“You’re late!” Staceygreeted me with as much pleasantry as a lion who hadn’t been fed in a week.
“You called me thirty minutes ago. I had to cancel plans, make arrangements,” I rambled excuses she simply didn’t want to hear. “I got here as soon as I could.”
With a siren-red polished nail, she pointed to the locker room. “Just get back there and get ready. You’re on after Gavin.” Nothing like having your balls climbup into your body to start your shift as a stripper. That would’ve put anyone in the mood to take their clothes off for money.
“She’s in a mood tonight,” I announced, stepping into the dressing area where Gavin was already set for his number.
He rolled his eyes. “Dude, you have no fucking clue.”
“What going on with you two, anyway?” I’d meant to ask for a while and now seemed as good a timeas any.
Gavin shrugged as he checked his reflection in the mirror. “Nothing really.”
He was lying, and we both knew it, but when she stepped into the back as if her ears had been ringing at the mention of her name, there wasn’t much more I could say.
“Aren’t you ready yet? God, always running behind.” With a dramatic hair flip, she turned back to the stage, surely to go yell at someone elsefor their shortcomings.
Frustration at constantly being on her bad side bubbled over in my chest. “You’d think with the amount of sex you guys have, she’d be a bit calmer,” I joked, attempting to diminish some of my stress.
“Would you just shut the fuck up,” Gavin snapped. Before I could ask him what his problem was, he was called onto the stage.
Sitting there thinking about the turns my lifehad taken recently, I wondered why the hell I still put up with her shit. Somewhere around halfway through Gavin’s routine, my phone buzzed in my hand and a text from Noah flashed across the screen. A smile replaced my anger, and I immediately hated that I’d given up my night with him for a night here.
Just wanted to say hi. Benny texted me to let me know he’d get in touch with me if he neededanything. Have a good night. See you later.
With my fingers poised to send a response, I felt a presence standing over my shoulder. As if she was Medusa herself, I froze on the spot as Stacey said, “Get up.”
“I was just—”
“I don’t care. You know the deal. No phones backstage, especially….” Her words faded off, and even though she didn’t say them, I had a decent idea of what she was goingto say.
“Especially what?” I pressed, unwilling to back down. We were eye-to-eye, her in stilettos me in nothing but my G-string and tear-away pants.
A hint of something flashed in her eyes—anger, hatred, animosity—I couldn’t quite figure it out, but her words made her intentions crystal clear. “Especially for a fag like you,” she spat, venom in her words.
Standing there like some kind of stupefiedidiot, I couldn’t think of a single thing to say. I wanted to quit on the spot, tell her exactly what I thought of her and her bitchy-as-fuck attitude, but I hated that I needed the job. So instead of cursing her out and storming away, I bit my tongue, and said, “Right. No phones.”
I danced, collected my tips, chugged some water, danced again—washed, rinsed, repeated for the rest of the night.Gavin was clearly pissed about what had happened earlier because he didn’t say a single word to me. What the hell was wrong with me? How had I gone from such a high this afternoon with Noah and his friends to the shittiest of lows here tonight?
By the time the night came to a close, I’d had enough self-reflecting and since I couldn’t bitch out Stacey without fear of losing my job, I lashed outat Gavin.
“What the fuck did I do wrong?” If the way he spun around from his locker was any indication, my outburst more than surprised him. Shoving at his shoulder was probably one step too far, but I was pissed and he was my target. Funny how best friends work out to be one and the same sometimes. “What the fuck is your problem with me tonight?”
He just stood there, looking stunned, his eyeswide and his mouth moving to speak, though no words came out. As if he was checking his reaction, he took a deep breath, reset his face, and said, “Nothing. Look it’s nothing,” in a resolved way, his words hard and firm.
“Like hell it isn’t,” I yelled, pushing him a little harder. When he lost his footing, I was urged to push him even more. After all, he’d done nothing more than put me on edgeall night. It was the least he deserved. “Tell me!” I demanded, pushing him once again. This time he slammed back into the lockers, the metallic banging sound echoing around us.
“Dude, don’t,” he warned, righting himself and straightening his T-shirt.
Stepping to within an inch of his face, I stared down at him. “Yeah, and what if I do? Huh?” I challenged, my hands on his shoulders, waitingfor the invitation to shove him one final time.
With the wave of a hand, he pushed my arm away and it was all I needed to unleash into him. Fury raged through my veins. Landing punch after punch to his chest and face was oddly satisfying, but when he called out my name, a sickening feeling settled in my gut. Before I could get my brain to cooperate and stop on my own, another one of the guyspulled my arms behind my back and dragged me down to the floor. “What the hell?” Gavin yelled, wiping blood from his nose.
Remorse battled with my anger. The latter won. “You’ve been giving me shit all night. And that… that… that bitch of yours, she’s always on my fucking back. The least you could do is put in a fucking good word for me. Tell her to leave me the hell alone.”
His laughter wasa humorless sound falling to the floor like a dead fish. “That’s what you think?” he asked, wiping his hand across his face. “You think I don’t stand up for you? That I haven’t been trying my damnedest since we started working here to keep you on staff because I know what it means to you. You think I’m only worried about me?” He huffed, turning his back to me.
The other guys left the room whenthey saw I wasn’t going to beat the crap out of him again. And that’s when he dropped the bomb I hadn’t seen coming. “You know why I’ve been sleeping with her?” he pressed, disgust clearly written across his face.
