Prologue
Born
and raised in Millsap West where the population is approximately 270,000 with
only 4 big supermarkets, 3 big malls, and not enough places to go. My name is
Deonne and that’s pronounced Dee-on-ee and not Deon. I own one of the hottest
salon in Millsap where everyone in their grandmamma comes to relax and have a
good old time. My shop is the talk of the small town. Don’t believe everything
you hear though because most of the shit that is said in this shop is 100%
true. There’s a girl name Latonya that thinks her shop can compete with mine but
you already know, it’s a wrap. She’s been trying to steal my customers for
years and trying to follow my swag but she ain’t there yet and probably never
will get there. She’s always putting out there that the customers are paid to
advertise my business for me and a whole bunch of other bull. It is what it is.
I haven’t lost a customer yet. It’s always drama in her shop where a few fights
has broken out and she always seemed to try and attach it to my shop.
Let me
give you a little history about myself. As I stated before, I’m Deonne. I am 25
years old, with no kids, but in a serious relationship with my high school
sweetheart Maxwell. I have my own crib that is decked out of course because I’m
the flyest thing on the block. I’m spoiled rotten from my poppy. My father is a
judge and a single parent. I’m his only child. My mother on the other hand is
another story. The bitch left us when I turned 12 to go lay up with a youngen
that’s half her age on the other side of town. I have a half-sister who is now
11 who I get some times when time permits me to do so. I love my little sister
and spoils her rotten. My mother and I talk here and there but I’m good without
her part time wanna be mama ass.
As you
have picked up by now, I can be a little hood but don’t get it twisted. I have
an associate’s degree in Business, I have my Bachelor’s degree in criminal
justice. You already know that was my father’s choice but I already knew what I
wanted to do with my life and that was to have my own business. Poppy had told
me that if I graduated from college, he would help me open up the business of
my choice. I went to school and got my license in cosmetology. At the age of
20, poppy held good to his word and bought me a building for me to open up my
own salon. I had met a few girls in school and told them about my shop, gave
them a proposal that they couldn’t refuse. It wasn’t about the money because
like I said my poppy had plenty of it being who he was.
I hired
3 of the best girls in the school along with my best friend Desmond. Of course
he was gay, but he was fun to be around and could do hair better than most
women could. The name of my shop is On and Popping. I chose this name because
it was always on and popping when I and my crew threw down. We did hair shows
once a month and always won first place. My shop wasn’t just a place where you
could come and gossip and let your hair down, I had the basement of my building
turned into a lounge. 10pm until 2am it was on and popping. I had some of the
best promoters putting my spot out there. I would have different entertainers
come and do a show for me once a month to keep my place of business relevant.
Now back to Latonya dirty ass. That bitch was the fakest bitch around. She
would pretend to be your friend and then turn around and stab you in the back.
I was hip to her game already. We started out as being cool being that we went
to school together. We were even going to open up a shop together until our
vision became just her vision. Now she doesn’t have a lounge in her small shop
but I can’t front, she’s making money. Her sister is a local singer and has
traveled around doing sets. She was the only reason why Latonya gained
popularity. She thought because she had high profile ladies come to her shop
that she was the ish. That wasn’t true at all. It wasn’t on a daily basis that
she would get a celeb in her shop. Latonya has never won any of the hair shows
when going up against me and my stylist and that was a reason that she always
tried stealing my customers and some of my employees.
I on
the other hand became popular because of my brand and my skills. I got out
there and worked my ass off promoting my own business. I started off with
giving the first 50 ladies free hairstyles just to show them what I and my team
could do. Those first 50 ladies became loyal customers. That was how I wheeled
my customers in. It was hard to get women to spend a lot of money for the hard
work that we put in and countless hours to perfect their hair. I had to show them
that I could do whatever they wanted and a little better. I had a make-up
artist come in to do the ladies make-up for free for those that spent over $100
in the shop. That was including buying the bundles of hair from me as well. My
nail tech only charged $30 for foot massages, medi and pedicures. You couldn’t
go wrong with that. My shop was the shit and I had to keep it like that.
I
worked Monday through Saturday, but my Sundays belonged to me and my
sweetheart. Maxwell was an accountant at a law firm across town. He worked from
9-5 m-f and spent his weekends at my house. I loved me some him and couldn’t
get enough of him. He had proposed to me twice but I wasn’t ready for that yet.
When I did decide to get married, it would be to him. Maxwell didn’t come to my
shop at all because I kept it that way. When I was home with him and around my
father, I was the sophisticated, spoiled and uppity person that they were all
used to. Once I was at my shop, I was the real me that I knew was buried deep
down inside. I was just like everyone else. Funny, witty, laid back, a little
ghetto and ratchet put together, but it was in a respectful way. I was the boss
and that was known to all of my employees. After hours was a different story.
We had a good time working and an awesome time relaxing afterwards. There was a
hair show soon coming and we all had to get prepared for it. This was going to
be the best one yet.
I had a
lot that needed to get done to prepare for this show that was quickly approaching.
With the stress of working, juggling a relationship, having less time to at
least vacation was taking a toll on me. I wanted to do these things but the
thought of leaving my business to be run by my employees wasn’t an option for
me right now. We had a trouble maker right down the block who always found some
way to stir up mess in my shop. I tried as best I could to keep all the drama
away from my shop but I knew that it would only be a matter of time before
Tonya showed her ass and got something started up.
Last
month Tonya had stood outside my shop with a few of her workers trying to get
into my lounge. Now if they were coming to enjoy themselves, it wouldn’t have
been a problem. As they stood outside on the line waiting to get inside, one of
her workers picked a fight with one of the customers that was a regular. They
were outside being loud and rude which forced my bouncer to have them be
removed from the line. Tonya and her crew stood across from my salon until we
closed up spreading lies about me and my employees. It was unprofessional and
had even cost me to lose one of my clients. I couldn’t blame her for not
wanting to come back to the shop after hearing all the threats Tonya had made.
I was getting real sick and tired of her. I planned to relocate my shop to a
bigger venue in the upcoming months. This was the reason for me spending more
time at the shop. I had a goal to reach in a few months because the building I
had my eye on was bigger and I thought that I could do a lot more inside of the
place.
In
spite of having a hectic life, it was still a good one that I couldn’t complain
about. I wished my relationship with my mother was better but she had done the
unthinkable by leaving me behind and starting a new life. To have another child
and give her more attention than the child that you had left was just wrong in
my eyes. I never had the opportunity to sit down and confront her on my
feelings because she still never had enough time to for me. When I would go
pick up my sister, she would find something to do that prevented her from
holding a decent conversation with me. I was over it but knew that I did need
to see if my mother and I could repair our relationship and start over. It
wasn’t healthy for my little sister to see that her mother and sister didn’t
get along. I didn’t want my sister to know what I had gone through when I found
out that my mother would never be coming back home.
