Coming in unannounced, drag my nails on the tile
I just followed your scent, you can just follow my smile …
Those lyrics started to blare into my eardrum and right on cue one of the models strutted out from the right side of the stage and struck a pose on center stage. She started to walk with confidence and a huge smile on her face. She really did look like a firework. Her bra and lacy thong is a deep red color and she's wearing a gold chain that wrapped around her neck, runs down her torso, and then split into two chains wrapping around her hips. Looked like a peace sign actually. Her "wings" didn't really look like wings though. More like a ferris wheel blinking all different colors. Her long curly hair was bouncing up and down to the beat of the song and her arms were swaying from back to front. I probably shouldn't be looking at her for this long or else I'll hear it from Rose, or even Kyle. I sneak a look at Kyle and then Steph and see them both drooling over this women.
"Damn," Kyle let out, "good thing you're dating one of the models or else we wouldn't be here."
"You're welcome," I respond with heavy sarcasm. I look back up at the stage and the first model was already at the end of the catwalk and blowing a kiss into the camera. When she turned around to start walking back, another model emerged at the back of the catwalk. She looked amazing as well and you could tell she had a lot confidence by the way she walked. I wonder if Rose is in this opening walk, I thought to myself. I have to make sure to pay attention and not miss her.
I'm gonna get you to burst just like you were a bubble
Frame me up on your wall just to keep me out of trouble …
Model after model kept on showing up, walking the catwalk, and then disappearing backstage. Still no Rose. And just like that she walked on from stage left, with a huge smile and hands in the air waving to the audience. She looked beautiful. Her costume is simpler from the others but I don't mind. She wore a florescent pink, jewel studded bra and a matching thong that had a firework silhouette on each side of her hip. Her brunette hair is in loose curls and bopping up and down. She's making her way down to the middle of the catwalk and I can tell by her eyes that she's searching for me. About five feet away from me, we lock eyes and I can tell she's relieved. She blows me a kiss from both of her hands and I blow one right back. Hopefully that was the right move. She keeps walking towards the camera at the end of the stage, pose and starts walking back. At this time another model makes her way onto the stage but I make sure not to take my eyes off Rose. She's making her way back and gives me a small wave. I continue to keep clapping and sustain my smile. She gets to back of the stage and disappears.
"Dude, Mike!" Kyle is nudging me with his elbow in the arm at this point.
"What?" I turn towards him annoyed at this point. I'm expecting him to say some smartass comment about how Rose looked.
"Did you just see that girl?" Kyle asks me with a little panic in his voice while pointing to the girl that walked on the stage after Rose. I look up at the stage but the model had her back towords us at this point and was making her way off. She was wearing a coral teal bra and thong. A long white piece of lace hung from the bra straps and formed a train that that followed her every step. Straight long blond hair stopped at her mid-back and had a real shine to it.
I look back at him, "No Why? Is she hot?" Probably shouldn't be asking that question.
I hear Steph Curry to the right of me respond, "Hell yeah! Sorry to overhear."
I give a quick laugh and look back over at Kyle. At this point Kyle is running his hand through his hair like he's seen a ghost. "You didn't see her at all?" He asks one more time.
"No man, why?!" I'm starting to get annoyed.
"Dear lord. I'll point her out to you when she shows up again." And he left it at that. What. The. Hell. Man. Either this girl is hot as fuck or maybe someone that we both know. Either way, he probably just wants to sleep with her tonight. Pig.
I focus back to the show and the song is coming to an end. The last model exists the stage and a loud applause erupts from the audience. The stage goes back to black and the screen changes from Firework to Wedding Night.
I can hear Steph let out a "Yeah!" out of excitement. He grabs my right shoulder and give it a little shake. "Get ready man!"
Rose probably isn't in this theme, I mean, she was just on stage like two minutes ago. Same as that other girl. No way anyone can change that fast. At least I'll be able to sit back, relax and watch this theme in peace. The lights on the catwalk start to fade back on and the faint background music starts to build up.
I still hear your voice when you sleep next to me
I still feel your touch in my dreams
Forgive me my weakness…
Oh god, I think to myself, this song. I guess it fit the theme pretty well though. A very tall model emerges from the back of the stage and damn does she look good. She's wearing an all-black corset with huge black angle wings. She had heels on with straps that reached her mid-thigh. I could hear both Steph and Kyle breathing deeply. She's strutting her way down the stage and my eyes keep following. I start to feel another poke in my rib. What now?
"Her, that's her." Kyle spitted out before I could question him. He was staring deeply at this particular model. That quick, I think to myself, she was just in the first show. Maybe Rose will be in this theme as well. I turn my head from the front of the stage to the back in order to see this mystery model. Right away I feel my heart sink to my stomach, my stomach turn into knots and my face start to turn red. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. At this point I'm mouthing that word over and over again to myself.
"Yeah, that's what I thought," Kyle whispered as he could tell what I was thinking. Nikita. Memories of Kyle's and mine high school years started popping up in my head. No, I thought to myself, just let it go. This isn't going to ruin my night. Nikita's wearing an all-white corset and thong. There was a strap of fabric with a buckle that connected the two undergarments. Each of her white fluffy wings was bigger than her body. I'm surprised she can even stand up. She wore about five inch heels that covered her ankles. Her long blond hair were in beach waves with flowers throughout it. I wonder if she's seen my in the audience yet. She makes her way past Kyle and I, as well as the drooling Steph Curry. She keeps her eyes on locked in front of her, but continues to wave and blow kisses to the side cameras. At the end of the stage, she takes her pose, like usual and turns around to make her wat back. God damn. This is going to be on hell of a mess of a night. As she's about to make her way past us, Kyle decides to be his dumb as self.
"Yeah, Nikita!" He yells in her direction as she's walking past us. I'm going to commit murder tonight. Right there and then, she turns towards us and I can tell she was caught by surprise. Our eyes locked for a split second but she seemed to keep her cool. More than I did. She gave us a little wave while keeping her smile and continued to make her way off the stage. The camera right across my seat panned from Nikita to me. I shift my head to the other model right away to make it look like I'm not staring at one girl, other than Rose, for too long. But shit.
"I'm going to kill you later on tonight," I say through my gridded teeth in Kyle's direction. I sneak a look over to Nikita and see her last step as she exits the stage. Thank God. Hopefully that's the last time I'll see her on the stage. I wouldn't be able to make it through the night if I had to see her on the stage again. Practically naked. Never in my high school career would I have thought I was see Nikita naked. I continue to focus on the rest of the models making their way on and off the stage. But not focus too long. As I expected, Rose wasn't in this theme. How the hell did Nikita change that fast, I think to myself again. Let it go.
Can't you feel my heart beat fast,
I want this to last,
Need you by my side…
The Wedding Night theme song comes to an end and the last model makes her grand exit. Under the given circumstances, that was an amazing theme. Costumes, models, energy, etc. was great. The lights dim down again like previously and on the screen it reads "Three minute break". Praise the Lord.
Kyle jumps out of his seat and grabs me by the collar to follow him. We make out way past the crowd of people and out of the room through the black double doors. He keeps dragging me until we get to the bar.
"Two shots of Bacardi," he practically yells at the bartender. He looks over at me, "You probably need two for yourself." He knows me too well. He must be freaking out too. The bartender places the two shots in front of us. Kyle grabs them both, hands me one, clinks them and downs his. I down mine and it's just what I needed. I feel my nerves calm down for a bit. "I can't believe this," Kyle breaks the silence.
"I know." I say just to say something. I'm still waiting for the Bacardi to kick in completely. "Did you know about this?"
"No way man," Kyle answers in disbelief. "As soon as we left high school I cut ties. Especially the end of college. With basically everyone." I look at him and nod in agreement. He's right, both of us cut ties. Once people started to hear that we were in the NFL draft during our sophomore year of college, everyone wanted to be our friends. It was hard to differentiate your true friends and just fans. I look up at the TV screens and see that the Giants won again the Packers. Bloody hell. This night keeps on getting worse and worse.
"I can't believe I've never heard of her from Rose. She always talks about her model friends. Annoying really." I say in Kyle's direction as I place the shot glass down on the counter and readjust my cuffs. Maybe this is Nikita's first fashion show and they haven't met yet.
"I don't know man," he stammers, "but time to go back in. Let's just finish this night." Agreed. He puts his glass down and starts to walk back into the room. I follow him in and we both take our seats. Curry was still in his seat and swallowed into his phone. The room starts to fill back up again with guests and chattering started to build up about the models are all around me.
"Wedding night was amazing."
"Those models look great this year. A lot of new faces."
"Beautiful faces."
"That one model in all-white was breath taking." Can I catch a damn break?
I feel a pair of hands hit my shoulders from behind, "Rose looked great up there man. One lucky guy." I look up behind me and see Roger Federer standing.
"Thank you Fed." I say with a smile and turn back around to face the stage. Finally I get a comment about Rose that's not from Kyle. Guests start to take their seats and lights start to dim down once more. I look over to the screen in the back to see what theme is up next. Inspiration. I'm guessing this is the athlete inspiration theme. Meaning that Rose will definitely be in this one. That gets me a bit more excited about this theme and I start to ease up. 'Hey, Rose will be in this one," I shift towards Kyle's direction.
"Act happy," he mouths. Dick. It's pitch black now and silence overcomes the room.
Hey baby girl
Lookin' all done up
I wanna know
Where did you come from?
The heat begins to raise
Oh, I like this song. The first model emerges and it's not Rose. Or Nikita. This one was "supporting" LeBron James. You can tell easily because she's wearing a long basketball jersey with the team name Cavaliers on the front and number 23 on the back. The jersey went down to her belly button and she wore hip huggers underwear that matched the dark burgundy of the team's color. On the back of the underwear it read "James". I don't remember seeing LeBron in the audience but maybe he's sitting around here somewhere. She continued to strut her stuff and another model walked on out. Rose. She looked like an eagle. Original. But still hot. Her wings were a dark green and had the feeling of an eagle. She wore a green jewel studded bra with a white outline of the number 22. That's my number on the team. Her thong was made of white lace and laced shoes all the way up. Amazing. Rose walked past me and did her little "blow a kiss" bit. I stop clapping and blow her a kiss back. She keeps walking straight and reaches the end of the stage.
"Feeling better," Kyle sneaks in before Rose turned around. Yes. She starts walking back now and gives a little wave. She makes her way out and other models come one by one. There was a model that represented Roger Federer, Eli Manning, Carli Loyd, etc. The song was getting to its last verse and the model that was wearing a soccer outfit made her way off the stage.
And then something strange started to happen to the stage. The stage started to lower but still have a six inch ledge. Water came rushing from the front of the stage and covered the surface. The water didn't spill over into the audience due to the ledge. Fog started to come up and it looked like a scene from a horror movie. The last verse of the song started up and on that beat a model walked out. Shit.
Such a beautiful crowd, level's on ten
People standing on chairs
With their hands up in the air…
Next to me Steph Curry let out a load "yeah" in excitement and he had every right too. Nikita. She walked out representing him and I'm not going to lie, I felt a bit jealous. She was wearing a Gold State Warrior jersey that was cut off right below her chest. The Golden State Warrior logo was on the front with Steph Curry's last name and number, 30, on the back. A gold rope crisscrossed around her slim body, across her abs, and connected to her gold bold thong. Her heels were like actual Egyptian shoes, gold straps laced up to her mid-thigh and matched her whole outfit. She was walking through water. Literally. Yes it's about an inch of water that went up to her ankles, but in high heels. While carrying a basketball. Nikita juggled the basketball in her hands from side to side while he made her way down toward us. With every step she took, water would splash up to at least her mid-thigh. As she past us Kyle slammed on my foot started to clap.
Steph Curry stood up giving her a standing ovation. Shit, I should have done that for Rose. All around the room a roar of clapping exploded. She kept walking towards the end of the stage without looking at any of us. She posed her pose, turned around and started walking back towards us. She looks directly at me and I didn't know what do. I continued to smile, clap and try to keep my cool. Her eyes shifted to Steph and he was losing his shit at this point. The second she was parallel of him she tossed her basketball in his direction. He barely caught it, dropped it down in his seat and continued to clap. Nikita kept walking, keeping her balance through the rushing water, and finally exited the stage at the end of the song. Steph sat back down with a huge smile on his face.
"I love this show," he says with excitement in his voice. No shit.
"Who wouldn't," Kyle answered in his direction.
From the front of the stage, the top layer came back on and the water disappeared. I look at the back of the stage and see the wording changed from Inspiration to 2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. The song Applause by Lady Gaga boomed in the arena. Models start to come out from stage right and left forming two lines. Confetti is falling from the ceiling and the aroma in the room comes to life. The crowd around me stand up to clapping as the models come out for their bow. I see Rose come out in the middle of the line. She was wearing the same outfit from the Inspiration theme but no wings. She makes her way towards the front of the stage where the other models are dancing around in place. The two lines of models come to an end and I realize Nikita isn't on the stage yet. Where is that girl?
I've overheard your theory
"Nostalgia's for geeks"
I guess sir, if you say so
Some of us just like to read…
The song is coming to an end and still no sign. The crowd is still cheering and clapping while the models, and Rose, continue to dance on the stage. To the side of me Kyle and Steph seem to start to get tired of the clapping. Rose looks over in my direction with a huge smile and I give her a sweet wave and thumbs up. What more can I do. Then all the sudden all the models turn towards the back of the stage to reveal Nikita making her way down the stage in one of those signature pink and white stripped robe.
"Why's she in a fucking robe?" Steph asks in my direction with disappointment. I don't know man, maybe she's fucking cold.
"Probably cause of the water," I say back. He nods with reasoning. The models kid of separate as Nikita makes her way down the stage. She glides through the dry surface and stands next to Rose and some other model. Both of the two girls had a smile or their face and Roe turns to Nikita's directions to give her a hug. Nikita opens up her arms and they embrace each other swinging from side to side. I think I'm going to be sick.
"Well this is awkward," Kyle reads my mind. Both of the girls let go of each other and the song finally comes to an end. The models turn around and start to make their way backstage. As Rose passes she waves towards me again and this time I don't respond. I'm just annoyed at this point. Nikita passes the three of us without looking in our direction. When the stage is finally cleared the lights in the room starts to become more brightening. "Ready to go back stage?"
"Dear God." I forgot about that. Hopefully I won't see to much of her backstage of at the after party.
"You guys are going backstage? Lucky! I'll see you at the party in a couple hours then," Steph says as he taps the back of my shoulder and turns around to leave. I get up from my seat and stand up right next to Kyle.
"Alright let's go." I say as I readjust my tux, turn around and start walking through the crowd of people. Again, comments about the show go in and out of my ear.
"I think this year was the best!"
"That was very sexy."
"All the models looked great up there. The themes were spot on."
These kind of conversations could be over heard as I made my way toward the back of the stage with Kyle following me. There was another set of black doors with the lettering BACK STAGE written on them. I take out my backstage pass from my right inner pocket of my tuxedo. The security guard just glances at it – knowing who I am, and opens the doors. I take a step inside and madness can be seen the second I do.
