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“Fifi. People do love her, but she’s already booked. Honestly, like I told you, it’s you or nothing.”
I sighed loudly, kicking a pebble around the parking lot with the toe of my sneaker as I considered my options. They were slim to none, as ever.
“Okay, I’ll do it, but you owe me. Big time.”
“Thanks! You’re the best, you know that?” I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. I was the best.
“Yeah, I do, but enough talk. I hope you’re prepared to put your money where your mouth is tonight. I have to go.”
“Deal. See you later.” I could hear the smile in his voice.
“See ya.”
“Ciao.”
Once I’d hung up, I fired off a quick text to Dad. He’d be disappointed that we wouldn’t get to hang out and eat pizza together, for the first time in like, one hundred years. But, on the other hand, he’d never say that to me. He knew how hard I worked, and how much I gave up to keep our heads above water, and he felt terrible about that. Not that he needed to. He’d done nothing wrong, and he definitely had nothing to be ashamed of. Everything I did, I’d do a thousand times over if he needed me to, though I hoped things wouldn’t always have to be this hard.
* * *
I zipped myself into my spandex “tux,” and did my final preparations before going on stage, stretching and limbering up as fully as I could. If there was one thing I didn’t have time for in my life right now, it was an injury. It would diminish my earning capacity not just at Rollergirl, but at my other jobs too, and there was no way I could afford that.
I hated the outfit more than any other I owned, but I had to admit I looked damned good in it, in an androgynous kind of way. The cut made my already not-very-curvy hips look literally straight up and down. And not that I was anyone’s idea of well-endowed, but it also made my bee stings look more like pecs than tits, which all added to the effect. People thought I was a young guy, most of the time anyway, by accident or necessity—and even more so in this costume—and I was okay with that.
I’d always looked young and fresh-faced for my age, but team that with the short dyed-blonde hair, and the fact that I really didn’t have a stereotypical curvy Latina figure, and I had the perfect androgynous thing going on.
However, kind of like Miss Peaches and the kidney stone, that costume always made me remember that, despite outward appearances sometimes, I definitely peed sitting down. After three twenty-minute sets in that one thousand percent man-made fiber, snatch-burning monstrosity, I’d most likely have a flaming case of thrush to prove it. The thing couldn’t feel any worse if someone filled it with industrial-strength itching powder, poison ivy, and live piranhas.
As I came off stage for the last time that night, I tore it from my body like it was flea-infested, and just about resisted the urge to tear at my nether regions like a dog digging for a buried bone. I reminded myself that not only would it make matters worse, but I had my super-strength thrush cream in my backpack, so the itch would be gone in no time.
As I moved to put my street clothes back on, the door to the dressing room flew open and in stumbled a drunken frat boy I’d noticed in the bar between my sets. He was built like a tank and had the most intense and heavy vibe of anyone I’d ever come across. And the shapeliest, fullest lips. They were…not important, of course.
There was group of five of them, but apart from the guy who seemed obsessed with my girlfriend Rocky, he was the only one I could really pick out of a lineup. I didn’t know what it was, but something about his dark and brooding presence—even as he appeared to get increasingly wasted as the night progressed—drew my attention to him time and again.
Weirdly, every time I’d furtively glanced his way, I’d found him also looking at me, which I was sure was no coincidence. I’d wanted to say something to my girlfriend, about it, but she seemed to be dealing with her own drama with the other Richie Rich guy, so I hadn’t gotten the chance.
As I stood there glaring at the one in front of me, and he did the same—unblinking, and unmoving—I had a strong sense of what a deer in the headlights actually felt like. Rather than fight or flight, I seemed to have lost control of my limbs. Time sprawled out between us, and he was as still as I was, though seemingly unfocused—possibly due to alcohol consumption more than anything else.
It was the weirdest situation, and totally unlike me. I’d usually come out the gate swinging, and ask questions later. In the end, it was me who came to my senses first, thank God. I was beginning to wonder if I’d had a stroke.
“Did you not read the sign on the door that said, ‘Staff Only’? Or are you some kind of weirdo? My act is over. You can’t just follow me offstage like a skeevy creeper. Seriously? What the fuck are you even looking at? Scram! You’d better get out of here before I start screaming the place down and have management call the police on your dirty ass.”
It was only as the last words were out of my mouth that I remembered that I was still mostly naked. I’d managed to get my thong on before the master of the universe barged his way in, but that was all. I was still vulnerable.
“You’ll do no such thing if you know what’s good for you, Kristina.”
What the fuck? How the hell did he know my name?
“What did you just say?”
“You heard me. You’ll keep your mouth shut if you know what’s good for you.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? Who the hell are you, and how do you know my name?”
“All in good time, Kik. All you really need to know right now is that we have mutual… ‘interests’… and that I’m watching you.” He blinked slowly, eyeing me as I struggled to assimilate the information he’d just delivered so menacingly.
“Oh, and if you breathe a word of this to anyone, you’ll find out the hard way that I mean business.” With those words, he turned on his heel and left the room, letting the door bang closed behind him.
As soon as he’d gone, I slumped down into the gross cracked-leather couch that had probably been there since before I was born. I concentrated on regaining my breath while I tried to figure out what the fuck had just happened.
