We became comfortable with each other surprisingly quickly. At least I was surprised. Well, maybe it wasn't that much of a surprise. Geo caught a server's eye and got refills for our entire table. Still a bit nervous, when he wasn't looking, I stole Lauren's Strawberry Skye again and when he was looking, I demurely sipped my own Vanilla Skye.

It was only a short break. Geo divulged nothing about himself, and I continued to let him think I was Laura bleeping Ingalls and he told me nothing about himself or his real family.

That was fine. It was just harmless flirting, I kept telling myself. And it was fun. Nothing Laura Ingalls did ….nothing slightly tipsy Laura Ingalls did at the club, could possibly come back to haunt Chloe Saville.... so I told myself.

Or maybe it was just the Skyy/Redbull whispering in my ear.

We went back to the dance floor. I was feeling completely comfortable with the situation by then. Geo was a gentleman. He wasn't trying anything or taking advantage of the situation. Could he even tell how much I was feeling the alcohol? Did I show how much I was feeling the alcohol? I wasn't sure. All I knew was that that nagging voice in my head that always told me 'no' was blissfully quiet.... and I was really enjoying dancing for the first time in my life.

The DJ started playing a remix of Fallout Boy's “Uma Thurmann” and I was struck with images of Pulp Fiction in my head. I started grinning like an idiot and doing the 'Bat-usi'.

Geo instantly locked into my vibe and found his inner John Travolta. We were SO in sync apparently even the DJ noticed, because when he finally finished the fallout boy remix, he found a very EDM version of Chuck Berry's 'You Never Can Tell'.

We weren't the only people on the dance floor, but we were at most vaguely aware of everyone else. We were having so much fun, the rest of the crowd at the club just faded to extras in our minds. The Wolf of Wall Street and the Hooker from the Future were the stars of our own little rom-com. The music slowed and we pulled much closer. I swear I could feel the pounding of Geo's heart against my breast.... or maybe it was just my own heart.... the scent of his musk in my nostrils was definitely him. He leaned down and I looked up to see his own nostrils flare... was he inhaling my pheromones? It didn't matter. As he leaned down, I leaned up and our lips met as he plunged into my open lipped kiss. I was swept away by the moment and the strong embrace of this exotic stranger I had just met.

….Until Tina grabbed me by the elbow and yelled over the music “bathroom break!” And before I knew it I was whisked away, facing Tina in the ladies' and trying to explain myself.

I couldn't.

“What the hell? Have you lost your mind?” Tina demanded.

I shrugged and cracked a meek smile. “No biggie. He thinks I'm Laura Ingalls for heaven sake! ….Thanks, Lauren.” I smirked. “No real names. No numbers. No harm, no foul. Just a little fun.” I said ….or maybe it was the vodka talking.

“No.” Tina said adamantly. “I let my friends tart you up like some kind of space-slut.... but I'm not going to let you act like one!”

“I'm not....” I lamely protested, but ran out of steam before even finishing the sentence.

“Yes... you were!” Tina insisted. “You were about a minute away from spiriting away to a stall and giving him what he was after!”

“I was NOT....” I thought about it and realized Tina might have had a point. And I was so swept up in the moment, I may have done what he wanted without a moments thought or hesitation. The realization stunned me and suddenly I felt a lot more sober.

“Oh, God.” was all I could whisper as my eyes went wide with the truth.

Tina smiled. “My friends are a bad influence, I should have warned you.”

I shook my head. “It wasn't them. It was me. This is all on me.” I scowled at my recklessness. “I knew they were just having fun and I was their Barbie.... I went along with it.”

“...Because they were MY friends...” Tina said. I nodded. “And I was having fun too.” she admitted. “But you weren't just their Barbie.... you were their slutty Barbie..... they were setting you up.... and I let them..... because.... I know you.... and I knew you wouldn't lose control.....”

I looked at the floor with a shy grin of embarrassment.

“Well... I didn't think you'd lose control....” Tina grinned. “And when I realized my bad influence friends were setting you up to go off with that guy and shag your brains out, I realized you had no idea what you were up against.... I've known these guys for years and
seen them set others up.... I don't think it's mean.... it's just they want to set up others to do all the slutty sex-fiend stuff they don't have the guts to do themselves.... I've seen them do it for years.... I never dreamed you'd fall for their trap.”

I hung my head. There was nothing to defend.

Tina gave me a shoulder squeeze. “So. Intervention successful? You're not going home with that guy?”

I smiled and shook my head.

“Or even going down on that guy?” she smirked.

I felt my cheeks flush crimson and gave a vigorous head shake.

“Good.” she smiled and gave my forearm a quick squeeze. “Just watch out for Lauren and her minions. If they get their way you will need a wheelchair and witness relocation by tomorrow morning!” Tina grinned wickedly.

I smiled and tried to hide my shudder. I was feeling a bit more sober. And a lot more chaste.

We returned to the dance floor and I returned to Geo a lot more in control. He shot me a sheepish grin as I took his hand and led him back to our table.

“Let's sit this one out.” I smiled. He nodded. I suspected he too was realizing how quickly things had spun out of control. He seemed a bit shy and chastened.

We chatted about his job and his friends. He talked a bit about his real family, and their real names. He did have an older sister. Sonia actually. And he really did know how to behave like a gentleman. All it took was me separating him from his friends.

“I have a feeling your friends are a lot like my group.” I smiled. “They have mischief in their hearts, and when they get together they can be a bad influence.”

Geo nodded and returned my grin. It was hard to tell in the dim lights of the club, but there may have been a slight blush there too.

Lauren and her pack stormed up to our table. Apparently once she noticed Geo and I were no longer on the dance floor, they ditched the guys there and honed in on us.

“C'mon bitch. We're behind schedule.” She said all businesslike as I tried to give Geo an apologetic look. He seemed amused, since we had just been discussing headstrong friends. The rest of the girls followed Lauren and I like the wake of a speedboat. Or a school of fish. I grinned as I wondered to myself if piranhas travel in schools. Tina caught my grin and gave me a smiling 'yeah, these are my friends' shrug.

As we were leaving the club and practically speed walking to Lauren's Lexus, I took the relative privacy of the street to question her.

“Why the sudden exit? I thought we were going clubbing?”

I could sense Lauren's eyes roll although she kept looking straight ahead and didn't even turn to address me. “God.... get with the program! Night on the town! One club is NOT a night on the town.”

“OK. But still..... I thought we were having fun. Did we have to leave so...”

“You were having fun.... until for some reason you decided to sit down and get all chatty.” She snapped scornfully.

I was at a loss for a response. Lauren seemed cool with the club while I was dirty dancing out on the floor getting closer and closer to crossing all sorts of lines... but once Tina staged her restroom intervention and I regained my self control, Lauren pulled the plug on our clubbing.

“Well, did we have to leave so.....”

“We did what we came to do. Those guys were so horny they could barely still dance.” She said with a nasty smile. I exchanged glances with Tina, who gave me a 'yeah, she does that, welcome to my teenage years' grin.

“Onward bitches!” Lauren shouted into the night, raising her arm like an invading general. Behind her, Becca Suzy and Tina let out a Xena war whoop that quickly devolved into gales of laughter.

We drove into what seemed like a rather sketchy part of town. I couldn't shake the memories of when Tina and I had helped Zoe steal back her stuff from her ex's place. This neighborhood was even bleaker. There wasn't a dive bar or check cashing store in sight. Just large asphalt spaces with the occasional squat industrial building. Lauren turned a corner and suddenly we stumbled upon signs of life. Well, sort of. It was just as bleak and surreal, with the harsh amber glow of sodium lamps illuminating the dozen or so parked cars and black limo-buses in a sort of sepia-tone haze. The building across from the lot full of cars had no markings on the outside, but there was a faint glow from a dimly lit door, and a silhouette of a single guy backlit in the glow. Even from a distance, it was obvious this guy was huge. His shadowy outline against the faint light from the door showed he was standing, feet apart and arms folded. He gave off a sentry/bouncer vibe. Even from a distance.

Lauren parked her Lexus and began briskly strutting toward the building. She glanced over her shoulder just once, to confirm that we had all exited the car and were following. She flashed her key fob over her shoulder, and the car chirped as the doors locked.

“Keep up sluts.” She called out again, not even looking back at us, but zeroing in on the shadowy figure backlit by the door.

“McLaren. Party of five.” I heard her announce to the door guy as she held up her hand with something between her fingers that the guy grabbed, examined and nodded her through. Since she was ahead of us and just a backlit shadow too, I couldn't tell what she flashed at the guy. At first I thought it was an I.D. Or credit card, but the way he took it made me think maybe it was cash?

We followed in Lauren's wake as closely as we could and the guy nodded us through. Up close he was way more imposing than even that sturdy silhouette across the parking lot. He was dressed in a black suit like a limo driver or bodyguard. I presumed he was some sort of bouncer and that we were headed into some sort of nightspot that was so cool it could be completely unmarked in the middle of the industrial district. I wondered if any of the scrapyards or chemical depots around us had any idea of what went on after dark.

As soon as we stepped through the inner doors, the sound became deafening – and visceral. The bass resonated in my skeleton and we hadn't even ventured into the outer lobby area. Lauren was ahead having a heated conversation with the woman at the inner door. While I tried to read their lips over the noise Tina bumped me with her elbow. When I turned to face her, and her two friends devilishly grinning behind her, she mouthed 'SORRY' with a shrug and a look of embarrassed remorse.

At which point I was grabbed from behind by Lauren and snapped to her side while the woman she had been arguing with tore like an ice breaker through the crowded club and deposited us at a front table directly at the end of a runway.

Oh. My. GOD. ….it was a strip club.

I turned to Tina who appeared genuinely embarrassed, then noticed Lauren Becca and Suzy were beaming wickedly at me. Lauren sat beside me and leaned in to shout over the din “Let me guess.... first time?”

I nodded, shell shocked. Which seemed to please her no end.

“This is gonna be SO much fun!” She shouted, though I barely could hear her and had to resort to reading her lips. Still, her evil grin was unmistakable.

“Ladies ladies ladies” the voice boomed over the loudspeaker. “Let's give a rousing patriotic welcome to our men who serve....” and the curtain parted to show a line of guys in single file marching onto the stage in camo costumes that looked more like harem slaves than uniforms.... bandoleers over bare chests, low slung gunbelts and what looked like parachute pants – only in camo – with boots that shone so much they looked like patent leather.

As they split off from the line and spread to the individual runways the P.A. voice introduced them.

“From Smackover Arkansas” as he said it, the beefy guy tore off his camo pants and slapped the back of his glistening metallic speedo “Corporal punishment!”

The crowd went nuts... shrieking and hollering in a frenzy. I had only seen this hysteria in old movie footage of Beatles concerts in the 1960s. And these women were not 13 – they were adult's for God's sake.... but they were acting like frenzied teens on a hormone rush.

“From Yankton South Dakota” the announcer leered over the shrieks of the crowd as the beefy guy ….handled.... himself with a smug look and a jutted jaw “Private Partee!.....” the guy dropped to the runway and started doing one armed push ups, which drove the crowd even wilder.

“From Woodville Florida” - at which the next guy made a lewd suggestive gesture which the crowd ate up “Major Hunk!” He started doing calisthenics – jumping jacks and borderline obscene squat thrusts ….to the delirious delight of the crowd.

“And finally, at the top of the pyramid.... from Plowville Pennsylvania... General Catch!”

At which the guy whipped off his mirrorshades, flung his hat to the ground, ripped off his breakaway camos, revealing the same metallic speedo as the other guy and snapped to attention.... giving a ...umm... non-traditional salute... let's just say everything was at full attention.

Then the speakers started blasting some chest-pounding percussion and these guys all went into their moves. They added little pseudo-military touches to their routines, but it still seemed like standard stripper moves. Well, what I imagined standard stripper moves might be. They were thrusting and gyrating and women were coming up to the runways and jamming bills into their speedos. I guess I was just staring, open mouthed at this whole frenzied scene. I had not imagined anyone doing this sort of thing for their.... job... or that hordes of strangers would claw over each other to stuff money into their underwear.

I guess my open mouthed, wide eyed stare probably looked like something entirely different to Tina's friends, because when the guys finally hopped off the runways and started 'working the floor' ...going from table to table and nearly thrusting themselves into people's faces, Lauren got a wicked look and tried to lure one of the shiny, sweaty strippers over to our table.

I slumped with relief when the music ended and the guys went backstage before getting to our table. Lauren seemed annoyed, but quickly recovered and ordered a round of drinks. I didn't hear what she ordered, but she didn't even bother asking any of us what we wanted. I could tell by her gestures that she took the liberty of ordering for the whole table. I glanced to Tina, who just gave a weak smile and a shrug. I presumed this was just standard Lauren Queen Bee behavior.

Lauren turned to me and shouted. “Are you just loving this?” she beamed.

I felt the heat and am sure I went bright crimson. That seemed to be what she was looking for, because she just grinned wickedly and turned to Tina.

“Screw Donna and her bridesmaids. We don't need a stupid bachlorette to have fun! You are gonna flip at this next act.... I can't wait to see your face!”

I took some comfort that I wasn't the only one Lauren was torturing tonight. Sure, I know I was a friend of a friend, so they were going to test and judge me. Since I never imagined I would ever see them again, I didn't worry much about making a good impression. I just didn't want to do anything they would enshrine forever in their mean girl hall of shame.

Lauren ordered another round of shots and I tossed mine back as if it was a vaccination... from shame and self consciousness. It burned my throat as it went down.

“What are we drinking???” I yelled over the blaring music to Tina.

“Fireballs!” She shrugged with a resigned smile. She must have noticed my lost expression. “....Cinnamon whiskey.” She then tossed back her own shot. It was clear there was no way to escape the gravity well of Lauren the Queen Bee.

The review of sweaty guys who bounded onto the stage to do a really lewd routine to that goofy 80s song 'Can't touch this' got me grinning. Maybe I was loosening up. Maybe I was remembering the old Jimmy Fallon routine about every 1980s pop hit being singable to 'can't touch this'.... maybe I was tickled at the thought that, God, I didn't want to touch this! And watching the sweaty guys taunting the very aroused crowd trying to touch it. It was surreal and hilarious. At least to me.

Or maybe it was just the fireballs.

As the whole scene became less threatening and more just goofy and absurd to me, I began to relax and let my hair down.

….or maybe it was just the shots... because I don't remember much else about that night.

...or anything else until I woke with a fierce need to pee and a taste in my mouth that made me wonder just what I'd eaten ….or at least put in my mouth.... the night before. Which I was having a really hard time remembering.

As I struggled to sort out just where I was, I realized I was under bedsheets. In just my underwear! My slowly rebooting brain became aware that I was being spooned from behind. 'Panic attack' is an understatement. I flung back the bedsheets and heard a reflexive groan from behind as I extricated myself from the 'spoon'.

It was a relief to hear the creaky groan was in a female register. I rubbed the film from my eyes and focused on the still sleeping body of Tina. I heaved a sigh of relief as I struggled to sort out just where I was ...where we were... and most importantly, where the bathroom was.

Looking around with my still very fuzzy brain, I began to wonder if this was Tina's room. There seemed to be no bathroom attached, so I figured I was going to need to venture into the hall. If this was her home, it was filled with her parents and her two brothers. I was not skulking down the hall in bra and panties! I was able to fire up enough of my brain to locate a robe, holding it wrapped with my hands as I tiptoed into the hall to search for a bathroom.

“Rough night?” Tina's dad startled me from behind. I spun around, totally forgetting that I was holding the robe together, and flashed him before I quickly realized and re-wrapped myself. He raised an eyebrow and I caught his eye do a split-second inspection as he raised his eyes back to mine.

I could feel from the heat that I went bright crimson. He just smiled, surprisingly gently.

“You were out with Christina's friends?”

I nodded mutely. Still mortified.

His smile became more generous. “I'm surprised she didn't warn you about them.”

I finally managed to croak out “...at some point she tried....”

He nodded. Grinning. “...But by then it was too late...”

The wave of heat I felt pass through me was the only response, aside from another mute nod. Tina's dad got more magnanimous. He put his hand on my back, then pulled it back. Did he feel he was crossing a line? I just took it as a reassuring gesture. He regrouped.

“There's one in every crowd.” He smiled.

I must have given him a lost expression. I wasn't sure who 'the one' was. He picked up on it.

“Lauren.” He smiled gently. “It's just her nature. She'll always test. She'll always tempt. Well, Christina got you back in one piece, so I imagine you passed the test.” he grinned. “....or at least thwarted Lauren's more sinister schemes.” He smirked.

I continued to give him a blank stare. I was struggling to process all this. He just smiled.

“Chrissy's a good girl. She's a strong girl. She keeps it under wraps, but I've seen her with her pushy friends. She can hold her own. She wasn't going to let the wolves get you.” he said quietly, the pride obvious.

“Who did she get that from?” I smiled. Ken just returned my smile.

“Both her parents.” He chuckled. Then he refocused on the present. “second door on the right” he grinned jutting is chin in the direction.

I smiled, remembering how my bladder was about to burst, and scurried down the hall.