Underneath My Skin

Ch. 3

The day goes by quicker than I thought, and before I know it i'm walking to Sapphire with Jaylee. I really like her. She is amazing. She's twenty one and she bought me a few bottles of wine, claiming she bought them for me because I have a stressful job, and she's right. Being a stripper is stressful, and weird. But, I have to pay bills somehow.

We show the bouncer our id's. Its only eight so we are pretty early getting here tonight, we usually come around nine. We walk inside the empty club and head towards the dressing room.

"Tony is going to be here tonight," Jaylee says.

I roll my eyes. "Fuck."

I hate Tony. He owns this club. He's a cocky, rude, rich, idiot. I had to give him a lap dance for this job, which was extremely uncomfortable. He's in his late thirties, and he's in shape, he's not ugly at all, but his personality is. My mother always said pretty is as pretty does.

No one is in the dressing room when we enter, so we get dressed quickly and make small talk to kill time. We're brought out of our conversation by the sound of the dressing room door opening. Tony comes in with Karmen and Taylor behind him. I don't like those girls, but they can work a pole.

"Briella. Jaylee. I trust that you two are doing well tonight?" He asks with a smirk on his face.

I nod. Why is he all of the sudden being nice? He's usually the king of assholes.

Chelsea, Rene, Jasmine, and Harper pile into the room and stand next to the rest of us. Great, group meeting.

"Girls, have any of the clients here been offering you money for sex?" Tony asks.

A few girls nod their heads. I stay still, thankfully no man has offered me money for sex. If one did, I'd surely lose my job.

"Take the offers. Get as much money as you can and split it fifty/fifty with me."

I gasp. "You can't be serious?"

Tony furrows a brow at me. "Briella, i'm very serious." He takes a step closer to me.

"That's fucking disgusting," I snap.

He laughs. "So, what?"

I walk over to my dresser and grab my purse. "I quit," tears threaten to spill from my eyes.

"Aw, honey. I'm sorry but you can't quit."

I scoff and slam my purse back down on the dresser. "And why the fuck can't I?"

"You signed a year contract with me. You do not have a valid reason to quit so there for you can not quit."

I snort. This nigga is about to get hit. "I don't have a valid reason? I don't want to work here! That's valid enough!"

He laughs again. "I hate to break it to you honey but, we are not the only strip club doing this. "

He turns and walks towards the door. I take a few deep breaths. He opens the door, and then turns back around to face me.

"Don't forget, Briella. You belong to me." A smirk forms on his thin lips.

I launch myself towards him, but i'm halted by Jaylee grabbing my wrists hard. She pulls me back and hugs me. She starts to sob, and I automatically wrap my arms around her. Jaylee has custody of her baby brother because both her parents are drug attics. I know she doesn't have a contract, but she can't just quit. She has an extra mouth to feed.

She pulls away from me. "Well, this sucks." She says.

I nod and walk back over to my dresser. Girls get clients, including Jaylee and they file out of the dressing room. I turn to my right and see Jackson sitting in the stool beside me. I sigh.