Page 70 of Beg, Borrow or Steal
‘But that’s not a club routine. That’s not what Steve expects. How am I even supposed to get this thing off on stage for Sith’s sake?’ The light material was stretchy and there were no hidden zips or tags to pull. Grappling to pull it off was not going to look sexy in any way.
‘You’re not taking anything off.’
‘What?’
‘Nothing comes off,’ Tara said firmly. ‘We all stay in these get-ups for the whole routine. Waps are to be firmly tucked away tonight.’
‘There’ll be a riot,’ Libby muttered, but smiles of the women around her just got bigger. Claire squeezed her shoulders.
‘Have we ever let you down? In five years have we ever fucked you over?’ Libby shook her head. ‘Then trust us, please.’
She looked at all the faces of the women behind her in the mirror. They were so sure; they looked so happy.
‘Okay,’ she said slowly, and was engulfed in another perfume-suffocating multi-stripper hug.
Chapter 31
Supergirl
It was completely pitch black. Libby couldn’t see the audience at all; only hear the low murmuring of their voices. Claire and Tara were holding her hands on either side of her, ushering her forward.
‘Where are the poles?’ Libby whispered to Claire when they reached the centre of the stage.
‘We’re not doing pole work tonight,’ Claire told her, giving her hand a light squeeze.
‘Claire, the poles were bolted to the ceiling and floor – Steve wouldn’t have removed them for just one night. What the Varp is going on?’
Claire and Tara moved to face Libby and she could just about make out their faces in the dark. They seemed nervous but excited, and they were both smiling.
‘You said you would trust me,’ Claire reminded her, and Libby nodded slowly. ‘Okay, when the spotlight comes on I want you to concentrate on the dance, nothing else. Can you do that? We’ll come in like we practiced, but its just you at the start. Don’t look at the audience. Don’t get distracted.’ Libby frowned: she was an expert at ignoring the audience; Claire and Tara knew that.
‘What aren’t you telling me?’ she asked.
Instead of replying the idiots just grinned at each other, gave heranotherhug, and then retreated. Libby was about to turn to go after them when the spotlight suddenly blinded her. A huge cheer went up from the crowd as soon as she was lit up on stage; the audience sounded larger than normal, and bizarrely there seemed to be a fair few female whoops and shouts in amongst all the noise. Libby smiled uncertainly and the first chords of ‘Tears’ by Clean Bandit filled the space.
Having been drilled since she could remember, Libby closed everything off: the change of outfit, the removal of the poles, the audience, everything. She let the music take her over and she dropped down into a crouch for the opening bars.
The feel of the leotard and dress, rather than the skimpier but more restrictive outfits she normally wore to perform, seemed to make everything more fluid. She could arch further, spring higher: she felt invincible. The gasps from the audience as she flipped and the cheers when she finished her double pirouette filled the space. It was an atmosphere she’d never experienced before.
As the faster beat came in she felt the girls filling the stage behind, with Claire and Tara flanking her until the lights finally came up. They all started the routine Libby had taught them. Somehow everyone was step-perfect: they had been practicing. Just as Claire and Tara moved to the two raised aisles through the club and Libby to the front of the stage, she saw something that almost made her lose her footing. Jamie was standing there. And in his arms was her daughter.
‘Focus! Trust me!’ Claire shouted, and despite her shock Libby fell into the flip off the edge. The cheering, combined with the music, was now deafening, and as Libby dropped down into the crowd, balancing on the benches and flipping from table to table, she started to really take in the audience.
Kira was jumping up and down on one of the chairs, pumping the air with her fist and cheering madly. Libby’s goddamn parents were next to Jamie and Rosie, smiling and clapping. She could see other students from her year, a couple of her neighbours, some of the doctors she worked with in the hospital, Dan and Amy were there with their kids, and Jamie’s parents were jumping up and down on the spot, just like Kira. Libby’s eyes widened with shock but she managed to flip back up onto the stage and complete the routine with the rest of the dancers.
As the last chord sounded, all the girls fell into each other laughing and crying. Libby’s heart felt like it was beating out of her chest. The cheers from the crowd were even louder. Everyone was up on their feet, and lots of them had climbed onto their chairs like Kira. Out of the corner of her eye Libby saw one person who wasn’t cheering: a disgruntled Toby moved through the crowd, his face set tight in anger as he pushed out of the back door.
‘Okay everyone.’ Libby jumped as Jamie’s voice filled the space. She turned to see him striding towards her across the stage, speaking into a microphone and still holding an extremely excited Rosie, who squirmed out of his arms and ran to her, colliding with her legs full force. Libby picked her up and hugged her like a lifeline.
‘You were amazin’, Mummy,’ Rosie said into her ear, giving her a tight squeeze. Libby squeezed her back, then refocused on Jamie, at a complete loss for words.
‘Right, settle down,’ he said into the microphone, but the audience continued to cheer. Claire snatched the mic with an impatient look on her face.
‘Let the man speak, you buggers,’ she shouted into it, then handed it back to Jamie as the crowd slowly started to quiet.
‘When can I say bugger?’ Rosie asked in Libby’s ear.
‘When you’re fifty-eight,’ Libby replied automatically, still watching Jamie in bemusement.
