Blinded By The City Lights.

The weeks dragged by and the mysterious man by the name Shadows had yet to return to the club. I told myself I was disappointed merely because he had paid me well, but deep down I knew that this wasn’t the truth. I just wanted to see the hazel eyed man again, was that so wrong? I didn’t believe it was because I had fallen for him or anything, I just thought he was incredibly attractive and I hadn’t gotten laid in a while.

Tony has been giving me more work at the salon, giving me a chance to actually work with the clients. It really was more enjoyable than my previous job of sweeping up hair and making tea. After three years of working my ass of it was good to actually get the equivalent of a promotion. It seemed as if things in my life were actually looking up for once.

“Good afternoon Phoebe,” The now familiar blonde headed Val greeted me cheerfully as she entered the salon.

She’d been visiting a lot, about twice a week, just to get her hair styled by either myself or Melanie. She was a nice woman and I found that it was easy to let myself talk to her openly, almost as if she was a friend. But then I’d remember that people that don’t usually want to make friends with me so it must be in my head. She was just being nice.

“Hey Val,” I forced a smile and hoped it looked convincing. I was tired and just wanted to be in bed. I was not in the mood for either her chirpiness or her bitchiness. The only two sides of her I'd ever seen.

“Ugh! You won’t believe what Matthew did last night!” She always called her boyfriend Matthew when she was angry with him, I found it rather amusing. It was as if he was a child or something.

I sighed and made my face look sympathetic, “What happened?”

She angrily threw her hands up in the air, “The fucker comes back from a meeting with a record company about a potential deal and decides he’s gonna hang out with the guys tonight instead of me. It’s our fucking anniversary!”

I nodded sympathetically and let the young woman rant as I washed and styled her thick blonde hair. Every time Val had come in she had another story about her boyfriend, things seemed to be taking a turn for the worst in their relationship. It appeared he cared more about his band than her, or so Val thought. I was pretty apathetic about it all; I mean it didn’t affect my life so why should I care?

“What should I do Phoebe?”

“Uhm…” I shrugged, “I dunno Val. I mean, if he doesn’t love you anymore why are you hanging around him? You could do better.”

Her brown eyes met my green ones in the mirror and she looked almost desperate, “But I love him Phoebe!”

I almost rolled my eyes at that one; girls who used love as an excuse to stay with a man were fools. If he didn’t love you back it was pointless staying with him, but I let it go.

“I don’t know then, it’s your decision to make.”

She smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes, “I guess. Thanks anyway.”

I returned her smile and nodded.

Her eyes lit up considerably, “Ooh, can we curl my hair today?”



“You’re up next,” I hated how Andy felt the need to tell me that every night. I’ve been working here longer than him; I knew when I had to go onstage.

Instead I just nodded at him and returned my attention to the thin white powder stretched out in a line in front of me. I grabbed the rolled up twenty dollar bill Tammy, one of the girls who worked with me, held out to me and inhaled the substance. A smile crept across my face, a bit of coke and I could take on the world. I stood up and got ready to go on feeling on top of the world.

The club was dark as I made my way onto the small stage. I signalled Marty, the lighting guy, and I was hit with a spotlight. All eyes in the club were on me as I danced seductively across the stage in a bikini and feather boa. Tonight was my first time being one of the main acts of the evening. Pete had noticed an increase of interest in my act and bumped me up the bill. I didn’t mind, I now earned an extra hundred dollars from him and more tips from the patrons.

I stepped down off the stage, feeling a little light-headed. The after-effects of cocaine were beginning to set in as the high vanished. It was funny to think that the family who had adopted me, my real parents I guess, were totally against drugs and alcohol and here I was, the girl they picked to adopt, going against everything they believed.

My eyes lazily scanned the room as I did every night. I didn’t expect tonight to be any different, but there, in the farthest corner of the club, sat Shadows and four other men. They were all drinking and laughing raucously, well all except Shadows. He had his hazel eyes trained on me, a smirk playing on his lips. I returned the smile and slowly made my way towards his table.

“Ooh, look what we’ve got here,” A dark haired man wearing a fedora laughed. “A little whore coming to play.”

I glared at him briefly before returning my gaze to Shadows. His gaze was fixed on the man in the fedora and he didn’t look at all pleased with him.

“Do no call her a whore Syn, she has feelings.”

Another man, one with quite long, black hair and sky blue eyes, laughed loudly, “Ooh… Looks like Shadz is pissed with you!”

The man in the fedora, Syn, just scowled and grumbled before getting up and indicating to the two men who had yet to speak to follow him, “Christ, Vengeance, c’mon.”

Christ and Vengeance stood and scurried along behind the tall intimidating man.
That left me with Shadows and the unnamed blue eyed man. I suddenly remembered why I had come over here in the first place and shook my head free of any negative thoughts towards Syn. I bit my lip nervously and looked up at Shadows. His hazel eyes were alight with desire and the side of his mouth was pulled up in a small smirk. He turned to the skinny man sitting beside him, “Rev, would go join the boys for a bit?”

The blue eyed man, Rev, just shot a knowing smile at Shadows and nodded. As he left he waved at me in an almost friendly manner.

“Hey,” Shadows smiled almost softly at me and I couldn’t help but return it.

“Hi.”

He beckoned me closer and, remembering my job, I walked over and straddled his hips. He grinned and leaned in to kiss my neck. I leant my neck back to give him better access as I let my hands travel down his chest. His heart was pounding beneath my touch and I grinned, knowing I had this power over him. I attacked his neck with my lips as soon as he had pulled away from my own neck, darkening the bruise that had nearly healed.

“Oh, fuck!” He all but moaned as he bit his lip and his half-lidded eyes met mine, “My girlfriend’s gonna notice that.”

“Then you shouldn’t have come here,” I muttered and bit down even harder ensuring his girlfriend would notice the dark purple bruise. I had no sympathy for guys who came to the club only to be later caught out by their girlfriends. Don’t sneak around, let her know what you’re doing, she’s going to find out anyway.

He didn’t reply, just let a deep growl as he began feeling me up. Usually I would object to so much touching but, even though this guy was scum and was technically cheating on his girlfriend; I let him do what he wanted to me. I probably would’ve let him do anything that night but we were interrupted by a voice.

“C’mon Shadz, time to go.”

I didn’t turn to see who it was, just continued to grope Shadows’ hard on through his jeans taking great delight in the squirms he let out.

“Do we have to go right now Syn?” His hazel eyes were focused on the man standing behind us so I turned to face the intimidating man in the black fedora. He looked pissed off with Shadows and I instinctively wanted to shy away from him. By the way his chocolate brown eyes raked my body I could tell he thought of me as nothing more than a slut. In his eyes I was a mere piece of meat.

“Well if I come home without you I’m pretty sure there’ll be trouble. In case you’ve forgotten your girlfriend is my girlfriend’s sister. They’re both gonna be in my house.” He glared at Shadows and rolled his eyes, “C’mon we’ve got to go, you can visit your skank whenever you want.”

Shadows surprisingly nodded and pushed me gently off his lap, he didn’t seem like the type to give in, but maybe this Syn guy meant more to him than just a drinking buddy.

“Mmkay, I’ll catch up with you guys outside, just give me a second.”

Syn glanced down at Shadows’ crotch and laughed, “Yeah, maybe you should sort out your little problem.”

Shadows’ tanned cheeks turned a faint shade of pink and looked down at the ground looking awkward and almost cute. Syn just shook his head and walked away, leaving us alone. An uncomfortable silence descended upon us. I turned to leave no longer caring about earning money from this man, but his hand grabbed my wrist.

“Hey, where’re you going Cherry?”

I smiled when he said my stage name like that. It rolled so naturally off his tongue as if only he should be the only ever to use it.

“I’m going backstage. My show is done for the night.”

He nodded and loosened his hand on my wrist, “Oh okay.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out two fifty dollar bills again and handed them to me, “Here, look after yourself Cherry. You’re way too good for all this. Try and escape.” He pecked my cheek lightly and was gone.

I stood there motionless for a few moments not knowing what to make of what he said. Too good for all this? What did he mean?

My nose began to itch and I looked at the hundred dollars in my grasp. Enough for another hit of white powder. Enough to keep me atop the world all night.