Floss

By Monica Marie Jones

Definition:

Floss (verb) [Flawss]

1 to use fame, wealth and material possessions to represent ones social status.

2 to adorn one's body, home and vehicle with physical representation of one's wealth.

3 to do any and everything in ones power to make those around him or her aware of one's worth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Monica Marie Jones
• Release date: Mar 18, 2009
• ISBN: 9781452385020

Monica Marie Jones

Monica Marie Jones is an author whose published works include The Ups and Downs of Being Round (Fiction/Self-Help), Taste My Soul (Poetry) FLOSS (Fiction) and Swag (Urban Fiction). She is a contributing author in Chicken Soup for the Girls Soul, New Directions for Youth Development, and 44th (A full color coffee table book about President Barack Obama that is a compilation of front page reprints of actual African-American published newspapers and poetry.) She has also contributed to several publications and youth development training materials for the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation. She has worked as a columnist and freelance writer for various publications and websites including the Michigan Front Page Newspaper and is an active member of the Motown Writer's Network where she is the host of her own show, “Marketing and Motivation Mondays with Monica Marie Jones” on the Michigan Literary Network Radio. Monica received her Bachelor’s Degree and teaching certificate in Elementary Education from Eastern Michigan University. She also received her Masters of Social Work from the University of Michigan. Monica is a youth development expert that does training and consultation for the Center for Youth Program Quality (a joint venture of the Forum for Youth Investment and The High/Scope Educational Research Foundation.) She is a professionally trained dancer and dance instructor that has danced with Gospel recording artists such as Dorinda Clark-Cole, in several venues around the United States, and a three-city tour in Japan with Kierra 'Ki-Ki' Sheard. Monica uses her gifts, talents and expertise to inform her work as a motivational speaker with a focus on topics including but not limited to self-esteem, empowering women and girls, fitness and wellness, and youth development. Monica’s essay, “Don’t Wait for the Weight” and her poem, “Fat Girl” will be published in The Souls of Our Young Sisters: The Next Generation of Women Tell Their Stories, Overcome Their Challenges, and Heal Their Spirits (Souls of My Sisters Inc./Kensington Publishing Corp.) anthology in May 2010. For more information visit her website at http://www.monicamariejones.com or email her [e-mail]

Book preview

Prologue

Floss (verb) [Flawss]

To use perceived fame and material possessions to represent one’s social status.

To adorn one’s body, home and vehicle with physical representations of one’s wealth.

To do everything in one’s power to make others aware of one’s worth.

Jabez

Jabez was certain that he had been blessed with the gift of discernment, but sometimes he wasn’t sure whether it was really a gift, or if it was a curse. With this gift Jabez could look at people beyond face value and tell what they were really about deep down.

His gift kicked in as he watched the scantily clad women in denim miniskirts and bikini tops walk past him on Ocean Drive in South Beach. He mentally created a bio for each one of them. After attending Urban Beach Week in Miami for the first time two years ago, they’d decided to make the trip the traditional yearly get away for the fellas during Memorial Day Weekend… in memory of how much fun they’d had the first time.

While everyone else in the crew slept in after a night of partying hard at SoBe Live Nightclub, Jabez elected to rise early to take in the scenery which consisted of an array of women spanning from mediocre to exotic. He was quite pleased to see that the spectrum was much heavier on the exotic side. As amazing as they all appeared to be, none of them intrigued him more than the woman who had his attention at the moment. His mind drifted to thoughts of her.

Her name was Dionysus. The name was fitting. She was named after a male Greek God, and while there was no mistaking that she was all woman, she thought and acted like a guy. They had been involved for a few months now, but from the beginning he’d had her all figured out. She was extremely gorgeous but to the world around her she appeared to be a high maintenance, money hungry, manipulator. These titles did ring true when it came to her actions, but Jabez could tell that beneath the surface that she had a good heart and that her ways stemmed from some deeper issues.

What are you drinking on? Asked a sun kissed sister who had invited herself to sit on the empty wicker barstool next to him.

Vodka and Cranberry, He said in a tone laced with an underlying message that nonverbally asked, Why? Are you buying?

He wouldn’t be surprised if she did buy his drink. She was clearly pressed. He knew this because she had been watching him for the longest and doing all of the little things that women do to make sure that they get noticed. Things like walking by with a slow and deliberate swagger to make sure that he saw her ample behind in shorts that were two sizes too small.

Really? That’s my favorite drink! She hesitated, obviously waiting and hoping that he would never allow a lady to buy his drink, but that he would instead graciously pick up the tab for both of them. If she had she been sincere, he would have done just that, but she was trying to be slick.

Thanks for sharing. He said in a voice dripping with syrupy sincerity before turning back to his favorite past time of people watching. He laughed to himself at the thought of how stupid she must be sitting there looking. What he really wanted to say was, Baby, I am from Detroit, so you are really going to have to step your game up if you want something from me. Poor girl. He would have felt sorry for her, but he knew that the fact that she couldn’t have him just made her want him that much more.

Women. So complicated, yet so simple. He had traveled the world and experienced women of every color, and for the most part, they were all basically the same. But there was one thing he knew for sure. Detroit women were in a class of their own.

Take Dionysus’ cousin, Torah for example. She was just as materialistic as Dionysus but people also had her pegged as an airhead and a freak. What they didn’t realize was that she was far smarter than what people thought. She was one of those people to watch out for because while folks thought that things were going over her head, she was actually absorbing it all like a sponge. On countless occasions Jabez had witnessed her observing, listening and taking in everything around her.

For a moment, he wished that Dionysus was there with him in South Beach so that he could tell her about this silly broad. He glanced over and saw that she was still sitting there plotting her next attempt at getting and keeping his attention. If Dionysus were here, she would have saved him from this unsavory situation while still giving him the freedom to pursue other women as much as he pleased. He would give her the same space. That was one of the many things he appreciated about what they had. It was an unspoken understanding.

Jabez and Dionysus were very open and honest with one another so she was aware of and informed about the other women that he dated as was he about the men that she dated. This was due to the fact that even though they were not boyfriend and girlfriend they knew that they held the top spot in each other’s lives.

Whether she knew it or not, she was what he considered his Main. This meant that she was his main girl of the many that he dealt with. It was a situation that was any man’s dream. They would often sit back and crack jokes about their respective suitors and how dense they all were. The most idiotic one in her roster was a guy named Tyse.

Tyse was a younger cat that had many people fooled into believing that he was a lot more important than he really was. When Dionysus told Jabez about Tyse, she initially believed the game that he ran on her to be true, but what she told him just didn’t add up so Jabez knew from the start that this guy was full of himself. He just hoped that her instincts would kick in soon enough to figure out what this Tyse character was really about before he made a fool out of her.

Tyse wasn’t too different from his boy Solomon. Solomon wasn’t as far gone as to pretend that he was someone he was not, which appeared to be the case with Tyse, but he went out of his way to keep up appearances. Maybe he could pass this bothersome girl off to Solomon once he woke up. Just the mere fact that she had shown interest in Jabez would make Sol want to try his hand at getting with her. He was that type of guy.

It was clear that wherever she was from, she was used to getting attention. Perhaps the one out of her clique that got the most attention. She had obviously handpicked Jabez to be her sponsor for the weekend, but he was not accepting the position. Solomon, on the other hand would gladly blow all of his money on a big butt and a smile.

Solomon worked hard at trying to impress others by having the best of everything whether he could really afford it or not. He had no problem with living beyond his means. His main concerns were trying to keep up with Jabez and trying to compete with their other friend since childhood named Abel.

Abel was a hard act to follow because he had a lot going for himself. He had achieved success in the areas of education, business, women, and everything else that a man measures his worth by with half of the effort. To top it all off, he was an all around good guy with a great personality and a giving spirit; so it was really hard to hate him for all that he had. He was one of those guys that you couldn’t help but be happy for.

Jabez had them all figured out, himself included. He knew that he had a lot handed to him by his wealthy parents, but he also knew that it took hard work to keep it and get more. Unfortunately he was also aware that no matter how much you have, or how hard you work to keep it, things can still be snatched away from you in an instant.

He worked hard so he played hard. Like everyone else, he wanted a taste of the finer things in life and he wanted the world to know that he knew what the flavor was. For that very reason Jabez, Dionysus, Torah, Tyse, Solomon and Abel all had one love in common. They all lived and loved to FLOSS.

CHAPTER 1

Dionysus

Since Jabez, the one she really wanted to be with, wasn’t available, she took Tyse up on his offer. They’d agreed to meet at his place at 7pm and from there they would ride to the restaurant together. In order to get her out of the broken nail induced slump that she had been in, Dionysus decided to get all dolled up. She put on a fresh pair of low-rise, fitted stretch denim jeans over her favorite thong and a tight blazer that was designed like a bustier over her matching padded push up bra from Victoria’s Secret.

The jacket, fastened with shiny silver clasps down the front, streamlined her waist that was already small to begin with. It was open at the bottom so it showed off her flat stomach adorned with a sparkling navel ring. After putting a few loose and messy curls in her thick hair she applied her false eyelashes, coal eyeliner and some clear Mac Lip Glass. She finished the job by spraying her entire body with Sweet Temptations body spray and stepping into her black leather stiletto pumps. She was well aware that Tyse took pride in using her as his show piece so she played right into the role. It was well worth all of the money that he spent on her.

When she was done primping she glanced at the clock and was stunned to realize that it was 7:15pm and she had not heard from Tyse yet. She grabbed her keys, purse and a leather jacket and headed for her car, a brand new SUV that was a gift from a smitten fan of hers that she hadn’t even so much as allowed to sniff her goods.

He paid the car note on time, every month, like clockwork by simply depositing the amount into her Pay Pal account online. All she had to do was post one of her sexy modeling photos on the computer for him to look at while he masturbated. His only request was that she watch him do it on his webcam while typing an occasional sexy sentence every now and then on Instant Messenger. She never even had to turn on her web video camera. The picture, a shot of her in a bikini from the back looking over her shoulder seductively at the camera, was enough to do it for him.

He was old, overweight and disgusting to her, so she never really looked at the cam unless she and her cousin wanted a good laugh. It was an easy way to ride in style with little effort. It also helped that he lived in Atlanta, and as far as he knew, she lived in L.A. so she never had to run the risk of running into him on the streets.

Once inside of the truck she popped in an old school Teena Marie CD then called Tyse and began to get perturbed when she got his voice mail.

Hey Tyse, its Di, I am heading your way, call me and let me know what’s up. If I don’t hear from you by the time I get in your area don’t bother calling, as a matter of fact I will be gracious and give you until 8pm. Click.

She didn’t have time for more of his games. Granted she did have a good time when she went out with him but the games had far outweighed the good times. He was lots of fun, not so much because he had a great personality, but because he pulled all of the stops to make sure that she was having an enjoyable experience.

For Di, the basic requirements of an enjoyable experience included having all of the men drooling and all of the women jealous wherever she went. This was always the case when she went out with Tyse because he was extremely flashy and loved the attention just as much if not more than she did.

His looks were decent so aside from the fact that he was three inches shorter than her, his presence was tolerable. Besides, good looks were not necessarily a requirement to win Di’s time. For her, it was more about how the bankroll was looking.

So, even more important than the fun and the looks was the fact that he spent lots of money on her, but his inconsistency was beginning to become an annoyance.

She did not appreciate getting stood up. Who did he think he was? Did he realize how many men would have loved to spend this time with her? As she neared his street she had come to the conclusion that she was indeed being stood up. She passed right by his street because she would never stoop to the level of being pressed enough to drive by his house.

One of the few things that her mother taught her, that actually made sense, was never to pop up over anyone’s house uninvited or without calling first. Not only was it rude to the person receiving the surprise visit, but the surprise visitor has now left him or herself open to getting the same type of unpleasant surprise as well. A surprise such as realizing that they are being played because the person that they are visiting is