Chapter 5 - In Too Deep
"Are you guys going to be at the park this year for the hydroplane races and the Blue Angels?" Amber asked Diana and Paul.
Diana shook her head.
"I'm leaving for home next week for the rest of the summer," she replied.
"Oh shit. That's right. You're going home," Amber replied sadly.
She had forgotten. Although many students, including Johnson, Kathleen, Kyle, and others she knew had families living in the area, and therefore did not need to travel far to visit, Diana's family lived in New York. She wouldn't return until the semester started again.
"Aren't you going home?" Diana asked.
"No. I just don't feel comfortable. I've changed so much, and they are all so conservative. Plus I have my job, and a summer class. Speaking of which, she said, looking at the time on her cell phone, "I've got to get going. Ever since I sold my truck I usually have to walk or take the bus everywhere."
Amber was privately relieved that her job and summer class gave her a good excuse not to go home, although she thought her aunt and uncle who she lived with, were relieved not to spring for a ticket. She would have to buy some more conservative clothes before she went back home. She knew also from her half-sister Jade's email that they were getting impatient for her to get married. She knew there was no way they would pay for her to go to grad school, and she would need to if she wanted to be a teacher. She still wasn't sure if that was her road, but it was the only thing she could think of that she really wanted to do.
Johnson was gone. He was actually meeting with Mike Hamilton of Sunshine Communications again, but he had left a note explaining that he was "out meeting with a study group."
She changed and went to her waitress job. She took the bus downtown. As she road the bus, she missed her Chevy S10 pick-up truck intensely, but driving was no longer an option. She got off the bus on 1st Avenue--the closest the bus came to the restaurant, which was up on 5th Avenue, but she had to walk through the "Red Light District" to get there. The neon lights flashed. She saw pictures of porn movies in the windows.
"Hey baby, looking for a date," a man asked her as she walked along.
She shook her head and kept walking. She hated walking through this part of town, but didn't have much choice since her bus stop didn't take her any closer to her job.
"Hey sweet cheeks, need a better job?"
Any offer of another job always got her attention, since she hated being a waitress.
The offer had come from a man standing by the door of "The Sapphire Lounge"--a strip bar about three blocks from her restaurant. What a difference just a few blocks made in a big city downtown!
"You work at 'The Dahlia' up the street, don't ya? I see you walking by almost every night. Trust me--you're not getting paid what you're worth. You could be making a lot more money."
That was enough for her to at least listen.
"Doing what?" she asked suspiciously.
"Dancing," he responded.
She was going to peer inside, but had to move out of the way of a couple of young men who paused as the doorman carded them. After they went in, she peered inside the door to the bar inside. Just as she suspected--a strip club!
She watched as a buxom brunette writhed around a pole up on a stage--nude except for a g-string. She stared for a moment--unable to take her eyes away. A hand grabbing her ass made her jump and broke the hypnotic spell. One of the patrons entering the club had just grabbed her ass, possibly thinking she was one of the waitresses.
She smiled at the doorman and shook her head. "I don't think so. I don't think my boyfriend would want me working someplace like this."
"Ha, your boyfriend has probably been here when you were up waiting tables at 'The Dahlia," he said sarcastically.
Amber turned red in the face. She was going to say something, but couldn't think of anything, so she backed away and hurried off to her job.
"Hey! If you change your mind come see me! You can make a lot of money!" she heard him call out behind her.
While Amber worked hard to make money as a waitress, Johnson was meeting with Mike Hamilton to secretly exploit Amber as a porn star.
"Good job with the editing. We'll do a little more of course, and then there'll be the scenes with the other actors in the movies. We have enough material to put together the first two movies though."
Johnson listened with growing excitement.
"Anyway, Mike continued. "We've had some very positive responses from critics and advance sales--enough for us to give you your first check."
Johnson eagerly took the envelope that Mike offered. When he opened it his eyes flew open wide. It was far more than he had hoped for.
"Don't spend it all in one place," Mike grinned.
Mike showed Johnson some stills that he was planning on using for the first two DVDs. One showed Amber kneeling nude, mostly from the back, with her tattoo well-displayed. She was kneeling in front of Johnson's stiff cock, and looking over her shoulder straight at the camera (which had been in the mirror) with her mouth open and her tongue barely extended and touching her upper lip. It was a great choice, and a very sexy shot. The title of the DVD was "Amber Butterfly Comes Out."
The other one showed Amber from the front, again nude, but from the chest up, the amber butterfly pendant dangling just above and between her magnificent tits. Her big brown eyes were opened wide, and her lush lips were parted, just showing her teeth with that tiny little gap between her two front teeth. Her wild wavy golden-blond hair framed her hair and fell down over shoulders. The title was "The Passions of Amber Butterfly."
"Now remember our contract is for three movies. I've got enough material for two, but I need more. We really liked the threesome you caught, but we got it too late to include it in either of the first two movies. The focus on the third movie is going to be group sex. So what we need for the third movie is more group scenes--a party, an orgy or gangbang--something like that."
At this point, Johnson started getting worried. Tricking Amber into a threesome with Kyle was one thing--and he figured he could probably do that again--but an orgy or gangbang? He was bewildered and wound up confessing to Mike that Amber didn't even know she was being filmed. At length, he confessed everything.
"I see," Mike said, with his eyes narrowed. In Mike's mind, suddenly everything made sense. He had to admire Johnson's audacity and sleazy boldness. It wasn't like this sort of thing had never been done before, but the level of trickery and underhandedness this must have involved were breath-taking.
While Mike absorbed it all silently in his seat, Johnson fidgeted nervously, feeling a coldness in the pit of his stomach.
"Is this going to ruin everything?" he finally asked.
Mike thought about it. He knew that these movies were going to be big. The industry needed something big like this on DVD, ever since the explosion of amateur porn on the internet, the industry was hungry for something big, and this could be it. The execs he reported to liked what they saw, and wanted more. He was under huge pressure to finish all three movies and try to obtain more. He certainly couldn't let this ruin everything.
Fortunately, Johnson had obtained Amber's signature on the legal releases. They were protected legally. The problem in front of them was just finishing the third movie.
"I think we're okay--that really is Amber's signature, right?"
"Yeah, I tricked her, but that's her signature, and it's notarized too."
"Well, then we're protected, if it came down to it--it's just her word against yours. No one will believe her--we would just say she consented, and she's just changing her mind too late. Here's what we'll do to get some more group scenes though."
And Mike told Johnson what to do.
"Hey Kat, you've got to help me figure something out," Johnson spoke to Kathleen on his cell phone.
"What's up babe?" she responded.
"Well, they gave me the first check for the sex flicks I'm filming with Amber. It's quite a chunk of change. How am I going to explain this to Amber? I don't want to hide this, I want to buy a set of wheels."
Kathleen laid back on her bed in her apartment and thought for a moment.
"It's a surprise," she finally said.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Just tell her you've been holding out on her, saved it up, and then spring it as a surprise on her!"
"Great idea, but how do I tell her I've earned it? I don't want to tell her I've been making pornos with her as the star."
"Tell her part of the truth. Just say you have a job doing digital film editing and website design, that you've been doing it for over a year and you finally got your first big check for a project you just completed."
The weekend after Diana left to visit her family for the summer, Amber got home from the restaurant where she worked, dead tired. Johnson wasn't home. She turned on the TV and after about an hour, she heard a honk. She figured it must be a neighbor and ignored it, but then the vehicle honked again. She went to the window. There was a shiny black Cadillac Escalade in the parking place where Johnson usually parked. The big SUV flashed it's lights again. She stepped outside to try to see what was going on.
The Escalade's driver-side door opened and Johnson stepped out grinning and waving at her and the Escalade.
"Come on babe, let's go for a ride in my new wheels!" Johnson was practically squeaking with excitement.
Amber ran down the stairs. She looked at the vehicle in disbelief.
"Johnson, where the Hell did you get the money for this?" she demanded.
"My job," he replied.
"Johnson, what job?, Amber asked, bewildered. "These things are expensive. Way expensive!"
