The Stripper Equation

The Song Remains The Same

I tried to forget about playing detective and forget about Kiera and Dominique.  If I wanted my relationship with Noah to work I had to let it go.  There was a huge irony about the fact that the thing that brought us together was now the thing that was threatening to tear us apart.  Right now I was standing on the side of the stage watching Rita’s fresh meat named Liberty Belle dance.  She wasn’t particularly bad but she definitely wasn’t a natural.  Rita would go after and then it was Wren Steele’s turn.  I couldn’t hold back my anticipation.  It’s almost like amateur night, only these girls had made it past round one so we knew they had some amount of skill past amateur.

            Wren was looking particularly tough with leather fingerless gloves that she had put on and deep purple lip stick.  Liberty Belle finished with nothing to make her stand out but atleast she didn’t faceplant and Rita took the stage.  “Great job Belles.”  Daphne cood.  I knew whenever Dominique finally made the leap to have her own club Daphne would be the best replacement.  She always said she never wanted kids but with Tori and the girls here, she was very motherly.  And if Dominique was getting an increased cash flow from the drugs she would be acquiring that dream faster than I had originally thought.

            Liberty smiled.  “Thanks.  I was so nervous.  There was this one guy up front who kept perving on me.”  She looked like she couldn’t be more than 19.

            “Perving on you how?”  Wren instigated and I knew we were going to be great friends.

            Obviously oblivious to Wren’s mocking tone Liberty was eating up the attention.  “He just kept staring at my boobs,” she divulged.

            I bit back my laughter.  “What a jerk.”  Wren cocked me a smirk and Daphne shot me a dirty look.

            “Honey that’s why they come here,” Daphne was trying to be kind but she said it so slowly she sounded more condescending than Wren and I, “to look at naked girls.” 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait what?”  Wren faked shock which almost caused me to go into hysterics.  Georgia took in the whole scene, politely staying out of it. Luckily Liberty Belle seemed to be too dim to understand we were mocking her.

“I know but on t.v. the clients are hot.  They aren’t all old men.  Everyone out there is older then me.”  I had to bit my tongue from pointing out that pretty much everyone out there was older than her because she was barely old enough to work here.  When Wren and I made eye contact I could tell from her expression that she was thinking the exact same thing, well most likely a much less kind version of that sentiment.

“There is an under 21 club I used to work at a few blocks down.  They are looking for go-go dancers.  That may be more your speed.”  Wren offered.  “I could put in a good word for you.”  Although I could tell this still amused her, she was also being sincere about the offer as well.

Liberty Belle looked at Wren and then at me and ran off towards the bathroom.  Daphne gave me the dirtiest look.  “What am I going to do with you two?”  She headed off towards the bathrooms.

 Wren yelled back.  “I was just trying to help.”  We both made eye contact and burst out laughing.