Photographs of Unforgotten Pasts

The whole show I could barely take my eyes away from him. As he twirled, as he pranced… I had to know his name. I knew his stage name was something like Michaela, but I wanted to know his real name. I needed to know his real name.

After what only seemed a short while, all the dancers, except my dancer, left the stage and Jeffree brought him forward. He finished off the show with one last song, while my dancer had a solo dance. I had to stop myself jumping up onto the stage. Although one of those reasons that stopped me was that I didn’t want to reveal my hard on to the whole audience too.

Minutes later, the stage was empty and the crowd was dispersing. I would have gone backstage, but I had to check the photos before I showed them to my boss… Oh. Shit.

As I flicked through the photographs, I watched as my dancer appeared again, and again, and again. About 70% of the photographs I had taken were of my dancer. Shit, my boss was going to kill me. I saw him to the side of the stage and I walked over. He always came over at the end of a show to checked the pictures out. I handed him the camera and I could see his face go from happy to confused.

“Frank, where are the pictures of Jeffree?” He asked me.
I gave him no answer until I breathed out heavily. “Steve, I know-”
“Frank, you can’t let yourself get distracted with a dancer, you have about 10 pictures of Jeffree Star, and only God knows how many of that dancer. This isn’t like you Frank.” He was really pissed with me, I could just tell from his tone of voice, it was shouting, it was… calm. That calm voice that as soon as you hear it, you think ‘oooh shit’.
“I know-”
“Frank, I’m sorry, I warned you when you started here, if you fuck up once, that’s it.”

My eyes widened in realisation. I did remember, but I was hoping that he hadn’t. “Steve, you can’t fire me, please. I love this fucking job, I’m sorry-”

“I’m sorry too Frank. Come with me now, I’ll get your money for tonight.”

An hour later, I’d finally got home and I just collapsed on my bed. I’d lost my job tonight, and all because of someone who I’ll never meet again. Except, I wanted to meet him again. He was my dancer. I didn’t even know his name, only his stage name, Michaela Way.

I sighed, trying to get him out of my mind for tonight. Tomorrow, I would have to start looking for a new job, and hopefully I’d be able to get one quickly, otherwise I’d be out on the streets.

****************

So luckily, I had found a job within a few weeks. At a place called Out magazine. They’re a gay magazine so I didn’t have to worry about hiding my sexuality, not that I did where I worked before, but you had to be careful. They had been looking for a new photographer for a while and so I was hired almost on the spot.

I was given smaller jobs for a month or so, before I was told to go to a strip show. I was given 5 days warning, so it wasn’t bad. I was still given a few smaller shoots to fill in.

Every day, I thought of my dancer. I wonder where he was now. The Jeffree Star tour had ended so he was probably back home, somewhere like LA knowing my luck. Without even looking at the photographs, I knew what he looked like.

He had bright blonde hair, although I have a feeling that it was just a wig. He had a slim build and he was definitely taller than me, I’m just a complete midget. He had been wearing a hot pink halter neck top, silver mini skirt, that left not a lot to the imagination, hot pink boots that laced up halfway up his legs and had a few inch heels. How he could dance in those and not fall over is beyond me.

I could see that he had shaved his legs, something that turned me on when I thought of him. He had excessive make up on, but he looked gorgeous. I think what I got distracted with was when he bent over a few times and I saw that he had been wearing a thong. Now obviously, these weren’t his everyday clothes. Well… the thong maybe.

But still, to me, he was just perfect, even in all that.

I decided to bring in some shots from that show, making sure I went carefully through them to get the best ones of my dancer, although he was perfect in almost every single one.

“Frankie, these are amazing baby!” Joshua, my boss, was one of those people you just knew was gay. He was a real sweetheart. “Why the hell did you lose your last job?”

Cos I took too many pictures of my… the lead dancer.” I had to stop myself calling him my dancer. I still didn’t know his name, so I could only call him my dancer.

“I’m not surprised, he is one fine looking being.” Joshua looked over at me. “You do realise that this guy is the one who’s show I’m sending you to?” My eyes bulged out of their sockets. I must have looked hilarious because Joshua burst out laughing. “Close your mouth honey, you’ll catch flies otherwise. So I guess you didn’t know who’s show it was I was sending you to.”

“What?” Was the most responsive thing I could say.

“Frankie, he lives in NJ, sweetie. In Newark.”

My dancer, he lived in my old town? I wonder if I had ever seen him around? “What’s his name?” I asked Joshua.

Michael Way, everyone usually calls him Mikey, his stage name when he’s dancing is Michaela, when he’s not, he’s just Mikey Fucking Way.” Mikey. His name was Mikey. My dancer.

“Thanks Joshua.”

“Listen Frank, I’ve got a proposition for you. How would you like to do the review as well? I’d pay you extra, and it’s easier than sending two people out. What do you say? Feel up to writing?”

I thought about this for a moment. Now, writing had never been one of my strong points, but I had a feeling about this. “Yeah, I’m up for it.” Joshua’s face beamed at me.

5 days until I saw Mikey again… Fuck, what am I going to wear?