A/N - let me know who you want to give Elena her special birthday dance ;)

Chapter Four

Why is it that whenever I start to truly relax and enjoy myself, things seem to fall apart?

There I was, settling in to have a great night watching dancing, semi-nude hotties, when the situation had to go and get AWKWARD.

After Sexy Devil exited the stage, the first sultry voice came on the loudspeaker again, which led me to think that it was his voice. God, every inch of him was flawless.

"Ladies," he smoldered "that is just a taste of the pleasure you'll be experiencing tonight. Please give a warm welcome to our best cowboys..."

We screamed in excitement as four bare-chested guys strutted out on stage, twirling lassos.

For a second, we admired their sculpted chests, their cute red bandanas, cowboy hats, and chaps.

And then we started to scream in horror as we recognized two of them.

"Tyler?!" Caroline shrieked.

"Mr. Salzman?!" Bonnie yelled.

The music kept playing, and the two unknown guys started to do the planned routine, but the two we knew froze, each wearing an expression of shock.

"Shit," Tyler said, and he broke eye contact with us, moving over to the other guys and joining in the dance routine as if we didn't exist.

Alaric continued to stand there dumbly, gaping at us in surprise. I didn't want to, I swear I didn't mean to, but I couldn't help checking him out. Miserably, I realized that the guy was jacked. He flushed as he looked at me, opening his mouth to say something, but then deciding to follow Tyler's example by joining in the line.

Both Bonnie and Caroline were cutting off my circulation as they gripped my arms.

"What. The. Fuck," Caroline said. Once again, I wholeheartedly agreed.

The kid who we had known since infancy and our history teacher, who also happened to be dating my aunt, were pelvic thrusting in front of us...wearing assless chaps.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The worst part of it was, as weird as it was, they looked good.

Bonnie, Caroline and I stared at each other, trying to figure out what to make of this mess. We reached a silent consensus of avoidance, and stared only at the two guys we didn't know. I did catch Caroline looking at Tyler a couple times, though.

The two random guys were definitely worth looking at, all on their own. They seemed older than us - well, one of them definitely did. He was tanned with light eyes and a surfer's bod. He flashed us a wolfish grin as he prowled past us. The other guy held my attention - he was paler, with swept-back brown hair and greenish eyes. He was younger, but seemed more serious...and sweet. He winked at me as he caught me staring, and I blushed a little.

Focusing on him as he moved his way around the floor, I was able to forget about Tyler and Alaric for a little while. This guy was so...cute. Sexy, definitely, but he had such a sweet smile that I could tell he was a good guy.

I shook my head and laughed at myself. What did it matter if he was a good guy? This wasn't like flirting with someone from school - there was no relationship potential here. This is purely a business transaction, I had to remind myself. We were here to look, and they were here to earn money. Nothing more.

But he did seem to look at me just as intensely as I was gazing at him...and he barely seemed to glance at Bonnie or Caroline at all!

Before I could scold myself for entertaining more than purely physical thoughts about our stripper, they exited the stage. Only in the absence of Mr. Green Eyes did I remember the supreme awkwardness of the situation.

"Oh. My. God!" Bonnie burst out laughing.

"What the heck? Though, I have to say, Tyler does have a pretty nice ass," Caroline mused.

"Ewwww," Bonnie cried, covering her ears. "Do not talk about that. And don't you dare say anything about Mr. Salzman, either! I'm already scarred for life."

"I thought Alaric was pretty ripped," I teased her, only partially joking.

"Elena, I'm so sorry," Bonnie sighed. "We brought you here to have a nice time watching hot guys do their thing, and instead, you got an eyeful of our history teacher's naked butt!"

"It's fine, Bonnie," I assured her with a shrug. "I mean, now that he's dating Jenna, it probably would have happened eventually."

"Yeah, but not in assless chaps," Caroline snickered.

Bonnie started to shush her, but that voice came on again.

"Alright, ladies, now that you're all warmed up, it's time for the Birthday Girl to receive her gift...introducing our newest stud, for your personal pleasure...Babyface!"

The mist swirled with magenta lighting as "Baby, One More Time" blasted out at us. A guy in a matching magenta man thong and necktie strode toward us, stopping directly in front of me. I scanned his body from his toes up to his face and went rigid.

"'Lena?"

"Matt?!"

This was so not happening.