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When Shine and Mercedes arrived at Mojo Mike's, Rush and George were hefting the last amp up the ramp to the stage in the main room.
Mike was down at the bar with Fisher getting ready for the lady's night rush.
"You guys are late again," said Rush.
Shine and Mercedes set their instrument cases down.
"My fault," said Shine. "You guys can take a break. Mercedes and I can hook up. We'll let you know when it's time for sound test."
"Fine." The two headed for the bar.
Shine waved down to the bar. "Yo, Mike!"
Mike gave her a brief grin before sliding a tray of glasses into the dish washer.
Mojo Mike had first hired the Gold Star Girls to bolster his
Thursday lady's night, and found them to be a real crowd pleaser.
They covered an eclectic mix of gothic and alternate rock.
Recently, they'd started to throw in a few originals as well. In the year and a half they'd been playing Thursdays, Mike's had managed to pull in a healthy set of regulars composed of about half lesbians and the rest straights of both sexes. The Gold Star
Girls earned their keep.
Shine got through set up, warm up, and waited 'til T-off at eight o'clock. She was ready for some music and hoped some fun would rev her up for the evening.
By eight the tables were filling up. She scanned behind her.
Everyone was in place, Rush on drums, Mercedes on keyboards, and George on bass. Shine nodded and turned to the crowd.
With a dig of her riff, Shine pulled up to her mic and took them into AFI's Medicate.
Shine twisted, strutted and wailed through song after song. By break time an hour and a half later, she'd forgotten all about her doldrums. She gathered her sweat dampened hair behind her head, drained the last of her water, and stepped down to the bar for a Coke.
The place was hopping as they kicked off the second set with Perfect World by Gossip. Two songs later, the double table near and to the right was vacated, and then filled by a group of late twenties lesbians that Shine had never seen before. There were nine in total, six femmes, one boi and two butches. The femmes were pretty enough, but no standouts. The one butch Shine could see clearly was very obese and wore denim coveralls. Definitely not. The other sat at the head of the table, facing away from Shine.
She wore a black leather vest over a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and black jeans. A tattoo of a woman morphed with an eagle covered her visible arm. Piercings lined her ear nearly from top to bottom. Other tattoos peppered her neck. She had closely cropped sandy blond hair. But Shine could just make out a lock of hair that was preserved along the edge of her forehead and ran down in front of her right ear to her shoulder.
She couldn't see the woman's face, but the femme she was talking to noticed Shine staring. Shine saw her point at the stage, and the butch turned to look. She was beautiful. Despite piercings in her nose, lip and eyebrow, she had big, feminine eyes and a youthful, boyish charm. As their eyes connected, Shine sensed an instant chemistry grip her. The woman stifled a grin, and then turned her seat to face the stage. Shine lost her line and had to look away to find her place in the song again.
When she reengaged, the girl was focused on her with all the resolve of a killer. Her eyebrows rose and fell. Shine completed the song chorus, smiled at the butch, and then turned a circle, giving a complete view of her jeans, the jeans with sufficient strategically placed holes that they removed any possibility that Shine wore anything underneath. They had so many holes, in fact, that they practically looked like blue Swiss cheese. As Rush battled through a drum solo alone, Shine focused on the young woman again, posed her strawberry highlight above her right forehead, and half-grinned.
The girl's tongue protruded from her mouth, fondling her lips and boasting a barbell tongue piercing. Shit! thought Shine. She made another mis-strum. She didn't know about other girls, but to Shine a lover's tongue piercing felt good literally everywhere on her body. The girl continued to tongue tease her.
"Shine! What the fuck? Get with it!" It was George.
Shine raised her eyebrows to the sexy butch and turned to the bar. She managed to play the few remaining songs without any other major mishaps. As they were wrapping up, Shine turned around and said, "One more. 'She's So Lovely.'"
"What?" said Rush. "We're doing the Butchies? Did I miss something?"
"Yeah, the betty in leather and steel, right center," said George.
Rush peered under the lights. "Yeah, got her."
They went directly into the last song, and Shine focused on her favorite fan, serenading and posing all her wiles. The young woman ate it up. Her jaw slackened and she stared unblinking into Shine's magnetic eyes. The woman's right knee started to bob up and down furiously, but she didn't seem to realize it herself.
By the end of the song, she had the woman so wound up Shine wouldn't have been surprised to see her heart pop right out of her chest.
She placed her guitar on its stand. "Hey, guys, let's go hang with that table a little while."
"Fine," said George, "but I can't stay long. I got an essay to write tonight."
"And you better not dog on tear down. You already owe us about ten already!"
Shine nodded. "Don't trip."
Together they strolled to the table. As the Gold Star Girls blended into the group, Shine stood up before the butch.
"Nice show," she said.
"What was your favorite part?"
Shaking her head and swallowing her beer, she said, "Far and away the platinum blonde up front." She pulled a chair from a recently vacated table nearby. "Sit down. I'll buy you a drink."
Shine crossed her arms. "I'm eighteen. We only get to work here if we never touch a drop." Then she smiled and relaxed.
"But I'll take you up on your other offer." She moved in and sat down in the woman's lap, nearly causing her to drop her beer bottle.
Shine leaned into her and examined her face, her light, pretty skin, and her polished piercings. She kissed the woman in her temple, and then forehead.
She whispered in the girl's ear. "You know, it's a tradition here that the best fan gets to take home the front lady."
"Uh, yeah?"
"Yeah. Do you want to take me home? I'm not really in the mood for partying."
The woman looked shocked. "Shit, kid, don't you at least want to know my name?"
Shine rolled her eyes. She held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Shine."
"Shine? Did you say Shine?"
"Yes."
"Okay, cool. I'm Kate."
"Great to meet you, Kate. Now, you wanna fuck or what?"
