You're The Voice - Sidemen

Chapter 12

"Everything okay, love?" Josh whispers into Simon's ear, his head bowed towards the other man. Simon pouts, shaking his head.

"I'm bored." He whines, folding his arms across his chest like a child, as David and his friends laugh lightly at his antics.

Sarah overhears him, and smiles over before unfolding her body out of the cross-legged position she'd taken atop her rickety chair. She moves over to Simon, "fancy a dance?" Sarah nods her head in the direction of the gradual shuffle of middle aged women on the dance floor, the sweet sound of Karma Chameleon beginning to play from the speakers in the corner, on either side of the DJ's stand. "Show 'em what you're made of."

So when Simon wriggles out of Josh's hold, grinning at Sarah, all the members of LGSM share a knowing smirk. When Simon's let loose on the dance floor, he really goes for it.

Linda smiles at him as he and Sarah arrive on the dance floor, joining in with the shuffle and occasional giggles of laughter from the girls, but Simon knows he sticks out like a sore thumb. His height, his exaggerated movements of the 1980s gay scene contrasted by the sweet innocence of 1950s-style women. He's too much, and he feels the eyes of men upon him. Prying. Desperate to see his weaknesses.

Fuck them.

He keeps dancing.

Linda laughs next to him, "this is a first this, men on the dance floor."

Of course, Simon knows that, but he's got a façade to maintain. "You can't be serious."

"Cornish men don't dance!" David's sister Karen exclaims, as she and Sarah move into a rhythm together.

Simon leans towards them, like he's letting the duo in on a huge secret, behind them, he locks eyes with Josh, still seated among David's friends, who grins and rolls his eyes at him. Even without being next to one another, Josh already knows what Simon's going to do.

"Why don't we show them what they're missing?"

With that ominous statement, Simon runs off behind the DJ's booth, and leans in to request a change in song, before throwing himself back into the throng of dancing women.

And most of LGSM, it appears, Josh aside. He's never been much of a dancer, preferring to roll his eyes fondly at Simon and his extroverted behaviour.

The sounds of Shame, Shame, Shame by Shirley & Company draw Simon into his dance routine, as he begins to feel the music.

Holy fuck, does it feel good as a circle begins to form around him. He loves the limelight, always has done, but that doesn't stop him from dragging various women into the circle to dance with him. With Chris, it's joking, doing hip-bumps and pretending to push her out of the circle, but with the young girl who works behind the bar, it's provocative, sexual.

He's lucky Josh isn't a jealous man, and that Josh knows quite how gay he is.

Simon's not an idiot. He knows what he's doing. This suggestive dancing with women, it gets the men's attention, makes them realise what they have to do to have a woman attracted to them. The bargirl is central, he can tell. At least five of the miners in the room have a thing for her, and out of the corner of his eye, he can see Kenny moving himself softly to the beat. Simon smirks, it's a start.

The circle begins to disband, forming small groups, still watching Simon, as he runs and jumps atop a long table. Men have to lift their drinks out of his way as he walks, and it's so empowering, being up here, having people watching him and bend to his will. He feels the song coming to a close, and stands in front of Josh, who gazes up at him with eyebrows raised and a glint in his eye that Simon has never been able to resist. Striking a final, provocative pose that has Josh flushing in embarrassment with head in hands, Simon listens as the room applauds.