When Steph stopped again, Josie crouched next to her.
She looked into Steph’s blue eyes and shook her head.
In some way, Josie was stuck with Steph. She was her cousin. She turned eighteen six months ago and thought that being an adult meant life was easy and free. Josie was far older than she was and had tried many times to talk about life with her, but she wasn’t interested. She liked to buy cigarettes legally and still liked to drink illegally.Go figure.
Josie let her sleep at her apartment because it was better than her couch hopping and going deeper into a dark spiral. She had to give Steph credit though. She had a job and never missed work. That was about it though. Josie didn’t see any money from said job to help with the bills, but that was going to change soon.
Josie touched her cheek. “You’re all going to drive me insane.”
“Sorry,” Steph whispered. “And for the record, I wasn’t partying.”
“No, of course not. People just wake up and get sick all the time.”
“Stomach bug,” she whispered.
“Vodka bug,” Josie said and stood up. “I’m going to get a refill of my coffee and get you one. Then I’m going to make you a big, greasy breakfast to help.”
“Don’t talk about food,” Steph groaned.
“What? Delicious scrambled eggs? Some crackling bacon. A bagel caked with cream cheese?”
Steph turned and groaned as she started to gently dry heave.
Josie smiled, feeling a little better about herself.Not much though.
The truth was that there were some decent looking guys that came to the club. Guys with money. Guys with good jobs. Guys that actually, sometimes, gave Josie more attention than the almost naked women on stage. Josie always chalked it up to the challenge though. Those guys would get all horny because they were staring at tits all night. Then they’d look at Josie and the challenge was to get her naked.
Good luck.
Then again, why not? Was there anything wrong with enjoying company?
Josie laughed at herself, wondering how a one-night stand would have gone as she carried a horribly drunk stripper into her apartment while her eighteen-year-old cousin lived there and was drunk too.
When Josie got back to the kitchen, Starla was gone. Rushing to the living room she saw that her clothes were gone. Back in the kitchen she spotted Starla’s coffee mug. It was half empty and resting on a fifty-dollar bill. There was a red dry-erase marker next to it and a big red heart drawn on the money.
“Bitch,” Josie whispered to herself as she plucked the fifty from under the mug.
There was nothing she could do about Starla right now. It was a slippery slope. If she talked to Jefferson, he would overreact. Rightfully so, because he was terrified of the MC. They owned a stake in the strip club now since Jefferson got into some debt and the club bailed him out. At the same time, Josie knew that if Starla didn’t work at the club, she’d have nothing. Her lifestyle was accustomed to the money and everything that came with it.
It was more than irritating, but Josie learned to live in the present. And the present was her hungover cousin in the bathroom. She needed to get her settled back into bed with coffee, food, water, and medicine. Then she was going to get the hell out of the apartment and get ready for another night of work.
Josie turned and was surprised to find Steph standing near the kitchen, hugging herself. She looked pale and honestly did look sick. But there was no way in hell this was some stomach bug.
“You need to get back into bed,” Josie said.
“I need to talk to you.”
“Can we do this when you’re sober?”
“I am sober.”
“Right. Can we do this when you’re not hungover?”
“I’m not hungover either,” Steph said.
“I’m not in the mood for this. I had to deal with Starla last night and she just bolted on me this morning.”
“I’m trying to talk to you, Josie,” Steph said. She bit her lip and her eyes filled with tears.