"I think he's going to have the first wrestling match between our sets."
"Oh no, you're kidding." Crystal paused in the middle of pulling her arm through the sleeve. "Is he nuts?"
"He says he can get two extra matches in this way," Monica shrugged. An angry pounding on the door announced Rick's growing impatience.
"We'll be right there," Crystal yelled, jerking her arm the rest of the way through. She hadn't even stepped on stage and already was dreading the upcoming night.
Crystal had every reason to be uneasy about the night. The announcement of women's mud wrestling had done more than draw the rowdy drinkers. Several tables were filled with members of a local college's fraternity. Peeking out through the curtain on thee.g.of the stage, she saw a sea of red sweatshirts with Greek letters on them, the tables overflowing with beer bottles. Damn. Another look around showed to her dismay that there was only one, not two bouncers standing near the stage. Terrific, just terrific. Why don't we just put up a sign saying "attack the dancers, we don't care." She reached down and tugged on the spandex riding up her crotch. Monica came up behind her. "It doesn't look good, does it?"
"College night," Crystal replied. "I only see Tony working the stage."
"Don't go too close to thee.g.of the stage," the older stripper said. "Those frat boys are a dangerous lot. You'll be three rows back on someone's lap before you know it."
"Rick better keep an eye on things, that's all I can say," Crystal sighed, knowing her work was cut out for her that evening. The manager in question appeared at just that moment.
"Let's go girls. There's paying customers out that that was a good show from you two. Crystal, use the right pole. You're more what those guys on that side want."
Meaning the frat boys asked you to put me on their side of the stage, she though to herself, walking past Monica to stand near the right pole. Rick stepped between the curtains and the crowd quieted down. "The management of the Tom Cat Club would like to welcome you all here this evening for a very special show. Not only do we have six separate matches scheduled throughout the evening" He had to pause as the din turned into shouts of approval. Crystal felt her mood darken as the seconds ticked away. I'm so damn tired of this.
Rick's microphone amplified voice broke into her thoughts. " but we also have the very sexy Crystal Peaks here to entertain you along with the ever popular Monica." At the mention of their names, the strippers reached for the poles, readying themselves for the start of the music and the rising of the curtain. "And so without further ado, let me introduce Crystal Peaks and Monica." The speakers on either side of the stage began blaring a rhythmic beat.
The first thing she noticed when the curtain went up was all the students huddled on the her side of the stage. This isn't going to be good. Picking up her cue from Monica, she made a quick turn around the pole, stopping in front of it to do a shoulder shimmy.
"Aw, stop screwing around and show us those tits!" one of the frat boys shouted. Several of his cohorts yelled in agreement, banging their beer bottles down on the table for emphasis. The result was a massive scramble as foam ran down the bottles and all over the tables. Crystal kept her eye on the flurry of movement, missing a cue and falling out of step to the music.
Dammit. She did some quick double-stepping to get herself back in time with the music. Concentrating on her routine, she danced back and forth half-heartedly trying to entice the men with her body. The bouncer was positioned on Monica's side of the stage, providing no protection for her from the horny fraternity.
"Let's go ladies," another frat boy shouted. "We want tits and we want them now!" His buddies around him took up the chant, pounding their fists on the tables.
"We want tits! We want tits!"
Rick ran across the stage and down the steps to reach the frat boys. Things quieted down quickly after that and Crystal was able to resume her routine. Looking over to Monica, she nodded and listened for the right spot in the music. In synch both women lowered the zippers on their spandex tops, revealing bare skin beneath. Normally Crystal would draw this part out, teasing the audience with what was to come. Tonight however, drawing out the set was not something she had any interest in doing. The jackets were whipped off and tossed behind them on the stage, followed quickly by the spandex pants. Monica moved to thee.g.of the stage, kneeling down before a table of middle-aged men. Dollar bills quickly found themselves wedged under the thin strap of her G-string. The frat boys were hooting and waving bills as well but Crystal didn't want to go anywhere near them, choosing instead to go to the front of the stage and do her shimmy there. The boys howled their disappointment and began pounding the tables again. She looked over to Monica, hoping the older woman would take pity on her and entertain the frat boys but even the extra tip money wasn't enough to get the redheaded stripper to move to Crystal's side of the stage.
Fuck. She knew Rick was somewhere amongst the sea of red-shirted boys and hoped he would be enough to keep them under control. Plastering a fake smile to her lips, Crystal hesitantly went over to them. A beefy guy with his hair buzzed almost completely off leaned over the rail and held a five dollar bill out. Kneeling down in front of him, she shimmied and wiggled, making her breasts wave and bounce. She offered him a hip side of her G-string to slip the bill into but he had other ideas. He hooked his fingers around the string and tugged hard, jerking her off the stage. Crystal fell onto the table, beer bottles wedged against her back. It took a second for the pain of the cigarette against her back to override the painful squeeze of her nipple by the jock's fingers. She kicked and jerked wildly, causing him to pinch the tender flesh. "Son of a bitch!" he screamed when her heeled foot made contact with his ribs.
Focusing more on stopping the burning pain in her back than where her foot landed, Crystal never saw the backhand coming. Hard knuckles and an oversized class ring connected with a resounding slap. "You fucking bitch!"
Strong hands pulled her off the table and away from the drunken man. The lights went up, drowning the room in brightness and the music stopped. Crystal noticed none of it, her eyes closed tight against the reality of what was happening. Voices were shouting, mixing together into a deafening din. Hands were squeezing her shoulders, touching her face. Her left nipple throbbed from the painful pinching, helping blend the past and present together until Crystal found herself unable to distinguish between the two. Visions of her father's face floated behind closed lids until, dizzy from the sensory overload, Crystal let the welcoming darkness take her.
She woke up to find herself laying on the couch in the dressing room. Monica was sitting on a chair at the table, reading a romance novel. Oh God, what happened? she thought to herself, bringing her hand up to rub her eyes. "Ow." She winced at the pain on her face.
"Crys? You awake? God girlfriend, you had us worried. Rick said if you didn't wake up by the end of the next set we'd have to call an ambulance." "That was big of him," she mumbled, carefully touching the tender area on the right side of her mouth. "What happened?"
"I'm not sure. I heard the commotion but by the time I got over there you were passed out or unconscious or whatever. Rick had them bring you in here. He had to put the wrestlers on early and told them they have to do extra matches." It was then that Crystal noticed Monica was dressed in her street clothes. "You'd think the least the cheap bastard could do is pay me half of the tips I'm going to lose for the rest of the night but no, you know what that son of a bitch does? He tells me if I want to work the rest of the night I have to be one of the wrestlers."
She sat up, inhaling sharply as she did so, the burn stinging. "Yeah I guess I probably do look like a fright now." Even without a mirror she knew her lip was swollen and bloody. "Can you hand me a washcloth or something?"