Rockin' Romeo and Jammin' Juliet

Sinning At A Strip Club

Chapter 9: Sinning At A Strip Club

((Playlist: Everybody Talks by Neon Trees))

"Wow, Sophie. You look drained."

Drained?  After staying up until almost three in the morning, Sophie felt like she'd been wrung out and used to mop the floors with. "I guess you could say that."

She and Mikayla sat in the back of their creative writing class, a blow off for most students. Their teacher, Mrs. Creed, was generally known as a senile old bat, and therefore quietly disrespected by most of the student body.  Or, at least, scrutinized.

"You must let the poetry flow out of you, the nectar of your thoughts!" She raved at them that morning. "It is the incarnation of human consciousness, and you must clothe it in your words. All we can hope is that you do it justice."

Of course, most students idea of 'clothing the embodiment of human consciousness', was sending each other selfies and listening to rap music. No one in this class ever wrote the poetry, except for the few hardcore writing geeks that landed themselves in the course.  Neither Sophie nor Mikayla were one of them.

"How much sleep did you get last night?" Mikayla whispered to her.

"Not enough," Sophie admitted, tapping her pencil on the paper. "I was on a date."

Mikayla smiled mischievously. "Oooooh. Who with? It wasn't Jackson was it?"

"It was."

Mikayla giggled, twirling a strand of red hair with her finger. "I guess you two were up late then, weren't you?"

Sophie winced. "Geez, no! We literally just had dinner. That was it. Just dinner."

"Really? No dessert?" She gave her friend a sultry wink.

"No!" Sophie felt herself blushing again. "Nothing like that."

"I can't believe it," Mikayla said, looking at her with surprise. "Do you know the things I've heard about that boy?"

"I don't think I want to." And it was true.  From what she'd seen of him, Jackson wasn't a total lost cause.  Snarky and mischievous, sure, but he'd never once made serious advances toward her.  Sophie stayed enough in the gossip line to know the kinds of promiscuous rumors that surrounded him

"Well, it depends on who you ask," Mikayla said, heedless of her friend's hesitation, "Some will say he's just a grade-A fuckboy, but everyone agrees that he is a total flirt. Just his eyes make girls go weak in the knees. He gives away kisses like they're candy, and lord knows what else he does when no one else is watching-"

Sophie held up a hand. "Stop," she said. "Please stop."

"- And you know that girl Taylor Mirandez? I heard, last year, that they went out to the desert late at night and started making out and then they had s-"

Sophie turned and whipped her pencil at Mikayla. "Ow!" She exclaimed. A few students turned and snickered. Mrs. Creed didn't even pause in her monologue on 'the sweet nectar of poetical verse.' (As if poetical were an actual word).

"Don't say another word," Sophie warned as she plucked her pencil off the floor.  To be honest, she didn't care what Jackson did with Taylor Mirandez in the middle of the desert somewhere, as long as he wasn't trying it on her.  Right?

"Okay, okay, jeez. Violence isn't the answer," Mikayla surrendered.

Sophie sighed.  "Sorry. I'm just kinda stressed."

"About what?" Mikayla smoothed out her hair.

"Jackson wants me to be the new drummer in his band, " she blurted out.

Mikayla's eyes lit up. "Woah! That's great!"

"But I don't know how," Sophie groaned. "I've never played an instrument."

"Isn't it basically just whacking things with a stick?" Mikayla raised an eyebrow.

"That's what Jackson said."

"Then you can do that!" Mikayla told her. "So you can bang the drums, and then bang Jackso-"

"I will throw this again, Mikayla," Sophie warned, holding up her pencil.

Mikayla winked. "I'm just saying. But you totally should be the drummer in his band. Do you know how many girls would kill to do that?"

Sophie sighed. "Many, I'm guessing."

"'Many?' Tons, honey. Like, 99% of this school."

Sophie fiddled with her pencil, not thrilled by the idea of every other girl in this school jumping at the chance to be Jackson's drummer.  Though he certainly could have asked anyone else, he asked her.  She wanted that to be special.

"I'm probably going to do it," she said at last.  "There's a rehearsal tonight.  I'm just not sure."

"About what?"

"I don't know! I don't know what I'm not sure about. Maybe my parents. They'd have a cow if they knew I was in a rock band, let alone one called 'The Missionary Position.'"

Mikayla smirked mischievously. "Then don't tell them. Just say you're hanging out with him; there's no reason for them to have to know about the music part."

Sophie perked up. "That's true."

"And," Mikayla added, "it isn't lying. You're just... leaving some stuff out."

Sophie nodded slowly. "I see what you're saying. It still feels kinda mean to my parents, though."

"Sweetie, everybody has to start lying to their parents sometime," she said, twirling her pencil in a perfectly manicured hand. "Most girls start out when they're thirteen. You're just a little late."

Sophie's eyes bulged. "You mean that you lie to your parents?"

"More like I stretch the truth," she explained. "Like last year when I went to see Fifty Shades of Grey with my raunchy reading circle-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! You went to see Fifty Shades Of Grey? How did you even get in the theater?! I thought that was rated R!"

Mikayla brushed it off. "Not important. Anyway, I told my parents I went to see some chick flick with a bunch of other girls."

"So?"

"So, I wasn't really lying that much, because I was seeing a movie with my friends. The only thing I changed was the movie. So, they believed it!"

Sophie held her head in her hands. "My gosh, this teenager thing is way too complicated."

Mikayla mock-pouted with sympathy. "Oh, don't worry. I'm sure you'll figure it all out."

Right then, the bell rang to signal the end of class. Everyone began shoveling their things in their bag and leaving. Mikayla smiled at Sophie as she walked out the door. "You better pound him good tonight, honey," she said.

"You better be talking about the drums," Sophie replied, blushing miserably.

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((A/N: Ta-daaa!  Sorry for the short updates, we promise the next one is longer!  This is just a little peek at what other people think about Jackson (in case you're too busy being charmed, like someone else probably is).  Anyway, if you liked this one, be sure to vote and comment away.  Thanks guys! -A))