Fezco. He was also a guy she had a tiny crush on. Key word; had.

It's so much more than that now. And since she met him, she hadn't developed any crushes on any other guys.

Just him. Only him.

Speaking of her knight in shining armor/Superman, Fezco was getting ready at his house to come over to Mariah's once Mouse came and picked Isabella up to take her and the kids out.

Per usual, Mariah was excluded, but that didn't matter, Fezco was coming over ;) .

"Mark's here, bye," Isabella said to Mariah, quickly putting the baby in the baby carrier and grabbing her purse before exiting through the front door.

"Bye," Mariah called out, smiling to herself in pure excitement when the door closed. She grabbed her phone and texted Fezco to let him know he could come over, then finished banding her money before she went into her room to start getting ready for work.

She had showered about an hour ago and had been letting her hair air dry so she could straighten it and then curl the ends up, but it wasn't all the way dry yet so she was gonna do her base makeup and her eyebrows real quick before Fezco arrived.

She always did her eyeshadow and all that extra shit at the club so she wouldn't fuck it up before work.

Butterflies invaded her insides with the excitement of Fezco coming over as she contoured, happy and excited to see him.

She had seen Fezco just last night but she could never get enough of him.

Mariah was about to start straightening her hair when Fezco texted her to let her know he was outside, making her excitedly get up from her chair and walk herself to the door to open it for him.

Even more butterflies invaded her when she opened the door and saw him standing there, both smiling once they met eyes.

"Sup beautiful," Fezco mumbled as he leaned down to give her a kiss, accepting the hug she was going in for.

The scent of weed and some nice ass cologne that he carried was something Mariah would never get tired of smelling, grinning each time she was close enough to him to smell it, or when she had something of his that smelled like him.

If she spent enough time with him, all close to him, she'd smell like him too. She loved it.

"Come in," She welcomed him in in a whisper, smiling as she grabbed his hand and pulled him into the house.

Fezco smiled a little as she led him to her room, remembering the way she had done the same for their first time together a few weeks ago.

"I'm almost done getting ready, just need to do my hair and pack my bag," Mariah let him know once they entered her room.

"Take yo time ma, we good," He disregarded.

She smiled up at him before giving him a quick kiss, giggling when he placed a hand on her waist and pulled her into him.

She pulled away and laughed, cheeks tinted pink as she pushed him towards her bed. "Make yourself comfortable."

Fezco just smiled as he took a seat on Mariah's bed, watching her sit back at her vanity as he indeed made himself comfortable.

"Yo, wassup Coconut," Fezco picked Coco up off the bed before petting its head.

"It's Coco, babe," Mariah corrected him with a laugh.

"That's what I said," He shrugged before glancing at the rest of Mariah's stuffed animals. "How our kids been?"

Mariah couldn't help but smile at the way he referred to her stuffed animals as his kids too. That's fucking cute. He's fucking cute.

"They missed you, they haven't seen you in forever."

"Yeah huh, my bad," Fezco said towards the stuffed animals before petting each of their heads.

He's so fucking cute.

Mariah smiled as he pet the heads of their children, looking back in her mirror to do her hair but occasionally glancing at his reflection.

"Yo, you...you tryna go watch that new Conjuring movie tomorrow night?" Fezco spoke after a few minutes of mentally hyping himself up to ask her out, glancing over at Mariah.

"Ouuu yess I'm so down, I've been watching Halloween Disney specials since the month started, I literally love spooky season," Mariah told him. "I was actually gonna go to Spirit Halloween and buy hella decorations for my room tomorrow but going to the movies with you is so much better."

Fezco smiled bashfully, his heart warming at the fact that she'd drop her original plans for him.

"I mean, we can go to Spirit Halloween after the movie," Fezco offered. "And like, you could sleep over tonight. If you're down?"

"So down," Mariah smiled back at him.

"Aight, cool. I be missin you invading all my personal space in my sleep and shit," Fezco gave her a toothy grin, making Mariah roll her eyes.

"Sleep on the floor then," She scoffed.

"Ain't no difference, you'd follow me down there," Fezco teased, laughing when she flipped him off.

"Are you dressing up for Halloween?" Mariah asked him since they were on the topic.

"I might," He shrugged, leaning his head against her bedframe. "You?"

"Yeah, I just don't know as what yet. Reyna wants me to dress up as Stitch so she can dress up as Lilo, but we literally did that two years ago and I don't repeat costumes," Mariah shook her head.

"Whas that?" Fezco wondered.

"What?" Mariah asked, glancing at his reflection in the mirror as she curled the ends of a section of hair up.

"Uhh, Stitch n' Lilo."

Mariah raised her eyebrows, slightly dropping her jaw. "Lilo and Stitch?" She corrected, asking in disbelief. "You've never seen Lilo and Stitch?"

Fezco thought about it for a second before shaking his head and furrowing his brows. "Nah, that a show or somethin?"

"It's a movie. Well, there's a few movies, so I guess a series? Me and Reyna love that movie, I can't believe you've never seen it," Mariah said. "Add that to the list of movies I needa make you watch."

"Shit, ima make a list of movies you gotta watch too," Fezco laughed. "Still can't believe you ain't ever seen The Goonies."

"Ancient ass movie," Mariah muttered.

Fezco clicked his tongue as he sat up in her bed, "Ma, that movie ain't that old."

"Mhmm," Mariah hummed in response, growing frustrated with her hair since only a few sections were curling up.

She groaned, setting the straightener down on the table to take a break and getting up to pack her stripper bag in the mean time.

"Whatchu wearin tonight?" Fezco asked as he watched her set her bag besides him on her bed.

Mariah reached into the bag to pull out the two piece made of rhinestones, holding it up for Fezco to see and smirking when he raised his eyebrows.

"It's Wayne's birthday so there's gonna be like, this big party for his old ass at the club, and he requested that all the girls wore the same outfit so he got us these," Mariah explained, holding the panties up to her hips.

Wayne always threw himself a birthday party at the club, where all the girls walked around with fake smiles because he unfortunately lived another year.

"Damn," Fezco choked out, licking his lips as he met eyes with Mariah, who just smiled.

Peeping the time on the alarm clock on her nighstand, Mariah dropped the set back in her bag and went back to her vanity to finish getting ready.

"Can you do me a favor?" Mariah asked Fezco.

"Wassup?" He half nodded at her as he picked the rhinestone two piece up to look at for himself.

"Can you like, help me pack, cause I'm lowkey running late and my hair is being a bitch," She pleaded.

Fezco nodded his head before getting up out her bed, grabbing Coco in his hand, "Fosho, I got you."

Mariah watched through the mirror as he placed Coco in her stripper bag before anything, giggling a little before she continued doing her hair.

"Here, throw these in there," Mariah said as she gathered a few makeup items off her vanity to put in her bag.

Fezco walked over, standing behind her chair and reaching over to carefully grab the makeup from her so he wouldn't bump her while she held the straightener in her hair.

"You want a kiss?" Mariah asked him, eyeing the bag of Hershey's cookies and cream kisses on the table.

Cookies and cream chocolate is the best, and you couldn't tell her otherwise.

"Hell yeah," Fezco let out a laugh, ready for her to lean up and press her lips onto his, but instead she reached into the bag and pulled a few kisses out before she held her hand out up for him to grab them.

Knowing she played him, Mariah giggled, making Fezco narrow his eyes at her.

"I thought you was offerin a real kiss," Fezco told her.

Mariah smirked, now eyeing the lil piece of paper she had kissed when trying out a new red lipstick, leaving it stained with a lipstick kiss printed, which was placed on her desk. She grabbed the piece of paper and held it out for him along with the chocolates, making him laugh.

"You play too much," He accused, taking the kisses–the chocolates and the piece of paper–in his hand, just as Mariah lean up and give him a quick kiss.

She released her hair from the straightener before she burned it off, pulling away from their kiss to smile in the mirror once seeing that her hair was starting to cooperate again.

Fezco stepped back so she could finish, and so he could continue packing her bag, stalling for a minute as he slid the Hershey's into the pocket of his jeans, and the piece of paper with Mariah's kiss print on it into his wallet.

Mariah watched as he did, heart literally melting. He's so fucking cute.

—$—

It was dark out by the time Fezco and Mariah got to Wayne's, which was more packed than usual.

Fezco wasn't allowed in the stripper's lounge, so he walked Mariah to the door to the lounge from the parking lot, them went in himself through the main entrance, breezing past the bouncers at the door with some handshakes.

Nate Jacobs sat in his truck, parked in the corner of the parking lot, just waiting for Mariah to arrive that night.

Due to being expelled and kicked off the East Highland football team along with his termination, he now had a lot of free time. And best believe this new free time was being put to good use.

Nate was spending his time checking in on Maddy, and on Rue's friend Jules, and on Mariah. Because these three girls were gonna help him save his life.

And not only were they helping him–Danny was too.

Before Nate drove to the strip club, he was at Danny's house, beating the living shit out of him and accusing him of statutory raping Maddy back in August at McKay's end of summer party before making him tell him what strip club Mariah worked at.

Remember when I said Fezco had seen Danny fucking some girl in the pool at that party? It was Maddy. And that's what Nate meant when he told Mariah that Maddy got fucked by her boyfriend.

Nate and Danny had been friends since Nate was a freshman in high school. They were both on the football team. Even after Danny graduated when Nate was a sophomore, they remained close friends.

Danny was one of those guys who seeked validation from his friends, which played a big part in why he was so fucked to Mariah. And Nate knew, shit, all his friends knew what he did to Mariah.

"Hey bro," Danny pulled Nate in for a bro hug after opening the door to his apartment for him, letting him in after and closing the door. "Heard about that shit at the carnival, that's crazy. Can't control your bitch? She went and told everyone?"

Nate stayed silent as Danny laughed, walking into his messy ass kitchen, where he was eating pizza. Nate took a quick look around the apartment, noticing that Danny's friends weren't around, meaning that he was home alone.

Danny pushed the pizza box towards Nate as an offer, about to take a bite from his slice when Nate's fist collided with Danny's jaw.

"Bro, what the fu–"

Danny was cut off by another punch straight in the jaw, before Nate just kept swinging, eventually getting Danny on the ground.

Danny pleaded in gasps for air as Nate kicked his ribs, trying to grab onto Nate's long ass legs so he'd stop.

"The fuck is wrong with you?" Danny managed to finally spit out, coughing up some blood.

"Shut the fuck up," Nate spat before kneeling down next to Danny. "I wanna have a mature conversation."

"About what?" Danny gasped out, clutching his side.

"Your options."

"What are my options?"

Nate let out a chuckle before shaking his head, watching tears escape from Danny's eyes, "Not good, man. But one's better than the other."

Nate gave Danny a minute to calm down, wiping the pathetic tears from his eyes.

"As soon as you don't look like fucking shit, you're gonna get in your car and drive down to the East Highland police station. You're gonna walk up to the receptionist, and you're gonna tell her that you'd like to confess to a crime," Nate explained to Danny.

"W-what crime?"

"The night of the carnival, you ran into Madeline Perez, who's a junior at East Highland High. You'd been stalking her since she turned down your sexual advances. You confronted her and asked her why she'd been ignoring you. She said it was because she had a boyfriend. You became enraged, and you choked her."

Danny shook his head, "What's my other option?"

"Well, I mean, go about your day. But, at some point, Madeline Perez is gonna go down to the East Highland police station. She's gonna walk up to the receptionist. She's gonna say that she'd like to report a crime," Nate told him.

"...What crime?" Danny was almost afraid to ask.

"On the weekend before school started, she went to a party. She got intoxicated. She was raped in the swimming pool by a 19 year old guy named Danny Torres, who, on the night of the carnival assaulted and raped her again."

"Nah, you can't prove that I did that shit! I'm not gonna confess to a crime that I didn't do," Danny refused. "I didn't fucking hit her."

"But you hit Mariah, right?" Nate squinted. "I'm sure she'd be more than happy to turn you in after all those times you put your hands on her, don't you think?"

At first, Nate thought that he could get away by forcing Danny to turn himself in for choking Maddy at the carnival or else he was gonna be reported for raping Maddy instead.

Assault was a lesser offense than rape, which wasn't the only thing that had Danny agreeing to it, but he also agreed to it because Nate was beating the shit out of him in his own apartment.

But if Danny had to say he was the one who choked Maddy at the carnival, there needed to be a story, and there needed to be other victims to support it.

That's where Jules and Mariah came in.

Nate was blackmailing Jules with some nude pictures she sent him while he catfished her–which is a whole other story–so he was having Jules tell the police that she herself saw Danny choking Maddy.

And he was gonna convince Mariah that her telling the police that Danny abused her would be a good way to get revenge on him for all the times he hurt her, emotionally and mentally and physically, but now he had a better idea.

Blackmail could be Nate's middle name. Because now, learning from Maddy that Mariah said her man had the best shit in town, and seeing Mariah and Fezco together at the carnival and now at the strip club she worked at, he knew they must be dating, or something similar.

And if Mariah really cared about Fezco, she was gonna do what Nate said;

Tell the police that Danny abused her, or Nate was snitching Fezco and his little brother's drug dealing business out to the cops.

"You look soooo good," Faye groaned as she ran her hands down Mariah's body while she adjusted her outfit on herself after changing into it.

Mariah smiled back at her, admiring the identical set she had on as well as the other girls.

"Bitch you look bomb," Mariah returned the compliment before checking herself out in the mirror.

Faye sighed contentedly, "I can't wait to see the look on Superman's face when he sees you."

Mariah smiled at that, heart warming because she certainly wasn't the only one who saw the way Fezco looked at her. He looked at her like she was the most beautiful girl in the world, and to him, she is.

"Same," Mariah giggled, remembering the expression on Fezco's pretty ass face way when she just showed him the set, but imagine when he saw it on her?

Fezco swore his heart stopped for a second once he did. Like always, he noticed her the second she was on the stage, shooting a flirty smile at him as she literally sparkled under the colorful LED lights of the club.

All the girls had on the same sparkly outfit, but to Fezco, Mariah sparkled the most. She was his girl after all, and he had eyes for only her.

There were balloons everywhere, along with a huge banner hung above the stage that read HAPPY BIRTHDAY WAYNE.

Wayne was currently sat in the VIP section getting a lap dance from two girls at once, a big cigar in one hand while the other caressed their bodies, smiling for the pictures that one of the other girls was taking with an old Polaroid camera.

The section was open to everyone tonight, and a bunch of Wayne's friends drinking and celebrating his birthday with him. Fezco just kept to himself, sat not too far from Wayne while he sold drugs and kept his eyes on Mariah from his seat in VIP.

After the ten minutes of her set were over, she made her way off the stage, freely making her way over to the VIP section, where Wayne pulled her and a few other girls into a picture.

She smiled for the picture before separating herself from the group and making her way towards Fezco, who was collecting two $20 bills from some guy after handing him an eighth of weed, but was staring at her nonetheless.

"Hey," She greeted him in a flirty tone, stepping between his spread thighs before plopping herself down on his lap.

"Hey," Fezco said back, tucking the money into his jeans as he held eye contact with her for a minute before he checked her out.

Mariah felt hot as his eyes ran up and down her body, the same way she did when his eyes first landed on her on stage.

The dancer with the Polaroid camera approached the two, smiling when Mariah accepted the offer to snap a picture of her and her customer.

Mariah gave Fezco's cheek a kiss, making him smile as their picture was taken, then was given to them when it was printed out from the camera.

"You lookin good, huh?" Fezco mumbled, softly placing a hand on her thigh as his eyes found hers after they both took a look at the picture.

"Am I?" Mariah quizzed, running her fingers up his arm to rest her hand on his shoulder.

"Fuck you mean," Fezco pulled his eyebrows together before giving her a once over, licking his lips when he looked into her eyes again. "Hell yeah."

Mariah smiled, cheeks turning pink as she took the blunt Fezco held between the fingers of his free hand, which he had been smoking since he sat down.

She took a small hit before handing it back, blowing the smoke out slowly as she stared into Fezco's beautiful hooded eyes.

She just knew he could feel her second heartbeat. How embarrassing. But it wasn't really her fault. This man did things to her. He'd speak and magically her panties were wet.

Their silent but very intimate moment of intense eye contact with sexual tension invading the air bubble around them was interrupted when a man approached them, tapping Fezco shoulder and asking for a few pills.

Fezco sighed lowly as he quickly did his business, shooing homeboy off once he had his pills and Fezco had his $100 bill.

"Valentine!" A group of Mariah's regulars called out from across the VIP section, calling out for her and waving her over.

She was about to get up off Fezco's lap and walk over to them, not only because she wanted their money, but because she thought it'd be fun to fuck with him, when Fezco tightened his arm around her hips and slid the $100 bill he had just received into the rhinestoned string of her panties, on the side of her body that wasn't facing him so that the group of men would see, shooting a look towards them.

Mariah smirked, glancing down at Fezco, who placed his blunt between his lips and took a hit before he looked up at her.

She peeked at the bill in her waistband of her panties, blushing at the sight of his finger still hooked on.

"Okay big money, I see you," Mariah smiled at him, adjusting herself in her seat on his lap.

Fezco froze feeling her come into contact with his dick, blushing when he became hard, discreetly glancing up at her to see if she'd noticed.

Mariah definitely noticed, now purposely grinding down on his lap, wishing they were in a private room so she could move to straddle him to tease him even more.

Her teasing still worked him up though, smiling when Fezco let out a low groan.

God this man is so hot. She wasn't gonna make it home.

And she sure didn't. She didn't even make it to Fezco's car, getting off of him and pulling him up with her and then into the stripper's bathrooms, where he bent her over and fucked her against the sink countertop.

Mariah watched Fezco in pure awe through the mirror as he thrust into her from behind, heart literally melting at the way one hand was intertwined with hers while the other gripped her hip hard, occasionally moving to smack her ass and rub a thumb over that heart tattoo that he loved so much.

Smiling and moaning every time he whispered praises and words of encouragement in her ear, telling her how amazing she felt around him, making sure she was okay.

"Fuck," He breathed out when Mariah started moving her hips back to meet his thrusts.

It didn't take long for either of them to finish, always finding the utmost pleasure within each other. Fezco pulled out when he felt Mariah cum, clenching around his dick, which pushed him over the edge as ropes of cum spilled onto Mariah's back.

He rested his forehead against her shoulder for a minute, the both of them catching their breaths as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"You okay?" He asked her as he pressed a kiss to her shoulder, moving his head off her to meet her eyes with his through the mirror.

"Yeah," Mariah gave him a dazed smile, still trying to recollect herself.

Fezco gave her temple a kiss before he grabbed some toilet paper and cleaned them both up, helping her get redressed before they exited the bathroom.

Since Mariah's shift was up now, Fezco walked her to the lounge, letting her know he was gonna make a couple last sales while she got ready to leave and that he'd meet her outside the same door as always.

Now she was in his car, changed into one of his shirts and some booty shorts, watching as he sold some extra last sales to a group of guys outside the club, eyes darting over at his car every few seconds.

Mariah smiled once he was finally back, showing him the picture that one of the girls snapped of them.

"We're so cute," She said after taking a good good look at the picture.

"You fosho are," Fezco half agreed.

Mariah rolled her eyes before nudging his arm, "Shut up, you're cute."

Fezco raised his eyebrows in a laughing way as he grabbed the roll of money he collected at the club, counting it through it real quick.

Mariah liked watching him count money, he was fast, and he was good with numbers and math, and she didn't know why but she found that so attractive.

Maybe it was just him though, because she found everything he did attractive.

"It ain't too late so I'm pretty sure there's a couple places still open, what you tryna eat?" Fezco spoke after a few minutes.

"You," Mariah answered without hesitation.

Fezco shook his head at her and smirked, letting out a little laugh.

"C'mon now, ma, I'm serious. My girl's gotta eat," He told her before wrapping a rubber band around his money, glancing up at her.

My girl.

That was the first time he called her that. And Mariah fucking loved it. She couldn't fight the smile that formed on her face even if she tried.

She's his girl.

Fezco's girl.

im in luv with them both :,)