Rocket Queen

chapter six -- stacy

Work. Fucking. Sucked.

I've been working at the new club – the Blue Moon (shitty name) – for about a month and a half now and it's been terrible. The pay is a joke, barely enough to afford food and rent and I've definitely had to tighten my belt. It's probably not the best, but when I'm forced to choose between booze and cigarettes and food, food takes a backseat. Other than that, the guys at the club were handsy and liked to whisper the most disgusting things in my ear when I was giving them dances.

The only thing that made any of it any better was that I was spending almost every minute of my free time with Axl and his bandmates. They'd been letting me tag along with them to their gigs, which had been getting more and more crowded lately as the band gained more fans. Tonight they were playing the Whisky, and as usual I was backstage with them, smoking weed with Steven.

"Fuuuuuuck," I sighed, exhaling a huge cloud of smoke and watching as it floated into the space over our heads. "I needed this."

Steven smiled down at me as I laid with my head in his lap. "What do you mean?" he asked, coughing a little as he took another hit from the joint we were sharing.
"Work has been awful lately," I admitted. I usually didn't like talking about the stuff that was bothering me with the guys – I didn't want to make them uncomfortable, and I doubted that any of them wanted to listen to me complain – but things had been so shitty lately that I didn't care. "The guys at the club keep harassing me and the girls I work with are fucking mean. And I barely have enough money to live."

Steven frowned. "What club do you work at? Have we played there before? Maybe we could sweet talk some of your coworkers – if they know you hangout with super awesome rockstars, they'll definitely wanna be your friends."

"Thanks, Stevie, but I don't think that would work," I laugh. "It's not really that kind of club..."

"What do you mean?" Steven asked, giving me a confused look.

I chewed on my lip nervously. "I'm a stripper. I work at a strip club called the Blue Moon. They don't really have live music there."

"Wait, really?" Steven sat up a little, looking more alert and paying more attention to the conversation. "I didn't know you were a stripper."

"What's up?" Slash asked, falling into a seat next to us and grabbing the joint from Steven.

I sat up, laughing a little. "Apparently Axl didn't tell you guys that I'm a stripper."

Slash's eyes went wide. "You're a stripper???"

"Yeah," I replied, raising an eyebrow. "Why is that so surprising?"

"Because you're not a trashy whore," Axl said, sitting down on the arm of the couch Steven and I were on and lighting a cigarette. "Don't get me wrong, I love strippers, but they're not exactly classy ladies."

Slash snickered. "Yeah, that."

I rolled my eyes, snatching the cigarette from Axl's lips. "Well I can't exactly disagree with you, especially considering that most of the girls at the Blue Moon are junkies."

"Right, cuz you never steal our coke," Axl smirked.

"Yeah but I don't shoot it, I snort it. So I'm totally classy."

The guys laughed at my joke but after that the topic changed, thank god, and we spent the rest of the time waiting until the guys' set started. When they went out on stage I joined the crowd and after downing several shots ended up having a great time dancing along to their music. The booze and the loud music calmed the noise in my head, and by the time the show was over I was feeling dizzy and delighted. I met the guys at a booth and climbed into Axl's lap, kissing him so hard I could almost feel his heart stutter.