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As much as both Mariah and Fezco silently wished they could have stayed in that room for the rest of their lives, Mariah's shift was coming to an end soon, meaning that so was their time together.

Mariah ended up giving in and helped Fezco smoke his blunt after a while, and once she started to get tired, Fezco placed his free hand on her hip and helped her dance against him.

The both of them being a little high and involved with each other's movements only added to the sexual tension in the room, along with the flirty looks and flirty smiles that they exchanged every so often.

Fezco held the roach up to Mariah's lips, offering her the last hit once she let him know that her shift was up in a few minutes after she peeped the time on his watch.

"Yeah, ima cut soon too," Fezco sighed, watching as she blew the smoke from her hit through her pretty lips that his eyes had been flickering to throughout the night. "I had a great time witchu, Mariah."

"I'm glad," Mariah laughed, smiling as she softly scratched the back of his neck with her nails.

Fezco slightly shivered, not used to the feeling, but loving it.

"How much do I owe you?" He asked her as he put his blunt out.

"For?"

"...this?" Fezco tapped his fingers against Mariah's thigh, which was rested over his lap.

"Don't worry about it," Mariah smiled when he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, leaning down to whisper in his ear, "I give discounts to first timers."

Fezco smiled a little, then turned his head to look at her, fighting the high urge to kiss her due to how close their lips were to each other.

Mariah noticed, smirking before she cupped his chin and pressed a kiss to his cheek instead. Fezco couldn't help but smile again, feeling the lipgloss she was wearing stick onto his cheek and having the scent of her perfume fill his nostrils.

"I don't really like private dances," Mariah admitted to Fezco as she got off of him, making him get up with her. "But I had a great time with you too, Fezco."

Strippers usually lied when they told their client that they liked spending time with them, and that they liked giving them lap dances, it helped with gaining regulars and loyal customers who wanted to throw their money at them.

But Mariah wasn't lying, and she didn't want Fezco's money. She enjoyed that private dance just as much as Fezco did. And Fezco knew it, which had him smiling down at her like an idiot.

"Hope you have a good night, beautiful."

They exchanged some love sick smiles one more time before they both exited the room and parted ways.

Fezco glanced back at Mariah as he walked back to the VIP section, watching her glance back at him as she walked to the strippers lounge.

She blew him a kiss before she turned back around and disappeared behind the DANCERS ONLY door, smiling like a complete fool to herself as she entered the lounge.

"Bitch, finally! Your man has been waiting outside for you for forever, banging on this fucking door every ten minutes to see if you were done yet," Destiny exclaimed the second Mariah stepped into the room, pointing towards the exit door.

"He has flowers again!" Lulu excitedly smiled from where she restocked the fridge.

"For real?" Mariah's entire mood changed as she looked around at the girls in the dressing room, who all confirmed that Danny was outside.

Danny had done this a few times when Mariah was ignoring him, he came to the club and waited outside for Mariah with flowers so that she'd forgive him.

"Go talk to him, babygirl," Lulu encouraged, obviously clueless as to why he was apologizing.

Mariah thought about for a minute, ignoring the bad feeling that formed in her stomach before she made her way to the hallway and opened the door, leaving it slightly opened before she stepped outside.

Danny leaned up off the wall he had been waiting against, holding a bouquet of flowers and looking Mariah up and down. He only ever seemed to get her flowers when he was apologizing for something.

"Why are you here?" Mariah asked him, clearly annoyed, just as he opened his mouth to speak, making him give her a look.

Danny scoffed as he stepped closer to her, holding up the flowers he brought her. "Chill. I came to say sorry, mamas."

He shoved the bouquet of flowers into her hand and smiled at her, stepping closer to her, which made her step back.

"Come on, don't be like that. I'm sorry. You know I love you," Danny said, noticing her backing away.

Mariah avoided looking at Danny, looking down the flowers she held instead, trying to fight the tears forming in her eyes, tears of both fear and embarrassment.

"I don't know anymore Danny. You left marks."

Danny bent down a little, leaning closer and taking a look at her neck, fiddling with the necklaces that hung from it while he examined the skin.

"I don't see anything," He told her and rubbed his finger on her throat.

"I put on a fuck ton makeup because I don't want everyone to know that my boyfriend abuses me," Mariah snapped, slapping his hand away from her.

"Can you shut the fuck up!?" Danny whisper yelled at her, looking around the emptier side of the parking lot to make sure nobody was around before he glared at Mariah. "What the fuck is wrong with you? I don't fucking abuse you, I love you but you piss me the fuck off sometimes."

Mariah raised her eyebrows at his words and scoffed, "What's wrong with me??"

"Yeah, I buy you some stupid ass flowers and I come and I wait like, two fucking hours to say that I'm sorry and you act like a bitch," Danny told her and ran his hand up her arm. "Relax."

"Can you stop?" Mariah asked and pushed his hand away.

"What, now I can't fucking touch you?" He scoffed, stepping closer to her, making her step back again until she was up against the wall and couldn't anymore. "I waited out here for two hours, Mariah. What took you so long?"

"I was working."

"Yeah? You were on the stage for two hours?" Danny squinted at her as he got all in her face, knowing that sets were never two hours long. "You were in the rooms, huh? With some fucking guy?"

Mariah thought of Fezco, wishing she was still in the private session room with him, listening to his fine ass voice mumble that she was beautiful and blushing every time he made eye contact with her. She wished she still had those butterflies he gave her in her stomach, she wished her heart raced in excitement like when she was with him instead of racing in fear like it was with Danny.

"No," She answered.

"No? I can smell him on you, Mariah," Danny said through his teeth, being so close to her that he could smell the scent of weed and Fezco's cologne.

Danny placed his hand under her chin, moving her head up so that she'd look at him. A single tear slipped from Mariah's left eye, making Danny scoff-laugh.

"Why the fuck are you crying?" He asked her before grabbing her hand. "Man, let's go before someone fucking sees you. You're staying with me tonight."

Mariah wiggled her hand out of his grasp, "I'm not–"

Danny grabbed her arm, cutting her off, "What, you're not done being a whore in there yet? I don't give a fuck. Let's go."

"I don't fucking want to," Mariah raised her voice, shoving the flowers into his chest and then walking towards the door. "Leave me the fuck alone."

Danny pushed her against the door, placing both hands on either side of her to trap her in between himself and the door, but didn't last long in that position.

"Back the fuck up bro," Fezco mumbled as he pushed Danny off of and away from Mariah.

"What the fuck," Danny scoffed at Fezco, getting all up in his face while Fezco stood in front of Mariah. "Who the fuck are you?"

Fezco recognize Danny, he had seen him a few parties, but most recently, he had seen him fucking some girl in the pool at a party on Friday.

"Who the fuck are you," Fezco returned the question, although he already sort of knew he was unfortunately Mariah's boyfriends, having seen most of what happened between the two from his car.

"Get the fuck away from my girlfriend," Danny spoke to Fezco in a threatening tone.

Fezco intensely stared at Danny, his gaze intimidating.

"She's yo girl? Why you was grabbing at her like that then?" Fezco quizzed, sneaking his hand behind his back and holding it out for Mariah, offering her a hand to hold so she knew he was there for her.

"That's none of your business, leave us the fuck alone, fucking weirdo," Danny spat.

"Nah, you was lookin like you were boutta do somethin," Fezco accused.

Mariah reached for Fezco's hand, making him take hers in his and hide them behind his back.

Mariah knew she didn't know him all that well, but something in her gut told her to trust him–he had gotten in between her and Danny, after all. He had stopped Danny from doing who even knows what to her. Now he was holding her hand for comfort while he confronted Danny about the situation.

Mariah felt safe behind Fezco, watching him mean mug her boyfriend and unknowingly rub his thumb against her hand that he held at the same time. Something she never felt with Danny.

"I wasn't about to do shit, we're good and we don't fucking need or want you here," Danny told him, looking past him at Mariah. "Right, Mariah? We're good? He can leave?"

Fezco stared Danny down before glancing back at Mariah, who met his eyes with hers the second he turned to look at her. He stared into her eyes, his heart clenching at the fear they held, at the way she slightly shook her head, begging him not to leave.

He wasn't going to. He didn't consider it for even a second. Fezco knew something was off–he didn't want to assume or accuse anything at first, because he wasn't that type of person, but what else was he supposed to think of Danny when he saw him being all aggressive with Mariah?

Fezco wouldn't leave her with her bitch ass boyfriend after seeing how aggressive he was with her to save his life. He'd rather save hers. Like fucking Superman.

"You should leave bro," Fezco suggested, turning his head to look at Danny again.

Danny scoffed, "Man, what the fuck is this? Let's go home Mariah."

"I ain't gon tell you again bruh, leave."

"Come on ma," Danny laughed at Fezco as he reached to grab Mariah.

"She told you she ain't fuckin want to," Fezco mumbled, grabbing the collar of Danny's shirt and holding him back. "So get the fuck out. I'm not fucking around."

"What the fuck are you gonna do?" Danny challenged.

Fezco let go of Mariah's hand and Danny's shirt to grab the bottom of his own shirt, raising it slightly to show Danny the glock tucked into his jeans.

"Fuck this," Danny pushed passed him, clearly scared as he hurried off to his car like a little bitch, leaving Fezco to glance back at Mariah, who was staring at him.

Her heart fluttered at the concern his eyes held as he stepped closer to her, trying her best not to cry in pure relief.

"Yo, you good?" Fezco asked her, his tone completely different than the one he had with Danny.

Fezco mentally rolled his eyes at himself–what a dumb ass fucking question. But he didn't know what to say, staring at Mariah as she just nodded and gave him a smile, which seemed both genuine and forced.

"Yeah...it's just...I'm good," Mariah trailed off in between phrases, keeping herself from telling Fezco too much.

"You sure?" Fezco asked, not convinced whatsoever.

Mariah nodded in response, telling Fezco that maybe she didn't wanna talk about it and he should just drop it, but he couldn't.

"I kinda seen everything from my car," Fezco mumbled, making Mariah slightly raised her eyebrows at him. "Iono what's up wit him but I really thought he was gonna like...iono, get physical with you. Shit, I ain't much of a fighter but if he wanted to get physical with someone he coulda gotten physical with me. I wasn't gon let him do nothin to you."

Mariah felt all warm inside at the way he said his last sentence. She'd noticed that Fezco spoke in a monotonous tone, but whatever he said, he meant it with everything. And telling her that he wasn't gonna let Danny do anything to her had her feeling a whole different type of safe with Fezco.

So safe that it was relieving, which brought tears of nothing but relief and gratitude for Fezco to her eyes.

"I don't know the story but I seen shit like that go down before and whatever the fuckin story is, he didn't have to do all that. Hell nah, no guy should be grabbing a girl like that," Fezco told Mariah, noticing the tears in her eyes. "Shit, my ba–I'm sorry. Fuck, I ain't mean to stroke the bees nuts–"

Fezco cut himself off when Mariah started laughing, making him furrow his eyebrows and give her a concerned look.

"Fezco, it's stroking the bees nest, not the bees nuts," Mariah corrected him in between uncontrollable laughs, bumping into him as she stepped around, not being able to stand in place.

He smiled down at her as she laughed, wiping the tears that were now being caused by laughing so much from her eyes.

"My fault, I ain't mean to stroke the bees nest then," Fezco clarified as her laughter died down. "I'm sorry. Is everything good, though? Is yo homeboy always like that?" He mindlessly asked.

He knew things weren't good, and although she said she was good, he knew she wasn't either.

Mariah fell silent, awkwardly avoiding eye contact with Fezco as well as his question. Her silence said it all though.

"You um, need a ride home?" Fezco sorta changed the subject offered, wanting to make sure she got home safe. "Is the least I could do after scarin yo ride off."

Mariah stared up at Fezco for a few seconds, noticing the way he referred to Danny as everything but her boyfriend, and debating whether or not to accept his offer. She would never accept a ride home from any other guy from the club–but Fezco wasn't just a guy from the club.

Especially not after tonight, from their time in the private session room to now.

"Okay," Mariah agreed without a second thought. Was it the smartest decision? No. She barely knew Fezco.

But she felt safe with him. He literally saved her, he stood up for her. Plus he was fine as fuck and sweet and he gave her butterflies. So fuck it.

Nothing that could have happened if she left with Danny would be worse than if she left with Fezco.

So after five minutes of Mariah changing, grabbing all her things and paying Lulu for the night, she walked back out the door where she left Fezco and was soon nervously sitting shotgun in his car.

Her leg bounced up and down as she took her makeup off and put her hair up using Fezco's visor mirror while she ignored her phone lighting up every few seconds in her lap, texts from Danny incoming nonstop.

Fezco was warming his car up and quietly counting the money he made at the club, like he had been before he saved Mariah. They hadn't said anything to each other since Mariah thanked him for carrying her bags to his car and then opening the car door for her.

The gestures had her blushing so hard–he really was so sweet. She wasn't used to that.

The silence they sat in was comfortable, and wasn't a you could hear a pin drop typa silence since Too $hort was playing through the speakers in the car.

Fezco side eyed her phone from where he counted, growing easily annoyed only because he knew it was Danny blowing her phone up.

Mariah was annoyed as fuck too though, finally picking her phone up after making sure she didn't look ugly as fuck in Fezco's presence and going to tell Danny to kick rocks before she turned her phone off.

Her eyes skimmed through a few threatening messages, making her decide to not even respond and just turn off her phone. He wasn't worth a reply.

Now that she really thought about it, he wasn't worth fucking anything.

"He's always like that," Mariah finally answered Fezco's question from earlier, looking over at him to watch him wrap a rubber band around a stack of money.

Fezco glanced at Mariah for a second before putting the stacks of money he had banded up in a paper bag, suddenly wishing he had beat Danny's ass when he had the chance.

"Why are you with him?" Fezco asked, squinting his eyes at Mariah in disbelief, but regretted it instantly when Mariah wiped her eye with a knuckle.

Fezco wasn't gonna lie; he was slightly jealous of Danny, but only because Mariah was his girlfriend. During all the time Fezco had spent thinking about her the past few days, he never once thought that she could possibly have a boyfriend. But she did. And he felt fucking stupid when he saw her taking the flowers Danny had given her.

He felt stupid having feelings for someone else's girlfriend. But that girl's boyfriend was a piece of shit. So why the fuck was she even with him?

"He wasn't always like that. If that makes any sense...he was nicer at first, and I don't know what I did but then he started acting all..." Mariah trailed off, embarrassed as fuck to say that he was abusive.

Which was another reason why she didn't tell anyone about Danny, she found it embarrassing having to say that her boyfriend was

"Abusive?" Fezco completed the sentence, shaking his head as he rested his arm on the center console. "I don't think you did anything, ma. He's just that typa person."

"I think that too, but if he was nice befo–"

"Even if you had did something, it don't make it okay," Fezco interrupted Mariah.

"You don't even know all of it, Fezc–"

"I know enough," Fezco interrupted Mariah again and put his car in drive, driving out the parking lot. "Don't be tryna make excuses, don't be forgiving him and shit. You don't deserve none of that, you deserve better. Why are you still wit him?"

He snuck a look at her, deciding to shut the fuck up after she didn't say anything back, realizing that it was probably a hard thing for her to talk about. He just hoped she wouldn't stay with him.

Not for his own benefit, but for hers. Mariah didn't deserve all the damage Danny had done and was still doing.

Mariah spent a good few minutes thinking about Fezco's question. Why are you still wit him?

She wished she could answer that, but she couldn't, because she didn't even know why. She didn't love Danny. But nine times out of ten, she felt like Danny was the only one who loved her. Mariah hadn't felt that in forever. She yearned for it.

Danny didn't love Mariah. What he loved was being in control. So if he felt like he was in control in the relationship and Mariah felt like he loved her–sometimes–they both won.

No. Fuck that. She was never winning. Fezco's right.

That didn't make it okay. And she didn't deserve that. She deserved better.

But if she deserved better, then why didn't she have better?

"Yo, you hungry?" Fezco asked after a while. "Cuz I'm hungry as fuck, and I'm tryna get food, I think there's a Jack in the Box round here."

Mariah shook her head, "I'm good."

Fezco kissed his teeth, "You lyin, ain't no way you not hungry after work," He said and looked at Mariah, who shrugged and shook her head. "For real? Aight, I guess I'll just starve wit you then."

Mariah rolled her eyes, catching onto his game quick. "Fine."

Fezco smirked to himself, "Knew it."

They ate in his car mostly silence. Mariah discreetly stared at Fezco the whole time, in disbelief with herself because she had just confidently given him a whole lap dance and now she was nervous to say anything to him.

After eating, Fezco took Mariah home after she put her address into his phone, telling him about how she was so happy he wasn't a kidnapper and actually took her home once he pulled up in front of her house, which made him laugh.

"Why are you laughing, I'm serious," Mariah told Fezco as he grabbed her bags for her from his backseat. "Thank you."

Fezco nodded, "Don't mention it."

"No, seriously. You dead ass saved me tonight. Thank you," Mariah thanked him again and smiled. "For being my Superman."

"Of course beautiful," Fezco said, smiling at the way Mariah blushed at the nickname as he handed her her things. "Yo, you think I could like, get your phone number?"

Mariah's mind froze for a second as she gathered all her shit to leave, butterflies swarming in her stomach while she processed his question. She held her hand out for his phone, making Fezco stare at it for a second before getting the hint and placing his phone in her hand.

Mariah went onto iMessages and typed her phone number into the new conversation tab before handing Fezco his phone back. "You better use it."

"Fosho," Fezco assured her, looking down at her number in his phone.

"Thanks again," Mariah said, making him look away from his phone to look at her. She gave a him a closed smile before she gave his cheek a kiss and got out of his car.

Fezco's face warmed up at the action, watching as she walked up to the house and waiting until she was inside to leave.

He glanced down at his phone in his hand, typing a few words before he sent them to her to save her number.

Goodnight beautiful

Once Fezco got home, he locked all the doors and dropped the money he made on the table, then checked up on his grandma and on Ashtray before he disappeared into his room and changed into his favorite M&M pajama pants.

He checked his phone as he laid down in his bed, smiling at the only notification on the screen.

good night superman