The Strip

Part 12

Freen POV:

You fiddle with the straps of your father's watch, spinning it around your wrist as you count the seconds that tick by until your shift starts.

It's always the last piece of you that you remove before you transform into Phoenix - the stripper without a care in the world.

You wonder if your father would be proud of you, knowing that.

You wonder if he'd still love you.

Thinking that he will is the comfort you crave when your mind starts to spin.

So, you turn the broken watch on your wrist around and around and around while your mind becomes a jumble of half formed words and over thought out feelings.

Liam hasn't spoken to you since your spat. He's distant and cold, looking at you with the frustration of a parent and the longing of a lover.

It infuriates you, but, you miss your friend. He and Sophia have been your only family for years now, and his disdain burns in the depths of your heart.

You fight down the feeling of abandonment that he's left you with. You're a hypocrite, anyway. You abandoned Rebecca.

You got so scared of the vulnerability that appeared after the incident at her apartment, that you've been avoiding her, holing up in your apartment and staring at a blank canvas, unable to create a work of shit let alone a work of art.

You don't know how to be vulnerable. It's something you tamped down - tucked away - when you lost your father. When your heart broke, and your mom started working more to avoid you because you look too much like him.

It was pushed down further when you started dancing for money, your need to keep a piece to yourself, for no one else to see, was overwhelming, and your feelings - your vulnerability - was the only thing that made you feel weak.

And then Noah took what little you had left - broke you beyond repair, and now you're lost, an empty shell of bravado with a pretty smile.

But now... your heart has become somehow exposed to the elements with nothing to protect you and you don't know what to do.

Rebecca offers you no judgement. She offers you nothing, really, just a constant in the background, waiting patiently for you to give her a signal that she's welcomed back into your life.

Because she knows how hard it is to be vulnerable.

She texts you once a day, wishing you good morning, and waits for you to respond. It's not until hours later that you text her back, always an, ' im sorry,' to which she tells you not to be, and throws your own words back in your face - 'it takes as long as it takes'.

You sniff back the tears that threatened to spill as you press the send button, and unclasp the security of your father's watch. You adjust your bustier and plaster on the fake smile you've become accustomed to wearing.

Sophia sends you a worrisome glance from across the room. She's been the supportive friend - the quiet ear to listen while you continue to make no progress with how you feel.

Liam nods to you on your entrance, but doesn't acknowledge you otherwise. He sulks and he ignores, but he is still the first to kick a patron out for being unmannerly. He's still Liam, and it gives you hope for a resolution one day.

It's not until long after your shift is done, the sun peeking from the horizon as you sit on the steps of the back of the club, that Liam finally speaks. "I thought you quit smoking." He throws the garbage into the dumpster and dusts his hands. He looks back at you with familiar concern.