Striptease

Lights, Camera and....Strip!

[Present Day]

[Everleigh]

"Eve? Eve!"

Gasping as I was startled back into reality after disappearing completely into my thoughts, I turned my head away from staring into the depths of my steel locker to see my manager shaking his head at me from the doorway leading into the dressing rooms full of costumes and whatnot.

My manager was a sternly older man, the kind that came from the generation who used to beat their kids with belts and tree branches.

While he could run a successful business, as successful as a strip club could be, that is, he wasn't exactly the friendliest man in the world.

Or on the planet, as a matter of fact.

He was just grouchy, old, and smelled of cigars and cheap whiskey, both of which we served at the club as well.

He clapped his hands together to draw my wandering attention back to his short, stubby form, a frustrated frown creasing the deep lines upon his forehead.

"What are you doin' just standin' there? We got paying customers waiting! Get on with it!"

His voice held a deep, harsh accent, maybe a Boston one if I had time to think about it, but he was too busy shooing me along for me to contemplate the accent that his hard voice hinted at.

I brushed his yammering off with a wave, my gaze now back onto my locker as I tossed my sling on crossbody purse into the open steel box as I began the tedious task of taking off any jewelry I may have on and my shoes for starters.

The girls weren't meant to wear any personal items while performing, those were just the rules and we had to abide by them if we wanted to keep our jobs.

But I was never the type to wear jewelry unlike the other girls so my time undressing was drastically cut in half.

"Oh relax, I'm gettin' to it. Go badger someone else."

Grumbling under my breath as I shoved my plain white sneakers into the locker, the once snow white color now a ruined gray from how old the sneakers were but I didn't have the time or money to spend on luxurious items such as new shoes.

The money that I did make in my jobs and any tips was spent on my rent, utilities bill, food for myself and my baby sister, Teresa, and anything she could use for the upcoming school year.

Even through the bleakness of the situation I had to face every single day, that last thought was still enough to cause a hint of a smile to appear across my face.

It was crazy to think that Teresa, the cutest little girl with brown pigtails and who was obsessed with anything that had to do with princesses and fairies, was going to be starting kindergarten this fall.

It was many months away, way past her birthday and summertime, but I was still planning ahead for that school year.

It also made me anxious to think about sending little Esa into a brand new school when I couldn't be there throughout the day with her.

Sure, she sometimes had to go to a daycare every so often as I couldn't watch her while I worked but that was different.

She didn't hold any memories yet of me abandoning her at her new school. And I didn't want her to view kindergarten in that frightened sense, of Teresa feeling like she was lost and scared because I wasn't around.

Maybe I was pushing my own childhood onto her already but I wanted to do better, I wanted to make sure she enjoyed every single day, no matter what day it was, for the rest of her life.