Excerpt for "On and Popping" by Sonovia Alexander

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.