by Nicole Casey
There was a lot to handle now.
I had to deal with my brother’s funeral, with the case against the truck driver, I had to reschedule everything I had planned with Jessica and Tatyana and I now had to do the one thing I hoped I could postpone indefinitely: facing my parents.
1
Noelle
The darkness was my friend and the music was my heartbeat. As my hips swayed and my body swerved, I felt nothing but the heat of the moment and the thrill of the night. Though I wore little more than a revealing pair of shorts, my breasts exposed for all to see, I felt secure, as I owned the spotlight.
Dancing on top of a bar table was my corner of the world. In that corner, no one could touch me, and no one could harm me. If they wanted more of me, they had to pay and even then all they’d get is a kiss and a closer look at my body.
When the music had died and the dance was over, I took my bra and strapped it back on. The show was over and it was another girl’s moment to shine. It didn’t matter; for the fifteen minutes of fame, I had garnered well over a hundred thirty bucks. It wasn’t much, but I could stretch it until the next night.
I headed to the backstage area of the nightclub, where the girls could rest between their shows, and slumped down on a big leather couch.
“Damn Noelle, you look exhausted,” Krystin said when she took a seat opposite me. Krystin was one of the new dancers but she definitely had a lot going for her. She had wild short hair, seductive dark eyes and a figure most girls would die for.
It wasn’t like I didn’t consider myself hot, though. With a perfect 32-26-32 figure I knew I had the ideal curves and form and I had the long, auburn hair that lots of guys dig. It was just sometimes I felt like being hot wasn’t enough because to this day, I’ve never had a long lasting relationship.
“I am exhausted,” I answered. “I danced three times tonight and I waited tables. It’s still not enough.”
“Yeah, I hear you,” Krystin said. “I got a little boy, he’s going to go to pre-school soon. Can you imagine what I’ll have to do to get the money to support all that?”
I shook my head and sighed, “Fuck this, you know? We’re young, hot and gorgeous… I bet we can get a better job out there somewhere.”
“Do you have a college degree?” Krysten asked, with a sarcastic note but even without it, the joke was all over her face.
I shook my head.
“Then don’t dream too big,” Krystin told me with a wag of her finger. “This is about as good as it gets. At least we’re just waiting tables and strip dancing. I heard about a club of rich billionaires where girls can auction off their virginity; too late for me, I guess. I lost my virginity back in high school.”
“Would you believe I’m still a virgin?” I asked with a naughty smile.
Krystin laughed, “You? Girl, you wave your tits at every customer that walks through the front door.”
“Oh but I am,” I admitted. “Virgins are always the naughtiest, kinkiest bunch. Sure, I strip and dance and let them cup a feel every now and then, but not once have I ever really tried fucking. Well, I almost did back in high school but a teacher walked in right while we were making out and I had the guy’s dick in my hand.”
We both laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. Krystin offered me a drink – a nice, chest-warming cocktail that had a sweet taste but a strong alcoholic punch to it – and then moved over to sit beside me. She smelled of chamomile.
“I’m buried in debt,” Krystin admitted. “I don’t even know if I can pay rent this month. I didn’t pay last month either.”
I sighed, drank and nodded solemnly, “Me too. I’ve got a big credit debt to pay and my rent. I also have an outstanding salary loan I need to pay. I’m like inches away from sucking some old guy’s cock just to get the cash.”
“You naughty little bitch,” Krystin laughed at me. “You don’t even know the first thing about pleasing a guy like that.”
“How hard can it be? I open my mouth and let him slide it in,” I tried to reason out. “I can do that… maybe. I don’t know, who cares? We’re already doing everything we can in this stupid strip club and it still ain’t enough.”
Krystin shrugged, “Life’s glorious, ain’t it?”
We toasted to each other and drank the night away. I took care not to get too drunk, however, because I still had one more dance to do and it was the most energetic one for the night. I did my best not to get tipsy while juggling my breasts and swaying back and forth on top of the customers’ tables.
For my efforts, I earned an extra thirty dollars. For a lot of girls, they’d consider this job enriching and could get wealthy. For me, who had a lot of debts to pay, even this amount wasn’t getting me anywhere.
I needed something else.
By three in the morning, my shift was done and I took a moment to sit back in my car and relax, allowing the alcohol to swirl out of my system before I’d drive back home to my shitty apartment. As I rested, I took out my phone and logged in to my Facebook account.
There were a ton of messages – mostly from strangers who just wanted a nude photo or for me to strip on camera for them. There were always those rude assholes and I learned how to ignore them all and just focus on chatting with my friends.
I scrolled passed some of the usual posts. A lot of my high school batch mates were successful professionals now. Others were still in law school or medical school. It was amusing to see them post about their achievements in life while I was stuck here stripping for drunks.
“Huh?” I muttered when I saw a post from a friend I hadn’t spoken to in years.
It was Daxter and his brother just died.
Quickly, I sent him a message, “Hey, I just found out about your brother. I’m just sending my condolences to you and your family, okay? I hope you’re all right.”
He probably wouldn’t even notice my message. I knew he was a big deal nowadays. Our batch was so proud when he became a firefighter but not even a year passed and everyone saw he became a big model. That made him even more popular.
It didn’t matter though. I sent my thoughts and wishes and that was all that mattered. I then tossed the phone to the back seat and drove off home.
2
Daxter
The morgue smelled like chemicals and wasted love. I paced around with my hands in my pockets as I waited for my sister, who was still talking to the doctor and to a police officer.
It was another five minutes before she came out of the room. At thirty-three, my sister was just a year older than I was but she looked like she was just twenty. She had silky smooth black hair and bright green eyes. She was tall too and for a long while, she worked as a model until someone discovered she was a good writer and published her mystery-thriller novels.
“Ugh, I can’t believe all this horse shit,” she said as she walked up to me and pushed me down to sit with her on the hospital seats. “The police officer said the truck driver might be able to walk away from this.”
“What? Why?” I couldn’t believe it either. “He was drunk, Gary’s dead and it’s not like the crash site can be wiped away. That’s a whole lot of evidence right there. He should at least get in jail for reckless driving, a DUI and homicide.”
She nodded and wiped away her tears, “That’s what I said too but the officer explained the driver hired a lawyer. Now they’re saying they have a defense and that the truck was at fault because it had unresponsive brakes. We’ll need to sue the company if that defense wins and a case against the whole company could take forever.”
I slammed a fist against the wall, “Damn it!”
“That’s not the only issue, Dax,” Sonya said. She looked at me directly into my eyes and held on to my hand. “This one is something you’re going to want to soak in.”
I swallowed hard and held my breath. “What is it?”
“It’s about mom and dad,” she explained. “They wanted to name me as their heir now that Gary’s gone but I refused. I told t
hem the family business should go to you.”
Those words smacked me like a slap to the face. My jaw dropped in shock and I looked at my sister with confusion and surprise, “What? Why me? I don’t deserve it.”
“You don’t,” Sonya said flatly. “You’ve been wasting money on girls, clubs and a lot of other nonsense but nobody cared because Gary was there to pick up the slack. You can’t just do that anymore, little brother. I’m fine with what I have but the family business needs to go to someone and that someone has to be you. It has to be within the family. Otherwise, dad might name his vice president as the heir and then we’ll lose everything.”
“Why can’t it be you?” I got frantic.
She shook her head, “Like I said, I’m fine. I’ve already built an empire with my books and the hotels I own. You, on the other hand, you’ve got nothing except what they give you. You were a firefighter but now you’re just playing games being a model.”
“So you’re telling me I need to grow up,” I rolled my eyes. I heard this speech before. I heard it so many times from my sister, from my brother, from my parents and all my aunts and uncles. It was always the same: I was irresponsible, I was immature and I was just fooling around while my sister and brother were doing their part for the family.
Sonya sighed and shook her head, “I’m saying I want you to inherit our family wealth and business, but in order to do so, you need to prove yourself to mom and dad. Once they sign the papers, you can drop everything and do whatever you please. I’m just looking out for you, Dax. I don’t want mom and dad to leave you out.”
I nodded. If I got left out, I’d lose everything. I didn’t have a big job to pay for my condominium or my car. Sure, I earned a lot from modeling but even that wouldn’t be enough to sustain my extravagant lifestyle. Without my parent’s money, I’d be buried in debt and worse.
“I get it,” I told Sonya. “But I don’t see how I can convince mom and dad to sign me as the inheritor when all my life they’ve seen me as the extravagant playboy.”
Sonya pursed her lips and thought about it. “Well, we need to start painting a new image for you. That might mean getting you a job and a steady girlfriend, one that they can get used to and identify you with. Remember they’ll judge you according to the people you hang out with and a girlfriend will be the deciding factor for that.”
I raised his hands in refusal, “Wait, hold on a minute there, hit the brakes – I can’t do that. I haven’t had a steady girlfriend since I dated Jean in high school and that was what, twelve years ago?”
“What about that girl, Elena? The one you introduced to me back in college?” Sonya thought I had a steady girlfriend back then.
“Dated her for a week and a half,” I admitted sadly. “Look, this is a lot to think about. I do want mom and dad to sign me as the inheritor, now that you put it into my head, but I still need to really think about how to go about this.”
Sonya patted me on the back, “You’re good with girls. I bet you can stick around with one longer than a weekend. Look, I got to go back in there and start dealing with Gary’s funeral and everything. I just want to get over with this. I got this, okay? I want you to just focus on impressing mom and dad.”
I nodded and watched her get up to talk to the people at the hospital morgue. I watched as she disappeared behind white doors and left me to sit and ponder how a single moment completely changed the direction of my life.
“Guess I have to cancel that date with Tatyana and Jessica,” I whispered to myself. I didn’t know if I was supposed to be sad about that or if I had to accept that it was time to move on from that kind of life.
I shook my head in frustration and buried my face in my hands. “Fuck!”
I dug into my pants and pulled out my phone. I swiped and logged into my Facebook account.
“Gary, I love you. I miss you already,” I typed in my status and then posted it on my page. In just a few more minutes of scrolling, I got a notification.
It was a message from Noelle, one of my high school friends. It was a message of condolences. That put a smile on my face. It had been forever since I last heard from her. I wondered what she had been up to in recent years.
“Hey, thanks for the message,” I replied to her. “Are you free sometime this weekend? It’s my treat.”
I slid my phone back into my pocket. I could read her reply when I got home. Right now, I just wanted to slump in a corner and cry. I lost Gary, my life was changing and it was all happening too suddenly and too quickly.
3
Noelle
“Are you going to meet up with him?” My best friend asked. We were out in the mall on a rainy Saturday. I needed to buy a new pair of sneakers and Hannah just wanted to kill some time.
I looked at her and shrugged, “I don’t know, maybe, I guess. I haven’t spoken to him in years. It’ll be so awkward but in a way, I guess I see why he’d ask me. He just lost his brother and there’s probably a lot of pressure on him right now.”
“Didn’t you see the news?” Hannah poked at me as we headed for the mall’s lower food court. We were going for chocolate sundaes. “It’s like all over Facebook.”
I had no idea what Hannah was talking about. “Elaborate, please. My head’s all over the place right now. My credit loan got rejected because I need to pay that stupid credit I took to fix my car.”
Hannah just rattled on, “You know he has a sister, right? Sonya? Well, she’s older but she declined the offer when the parents wanted to name her their inheritor. She nominated Daxter instead. However, the parents don’t trust him with the company and want to name the company’s vice president instead.”
“That’s kind of a dick move,” I commented. That was just so strange. Even though I wasn’t particularly close to my parents, I couldn’t imagine them betraying me like that or vice versa. Family was family, regardless of being poor or rich.
I then pointed to the ice cream stall, “What’ll you have?”
“Chocolate with lots of candy topping,” Hannah told me.
We ordered ice cream and sat down by one of the food court tables. There weren’t a lot of people today. Most of the time, however, we had to deal with perverts who kept on trying to peek at us or get our number. One time we even encountered a guy who flat out said we could take turns having fun with his cock.
“Well, do you think I should go?” I asked as I took a bite out of my sundae. Mine was just three vanilla scoops with banana slices and chocolate syrup. “I mean, it’s not like it’s a date or anything. He just wants someone to talk to.”
Hannah grinned and I could see a wicked thought glimmering in her eyes, “Noelle, you do know Daxter is a playboy right? All he does is screw around with girls.”
“I’m not going to be one of those girls,” I told her. “I can’t even deal with a hookup right now. I got no time for all that shit. I want to work more nights but the club has a three-nights-a-week policy.”
“Yeah, I’m not saying you’re going to let him fuck you,” Hannah tried to reason. “I’m just saying a lot of people might mistake your date as him trying to get into your pants.”
I ate a spoonful of ice cream, swallowed and pointed my spoon at my friend, “He’ll fail at that.”
“You keep waiting for Prince Charming, you know he’ll never come,” Hannah tried to be realistic, and those were words I didn’t want to hear right now. “You’re dreaming of a guy who’ll marry you before he fucks you. You’re looking for a man who’ll save you from all your problems but also love you. Guys like that exist but they don’t go for strippers.”
Maybe Hannah was right, but I wasn’t going to let that dampen my mood, “Who the fuck cares? I’m not hoping Daxter will change overnight and become my Prince Charming anyway. I’m just going to go out, let him grieve and see if we can have a good time.”
Hannah smiled at that, “You’re cute.”
I laughed and shook my head.
I just focused on enjoying our snack and soo
n enough we were back to strolling down the mall looking at clothes. In the end, I did buy a brand new black dress. It was a mini-dress with a low back, big space for my cleavage and a slit on one side. It was probably too sexy for most girls but for me it was just another cute piece for me to wear out of work.
When we were done, Hannah went off for work at the club and I headed home.
A few hours later, I found myself just resting on my bed – a mattress on the floor since I didn’t have a bed frame – when I saw Daxter was online. I had nothing else to do and no one else to talk to and was simply waiting for the pizza I ordered for dinner.
“Hey,” I started typing a message for him. “I’m okay with meeting up. When and where do you want to hang out? I got work this Friday night but I’m clear for Saturday.”
It didn’t take him long to reply. “Saturday’s cool with me. Where do you live? I’ll just drive by and pick you up.”
I suddenly felt my heartbeat sink and I panicked as I tried to think of a way for him to ditch that idea. I didn’t want him to see where I lived. My apartment was a piece of junk. It was one step away from being in the projects. All of my neighbors were drug addicts, thugs, strippers and whores. It wasn’t the place for some rich pretty boy like Daxter.
“Oh, uh how about we just meet up at the Old Velvet Café? You know, the one near the mall, close to the main central train station?”
Daxter was busy typing but the door suddenly knocked. I left my phone on the bed, hurriedly put on a shirt big enough to hide the fact I only had my panties on and no bra, and then opened the door.
There stood a thin, lanky young boy holding a box of pizza. He looked at me like he caught me fingering my pussy or something. He just had this dumbfounded expression and I swore he was drooling at me.
