shit.
Diamond moves my dances around so I’m never doing the same nights. At first I think it’s because she wants to get me off of the busy nights to try and mess with my income but then Speck starts writing my shifts up on the menu board when a couple of the regulars complain.
My shifts are never quiet.
Mike the bouncer starts commenting about all of the extra shifts he’s getting and when I wince at him he grins back at me. “Nah, I gotta pay for braces for my twins. It’s the best fucking thing to happen for my family, girlie.”
I give him a smile in return, he’s always nice to me and he’s never once tried to touch me. Diamond sees the fucking smile and calls out to Mike from the bar, “She’s the worst fucking option if you’re stepping out on Kara, Mikey. Might wanna pick one of the girls whose pussy isn’t so fucking cold.”
I glance around but it’s the first night in a while Tomi hasn’t beaten me here.
I duck my head and keep walking because I don’t wanna get involved with that shit at all. I don’t want rumors to start. I’ve lived through that shit before, I’m never going back to that kind of shit… not if I can help it. So I head out to the back rooms to get ready without telling her to fuck off or to choke, which is exactly what I want to do.
Diamond also picks a new fucking theme for all of the nights I have shifts. They’re not good themes either, it’s all tacky porno shit that means she can dress up in the cheesiest shit. I put my own spin on everything and, though she bitches about it as loud as she fucking can, none of the guys crowding around my stage have a single complaint.
I’m in the locker room in front of one of the mirrors gluing crystals to my face thanks to one of these stupid themes when Speck ducks his head into the locker room and plasters a grin on his face even though he looks like he’s in pain. “You’re at college right? Like, that’s what you’re doing during the day?”
I glue the last crystal to my face, just below my eye and start stashing my makeup back in my bag. “Yeah, why’s that?”
He steps into the room and keeps his eyes on my face. I’m the only stripper he doesn’t eye off and I don’t know what caused the change in him but I’m fucking grateful. I kind of think he wants to be my friend.
“Okay so my kid neighbor is here and she needs help with her homework and I know exactly nothing about geometry. Numbers ain’t my fucking thing. Tomi usually helps her but he’s gotten caught up with club business and she isn’t the type of kid to leave alone for too long, ya know? She’ll get into fucking trouble here and then my ass is on the line for letting her into the club.”
I turn to face him properly. “What the hell is a child doing in a strip club? You didn’t think that one through a little better?”
He scoffs out a laugh and picks up my shirt from where it’s hanging on the rail and throws it at me. “She’s not a child… I mean, she’s almost seventeen so she’s definitely not supposed to be here but her tits are about as big as yours so she’s not gonna be scarred by seeing what goes on around here. Still, put the shirt on and come help before Rue comes down here and skins us all alive.”
Rue.
That’s the other biker in charge of this place, the one Diamond wants to bed more than she wants air according to Mel.
“I’m supposed to be dancing in a half-hour.”
He nods and waits for me to pull a long dress back on over my head, something flowy that won’t fuck with the body paint I’ve just spent nearly an hour getting on.
He takes me over to the main office, the bigger room that I’d been in when I’d met Tomi. I feel the first little tremors of nerves building in my stomach but when Speck grins at me I force a smile on my face.
I’ll fake this shit until I make it.
Before he opens the door he cringes and turns back to me. “Can you do me a favor, Angel? Don’t ever mention me talking about how big her tits are.