Under the Giant Oak

"You work at a strip club?!" He screamed. I flinched. I'm not the best with screaming. I can't stand it.

"Yeah. You got a problem?" I spat trying to hide my physical fear of the man in front of me.

"Yeah, I got a problem. i got a big problem. Why would you work at that unstable rat infested dump?" Ronnie asked.

"It isn't rat infested." I replied.

"You didn't answer my question."

"What do you want me to say? That I do it because I strive for unavailable dom attention or that it was the only place that would hire me."

"Is that your answer? You want attention? You could get that at any other bar in town!"

"Okay, 1. that isn't my answer, 2. what bar would hire a seventeen year old fertile?, and 3. it was the only place that would hire me that could pay for all my bills." I explained.

"I'm sure you could have found another job that wouldn't make you. . . expose yourself or whatever." I stared at him for a second. How low did he think I was? I wasn't a stripper. I made the drinks for them, and I made them well enough to get good tips.

"You know what, I'm not going to fight you on this. Come and see what I do." I suggested throwing my arms in the air.

"What?" He seemed shocked. He still thought I was a stripper, so that was basically telling him to come see me dance around naked.

"Yeah, come with me tonight. My shift ends at three tonight. A little later than usual. You'll see what I do. Then, you can judge it."

"I'm not going to go see that." He said turning around and rubbing his face. I couldn't tell what he was feeling because only fertiles who knew what feelings were could understand the ones coming from the doms.

"Why not? No one will bug you, and you don't have to stay my whole shift. I'll even throw in a free Shirley temple for the underage drinker."

"I can hold my liquor." He chuckled turning back to me.

"Prove it." I popped taunting him. He thought it over for a second seeming to change his mind a couple of times by the look on his face.

"Fine. I'll go." He sighed.

"Really?" I asked skeptically.

"Yeah, come on you said that you were going to be late."

"Let's go then." I said leading the way to my apartment. It didn't take long from the park we were at, and I quickly climbed up the fire escape. I threw my bag into the corner, and saw that Ronnie was standing awkwardly outside. I don't know why- oh wait I told him he wasn't allowed inside.

"Um, you can come in. Just watch your head." I muttered. He didn't seem to understand what I was saying for a second but when he got it he quickly scurried into the place.

He looked around the bland one room apartment. That was it. It was one room with a bathroom, and a small kitchen, and by that I mean it had a sink and a mini fridge with some random counter space that I kept a coffee machine on that I only used for hot water. I couldn't afford any coffee beans. The walls were a white color with the only color coming from my dark brown dresser in the corner. All I had was mattress thrown on the floor in the corner with an old pillow and a thin blanket. That was everything in my apartment. It wasn't impressive, but it was better than nothing.

I walked over to my dresser and pulled out my standardized uniform. I didn't want to just change in front of Ronnie, but all he was doing was standing there looking uncomfortable.

"Um, could you like turn around?" I asked scratching the back of my neck. I could tell I was blushing, though I had no idea why because I wasn't easily embarrassed anymore.

"Oh, yeah." He replied turning around. I quickly stripped and threw my uniform on, and we were on our way. It felt weird wearing nothing but a tank top in front of Ronnie because I usually wore dark clothes that covered most of my skin.

"You got a bus ticket?" I asked when we walked to the stop.

"Uh, I think so." He said putting his hands through all of his pockets to try and find one. At that last possible second he seemed to find one and we climbed onto the bus. The bus driver stubbed our tickets and I went to the back where I usually sat with Ronnie next to me. No one was on the bus to town and five at night. They usually went the other way, out of town.

I hadn't muttered a word to him. Not even when we walked the short distance to get to the club. What was there to say? Hi. How are you? That good. I'm good too thanks. Oh, by the way you think I'm a stripper, but I'm not. It was nice talking to you. Yeah, like that was going to happen.

When we got to the club there was already a couple guys waiting outside because the club opened in about fifteen minutes. I had enough time to open the bar up. I walked straight past the bouncer, and told him Ronnie was with me.

"Max, you're late again." Shirley said behind the bar.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. I know. You saved my ass, it won't happen again. The usual." I muttered taking her place, and setting the bar up like always.

"Who's your friend?" She whispered pointing to Ronnie who was just standing there awkwardly by the bar.

"Ronnie that's Shirley. Shirley that's Ronnie. He's a guy I know from school." I said introducing them.

"Is he-"

"No." I interjected quickly. She was going to ask if he was my mate. I knew she would, but I wanted to quickly silence that thought.

"Club opens in ten minutes people. Let's get a move on!" Head honcho, aka the manager, screamed from his office a floor up. The girls scurried back to the dressing rooms, and they came back out in their 'uniforms'. Let's just say I was the employee who wore the most clothes in this joint.

"Ronnie, you want anything to drink?" I asked waiting for customers to file in and to start repulsing me by the second.

"Whatever is the best." He replied shrugging. I nodded and started to make my specialty drink. It had a bass of rum with other flavors I can't tell because it was my top secret recipe. It was the main reason I got this job. I handed him his drink and other orders started coming in.

It didn't take long for me to get bombarded with drinks because it was the busiest time of the night. At around nine o'clock was when the drunks started getting on my nerves. All the while I was hurrying to make drinks and fend off drunk customers, I didn't have one guy hit on me. I can't figure out if it was the fact that most of the guys were regulars who I yelled at constantly for it, or the angry dom sitting at the end of the bar trying his best not to rip someone's head off. I don't know very many dom emotions, but I knew rage very well.

"Ronnie clam down. Your scaring my customers." I said when it slowed a bit.

"Good, the scum bags deserve it." He mumbled.

"I'll agree with you on that, but they are my sole income. So, at least try to not look like you're planning a mass murder."

"I can't help it. This place makes me nauseous."

"Why? I've seen plenty of perfectly fine people come in here everyone once in a while. Most of these people will never come back. They were just curious."

"It's just. . . why do people work here? They get stared at by men who only want one thing from them, and they know it. I just don't understand why people would do it anymore than they need to, and the 'customers', as you call them, are just all scum bags who are probably leaving their lover at home to come watch this." He explained.

"Most of the people who work here are like me. They don't have a choice. They would be out on the street, if they didn't have this job. But, the guys just freak me out. I don't like them. Why do you think I stay behind the bar?"

"You were going to be a . . a-"

"Stripper? Yeah, I got offered a few times turned it down every time. Apparently I look like a type most doms like."

"You definitely are." Ronnie muttered. I didn't have time to react to it before I had to get back to making the drinks. It had only been three hours, and I still had six more to go.

The rest of the night was pretty normal. Got a drink or two split on me. Got flirted with, not as much though because most of them saw me talking to Ronnie, and every time one of them tried Ronnie would glare at them like a devil on steroids.

By the time my shift was over I was exhausted. I remembered why I didn't take overtime often. I decided to walk home again. I barley ever used my tip money to get a taxi, and buses don't run at three in the morning.

The bitter cold froze my naked skin instantly and I started shivering quickly. I rubbed my arms to try to get the friction to heat up my freezing skin. Ronnie seemed to notice this.

"Here take this. I don't need it." He said taking his jacket and holding it out for me.

"No, I'm fine. I'm used to it." I denied.

"Max, you can either take it willingly or I could make you. Choose wisely." I took the jacket. It was too big for me, and it smelled just like him. It was really warm, too.

"Thanks." I mumbled.

"Any time. Besides, you're too cute to freeze to death." He said.

"Sure, whatever you say." I chuckled slightly.

"It's true. You're absolutely adorable. You just don't know it." He stared up at the night sky.

"I'm not. You're just saying that to make this totally crappy night have at least one high point."

"You think I would lie to you? After everything I already told you?" He asked while he stopped walking staring at me.

"I don't know what to think of you, Ronnie. I just met you" I replied and continued to walk. It was bloody cold out. I wasn't going to have this conversation with him right now.

"So, get to know me, and let me get to know you."

"You just want to get that stupid idea of yours in my head."

"It's not a stupid idea, and it's not an idea. It's a fact. I just wanted to get to know you." He muttered the last part.

"I already let you go farther into my world than anyone else. What more do you want?"

"I just want. . . I just want you to at least try. Just a little bit."

"Me trying will get you no where. It won't help you at all. I don't have enough in me." I denied.

"So? I could make up the rest. I got enough in me to make this work."

"You're so frustrating! What don't you understand? This will never work! Never! How many times do I have to say that? Whatever you want I can't give you! You said that yourself." I screamed in his face. I didn't notice, but we stopped walking minutes ago.

"How do you know what I want? How do you know you can't give it to me? I just want . . . You don't know what it feels like to want something so bad that it hurts. It's killing me inside right now, knowing that you will never even try. I know that your life sucks, but I could make it better. I want to make it better." He said.

I didn't know what to say. I've never had someone talk to me like this. Ever. No one has ever tried to talk to me, or has told me that they wanted to help me. I didn't know how to react to this. I didn't have this in my play list of fake emotions to cover up my real ones.

I looked anywhere other than Ronnie's desperate face that was screaming at me to say something. I looked right behind his shoulder, and saw something that made tears that were already in my eyes go over the edge. Someone was going to cut down my tree.