Chapter 7
~*1 Week Later*~
“Come on D! I am so bored!”
“Well I’m tired!” Danni rolled over in her bed to block her head from the annoying girl bouncing on her bed.
“D!” Violet whined. “If you didn’t go out with him last night you wouldn’t be tired. Please.”
“Don’t even start the pout!” Her arm came out from under her and she pointed a finger at her. She didn’t even have to look at the girl to know she was pouting.
“Well if you’d just come with me without putting up a fight I wouldn’t have to pout!” Come on Danni. You know you want to go.”
“God I feel like I’m in high school all over again.” Danni rolled over and looked at the pouting girl beside her on the bed. “Let me at least take a shower.”
“Yey! I love you D.” Violet leaned over and gave her friend a sloppy kiss on her cheek.
“Yeah yeah!” Danni had to smile to herself as she watched Violet bounce out of her room and down the hall to her own.
She hadn’t seen Violet act like this in a long time. Too long if you ask her. It was nice to see she could still get into happy moods. However, rare, very rare to see her so excited about wanting to go shopping. She hated shopping most of the time. Especially when with Justin. It was enough to be out shopping in the mall or in the downtown plaza by the beach. But out with Justin, she just couldn’t handle it unless she was in one of these moods. He would drag her all over the place and into every single store. Half of the time he wouldn’t even buy anything. He’d just look around for an hour, bugging the hell out of Violet just to turn around and say, “I don’t like anything in here.” That pissed her off the most.
But she was happy for some strange reason, Danni would not be questioning, so she hopped out of bed and into the shower. She could use some new clothes, too. That was another reason she’d decided to go.
~*~
“I can’t believe that lady wouldn’t give up until you threatened her life!” Danni laughed, not being able to get over her friend’s fixation with her hair.
“If she would have gotten the hint when I said ‘No! I will NOT cut my hair’ then I wouldn’t have had to threaten her life! Ok?”
“Sorry. It’s just funny.”
During their shopping spree, Violet and Danni had gone into a beauty parlor because Danni decided to get a hair cut. But what she came out with was all her little friend’s doing. But it actually did look good on her. Violet could offer advice on her hair anytime. It was now just below her earlobes and a deep red with blonde highlights. It really accentuated her tan.
“Whatever. Ooh! Come on, D!” Violet grabbed Danni’s hand and practically dragged her to the little tattoo parlor across the street they had been walking down.
“No, no, no.”
“Why not?”
“Because, I already have one and I’m not happy with it so why on god’s earth would I want another?”
“Because, you don’t like that one and you were forced to get it by your ex-best friend. Get one that you like.” Danni let out an exaggerated sigh as she looked around the place.
“I have a question, what’s worse to get pierced, your naval, or eyebrow.”
“Your navel’s the worst thing to get pierced. It’s the most painful.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
“Even worse than a girl’s...um, clitoris?”
“Actually, I think they’re about the same. I obviously wouldn’t know. But I have a friend who has them both done.”
“Huh. Ok.”
“Why, you thinking about getting it done?”
“Yeah, maybe. It’d be different. That’s for sure.”
“Yeah. How many piercing you got?”
“Ten.” She answered simply, looking at different tongue studs.
“Tongue, naval, nose, and ears?”
“Gee how could you tell?” Her voice dripping with sarcasm.
He let out a soft laugh. After getting a good look at the guy, Violet noticed he was quite attractive. Tall, dark, green eyes, wild brown hair that hung around his face you just died to touch to scoop it back away from his face. And he wasn’t one of those tattooists who had tattoos all over themselves. From what you could see, he had one on his left arm, his back, and his calf. Hmm, remind you of anyone? It certainly did her. She immediately pushed the thought out of her mind of what Justin would think and looked back at the man.
“So, how much for both peircings?”
~*1 Month Later*~
“So how’s it going with the new managers?”
“Don’t even get me started on those guys! Ok, so Sarah’s not that bad. She’s actually catching on quite nicely. Just a few slip-ups here and there. She’s really nice too. Polite, dresses preppy or whatever you wanna say, drinks once in a while. And only her ears and belly button are peirced so I guess you could say she’s quite innocent. Very easy to get along with and fesses up to it when she makes a mistake. Now Dale on the other hand...Holy shit! That man is so uncoordinated. Why they gave me someone who can’t even balance a fuckin’ tray on one hand is beyond me! Ok, he’s smart, I’ll give him that. Cute too even. But he is just so stupid!” Violet paused for a moment only to receive laughter from the other end. “Hey, it’s not funny!”
“Oh but it is! I’m sorry Vi.” Justin tried to calm himself.
Violet definitely didn’t like it when someone laughed at something being screwed up at her club. Or in her case, someone.
“Will you find it funny when I kill the guy?” She mumbled into the phone. She really wasn’t finding it too humorous. “Now how would you like it if you had someone working on the tour who had no idea what the hell they were doing and they screwed up everything they touched?”
“That is not even funny!” Justin got serious. If there was one thing he never found funny, that was it. And Violet knew it. If anything ever got screwed up on tour, they would all be very, very pissed at the person who screwed it up. Especially Justin and Jc. They were the ones who took it very seriously.
“See how it feels?”
“Sorry Violet.”
“It’s ok. Just don’t do it again.”
“I won’t. Promise.”
“Good.”
“So I’m guessing that means no taking time off to come visit us anytime soon, huh?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry, J. You know how bad I want to go on tour with you. And closing the club for a few days would kill my business. And I just can’t do that.”
“I know. It’s ok. We’ll get used to it. We just would like to see you.”
“I know. I wanna see you all too. It’s too boring around here without the bunch of schmucks here to bug me at the club.”
She laughed into the phone. Justin knew it was a little forced but mostly a true laugh. He noticed she wasn’t being herself lately. Well, she was, but it was her old self she was acting like. And that’s what he was afraid of. He swore after Scott left he would help her break out of her shell and become confidant in herself, and he succeeded. But he’d be damned if he let that all go away so quickly. She was doing so well lately. What could have possibly happened to make her go back to that? He didn’t know the answer to that, but he had a feeling Jc may have. Well, at least she was talking to him again, right?
“Well, it’s been a blast talking to you and all, Justin. But I gotta finish getting ready. It’s really not too fun sitting here in my bathrobe and soaking wet hair talking on the phone.”
“Dang girl! You gotta give me that image, huh?”
Violet blushed, and she didn’t blush crimson too easily either. It was just the thought of Justin seeing her like that. Actually, he had seen her naked before so she shook the creepy feeling off. “Sorry Justin.”
“It’s ok. Call me tomorrow.”
“I will. See ya later.”
“Bye.”
Violet heard the click in her ear and hung up her phone. Sighing, she got off her bed and went into her bathroom to dry her hair and do her make-up. She had to be at the club in a little over an hour.
She missed him. Not just Justin, but Jc and the rest of the guys too. They were really her only friends, besides Danni. Maybe with a few more nights practice and training, Violet would feel perfectly comfortable leaving for a few days with Sarah in charge. She really was a quick learner. Just a few things here and there she couldn’t get. Maybe Violet could work her on those sections just a tad bit harder. Hopefully she’d get it. She really wanted to see them. She’d just be sure to leave on like a Monday and return Thursday. Those were the slower nights.
~*~
“So when were you thinking of going?”
“Uh, next week actually. Do you think you’d be ready to run the place by yourself by then?”
“Yeah, I think I’d be ok by then. I mean, between now and Monday there’s what? Four days? You can teach me the rest in that time.”
“Yeah. You have most of it down already. And I trust you with my club way more than the lug head.” They both had to laugh at that. Dale really was a lug head.
“And I’d only be gone a couple of days and they’re the slower ones so it shouldn’t be way too hard on you, ya know?”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, how about, tomorrow I’ll let you manage the place? I mean, I’ll be here obviously. But I mean for actual practice let you try doing the paper work shit and handling everything out on the floor.”
“That sounds good. Besides, you’ll be here then so you’ll see if I’m really ready to manage this place alone.”
“I don’t need to have you manage the place to know. You’re ready Sarah. And you’ll do great while I’m gone. Besides, you’ll have my guys lookin’ after you and helping you out.”
“Yeah. Thanks for giving me a shot, Violet.”
“No problem. I had to have a few days off a week besides Sunday, ya know?” Sarah smiled at the young woman in front of her.
“So where are your friends, if you don’t mind me asking.”
“Oh not at all. I think right now they’re in....London? I don’t know, is that even in the UK?”
“Uh, no I don’t think so? I don’t know!”
“Well they’re in the UK so...somewhere. I’ll find out tomorrow.”
“They always travel without you?”
“No, not always. I used to go with them a lot. But then I opened my club so I couldn’t go so often anymore. And man do I miss it. All the sights they get to see. It’s so great. The farthest I’ve been with them was Germany. But that was a long time ago.”
“Boy they must be rich.”
“You have no idea. Next time they’re in town I’ll have them meet you. They’re always here anyway. Just buggin’ me. So it shouldn’t be too hard to get them around you.”
“I think that’s sweet.” Sarah giggled.
“You don’t know them! Chris is just crazy. He likes to play way too many tricks on me. And it is so not funny.”
“Prankster?”
“Big time.” She laughed at all the memories of him pranking her. As much as it pissed her off then, it made her smile now.
“I know you say they’re just your friends, but there’s always one that’s the exception. You like any of them?”
“No. Well, J’s my best friend in the whole wide world. He knows everything about me and helped me out a lot when I was younger. I love him so much. But just as a friend. I’ve thought about it before with him, but I don’t have feelings for him in that way.” Sarah nodded in understanding.
“But Josh? I don’t know. He is so gorgeous, the nicest man you could ever meet, a killer dancer, a little fashion suicidal I’ll admit.” She laughed. “And he really cares about me. I haven’t known him as long as J, but he’s a great friend. But lately, I don’t know. I totally broke down in front of him and he found out my secret.” Violet’s voice was just barely above a whisper now. She was in serious mood and Sarah knew it. Violet hardly ever vented to anyone, especially someone other than Justin, but when she got started, there was no stopping the girl.
“I thought he’d run off scared, not knowing what to do ‘cause he never saw me like that before. I try not to show emotion like that in front of anyone other than J.”
“Why him?”
“Because he knows everything I’ve been through. He knows what’s really in here, why I won’t let anybody in really.” Sarah watched as Violet patted her chest over her heart.
She really wanted to cry out for this woman. It seemed like she had taken so much in her life and now she was paying for it, along with anyone who wanted to get inside. To know the real Violet Emerson. But maybe, just maybe, this Josh guy was the key.