"Thanks for agreeing to help us, Smitty," I say as I pull out a chair from Ohm's room.
"No problem," he says as he walks into the apartment. "Besides, you have no idea how many people would kill for the chance to get some one on one time with you guys, let alone a lap dance. This would give me some serious bragging rights and get me some more tips from our customers," he laughs as he sits in the chair.
Ohm rolls his eyes and says, "Of course that's why you literally ran out of you apartment when I asked for you help."
Shaking my head, I walk over to the stereo, plugging in my iPod and I start scrolling through my music. "By the way, Smitty," I say as I look for something good to play. "How are things going with that guy you met online?"
"Pretty good," he tells us. "He actually told me he was thinking of moving down here so we could meet in person."
"You told him about the club rules, right," Ohm asks.
Smitty sighs and says, "Not yet. He just seems so excited, I don't want to tell him."
I then turn around and say, "You have to at some point. It's going to hurt him even more if he tries to move in with you and you tell him once he gets to the door that he can't stay. Or if he tries to work for the club and he finds out that you guys would have to break up."
"Or that if he comes around enough, you guys would have to break up because he would be considered a customer."
"Okay! I get it! I have to tell him, I know. I promise, I'll tell him soon."
Looking back to my iPod, I finally find a good playlist of songs and start it up, turning to volume up enough for the music to fill the room, but low enough so that we don't have to yell over it to talk to each other. Ohm then tells me to go sit on the couch, which I do. He then moves Smitty and the chair up a bit so that I could get a better view of them.
"An important thing to remember," Ohm tells me as he steps in front of Smitty. "Is that lap dances are mainly used for teasing. Although a lot of the guys will get on the customers and starts grinding on them, it isn't the only way to dance. Some guys will barely touch the customers they're dancing on, and sometimes that works, if done right. What I like to do though is mix those together." He looks to Smitty and asks him, "You ready?"
"Let's just start this so I can get blue balled and go home."
I chuckle, but quickly stop when Ohm turns away from Smitty and I see his body seemingly loosen up when he takes one quick breath. The three of us go completely silent, making the music feel much louder than it had less than the minute ago.
His face seems to relaxes a lot more, his eyes becoming half closed and his lips parting just a tiny bit, barely being able to be noticed. His hands move up to his hair and he gently starts to mess with it as he squats down, looking like he's about to sit on Lucas' lap. However, Ohm is just far enough away from him that he is barely touching his knees when he squats down, but I can tell that that's what he wanted. As soon as his ass is close enough that Lucas can feel him, he swings his hips to the side and stands back up. He does this same thing three more times, swinging his hips from side to side as he moves before he turns around and gets onto his knees. Even from here I can tell that Ohm has locked eyes with him, and it's got Lucas' attention fully on him.
Ohm places his hands on Lucas' thighs and he slides them up, standing and leaning towards him as he does so. For a second, it looks like Lucas tries to lean forward towards Ohm to kiss him, but before their lips can touch, Ohm pulls away, putting a hand on Lucas' chest and pushing him back in his seat. Ohm then starts to walk around him, keeping his hand on Lucas' chest as he goes behind him.
Once Ohm is behind him, he leans forward a bit, sliding his other hand onto his shoulder before sliding both of his hands down his chest and onto his stomach. He then drags his nail up Lucas' body before bringing them back up to his shoulders.
Ohm then walks to the side of the chair and turns his back on him. He then sits in between Lucas' leg and throws his body back, laying across his lap. As Ohm then starts to lift his upper body up, making him sit up, he runs his hands through his hair, pushing it away from his face. When he's completely up, he then gets off of Lucas again, spinning around and moving into front of him again. He then places his hands on Lucas' knees and as he sways his hips from side to side, bringing his body lower to the ground as he moves, he keeps his eyes locked with Lucas and he slowly spreads Lucas legs.
He then stands up and looks over to me. "Okay, now it's your turn."
"Wait, what," Lucas yells out, his face somewhat red. "That's it? But you didn't even give me a full on lap dance! You more or less used me as a prop and danced around me!"
"Hey, I am not going to give you a full on dance until he knows how to at least start it off! That's what that was. The start for dance. Besides that, a lap dance is used for teasing." He then leans over and smirks at Smitty. "And were you teased?"
"Fuck you, ya bitch."
"I'll take that as a yes." He then turns back to me and says, "Now, come on. I want you to try to recreate what I had just done before we move on."
I nod and jump off the couch, walking up to Smitty. I turn away from him and take a deep breath, trying to relax.
"I'm already going to stop you right now," Ohm says, walking in front of me, his back pressed against the pole in the middle of the room. "You need to relax a lot more than that. The person you're giving the dance to is going to like it a lot more if you seem to enjoy it just as much as he is. So, you can't seem tensed or nervous. Take a couple more deep breaths and try to calm down a bit more. Then start doing what I had done."
I nod again and shut my eyes, taking in a couple more deep breaths. As I do so, I start imagining that I'm in the park my parents always took me to when I was a little kid. Whenever I want to relax, I always think about this place. The place where my family went to every weekend. The place where we felt like nothing could break us.
Once I feel like my mind is cleared up, I start to picture the club in my mind. No one is around me, and I can hear the music more clearly. It's much louder than it was just seconds ago, and in my uniform, I feel more confident and more comfortable in my own skin. The only people around me are my friends, and they all make me feel like I truly belong here. They make me feel like I have a home. They make me feel like I have a family again.
With this in my mind, when I open my eyes just a little bit, and I can see myself still at the club. I then start to run my hands through my hair and squat down until I feel a leg just barely hit my ass. The second I feel it, I swing my hip to the side and slowly stand up. I do this three more times, swinging my hips from side to side before I turn around.
The second I lock eyes with Lucas, I instantly feel my body tense up again. "Stop," Ohm then says, putting a hand on my shoulder. "What's wrong, Evan?"
I take a deep breath and walk back to the couch. "I don't know. It just feels weird dancing on someone I consider a friend."
"What," Smitty quickly asks. "How is it weird? If anything, this should be easier than dancing on some random fifty year old with a har-"
"Thank you, Smitty," Ohm quickly interrupts.
"I don't know," I say, turning around and sitting down. "I have no problem dancing on the pole or doing anything in front of you guys, but dancing on you and using you like that, it just feels weird."
Ohm crosses his arms, putting on of have hands on his chin and curling his finger up to his lips. "I think I might know what's wrong," he then says after a moment of silence. "You might be connecting lap dances with a more intimate thing."
"What?"
"You may not realize it, but you might think that doing something like giving someone a lap dance is a lot more intimate than we think it is. Since I've been doing this for a lot longer, I no longer see any of these things as a romantic or intimate action. I don't think of this as something I should be doing with someone I care about. It's just a action I do to get paid."
"But, I've never had a problem dancing on pole in front of everyone."
"Not true; you did have a bit of a problem before, but that was different. You were shy or embarrassed about dancing in front of everyone. However, you didn't know all of us as well as you do now. You've gotten closer to us, and have started to see us differently."
I look down and bite my lip, nervously. They've made me feel like I have a family again.
"So what does he have to do," Smitty asks, pushing himself to the edge of the seat.
"He need to keep practicing on us. He needs to find a way to see it as if it's a nature thing to do, and separate it from the idea that it's an intimate action." Smitty pushes himself back in the seat and I walk in front of him. "Try to relax again. Don't worry about me stopping you this time. I want you to go through the whole dance without stopping.
I nod and shut my eyes again. After taking me back to the park and to the club, I feel myself completely relax again, and I start the dance. After swinging my hips from side to side four times, I turn around drop to my knees, locking eyes with Lucas again. Instantly, I can feel my body start to tense up.
Trying to ignore the tension, I place my hands on his thighs and start pushing myself up, sliding my hands up his thighs as I do so. Unlike with Ohm, Lucas doesn't lean towards me when I lean close to him. Due to that, when I put my hand on his chest, it doesn't have as much of the same effect that it had when Ohm did it.
I continue to go through the dance, ending it on my knees in front of him, and separating his legs. Then, I silently curse to myself before I stand up, feeling awkward for actually going through with the dance.
"You can feel how tensed that dance was, right," Ohm asks me. I nod and look back to Smitty. "And it was clear that you weren't as into it as you were before, right."
Smitty shakes his head. "It felt like he was forced to do it; like he wasn't enjoying a second of it. While you danced on me, it felt like you were enjoying it a lot more, and you wanted to do it."
"This just shows us how much work we have to do."
I take a deep breath and say, "Then let's keep working. I don't want to keep giving shit lap dances, and I'm not the type to just give up."
"That's bullshit," Smitty quickly says. "I've been playing games with you for almost two years, and I've seen you give up so many times."
"That's different. When I give up in those games, I go out of my way to fuck everyone else over for fun."
"And that's why I try to stay as far away from you as I can get when you start to lose."
"Save this for later guys," Ohm interrupts. "Let's just keep practicing. Hopefully, with enough time-" Before he can even finish his sentence, we hear someone slam into his front door, causing us to jump and turn to the door.
After a couple of seconds, we can hear jiggling on the other side, before the door swings open and Bryce falls into the apartment, landing on his hands and knees. He then looks up at Ohm and smiles. "Ohmie! You're finally home!"
"Bryce," Ohm says loudly, anger hinting behind the worry in his voice. I watch as Ohm runs over to Bryce and helps him up, but I walk over to the stereo at the same time, taking my phone off. "Are you seriously already drunk? It's barely noon!"
"I had to get a drink, okay mom! We have important guest coming over!"
I see Ohm's eyes widen and hear a small gasp come from him. "When were they coming? How did you find out before me?"
"Because, they called me after you left. They'll be here in an hour."
"Well, that's an hour that's going to be spent trying to get you to sober your ass up! I'm not going to be playing host while you're struggling to sit your ass up!" He then pulls him towards their bedroom and pushes him in. "Go take a nap or a fucking shower!"
He then takes a deep breath before he turns to us. "Sorry guys, but it looks like I have to cut this lesson short today. I have to take care of Bryce right now, but I'll text you when I can help you again, Evan. Smitty, will you help us out the next time as well?"
"Yeah, it's no problem," Smitty tells him as he gets out of his seat and walks over to me. He then wraps a arm around me and starts leading me out of the apartment.
After we leave the apartment, I say my thank yous and goodbyes to Smitty before I go to my own apartment. I sigh when I walk in and wonder over to my couch, sitting down and running my hands through my hair in annoynce. I'm disappointed in myself. I feel like I'm failing something that I know is extremely important for my future at the club.
Panda never wants to have a customer to leave unhappy or unsatisfied with anything at the club. So, he pushes for only the best to go out on the floor. I may be popular now, but when I'm eighteen, I know everyone will want to see me on the pole. I know they will want me to give them lap dances. If I can't even give my friends a good show, then how will I be able to do it with people I don't even know.
My stomach starts turning, forming knot after knot, making me feel sick from being so nervous. I need to find a way to push pass this. I can't let this hold me back. I need to push through this. I don't want to let Panda down.
*Later That Night*
The moment I get to work, I don't even put on my uniform, I just walk up to the second floor and walk into Panda's office. When he sees me walk in, he gets up from behind his desk and walks in front of it, leaning against it. I walk over and stop in front of him.
"Let me see it," is all he tells me. Sighing, I grab the bottom of my shirt and pull it up to my chest, showing him dark red mark that is slowly starting to change color. "Fuck," He says as he reaches over and gently rubs his thumb against it. "I was hoping it wouldn't look this bad already."
"What should I do," I ask him, already knowing what he's going to say.
"It's too dark. It's going to be too noticeable. I wish I didn't have to say this, but I have no choice. I'm sorry, Evan; but you're going to have to go home for the night. I want you to take pictures of your bruise every night, however. I want you to send them to me so I can keep an eye on it and we can have you come back the second it looks like it completely healed."
"Yes sir," I say, sadly.
"Hey," he says, reach over and making me look at him. "It's only going to be for a week, maybe two at the most. I know you never like taking time off from work, but we can't bend the rules. Just try to think of this as a vacation or something. Take this time to go have fun, and relax. We'll see you when you come back, okay?"
"Yes sir."
I sigh again and walk out of the office, walking back downstairs and out of the building. When I get into my car, I feel tears start to stream down my face, frustrated with myself for something that wasn't even my fault. I'm going to be out of work for a week, because of something that some drunk did to me.
I'm so fucking stupid. I should have paid more attention to everyone at that fucking party. I should have seen him trying to grab me. I should have fought back more. I should have gone the other way to get back to the bar. There's so many thing I could have done, but because I was so weak; because I was so stupid, I got grabbed, and I got hurt.