For the rest of the day I was either reading or straightening up my side of the room, since somehow my clothes were already everywhere and Candi was working. I realized then how hard my dress was to move in. I couldn't even lift my arm a good way above my head, which was not good for tango.
When pink and orange clouds started to dot the sky through the hall windows, I knew my official first day at work was about to begin. I wondered if I would tango tonight.
"Are you almost ready?" Tripp asked through the door frame.
"Yeah." I answered, brushing out my hair again. "What exactly am I doing tonight?"
"Well, it's going to start with a tango, then a fan dance later, and maybe some waitressing in between. Don't worry; you will still have time to get some sleep." I nodded once and walked past him at a brisk pace, quicker then I would have expected he was walking backwards in front of me, grinning widely.
"Your big debut." He whispered as we stood at the backstage area, I gulped as I looked through the side wings at the audience standing on the stage perimeters, I squeaked. This was a new thing for me, besides the possibility of me falling on my face; my sleeves were too tight, I wasn't sure if I could actually go through with this.
"And now a classic tango done by Tripp and our newest addition here at The Gothic Fusion Sarah!" The crowd cheered as Joe walked off the stage and the lights dimmed. When the lights were completely black the crowd went silent and I stood in position, starting to hyperventilate, I didn't think I could do this. Tripp came into my line of sight and place one hand on the small of my back.
"You'll do fine." The lights when up as a red silhouette as we stood completely still, when the hard tango hit the speakers I went into a low swooping dip brought back up as my arm went behind Tripp neck, straining the seams of the sleeves. I grimaced at the sudden stop, as the lights went into one hundred percent. I spun out from him and he pulled me back in hitting his chest with a heavy 'wumph'. He lifted my leg and the knee and I swooped down low, my hand tracing the floor, again, straining the sleeves. I would have to fix this now. When I was pulled back up I pulled his head close to mine.
"Rip my sleeves." I whispered before I was twirled around him in a circle, my dress flowing out. He gave me a puzzled look.
"What?" He asked when I was close enough to him again. He lifted me into the air by my waist as I pulled my torso back, in a ballerina-esque sort of way. Pulling my face close again, I whispered to him again.
"Rip my sleeves, I'll explain later!" He set me down and I wrapped my leg around his so I could sit on the floor. He kneeled behind me and held my shoulders, and then a loud ripping sound filled the stage area. My eyes widened for only a moment before I place my arm behind his neck and giving the audience a smirk, the lights blacked out. The whole place was silent for a second and I thought the whole crowd could hear my beating heart, until they burst into vigorous applause. I fled off the stage at high speed so I wouldn't be obligated to do a curtain call. Immediately I went to one of the mirrors backstage to inspect the damage. The dress actually looked better, the damaged sleeves were hanging down onto my arms, making it off the shoulder, they would definitely need some stitching up, but it was way more comfortable. I smiled happily.
"It suits ya girlie." I heard Joe say from behind me, his hands shoved inside his pockets.
"I like it." Tripp commented, now also behind me. Looking at the mirror again I smiled awkwardly, not sure what to do next. I didn't want to go back to my room and I wasn't sure if I was actually allowed back in the club. So I asked an irrelevant question that had been nagging me.
"I met a vampire earlier, in the kitchen, Azure?"
"Oh him," Tripp began, caught off guard by the change in conversation. "He's just someone around; he does what I need him to do. Like now he's out finding me an employee I've had my eye on." I glared at him.
"You mean like how you found me?" I said icily. He returned my comment with a hard expression.
"I only recruit people who would be better off here, if you had stayed with your parents you would be either at an orphanage or in foster care by now. I was so insistent on getting you a night ago because a neighbor had called you parents in for the drug use, about three hours after we left the police showed up and arrested them." I flinched at his emotionless statement. "Sorry." He mumbled after. I could see my vision blurring as I still stared at him, I couldn't cry now. I pushed my hair back as I covered the movement of whipping my eyes of any moisture. Directing my eyes at my feet instead of his perfect face I let the hard mask disappear.
"I didn't need to know that." I spat at my shoes. I knew it was good that I knew, but I would rather be mad about it then letting my tears overflow, I wasn't the kind of girl who cried. I didn't want to look at him anymore and he knew it, so he also directed his attention away from me and moved to another part of the stage. I walked to the rear of the backstage area to a line of stereotypical make-up mirrors, the kind with light bulbs lining the actual mirror space that outlined every flaw you had on your face. I tried not to look at it too long. At the end of the line one of the tables had something black on it, next to a single red rose. Me being the curious type had to check it out. Picking up the rose I noticed a tag hanging off of it, it didn't say who it was from just my name written in perfect script.
Sarah
Next to it were two closed fans. Examining one of them I slowly flicked it open, they were breathtakingly beautiful but still very plain. The inside was a brilliant white next to the black sides and a stripe of deep rose red was at the top that narrowed out on one side. I closed it again and placed it carefully back on the table. That cheered me up. Tucking the rose behind my ear I walked back into the living quarters again.
During the day, the back was basically dead, since everyone was hiding from the window lit hallways, though apparently it didn't affect them as much as the legends say it did. But now it was bustling with activity. I heard Alexander screaming orders in a mix of both English and my guess French as people with instruments and amplifiers scowled ahead of them, he must have been the next act. Candi walked by then, her face again caked with makeup.
"How'd your first show go?" She asked politely, though I could tell she didn't really care. She had a bright red lollipop in her mouth which was turning her lips an ever brighter shade of red.
"It went fine." I answered with just as much fake sweetness as she had used. "Good luck with yours."
"Thanks but I'm not going to need it. Oh, and I like the sleeves, very punk emo, you know?" She smirked as she flipped her hair, bouncing through the door to the club.
"One of these days…" I vowed quietly to myself. Shaking a fist in the direction she had just come from.
As everyone else ran around I tried to stay out of their way, in laymen's terms, I plastered myself to the wall and moved James Bond style until I reached my room. When I did finally make it I belly flopped onto my bed and stared at the plain white ceiling, I made a mental note to paint it one of these days. Now in the heavy silence, I noticed a stream of voices coming into the room but it didn't sound like it was from the hallway? Sitting up on the bed I looked around to find the source. An intercom was sitting on the wall next to the door; I had seen them used before in theatres when I helped backstage at dance recitals and plays. They usually had connections to the light booth and all the backstage areas so people could hear when they would be performing or for light cues. Tripp was talking into it right now and I could hear Alexander setting up on stage. The guitars getting last minute tuning and the amps being turned on. When his act started and the rock music filled the room, I laid on my bed again and closed my eyes, listening.
I must have does off because the next thing I heard was a bunch of men's voices yelling at the stage, then Candi's shrill giggle, I didn't even want to fathom what she could be doing. I sighed and pulled myself off the bed, my will stronger then my conscious mind as I turned the intercom down, saying good-bye to the men in the audience. I turned around and, low and behold, Tripp was sitting on Candi's bed, reading my battered up copy of Dracula.
"The person who wrote this was terrible." He looked up at me and flashed that smile of his. "Don't you agree?"
"I don't know…" I admitted. "I've always liked it." Taking it from him I flipped through the old, yellowed pages. I had pulled it out of a book bin at a garage sale when I was fourteen; it was one of my favorites.
"But it's so fake?" He added, puzzled as I put the book back on the shelf.
"That's why they call it fiction, just because vampires actually exist doesn't mean that everything people say about them is true." He replaced his confused face with a small smile.
"Of course." I sat back down on the bed and played with a corner of the comforter.
"So did Azure find anyone?" I asked, breaking the awkward silence after a few seconds.
"Yes, a girl named Tara from Boston; she has quite the singing voice."
"What style?"
"Different." He smirked; I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
"That helps." We sat in silence for another long moment before I decided to get up. I walked out of the room back to the stage area. I looked in the mirror to see the damage that sleep had done, the rose was sideways but besides that not much. I adjusted it so it sat straight behind my ear again and picked up one of the fans. Instead of sitting here and doing nothing I decided to check out the real scene of The Gothic Fusion. Walking into the club through the black door I flicked the fan open and fluttered it flirtatiously, no harm in that right? As I walked by the vampires' heads turned and sniffed the air, most of them giving me hard looks, like a kid would give a bowl of candy they couldn't eat. Roses, of course. I found one of the couches that was seated under a blue light and I took a seat. I will not sit in darkness at a club filled with vampires, no way in Hell. I flipped the fan closed and I leaned back against the leather, smiling a weird, flirty smile I had never tried before. Maybe the tattoo and makeover high wasn't over just yet. Three vampires noticed me and sauntered over. One had red hair, dark eyes, and a sharp face, like the Japanese comics if you made them human. Another had bright white hair that stuck up in wild directions, his eyes were the same color as Tripp's but they were outlined in a navy blue. He was nothing less than breathtaking, definitely different then any other vampire I had seen so far, he looked like snow. I wondered if his personality was just as cold as his appearance portrayed. The last vampire had dark hair with blue streaks and mahogany colored eyes, but I couldn't take my eyes of the snowy one.
"Hey." He said in a clear tenor voice, making me shiver.
"H…Hi." I stammered. It should be illegal to be dazzled by another creature like I just had. He smiled crookedly and took the place next to me on the couch. I shook out of my delusion somewhat and sat up straight. I pulled my eyes from him and scanned the crowd, looking for something, anything to look at besides him; I noticed that the other vampires were now nowhere to be seen. As I searched, I heard him chuckle.
"What?" I asked, snapping my gaze back to his face.
"You're just so funny." He chuckled again. "You're trying to find a distraction." I could feel my face heating up from being found out so I flicked the fan open and pulled it in front of my face.
"Distraction? Distraction from what?" I lied, trying to keep my voice even and uncaring, not sure if I actually succeeded. I averted my eyes away from him; he was just too dazzling, like Tripp had been in the beginning. He reached for my chin so I had to look at his face.
"From me." Okay…now it was getting a little weird. I flipped my fan closed again and rested it on my right shoulder, giving him a smirk of my own.
"Oh really?" I added with a hint or sarcasm, my stupor before was now almost gone.
"Yes, really." He replied, leaning in so he could whisper in my ear. "I can read minds." I gave him a disbelieving look as he gave me a half-hearted smirk. A wisp of his hair fell perfectly in front of one of his blue eyes and I blushed. What the hell was wrong with me!
A techno beat boomed through the speakers as the strobe light started up again, making me jump.
"Care to dance?" He asked, holding out his hand. I looked at it for a minute then, to my own surprise, took it. He pulled me up off the couch and led me to the floor. He stood facing me as he rested his hands lightly on my hips as I started to sway; he actually kept a good beat. After a few minutes I placed my hands behind his neck and he pulled me closer, my head being near his shoulder.
"By the way, my name's Rez."
"Sarah." I replied, glad to know this boys name. Then something over his shoulder caught my attention; Tripp was standing by the backstage doors opening with a scowl on his face. It took me a minute to realize that it was Rez and I he was staring at.
"Your boss is coming this way," Rez told me, now also looking over his shoulder. "He's really pissed."
"Yeah I noticed." I added. Before I knew it Tripp was standing right behind me.
"Hey Tripp." I said nervously, turning around to face him. His nose was wrinkled in disgust and the scowl was permanently etched in place. Rez was almost the opposite of Tripp, he was calmer then a cucumber, but somehow more frightening.
"Excuse us." Tripp said with a fierce monotone, he took my hand and started to glide through the crowds at a fast pace as I stumbled behind him.
"See you later Sarah!" Rez yelled over the music. I knew I would see him again; I couldn't get rid of him that easily, even if I wanted too.
YAY! this chapter is finally done! took me about two days to type but this is a good chapter so I hope you like it. and for teh record...Rez...doesn't actually read minds...he was messing with Sarah when he said that. Because Rez is a lot like tripp, but just...actually politer...but not by much...so yeah...comment!
Ronnie Sorana