Stalking the Dancer || 18+

Part One - Biker

It's been a long day.

There's nothing I like doing more than ending a long day by watching her get ready for bed. Her window gives a great view of her watermelon-patterned pajamas, the shorts not quite making it under her cheeks, and the tank riding up, revealing a hint of her pale midriff. 

She's moving around the room like a clumsy fairy, floating in circles as she cleans. She twirls around and picks up garbage as she goes, clearing clutter from the few surfaces she has at home. The cast only slows her down occasionally, but I can't decide if she even notices it.

I can't take my eyes off of her and it's a cross I'll bear until I draw my last, pathetic breath. 

If she were mine I'd be up there right now making her ass red for leaving the blinds pulled up during this little show, but she's not, so I won't. I'll just thank fuck that I'm the only creep here tonight, making this a private viewing. 

The street is dead and a breeze brushes past me carrying the memory of the first night I stood in this spot, watching my girl. I'd seen her first walking from her car to the dance studio, her face bright as she waved to her friends. 

The second time was inside Studio A doing a dance routine that has been coiled around my soul like a snake ever since. She was teaching it to my sister and her dance team, the younger girls sitting on the sidelines were still as statues, and I think we all held a collective breath for her. 

I felt shockwaves roll through me to my soul and need began to take root. Need for this woman, to know her deepest secrets, her darkest desires. Need to watch her body move that beautifully for me, forever. Only for me.

So I followed her home, against my better judgment. I stood close to where I stand now, watching a similar moment of her life play out like a private movie. Although, she didn't have a cast on her leg then. 

The cast is a new development that has me more homicidal than I've ever felt, which is saying something. She disappeared for a few weeks and came back on crutches, I don't think my hands have stopped shaking since. 

My eyes track her as she plops onto the bed before laying back the rest of the way. She pulls her phone from a crumpled backpack on the floor and starts scrolling her way toward sleep. I wonder what she's looking at, who is absorbing her attention like this. Her expression seems to change with each scroll and I decide she must be reading, although I don't know what. My palms are itching, so I turn on my heel and walk down the street to my bike before I can even think about it. 

I've had an obsessive personality since I was a kid. My probation officer used to say I have no self-control but every step I take in the opposite direction of that woman is proving his sorry ass wrong. I never stole anything because I couldn't live without it, I did it because I wanted and nobody was there to stop me from taking... until they were. 

My Harley's parked in the alley where I left her and the only sounds I can hear are the cars driving downtown tonight. It's almost midnight so I toss a leg over my bike and listen to the engine come to life beneath me, the only sound that shuts my mind up every fucking time I hear it.

It's a fifteen-minute ride before my tires hit the gravel parking lot outside of The Oake. Something, or someone, hits the gravel closer to the building as I kill the engine and start heading to the door. The streetlight illuminates them enough for me to recognize it's Ray standing in the open doorway, the drunk idiot on the ground is a stranger to me. 

"Get your ass in here, Bill!" His gruff voice has my feet moving a little faster, but it's enough to make him chuckle and slap his big hand down on my shoulder as I walk into the bar. "Made it just in time, trash freshly tossed to the curb and all," Well he's in a good mood tonight.

"Guess so, how ya been?" I ask casually as I lean on the bar and wait for Antoine to grab me a beer. "'Bout the same as usual I s'pose-," I hear the bottle before I see it as it slides to a stop in front of me. "Don't let his happy dick lie to ya, he's been gettin' it on the regular and he won't bring her around either!" Antoine is laughing before he's finished talking, so much so that his eyes are squinting closed and his hand slaps the bar top as he leans over. 

"Well, I was getting there before my employee interrupted me." Ray only ever pulls the boss card as a joke, but he didn't become as successful as he is by messing around. I don't think I've ever met a guy who worked more hours than he does, but I've never heard him complain about his job, either. 

We spend the next half hour shooting the shit about Ray's new girl until he'd had enough of it and turned the tables on me. "What about you, then? Did you ever find the one that went missing on ya a few weeks ago?" I see the smirk he's trying to hide but I can't force out more than a grunt in response. "Shit, Billy's got a woman now too?" I don't know when Lee got here but I wish he'd shut up before I break the pretty teeth his mommy paid so much money for. 

"She's not my woman, she's a woman that I... know." Ray can't hold himself back anymore and he's laughing loud enough to cause a hush across the room. "Get this, Ant, he's never met her." He wheezes from the stool beside mine, he's not the only one laughing at me now. 

"Damn, Bill. I thought you were done with that shit," Antoine starts, but I cut him off, "I am. This isn't like that, I like her." I say without lifting my gaze from my beer. "You liked the last one too, she didn't like ya so bad you ended up in the pen," Lee says somberly. I glance down at the bar to meet his waiting stare before tipping up my bottle and finishing it off. Lee never lets me forget about it, but I don't think it's a bad thing. "I haven't gone near her. Watching, that's all. Just watchin'." 

My friends are silent for a few very long seconds before someone behind me breaks the tension, "That's some freaky shit, man. Kinda hot though, I could probably get into it." I turn to meet my best friend's blue-ass hair and his smiling face hiding under all of the silver piercings. I can always count on him to get me out of whatever shit I get myself into and the same for him. 

"So is it like sexual watching or what?" He sits on the empty barstool to my left and orders a beer. I debate whether to answer or not before finally settling on 'fessing, "Nah- not really. I mean she's sexy, but that's not why I do it. When I watch her everything else goes away, just us. She makes me feel safe, I guess. That makes me sound like a pussy but I don't know how else to say it." I'm starting my third beer of the night and I'm feeling the alcohol starting to buzz in my veins.

"Sounds like you've got it bad, Bill. What's the chance she's got a felon fetish?" Asking the big questions upfront is Rome's specialty. "Prolly zero, that's why I haven't made a move." I shrug.

"Seemed like you made some moves when you hunted her for two weeks straight." Ray shoots with a chuckle before pushing himself from his seat and heading toward the back office- work never waits around here. Lee moves down a stool to sit on my right before asking if I'll be at the shop tomorrow, "Think you could squeeze the FXB in the shop this week? She keeps ridin' like it's her last and I don't intend to let her die on me." Lee collects vintage bikes; where most collectors display their bikes and keep 'em covered the rest of the time, Lee rides the shit out of his. Knows he can't take them along when he kicks the bucket, so he intends to be the one who rides them into the ground.

"I've got room to keep it but that's a forty-year-old bike, Lee. We might be playing a quality of life game, here." I reply. My palms are burning, were they itching before now? I can't remember, my head is getting foggy. "I gotta get going, drop her off between eight and three, the office closes then," I say without offering him a second glance, I'm up from my seat and stalking toward the door. 

The door is swinging shut behind me as I hear Rome's voice cut through the crowd, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do, Big Bear!"