My Room Mate Is a Stripper

Chapter 10:Not so Little Talks

Dani's POV

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The instant I walked through the door I was enveloped with the smell of something burning, which in all honesty, did not exactly send out good signals. From behind me I heard Annika sigh. "Please tell me that you two village idiots aren't cooking again!" She shouted, rolling her eyes at the cloud of smoke pouring out from the kitchen.

"Um.... shouldn't we call the fire department?" I asked timidly, taking a few steps back. Annika smiled at me, linking her arm with mine and more or less dragging me to the kitchen door.

"Don't worry Dani, whenever Andrei is over he seems to think that challenging Kyle to a cooking contest is a good idea..... they've learned to disable the fire alarms by now when this kind of thing happens, trust me. The smoke is a normal thing. You should have been here to see the Great Cook-Off Disaster of 09, that was fire department worthy!" Strangely enough, that didn't comfort me.

"Hey, the victim returns!" Ignoring Annika's murderous glare, Andrei raced out of the kitchen, a lopsided chef's hat perched precariously on his glossy black hair, his emerald eyes sparkling. Picking me up an twirling me around, i was unable to help smiling back at Kyle's gorgeous cousin.

"Put her down jackass." There was no mistaking the anger in Kyle's voice as he too emerged from the kitchen, a mysterious mark on his shirt that looked suspiciously like it had caught on fire. Sulkily, Andrei set me down before taking Annika's arm and leading her into a separate room. "Let's give the lovebirds a chance to settle their little spat why don't we?" He whispered loudly, giving me a wink. I didn't miss the punch Annika sent flying into his gut, and I couldn't help but laugh, until I turned around and found myself gazing into Kyle's cautious expression.

Oh boy. Here we go. Time for a Not so little talk. Looking over at a clock on the wall, I was surprised to see it was 10:30. Had I really just had dinner with Lena, accidentally attended a stripper party, and been kidnapped in a matter of hours? Uncomfortably, I smoothed my now rumpled plum dress and met Kyle's eyes. "Soooooo....." I said softly. "What's cooking?" Wrong question. Kyle narrowed his eyebrows.

"This isn't a joke Danielle." He snarled, and I looked away, not wanting to meet his eyes, surprised when I saw furniture. Noticing my curious expression Kyle sighed and filled in the blanks.

"It arrived while you we're gone. Um... Do you want to sit?" Nodding we awkwardly made our way over to a dark leather couch, sitting on opposite ends and facing each other. Eventually, Kyle let out a deep breath, exclaiming "I think you should move out." At the exact same time I begged

"Please let me stay." Shock crossed his gorgeous face as he looked at me, and I was glad for the dim lighting as a blush crept up my cheeks. "Please. I know it's been crazy, but I do need this place, and once your family leaves you alone, it'll all be good right?" I think this one night pretty much sums up what it will be like living with you, and in case you haven't noticed, I survived. Sure you go and strip for sexually frustrated women and sure your family has serious issues, but we all have our baggage. Yours is just a bit heavier to carry. I may not look it, but I'm tough. Whatever you throw at me I'll catch okay?" Kyle narrowed his eyes, which I took to be a sign of him thinking, and prayed he came to the right conclusion.

"Dani I'm sorry but there are reasons I have for doing this. I know how much this means to you and I promise I'll even buy you your own apartment if that's what it takes." It took me more time than it should have to process what he was saying.

"What?? Buy me my own apartment??? Kyle I'm sick of this shit. You clearly have more money than you let on. There is no way in hell a stripper could afford a Ferrari, so if you are this rich why are you hiding it?" Before he could respond, I cut him off. "And another thing. Since you're so obviously loaded why did you need a room mate in the first place?!" By now I was shouting. It had been a long, horrible day and at this point all I wanted to do was crawl up into bed and fall asleep. Which I couldn't do because a certain insufferable stripper was in my way.

Taking a deep breath, Kyle forced a hand through his hair. "Yes Dani, I'm rich. I'm so rich that everyone I knew in Romania wanted to get to know me in the hopes that they could have some money. And that's not the life I wanted." I felt a twinge of guilt for snapping at him as his eyes filled with pain. Clearly I had breached a sore subject.

"Um if you don't want to talk about it..."

"Save it." He cut of my interuption. "I live in this crummy apartment because I don't want all the burden that comes with being a political asshole's son. I want to make a living for myself, and If I have to shed my clothes and my dignity in the process then that's what I'll do goddamnit!" At this point my agitated roomie was breathing hard, his eyes wild. Before I could once again try to speak, he continued in an even softer voice. "And finally, I believe you wanted to know why I needed you to share this place with me?" He laughed bitterly, beautiful hair getting in his eyes. "I guess I was just tired of being alone."

Something within me broke. I understood everything he had said. I may not have had a crazy family, but I wanted to make my own way in the world which was why I had left them. And before I had met Annika, I had experienced the loneliness.

"Kyle... It's late, we're all tired, and we need rest. I'm going to bed, and we can talk more in the morning when we aren't high and emotionally strung." I finally said, reaching over and hugging my poor, broken, stripper. "The sun will come out tomorrow right?"

And As I made my way into the bedroom, where a guilty Andrei and Annika waited with their ears pressed to the door I could have sworn I heard Kyle mutter "Sweet dreams Dani."