Girls Will Be Girls

I am sure that you can imagine that the girls rarely really got along. I mean, we competed solely with our looks. Most men had a specific preference but if that wasn't facilitated then they would have to pick who was closest to their ideal. This tended to cause ill-will between the girls but the consequences of this varied.

Most of the girls there had some sort of problem. Aside from the whole drama queen aspect, there were many real issues. (I am not talking about the occasional drink or joint, that was pretty normal and not a big deal.) I am talking about the fact that most of the girls had something wrong with them in the head. I don't mean to be cruel nor am I taking shots at them.

Honestly most of the girls really didn't like themselves. They could pretend and put up a front but it really was as clear as day. Many of them needed this validation from strange men and other dancers. They needed this attention for one reason or another and sometimes it was just sad. The lengths that some of them would go to, it was as if they actually needed this to go on. They would tell these horrible stories of things that had happened to them or things that they went through. It was all pretty sad stuff if I believed that half of it were true.

There were junkies, drunks, street walkers, diseased and homeless girls. There was one girl that didn't quite fit any of these descriptions, but her issue was far more complicated than the rest.

I didn't really get along with any of the girls at all. I would only play nice when I had to, otherwise I didn't really want much to do with any of them. There was one lady I would go out with after hours or on days off. She wasn't much different, except she really was honestly nice. Her problem was she had had a hard life and bad luck with men and her confidence was completely gone. She had been stripped of all self love by horrible, abusive or just plain trashy men that were worthless. She wasn't very smart in the traditional sense but was smarter than she gave herself credit for. I couldn't help but like her because she was at least honest about herself. She had no pretense about her problems, just liked to have someone to listen. Which I did. She did have a little bit of a drug problem, but it had been force fed to her by her boyfriend. (I saw this happen.)

So back to the lady I was said had problems far more complicated than the rest.
She was the sort who thought she was really clever. She fancied herself to be quite the intellectual and acted as if she were above everyone else. She would moan on and on about her political beliefs and her ideologies.... Most of which didn't make a lick of sense. The rest of it was obviously regurgitated from elsewhere. (Likely her boyfriend) If she was disagreed with she would hammer at you repeatedly. It was never a discussion with her, it was a monologue. You were simply allowed to agree with her and play stupid for her to educate you. There was no avoiding her because I had the misfortune of being scheduled with her.
At first I would play along because it shut her up. I played the ignorant girl that sat in awe of her genius. I let her astound me with her innovative ideas and oohed and awed at all the right times. It didn't last because I am not the type to live with pretenses. I eventually spoke out and the consequences far surpassed annoyance. She simply didn't let anything go, especially when she was wrong.

So it was no surprise to me, that we ended up in such an uncomfortable situation. I knew it would happen eventually as she never shut up. However the start of our decline happened with an innocent phone call that she read too much into.

We were scheduled together on a specific night and I had been annoyed with her and was keeping to myself in my box. The other dancer I kind of called friend, I mentioned above called me on my cell to vent. The conversation was quite innocuous and had been about the prostitute dancer that worked with us. She was relating a story about something that had upset her and I was merely placating her.

"Yes the woman is dirty indeed." "Yes she is disgusting." "No I can't imagine that...." "You are right, for sure." "I can't believe she did that either!"

I wasn't being dishonest in my assuagement, I agreed with her but wasn't as passionate about it as she.

The lady working with me that night heard my comments on the phone and took it to be about her. (The world revolves around.) I wasn't sure whether to laugh as she actually found the courage to confront me about it or just be annoyed that she was eavesdropping.
I didn't really care one bit that she thought it was about her. I mean, I did offer an honest explanation only because I wanted her to know what a lunatic she sounded like, but as irrational as she was it did no good. She was convinced that we were having a conversation about her and that was that!

So then we had an ignoring contest, I won. She caved and tried to go about it as a victim now.

"I thought we were friends. Why did you say those things about me? You knew I could hear you."

Whatever

Then she blogged about it, but when I replied she deleted it so she could continue to garner sympathy.
I remember we really had an all out war of the words one night that resulted in her quitting. I can't say I was broken up about it, or happy about it either. Honestly, when all said and done I was really indifferent. She tried to play it off as she was quitting for a new job, but that wasn't true and everyone knew that and no one cared.

One less girl there.... That was what they all really thought. I heard as much from the mouths of many. Turns out, she wasn't as well liked as she thought. Most girls were sick of her tirades and her condescending manners.
Of course they would say that, she was gone. heh

Her biggest problem was not her delusions of grandeur, but her Peter Pan syndrome. You see she had been a married woman. She had two children but she walked away from them to pursuit a career as a stripper. That's right, she had two children that she let stay with the father to be raised by him and his new wife and she had absolutely no qualms about that. She was only inconvenienced because she had to pay child support. She felt that she wasn't going to have to be an adult. She felt that she needed to start her life and needed the Independence to search out some inner child or whatever and stripping was essential to this.