Stripped

by Mia Archer

  "Damn it," I said as I pulled into a parking spot and put the car into park.

  I looked around the parking lot to see if there was anyone I recognized. Though of course that was a ridiculous thought. There was only one person I knew at this place, and the reason there was only one person I knew here was because the one person I knew seemed to have a problem with me coming out here and seeing her at work.

  I knew that more than anything was why I was out here. I knew I was being paranoid. I knew going in there was a mistake, and yet at the same time I knew deep in my heart that it was a mistake I was about to make.

  I couldn't stop thinking about that almost argument we had at my work party. It had been a couple of days ago, but things hadn't been the same between us since. Jasmine had been short with me ever since I called her out, and that left me wondering if there was something going on after all.

  I hated that I was being paranoid like this, but I couldn't help it. After all, I knew what she did at her job. To be honest there was a part of me that worried there might be a part of her that was only being nice to me because that’s what she did at work and she couldn’t turn it off.

  What if everything we had was a lie? I had to know.

  Again I knew that was ridiculous, but again it was difficult to get that voice to shut the fuck up.

  I took a couple of deep breaths. My grip was white knuckled on the steering wheel. As I sat there a couple of guys walked in. Of course I didn't recognize them from my one visit to this place, but they looked about the same as just about every other guy I imagined going here.

  I held my breath and willed my hand to go down into the keys. It wasn't too late. I could turn the car on and get the hell out of here. I could wait for Jasmine to give me a call.

  Or maybe she wouldn't give me a call tonight. Maybe she’d be out with a client.

  Damn it. Why couldn't I get those thoughts out of my mind after everything I'd seen? It was driving me wild and I hated it.

  "You know you have to do this Taylor," I said to myself. Though it sounded like I was trying a little too hard to convince myself.

  I was out of the car and walking towards the strip club before I really realized what was going on. Although I knew what I was doing the entire time. I hated it, but I knew what I was doing. I knew Jasmine wasn't going to be happy to see me there.

  Although then again, it was precisely the fact that Jasmine wouldn’t be happy to see me that made me put one foot in front of the other. That compelled me to step into the place and see what was going on for myself.

  I was hit with the familiar sights and sounds as I stepped in. Nobody was smoking, but there was still a faint stench of the stuff hanging in the air. As though decades of smoke had seeped into the walls and now there was no getting it out no matter what ordinances the city passed.

  I figured nothing short of tearing the place down and putting it back together from scratch would do the trick, and even then that might not quite do the job.

  Music washed over me. A steady bass thump pulsed through the place as a dancer up on stage went around the pole to a classic rock song. The sort of thing my dad and mom probably listened to when they were making out as kids.

  I shuddered thinking of that. I pushed the thought out of my mind. My brain was trying to come up with something, anything, to distract me from what I was afraid I was going to see here.

  The one person I didn't see was Jasmine. Maybe she was backstage. Maybe she was roaming the floor. She told me she didn't like doing that sort of thing, but then again that was exactly the sort of thing someone would lie about if she did do that sort of thing and didn’t want me to know about it.

  I stopped. Almost turned around and walked out. I knew I was being irrational. I knew I should have a conversation with Jasmine about all of this and put away some of my fears, but I couldn't stop. I wasn't in control. The jealous monster had taken over and it was calling the shots.

  I took a seat in a corner table. It was nice and out-of-the-way, but it also gave me a view of the main stage. It was the perfect place to watch Jasmine and see what she was up to at work without tipping her off that I was here.

  As I sat down I ran through everything that happened at the work party. How she'd been led away by Jason. How that asshole acted like she owed him something.

  I knew he was the asshole in that situation, but I couldn't help but wonder why she allowed herself to be pulled away in the first place. She could talk all she wanted about how he said he needed to talk to her about something, but I wasn't buying it.

  And that more than anything had sat in my brain. Had festered. Had left me wondering what she got up to here. If she was willing to do something like that at a work party where she was with a date then what did she do here at work where she obviously didn’t want me snooping too much into her business?

  So I sat in my back table going over all of it. I'd complained to Gwen after the fact, of course, and she said she’d do something about it though I wasn't holding my breath.

  But of course that wasn’t enough. And so I was here. Sitting. Stewing. Festering. Knowing a lot of this was crazy but unable to stop myself.

  "Okay," the DJ said as the girl up on stage and stepped away. "That was Chastity up on stage, and coming up next is Princess Jasmine!"

  My ears perked up. I knew she used her real name here. She told me she hadn't realized until after she'd been doing the job for a little while that it might not be a good idea to use her real name at work.

  Though oddly enough she'd discovered that using her real name was a sort of cover in its own way. When she told guys at the club that her name was Jasmine they all assumed she was giving them a fake name and so nobody ever went looking for her under that real name. It was a little irony of the business and one of the few things about her work she'd been willing to discuss with me.

  I slipped even further down into the booth. I didn't want her to see me over here. Though as she stepped out on stage and started doing her dance I realized that probably wasn't much of a worry.

  No, most of her attention was focused on the guys around the edge of the stage. She barely glanced out beyond, and even if she did it was dark enough over here that I doubted she’d recognize me. Especially when I was doing my best to stay hidden.

  She went around the stage a couple of times gathering up money. She didn't seem to be paying attention to any one guy more than the other. Especially relieving was that she didn't seem to be paying attention to any girl either.

  I was pretty damn sure after everything that we'd done over the past month that she was well and truly into girls only, but I figured you could never be one hundred percent certain.

  Only Jasmine wasn't going out into the crowd to dance with anyone. She wasn't hitting on any women. I saw a couple girls who were obviously there with boyfriends and thought back to what she told me about how she used to get with people who were at the club looking for a walk on the wild side.

  Only tonight she looked at them and brushed right past them. Didn't say anything.

  The more I watched her, the more I got the sneaking suspicion that I'd been a first-rate ass by coming here. The more I sat here the more I thought about how it would be a hell of a good idea for me to get the hell out of here as quickly as my feet could carry me.

  After all, I was fairly certain if Jasmine did find me out here she wasn't going to be too happy.

  Yeah, it suddenly felt hot in here, and it had nothing to do with the pretty girls that were out walking around half naked. It had everything to do t with what an idiot I’d been. I couldn't believe I even came here in the first place.

  It was funny how quickly a person could go from being absolutely convinced something fishy was going on to being absolutely convinced I'd fucked up royally. And I needed to get out of here before Jasmine saw me.

  Not that I was too worried about that. No, if she wasn't coming out here then I could slip out without causing a scene. Without her even realizing I'd ever be
en here.

  So I stood and looked away from the stage. Made a beeline for the front entrance.

  That was my big mistake. I should've waited until Jasmine was done up on stage. Until she was safely backstage where there was no chance she’d see me.

  She wouldn't have seen me if it wasn't for the sudden commotion I found myself right in the middle of.

  "I know you," a voice said.

  I turned and stared at the girl who stared back at me in the blinking lights from the stage. She looked almost familiar, and then it hit me exactly who this girl was. It was none other than the girl from that first night. The one who'd been coming into the back area as we were leaving. The one who seemed to have a severe dislike for Jasmine for some reason.

  And I suddenly had a very strong feeling that it wasn't a good thing that she stood there scowling at me. Not good at all.

  "Excuse me," I said.

  I turned away from her and made my way to the front entrance. The only problem with that plan was the girl appeared in front of me.

  I looked her up and down again. She was pretty enough. She had a nice body and the mesh outfit she wore didn't leave much to the imagination.

  Of course all the hotness was ruined by the scowl on her face. She looked as though she'd just swallowed a piece of sour candy or something. She looked about like I did when I thought about seeing a guy naked. Yuck.

  In short, she didn't look happy to see me.

  "What are you doing here?" she asked.

  "What are you talking about?" I asked. "Can't anyone come here? Last I checked this was a public club."

  "I made it absolutely fucking clear that you're not allowed here," she said. "You should have listened to that warning bitch.”

  I blinked a couple of times. Did she just say what I thought she just said? I mean you hear about people getting in fights all the time, but that's something that happens to other people. Not to me. I couldn't believe this was actually happening. She actually just said that.

  The nerve.

  And, as always when somebody started threatening me, I opened my mouth and said a few things that were probably regrettable. Even if she did deserve them.

  "Who the hell do you think you are bitch?” I snapped.

  Her eyes went wide and then she smiled. She reached back and balled her hand into a fist. I watched that with a mixture of curiosity and regret.

  Okay, so this really was happening. She was actually going to try and punch me. Turns out she was serious.

  Her fist moved forward, and thankfully whatever substance she was on tonight was enough to throw her just off-balance enough that the simple expedient of stepping to the side was enough to cause her to stumble forward and fall to the floor.

  A few people turned to look at her and a couple of guys laughed, but most of them stared at her ass which was pretty obvious with only a thong to preserve what little modesty she had.

  I rolled my eyes. This needed to be over. I needed to be out of here. This crazy bitch had simply given me another reason to get the hell out of Dodge as fast as my feet could carry me.

  I needed to be out of here before security got involved. Before something got back to Jasmine. Before she realized I was here and I was the girl in the middle of a fight brewing on the main floor.

  The girl popped up. She was surprisingly fast. She was also surprisingly agile for someone wearing a pair of stripper heels that looked like they could be used to impale someone. Her eyes were narrow and she looked pissed off, and there were a couple of spots where her outfit, barely there, was stained with some sort of fluid she’d picked up on her trip to the ground.

  The less I thought about what that fluid might be the better.

  "You're going to pay for that," she said.

  She wiped something off of her chin as though she was bleeding, but as I looked closer in the dim light I saw it was more fluid. Hopefully for her that was just stale beer that had been marinating down there for a while.

  "I don't want to fight you you crazy bitch,” I said.

  "And you should've thought of that before you ignored my warning," she spat right back at me.

  I shook my head. Again with that warning stuff. Again I had no idea what the hell she was going on about. This girl really was crazy.

  She lunged forward again, and this time I managed to catch her. I twisted and a moment later she was up on her tiptoes, or at least as high on her tiptoes as she could be when she was already in ridiculously high stripper heels, yelling in pain. I had her arm twisted behind her back, just far enough that it hurt but not far enough to do any damage.

  At least I hoped it wasn't far enough to do any damage.

  "I think you need to calm the fuck down," I said. "I want to leave without any trouble, and I think you don't want your arm broken, right?"

  "You fucking bull dykes are all the same!" the girl shouted. "Get your hands off of me you pervert!"

  Was this girl serious? Was she really telling me to get away from her because she thought I was getting something out of this? The girl was Looney Tunes. I had her in this lock so she’d leave me the fuck alone, and she thought I was getting off on it?

  "You’re damaged goods lady," I said, but I didn't let her go. I could see a bouncer making his way through the crowded towards us, and I had no intention of letting her get off another shot before security got here. Hell no.

  I had no intention of letting her get off another shot before security got here. Hell no.

  I never thought I'd be relieved to see a bouncer coming at me in a bar. In my experience it never led to anything good, but I couldn't be happier now.

  "I'm so glad you…"

  "Is this crazy causing trouble for you Tara?" the bouncer asked.

  I blinked a couple of times. What the hell was he talking about? My name wasn't Tara.

  And then it dawned on me. He was talking to the girl. Not me. He thought I was the aggressor in this situation, even though anyone standing around would've seen that she threw the first punch.

  I looked around to see if I was going to get any support from anyone in the audience, but they were all looking away or looking at Tara and her considerable… assets.

  It occurred to me that I was the wrong person in the wrong place at a very wrong time. None of these people were going to stand up for me.

  Not when they were frequenting this club. Not when they obviously wanted to stay in the good graces of the girl who was willing to take her clothes off for them.

  "This crazy bitch attacked me! And she's trying to feel me up now!" Tara shouted.

  If she thought that was going to distract me or get me to loosen my hold then she had another thing coming. I kept my grip on her arm and didn't let go. I well remembered how crazy she'd been coming at me, and I wasn't going to give her another opportunity to try and take me out.

  "Like hell I was!" I said.

  I pulled up on her arm. Just a little. Just enough to get the point across that I wasn't happy about her telling lies. She cried out. "Tell them the truth!"

  Then I heard a voice that I recognized, and my heart sank. It would appear that I’d run out of time.

  "What the hell is… Taylor? What are you doing here?"

  Damn. Jasmine had arrived, and she didn't sound happy about the position she found me in.

  Not that I could blame her.

  18

  Jasmine

  It was like watching my worst nightmare coming true. I saw everything I'd worried about ever since Tara got on the warpath about Taylor. And now despite all the time I’d spent trying to avoid having this moment happen here it was staring me down.

  Damn.

  "What are you doing here Taylor?" I shouted.

  It only occurred to me after I saw how she reacted to that shout that maybe it came off a little harsher than I intended. But still, I probably deserved to be a little harsh. She had no business being here.

  "What are you waiting for? I told you this dyke is trying to feel me up! Y
ou get her the fuck out of here!"

  I turned to Tara. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that she was up to her usual shenanigans, but I was. Just as surprised as I was to see Taylor here.

  "What the hell are you doing?" I asked Tara.

  "Can you get this bitch off of me George?"

  The bouncer stepped forward as though he was going to make a move on Taylor, but I held a hand up to stop him. I was seeing red. I was furious.

  And I realized that fury had nothing to do with Taylor. She only came out here because I'd given her one hell of a reason to be suspicious in the first place. She wouldn't be here if she wasn't worried.

  No, the real problem this entire time was Tara. The way she lorded over me. The way she did been sniping at me and making snide remarks and making outright threats and telling me that my girlfriend better not come here if she knew what was good for her.

  Honestly. What kind of low class white trash bitch made those sorts of threats?

  Probably the kind of low class white trash bitch who still thought any lesbian who touched her obviously had the hots for her. That was Tara to a T.

  "Stay right there George," I said. Then I turned my attention to Tara. “You need to shut the fuck up."

  Tara's eyes went wide and her mouth worked as though she was getting ready to tear into me, but for a wonder she stayed quiet. At least long enough for me to get a word in. I walked up to her and poked her in the chest. She grunted, but she didn’t make a move for me.

  Maybe that arm lock Taylor held her in was enough to keep her under control. It was nice to know there was something that could keep her under control.

  I looked over to Taylor first. Smiled.

  "I'm so sorry," I said.

  Now it was Taylor's turn to blink a couple of times and look surprised. "You're sorry?"