Chocolate

May 20th

"How can I not worry? If it's one of these girls that Dylan use to mess with, then that can be a problem. It's a small town and I could be seeing her everyday at work or on the street."

"Or maybe at the bar," Chanel mumbled before taking a sip of her cold water.

I gave her a skeptical look. "Don't tell me-"

"I don't know!" Chanel yelled out. "But for the pass four months since you arrived, she's been throwing so much shade; I'm starting to be in the dark." She gave off a small chuckle from her own metaphor. "You get it, because shade blocks the sun and-"

I rolled my eyes at her sense of humor at this wrong moment. "Yes Chanel, I get it." I rubbed both sides of my temple in irritation. "Okay, I just gotta relax," I said mainly to myself. "Do you know any good house painters around here? I was supposed to call one in."

Chanel nod her head yes before pulling out her wallet to pay the bill for our meal. I was supposed to pay as well- since that was the agreement- but she was already dragging me out the diner door.

Leading me inside the old fashioned shop, Chanel screams out, "Al!!" Her voice echoes into the empty store that smelt like mothballs and paint.

"What?!" An older guy that looks sixty walked out with his gut hanging over his blue jeans and his shirt covered in different varieties of paint; I didn't know what the actual color of his shirt is. He looked a little disgusting and trifling by the way he carries himself. Why does Chanel know him?

"I need you to paint Mrs. Turner's house." Chanel orders with authority in her voice. Her whole goofy attitude disappears and the woman I've never seen nor heard before came to surface. Chanel's face was stern and serious; it made me want to crowd away like the old man is doing right now.

"Okay. Ah've heard about de graffiti," with a shake of his head and sigh, Al- I guess his name is- added: "Ah swear des folks don't know how tuh keep der mouth shut." His southern accent was much deeper than my grandmother's. Just hearing and looking at him reminds me of an character from my favorite book of all time.

"Yeah I know," Her eyes rolled slowly in irritation. Al seemed like the type to start rumors and spread news around like no one business. He probably did, especially the way Chanel reacted. "I need this done by today, you think you can handle."

Al nod his head quickly. His chest instantly poked out once he lay eyes on me. Looking at me up and down, a groan rumbled in his chest. Like any other women, I felt uncomfortable. I nudged Chanel to say something that'll make him look away, which she did. "How much you want for he job?"

"Six hundred." Al said.

Chanel scoffed under her breath. "Six hundred? That ain't what I paid you the last time." Her arms crossed in front of her big chest.

"Well last time you didn't want me tuh do the job suddenly. How yuh know ah didn't have uh job tuh so in de evening?"

"'Cause you would of said something!" I've noticed as Chanel becomes irritated or angry, her southern side comes to surface. "Either you do the job, or I'll go to Danny's that'll give me half the price."

Al scoffed in a cocky way. "Danny's? Danny will give yuh will do uh crappy job. Low price, low quality. Yuh and Ah know that, even yuh friend knows that. So if yuh need that house painted correctly and perfect, yuh gotta pay that high price."

A sigh of defeat passes through Chanel lips as she reached into her bag to grab her check book. This is where I come in. I stepped closer to Al with my head held high- I was known to make people change their minds about things, I just have my way around words.

"How many customers do you usually get on weekdays?" I asked.

"Five customers everyday." Al said with a cocky smile.

Little did he know, five customers wasn't a lot. It was actually in the one percent ratio in a town that holds five hundred people. "You give out the same price for them?"

Al nod his head yes. "Yes ma'am."

"Well let me say that each customer is different," I started off to say. "With us, we don't take that over price bullshit. So either you lower that price to two hundred or we're going to tell everyone that your prices are two high for the amount of work."

He slanted his eyes in anger. "Yuh wouldn't dare."

"Oh trust me, I would and I will also tell them that Danny has a reasonable price. Guess who they will go to?"

"Danny," he mumbled under his breath.

"So either you lower that price, or we walk." I cross my arms in front of my chest to show him I mean business.

Al looked between Chanel and I before sighing in defeat. "Fine, three hundred and that's as low as Ah can go at this moment. Have children tuh feed."

"What children? Your sixty," Chanel stated before taking out her checkbook to write a check for three hundred dollars. She aggressively snatched out the thin paper and shoved it towards Al- who was grinning so hard. "Let's go. Do not forget about Mrs. Turner, if you do I'll cancel the check and your business." Chanel grabbed my hand once again before dragging me out the door once again.

"Would you stop dragging me?" I snatched my hand out of her death grip before stopping in the middle of the wide walk. My phone buzzed my purse, so I put my hand all the way down my purse to retrieve it just in time before the call went to voicemail. "Hello?"

"Either your pissed at me for some reason or I'm going crazy." Dylan said on the other side. He sound frustrated and confused as well.

"What happened?"

"Well my car is towed since someone banalized it. Then my bar has graffiti written all over the walls on the inside. Did I do something?"

"No Dylan, I wouldn't do that to you. I'm the type that would ignore you for a whole month." I told him. "Someone put graffiti on grandma's house and sent awful messages to my phone. Chanel and I was thinking it was one of your legs (Hoes) that's doing this."

"Legs? I don't have them anymore. I dropped them five months ago."

"How many was there, Dylan?" I gripped the phone in my hand as I wait to hear the large number.

"Um," he dragged out as he thought of the woman. "Ten, maybe-I don't know."

"Are you fucking serious!" I practically yelled into the phone; scaring Chanel and a few other people that walked past. "Ten! You couldn't keep your dick in your pants. Christ Dylan, you're such a man whore!"

"Well I wasn't the type to settle down Tj," he raised his voice as well, but immediately calmed down by sighing. "This is not getting us no where."

"Of course not since we have a long fucking list of women to go through," I shot back, instantly regretting it. "I'm sorry, I'll take that back. I'll call you back,"

"Okay," he said unsure. "But are you okay though?"

"Yeah, just frustrated." I admit. "Bye, love you."

I heard a small chuckle on the other line. "Love you too."