Rosé

I had just finished the first semester of my freshman year of college after my unplanned gap year, and was spending the winter break at home when the bell rang. My parents were already downstairs and answered the door, I heard a familiar voice and went to check who it was and lo and behold, it was the chancellor of my school, Mr. Smith, I had only heard his voice from the first day of school at the orientation but why the hell was he here in my house?

"John, long time no see." Mr. Smith said, hugging my dad then kissing my mother on the cheek before going to take a seat on the armchair.

My mum disappeared into the kitchen, leaving my dad and the chancellor to chat.

"It really has been a long time Carl." My dad sighed, "So how's the missus?" he asked.

"Betty's doing fine. Adam's grown a lot over the past few years and Leila is quite the beauty." he said in a way that implied something more.

Disgusting.

My dad laughed, "Yes, we should certainly get them together."

My mum came back out with two cold ones and a glass of orange juice on a tray and placed it the middle of them. She sat and picked up the orange juice, taking a sip before talking, "What are you boys getting all loud about?"

"We were talking about Leila and Adam." my dad replied, opening the bottles on the tray and taking a swig of it.

"That is a very interesting topic but it isn't why I came here John." he said. His tone had suddenly gone serious, making my ears perk.

"What's wrong?" dad asked.

He passed a paper to my father, "Now I don't do this for any other parent but I made an exception for you." he cleared his throat, "I noticed that Leila's classes are different from what she originally said she picked."

Shit, I don't like where this is going.

"What?" my mum gasped.

"Her grades are fine Clara but I wonder if this was a mistake because she seems to be doing exceptionally well for someone who has been given the wrong classes." he raised an eyebrow.

This bastard, what the hell is he trying to do here?

My father dropped the bottle on the table with a loud thud, making me flinch and almost slip and tumble down the stairs, "Leila!" he yelled, "Come here right now."

I stood from my hiding place and scurried down, I stayed standing in front of them. I had been planning for the moment that they would find out, I just didn't think it would be this early, I mean who would've thought that the chancellor knew my dad on a first name basis?

"What is the meaning of this?" he asked, practically throwing the paper in my face.

When I was scheming what to say, I had thought of every sassy response but now that I was actually faced with the situation, nothing came to mind, "I'm sorry." I said.

"I want an explanation, not an apology." he ordered in a stern voice.

I took the bottle that my dad dropped and drank it down to the last gulp, this was not a conversation that I could have sober. They all stared at me in disbelief but still patiently waited for my response, except for my dad who's anger was oozing from his skin like steam out of a kettle.

"I never wanted to be a doctor..." I said and my mum gasped, "I want to work in a company and hopefully become a CEO."

Mr. Smith burst out laughing, "CEO, can you believe that?"

My dad looked at me then at my mum, and back to me again, "Are you shitting me?" he stood up.

"Honey, no." my mum said, trying to stop whatever was about to take place.

"No, are you fucking with me Leila? I send you to college so you could have a better life, so you can be happy and you repay me with this?" he pointed at the paper lying at my feet.

"How do you know that I'm going to be happy with being a doctor?" I yelled, "You just chose that for me without asking me what I wanted and just expected me to fall in line, everything in my life has been mapped out by you and the one time I want something for myself, you try to take it away from me."

"Leila, you shut your mouth, that is your father you're speaking to." my mum said angrily.

Mr. Smith who instigated this whole thing was just sitting down with a beer in hand and I swear I could see the faintest smirk on his face which, of course, only fueled my anger.

"No I will not." I said to my mum and turned to my dad, "You talk about repaying you when you haven't even done anything that I wanted, never. Stop trying to push you dreams on me just cause you failed the first time."

All I saw was my mum's crying face and my dad and Mr. Smith's shocked expression plus the hotness of my cheek and the metallic taste in my mouth that overpowered my senses, I spat it out and looked at the red thick liquid on the floor next to the paper. I lowered to pick it up and squeezed hard on it, wrinkling the paper a little.

"All I wanted was for you to support my dreams but you couldn't even do that." I smiled.

I walked into my room and grabbed my phone to call my best friend, Evie. I paced around in the bathroom while waiting for her to pick up, I didn't even notice I was crying until I looked at the mirror. The tears kept coming, running over the red hand print that my father had embellished on my cheek. My hand was moving to touch it when I heard Evie's voice.

"Hey babe, what's up?"

"Do you still need a roommate?" I asked, ignoring her question.

"What's wrong?" she asked, "You sound weird."

"Do you or do you not need a roommate?" I asked again.

"I mean yes but-"

I hung up.

"Suddenly running away and coming to my apartment is a little impulsive don't you think?" Evie spoke through clenched teeth.

After I hung up, I took whatever money I had on hand and used it to go to her place but she was with her sugar daddy at the time so I kinda interrupted something.

I lowered my head, "I know, I'm sorry." I said.

"Whatever but did he really slap you?" she asked, tilting my head to see my cheek better.

"Yeah, I have the mark and everything." I chuckled before taking a seat on her couch.

She walked and sat next to me complaining about how I interrupted her and now she doesn't have the money to go shopping for this week but I could care less about that because something caught on the coffee table caught my attention, a neon dark purple business card with two wine bottles on each side and a black silhouette of a woman pole dancing, there was writing at the top, The Vineyard, it said. Now that I had finished admiring the card, Evie's voice was coming across more clearly.

"I was thinking about going to Aspe- are you even listening to me?" she whined.

"Yeah yeah, what's the vineyard?" I asked, picking the card up. It wasn't made with paper like other cards but I didn't know the material.

"Oh that? My benefactor goes there with his friends, it's some kind of strip club. You should go work there, apparently, they pay the dancers well." she smiled.

"That does sound like a nice deal, I think I'll try it." I said, turning to the back of the card, hoping for the address to be written on it... it was... 1795 Lexington road.

"Leila, I was just kidding." she laughed nervously.

I stood up and walked to her room, still looking at the address as if it would disappear if I turned it over.

After a good night's rest and a couple of ice packs, the swelling had gone down a considerable amount, I made Evie do my makeup and ransacked her closet because I left home without packing, then I was off to Lexington road.

The building was black with neon purple wine bottles at the front, the name wasn't on there but I knew I was in the right place, there was no one outside, it was a pretty secluded area, my driver got lost for 5 minutes trying to find this place. I went up to the door, there was no knob, honestly there was no possible way of entry so I knocked but there was no answer. I took the card out of my pocket to look at the address one more time but there was no doubt I was in the right place, during the process of placing it back into my coat, a beep came from the behind the door which stopped me in my tracks, I waited to see if I would hear another beep but it never came. I started brainstorming.

"It's a secluded area..." I whispered, "where rich people come, so obviously they don't want to be seen, hence the seclusion, there must be a secret way of entry that only they would know." I brought the card out again, "The card is given to every member, possibly, so the card must be a way to get in." I stared at the card, trying to figure it out and something finally came to mind. In college we have our id that we scan to gain entrance into the dorms so maybe this is like that.

I turned the card the the part with the address and slowly moved it across the door, the beep sound came again and I pushed the door open, revealing a beautiful African-American woman with yellow, blonde wig and in red lingerie, she had on stiletto heels, almost the same color as her hair with red designs on it, 7-8 inches high. In short, she looked like a fucking queen.

"Took you long enough." she said, her voice low and breathy.

"Huh?" I managed to say before 3 other girls that looked not that much older than me came squealing out of a room. 1 had brunette hair and was wearing white lingerie that was a size too tight in the boob area, with transparent stilettos, maybe 5-6 inches, the 2nd one was a redhead, she wore green lingerie and matching boot stilettos, I never thought anyone could pull off green but here she was, looking like an elf, a very beautiful one at that. The last one was wearing a navy blue bodysuit and the heels to match.

"We bet on how long it was going to take you to figure out how to get in, Chardonnay said 10 minutes so she wins, she always wins." the redhead said, referring to the woman in red

"What?" I asked, confused.

The girl in the navy blue approached me and smoothed my hair back, "We've never had one with black hair before." she said, cupping my face in her hands, "Why're you here?" she asked.

"I n-need a j-job." I stuttered.

"A job?" the brunette laughed, "So you didn't steal that card off of someone."

"No, one of your clients is dating my friend and he left it at her place." I said, "So please give me a job here."

"Hmmm... we do need a Rosé." the redhead said to Chardonnay. Come to think of it, these are all wine names.

"Hey girl," Chardonnay calls me, "Have you ever danced on a pole before?"

"Uh... no."

"Stripped?"

"No."

"Danced?"

"Yes, I was on the dance team at my high school."

"Then why are you here?" she asked, all the memories of what happened the day before came flooding back.

"I just started college, my parents found out that I wasn't studying what they wanted me to so I left, they knew I left but didn't haven't contacted me, they didn't even stop me from leaving and now I need a job, a job that pays well." I said.

"You're 18?" she gasped.

"We've never had one that young before, ooh Chardonnay can we keep her?" The girl in navy blue beamed like a little girl.

"Pipe down Mer." she ordered but that didn't stop her from going on and on, "Fine." she groaned, "You have the job. Training you will be lots of fun." she smiled.

Over the course of the winter break, Chardonnay, Merlot, Marsanna and Vernaccia taught me everything there was to know about stripping, I learnt a lot of things that proved all the stereotypes about it wrong, and by the end of the winter break, I earned the name Rosé.

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Thanks for reading my book. 😁😁