Lonely In Nevada, Lovers In Kansas

The glow off the sign was blinking its cheap neon colored lights with the bass rumbling the outside of it all. It always seemed darker around this area of the city, even more specific, around this building. I walked down the alley to the back door, tying the ribbon of my mask behind my head. This was my second job, being a masked creature of the night. It was better than the people knowing what you looked like otherwise no one would think I was the sweet innocent girl that I am during the majority of the day. I opened up the back door and the music swept over me. I instantly became immune to it within a few steps of being in the building. I saw all of the other masks that were animal masks just like mine while all of the customers had plain white masks. We give them those masks so that they have the same amount of privacy as we do with ours. But it’s hard to tell who they are when their attention is mainly focused on what’s going on on stage.

“Leopard,” I heard my boss call out my animal name. I felt the smooth velvet of my faux leopard skin mask as I made my way over to him. “Work the tables tonight,” he commanded.

I just nodded and began my shift, which involved many dollar slips in the side of my mini skirt and many guysaccidentally dropping anything they could, making me be the one to bend over and pick it up, showing of the thong I am forced to wear underneath. I hate this job with a burning passion, but you have to do what you have to do. I have to in order to pay my bills and be able to feed Ricky and everything. There is no way I’d be able to do all that with my market paycheck and with all the extra money I get here, how could I complain. Of course, every time I work tables, I get the drunken tables that pull at my tube top and yank at the feathers at the top of my mask, but they are the ones that give you a ton of money and don’t care.

This goes on until two in the morning when I have to clean up every spill on the ground and every stain on the table. I take off my mask at this time to let my skin breathe. After being cloaked under that thing for a few hours, I feel like my whole body is just as gross, but with the mask or not, I would feel like that by the way everyone touches me. Yes, this job is frowned upon by a lot of people that know me, but I took it again cause of the pay and again cause of the masks. Everyone has his or her own secrets and this one was mine.

As soon as everything was cleaned up, I left out the back door, went down the alley again, and straight into my truck. I untied my mask and threw it in the backseat along with my heels. I do wear heels on occasion, but the ones that they make me wear here really kill my feet. I drive straight home without looking back, afraid that if I did one of the devil hounds of the night will come and keep me there longer than I ever want to be. It’s bad enough that I’m there from eleven at night to a little past two in the morning that is the last place on earth I would ever want to be.

Usually when I get home, I would take a shower and just fall asleep on the couch for a little. But since Ryan is here and suspects something odd, I just tiptoe in, hoping that he doesn’t leave his room and see me looking the way I do. I pulled up in front of my house and just sat in the truck. I was afraid now that Ryan is trying to figure out everything of going in. I rummaged quickly through the back of my truck and found an old sweatshirt that I threw over my head. It was big enough to cover my outfit, thank God. I decided to just go in and hope for the best. I got out of the car quietly and made it up the front porch stairs. I opened up the door and closed it just as silently as the car door and made my way down the hallway to my room. Because fate is the cruelest thing, it allowed Ryan to come out of his room, rubbing his eyes and yawning. I froze there, hoping that I didn’t wake him. When he was a bit more awake, he noticed my presence.

“Oh, I was just going to the bathroom,” he said.

“Uh…I just got out of the bathroom,” I replied, hoping that he believed that. He gave me a confused look and I took that as my opportunity to get into my room. “Goodnight,” I whispered and closed the door. I leaned my back up against the door and slid down to sit.It’s hard to keep a secret from someone you like.