I bounced my knee anxiously on the drive to the club. I opted to ride with Louis and Ani this time instead of driving on my own in hopes that their company would help to distract me.
Unfortunately, not even the company of my two best friends did anything to help calm the whirlwind that was spinning inside of my head.
My knee bounced in anticipation while my sweaty palms ran up and down my legs that were only covered by a pair of fishnets— even though it's freezing out and the ground is completely covered by snow.
Anika let me borrow an outfit for tonight since I didn't have anything of my own that would suffice. She gave me one of her more tame outfits, though I still think that my bathing suit covers more than this does.
The thin straps of the body suit wrapped around the back of my neck, leaving my arms and my back nearly completely exposed. The deep v-line of the front dropped down just below my sternum, and I was worried that I would have a wardrobe malfunction at some point in the night.
Anika is a size, maybe two, smaller than I am so I fill out the bodysuit, though the waistline is a bit suffocating. However, Anika's chest is bigger than mine. I've been pulling the top up the best I can for the drive, but I'm worried that my chest won't hold the top up properly on its own once I start working.
Ani told me that was how it was supposed to feel, and that the top won't actually move too much. But even so it's been sliding around since we've gotten into the car, and personally I don't think that having a full blown boob slip would be a great first start to my work here.
I reached under the crewneck I was wearing and pulled at the top of the suit again, adjusting myself and trying to get everything to sit the way that it's supposed to. It was fine for a minute until we hit a bump in the road and I could feel everything slide out of place again.
I think Anika has severely underestimated the different in our chest sizes with this outfit.
"Ani..." I said in a bit of worry. "This top is sliding all over the place."
She turned around in the passenger seat to look at me, her lips pursing in thought. "Hm... if it keeps moving we might have to tape it down when we get there."
"Tape it down?" My brows scrunched together in confusion.
Anika nodded, "I'm sure one of the girls there have something that we could use to keep it in place."
"What's wrong with it?" Louis asked, puffing out a cloud of smoke through his cracked window.
I huffed out a sigh, leaning back against the seat and cupped my hands over my face. "Anika has bigger boobs than me. I can't fill this bodysuit out— oh god, this is already a disaster."
"It's not a disaster!" Ani called out with a slight laugh, "We'll fix it."
I dropped my hands down to my lap, taking in a deep breath as I nodded in agreement. If Ani thinks she can fix it, I'll believe her. But the fact that I could potentially pop a nip slip at a customer is not helping my anxiety at all.
Louis started laughing, slowing the car down and flicking on his turn signal. "You could always get a boob jo–"
"Louis!" Anika hissed, smacking his arm pretty hard. "You're not helping."
"What?" He whined, rubbing his arm. "It was a joke."
"It wasn't funny." She squinted at him, crossing her arms over her chest as she turned to face forward in her seat again.
Louis flashed his eyes up to meet mine through the rear view mirror with a grin still on his face, "C'mon Stellz, you know it was a bit funny."
I rolled my eyes at him, and looked out the window not wanting to give him the gratification of knowing that I actually did find it funny. One thing about Louis and I's relationship is we love to shit talk the other person. Any low blow that we can find, we take the opportunity to jump on it.
Things he loves to poke fun at me for are my height, though he's short for a guy too, he still enjoys throwing his arm on top of my head and saying that I haven't hit my growth spurt yet. He also jokes about my eyes a lot and says that my wide eyed stare is terrifying— which, I can actually agree with. My eyes are big.
To normal people it would sound like we hate each other and the things that we say are awful, though in actuality it's our way of showing love to each other. We've never been super affectionate people, so picking on each other is our way of showing that we care... If that makes sense at all.
It was only another few minutes before Louis was pulling into a parking lot and stopping the car completely. I ran my hands up and down my thighs again and started to brace myself for what was going to happen next as Anika and Louis started to get out of the car.
I took in a final deep breath and grabbed my bag from the seat next to me and flung it up over my shoulder. As soon as I opened the car door the winter air bit at my skin and sent an icy chill through my body. It's early January, meaning it's freezing outside.
I'm so glad I'm able to wear such warm clothes.
I bit back a smirk at my own thought and walked carefully around to the other side of the car where Louis and Anika were waiting for me. The pavement was slick under my heels, but thankfully due to my height and my style preferences I've worn a lot of heels in my life, even on slick streets like this, so I've had plenty of practice and I know I can manage well enough. Once I got to where my friends were I gave them a slight nod before we all wordlessly started to head through the parking lot towards the sidewalk.
"This is where we usually park," Louis started as we all made our way across the lot together. "It's down the street from The Payne's, but it's free parking and you won't get towed here."
"Yeah, since the club is underground it doesn't have a designated parking lot for itself. It's a bit annoying after a busy night, but it's worth the walk if you can keep your car from getting towed." Anika finished for him.
I nodded, listening to them as we crossed the street and continued on down the sidewalk. While we were walking I brought my hair over one shoulder and tried to keep it in place as best I could. The wind was swirling around us and the last thing that I needed right now was for my hair to frizz up or get knots in it before tarting my shift.
Once we got to an alleyway we turned left into it, and the wind was blocked so I was able to comb my fingers through the slight tangles that had started to form. When I had finished we reached the end of the alley, and Louis turned to the right to lead us down a small flight of stairs with yet another alley for us to walk down.
When we got to the end Louis raised his hand, knocking on the large black painted metal door with the back of his knuckles. After only a few seconds the door swung open to reveal a tall well built man wearing all black. He stood well over six foot, looking to be in his mid fourties, with a buzzcut and an earpiece hanging out of his left ear.
If I had to take a guess I would think that must be part of the security here.
"Ah, Tomlinson." The man greeted in a voice that was a lot more friendly than I had been expecting.
"How's it been, Dave?" Louis asked as he made his way through the door.
"Same as always." Dave answered, an exasperated sigh leaving his lips. "Still fuckin' hate it here, but it pays good and get the bills sorted."
As he spoke I made my way past him and was now standing beside Anika inside of the hallway. The smell of old smoke was almost overbearing at first. My burning eyes instantly watered and I had to look up, blinking a few times to keep the tears from spilling over.
"Newbie?" Dave asked, pointing a finger towards me.
"Name's Stella." Louis answered. "She's a friend of mine and Anika's. She'll be working here for a while."
Dave looked back at me, giving me a quick once over. "Good luck."
I bit down on my cheek, my hands balling into fists beside me as I took in his words. He didn't seem to notice the effect though because as soon as he spoke he had turned away and was opening the door to someone else who had knocked.
Ani nudged her shoulder against mine and nodded for me to follow her and Louis down the dimly lit hall. "He's blunt." She said in a near whisper, most likely to keep Dave from hearing her. "But he's a good guy. If you ever have any issues here, he's the one to go to. He takes good care of the workers here."
I nodded in understanding, willing myself to form words as a response. But as hard as I tried I couldn't do it. Instead my eyes were wide and frozen on the light that was coming from underneath the door that we were now only a few feet away from.
Louis reached out, grabbing the handle of the door and turned around to face me. "You ready?"
I swallowed roughly, flicking my eyes up to meet his. "As ready as I'm going to get."
Louis gave me a slight nod, then turned and pulled the door open to reveal the club entrance. The smell of smoke was stronger now, and a light fog was covering the room. The smell of alcohol and weed was also lingering in the air, choking me slightly upon entering.
"You'll get use to the smell." Ani whispered to me as we followed behind Louis to one of the tables.
I doubt it.
Louis plopped himself down at the table, pulling his phone out from his pocket and handing it to Ani. "I'll be here for the night if you need me." Louis spoke to me. "We aren't allowed to have our phones, so you'll have to come talk to me if you need something. But I'll be keeping a close watch so you don't need to worry."
Ani stuck Louis' phone into her bag, then slung her arm over my shoulder. "Don't worry, Lou. I'll take care of our girl."
Louis' face softened when he looked over to Anika. "I know you will, Ani." He leaned forward, Anika meeting him halfway and giving him a quick kiss. "I'll see you both in a bit." He finished, glancing between the two of us.
"Alright, Stella." Anika said and she spun us around, her arm still over my shoulder. "Let's go fix your boob situation."
I smacked my hand to my forehead, grimacing slightly at her choice of wording. "Thanks." I muttered out.
Anika led me through the club, pointing out different areas and explaining different requirements to me while we made our way into the back room. Pushing open the door she revealed a brightly lit hallway on the other side that had me squinting a bit.
"The fighters have their own rooms, but us girls all share a locker room." She spoke as she finally dropped her arm from around my shoulder. "There's an empty one near mine that you can have. You just need to write your name on it so someone doesn't try and claim it."
"Okay." I had to physically force the simple word out of my dry mouth.
One of the first doors on the right was open, a few voices coming from inside. Anika turned into it and walked inside so I followed closely behind, worried about being left alone in this place.
"Hey, Anika!" One of the girls greeted with a huge smile on her lips.
"Hi, Harmony." Ani said in a sweet tone as she made her way towards a locker in the corner of the room. "How was your week?"
The girl I now knew as Harmony sighed, closing her locker and turning to lean on it. "Same as it always is... boring." As she spoke her eyes wandered over to me, and I gave her my best smile that I could. "Who's the new girl?" She asked, referring to me, though her tone wasn't aggressive.
"Oh, this is Stella." Ani replied while tossing her bag inside of her locker. "It's her first night."
A big smile spread across Harmony's lips, her eyes landing on mine again. "Your first night?" She echoed the question.
I nodded, "Yes."
"Hm..." She hummed, pushing herself off of her locker and taking a few slow steps towards me.
Her stride was daunting— enough to make me want to turn away from her and avoid her stare. She wore black heeled boots that clicked against the floor with each step, and a mesh body suit that only had enough material in certain areas to cover her in places that needed to be. Her hair was just past her shoulders, falling in perfect natural spiral curls, and truthfully I found myself staring at her and admiring her beauty for a bit too long.
After getting only a few steps away from me she stopped, eyes glued on the light blue crewneck that I was wearing. "You gonna keep that on all night?" She asked in reference to it.
"No." I replied thickly.
"Take it off then," She smiled at me. "I want to see your outfit."
I nodded and handed Anika my bag before reaching for the hemline of the crewneck to pull it up over my head. As soon as it was off I was once again adjusting the top and making sure that I wasn't flashing anyone in the room.
Harmony glanced over me, brows raising with a subtle nod. "I'll give it to you, Stella. You're hot. You'll make some good tips here."
I felt a burning heat raise up from my neck and into my cheeks from get compliments. "Thank you."
Harmony's eyes dropped from mine, narrowing as she inspected my bodysuit further. "The top is a bit loose though. Do you have any pins?"
"No, we don't. I was actually going to see if you had any tape we could use." Anika responded for me as she took my crewneck from my hands and opened the locker next to hers to put it inside along with my bag.
Harmony's smile grew, "Yeah, of course I have tape. Hold on."
When she turned away and went back to her locker I let out a deep breath that I had been holding. I turned towards the locker that Ani had put my things into and shut the door since I wouldn't be needing anything else out of there.
"Here." Anika handed me a permanent marker and an index card. "Put your name on this."
I nodded, taking them from her and quickly jotted my name down onto the paper. When I was done Anika took the index from me and stuffed it into a clear slot that was screwed into the front of the locker. "Perfect." She said with a big smile. "Now it's officially yours."
"Here's the tape." Harmony suddenly said from my left, my body jolting from the slight scare. "It's double sided so it'll hold the top in place as well."
"Thank you." I gave her a smile, taking the tape into my own hand along with two black heart shaped stickers.
"No problem." She replied before spinning on her heel and heading towards the door. "See you guys out there."
I looked down to the tape in my hand, my lips pursing as I tried to figure out what exactly I was supposed to do with this. I've never had to use body tape on an outfit before.
"You know how to use the tape?" I looked up to see Anika watching me with raised brows.
"Not a clue." I confessed.
Anika laughed, taking the tape from me and nudging my shoulder so that my back was facing the opened door leading out to the hallway instead of my front. "I'll help you."
I let out a heavy breath of relief, "Thank you."
"These are nipple coverings." Ani said as she handed the two black hearts back over to me. "You put these on first, that way the tape won't stick to your nipple— because trust me, you don't want that to happen."
I looked down at the stickers and mentally slapped myself for not realizing what they were. I'm not completely dumb, I've used pasties in the past. But I've never used stickers like these, or tape before.
"You can go ahead and put those on." Ani instructed while pulling off a long piece of the tape.
I nodded and quickly went to work at applying the stickers. I felt a bit goofy doing this in front of her, but I pushed away the thought and tried to apply them as fast as I could to get it over with.
When I was finished I looked back up to Anika to see her placing the tape down on the bench that was beside us. "Okay, now drop the top of your suit so I can help you put the tape in place.
Oh god. The humiliation doesn't stop.
I bit the inside of my cheek as I raised my hands up and hooked my fingers around the strap going around my neck. I ducked my head down and pulled the strap over my head, letting the suit fall down to my sternum.
Anika quickly started applying the tape to both sides of my chest and I had to fight back the urge to laugh at how ridiculous this all felt. Once the tape was in place she removed the backing of the double side and instructed me to carefully put my top back into place.
When the strap was once again behind my neck Anika helped me situate myself, then pressed down firmly on the places that she had placed the tape. When she was done she stepped back from me and gave me a look with raised brows.
"How's that feel?" She asked.
"Much better." I confirmed with a sigh of relief.
I moved my arms, twisting my body a bit and raised my hands above my head to test out the tape. Thankfully, everything was staying in place where it should be now.
"Good." Ani sighed out in relief.
A deep booming sound coming from the main part of the club caused me to jump, my head spinning to stare at the opened door leading out into the hallway. It was just now that I realized all of the girls that were in here before were now gone.
"It's okay." Anika tried to reassure me. "It's just music. They're getting ready to open."
I let out a heavy breath, my hands shaking as I rubbed them up and down my thighs while I turned to look at her again. "I'm assuming it's time for us to go out there?" I asked in a pathetically small sounding voice.
"Yeah," Ani confirmed. "We should head out there so I can train you on some stuff."
I nodded, sucking in a deep breath. "Okay, I'm ready."
//
an:
stella, louis and anika's friendship has been soooo fun for me to plan out. i'm so excited for you to get to meet them more