Page 1 of I Don't Want You Back

Prologue I

“Redd is out here looking for you Candy Girl!” one of the other dancers walked into the dressing room and yelled.

“Okay, tell him I’ll be out in a minute,” Faryn replied with a sigh.

Candy Girl, the name that Faryn had grown to hate, was given to her by the owner of the strip club that she’d worked at for the past four years. The same name that all the customers knew her by. Thankfully, Faryn was working her last and final shift at the smoke-infested hole in the wall. In one more week, she would be walking across the stage and receiving the master’s degree that she’d worked so hard to obtain. She’d already received her bachelor’s degree two years before, but she wanted to take it a step further. Financial aid and her job as a waitress helped her out a lot, until the restaurant where she worked started cutting her hours. Faryn was already living in a rundown apartment where she paid weekly rent, but there was no way that she could afford a roof over her head and school too. That was until one of her customers slipped her a card about making some extra cash on the side by dancing a few nights a week at a popular strip club in the uptown area of New Orleans. It was a no brainer for Faryn and she showed up to audition the very same night. Not only was she given the job, but the owner made her one of the opening acts.

“Girl, you made a killing out there for your final show. I’m gonna miss you, boo,” Slim, one of the other dancers, walked in and said.

“I’m gonna miss y’all too, but I damn sure won’t miss this place,” Faryn admitted.

“Redd is gonna lose his mind when you leave. That nigga been coming in here for a whole year, just to see you. He doesn’t give anybody else the time of day,” Slim replied.

“I know, but he better find himself another favorite,” Faryn said.

“Girl, you must be crazy. That nigga be breaking too much bread for you to just walk away like that. You should keep in contact with him,” Slim advised.

“You know the rules, Slim. No real names and no personal relationships. I already fucked up by messing with him outside of the club. JB would have fired my ass if he ever found out about that,” Faryn noted.

“Yeah, you’re right about that,” Slim said as she sat down at the vanity right next to Faryn.

Faryn looked in the mirror at the light coat of makeup that she’d just applied to her face and was satisfied with the outcome. Most of the girls wore pounds of cosmetics on their faces, but Faryn didn’t need it. She had a natural beauty, even though she didn’t always feel like it. Life hadn’t always been kind to Faryn, but she was thankful anyhow. She’d come far and beat some of the odds that were stacked against her.

At only twenty-six years old, Faryn had seen her fair share of heartbreak and tragedy. Being raised by a drug-addicted mother and grandmother was only one of many things that she had to endure and overcome. A generation of curses was what she called it and she made it a point to break it. Her grandmother, Eunice, had introduced her mother to drugs at a young age, but Faryn was stronger than that. Eunice had died of a drug overdose and her one and only daughter had met the same fate only five years later.

Faryn didn’t have anyone, but she’d learned to take care of herself when she was only twelve years old. Their house had become the local whore house with different men coming and going to support her mother, Alisha’s, crack addiction. Faryn hated to hear her mother’s moans of pleasure all throughout the night, but she was thankful that Alisha used her own body instead of hers. Some of Faryn’s friends hadn’t been so lucky and their innocence was taken from them at no fault of their own. She still had to fend for herself because Alisha spent every dime that she had to support her out of control habit. There was never any food in the house and all the electronics that they’d ever owned had been pawned a long time ago. Thankfully, rental assistance took care of the rent and lights, or they would have been homeless as well. Some of the men that Alisha entertained had a heart and would sometimes bring fast food for Faryn to eat whenever they came over. Some of the others just didn’t give a damn about Alisha and they cared even less about her child.

Faryn was cool either way. She had her own thing going and she kept a few dollars in her pockets. Taking a page from her mother’s book, Faryn did her thing with a few boys at school to ensure that she always had a backup plan. She never went as far as having sex with any of them, but she gave hand jobs behind the bleachers every day during her lunch and gym times. The boys would be looking for her early in the mornings and all throughout the day. She started staying after school late, just to service her rapidly growing list of clients. For five dollars, Faryn gave them five minutes of her services. Sometimes, she serviced two boys at the same time if they agreed to it. She never made less than fifty dollars a day and that was a lot to her. She could buy herself some decent clothes and she never went hungry. She was young and dumb, so she saw nothing wrong with it.

Faryn quickly earned the reputation of being a slut, but she didn’t care what anyone said about her. She did what she did for survival and not many girls her age understood that. The girls at her school hated her, which was why she got into so many fights. Either they were jealous of her or pissed that their boyfriends were one of her satisfied customers. She kept that up for a while, until one of the local dope boys, Jo-Jo, decided that he wanted to keep her for himself. He wanted more than a hand job and he told her that from the first day they met. He pissed a lot of boys at her school off when he started giving Faryn money and taking her shopping. She didn’t have to do hand jobs anymore and he dared her to even try.

Because of his generosity, Faryn gave him her virginity at only fifteen years old and she thought she was in love with him. Since he was nineteen years old, she started staying the night at his house and no one ever missed her presence. That went on for months, until he went to jail one day during a drug bust while Faryn was in school. It was the talk of the block, but Faryn was used to being let down. She felt bad for Jo-Jo, but she went on with her miserable life just like always.

Two months after Jo-Jo got locked up, Faryn caught the eye of another local corner boy. Barry was considered an up and coming hood legend and he wanted a girl like Faryn by his side. Unlike Jo-Jo, who was sweet and down to earth, Barry treated Faryn more like his property than his girlfriend. He had no problem raising his hands to her. Faryn had more busted lips and black eyes than a girl her age probably ever had to endure. Thankfully, that relationship only lasted for a few months before Barry was shot and killed in front of the same corner store where Faryn had met him. Faryn was done with trying to have a boyfriend by then. Several other boys in the neighborhood tried, but she turned them all down.

Six months after that, Faryn went home from school, only to find her mother’s cold, lifeless body in the hallway, dead from a drug overdose. She was only sixteen years old, but she didn’t even cry as she called the police to tell them what had happened. One of Faryn’s brothers, who she hadn’t seen in a while, picked her up a few days after hearing of his mother’s passing and moved her in with him and his girlfriend. Faryn was the youngest of her siblings, but she hadn’t seen them in almost five years. Once they were old enough to fend for themselves, Faryn’s siblings left and made their own way in life. Last she’d heard before their mother died, her brothers were locked up and her twenty-year-old sister was living with a fifty-year-old man. She must have been looking for a father figure because older men were what she preferred. They were all fucked up and couldn’t do anything to help each other. They loved each other, but they had to survive any way they could. They didn’t know how to love because they were never given any.

By the time Faryn graduated high school and started college, her brother had gone back to jail and was given a three-year sentence. Her brother’s girlfriend, Syria, let her stay there for a while, and Faryn had no problem helping with the bills. That was, until Syria got a new man and he started looking at Faryn with lust in his eyes. She quickly gave Faryn the boot, but that was nothing new. Pain and suffering had become the norm and didn’t even bother Faryn anymore. She rented a small apartment soon after and focused on her studies. She enjoyed the company of two male companions occasionally, but she never got into a serious relationship. It was basically sex for money and nothing more. Faryn hated to feel like she was a replica of her mother, but she was no better. The only difference was that she was paying for tuition and bills instead of drugs.

“Girl, bring your ass out here and stop keeping my best customer waiting. Redd has been waiting on you for almost thirty minutes,” JB argued when he saw that Faryn was still sitting at her vanity.

“I’m coming,” Faryn said as she stood up and smoothed out her knee-length fitted dress.

She had already finished her show for the night, but she usually worked the crowd and gave lap dances if she had to. Since Redd was there, she knew that she wouldn’t be doing that tonight. He paid well for Faryn’s time and he didn’t want her attention on anyone else. He also tipped JB well for letting him have Faryn all to himself. JB loved when he came there, and he made sure that Faryn kept his favorite customer happy.

“It’s about damn time. What took you so long?” Redd asked as he flashed a beautiful smile when Faryn walked over to his table.

“I had to shower and change clothes and stuff,” Faryn replied, as he pulled her down on his lap.

“You smell so good. I’m trying to spend some time with you tonight,” Redd said as he buried his face in Faryn’s neck.

“Okay,” Faryn happily agreed.

She and Redd had grown close over the past year that he’d been a customer at JB’s Gentlemen’s Club. Redd saw her giving a lap dance to another customer and he called her over to his table. He was there with some of his boys, but he dared one of them to touch her. Faryn had him gone with the way she moved her hips and grinded her plump ass on him. Redd pulled out a knot of money and paid her to entertain him all night until the club closed. He didn’t come every time she worked, but he paid her to stay with him the entire time when he did.

Two months after becoming her regular customer, Redd had propositioned her for a little more than a lap dance. Faryn knew all about the other girls in the club doing more than just dancing in the private rooms. JB knew it too, but he didn’t care, just as long as they continued to bring in the customers. Faryn had been in the private rooms more times that she could count, but she never went too far. Besides a lot of grinding and touching, she had never been intimate with any of her customers. Faryn was a nervous wreck, but she really could have used the money at the time. School and bills were killing her pockets and every little bit helped.

When she agreed to take it there with Redd, she had no idea what he had in mind. He didn’t take her to one of the private rooms like she thought he would. He rented a suite at a fancy hotel and treated Faryn like a queen. That was only the first of many times and, before long, Faryn didn’t have to entertain anyone else once she did her thing on stage. Redd lavished her with gifts and money, and she appreciated him more than he knew. Faryn knew that he had to have a girl because he couldn’t always get away. That was cool with her because she wasn’t expecting too much from him anyway.

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