Tear Tracks Forever

One Month Later

It had been a long time, and I was closer to the Markin family than ever. Except Mr. Markin. I basically ignored him. Anyway, I felt like a daughter to Mrs. Markin and a sister to Carmella. I wasn’t too sure about Alex, though. He seemed more like my best friend, not a brother. Me and Solstice also practiced like, every day for the talent show and I was happy to say, we had it perfect. Only one problem. No costumes.

Solstice’s trapeze act was going perfect and I was amazed and mesmerized by the way she effortlessly curled and swung herself into the air. I could never do something like that. She even had a perfect costume—a skintight red-and-black striped bodysuit. We couldn’t find a costume for the dance though. We searched for three days on almost all the boardwalk stores and outlets and now we were heading to the others and at last resorts—the malls.
We walked along the boardwalk, laughing and talking. Suddenly Solstice grabbed my arm, bringing me to a stop. “We haven’t gone to that one yet.”

We walked into the shop, and it was mostly a bunch of inappropriate tourist shirts with obscene remarks about strippers, pole dancers, alcohol, clubs, etc. Solstice wanted us to get matching shirts that had a silhouette of a girl and guy kissing and said “I ♥ Colombian Boys. They’re the sexiest kissers ever.” Typical of her. But I refused, so she rolled her eyes and we continued.

We searched for over an hour, until we walked into this store that sold stripper clothes. I thought it was a waste of time to go in there, but Solstice insisted, saying, “You’ll never know until you try!”

We searched and searched until we found IT. The costume. It wasn’t inappropriate or stripper-ish at all. It was just a sleeveless silver, shimmery, short top that ended at the waist. We also found these awesome jegging-sort of like things that looked like jeans but were comfortable like yoga pants. They were faded and light blue, flare. They were perfect. As we bought the matching clothes, Solstice chattered in my ear the whole way home.
“See! See! I told you! Now you have to admeet that I’m right, Rhee!” she giggled.
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. You were right.”

She laughed, smacking my arm, and we walked home, happy, and prepared to face the competition three days later.

Three Days Later

I anxiously rubbed my sweaty palms up and down my arms. I was waiting for Solstice to get onstage, do her trapeze act, and then rush backstage so I could straighten her hair, do her makeup, and change her costume for our dance. her act was #8 and ours was #20, so I figured we had enough time.

They were on act #7. The girl, who was singing Perfect by P!nk and was really good, exited the stage, and then suddenly they pulled the curtains closed, probably to set up the trapeze.
“I can’t believe you’re entering this,” a voice sneered from behind me. I whirled around, clenching my fists. Ashlee. She was dressed in a black tube top with red lace that showed off a lot of cleavage and super short white shorts. I didn’t want to start a fight, but if she was going to be bitchy, then bring it on bitch!

“Hell yeah I am. What are you doing for an act? Pole dancing?” I returned.
Her eyes (overdone with the makeup) narrowed and she flicked her blonde hair over her shoulder. “No. For your information, I’m singing.”
I almost fell over laughing. “You? Singing? That seems so innocent…sorry, I just find that hilarious.” I pretended to compose myself and wipe tears off my cheeks. “Sorry. Haha, so what song?”

She rolled her eyes. “Wow, really immature. Anyway, I’m singing E.T.”
For a second, I forgot that she was Ashlee and grinned. “I love that song!”
“Umm, yeah, like hell you do. So what are you doing?” she spat.
“Me and Solstice are dancing to Closer.”
She began laughing even harder. “You and that girl with the weird accent? Wow! I just can’t wait to see this. That girl has serious issues. What the fuck of a name is Solstice? And what’s with that pedophile accent of hers?”
I stepped closer to Ashlee, holding my fist in front of her face. “Don’t say one more bad thing about her. Don’t forget my threat, bitch. I’m gonna rip off your fake nails and shove ‘em down your throat faster than you can yell help. Got it?”
She scoffed, but I could obviously tell she was scared as she teetered away on her black stilettos.

Suddenly, the curtains opened and Solstice stepped out, her hair in a high pony, wearing the beautiful bodysuit, her hands planted on her hips, blowing kisses and smiling to her audience. The stage went dark and a single spotlight shone down on her. She flipped herself onto the bar, twirling and spinning upside down as it went back up. I was mesmerized by her talent—she was really good. Everyone else seemed to be in awe too, they were all staring, ooh-ing and ahh-ing, and taking photos.
She was great, and I watched and videotaped it the whole time (just as she’d asked) and I didn’t even realize as Alex stepped up beside me. His voice was one of awe. “Wow, she’s good, isn’t she?”
“Tell me about it,” I said proudly, and then realized the video camera must be picking up whatever we were saying. I brought my finger to my lips, saying, “Shhh. I’m recording.”
Alex nodded, understanding, so he stood silently next to me, watching. Her act quickly ended in about a minute or so, and then it was Ashlee’s turn.

She looked like s stripper as she climbed onto the stage, blowing kisses to hollering guys and flashing her boobs at them. Ew.
She began to sing, and she was honestly horrible, but the boys didn’t seem to care because she was acting like a nasty stripper the whole time. She cupped her own boobs, pulling her tube top down, and running her hands up and down her own body and in between her legs.
At one point, when she was singing, ‘Kiss me, k-k-kiss me”, she walked off the stage and wrapped herself around Alex, pressing her body to his and kissing his cheek. He sort of unwrapped her from around himself, and he stepped away. Ashlee obviously wasn’t used to being rejected onstage, so she just pretended like she was playing hard-to-get and walked away.

At one point in the middle, she was touching herself waaay too much so one of the judges actually had to stop her and escort her off the stage, announcing that she was “disqualified” because of inappropriate sexual content for underage audiences.

I was seriously laughing my ass off as she looked really upset. So was Alex. Solstice rushed to my side and I quickly helped her change and we got ready. As they called Act #20 to the stage, I sighed and smoothed my hands on my clothes. It was time.

Ne-Yo’s voice blaring in my ears gave me courage. I couldn’t blow this. So I gave it all I had and put all my energy into the dance. I actually got the slow-mo handstand right!
I had to admit, we were great, especially with Alex, Carmella, and Pepper cheering us on the whole time. At the end, the three actually started shouting, “ENCORE ENCORE ENCORE!” Me and Solstice laughed, and then held hands, bowing.
When we hopped off the stage to the sound of applause roaring in our ears. The whole rest of the program, people kept walking up and saying how good we were and how much talent Solstice had. The only bad comment we had was from Ashlee of course, who stepped closer and hissed, “This isn’t over, bitch.” My only response was to raise a fist and she quickly backed away.

When it was time for the awards ceremony, Solstice’s trapeze act won first, of course, and she received $500. Our dance came in fifth, and we didn’t receive any cash, but we got to be in the newspaper and on local news TV and get these cool trophies.
Mrs. Markin was so proud of us that she took Alex, me, Solstice, Carmella, and Pepper out for pizza and ice-cream. Alex congratulated me, giving me a hug. “That was great! 100x better than Ashlee’s,” he had said, rolling his eyes.

I laughed. “If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought you actually enjoyed hers,” I teased.
“Shut up,” he said, smacking me playfully.
By the time we got home, I was exhausted and fell asleep, proud of myself and content. I had sweet dreams the rest of the night.