Arranged What 2- You Want Me to...What?!?!?!?!

Chapter 4 (Part 1)- Club Lax Reunion

Chapter 4-

Cody’s POV:

In the end, I got my bacon. I awarded myself with fourths for having to wait so long to get it.

I was aiming to be at Club Lax by eight, which left me nine hours until it was time to get ready and head out. Company paperwork kept me occupied until one, lunch for an hour, then I kept focused on school for the rest of the afternoon. It was a very calming and successful day, no deadlines to reach, just getting ahead on simple assignments.

Pulling out my phone I checked to see if there were any presences on the sixth floor, but there weren’t so I quickly dressed in my all-black dress, tights, high heels, and curled my dark brown hair into ringlets. Lastly threw on some light makeup and slipped on my mask.

For fear of being caught I slinked through the secret passageways into the garage and used a back exit to sneak off the property.

Three minutes to spare.

Michael greeted me outside the women’s dressing rooms when I arrived. “I advertised you were making a comeback tonight, so you’ve got quite an audience this evening.”

I smiled. “The more the merrier.”

“Wonderful to see you again, Princess!” Blake, one of the bartenders, said as he made his way to the storage lockers in the back. I had made friends with most of the workers here.

“Good to see you too!” I yelled back, but I wasn’t sure he could hear me over the traffic noises that echo through the alley. Turning to Michael I said, “I just can’t wait to perform again.”

“Glad to hear it. Do you mind me asking what you were doing during your absence?”

I smiled impishly at him, “So long as you don’t mind me not answering. It’s rather private, sorry.” I don’t know why I didn’t want to tell him, I just didn’t. Anyways, it was nice keeping these two parts of my life separate from one another, I’d hate for them to bleed into one another.

“No problem, hon, I was just curious.” Someone called to him from where the back opened up to the rest of the club. “You’re on in five.” He told me before following to where the other man was. I couldn’t make the smile drop from my face.

I took the backdoor opening to the DJ stand, but hid my body behind his setup so the crowd wouldn’t see me yet. The DJ crouched down and I smiled to see it was a good friend Tucker. Tucker grew up in Texas, only moving to California three years ago right after turning twenty two. He’s really strong, having worked on the family cattle ranch for many years, and had a thick southern drawl that gave most girls a strong case of weak knees.

He smirked at me, “Hello darlin’. How ‘ave you been?”

“I’ve been good, how about you?” I suddenly felt bad about not keeping in touch with my friends from the club. It’s been a year and now I feel as if I have absolutely no idea what’s going on in their lives.

“Swell.” At least he didn’t seem mad that I’d pulled a disappearing act for so long. He nodded at the iPod clutched in my hand, “Dancing Album, track fourteen?” he said, referring to the song I always loved opening with, Santana and Chad Kroeger’s Into the Night. It’s an amazing song that demands feeling right down to your bone marrow. It’s slower, but great to move to, and in my opinion, a great song for a club. Plus the guitar solos give me  goose bumps there so incredible.

I nodded at his question, flashed him a smile, and slipped back through the door to make my way to center stage, where I’d enter from. At the last second the metal support beams caught my eye and an idea struck me for a really cool grand entrance.

Snaking my way up the poles at the side of the stage I was conscious of my dress, while also making sure not to but too much pressure on my heels, lest they break. I stopped right above center stage, but higher than even the curtain. I could see the crowd, but it was unlikely they’d look hard enough to see me.

While waiting for my cue, I looked around the audience, seeing a few regular faces, and a few familiar ones from the halls of high school, but most everyone was a stranger to me. My biggest shock though was sitting at the bar with his best friend.

Jason and Rick were sipping a couple of sodas, talking halfheartedly about who-knows-what. It surprised me that they were there; I knew Jason was attracted to Mystery Princess (what guy wasn’t) because he’d flirted with her/me the last time I’d danced here, but surely he wouldn’t come to ogle some other girl while still married to me. Granted what we had could hardly be considered a marriage, especially by us, but some part of me still felt cheated on.

My cue came, the curtain opened and just as I’d hoped, despite the crowds murmured confusion when I wasn’t on stage, Tucker still started the music and at the first notes, I hopped down from my perch, landing expertly on the balls of my feet, in full dance mode.

The crowd went wild, and I couldn’t have kept the overjoyed smile off my face if I tried. It was so exhilarating performing in front of crowd like this. I recognized how lucky I was to be good at something I loved and also be able to share that with other people who could also gather enjoyment from it.

[Soooo sorry for my absense ya'll!! I'll have the other half up soon, I've finally got my mind back on writing!! I forgot how much I love it!]