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"Good morning Titi!"

After a shift at Wayne's, all Mariah wanted to do was sleep for 12 hours straight. But when you had a 4 year old niece who adored you, those 12 hours were cut short.

Reyna jumped up on Mariah's bed, giggling at the way she slept, hugging on a stuffed dinosaur she's had since she was a kid. She had slept in some shorts and a crop topped spaghetti strap due to how hot it was last night, being the middle of August.

"Titiiiii," Reyna dragged the nickname she gave her out in a singy song voice as she poked her bare stomach with her finger.

The Friday morning sunlight shined into Mariah's room through the window that she left open last night so it wouldn't be as hot, making her squint after trying to open her eyes.

Fridays were the days that Reyna got to hang out with Mariah all day, Isabella leaving for the day with her newborn, and Mouse out doing business till late. 

"My mommy already left. She said if you can make me breakfast," Reyna informed Mariah, watching her lazily rub the sleep out of her eyes as she moved to lay on her back.

Mariah hummed back a yes, not being ready to talk yet after waking up as she felt around her bed for her phone, picking it up in her hand once feeling the cool screen. The bed slightly dipped as Reyna laid besides her, watching her check the notifications center on her phone before she forced herself out of the bed and to the bathroom across the hallway.

Reyna followed behind her, and then into the bathroom, waiting by the door for Mariah to be done using the bathroom so she could sit on the toilet seat and watch her brush her teeth and wash her face.

"Are we going with Danny today?" Reyna wondered out loud as Mariah washed the toothpaste out of her mouth.

"Do you want to?" Mariah asked, hoping Reyna was feeling a day just full of them two.

Unfortunately, Reyna nodded excitedly, being very fond of Mariah's boyfriend, Danny, who had already texted her that morning and asked if she was free.

Mariah knew Danny from high school, although they didn't start dating until after they both graduated. They hung out together at some house party during the summer after they graduated, which led to them hooking up in one of the bathrooms. He ended up asking her out on a date shortly after and although he never really officially asked, she was girlfriend in the blink of an eye.

Mariah had had two boyfriends before Danny, but she had way more ' flings ' than anything official. It was no secret that she was pretty, so it always seemed like guys only ever wanted to fuck her or get her to send them nudes, which often resulted in them getting ghosted. She had made the mistake of being used for sex and sending nudes before, which got passed around. Luckily, Isabella taught her to never show her face in those type of pictures, so not everyone that saw the pictures knew who the girl was.

Which meant Danny didn't know, which was good. He already gave Mariah enough shit for being a stripper.

Danny was one of those wannabe Soundcloud rappers, he lived in some apartment with a bunch of his friends, where he did a lot of shit that Mariah didn't know about. A lot of shit that involved other girls.

He often played his own music in his car, which had Mariah holding back her laugh due to how bad his music was so that he wouldn't get mad at her. Danny was a nightmare when he was mad.

"I'll tell him to bring us food then," Mariah sighed once finishing up in the bathroom.

The two girls walked back to her room, where Reyna helped Mariah pick out an outfit for the day before Mariah turned the TV on for her and went to take a shower. The Doc McStuffin's theme song was playing on the TV when Mariah walked back into her room a few minutes later, showered with her hair blow dried straight, trying to be quick so she was ready before Danny arrived.

She sat at the desk she used as a vanity, looking around the desktop for some false lashes. Her eyes fell upon what was left of the eighth of weed she had bought from the fine ass dope boy at the club yesterday, making her smile to herself.

She replayed the interaction in her head as she picked out a pair of lashes, every sentence the cute ginger spoke still clear in her mind, even after she got smacked faded off his weed before she fell asleep last night. She hadn't blushed as hard as she did when he called her beautiful since she and Danny first started dating.

She'd talked to many guys at the strip club before, some who she found attractive and developed mini crushes on, but those crushes only lasted the night as the guys were soon long forgotten. Yet here she was, smiling while she thought about the fine ass drug dealer from last night.

Mariah laughed at herself, fixing her eyelashes and making sure they were secure before grabbing some concealer to cover up her dark circles.

"You excited for school?" She asked Reyna as she grabbed a beauty blender.

Reyna was 4, meaning that she was starting preschool the upcoming week. It was the last week of summer for the kids in East Highland, which meant that Mariah was probably gonna be dragged to a few end of the summer parties by Danny, who loved to hang around the East Highland football team, since he used to play football.

East Highland was a small town where mostly everybody knew everybody, even after you graduated high school. Mariah always kept to herself during high school, but Danny was known as the best linebacker East Highland High ever knew, and he thought he was the shit because of it.

"Yeah I'm excited! Daddy bought me a princess backpack," Reyna said. "Are you gonna miss me?"

Mariah smiled, glancing back at the little girl in her bed. "Of course ima miss you! You're my lil lovebug. Who else am I gonna kick it with? Carlos is a liiiittle boring; he can't even talk."

Reyna cheesed, at both being called lovebug, and also being Mariah's favorite out of her and her little brother.

"You gonna make a lot of friends and shit?" Mariah asked.

"I hope so. My daddy said if the kids are mean to tell him, and he'll take care of it."

"Yeah, Mousey's something else, isn't he?" Mariah scoff-laughed as she blended her concealer, glancing at Reyna after hearing her giggle.

Reyna pointed to the door of Mariah's bedroom, making her look over to see Mouse leaning in the doorframe.

"Hey Mousey," Mariah gave him a fake smile before she went back to looking at herself in the mirror, feeling uncomfortable in his presence.

"Sup princess. Yo lil prince is outside," Mouse smirked, nodding his head in the direction of the front door to the house. He stared at Mariah as she put her beauty blender away, checking her out once she stood up and slid her feet into her Ugg slides.

The baby blue two piece set, which consisted of a tube top and miniskirt, that she was wearing allowed his eyes to wonder all over her body, as they often did.

"What are you pretty girls gonna be up to today?" Mouse questioned, stopping into the room.

"Don't know yet," Mariah answered as she grabbed her favorite eyeliner pencil from her purse, then grabbed a handheld mirror and began to quickly draw a wing on both eyes.

Mouse grabbed his wallet from his pocket, pulling out a few bills before he slipped them into the waistband of Mariah's skirt.

"Take Reyna to get her nails done or some shit," Mouse told her before giving Reyna's forehead a kiss.

Mariah rolled her eyes and grabbed the money from her waistband, dropping it on her bed as she watched Mouse walking towards her door.

"I'll be home late, have fun pretty ladies."

—$—

"Finally, the fuck took so long?"

Danny's tone disturbed the peace that Mariah felt after having spent two hours in the nail salon with Reyna, getting mani-pedis.

Mariah got a fill on her acrylic nails while Reyna got a simple gel manicure, the two girls deciding to get a matching baby blue on both their hands and their feet. It was their shared favorite color.

Danny didn't ever take Mariah to the salon since he hated waiting the two, sometimes three hours that getting her nails done took, but whenever he did, all he would do after was bitch and moan about it.

"Boy shut up, you could have walked around while we were busy," Mariah rolled her eyes, motioning to the mall they had walked into once exiting the nail salon. "Look at my nails."

Danny took a look at the medium-long baby blue acrylics, nodding in approval before taking her hand in his, which is something Mariah loved.

"Thought I said French tips?" Danny asked, referring to his answer when Mariah asked what color nails she should get.

"French tips are boring, plus me and Reyna wanted to match," Mariah told him as he picked Reyna up and held her in his other arm. "How do you even know what French tips are?"

Danny shrugged, "Iono. So what, you tryna eat or something? Go shopping? What you tryna buy me?"

"What are you tryna buy me?" Mariah returned the question with a laugh.

"Maybe some actual fucking clothes or something?" Danny suggested, muttering something under his breath.

"Don't start again," Mariah told him, recalling the small argument they had back at her place when she didn't want to change clothes.

Danny didn't like when Mariah wore clothes that were revealing. He always asked her who she was trying to impress, and always claimed that she revealed enough at the strip club, which only had Mariah fighting the urge to clock his nose. Danny somehow bagged a bad bitch and couldn't keep up to save his life.

The three ended up leaving the mall as Reyna began falling asleep, stopping at McDonald's to get her a Happy Meal before they went back to Mariah's place. After eating, Reyna fell asleep, so Danny carried her to her room before joining Mariah in her's.

"You wanna watch a movie?" Mariah asked Danny, sipping the Dr. Pepper in the cup from McDonald's as she got comfortable in her bed.

Danny shrugged, staring at his phone as he kicked his shoes off and got into her bed with her. "We goin to a party tonight, my boy McKay's got one going down at his crib."

Mariah nodded in response as she looked through Netflix, trying to find a movie other than Mean Girls to watch, and after finding nothing that was as good, she just put on Mean Girls.

They weren't even five minutes into the movie when Danny started to rub his hand on Mariah's thigh, wasting no time in moving it up, pushing her skirt up as his hand inched closer to her pussy.

"Watch the movie," Mariah laughed, shoving his arm a little as he started to kiss her neck.

"It's boring."

"It literally just started. Chill, I'm tryna watch it," Mariah told him, trying to push his hand off her.

"We've seen this shit like a million times, mamas," Danny pointed out, pressing his lips onto her's as he slipped his hand in her panties.

Mariah broke the kiss and grabbed his wrist, "I'm not playing, Danny, I don't want to right now."

Not only was Reyna in the other room, but Mariah never really felt anything when she had sex with Danny. Well, she obviously felt something, but she almost never came, and Danny wasn't known for lasting long. She wasn't tryna do all that just to end up unsatisfied. 

"Real quick, come on," Danny insisted, trying to sneak his hand back into her panties, but being interrupted when Mariah pushed him away from her, so hard that he almost fell off the bed.

Danny didn't take rejection too well, which is why instead of accepting the fact that Mariah wasn't in the mood to have sex, he harshly wrapped his hand around her throat, which she'd normally like...when she could actually breathe.

"Bet you don't wanna fuck cause you're too fucked out from all those guys at the club like a fucking whore," Danny told her, letting go of her after a few seconds, only to push her like she did to him. "Fuck outta here, I can't even fuck my own girlfriend."

He scoffed, grabbing his shoes from the floor and glancing back at Mariah as she avoided eye contact with him, holding her hand on her throat as she caught her breath while she used her other hand to wipe the tears that filled her eyes.

"And now you're gonna fucking cry, what the fuck is new?" Danny laughed, shaking his head. "Stay the fuck home tonight, Mariah."

And to add onto the many flaws Danny had–he was abusive. In every way possible. Nobody knew. Because who would Mariah even tell?

It's not like anyone gave a fuck about her anyways.