One (Bar Dance)

One

By Dani Joy

Copyright 2014 Dani Joy

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Chapter One

Stogies

I had an idea, a business degree, a building, a lawyer, an accountant and most importantly friends.

My bar, Stogies, was due to open in four months. I had inventory ordered. Ads placed. Interviews lined up. Six more weeks and the contractors guaranteed me that they would be done with all the renovations. Tables, chairs and such were to be delivered two weeks after that.

My closest friend and confidant, Keiley Wright, had been on board with my plan since the first time that I mentioned it to her.

A bar. Shots and beer. No food but live entertainment on Friday and
/or Saturday night.

Keiley and I had been dancing since we were both twelve years old. We both had quit taking lessons when we turned twenty. That was the studios idea not ours. Now we just went to clubs or just found a large enough space to keep us happy while we moved.

Now we would have a four foot wide, sixteen foot long stage at our disposal. At my bar. Anytime that I wanted it. Dancing in public again was a dream come true.

I had already contacted Angelica, Sasha, and Audrie. They agreed
to dance with us almost as fast as Keiley had.

Terra
Chapman was the first one Keiley and I had thought of and the last one that I was going to contact. She was working at the local hospital as a nurse. She also was taking night classes to further her education. That was the only way to advance so she could make enough money to support herself. Needless to say she was nearly impossible to track down. I finally managed to do it though.

Terra asked me to meet her at her boyfriends. She had a rare night off. I agreed to pick her up there so we could go out and grab some food
while we took a night to gossip together.

I saw her pull to
the complex. She parked then jogged over to my car as I was getting out. “I need to run in and tell Todd where I’m going. Do you want to come up to meet him?”

“Naw. I’ll just wait here for you.”
I answered back to her as I leaned against my car. Not that I wasn’t curious about the guy, I was, just not enough to go and meet him.

She nodded and jogged towards the stairs. She always was graceful. If she threw half the energy in to her dancing as she did in taking care of other people she would have been in New York or LA.
She was five-six or seven. All of my friends were within two inches of each other except for Keiley who was lucky if she actually measured five-four. Terra had blond hair that she kept in a semi choppy cut right about her shoulders. He had added pink coloring to the ends when she started working in the children’s wing at the hospital. It suited her well. I watched her go up the stairs to the second floor. Four unit on each level. The stairs dead in the middle of the building. Steel railing and concrete steps. Eight total units in the building. It did have a little life to each unit. I do mean a little bit. Like the neighbor to the west had a plaque on the door of a cat. One floor down had a planter of flowers. Well mostly weeds that sprouted what could loosly be called flowers. Whatever. I didn’t live here so it didn’t really matter to me one way or the other.

I watched her open the door, then I heard a shriek from inside of her apartment or her boyfriend
’s apartment if I was being literal.

At the sound I
moved quickly towards the steps. I was halfway up when I saw a girl run out the door. I do mean girl. If she was much more than eighteen I would eat something yucky. She had on flip flops, short shorts, like Daisy Duke short shorts that weren’t zipped but didn’t fall off since they were so tight. No bra in sight but she was holding her t-shirt over her chest. Thankfully. Her bag was in her hand and I wasn’t positive but I think that she was crying from the sounds that she was wheezing out.

I was at the second to top stair when I saw Terra fly backwards a foot
or more when she got backhanded by some jerk. Then he kicked her in the ribs as she fell to the ground. I heard, “You cunt. How dare you just walk in here?” Todd the Toad flew out the door still semi erect and pulling his jeans up as best he could without doing damage to himself. Apparently he was going commando. I didn’t know if it was by design or necessity. I was thinking design since he still had running shoes on his feet.

I swear I don’t know how he tripped on my boot. Really. I also don’t know how my hand happened to push him down the stairs as he started falling either. They were concrete stairs that he was falling down. They could do serious damage to the human body. Maybe, perhaps, bust his head open and let his life blood drain all over them?

He did make a sickening thud when he hit bottom but no blood. At least not from his head. His arm on the other hand was leaking some and was that from his leg as well? Time would tell. I walked in the apartment to see Terra still curled in a ball on the floor bleeding from her nose and holding her ribs. I crouched alongside of her pulling her hair off her face. “I’ll take care of this.” I whispered to her.

Her eyes cracked open and the tears were freely flowing. On a sob she whispered, “It hurts Sam.”

“I know baby girl. I have to go to my car and get my phone. I’ll be right back.”

She closed her eyes a
s I walked back out the door. I jogged to my car so I could pull my phone out of my jacket that was on the passenger seat.

“911. What is your emergency?” I heard when it connected.

“Domestic abuse. I need an EMT for my friend and someone to file a report.” Then I decided that it was my civic duty to report Toad’s, sorry, Todd’s condition. “Her boyfriend,” I said as civilly as I could, “Could probably use an ambulance. He took a header down the stairs when he tried to flee the scene.”

“Can you tell me the address and
describe their injuries?”

I gave the address as best I could. “Terra, my friend was backhanded. Bleeding from her nose. Possible cracked ribs when she got k
icked. The guy? I think that he broke some bones when he fell down a flight of stairs. He’s unconscious at the moment.”

“Units are in route. Can I have your information please?”

I walked back to the apartment while giving them my name and answering any other questions that she asked. I think that she was just trying to keep me on the line until ‘help’ arrived. Either that or she had a script in front of her that she felt necessary to follow and complete. I managed to stay on the line while I got a pillow and blanket from the bed. I sat cross legged next to Terra with my hand on her head when I heard sirens close by.

“Units are on the scene. I will leave you to them.” The talkative dispatcher said
as she disconnected the call.

“Could have figured that out myself, sweet cheeks.” I rubbed a hand over Terra’s head. “I’ll be right back.” I put my head to hers
before I stood.

As I walked out the door I saw a cruiser come to a stop. Behind
that was an ambulance, then another cruiser and an EMT truck. The sirens cut and I gave a sharp whistle to the first patrolman. “You and the EMT need to come up here. Leave him to the ambulance.” To my surprise they did what I asked. Then another ambulance pulled in with a fire truck behind them.

A totally inappropriate song came to mind
as I looked at Toad’s sorry ass. Montgomery Gentery’s ‘Hell Yeah’. I saw them in handcuffs from the video with them saying the words to the song. I started humming and stopped as they topped the stairs.

“Ma’am?”

That got them my normal glare. I was twenty-five not fifty. I softened my glare. They were doing their job not trying to piss me off. That and I needed their help. I told them clearly and distinctly what I saw. Then I added, “I don’t know if he tripped over his own feet or zipped himself in before he went down the stairs,” Then I added, “And he went down
hard
.”

“Do you know his name?” The officer held his pen over his little notebook a
s he asked.

“Toad?” I shrugged.

Terra was being stood up to walk to the ambulance. She whispered on a grunt. “Todd Pelt.”

Pelt? I thought. Then I said it. “Pelt as in an animal skin, Pelt?”

She grunted as she took her first step.

“S
houldn’t that have been your first clue girl?” I nearly shrieked at her.

“Ma’am.” The officer said
with a note of censure in his voice.

I glared at him and threw my eyes heavenwards. I took two deep breaths. Then I started laughing. “Toad Pelt. Wonder how many it would
take to make a bad pair of boots?”

The officer in front of me snorted
at my totally inappropriate question. Then he coughed to cover it. He looked towards the door so I followed to where his eyes went. “Got it covered in here Frasier?” The biggest, blackest man that I had ever seen walked through the door. If I had time for a man in my life he would have actually caught my attention. Unfortunately I didn’t with the bar opening so soon.

My firs
t thought was, ‘Wow, he’s big’.

I guess I said it out loud. “Smell isn’t everything.”
The cop in front of me answered on a quiet laugh as he was walking away.

The huge black man asked. “Who gets hospital duty?”

“You do, of course.”

He answered with a movement of lips and a jaunty head shake with his eyes batting up and down. As if saying
, “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”

I said to him sweet as I could. “I’ll be there too. It will only cost you a good cup of coffee for my considerable personality.”
I knew we were all being completely unprofessional but what the hell. I could never resist a man who had a sense of humor.

He eyed me from top to toe and then slowly back up again. “How you like it sweetness? Black?”

I had not only walked straight in to that one, I led him in by a leash. And… I thrown in the dawg bone as well. I threw my head back laughing until my sides hurt. Once I calmed down I reached down picked up Terra’s bag, my phone and not for the first time I was grateful that I was wearing heels. I not only sauntered out the door ahead of him. I strutted as only a dancer or a runway model could do.

He clucked as I passed. “Thanks. I need to secure the
place.”

I tossed my hair over my shoulder as if it was
ten inches longer than it was, looked back at him, then I winked at him. I strode down the stairs, Stepped over the blood stains and walked to my car. It was a delicacy that I should not have bought but when I saw it I couldn’t help myself. A just released black Dodge Charger with a Pearl Blue topcoat. The windows were just
this
short of being tinted too dark. I walked to the passenger side and pulled out my leather biker jacket since the temperature had dropped just enough to merit it. Put on my sunglasses still strutting my ass off. I got to the driver’s side door, I slid in, fired up my girl, felt her rumble as I put her in reverse. I calmly backed out, put her in first and just let her glide to the exit of the complex. When the traffic broke, I did too. I was at speed limit when my car quit spinning rubber at the bottom of second gear. Good thing that I did since I noticed that I had a cop car on my bumper. I pulled off my sunglasses since it was actually too dark to see with them on. I went to my friend, who was probably at the hospital by now, or at least I hoped she was already there, with an IV getting good drugs. Hopefully copious amounts of very good drugs.

Terra

Sam stood by my bed breathing heavy. Her hands were on her hips. She had just swore at me, again. She threw her arms up in the air and swore one more time. My legs were over the side of the bed but the room was trying to spin. I blinked a couple of times, closed my eyes and opened them again. She pushed me down and cursed yet again. By this this time I wasn’t actually listening to her. I had to lay back down. The room was definitely spinning, getting warmer by the second. I knew that if I didn’t close my eyes I was going to be sick. I really hated all the drugs that the doctors saw necessary to pump in my veins. On the other hand I really didn’t want to know what my ribs felt like after that kick.

I curled up on my good side. Heard a low mumble of words from the doorway
from the big black officer. “She said she wasn’t going to press charges. We have your statement on file. Not much more anyone can do. She is also in no condition to do anything more right now.”

I heard the click of Sam’s boots as she left the room.
I had started shaking. The room may have felt warm but I was cold. I was so cold I couldn’t hardly stand it. The one blanket I had covering me wasn’t helping much. I felt something warm settle over my body and I cracked my eyes open. Sam was tossing blankets over the top of me and I knew that she had gotten them from the heaters that the hospital had. By the fourth blanket I was starting to warm up. The extra thin pillow under my head was extremely welcome.

I watched with one eye now. That helped the room not spin quite so much. Sam sat down in the chair. Pulled off one boot then the other. She stood, pulled her pants of
f and said, “Turn off the lights and close the door when you leave please.” She had walked around the bed and climbed under the covers with me, pulling me tight against her mindful of my cracked ribs. I closed my one eye again. That was when I fell in a dreamless sleep.