Beautiful Mystery (Owl City)

Chapter 3

Adam's POV:

This was every bit as bad as I had expected it to be. As if the idea of going to a strip club wasn't bad enough, because believe me, it definitely was. This club was the cliché that made all of the other clubs around look horrible. I knew that when the man who owned the club came onstage to introduce the show. I don't think I've ever seen someone who looked more like a pedophile. It was evident by the large, classroom style desk positioned in the middle of the stage what the theme of tonight's performance was. It was made even more obvious by a tall, thin girl strutted out in the most revealing outfit I'd ever seen. She was, however, dressed perfectly for the role of a whorish teacher. As annoyingly loud music filled my ears and a bunch of girls in short skirts and revealing shirts followed the first, I tried as hard as I could to look like I wanted nothing to do with this place.

I stood in the crowd with my arms at my side and a serious look on my face as Keegan and Alex jumped up and whistled at the girls on stage. I couldn't help but feel disgusted by the men around me. I mean, sure, it was a strip club, but some of these guys were ridiculous. Throwing dollar bills at the girls onstange or beckoning them closer so that they could stuff them in a waistband or shirt. Desperately grabbing at the girls as they got closer. Disgusting.

"What's this I see? A guest not having a good time?" one of the dancers with Crayola red hair called through a microphone. I knew she had to be talking to me since I was the only one not whistling or cheering. I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed for this to go away.  "Come on up here! I bet you could even get some one on one time with our head teacher!"

I stayed where I was, wanting nothing to do with any of this. Keegan and Alex stopped whistling at the dancers long enough to gawk at me.

"Get up there!" Alex yelled loud enough for me to hear him over the crowd. I glared at him and vigorously shook my head. Keegan jabbed my side.

"A stripper just called you up to the stage," he told me as though I were stupid. "How many guys does this happen to?"

"I'm guessing more than you think," I replied. Crayola hair was still standing expectantly, and all the dancers had stopped to gesture me towards the stage. All except for this so called "head teacher" I was supposed to get close to. She looked like she wanted this just about as much as I did. She even looked a little nervous. Finally, when the cheering of the crowd became too much, I caved and reluctantly headed for the stairs leading to the stage.

"I thought we'd never get you up here," Crayola called through the microphone. I hadn't realized how many people were here until I got up on the stage. This was a horrible time to be ridiculously shy.

The dancer who was supposed to be portraying the head teacher stepped up to me. Even I had to admit she was beautiful. Dark hair pulled up in a bun and big green eyes hidden behind black framed glasses.

No , no, you are not going to think of this girl as anything more than a stripper. Nothing more.

At first, I actually considered giving this a chance. The music blared over the speakers again and she draped her arms around my neck, a seductive pout playing across her features. The crowd burst into louder cheers than I had heard from them earlier. I wish I knew what to do in this situation. Not knowing what to do, I pushed away from her.

"I ... I can't," I apologized loudly enough for her to hear over the music. "I'm sorry." She nodded, but the look in her eyes told me she was relieved she wasn't going to have to do this. As quickly as I could, I made my way off of the stage and rejoined my friends.

"Pansy," Alex criticized.

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered, not sure if he heard me, and admittedly not caring.

*     *     *     *     *

The show didn't seem to last much longer, ending with the "head teacher" yanking the bun from her hair and letting it flow, and her "students" running offstage after one last seductive wave to the crowd.

"Can we please get out of here?" I asked Keegan and Alex. Alex looked at me in disbelief.

"Dude, can we stay for like, five more minutes?" he begged. "Some of the dancers might come out here!" I sighed.

"Fine. But kindly leave me out of anything you decide to say or do to them." With that, I left them and went to stand against a the wall near the door. I closed my eyes for a second and leaned back, wanting nothing more than to be home and wallowing in self pity.

"Uh, e-excuse me?" I opened my eyes to see ... the head teacher standing in front of me. Was I hallucinating?

"Hi," I said awkwardly, not quite sure what to say. "Look, I'm sorry I ran off earlier, I just-"

"It's okay," she interrupted. "I just... I wanted to ... here." She pushed something into my hand. I looked at her before I looked at my hand. Her eyes were wide with what I could only assume was fear, and her cheeks were flushed a light shade of pink.

"Bye," she nearly whispered, and ran off in the direction of the stage wings before I could say anything else. I looked at what she had given me. A folded slip of paper. I unfolded it and read seven hastily scrawled numbers that I could only assume was her phone number. Below the numbers, her name was scrawled in letters that looked just as rushed as the numbers.

Brielle.

[ so I hope everyone liked this. it was a little awkward to write for some reason, but I really like it. I'm so happy with the positive feedback on this story, and for me, 100+ reads in two chapters is a huge deal to me. So thank you guys, and see you all in a week with a new chapter!]