Petty To The Bone: The Petty Series, #1

By Midnite Love

Do you know someone who is petty to the bone? Someone who has to have the last say in every situation? The most trivial offense warrants them to unleash their petty wrath? Are you that person?

     Meet Halo Daniels, a twenty-eight-year-old Uber Driver and aspiring actress. Halo dreams of seeing herself on the big screen but first she must get next to one of the top movie producers in Hollywood. To do so she must succumb to some rather shady tactics as she works her way through the industry. She's finally able to reel him in with her feminine wiles and charismatic personality, however, that's only the beginning. Halo soon finds herself submerged in a web of lies and deceit, willing to do anything to make it to the top.

     Meanwhile her personal life is as chaotic as some of the roles she auditions for. Her biggest challenge will be overcoming her petty ways before she completely alienates those closest to her.

     How far will she be willing to go to become successful? Will the sacrifices she makes be worth the price of fame? 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Love Den Media Publishing
• Release date: Aug 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781536516036

Midnite Love

As the author of more than a dozen dating, relationship and romance urban-fiction novels and self-help references, Midnite Love has become one of the nation's bestselling go-to gurus for sensual and saucy tell-it-like-is-is tomes. Throughout her narratives, Midnite Love addresses a vast array of relationship topics, from increasing levels of intimacy with your mate and maintaining a healthy, loving relationship to learning how to fight fair, as well as exploring ways to help your partner let down walls and open himself to new levels of arousal and intimacy. From break-ups to make-ups and everything between, she has become the voice of experience for a generation of women looking for honest, frank and pragmatic advice. In addition to her robust selection of sister-to-sister books, Midnite Love is also Co-Host of the relationship program "Chattin' With Candace and Midnite Show," featuring" Real Talk, Real Raw," airing online and via podcast on iTunes. She also commandeers website thelovediaries.com. And now, Midnite Love is expanding her reach all the more, writing under a new pen name moniker as Lady Onyxx. Born and raised in the "D" Detroit City Midnite Love Aka Lady Onyxx witnessed the hardcore reality of hood life. As a nonfiction author she has shared her knowledge on relationships, intimacy and sex. Her fans have also gotten a taste of her fiction urban titles as Midnite Love. Join now her as the pen meets the pavement for some raw, gritty, urban fiction at its finest.

Book preview

Petty To The Bone

CHAPTER ONE

EXCUSE ME, CAN WE GET a picture?

Halo whipped around to see a family with four boisterous, hyperactive children waiting to have their photo taken with Hello Kitty. She nodded the supersized head and playfully beckoned the kids towards her.

Aside from stepping on her feet repeatedly as they swarmed around, one of them managed to spill their cherry slush on the dingy white costume.

This is some straight bullshit, she thought as she posed with the kids for several shots.

The father handed her a dollar and thanked her. Most people paid that amount for one photo, she posed for at least ten. However, seeing as this was an under the table gig that was supposed to be based on donations only, she really couldn’t say shit.

Just when she thought she’d gotten rid of them, the bratty little girl demanded to be in a photo by herself without her siblings. Her parent’s denial resulted in a complete meltdown. The other children observed as the eight-year-old screamed until her parents caved in.

Fine, just one more picture, then we are going straight to the hotel, the mother announced in a defeated tone.

Aww hell naw, Halo thought as the child stomped towards her, snot running and ice cream dripping from her cone.

Please, would you mind taking one more? The father requested.

Halo obliged despite her disdain.

It was a scorching ninety-four degrees outside, which meant it was well over triple digits inside the costume. She stood baking, peering out from the mesh eyes as the parents tried to convince the child to stop sticking out her tongue long enough to get the photo. Halo ran her tongue over the sweat that formed on her top lip, thinking about was how she didn’t sign up for this shit. And how the heat caused the twinge of musk and piss to rise up in the costume from the last person who’d worn it.

Once they had taken the picture Halo pretended to trip, as she walked towards the father to grab the dollar. She accidentally bumped the little girl, causing her to drop her ice cream. The cone hit the ground and she let out a wail that could be heard all the way to the San Fernando Valley. Halo giggled to herself as the little girl’s siblings teased her with their cones.

Dylan don’t tease your sister, that’s not nice, the mother scolded.

Hey there’s Spiderman! One of the children yelled. Can we take a picture? Please, they pleaded.

Just as Halo was walking away the father tapped her on the shoulder.

Please, would you mind taking our picture with Spiderman, he’s our favorite.

Unbelievable!

Like it wasn’t bad enough that she had to be tormented by their demon seed child, they were cheap as hell on top of it. Now, they were bugging her to take pictures of them with the other characters. Normally it wouldn’t have been an issue but they had worked her last nerve. Everything inside of her told her to say no as she reached for the phone.

Thank you so much! The father said. Just press this button.

She removed white glove from her hand and wiped her sweaty palm on her thigh before attempting the shot.

The tribe crowded around Spidey and Halo took the picture.

Hang on, just a few more, the father said.

Ain’t this a bitch? You can’t be nice to people. Give them an inch and they will take a mile.

By now she was fuming. The parents seemed more excited than the children.

This is so exciting, the mother squealed before glancing back in Halo’s direction. Zoom in on a few of them, she ordered. Give him some money Sam, she motioned to her husband.

Halo had all she could take. Seeing them hand over a $20.00 bill when all she got was a few bucks sent her over the edge, and they were still trying to work her.

No problem just trying to get it in focus, she sneered as she scrolled to the right to view the other photos.  The Addams family was about to learn today; she was not the one to be fucked with. She tapped the select albums tabs that said, Cali vacation, Jamie’s wedding, Dylan’s Birthday, and first day of school and hit delete all, clearing out over two thousand photos.

How are they looking? The mother called out as everyone continued to pose.

Great! Just getting a few more, Halo replied.

She quickly went to the recently deleted album and cleared it as well so that there was zero chance of recovering the files. She then took three pictures to play off the fact that she had just wiped out their memories in a matter of seconds. By the time they realized they were gone it would be too late.

Thanks again, we really appreciate it, the father said, taking his phone back.

My pleasure.

Today didn’t turn out so bad after all, Halo thought as the corner of her mouth curved into a smile and she walked away.

Once she cleared the crowd of other comic book characters that flocked on Hollywood Boulevard, she snatched off the head to the costume and took a deep breath. The wind carried the aroma of marijuana from an open car window, reminding her that she wished she had some smoke right about now, or at least an edible.

As she walked down the boulevard she looked down at the stars on the ground wondering if it was all worth it. She would give anything to have her name on the walk of fame but how much of her soul would she have to sell to get there? As of now she was just like every other starving artist in the city of angels with dreams of becoming a movie star.

The twenty-eight-year-old wanted to be an actress for as long as she could remember. According to her time frame she would have her first Oscar by the time she was thirty. Her best friend Mecca skipped college to pursue her career as a makeup artist. Halo’s parents were pissed at her for following suit. Dropping out of her first year at LSU to pursue acting full time. Unlike Halo, Mecca was moderately successful in her field. Halo was still surviving off of odd jobs to make ends meet.

By the age of twenty she’d hooked up with her child’s father, Deshaun. Her gut told her that he wouldn’t be her happily ever after, seeing as commitment was a foreign concept to him. He was a sweet guy and they had tons of fun together, however, at the end of the day he proved to her that he wasn’t ready to give up the single life by cheating on her on several occasions. After parting ways, she remained in an on and off again feud with him over child support and visitation. Although the court had set up a schedule, she still tried to work with him to pick up their daughter, Malaysia even on days he wasn’t scheduled, based on his availability when something popped up. All she asked was that he return the favor every now and then while she had an audition. The only problem was; he was never around when she needed him. As a matter of fact, he even missed out on some of his scheduled visits, choosing to spend his free time with the random thot of the week instead of his child.

Her heartbreak was short lived. Her current boyfriend Ellington Majors was everything she wanted in a man. He was fine, ambitions, the sex was great, and most importantly he loved her and cared for Malaysia as his own child. The pair had met at an industry party that he was promoting for his client, one of the top rap artists in the industry. Unlike many of her friends and family members, he always supported her dreams. However, he was a realist and often took heat from Halo when he reminded her that this was a cutthroat business. One where very few succeeded. As it stood she couldn’t care less what he, or anyone else had to say. When it was all said and done she was going to see her face on the big screen. No one else could see her vision. And as long as she focused on her craft it would eventually pay off. For now, all she could think about was getting home and changing for her audition.

CHAPTER TWO

HALO ROLLED HER EYES as she listened to her landlord’s voice echoing though her phone. She’d just gotten out of the shower and dried off when she noticed four missed calls. One was from Deshaun, her sorry assed baby daddy, most likely telling her that the child support payment was going to be short again. He’d sent several texts over the past week trying to warn her, but she pretended that she didn’t even see that shit. If he had money for New Jordan’s every time she saw him, surely he could come up with the measly $400.00 a month required to take care of their child.

Since he worked as an Uber driver he got over like a fat rat because he only worked a few hours per day. Not to mention, she knew his slick ass was pocketing some loot under the table because his boss let him work off the grid. Meaning they had a scam going where several of the drivers worked as a taxi service, accepting cash only payments for less than the normal cost of a ride with a preset clientele they already had set up. It was usually larger fares needing rides to and from the airport. His boss went along with them bypassing the system as long as he got a substantial cut. However, there was still a ton of money unaccounted for rides that never got reported. Surprisingly, the number of passengers that agreed to the scam was huge. So he could miss her with that broke shit. That was the very reason she didn’t have a problem asking him for money whenever she needed something for Malaysia. Hell, she was already only asking for the bare minimum.

The other three calls were from her landlord. She was two months behind on rent for the third time this year. Deshaun had gotten her a gig with him driving for Uber in her spare time, but she didn’t commit to enough hours to pay rent, utilities and buy food. And the costume gig barely put gas in her car. Luckily for her Ellington gave her money every now and then, but his generosity came mostly in the form of gifts. He never paid her rent. Not because he wasn’t willing, but rather because he had no idea how much debt she was really in, and he thought she was handling her business. She wanted to keep it that way.

I’ve tried to work with you but my patience has worn thin!

Halo could hear the anger in his voice.

You need to know that I have already summonsed the court thirty days ago. You should have already been served an eviction notice. I thought that we would be able to handle this like mature adults but I see that’s not the case with you. I warned you we could do this the easy way or the hard way. Seeing as you chose the latter, this is the end result. The only reason I’m informing you is because you have a child. You need to pack your shit and vacate the premises, or the police can do it for you. I hope I’ve made myself clear.

Fuck you! Halo screamed into the phone. Her urge to hurl it across the room was stifled by it vibrating in her hand. She looked down to see that it was Deshaun calling again. This time she would answer for nothing more but to curse him out.

What!

Damn, hello to you too, Deshaun replied, immediately annoyed by the base in her voice. Did you get my messages?

Nah, I haven’t seen any messages. What do you want Deshaun? It’s not a good time, she responded as she raked the hangers across the bar in her closet.

Deshaun knew that she was lying about seeing the messages, but he decided to play along and see if he could butter her up.

I was calling to let you know that the child support would be late, he said, softening his tone. I haven’t been working that many hours lately.

Don’t call me with this bullshit. Why is it like pulling teeth to get you to take care of your damn child?

"Here, we go..... you know damn well I take care of my kid Halo. I’m trying to tell you that I haven’t really been working lately. It’s been slow out here. That’s exactly why I sent yo’ ass a text, ‘cause you be on that petty bullshit every time we speak. You need to go ahead and ask that it be lowered until I get a better job and we wouldn’t have to go through