This is based on a series of stories told to me by a girl that used to strip. Basically this is her story as well as things she heard from other girls. I may turn this into a series.
*****
Mary parked her car and looked at the run down old building with more than a little amount of trepidation. This was definitely not her first choice, but life has a tendency to throw you a curve ball from time to time and she knew that this is what it was going to take to get what she wanted.
Her life was a pretty good one, or at least until about a year ago it was. She was a star track and field runner in high school and it looked like her whole life was opened up in front of her and there were no storms to be seen on the horizon. She set two high school records in Ohio for long jump and cross country and her parents leveraged it into a nice scholarship for her out of state. They were farmers, going back six generations and college was out of their budget. In truth, she was the first person in the family to ever have an opportunity to go, and she was determined to leave the farm behind.
It wasn't a bad life, in fact, many people would be envious of the life she lived. The farm, old and spartan though it was, was always clean and safe and there was always food on the table. Unexpected medical expenses were never welcome, but she always got to see the town doctor when she needed to. She was an only child, but she had cousins that acted like over protective older brothers to her and everyone in town knew to treat her with kid gloves. She had a decent boyfriend that was the home coming king in Chagrin Falls, but was nothing special in the real world. His name was Donnie and she dumped him when she left for college in Texas.
She, herself had always been really popular. In fact she wasn't the most popular girl in high school that had been Christy Thompson, she had been the second most popular, missing the Home Coming queen slot by just a few votes. To this day Mary was convinced that the reason Christy won homecoming was because she had blown half the student population and some of the teachers to get it. There was even a rumor that she had slept with Mrs. Cane. A woman!
Mary could have never done that herself. Instead she relied on what she thought was enough, good grades, good looks and a great attitude!! Of course now she knew that attitude didn't count for shit, and these days her grades counted for less and less, but damned if her looks weren't still helping her out. Chagrin Falls, for the most part, had not been a town of good looking people. Sure, some of the younger folks were still attractive, but it was a blue collar town. Men worked hard their whole lives and women bore lots of children. But Mary was different. It fact, she looked so much different than either of her parents that growing up there were a lot of jokes about the mailman that she didn't understand until she was older.
Mary's mother was a short, plump, dark complected woman with greying hair and black eyes. Her father was the same, short, plump and dark complected. But Mary was a sight to see! She had a very light completion, what people generally refer to as peaches and cream, cute little freckles, red hair and green eyes. Even though she wasn't much taller than either of her parents, her real attribute was her body. She had the classic hourglass shape that men seemed to find so enticing, but with breasts that almost seemed out of proportion to her other features. Oh yes, men noticed her. They had been noticing her since she was about 13 years old and once she came into her full woman hood, they really started to pay attention.
At 20 she was not a virgin, but even so she had been very selective with the men she had slept with. Of course the first was the home coming king. He was sweet about it. Nervous and awkward and mostly it was just an experience that she just had to bear until it was over. But to his credit he got better at it over time and so did she. Eventually it became fun, but never exciting or earth shattering with him. That came later when she met an older boy on campus. He was intelligent and rich and had traveled all over the world. (Really it was just to Europe, but at the time it sounded like all over the world) He was a lot more experienced than she was and taught her a lot about her own sexuality. He had her first orgasm with him, or at least the first one she didn't bring about herself. But he grew tired of her after a semester and a half and started dating another freshman.
Then she had her accident. She was running in a sprint at a meet and she tripped. Honestly it should have been nothing, but she tore up her ankle on the way down. Her mother came out to help with her recovery and after a year it was obvious that she was not going to be a track star any more. In fact, she could barely compete. When her coach realized that it was over, she lost her scholarship. Her parents had enough money saved to let her stay in college for another full semester after. She maxed out her student loans and her parent's credit. After all was said and done, she had one more year, two semesters that she would have to pay for on her own.
First she took a job at a clothing store in the mall to earn money to stay. She quickly realized that she was not earning enough to make it work. It was just over minimum wage and it was barely enough for room and board, let alone tuition. After two months of that one of her friends suggested that she waitress at one of the local redneck bars. It was more money for sure, and that was welcome, but it was rough working there. She was pretty and all of the cowboys that came in felt it was their duty to hit on her. She got a lot of slaps on the ass and cat calls, but she also got a lot of tips. This made the other waitresses start to resent her. There was no doubt that she was the most attractive one there, she was new and within a week every one of them had made it clear she was unwelcome.
They complained to management about every little thing they could about her, they would bump into her and knock over her tray or drinks. That came out of her pocket. They tripped her in the isles and when the subtle tactics didn't work, someone broke into her locker one night and smeared dog shit on her clothes. (At least she hoped it was dog shit.)
After a month of putting up with this, she was feeling about as low as she had ever felt in her life and she ran into one of her old professors. He was her archaeology professor from two years ago and very handsome, and he was filled with dashing stories about digs in different parts of the world and having to evade local treasure hunters. It was all very exciting. A lot of the other girls called him Indiana Jones.
She served him his drink and he recognized her and said a few nice things. A few minutes later she was in the back counting her tips for the night and realized that she had either lost or had stolen $70. Of course she was convinced that it was stolen. She ran out the back door in tears and ready to quite on the spot and found her old professor getting into his car in the back lot. He immediately saw she was in distress and offered her a shoulder and an ear and gave her a little encouragement. And of course it was later that night she found herself in his bed. Probably the biggest mistake she had ever made.
"Indiana" was manipulative, sexually abusive and got her hooked on pain killers for her ankle. Well at first it was her ankle, but then it was just to get through the day. Eventually she worked up the courage to leave him and then she was faced with the same problem as before. She had just over three months to earn enough money to pay for room and board, and half her tuition for her second to last semester.
With her very limited choices and time running out, she knew that there was only one opportunity left for her that would keep her from having to go back to the farm. Only one chance for her to earn enough money in time for the bills to come due, and at this point she was ready to do anything... ANYTHING to keep from going back to Ohio.
Which is why she had just pulled up to Players Gentleman's Club and Lounge on the morning they were conducting auditions for new girls. Before getting out of the car she steeled herself for what was to come.
"Okay, girl", she said to herself. "It's either this or its going back to Ohio and marrying Donny. And if you do that, you know what the rest of your life is going to look like. So do whatever it takes. Whatever it takes."
Mary got out of her 15 year old Honda Accord and locked the door. Players was an old building that looked like it had been through a hard life. Originally built as two double wide trailers put together, it had a large wooden porch built around the front of it and decorated to look like a country cabin. But only on the front. As soon as you got around the side it was all falling down siding and mildew. The steps looked a little rickety, so she walked up the wheelchair ramp and knocked on the front door. There were other cars in the lot, even thought it was only 10:30 in the morning, but no one answered. Trying the handle she saw that it was unlocked and walked in to a dark room that had her blinded from the Texas sun.
"Here for the audition", a grating voice fired at her.