"I just pulled up to the diner." I send the text to Ohm before I send another text, this one for Jonathan. "Hey, I just got to the diner."
I sit in my car and just stare at my phone, waiting for someone to reply to me. The second I see my screen light up, I open the text before I even see who the message was from.
"I'm in front of the diner with a friend that works here. Come over."
My heart beats harder in my chest than it did a few seconds ago. My stomach is twisting, and my palms start to feel a bit clammy. I haven't felt this nervous since the first time I went to meet with Panda.
As soon as that thought comes to my mind, I see that I had gotten another message. This one being from Ohm. He wishes me luck and tells me to text him if anything happens. I then take a deep breath before I step out of my car and start walking over to the diner. As he said, I see him leaning against the wall in front of it, with another man standing next to him. I take a deep breath and put myself in my two favorite places to help make me look more relaxed. Then, with a smile on my face I walk over.
I see Jonathan put a cigarette to his lips as he talks to his friend. However, when he sees me walking over to him, he drops it to the ground and stomps it out, pushing the smoke out from his mouth, before he takes a couple steps towards me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. "Hey, great to see you again."
"You too," I say, wrapping my arm around his waist.
He then walks me over to his friend and says, "Mark, this is my date I told you about, Evan. Evan, this is my friend, Mark."
"Wait, weren't you one of the dancers at Luke's party the other day?"
My eyes widen and I feel my face heat up a bit. I may be happy with working at the club, but it is extremely embarrassing to get noticed in public. According to the others, it's something we'll never get use to, but that's more for a good reason. It's very rare that someone will have the balls to say 'hey, aren't you that stripper I saw at this club' in front of others. However, it has happened. Right now just so happens to be an example of that time.
"Uh, yeah, kind of. I was the drink boy."
"Really?"
I then watch him lean over and whisper something into Jonathan's ear. A couple seconds later, I then see Jonathan push him away and shake his head. "Fuck off, man. It's not like that."
He puts up his hands and laughs before saying, "Alright. Alright. I'm just saying. Also, I have to get back to work. I'll meet you two inside and take your orders then." With that, he walks around to the back.
I look over and ask Jonathan, "What did he tell you?"
"He was just being stupid. Don't worry about it. Come on, let's just get something to eat."
He gently pulls me close to him as he starts to turn towards the door. Although I'm still curious, I push it to the back of my mind and follow him into the diner. Right when we walk in, I see that it really isn't much. There are a few people in here, mainly old couples and a few men in uniform. However, they aren't ones that I've seen hanging around the club.
Jonathan leads me over to a both a little away from the door and sits across from me before he slides over a menu. I scan it for a few seconds and put in mind of what it is that I want.
Then, I look over to him and see that he is just staring at me. "What," I ask, a bit on edge after the conversation I had with Ohm and Smitty this morning.
"I don't really get it."
"What?"
"I don't get how someone like you could do what you do for a living. Don't get me wrong, you're hot, but why work at a club."
I look down and scratch the back of my neck, nervously. "Uh, well, that's kind of a long story."
"I asked you out so I could hear it. Like I said before, I want to learn more about you, so, even if we're here until your club closes, I want to hear it."
I chuckle and look down to my lap. I don't want to give too much about my past away, but I don't want to lie to him more than I already am.
"Alright, well, I'm actually from a few towns over. Things at my home weren't really the best, so I left before I was really ready. When I came here, I had no money, and no where to go. I spent the first month or two sleeping in a park not too far away from where I live now. Then, one day, it was raining, and I was trying to sleep under an overpass to keep dry. Then, someone saved me. A person I call a friend now. Someone who works at the club.
Not only did he give me a place to stay, but he helped me get a job at the club. If it wasn't for him, I don't think I would have made it through the rest of that year."
"How long ago was that?"
"About two years ago."
"Oh shit. That's a lot for anyone to have to go through."
I look up and see that he has a more worried expression. I see that he's about to say something else, but before he had the chance, his friend popped up beside us and asked us for our orders. I smile and tell him what I was going to get, and Jon did the same. We then waited for him to walk away before we turn back to each other.
"So, how are things working at the club? From what Tyler tells me, it's really strict there."
"A little, but we are the best gay strip club in town, so, it's a given that we're strict. We have a few rules that are a must that we need to follow, and we can't really be lenient with them. A few of the rules are that we aren't allowed to date customers, as I've told you before. We aren't allowed to date other employees, for obvious reasons. We have to maintain our bodies to keep them looking the way that they look or we could get fired-"
"Wait what?"
"As I said, we're known as the best, and we get more customers if we look the way that we do."
"Well, that seems like a bit much, don't you think? I mean, don't you guys get a lot of college kids coming in trying to pay their way through school or something? Or what about when you guys get older? As you age, your body doesn't work the way that it use to."
"Doesn't matter. We do what we do, keep our bodies in check, and if we don't, we either quit and go somewhere else, or we get fired."
"That has to be against some type of law."
"It wouldn't matter," I say, looking down at my phone. "Since I've been there, no one has ever been fired. We all understand the rules, don't argue with them, and do what we do. Besides, it's pretty hard to let your body go with our work. You'd actually have to try in order to do that. Not only that, but the guys all quit when they get older and think they aren't doing as well as they had been doing. It's a pride thing."
I quickly make up a text and send it to Ohm, telling him, "He's asking a lot of questions about the club. Should I just keep answering them or try to change the subject?"
"Okay," he then says, causing me to drop my phone and look back to him with a sweet smile on my face. "Well, what about your future? Where do you see yourself later in life?"
I think for a second before I ask, "What about you? What do you have planned?"
"Actually, I see myself working with the military. Traveling the world, fighting for the country I was born and raised in, and doing it with my best friend by my side."
"Best friend?"
"My friend, Luke. He was the guy who's birthday we were celebrating the other night. Honestly, he and I are only going to college because of our friends. But we've always wanted to join the military."
As he talks, I see a light somewhat start to shine in his eyes. I can see that he is slowly starting to forget that I'm even here, and he just continues to talk about this. I can't help but smile as he spends the next couple of minutes just talking about something he's so passionate about. And he doesn't stop until his friend pops in and gives us both our drinks.
Once his friend leaves, he chuckles and says, "Sorry. I got a bit carried away."
"Don't apologize. I think it's really cool that you're so passionate about something like that."
He's cheeks turn a light shade of pink and he rubs the back of his neck. "Well, let's move on. So, what did you want to do?"
"I don't really know. My boss has been slowly starting to show me how to run things behind the scenes. If he's serious about it, I might take over the club when he's ready to leave."
"Wow, that definitely is a good plan. But, what if that doesn't work out? Do you have a plan B?"
"Do you?"
"Try two. I'm going to college for the most basic level of education right now, but might look into getting into some EMT training right after. Going to college does give me a backup plan," he laughs. "Not only that, but my dad is good friends with a mechanic a few towns over. I actually know quite a bit about cars, so the guy said he could give me a job there if I wanted it."
I hum and look down. "I guess I never thought of a back up plan. I don't know what I would do."
"Well, you look a bit young. I'm sure you have plenty of time to think of something."
I feel a hint of fear hit my heart as I hear the words leave his mouth. "How old do you think I am?"
He shrugs his shoulders and says, "I don't know. Twenty; twenty-one. I don't think you can serve drinks under nineteen."
I silently sigh and smile. "I'm twenty-one," I lie.
"Nice, same age as me."
"That's a lie," we hear as Mark walks by the table to help someone else.
"Fuck you," Jon growls under his breath before he says, "It's not a full lie. I'm turning twenty-one in a few months."
"May isn't a few months," Mark then says, walking past us again as he carries a bill past us.
"That wasn't even your table, fucker," Jon growls again, glaring at Mark as he walks behind the counter.
I can't help but laugh at the two before Jon turns back to me and rolls his eyes. "Okay, I'm a year younger than you. Big deal. When's your birthday?"
"May thirty-first."
"Damn, mine is May second."
I chuckle, "That sounds like we wouldn't have any excuse to forget each other's birthdays then." I then look down to my phone and see that I had a text from Ohm.
"Yeah, change the subject. Remember what I told you. Get him to talk about himself more than he gets you to talk about yourself. It will be easier to tell if he was watching you if he tells you about himself first."
I look back up to him and smile again. "So, what made you want to go out with me? Was it my job, or the fact that you just couldn't have me or something."
He laughs and says, "Oh believe me, that fact that Tyler pressed so hard against me having you added to it, but it was definitely your job that got me thinking about you. Not for the reason you think. When I look at you, I can't help but think of a jock, or a music geek."
"Those don't really mix."
"I've seen a lot of hot music geeks before. But, a stripper wasn't what I thought of as a job for you. Hell, even a bouncer or a bartender made more sense. Even if you were on hard times, I never would have thought the only place you could have gotten work would have been there."
"Well, it's a great place to work. I love it. The people I work with are amazing, the customers are nice, and my boss is more than amazing as it is. The only thing I don't like are the rules, but I understand why we have all of them."
"Well, have you ever thought about going back to college. From what Tyler has told us, you guys don't pay rent at the apartments you all live at, so it makes sense that you would have the money to put yourself through school."
"I haven't even finished high school, so-"
"Wait, you haven't?"
"No, I dropped out when I left home."
"Well, you have some time before you're too old. Why don't you finish up school or get a G.E.D.? I've heard those are pretty hard to get, but it's better to have something. Plus, it could open the door for you to get a plan B set up for you."
I bite my lip and look out the window into the dark streets. That's the same thing Ohm has been telling me.
"I'll... I'll think about it. But, like I said-"
"Talk to your boss as well." I look back to him when he says that. "You said your boss has been showing you how things worked on the back end, right? Well, if you finish up high school and go to college for a business degree, that might impress him enough to really give you the position when he steps down."
My eyes widen as that thought flows through my mind. I've never thought about it like that before.
Before I could tell him I'd think about it again, our food is brought to us. We end up spending the rest of our night just talking and laughing. It didn't take us too long to start talking about video games, music, movies, and stupid stories about our friends. My guard slowly falls as time flies by, and before I know it, hours have gone by.
Jon paid the check, but he and I end up staying in that booth for much longer than I realized. The entire time, he didn't really hit on me, but I felt so comfortable with him that I ended up allowing him to caress my hand most of the night as we talked.
It wasn't until I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket that I looked at the clock. Sure enough, it was one in the morning, and Ohm and Smitty were texting me to make sure I was still alive.
"Oh damn," I hear Jon say as he looks at his watch. "I was joking when I said we'd be out until you club closed."
"It's alright," I tell him with a smile. "I had a lot of fun."
He smiles back and takes my hand, "Let me walk you to your car. I would drive you to your apartment, but I'm sure Tyler will have people looking for me there."
I chuckle and nod my head before standing with him and walking out. He keeps his hand tightly wrapped around mine as he walks me over to my car, which is in the middle of the half empty parking lot. Once we're at my car, I open the driver side door before turning around to face him again.
"I had a lot of fun. We should do this again soon."
"How about tomorrow? If you don't work, I mean."
I pretend to this for a minute before I say, "I think I'm free. What did you have in mind?"
"How about movie and dinner? You know, since, we're bad at keeping track of time."
I laugh and nod. "I'd like that."
He and I stare into each other's eyes for a bit before I notice that he is starting to lean into me. My heart starts beating much harder and faster than it has in years, but unlike before, I don't mind this feeling. My stomach is twisting into knots from being nervous, but it doesn't stop me.
I slowly shut my eyes and lean into him as well, putting my hands on his chest and slowly allowing our lips to touch. The kiss only last for a couple of seconds, but it was just enough to make me want more.
It's clear that he felt the same way, because half a second after we start to pull away from each other, he wraps one of his arms around my waist and pulls me into him. His other arm then goes around my back, and he uses that hand to cradle my head as he goes back in to kiss me again. This time however, he parts his lips a bit and focuses on one lip at a time as he kisses me. I keep my eyes shut and melt into his arms, sliding my arms up his body and wrapping them around his neck, enjoying every passing second of this.
In the middle of this breath taking kiss, I feel him suddenly lick my bottom lip. Admittedly, I spent a lot of my time reading stories online, so I wasn't confused about what that action meant. However, I did feel a bit scared, knowing that in every story I've read, this always led to the same thing.
When I feel him lick my lip again, I decide that the best thing I can do at this moment would be to open my mouth. If I had more of a choice, I would have pushed him away, however, I'm actually not too sure how tight of a hold he has on my body, and I'm a little afraid to find out.
Seconds after I opened my mouth, I feel his tongue slide into my mouth, and I can't help but moan as he tilts his head from side to side, having his tongue dance around in my mouth, and still going back to that same kiss we had been doing before, only adding his tongue for a few seconds at a time. Every second of this kiss makes me feel like I'm getting high. Everything around me melts away, and a warm light surrounds us. I don't hear cars or the buzzing from the lights. The world has stopped. Only for us.
When Jon finally pulls away, I open my eyes half way and look up to him. We're both panting a little, but when our eyes lock, we just smile at each other.
"That has to be the best damn kiss I've ever had," he tells me, chuckling a bit as the words leave his lips.
I laugh and push him slightly. "We'll have to do that again soon," I say in a playful tone.
He laughs and pulls me close again, kissing my forehead before he starts walking backwards towards the diner. I practically fall into my car, and shut the door behind me, locking it automatically. I start laughing, my face starting to hurt from smiling so much, and I push my hair out of my face as I look up to the top of my car. My heart is pounding so hard in my chest that I feel like it's going to break my rib cage.
After some time, I pull myself somewhat together and start up my car. I can still feel my cheeks hurting from smiling so much, however, I choose to ignore it. Right now, I'm still high off of that kiss with Jon. I never knew something as simple as a kiss could make that happen. Make me feel this way.
I don't start coming down until I'm about half way to the apartments, and it isn't until then that I remember what Ohm told me about driving home. Once I do however, I look in my rearview mirror and see a pair of headlights.
How long has this person been behind me?
I decide to play it safe, so as soon as I can, I make a right turn onto another main road and look back into the rearview. The car makes a right turn. My heart sinks in my chest for a second, and I quickly make another right turn when I get to another main road. The car also makes a right turn into that street.
I take a mental note of the car as it turns the corner. Black, four door truck. Afterwards, I drive to the next main road and make another right turn. I continue to do this, going in a complete circle about three times. Then, I grab my phone and start to dial the number Smitty gave me before I left.
Before I make the call though, I look into the rearview as I make another right turn, only to see the truck drive straight through the light this time. I sigh when I see this and put my phone away. When I can, I get back onto the right road and continue to drive, checking my rearview more often until I get back to the apartments.
Who was following me... What car did Jon drive?