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“Thanks for the outfit Nadia.” Ellena mumbled as the auburn-haired woman swept past her behind the curtain.
“No problem. Are you sure you want to do this?” Nadia was concerned. It took a certain kind of person to be a stripper and Nadia knew that Ellena was not the type. “Ken must have something big on you to force you to do this.” She stated.
Ellena’s remained fixed on the opening in the curtain as she replied with no emotion. “He does.”
The beginning of some familiar music followed the muffled introduction by the house DJ.
All she wants is… all she wants is…
“I hate this fucking song.” Ellena said under her breath. In one swift movement, she swept back the curtain and held her breath as she stepped onto the stage. The beat of the music pounded in her head like a sledgehammer. She squinted into the blinding spotlight, trying to focus on the room of people she didn’t really want to see.
Ken had been right, no one was close enough to notice minor imperfections in her figure. Thankfully, no one was close enough to see the tears of humiliation in her eyes either. Even if they had been close enough for them to see her face, nobody ever looked at it anyway. The men at these clubs came to see other parts of her body.
She willed her arms and legs to keep time to the music. Her eyes grew accustomed to the spotlight’s brightness and she was finally able to see into the lounge. Ellena watched as Kevin, Nick and AJ rose from their table and walked out the door. Blatant shock ran across the faces of Nick and AJ, but Kevin’s expression only showed sheer disappointment and anger.
Without waiting for the rest of the song to play out, she ran across the stage to the back. She grabbed the first jacket that she saw and pulled it over what little clothes she still had on. She opened the back door and ran into the pouring rain, after Kevin. She screamed his name as her stiletto heels dug into the mud.
“Kevin! Kevin! Wait!”
She ran past the rows of parked cars, her eyes straining to see him through the hard rain. The glow from the streetlight caught the reflection of a car door opening. Ellena pulled the jacket tighter around her shivering figure. “Kevin, please let me explain.” She said, coming up behind him. Nick and AJ got into the car and Kevin remained standing. He turned his eyes to Ellena and she froze to see the disappointment emanating from their emerald depths.
“What is there to explain, Ellena? You refuse to let me help you and then you do this?” He spat in disgust.
“I didn’t have a choice, Kevin. He said-“
“You did have a choice!” Kevin screamed. “You could have let me help you. That is all I ever wanted to do.”
“But Ken-“ Ellena tried desperately to make him listen.
“I don’t want to hear about Ken. Good bye Ellena.” Kevin yanked open the car door and got in. He ignored Ellena’s desperate pleas for him to listen as he slammed the door and ordered AJ to drive.
Ellena watched the car drive through the lot as the rain fell over her, matting her hair and making her makeup run down her face.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Ken came up behind her and grabbed her by the arm.
Ellen struggled to break free of his grasp.
“Ken, please let go. You’re hurting me.”
“Get back inside to finish taking off your clothes.”
“No. I’ll be back for my shift on Monday.”
“You’ll be back for your shift tomorrow night.”
“You said I could have the rest of the weekend off!”
Ellena dug her stilettos into the mud and tried again to yank her arm from Ken’s vice-like grip. “Let go of me, you son of a bitch. I am not going back in there to strip on your stage. You can’t-“ Her sentence was cut off by a hard and powerful blow to her face by Ken’s open hand.
AJ silently maneuvered his car out of the parking lot. In the corner of his eye, Kevin could see Ellena and Ken shouting at each other in the rain. “Just keep driving.” He said to AJ. Kevin looked back at the two blurred figures in the rain. He watched as Ken raised his arm to Ellena and slapped her hard across the face with the back of his hand. “Stop the car.” He said to AJ.
AJ started to protest. “But you said –“
“I said stop the fucking car!” Kevin shouted. AJ stepped on the brake and took the car out of gear. Kevin opened the door and got back out into the rain. Nick and AJ exchanged bewildered looks as Kevin sprinted towards the club.
Ellena tried again to shake herself free from Ken’s fist.
“I am through with being nice to you, Lucky. Either you get back in there and take off your clothes or-“
“Or what?” Ellena screamed.
A swift movement caught Ken’s attention in the lot behind Ellena. The pop star was coming to save his damsel in distress. Ken grinned. He was pretty sure he had the power to quash any chivalrous intentions that Kevin had. “Or you can get your boyfriend to pay for it again.” He smiled greasily at Ellena.
Ellena’s eyebrows furrowed together. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh did I let something out that I shouldn’t have? Oops! Silly me.” Ken covered his smile with his hand in an attempt to look innocent. “Come now, Ellena. You didn’t think I’d let you leave for two weeks without being compensated for the work you missed, did you?”
Ellena fought to find her voice as realization set in. “So you asked Kevin to pay for my time?”
Kevin ran across the muddy parking lot and up to Ken Dahl. He put his body between Ken and Ellena and shoved Ken’s chest. “Get your hands off of her.” He growled.
Ken’s eyes never wavered from Ellena as he was violently pushed backwards.
“Oh no honey, I didn’t have to. He came to me all on his own. Didn’t you Kevin? Tell her.” Ken could barely hide the amusement on his face.
Kevin turned to look at Ellena. She was covering her cheek with her hand. Her lip was split and bleeding. She looked up to stare at him with her hollow grey eyes.
“Tell me it’s not true.” Kevin gave Ellena a blank look. “Kevin, tell me it’s not true.” She had that look on her face, the look of hurt and betrayal. The look that Kevin promised would never be there because of him. “Please tell me you didn’t pay Ken for my time like he was my pimp.”
Kevin’s eyes widened with the realization of what Ken had just revealed to her. “Ellena, it wasn’t like that.”
“You don’t deny it then?” It was more of a statement than a question.
“You needed to get away.” He pleaded.
“So you thought you could buy my time like a two-bit whore?”
Kevin stepped closer to Ellena and tried to put his arms around her. Her grey eyes pierced him to the soul
She looked away and whispered. “Please don’t touch me.”
“Oh! Coming to her rescue are you?” Ken laughed arrogantly. “Take a look at her. I don’t think she wants to be rescued by you.”
Kevin’s hands dropped to his side. “Ellena, you know I never thought that. You know me.”
“No, I don’t. I don’t know you at all.” Ellen turned on her heel, ran past Ken and back inside the club. Kevin made a move to follow her but was stopped by Ken’s hand on his chest.
“It looks like she’s already made her choice. You should leave.” With that, Ken turned to walk back inside.
“Ken?” Kevin called behind him.
Ken twisted his head around to respond. “What do you want now?” He sneered. His question was answered by Kevin’s fist slamming against his face. Ken fell to his knees and brought his hands up to stop the blood that had already started to drop to the mud. Kevin pushed his wet hair out of his face and walked back to the car. Wordlessly, he closed the door and buckled his seatbelt. AJ and Nick sat in stunned silence as Kevin stared out the front window. After a moment of AJ and Nick staring at him with wide eyes, Kevin turned to AJ. “Can we go now please?” AJ nodded and turned the key in the ignition.
“Can you say lawsuit?” Nick sputtered from the backseat.
“What are you talking about?” Kevin asked in short, bitten off words.
“I think you broke that guy’s nose!” Nick replied. He had rarely seen Kevin act on his emotions with such violence. Usually he was so cool and levelheaded.
“Uh huh.” Kevin pointed at the stop light up the street. “Turn left there.” He said to AJ.
“But that’s the wrong way.” AJ corrected. “Your house is to the right.”
“I know that. Ellena’s house is to the left.”
Without hesitation, AJ signaled and changed lanes.