"CRY" by Sarah Ryniker

STORY LAST UPDATED ON 20/12/2002

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This story has a high sexual content.

Cry Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Epilogue

CHAPTER FOUR: A ONE-NIGHT STAND

Mother never asked where I got the cheques. She had no interest. All that mattered was that it got us out of there and into newly built apartments on the better side of town within three months. I think she knew that it wouldn't be a good idea to ask. Though I think she assumed that I was doing far worse than I really was. I believed she thought me to be a prostitute.
    After Mother and I got settled with better furniture and some new clothes, I finally invited Francine over to dinner. I thought that it was right that my new best friend meet my mother. Now that Mother wasn't depressed, things were much better. She seemed to function. I just worried about the "what ifs", such as what if something happened to me? What would happen to her? I decided to discuss this with her as we shopped at the supermarket for the lasagne and salad we were having for dinner.
    "Mother, I was thinking about something serious," I began.
    She looked up at me as she placed a box of noodles into the cart. "Honey, I don't care where you get your money, but you don't have to pretend to be, well, you know, smart around me. I understand that there is something wrong with you." She still treated me as if I were mentally dense, as if I were just putting on a front to make people believe that I acted my age.
    "No, Mother, I'm over that. It's gone now. Real life has changed me completely and I really wish you'd just listen to me for a second." I talked calmly, though I felt hurt inside. After what I had done for her, she couldn't stop treating me like a child. Maybe that was why I had chosen to never grow up.
    Something darkened in her eyes and they became glassy. Then she shook her head as if coming back to reality, and nodded. "Go on, then."
    "Mother, I think you need to get some sort of work experience. What if something were to happen to me? What if I couldn't take care of you?" She seemed to think about it, but soon I realised where I got my "ignorance is bliss" act. She completely ignored what I said.
    "What else do we usually put in the lasagne, Cry?" she asked as she quickly pushed the cart further down the aisle.
    "Mother! Don't ignore me! This is very important. I'm worried about you." I was trying so hard to look out for her, couldn't she see that?
    She turned around and looked at me. "When did you grow up so much, Cry? Where was I?"
    "Lying depressed on that rock hard, pathetic thing we called a sofa," I answered sadly, looking into her eyes.
    She looked down at her hands that were tightly holding onto the cart. "I'll do my best to get a job. I promise." I let it drop at that. I just hoped that she would keep her promise to me.
    That afternoon Mother and I began to prepare our dinner. I wanted to impress the only friend I'd ever had. I had told Francine everything there was to know about me. She understood my way of thinking in a way nobody else ever had. But then again, I had never let anyone see into my "insane" mind.
    We made dinner early because Francine and I both had work that night. So Francine arrived at around three p.m. I introduced my mother and her to one another. They immediately started talking and they got along so well, I was ecstatic. I was grateful that Mother approved of and liked the only friend I'd ever had.
    Nobody said a word about work. It was as if all of us avoided the topic. Mother didn't want to know what we did for a living, and Francine knew that I wasn't exactly proud of what I did for a living. All was happy and fine. I felt a sort of contentment that I'd never felt before.
    I was beginning to feel very sisterly towards Francine. Yet having her around made me realise what I'd missed out on. I'd never had any siblings. Mother had refused to have any more children. I'd never asked why. It was one of those things that I'd chosen to ignore.
    Francine wanted to know why my mother had never had any more children, but she, on the other hand, was straightforward and very willing to ask her about it. "So, Colleen, why didn't you ever have more children?"
    Mother's hand nearly dropped the fork full of salad that she held in her hand. Her eyes became dark, and somewhere in the back of her mind, I could see she was thinking. "I just never really wanted any more than one. I didn't think I had any more room in my heart for another baby." She quickly put the fork into her mouth and chewed vigorously.
    I was happy with that answer, but Francine, I could see, was very suspicious of the way Mother acted. I didn't want any trouble, and I quickly kicked Francine underneath the table. I shook my head at her when she looked over at me. She quickly changed the subject.
    When we left the apartment to go to work that night, Francine brought it back up. "Your mother acted awfully strange when I asked her about more children. Is there any reason for that?" She placed the car keys into the lock and unlocked my door quickly, before walking around to get into the driver's seat.
    I shrugged as I slipped into the seat. "Not that I know of. I've always just accepted the fact that I don't have any siblings."
    "You've never wondered?" She seemed sceptical about that. I couldn't understand why it mattered to her so much.
    "No, it's always been natural for me to be all by myself. Maybe that's why I was so immature." It hadn't occurred to me before that I could have locked myself in a child's world just because I was so alone.
    Francine looked thoughtful for a second. "Well, what if something were to happen to you? Your mother only has one child. She'd be completely alone."
    I found her words odd and chose not to answer them. Both of us stayed quiet until we reached the strip club. When we got out, Francine finally spoke to me. "I didn't mean anything bad by it. I'm sorry if I was rude to you or your mother." Then she walked quickly ahead of me and disappeared behind the club's door.
    That night I was to work the late shift with Francine and Laura. We had to clean up the bar and pick up the dressing room that we had made a mess of. We also had to put the money up in the safe and make sure that it was all there.
    Never had I felt so oddly out of place in the club. Francine actually spent a lot of time talking to Laura. They seemed to be getting along really well. So I backed off and did the jobs assigned to me. I ignored them the best I could, but I couldn't help being angry and jealous. Angry because Francine was, seemingly, ignoring me. Jealous because my only friend was getting along with my only enemy.
    That night, right before we were to lock the doors to leave, Francine came over and told me to go ahead and get into the car and wait for her. I shook my head. "No, Francine, I think I'll walk home tonight. I have a feeling you don't really want to talk to me, much less take me home." She had almost seemed annoyed when telling me to go wait for her.
    "Fine, I'll just lock the doors here and go. If you want to walk that far, that's fine." Why she was being so cold was beyond my knowledge.
    I watched her walk to her car after she had locked the doors. Laura had already left, and I was suddenly alone in the dark, in front of the closed club. I felt a shiver of apprehension filter through my veins. The dark was like a black cobra encircling me within its grip. Mature or not, I was still deathly afraid of the dark. I was now wishing that I had got into the car with Francine. Why had I been so stupid?
    "Hello? Cry? Is that you?" I heard Landon say.
    I turned in the direction of his voice and could see the outline of his body not far from where I stood. "Yes, I was just on my way home." I turned to go, but I didn't leave yet. Something was urging me to stay. Maybe it was Landon himself.
    "Oh? Where is your car? Are you having problems with it? It's awfully cold to just be standing around out here." He seemed genuinely concerned, and it suddenly occurred to me that maybe Francine had warned me away from him out of jealousy. Maybe she was just as jealous of me as Laura.
    Something, for some reason, made me lie to him. "I have no car. I'm just waiting for my ride to come. They seemed to have forgot about me." In the dark it was so simple to lie. Yet it was so complicated to figure out exactly why I did it.
    "Well, why don't we go inside and wait for your ride? Can't hurt, eh?" I could feel his smile rather than see it.
    "Sure, I would like to wait someplace warm." He quickly unlocked the doors and turned the lights back on.
    The club was incredibly different with just the two of us there. How silent it was without any music playing, without the voices and cheers and people, without the sounds of clinking glasses.
    The bright blue neon lights over the bar were one of the only pieces of lighting in the room. Landon walked back behind the bar and got a couple of glasses. "What would you like to drink?" he asked with a smile.
    "What is there? I can't work the bar; remember? Besides, I've never drunk anything alcoholic before." I felt rather stupid and immature at that moment. Why I suddenly felt so different around him, I didn't understand.
    "That's all right. I'll give you something you'll enjoy a lot." He pulled some bottles down and began pouring. Then he turned towards me and handed me a glass.
    "What is this?" I asked, looking up at him even as my hand encircled the glass and I put it to my mouth.
    "It's called a Strawberry Stripper," he said, and then laughed at the look on my face. "It's just the name of it!"
    "What's in it?" I asked. It certainly didn't taste bad.
    "Orange juice, strawberry schnapps and Triple Sec. Not bad is it?" His smile was wicked. "I could get in so much trouble for giving you drinks. If the cops happened to catch onto it, they'd shut me down. Don't tell anyone about this, okay?"
    I shrugged. "I have no one to tell anyway. And no, it's not bad." Then I thought, and my forehead wrinkled. "What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you'd left."
    He shook his head. "No, I never leave. I live right above the club in my own apartment. I have for longer than I've even owned the bar."
    "How long have you owned the bar, anyway?" It occurred to me that I had no idea how old he was. He didn't look much older than me.
    "Since I turned twenty-one seven years ago." He made himself a drink in a shot glass and dumped it back quickly. He made a strange face and his whole body shook. "The stronger the better!" he announced with a laugh.
    I laughed. I was feeling extremely giddy suddenly. "What was that one?"
    "That one was called a Screaming Orgasm," he announced.
    The name made me giggle. But then again, everything was starting to. "Why are all of these names so" - I paused and thought for a moment - "sexual?" I finally spat out after a minute.
    He shrugged. "No reason, really. Just some perverted people making up amusing names for drinks." I made my lips into an "o" shape. He laughed. "You are so adorable."
    I blushed and looked away. Nobody had ever called me adorable before. Boys at school knew me well enough to know that I was supposedly crazy. None of them had ever even looked at me, much less approached me in school. "No, I'm not. Not really."
    "Yes, you are. I was happy when you won the contest. Evidently, the judges saw what I could so easily see the moment you walked into the door." He was looking into my eyes so intently that I burst out into insane laughter. I felt odd, like I wasn't in my body. I felt as if I were floating on the ceiling somewhere and something had taken over my body.
    He stared at me a little longer, and then laughed, too. Then he leaned over the counter and kissed me. I never paused to consider the consequences. I kissed him back. And the one kiss turned into a million kisses and suddenly he was around the corner, holding me tightly to him and kissing down my cheeks to my neck. One of his hands roamed over my breasts and made their way over to my button-down cardigan sweater. He began to slip the buttons through the holes at a slow, yet oh-so-fast pace.
    It was the last thing I remembered before waking up in a strange room. The bed was large and circular with red satin sheets. A giant velvet blanket was wrapped around my very naked body. I ran my fingers through my hair and looked around the room, trying to remember where I was and something about the night before.
    I looked around the oddly decorated room. The walls were black with giant, shiny gold polka dots covering them. There were tall black lamps in every corner of the room with a red light shining out the top. Red and black bean bag chairs were the only other furniture in the room other than the bed I was lying on. And the only light other than the red-lit lamps was the extravagant golden chandelier hanging above my head from the centre of a giant mirror.
    Deciding that I couldn't just lay there and do nothing, I got up and began to explore. I felt embarrassed by my nakedness, but chastised myself. I was the only one in the room. There was no reason to be embarrassed by anything. But when my chastisement of myself didn't work, I grabbed the huge blanket and wrapped it around me, grasping it tightly with my two fists around my breasts in the front.
    I explored the room, and soon found there was much more to it then there seemed. On the wall furthest from the bed there was a panel of buttons. The child within me instantly reared its head, and I had an incredible urge to press them. I had no idea whose room I was in, and yet I needed to touch things. I pressed the first button and heard a loud humming sound. I turned around and saw one of the walls open up to a fireplace. It lit itself quickly. How clever, I thought silently to myself.
    I turned back to the panel and pressed the next button. There was another loud hum, and from right behind me, a black entertainment centre with a large TV came right up out of the floor. There was a remote on top, and I decided I would watch some TV as soon as my curiosity eased. The room was beginning to get cosy.
    Yet my curiosity wouldn't ease. Another button, and a whole miniature version of the club's bar popped out of the wall. When I saw that, something in my mind clicked, and I knew this room had something to do with Landon. My heart began to pitter-patter as my mind raced to remember the night before.
    I pressed the last button, and the loud humming sound was nothing compared to the pounding of my heart. The last wall opened up to reveal a large glass shelf. When I explored its contents, red-hot embarrassment flooded my cheeks. The whole shelf was filled with sexual objects, used to play with during sexual intercourse.
    I backed up, and as I stared at the shelf before me, my memory came flooding back. I felt sick to my stomach. The whole room became a horrifying place to be. I became disgusted with myself. I felt like throwing up, but instead my eyes rolled into the back of my head, and I fell to the floor. But even in darkness, the realisation that I had lost my virginity to my boss in a one-night stand was hitting me like a sledgehammer to the head.

Cry Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Epilogue

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