Okay, so I've got to give my SINCEREST apologies for making you guys wait so long for this chapter. I was at the tail-end of my senior year the last time I updated and now I am a high school graduate and things are starting to settle down some, so now (hopefully) I'll be writing more! And now, a huge thank you to everyone who has been reading, reviewing, and patiently waiting. You guys are AMAZING! Thank you for taking such interest in my story!
"I cannot even tell you," Casey panted, "How tired I am of having to run away."
Ignoring Casey's anger, Derek stared at her in awe, breathing heavily. "Jesus, Casey! Where'd that come from back there?"
"Yeah!" Adam cried, leaning on Derek's shoulder. "Who knew you had it in you?"
Casey glared at them both. "Shut up."
"I wonder if you popped her implant." Derek mused.
"Bro, that'd be so awesome!" Adam lifted his hand to high five his friend.
Derek halfheartedly attempted to meet Adam's palm with his own but gave up and just plopped himself down onto the sidewalk. Adam immediately followed suit, throwing himself across the pavement with no regard to the people walking down it. They gingerly stepped over him, giving polite but awkward smiles to Casey who had chosen to lean against a tree.
"Shut up." Casey groaned again, kicking some of the rocks from the planter that the tree was in in the direction of the guys.
"Hey, I am your number one fan." Adam puffed, slightly lifting his head to look at Casey. "Don't down on your number one fan."
"If you're my number one fan, then I need to seriously reevaluate my life." Casey said.
The three huffed in silence for a few minutes, letting themselves catch their breath and think over the events that had just occurred.
"Do you want to go to another strip club?" Derek asked suddenly.
"Are you kidding me?" Casey wanted to know. "Is it because you didn't get a lap dance before Adam almost got himself killed?"
"Hey," Adam said, holding up both his hands. "She seemed like a nice lady."
"No," Derek scowled. "Because all you did was sit there. What kind of experience is that? Going to a strip club to prove that you can really means nothing if you do nothing with the experience. We can go to one of the good ol' crappy ones that have hicks and skeeves and a 24 hours buffet with old buffalo wings!"
Casey chose not to respond.
Feeling unnoticed from the ground Adam waved his arms wildly. "I do, I do!"
"Well, of course you do." Derek said. "That's not even the question."
"Come on!" Adam whined. "Let's do it! What's stopping us?"
"My inherent need for self preservation?" Casey suggested.
"Who needs self preservation," Derek wondered aloud, "When there are chicken wings?" He shot up and pulled Adam to his feet.
"I don't feel safe." Casey enunciated at Derek, leaning toward him.
"What do you want me to say? We'll buy you a Snuggie later or something. Come on!" Derek motioned to start moving.
Casey glared at both Derek and Adam for a few moments before her shoulders slumped and she groaned, "Fine!" Before pulling herself away from the tree.
"Yes!" Adam cried, extending the S sound for several seconds before ending the word. He jumped up and gave one fist pump before turning around. "I know just where we're going!" Adam said, turning his head to look at Casey and Derek. "Follow me." He began skipping down the sidewalk.
"Why?" Casey asked, looking up at the sky.
Derek shook his head and pushed on the small of Casey's back, urging her to move forward. After a few minutes of walking, in which Adam had yet to cease skipping, Casey stopped and tilted her head to the side.
"You know what I just thought of?" Casey asked Derek.
"What?"
"Adam and Chuck would probably would have gotten along really well."
Derek couldn't help but laugh.
"Now this is a strip club." Derek smiled from where he was standing just a few steps inside the entrance. "Cheap seats, a buffet, no need to bribe the bouncer to get in, and a lovely sheen of grease on everything!" As he smiled contentedly Casey appeared to be trying to shrink into herself.
"A midget!" Adam cried out, sounding intensely excited. He began to lunge forward so that he could shoot across the room to where the midget stripper was but Derek caught him with a tight grip to the shoulder.
"Nuh uh. No way." Derek shook his head. "I already learned my lesson when it comes to you and midgets and we are not going there again, you hear me?"
Adam looked like a scolded puppy dog. His shoulders slumped as his bottom lip jutted out. "But-"
"No buts." Derek said. "This is for your own good." He stepped behind his friend and, with a hand on either shoulder, steered him in the direction of some seats, away from the midget.
Casey silently followed, not knowing what to make of the situation. She settled down in a seat between Derek and Adam.
"You look like you were just told soylent green was after eating a sandwich of it." Derek noted.
"I, uh-" Casey tried to formulate a way to describe how disturbed she was by the entire situation, but in the end all she could come up with was, "I think they prefer to be called little people."
Derek gave her a blank stare for a moment before laughing. "I pity you." He said.
For the next twenty minutes Casey carefully sipped on a beer that Adam had insisted on ordering her. She found herself with her back to Derek as he got a lap dance form a stripper originally named Candy, who had blood red dyed hair that was pulled up in pig tails, and snake bite piercings below her bottom lip. This allowed Casey to watch as Adam munched on his chicken wings, seemingly content to watch all the women from afar but now got suddenly very defensive and guarded if any of them approached him, once even throwing a dollar bill at a woman, telling her it was for if she would take five steps away from him.
"I was ruined tonight, Casey." Adam said mournfully. "I'll never be able to sleep with a stripper. They've officially been delegated to look but never touch status in my mind. Like rattlesnakes. Or monkey bars."
"Or cacti." Casey suggested.
Adam gave her a look as if she were crazy, "Cacti doesn't belong in that group." Adam shook his head and looked away, mumbling, "Obviously."
Casey chose not to respond.
"Alright, party people!" A voice called out over the club. Everyone took notice of the stripper standing at the front of the stage with a microphone. "It's time for our monthly amateur competition!" There was a speckling of hollers around the room. "For any virgins," the woman waggled her eyebrows suggestively, "to the club or it's traditions, here's how this works: Two hundred bucks taken out of our, "she gestured at her fellow strippers, "hard earned money over the last month and has been collected and now it's up for grabs. Any of the ladies that are here tonight-ladies only- are welcomed up here to face the pole!" She turned sideways and held out her arm to the stripper pole in the center of the stage. "The amateur who does the best gets the cash, simple as that! Now come on up!"
There was a surprising, but not an overwhelming, amount of women in the strip club that didn't actually work there, and it seemed that most of them were getting up and forming a line at the stairs of the stage. Casey watched in odd fascination as she watched the women of all different shapes, colors, styles, and states of undress step up, ready to straddle a pole in hopes of making some money.
"200 bucks is a good deal for going up on a pole." Adam leaned closer to Casey. "I think you could bag it without a sweat."
"I am not going up there." Casey shook her head. "This is just a sad situation."
"You're hotter than everyone in here." Adam nudged her shoulder. "Take a chance. It's only a few minutes out of your life."
Casey shot him the obligatory look of disgust but couldn't help but think about what he had said. She shifted in her seat slightly and Adam whispered, "Do it! Do it! Do it!" His face getting closer to hers as he said it.
Casey sat resolutely with her arms crossed, determined to ignore Adam. But, she knew, her will power wasn't at it's strongest tonight, and Adam's face was inches from her ear, still chanting, working her nerves quickly and efficiently.
"Fine!" Casey cried. She shot up out of her seat but turned to look at Adam with some doubt. "Only a few minutes, right?"
"Do it!" Adam yelled with a smile.
Before she could lose her nerve Casey let out a deep breath and sprinted up toward the stage.
"No." Derek shook his head, his voice full of disbelief. "No freaking way! She isn't getting up there!"
A grin so large it almost seemed inappropriate had spread across Adam's face. "Oh, yes. Yes she is."
Derek soaked in the situation for a moment as he watched Casey line up with a group of other girls as they lined up on the edge of the stage. As the first woman, who was maybe twenty six with a big piece of belly button jewelry, walked towards the pole, Derek shot up.
"She isn't getting up there!" Derek repeated, but this time he sounded disconcerted and determined.
Adam leaned forward and shot out his arm. With his hand pushing against Derek's chest, trying to keep him from marching up to the stage and pulling Casey down, he said, "Hey, man, chill. It's just for fun. And she's got the most clothes on out of everyone up there so she's not going to look like-" he paused and both he and Derek tilted their heads to the side as belly button chick tried, unsuccessfully, to wrap her leg around the pole. Her skin made an odd squeaking noise as it rubbed against the metal as she tried to slide down it. "That." He finished with a grimace.
"Besides," Adam shrugged once Derek sat back down, "It's Casey. I think she's gonna look hot but she might end up embarrassing herself and when have you ever shirked away from an opportunity to let Casey embarrass herself?"
Derek's head snapped towards Adam. He stared at his friend who was gazing up at the stage with a dopey smile on his face, intently. Something about his statement gave him the overwhelming urge to argue it, but he knew that he couldn't and that bugged him. It was true, he loved to put Casey in weird situations and watch her embarrass herself and he probably always would. But hearing Adam say it and actually thinking about it made him uncomfortable about it for once.
"Hey, man. She's up." Adam announced, slapping Derek's shoulder without looking away from the stage.
Derek turned and looked up until Casey's hand touched the pole. Immediately he shut his eyes.
"Dude, what are you doing?" Adam asked. "Open your eyes!"
"It feels wrong!" Derek declared, fighting the urge to put his hands over his eyes as well.
"Your face is wrong!" Adam said, "Now don't be a pansy!"
Derek sighed but opened his eyes.
Casey looked extremely hesitant but wrapped her hands around the pole in a spot above her head. She took in a visibly deep breath with her eyes shut tight. Derek could tell she was extremely nervous and could perfectly imagine her voice rapidly speaking the thoughts flowing through her head, all preoccupied with the crowd and the pole and how embarrassing this entire thing was. Still, Casey was always the determined type, so Derek wasn't at all surprised when she opened her eyes and didn't dart off stage. Instead she gave a small jump, lifting herself up on the pole, allowing her legs to wrap around the pole in a manner not unlike what the belly button woman had tried to do.
Unlike that woman, though, Casey managed to do this gracefully and with massive amounts of allure and appeal. She let herself slide down some before letting go of the pole with one and leaning backwards. Her dancing background was definitely giving her a one up here. The crowd within the club cheered and whistled, urging her on. Surprised by the encouragement, a small smile flashed across her face.
Derek desperately wanted to shut his eyes again as Casey hopped off the pole and circled it, letting her fingertips seductively trace the metal as she went, taking a moment to dip down slowly, her hand now trailing down the pole. Next to him, he heard Adam start to cough uncontrollably. He let himself glance at his friend for only a few seconds to see that he had been taking a sip of his drink when Casey decided to do that, before turning his attentions back to his step-sister. It was obvious that her confidence was growing more with each passing second as the rowdy men of the crowd became more and more excited with her amateur performance. In one final move, she pulled herself back onto the pole, as high as she could get herself, wrapped one leg around it, and then spun herself around the pole with one leg and arm raised out. She slid with incredible precision that made sweat appear on Derek's brow.
Once she moved away from the pole and to the group of girls who had already gone, the other performances were understatedly underwhelming. So it was really no surprise when an establishment employed stripper announced that after careful consideration among the club's other employees and observation of the crowd's reactions, that Casey was the winner.
The men in the club hooted loudly as Casey stepped up very nervously. The stripped handed Casey a large, rubber-band bound wad of cash. As Adam cheered loudly next to him, Derek observed as Casey carefully took the money from the stripper, giving her a gracious smile. He didn't miss how she tried very hard to only touch the rubber band, and not the money. After two strip clubs, it was obvious that all the places a dollar bill ended up hadn't been lost on her.
The clapping continued as Casey climbed down the steps of the stage and slowly began to dissipate as she neared Derek and Adam. When she got close, Adam shot up, still clapping for her. Unsure why, Derek stood up too. Once Casey was in front of them she carefully put the wad of bills into her pocket. She looked up and caught Derek's eyes. Looking into his eyes she began to feel kind of ashamed, like she had just done something terrible. She wanted to look away but found that she couldn't-she wanted to see if that's how he was trying to make her feel. But she didn't think she saw any judgment there. Actually, she thought she saw-she thought she saw something that looked like awe.
"Holy shit." Adam said, breaking the brief, albeit intense, awkwardness between Casey and Derek. "That was incredible."
Casey looked away from Derek, from both of them, and stared at the ground. Color began to creep across her already slightly flushed cheeks. "Yeah?"
Adam gave her a slack-jawed "are you kidding me?" type of look, which she glanced up to see. "Casey," he said slowly, "You were so good that we should probably get you out of here before you're either recruited or shot by one of the girls who actually work here."
"Why would I get shot?" Casey asked, confusion clouding her features.
Adam rolled his eyes dramatically and draped his arm across her shoulder. "Because," he said, as if what he was telling her was the most obvious thing in the world, "You're totally major competition, lady. You'd pull in the big bucks, and that'd be taking away from all of their silicone funds."
Casey couldn't help but laugh as she let Adam steer her away from the seats in the direction of the club doors. Derek stood unmoving for a moment, not sure which odd emotion he should focus on first; the one buzzing in his brain about Casey's performance or the one pondering over why he couldn't speak when she came off the stage.
Or maybe the one that centered on that little bubble of…what was it-Anger? Protectiveness? ….Jealousy? that was bubbling inside of his chest as he watched Casey laugh with Adam's arm around her.
Instead, he decided to just ignore all of it, and catch up with Casey and Adam. He didn't quite mean to bump his way in between them when he did, knocking Adam's arm away. Not really, anyway. Still, the gesture earned him a slight glare from Adam. Casey didn't seem to notice any of it.
They managed to make it out of the strip club without incident. No crazy homeless guys, weird bouncers, or stripper punching. They walked in stride for a few moments before Derek and Casey settled into a slower stride than Adam who ended up several paces ahead of them.
Silence settled between the two as they walked along, not quite going anywhere in particular, mostly just following the direction that Adam kept going. Derek noticed Casey rub her hands over her arms and considered suggesting she take his jacket again, but decided against it, figuring that now that the option had been given to her she could ask for it if she really wanted it.
"Hey," Derek said to Casey, clearing his throat after a moment, "You did a really, uh, good job."
"Um, thanks." Casey said, looking uncomfortable. She patted her pocket, "Well earned birthday money right here."
"Consider it your birthday present from me." Derek joked, knocking his shoulder into hers gently, breaking up some of the tension in the air.
"Trust me," Casey said quietly, giving him a small smile, "That's not my gift from you."
Derek took a moment, allowing himself to feel a bit flattered before speaking. "There's more to come." Derek smirked. "By the end of this, you might be a fully functioning normal twenty-one year old. You'll have to write a speech completely dedicated to me about it."
Casey rolled her eyes but before she could counter with a quip of her own, Adam shouted "WOO-HOO!" loudly from in front of them as he ran across the street while the cross-walk light was still shining a glowing hand at them. He darted in front of incoming cars, and once he reached the other side of the street, he did a jump-kick in the air. "I'm a rock star, baby!" He screamed.
"His dad told me that he dropped him in the pool when he was a baby." Derek said to Casey as an explanation when they reached the end of the street. Derek began walking out into the street.
"What are you doing?" Casey cried at him. He turned, and she pointed at the light that still told them not to cross. Derek rolled his eyes, jumping back to the curb as a car neared him.
"Oh, come on, Casey. You just bagged two hundred bucks on a stripper pole but you won't walk across the street?"
"I'm not jaywalking." Casey shook her head.
"Casey," Derek said, "Come on. This night's not over."
Without thinking, Derek held out his hand to Casey. She hesitated for a few moments, staring at his open palm. Her eyes traveled up to meet his. Then Casey reached out and let him take hold of her hand. He led her out across the street.
Okay, so I think this chapter was a little shorter than usual. Also, I don't feel like it's one of my finer chapters, but I hope you guys still enjoyed it. Nothing new was crossed off the list, though! I wonder what kind of hijinks these kids will end up in during chapter five! Also, if there are any blatant grammatical errors scattered throughout the chapter, I apologize. I attempted to read through this several times, but it is now 3:30 a.m. and I really just want to update this thing for you guys, so I might have missed some stuff. So I'm sorry, just in case!
It's kind of funny, as I've been writing this I've started picturing Adam as Andrew Lee Potts from Syfy's Alice and Primeval. And I love him so much that it's actually making me want something to happen between Adam and Casey because when I think of Andrew I lose all sense! But my OTP is DASEY. (must remember this, must remember this). *sigh*
Review!