Corporate Stripper

By Gabriel Powell

Corporate Stripper is a coming of age story about a woman who overcame the street life to only find out the corporate world is not much better. Despite being neglected as a child by her mother and father, this young woman ran away and found her way on the streets of Detroit. After growing up entirely too fast, Gabriel learned how to manipulate h

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gabriel Powell
• Release date: Jun 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781735243702

Book preview

CORPORATE STRIPPER

By: Gabriel Powell

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Chapter   1

Broken Home

There wasn’t much I could remember about my childhood. But what I could remember didn’t involve a lot of good memories. I remembered visiting my father in his small apartment in Oak Park. There was a Chinese restaurant behind his building that we used to walk together to where we had our bonding time over sweet and sour jumbo shrimp. At that point in my childhood, I remembered feeling comfort and warmth.

We used to live on the east side of Detroit on the street called Gallagher Street, which was right off Nevada and Dequindre. When I say we, I meant my mother, brother, and the entire Cottingham family. Every single one of my dad’s siblings lived on Gallagher Street or the next block over. I mean, they weren’t the mafia, but they were extremely close, and they didn’t take any bullshit from anyone trying to get in between them and the family.

Then you had the Browns that decided to migrate to the North from Evansville, Indiana. Let’s just say this family would have killed each other and then killed you for disrespecting the family. So, my crazy ass family on my mother’s side lived on the same block as my boujee family from my father's side.

Both sides had their secrets that no one should ever speak of… But let’s just give you an idea of the individuals I was dealing with here.

My mother was the oldest of 12 kids, five of which she had to raise and protect herself. If you asked me, that was fucked up. A child shouldn’t have the responsibility of raising her siblings because her mother was working, and her father moved on to another family. But hey, that’s the slave mentality that most colored people were accustomed too. My mother’s grandmother was a slave-baby. My mother’s father’s parents were both born because of a master raping their slave mothers. Both of my grandparents on my mother’s side were children of slave babies. So, my mother was never going to be right due to this horrible childhood and upbringing of hers. Then my mother had a child at the age of 16 and married my brother’s father shortly after after turning 17. She then moved to Michigan where she soon found out her husband was an abusive and careless cheater. I didn’t ask her much about that relationship because it was before us (Lenard Cottingham and myself), and it was such a horrible memory for her and my brother. Aye, his father was a real dick and could eat ten of them.

From what secrets had slipped through the Cottingham cracks, all I knew about my father was that he used to sell drugs and was a black belt in karate. He had married my brother’s mother, then divorced her, met my mother, and married her 10 years later. They had planned to have me but divorced shortly after I turned two.

Quite the love story, right? It was like I had torn them apart. How could you be with someone for so long and then just leave after you’ve had a child with them? From my understanding, the relationship was toxic way before I came into the picture.

The Browns were pretty violent. My aunts always wanted to teach me how to kill someone without actually killing them. Lmfao, this shit was crazy.

My mother was very insecure from her first marriage, and I’m sure my father wasn’t feeling like himself because he was making very little coin from dealing with that white girl. So, that was an explosion waiting to happen. My mother couldn’t deal with the cheating, and sometimes he would have pushed her around. So, she got her gang, her siblings at the Browns household, and they came and fucked shit up, as they always did. One of my aunts had stabbed my dad. My mother had broken pictures over his head and much, much more. Knowing my father’s character, I was sure he didn’t just take those blows and stabs lightly, which is why they still don’t talk to this day. To me, that was just sad.

Let’s go on to 1995 to where I was looking at my oldest brother in handcuffs. I remember the yellow tape around everyone along with the ambulance, police lights, and Deshaun in muddy shoes. I didn’t understand what had happened because I was only three or four. But I just knew my brother was gone. My mother was crying all the time, and we were interrogated by the cops a lot. I had started spending a lot more time with my Aunt Ruth, but she wasn’t very nice to me. I mean, I guess she was just very strict. I missed my mother a lot, and I hated staying with my Aunt Ruth because I felt more comfortable with my brother and my other aunts. I couldn’t explain why, but that’s just how I felt. I didn’t even realize I missed my brother; I knew I didn’t like the new situation I was in with my new ‘babysitter.’

I started to get my ass beaten more around the age of four. I’ll never forget the times my hand was bent back and hit viciously by a wooden brush or wooden spoon until I folded. This happened when my mom was stressed and didn’t know how else to discipline me. If only she knew how this would bite her in the ass ten years later.

It was already 1999, and I hadn’t seen my father since 1997. I felt sad because, obviously, I felt the energy had changed horribly since my brother had been locked up. So, here came my grandma, Mary Lee Morris Brown. My grandma had been visiting us a lot lately, but I had no idea what was going to happen next! It crushed me as if I had five semi-trucks sitting on my little 8-year-old heart.

Grandma: Gabby, sweety. You’re coming to visit me for a while.

Gabby: Why? Is mommy coming too?

Grandma: No.

Gabby: Mom, I don’t want to go. Please, can I stay at home, please?

Grandma: Your mom is going through a lot right now, and she needs help taking care of you. Plus, all your other cousins will be there with you.

Gabby: Please, mom (started crying). No, please. I don’t want to go. I’ll be good. Please, mom, I want to stay.

Mom: Gabby, you have to go.

Gabby: (crying hysterically)

And now, looking back on it, that was my first heartbreak. My mother broke my heart and crushed me by sending me away to a woman whom I grew to love like a mother.

I was in Evansville before the school season started. My cousins were bad as fuck. Jayoon and I were the youngest out of everyone. There were eight of us living in this 1,000 square foot, 3-bedroom, 1-level condo. This time, for me, flew by quite quickly. I remembered the paper food stamps my grandma used to give my cousins and I to go to the store. I remembered the powdered milk, onion syrup (sugar and onions heated up in a cup) for colds, shared beds, dirty heels, bikes, and growing to actually like Evansville. But I still missed my mother. Evansville was a small town, with many drug addicts and sinking dreams that were only spoken but never executed. At eight, I knew that I loved my family, but I didn’t want to stay there forever.

It was 2001, and I was sitting in the living room, and my mother called and asked me over the phone if I wanted to come back home and I said, Yes, without hesitation. Little did I know my grandmother was getting sick, and all of her grandchildren were going back with their parents sooner rather than later. So, I got on the first car ride back to Detroit.

My cousins and I got to Detroit for the summer; the only difference was I wasn’t going back to Evansville with them. I was staying in Detroit. However, I always thought I should’ve gone back to Evansville, due to my mother asking me confusing questions like: Are you sure you want to stay? and Why do you want to stay with me?

We didn’t live on Gallagher Street anymore. Now, we lived in a 1-bedroom apartment in Warren Manor Apartments. It was 8-miles out of Dequindre, and my mother thought she was moving out of the hood, but that shit was so close to the hood it didn’t matter that we were in Warren. Those questions followed me while she got me ready to move into her house and follow her rules. This wasn’t the hurt woman I left back in 99’. This was a new woman - a woman in pain, and not knowing how to deal with it. I should’ve known she didn’t really want me, and maybe my father finally started to look for me. But of course, I ignored the signs of her not wanting me or being ready for me to stay with her.

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Chapter 2

Back Home

The school year had come and was going by. My mother was overworked, and I was failing my classes, so I wasn’t guaranteed to graduate from 5 th grade to 6 th grade. I was pushing a C-Average, at best. My family was pissed with me for not doing well in school but they still tried to do something special for me. My mom bought me a white capris, a blue top, and an all-white K-Swiss. My father gifted me a used Nintendo game console that was from his new family with his girlfriend. That was my first   and last graduation for a very long time.

It was officially summer and my cousin Adrian was staying with us. We were fall babies, so we just told everyone the age we were turning. So, that summer I would have been 11, and she would have been 12. We had a babysitting gig, but that went south when I almost let the little girl drown in the pool and then tried to bribe her to not tattle on me with a lollipop and $2.00. I was happy to know that little girl is alive and well today, and that incident didn’t damage her. She had snitched on my ass, though, so I had gotten my ass beaten.

I got my ass beaten for pretty much everything. When I walked my childhood best friend to summer school at 6am in the morning, I got my ass beaten for that. Every time the house wasn’t cleaned before my mother got off work…. I got my ass beaten. If there were ever dishes in the sink…. I got my ass beaten. If I thought about boys…. I got my ass beaten. If I wasn’t home before the street lights came on… you guessed it, I got my ass beaten. And this list goes on and on and on. But this summer was the summer I entered puberty. And this was the summer I realized my mother was overworked, and too tired to pay little ole me any attention at all.

My cousin and I always plotted how to be sneaky and get out of the house so we could talk to boys, like the 20-something-year-old couple above us, and their teenage brothers. We used to need a cup of sugar like every other day. Then there were Chuck and Willy. Chuck was 13, with big lips and dark in complexion. Willy was 11, and chubby. Boy, did we have a kissing field day with them when Anita (my mother) left the house. Chuck was my boyfriend for a solid 3 weeks, and we almost had sex, but I didn’t feel ready. So, we did a ton of kissing and dry humping. Adrian used to show Willy her big ass titties all the time, so there was no telling what they used to do when Chuck and I weren’t around.

At this point in the summer, I felt like I had matured before middle school even started. So, I started stealing my mother’s 2-door gold Explorer. I watched how she reverse-parked and moved the shifts on the dashboard to what meant ‘drive,’ ‘park,’ and ‘reverse.’ We didn’t drive far, just to Outer Drive and Conant Streets and back to the apartment complex, which was about 4 miles max there and back. We even knocked the side mirror off by not paying attention to the car next to us. We just lied and told my mother someone at her job must have done it. She still didn’t know the truth until 2015 when I told her, and she was pissed, but it was hilarious.

Three weeks of the summer went by, and people were getting familiar with me, my cousin, and my mother. So, when they noticed these two pre-teens driving down Dequindre Street, of course, they were going to run back and tell my mother. Surprisingly she didn’t murder me as bad as I thought she would have because a friend of hers was there and to calm her down. Other than that, I probably wouldn’t have been alive for the rest of the fucked-up shit that happened to me.

By this time, summer was over, and I had only gotten my ass beaten for half of it. I had had my first kiss and boyfriend, learned how to drive, and was going to a new school with my cousin. It was a pretty decent summer altogether.

The new school year was here. I was 11-years-old and in the 6 th grade when I met my best friend, Teressa. We ended up becoming close because her mother was as religious as mine, so we carpooled together. I remembered my mother coming up to the school and beating my ass in the office on a regular basis. My mother was so contradicting, thought. For example, she would tell me to defend myself and not let anyone bully me, but the moment I punched someone in the face for trying to bully me, she came up to the school to beat my ass. So yeah, my mom got tired of that shit and sent me off to my father’s when I went into 7 th grade. My father lived in Southfield, in a 3-bedroom apartment with his girlfriend and three kids, Tiaris, age 16, Mars, age 13, and Bud, age 7.  She wasn’t the most attractive woman, but she definitely let my dad run shit and was so sweet to me. My mother was nothing like her.

Mars was the closest to my age, so it was natural that we became the closest. This boy, though, decided to go to school before I arrived, and told everyone that I had gotten kicked out of my old school for getting into too many fights. So, everyone already had a picture painted of me before I even stepped foot into the school. My fresh start and clean slate became the same shit I was dealing with from my old school, except this was Southfield, so these were boujee and spoiled black kids. Everyone had new leather coats, and tall timbs in every color. Man, I remembered wanting a pair of those knee-high timbs, but I knew my parents couldn’t afford shit like that.

The entire school year went by, and I skipped almost every day. I probably attended class 40 days out of the whole school year! I had put in so much energy into figuring out how to outsmart adults that it just became too easy. I almost wanted to get caught just for some type of excitement. But due to the image Mars painted of me, it was hard to make friends, and no one wanted to hang out because I was a wild card. So, I dismissed myself from school and returned in time to get a ride home on the school bus.

My father realized I had stopped getting kicked out of school because I stopped going to class altogether and sent me back to my mother’s. At this point, I was the starting to become the black sheep of the Cottingham family. The Browns, however, were used to this type of behavior from the kids, adults, and people in general. But to the Cottinghams, it was disrespectful to act in this manner because they were Jehovah’s witnesses for one thing, among many others.

I was back with Anita and I was at Conner Creek Academy again, reunited with Teressa and we had two new best friends, Moria and Storrie, and another close friend named Kay. Kay didn’t come to school much because she was a 15-year-old in 8 th grade. But she was a cool girl. Conner Creek Academy was all of the hood kids combined at one charter school because our parents heard it was good. So, this was nothing like Thompson Middle School in Southfield. Everyone was 13 and had damn near lost their virginity because people from the hood were fucking too early. Not even a ful week of school had gone by, and I had almost gotten into a fight with a high-school girl over her boyfriend. This guy, who was 15 and in the 10 th grade, had liked me, but his girlfriend in the 9 th grade wanted to beat my ass because he liked me and she had tried it but failed. He ended up putting that ass in check really quick and she backed off.

Shortly after that, I found myself getting into other altercations; for what I couldn’t even tell you. Probably over some asshole boy. I always had a combination lock on me, because girls would target me. After all, I was pretty, and in middle school that was intimidating to other girls, especially when their crush liked you. The day I had to use it was the day I got kicked out for two weeks. Of course, I lied about it and pretended to be sick so I could stay at home until my cousin’s mother went to get my homework packet. That was when she found out I had gotten expelled instead of being out sick. That ass beating was one to remember, because I thought I was too old for them.  

So, of course, I had to go to summer school. I had gotten into more fights and had gotten kicked out of there too, so my mother came to beat my ass in the office, yet again. Only this time, she dropped me off to my barely-there father to finish me off.  But, instead of going upstairs, I ran away.  The 8 th grade was a lot of crushing, kissing, pretty Ricky, fighting, and waiting to lose my virginity. So, from all of those experiences I had had in school, I thought I was ready for the world, and could handle life on my own.  

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Chapter 3

Freedom

I ran through Lexington Apartment parking lot to get to the Holiday Inn Hotel to hide out, so no one would find me. I got there safely and without anyone spotting me. I was smart enough to walk straight past the reception desk and act as if I was looking for my parents in the pool area. I got to the pool and sat with my feet in the water for hours before Mike walked up to me and asked me how old I was and why I was sitting alone. Mike was a 21-year-old business owner. Back then, I didn’t even know I had a type; I just knew he was older, which meant he had had sex before and could teach me how to do it. Mike was a looker, though, to me at least. He was 6’2", athletically built, brown skinned with teeth whiter than Trump himself, and some nappy ass hair like Mikha Phiper. He was fresh out of college, and I just wanted to be rebellious. No need to go into details, but we fucked.

Mike: So, are you on your period?  

Me: (Extremely shy) No.

Mike:  Why is there blood on the condom then?

Me: I was a virgin…

He stood there with this confused look on his face.

Mike: Um, so you’re... I mean, you were a virgin?

Me: Yes. Please don’t make me feel weird.

Mike: I just wasn’t expecting that. Um, do you want to come home with me?

Me: I just gave you my virginity… Yes, I want to come home with you!

I entered the hotel as a virgin and left as a new woman. The only thing I could think was how I had finally lost my virginity, and I couldn’t wait to tell my friends all about it. We had talked about this day for so long, and the fact that I did it with a complete stranger was even better. No one at school could be up in my business or anything of the sort. No one would know him, and to be honest, I didn’t care if I saw him again. We arrived at some big house near the University district. The area looked very familiar - my cousin’s wild ass best friend stayed right around the corner, so this running away business was working out perfectly.

He received a disturbing phone call from his cousin saying she was still at the hotel where a crime had occurred. Apparently, my father was up there looking for me. So, he discovered that I wasn’t actually 18, but 13-years-old and I had run away from home. There goes my virginity…

Mike: How old are you again?

Me: Why?

Mike: So, you really were a virgin? What the fuck have I gotten myself into? You know I have a 2-year-old daughter?

Me: I’m sorry I lied, I just needed to get out of the situation I was in.

Mike: You’ve put me in a really fucked up situation, and you cannot stay here. I will go to jail; I am 21-years-old, and you’re only 13. OH GOD!

I felt like I had just broken this man’s heart or something? I didn’t understand what I did, I just knew I had gotten him into some shit because he was older than me and we had fucked. So, he didn’t talk to me at all for the rest of the day. Until 1am came around!

Mike: So, you know you’re wrong here, right?

Me: Yes.

Mike: Damn, I wish you were older. Fuck.

Me: Yeah, me too.

Mike: So, do you want to try having sex again? I never had sex with a virgin before. Does it hurt?

Me:  Yes, but I want to do it again.

Mike: Are you sure?

Me: Yes.

This love-making, fucking, or whatever you wanted to call it, went on for about two weeks. Then I had to leave because his baby mama was coming over with his child, and hiding me was not an option.

So, Linwood, here I come, 6-mile Road and Linwood Street specifically. My cousin’s best friend’s mother was a lesbian that let her step daughter do as she pleased. She had her boyfriend over, and he had a friend there that I ended up kissing and dry humping to keep myself occupied while she was fucking in the other room. I knew he was a virgin because he didn’t come onto me as Mike had done. A week went by with us dry humping, so the big question finally arrived.

Me: So, you want to have sex?

Will: Really? I mean, yeah.

So, in a matter of two minutes I had taken little William’s virginity. I guess I felt how Mike had felt. Well, not quite. Will was 1 year younger than me instead of 8 years older. But what I meant was I felt a sense of power and control. And I liked it. Plus, his penis was a lot smaller than Mike’s so it didn’t actually hurt. I was the one in control this time.

Me: So, do you have anything?

Will: Yeah, the V!

Me: What the fuck is the V?

Will: The V card.

What? I had never heard of this STD before; shit, I’d never heard of any STD besides HIV. So, I went to my cousin’s best friend and asked her what the fuck is the V? We were both sitting in the dark, puzzled, and trying to figure it out. Then it dawned on me.

Me: He called it the V card.

We both looked at each other with laughter etched on our faces as we started laughing out loud. We now knew what this V disease was. My cousin’s best friend went back to her boyfriend and told him everything about this V disease.

Will: So, hey.

Me: Hey.

Me: So, I took your virginity?

Will: Yes.

Me: Cool, okay.

Cousin’s Best Friend’s Boyfriend: So, you were a virgin dawg?

He looked at me like I had just told a secret that would have ended him on the streets. Lol. I looked at homegirl like, ‘bitch, I was just trying to make sure I was straight after fucking him without protection.’ Shit, the only reason I asked was because Mike had asked me, and I figured that was the thing to say after sex.

Will: Man, naw.

Cousin’s Best Friend’s Boyfriend: Then what Diamond talking about this V card stuff for?

Will: I took her virginity.

Me: What? No, you didn’t!

Will: Whatever. She’s lying.

Will stormed off after that. The boyfriend looked at Diamond and me, and then walked out too.  Diamond and I just looked at each other like, ‘Oh, well,’ and went back to doing girly shit.

Her mother walked into the room later and told me, I had to let your parents know you were here. She walked away and went back into her room. I looked at Diamond and told her that I was going to leave. And so, I left while they were sleeping that night.

Now the next turn of events in my life that happened after I left, I could never speak of and will never speak of them; simply because I didn’t remember it. I remembered waking up in a jail cell, waiting for my parents to pick me up. I had always wondered what had happened to me back then. Why didn’t I remember? I would have loved to talk to a therapist, but the thought of being that vulnerable to someone, other than my husband, was an extremely scary thought. I would honestly rather let those demons rest in peace.

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Chapter 4

OBGYN Visit

Anita and Lenard rolled into the police station in Nevada across from one of my cousin’s old projects that she and her mother lived in. They were both furious and semi-relieved at the same time upon seeing me.

Anita: Where did you find her?

Officer Tuni: She was walking down Nevada Street, and we recognized her from her picture in the missing girl’s flyer on Dequindre and 8-mile ma’am. She doesn’t seem harmed in any way, just a little dirty. You should take her to the Children’s Hospital, and we will take down the missing person’s alert. She may need therapy; you never know what happened to these kids, especially little girls, when they run away. We deal with a lot of these cases, and group homes and therapy for juveniles are where they usually end up.

Father: Gabriel, come here. You told people I touched you inappropriately?

Me: No.

At this point, all kinds of lies and rumors had spread about my family and me. The only one that was true was that I was tired of getting my ass beaten because to my parents’ lack of care to help me succeed in my academics. I became a C average student once I moved back home with my mother. I’m not sure if it was because I wasn’t studying enough or had horrible parents, or a combination of both. Regardless, academics were always praised when good grades came in, but nothing was ever taught to me besides house duties. And if the house wasn’t clean, you were basically going to regret the day you were born. And that’s a FACT.

Children’s Hospital was the absolute worst. I was 13-years-old and getting my first pelvic check, with the catheter inside