Sliding (The Stone Series) (33 page)

The owner is a young attractive guy, probably
around thirty who owns bars like this one all over the country. He says he’ll
need to see me dance before he can offer me the job and I will have to be
discreet about working there considering that I am only nineteen, I will be
paid in cash.

I climb on the stage area where the male
dancers perform on Tuesday nights and where people can just dance the rest of
the week. I pop my tape in the sound system. I’m glad I thought ahead and came prepared;
I brought “I Have Nothing”. I know it’s not really the most appropriate for
this environment but I am hardly going to get on this stage and take off my
clothes.

Eddie, the owner stops me a few seconds in and
asks, “Honey, you can dance that was obvious in two seconds but can you dance
like I need the dancers here to dance?”

He takes my tape out and puts on some of the
club’s music, “Daisy Dudes” for starters. I figure “screw it” and I bump and
grind, shake my ass and wiggle my hips. I’m a professionally trained dancer and
if this is the style for his job then so be it. The job is mine within five
seconds, not bad for only seven seconds of dancing! Now how the hell am I going
to tell Tate or my parents about this? Maybe I’ll just keep this as my little
secret.

I start working as the choreographer at Pussy
Cats but after a few weeks Eddie asks if I’d be one of the cats in the cages on
Friday and Saturday nights when the biggest spenders come in. The girls are
allowed to take tips, there is no touching allowed but people can pay for a
certain girl to come into a cage at their table in the back room. Eddie says
he’ll keep me stationed in the back room where it’s more private. I have no
idea what I’m thinking but I agree. There is no way I can tell my parents or
Tate about this now. It’s feeling more and more like a strip club gig.

I get over the dirty feeling I was having right
after I make two hundred dollars my first night. It’s not so bad, with all the
cat makeup on no one would know it was me and I kind of feel like I’m
Bombalurina in the musical Cats, Tate always
said I’d be a Cat. Oh, God if he only knew.

It’s a Friday night at the end of
our junior year and I am working at Pussy Cats. Eddie tells me that a group of
young college guys are at a table and they are requesting me, Bambi. I thought that
was close to Bombalurina and no one in this place will know or care who
Bombalurina is anyway. I rise from the floor in the cage at their table with my
back to them. “Freak Me” is my song of choice. I am wearing my pink cat ears
and tail and I’m in full makeup. I have on a pink sort of push up bra top and
pick short shorts that are silky, my stomach is exposed and my hair is in
pigtails. I am holding onto the bars and swinging my head around. I lift my leg
and place it on the pole in the middle of the cage and swing around it. I get a
quick glance at the guys and I think I kind of recognize one as a football
player from campus. I don’t really know him so I’m not that worried at first. I
continue to dance and the guys throw money into the cage. I bend over with my
cat tail up in the air and my legs straight against the pole. I get a glance at
one of the other guys and I recognize him. He is the quarterback and in one of
my classes but he’ll never recognize me like this. Then just as I am about to
turn around I hear that guy say, “Hey dude maybe you should put some money in
those tight little shorts of hers. You’re a visitor to the area, maybe she’ll
show you a good time. Hey, baby my boy here came a long way to surprise his
girlfriend and he couldn’t find her. Come over here and make him feel better.”

They all start laughing and just
as I am about to turn around I hear a very familiar voice say, “Yeah baby turn this
way, come here” and when I do I am looking Tate right in the eyes. It takes him
less than two seconds to realize that he is looking at me. All hell breaks
loose!
 

Tate came to my apartment to
surprise me with news about his Nana’s estate and when he didn’t find me or my
roommates there he let himself in with his key that he’s had for years then he went
for a run around campus. While he was out for a run he bumped into Ben.
Apparently Ben, the quarterback at University of Kentucky is Tate’s old buddy
from summer football camps. I guess they used to room together every year but
then lost touch. Tate invited Ben back to my apartment to meet me and when I
still wasn’t there Ben asked Tate to go out for a drink with him. Tate has had
a fake ID since freshman year. Out of all the bars and clubs in the area they
would have to come to Pussy Cats.

When Tate realizes it’s me in
that cage he whips his shirt off and shoves it through the bars loudly telling
me, “Cover up now” to the rest of the table’s disappointment.

“What the fuck dude?” asks Ben
and Tate responds by sarcastically introducing us, “Ben this is my girlfriend
Brook who I told you all about at camp every year. You know the one from the
pictures I had next to my bed? Brooklynn this is Ben, we played football
together, and he’s the quarterback for your team.”

I signal to the security to come
over and unlock my cage and I take Tate, Ben and the two other guys into the
back room.

“Wow, dude maybe she’s going to
give us a lap dance or even a blow job” one of the idiots says clearly not
following what had just gone on. Thankfully Ben puts himself in between him and
Tate before Tate punched the guy.

“Okay…listen up and don’t say a word
any of you.” I look at Tate, “You, sit down right there” I point to the sofa.

Tate sits and says, “This better
be fucking good because just so you know I am about to go fucking nuts on you
and we both know what that entails.”

I tell Ben and the other guys
that they can never tell anyone they saw me dancing or that they know who I am.
I know Ben is going to figure out I’m a cheerleader in five seconds and I can’t
risk him telling anyone about this. Ben ushers the other two out with promises
of keeping his mouth shut and tells Tate he’ll come by in the morning. Tate and
Ben shake hands and I hear Ben say, “She smoking hot dude. I’ll see you around
ten; we’ll go for a run. We obviously have a lot of catching up to do.”

Tate and I are alone and I don’t know
where to begin but I don’t have to because Tate lets loose on me. “It is
seriously too dangerous for you to be near me right now. I honestly think I am
going to strangle you. I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that you hid this
from me? Wait, how fucking long have you been hiding this from me?”

When I don’t answer he yells,
“How fucking long Brooklynn?” and I tell him pretty much the whole school year.
He continues, “I don’t know what’s worse the fact that you hid this from me for
the whole school year or the fact that other men are looking at you how many
nights a week?”

I tell him just two and not when
I’m cheering so really it hasn’t been that many times but he doesn’t seem to
care because he goes on without even listening to me.

“Or maybe it’s the way you just
spoke to me in front of Ben and those guys, what the fuck has gotten into you?
“You sit down right there? Fuck you!”

“Okay, I didn’t mean to get all
in your face, I know this was a huge shock but I can’t have Ben and those guys
saying anything to anyone, I can’t let my coaches find out. I just missed New
York and my workshops and I wanted to dance so this girl I know told me about
this job choreographing at this dance club. I came in and got the job and then
they asked me to dance and I thought what the hell. Tate I make close to a thousand
dollars a weekend.”

Tate stands up and comes over to
me but he is clearly afraid of what he’ll do if he touches me because he’s
keeping his distance when he asks, “Is that what this is fucking about? Money?
Brook, I came here to surprise you…I can’t talk to you about this now but money
is not an issue so you are done here, right now. Do you understand? Go find
whoever is in charge and tell them you are done. I mean it and if I see the
motherfucker I’m going to rip his heart out with my bare hands before I tell
him I’m calling the police about the underage girls he has working for him.”

I agree to leave with Tate and
quit tomorrow because I don’t want him to see me talking to Eddie. I am praying
that Eddie won’t notice that I’m gone until it’s too late. We walk out the back
door to find Ben waiting for us. I have given Tate is shirt back, removed my
makeup and put on my regular clothes. Tate is still refusing to touch me and
he’s already warned me that this is not over.

Tate invites Ben back to my
apartment but then makes us all uncomfortable with his comments. “So you can
get to know my girlfriend, oh wait, that’s right you’ve seen almost as much of
her as I have so I guess you kind of already know her pretty well.”

Ben knows Tate well enough
apparently and he tries to distract him with an offer of hitting another club.
“Sounds great, maybe my mom will be there giving guys head as they walk in the
fucking door. Let’s go” Tate says sarcastically.
 

We go to another club, one where
the bouncers are football players and Ben is able to get me in without a second
glance. Ben goes to the bar to get us all a drink and Tate and I are left alone
and he won’t look at me.

“Tate, look at me. Please. I hate
when you’re mad at me. Please, I’m sorry.”

Tate sighs, “Shut up, Brooklynn,
seriously shut your fucking mouth right now. I don’t want to listen to this
shit. I need to get drunk and we’ll talk about this when we get home or
tomorrow. Right now just leave me the fuck alone, okay? Go find some of your
friends and dance or hang out, do what you do when I’m not here. Oh wait, that
would be taking off your clothes for other men. You know what? Have at it. I
don’t give a flying fuck right now. I’ll find you when we want to go home.” And
he walks away from me just as some of the cheerleaders spot me and come running
over.

I don’t know what to do but I do
know it’s best to leave Tate alone when he’s like this and let him cool off so
I go with the girls and get a drink then we hit the dance floor. I keep looking
for Tate but I don’t know where he is, he could be gone for all I know. I’m
about to go and look for him figuring enough time has gone by for him to have
calmed down and gotten wasted when “Hip Hop Hooray” comes on and the girls
insist I dance with them for this one last song. We are all dancing with our
arms up in the air and when I feel a guy grinding up behind me with one arm
around my waist and the other in the air near my hair. I assume its Tate and
keep dancing until Tate suddenly comes into my vision. He’s walking towards me
with Ben and a few other guys and I can’t tell by the look on his face how this
is going to go. I stop dancing and try to tell the guy to get away from me but
now Tate is standing right next to me. The girls are of no help, they are all
in awe of Tate as usual.

Tate smirks at me and slurs, “By
all means continue, I did tell you to do what you do when I’m not here, right?
Is this what you do?”

The guy starts to say something
to Tate but Ben just looks at him and says, “Don’t man, trust me just walk
away” and the kid thankfully listens. I tell Tate that I don’t even go to clubs
when he’s not here and if I did I wouldn’t dance with some random guy I didn’t
know. I explain that I thought it was him.

Tate sighs, “Yeah I know I saw
the whole thing. I was watching you all night. It’s funny you have no clue how
hot you are. You should see all these guys looking at you and only that one
loser had the balls to even try to dance with you.”

“Weak” comes on and Tate finally
touches me and pulls me into his arms. We dance as the song plays.

I wish I had been with Brook in
college; they were four hard years for us apart from each other but we
survived. Brook had tried her best to
break up with
me before we left for school but I wouldn’t allow it; instead we both promised
the other that we would remain faithful and see if our relationship could work
long distance.

During
our freshman year we write letters and speak on the phone almost every night. I
go to see her once a month until basketball season. Freshman year is the worst,
I hate the dorm I’m in even though I am hardly ever there. We younger players
spend most of our time at the apartments of the older players. School that had
always been so easy for me wasn’t as simple any more. I have to study and do my
assignments while I juggle basketball and my long distance relationship with
Brook.

Every
night when we speak on the phone we have phone sex. One weekend she shows up at
a campus bar to surprise me. She comes with Adam and they head to the bar that
I have told her about. She and Adam have fake IDs as do my friends and I so
getting in is not a problem. They are dancing and having a great time while
she’s waiting for me. I have no idea she’s there when I show up. I actually
spot her on the dance floor from behind and admire her, never knowing it was
her. I am drinking with my friends when Brook sees me and at the same time some
girl I gets it in her head to come up to me. I don’t see Brook but when the
girl comes up to me and wraps her hands around my neck. I thankfully remove her
hands and push her off of me. When I turn around to walk away from her I spot
Brook standing there staring at me and the scene that just unfolded. I am sick
to my stomach, I can tell by the look on her face that she’s hurt and thinks
the worst. I smile a shocked smile and head to her and Adam. She slaps me
across the face when I try to kiss her.