Brighter Days.

Prologue

"Miss Jones? Miss Jones? Care to explain why you're asleep in my class?" Professor White put Symone on blast as she thought about life at home while she was supposed to be paying attention in her English 101 class at Clark Atlanta.

"Yeah, yeah Professor White. I'm okay, just a little tired, that's all."

"Well I suggest you get some rest before you come to my class Miss Jones."

Symone rolled her eyes, but sat up anyway. She paid attention to the new assignment she was given and ran straight out when class was dismissed.

"Girl, why you seem so tense?" Symone's best friend of 10 years, Jayda, asked.

"Jay, you already know why. Same thing thats been bothering me." Jayda gave her a sympathetic look but then continued talking.

"'Nae, I been telling you to come to the club, you could fix your problems." Jayda told Symone as they kept walking across Clark's huge campus.

"Jay, you already know I don't wanna have to do that. I would feel weird shaking my lil' bitty non- existant ass for money." Symone spoke matter- of - factly. It was true, she was more on the skinny side, being a size 4, but she had a little backside.

"Hey, dont knock it 'till you try it." Jayda said, holding her hands up in surrender. "Besides, we'd be working together and I know you wanna see a lil' more money than what Footlocker paying you."

Symone thought about her little $500 check she was getting from Footlocker every 2 weeks and how her mother was laid off about 2 months ago.

"I don't know, Jay. I mean, I don't wanna slut- shame y'all or nothing but I don't wanna have to shake my ass for money. I got better morals than that."

"Whatever chile, I'm tryna' help you out."

Symone shrugged as they both went their seperate ways to their next class. Symone walked to her 12 o'clock Human Sexuality class, which was her last class for today. This was her favorite class, and because of that it flew by. When she was dismissed, she picked up her backpack and stuffed her paper with her new assignment inside. She walked slowly outside, looking down at her phone so she could order her Uber home. She looked up from her cracked iPhone 5 and saw her other best friend, Jaquan.

"Quan!"

"Symone, wassup chap?" Jaquan looked up then smiled, hugging his best friend. Jaquan and Symone might as well had been brother and sister, with Quan being a year older than her. They'd been together since diaper days, and his mom and Symone's mom were bestfriends since their high school days. Symone's mother, Ayanna, and Jaquan's mother, Janelle, had made each other the godparents of their kids. Because of this, Quan and Symone stayed tight their whole lives.

"Bout to go home and take a nap so I can go to work."

"Aye, I need the hookup on them new Jays. When they come out again?"

"Saturday. I gotchu' tho'."

"That's wassup. Oh yeah, how 'bout you hook me up with that bad hoe you hang wit'. What' s her name?"

"You talkin' about Sharee? She ain't no hoe, and I ain't bout to let yo' hoe ass corrupt her." Symone said laughing at her last sentence.

"Hey now, I ain't no hoe."

"You right, you just got a friendly dick, huh?" Symone asked then laughed at her own joke.

"That shit ain't funny. I'm glad to see you crack ya'self up." Quan said with a straight face, making her laugh harder.