The Wilderness Years - Stripper Lessons vol. 1 (cont.)

I lived a half a block from two strip clubs, one to the left of me and one to the right of me, but even closer was the dive known as Joe's Bar, i'm not even making it up, i kept the name to honor the dead, a place now bulldozed, whose drunk and drug-addled spirit now floats somewhere between a Qdobo and a Chipotle, where once you could learn valuable lessons about life and score blow now you could order a fucking expensive and shitty burrito, somewhere a man in a suit calls this progress... it was a slow Tuesday, i was bored, i didn't feel like doing anything other than draining a few beers while watching whatever sporting event i did not care about on the shitty bar television, it was roughly a 2 minute walk from my front door to Joe's... and that was if you got caught at the light to cross the boulevard, and so i pulled on my faithful old brown and blue flannel and walked out into the night...

Joe's Bar had some big, old, gorgeous windows in the front of it, otherwise it was a perfect brick rectangle painted white, a red front door, a pizza shop attached to the left of it, next to that the shittiest of fine used car sales with a couple of ghetto apartments stacked on top, out front about six parking spaces, as i walked toward the door i could tell there was barely anyone inside, a couple to my right so i immediately entered and went left, Sandy the bartender cracked a High Life and set it down in front of me, her indifference and  boredom splendidly perfect, i killed about half my beer and glanced down the bar, low and behold there was Melanie, still quite beautiful and laughing with Vic, also known as Shady Vic, a guy you wouldn't trust with your girlfriend or out of eyesight in your apartment, one of those well-fed suburban boys who was quite sure he was always the smartest guy in the room, smug and self-absorbed and highly opinionated, in short a fucking prick, i knew him through friends, he was nothing more than the asshole guy at certain parties to me, honestly i was surprised to see him on this side of town in a dive like this but then it struck me who he was with, we pretended not to see each other, but Melanie caught his glance and turned, she saw me and smiled and said Hey! and walked over and gave me a hug...

It was odd, we were having our first conversation outside the confines of the strip club and there was an awkwardness of people who are dealing with a new set of rules or lack thereof, it was idle chit-chat, Shady Vic oozed boredom and aloofness, he was doing his best to let me know my presence was less than ideal, Melanie let slip at some point that they had a stamp bag they were going to split, i shrugged, Melanie looked sheepish, Vic started in about how it'd be cool to have some blow, Melanie smiled and half-hearted asked if i knew of any around, i gave a nod and Vic began to warm up to me the best he could, she asked if it was me and i told her no, it was a guy at the bar, i left out the part about the guy also being the owner of the bar, he was up in the pizza shop and so i excused myself and walked out the door and up the steps of the shop... Pizza Jim and i had done some business together, he'd score me a shitty pound or two when i needed it, he was always trying to get me to sling blow, he'd laugh and tell me how i was perfect cuz i didn't fuck with it (of course there was a good reason for that which had to do mainly with my stupidity), i always said i'd keep it in mind, now i asked if he was holding and if so could he help out a friend of mine, he looked through the order window that led from the pizza shop to the bar, is it for her? he grinned looking at Melanie, yeah i said...

I walked back in the bar as Melanie was putting her change in her purse and handed me another High Life, she smiled and Shady Vic said, well? i told them the prices, 90 a teener, which back in the late 90's was expensive, immediately Vic began to hem and haw and piss and moan, i turned and looked at him and said, i don't give a fuck what you think of the price, you asked a favor and i helped, you either want it or you don't but what i don't want to hear is any fucking shit about what you think is a fair price, i'm getting jack shit outta this, the shit's good trust me, i was as polite as i could muster and to no one's surprise Vic acquiesced, i ran back to the shop and told Jim about this asshole whining about shit and Jim hooked up a nice chunk and i took it back and noticed that Pizza Jim was following right behind, Jim was an ex-boxer, a broad shouldered Polish/Italian boy from the hood, he walked around behind the bar and said hi to Sandy, bought me another beer and then leaned over and said to Vic, you really shouldn't bitch about prices when someone is going out of their way to hook you up, Jim smiled, Vic became over-apologetic, Jim told him to go try some and if he thought it was shit he'd give him his dough back, don't worry Pizza Jim said, it's slow in here you'll be fine, Vic hit the tiny and disgusting pisser and came out a few minutes later, he sat down and smiled and began talking faster and faster, that is good shit man, he smiled, thanks man, Jim nodded and was gone and Vic looked at Melanie and said we should head to back to your place and dig in, sure she smiled, then she turned to me and said, why don't you come too? for some unknown fucking reason i agreed...

The third wheel, and i volunteered for it, we walked out and Vic looked as if someone had pissed in his mouth, he obviously thought there was gonna be a fuck session and now he had my fucking dumb-ass tagging along... Melanie drove me up to my shitty little car and i followed her and Vic to her place, a typical East End pad, an old house divided up, a lived in smell, plants near the windows, a cat roaming the place, ashtrays full, Vic immediately took to chopping out bumps and lines, Melanie gave me one of her last beers and offered me some gear, Vic immediately chimed in that he didn't mean to be a dick but that i'd need to buck up if i wanted any powders, i didn't though part of me thought of about racking up a line just to piss him off, get the motor running and hang out all fucking night and call off work in the morning, i didn't, i politely declined as they put nostril to bill for a poor man's speedball, i hung out and watched as the gear kicked in, Vic rambled on about his one man electro-band, a pompous ass yapping about his cheeky band name and how it named checked a daddy lovin' Greek girl, yeah we all know who Elektra is i said, Melanie laughed and Vic ignored me and continued to espouse both his greatness and tortured genius, he was ahead of his time, someday the world would catch up...

So i wasted an hour or so of Vic's time, he went to piss and then his phone rang and we could hear him talking, i looked at Melanie from across the room, i motioned my head towards the kitchen where the bathroom was, what's with that? Vic? she said, nothing believe me she said slightly embarrassed, you might want to let him know that i said, i not worried she said smiling, i can handle Vic... and then we fell into silence, we were never going to be lovers, i knew that from the day i met her, she liked my weird observations, i liked her smile and those damn legs and the fact she was one cool chick, i hoped that i'd never see her again, the melancholic boy with a penchant for imaginary heartbreak would rather dwell on what might have been in a different time and place, i got up to leave and she walked over and gave me a hug, then she kissed my cheek, take care of yourself she said, you too i replied... then out the door and into the bright humming hallway lights, a couple months later word came down from the bar that Mel had moved back home with her mom, word was she was clean when she left town, i never did see her again...

Epilogue

Vic was not so lucky. I ran into him a few more times after that, usually at a party, occasionally down at a certain bar, he was always the same, one time i asked if he ever got Melanie in bed that night and he let out a part sigh part laugh and said fuck no, i tried but she was having none of it, i shook my head and tried to conceal my grin... no one ever got to hear the fancy named electro-band because it only ever played one sparsely attended show, then one fine day Vic got some good shit and took the downtown train all the way to the station, i was in said bar when someone mentioned it, a late afternoon drinking session among some of the scene's faces, another suburban kid smack casualty, the names change but the story stays the same, he didn't make 30.