A/N: A huge thank you to GleekMom for giving me a gentle push in the right direction when I struggled with filling this prompt. The direction I went in is really a metaphorical use of the metaphor. Hopefully that makes more sense once you read it. Enjoy! xoxo
Prompt: Utilize the "Spoon Theory" prominently in the story. The "Spoon Theory" is a metaphor for those living with chronic illness. A person wakes each day with only a certain number of spoons and each activity that is affected by their illness takes a spoon. When the spoons are gone, the energy for the day is gone.
Character(s): Sam Evans
Words: 516
Date: August 29, 2012
White Chocolate
Sam's hands are still sticky, even though he's washed them multiple times, and he's fairly certain he smells like sugar, which might be adorable if it wasn't causing his stomach to turn. He's just finished a 4 hour shift at Dairy Queen, during which he earned $30. But he won't see a penny of it for another week and a half until payday. So when he sees the hand-lettered sign outside Stallionz that reads Dancers Wanted - Make $$ and Take it Home Every Night, you can't really blame him for slipping inside through the dark velvet curtains to get more details.
His conversation with the tiny brunette is fast and efficient. She takes one look at Sam and knows her customers will be fighting each other for a hip gyration in their direction. In fact, not only does he look delicious, he smells sweet too. So she christens him 'White Chocolate' and hands him his schedule and a CD of songs he'll be dancing to.
Thirty minutes later Sam is stepping back outside into the too bright sun of the afternoon. He's not exactly sure what he's just gotten himself into but he doesn't dwell on it too much. After all, how much different could it really be than dancing for New Directions in skin-tight gold briefs?
In the end, Sam learns it's completely different, but he can't bring himself to care the way he thought he would. Or perhaps the way his mother would, if she knew what his job really was. He doesn't worry about her finding out though, because he's taken a burden off her already overloaded shoulders and she won't be asking questions he can't answer any time soon. He knows this because after Sam's first night of dancing, when he brings home $106, in mostly $1 and $2 bills, his mom can sign Stacey's permission form for a field trip that costs $12. And four days later when Stevie needs new rain boots, Sam takes him shopping to buy them without having to sacrifice the pot roast his mother planned to make Saturday evening for a special family dinner. And when his mother needs a new blouse for a job interview because she sold all her 'fancy' clothes to buy food when they were homeless, well he easily slips $30 into her hand and gives it a tight squeeze.
So weeks after his first foray into the world as 'White Chocolate' as Sam stands in the tiny shower stall in the bathroom he shares with his siblings, he doesn't think about the weight of responsibility resting on his own shoulders now. He doesn't dwell on the fact that at 18 years old, he has a lot more to offer the world than his rippled abs and naturally blonde hair. Instead, he watches the glitter glide down his body and mix with soap suds to create a dance party tornado at the top of his drain and smiles to himself, because he knows the next time his new school friends ask him out for a burger and fries, he can say yes.