white tank tops. The guys split up in groups of three and each group surrounded one of the girls. Each of the girls wore pink tank tops with skintight black shorts, a definite improvement.
The guys took turns popping and breaking around the girls, pretending they were competing for the girls’ attention. Before one could finish dancing, another one was pushing him out of the way and standing in front of the girl he was trying to get the attention of. While all this is going on, the girls would rotate between standing there with one hand on their hip while ignoring the guys and popping back at the guy in front of them at the moment. A couple times, the girls would push a guy away then continue dancing. The guy who got pushed away from her would fall back into a dance move.
I found this performance fascinating. Definitely the best I’d ever seen. The reason it interested me was easy, because one of those girls up there was my new stepsister.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better
to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”
-Marilyn Monroe
CALEB
What in the hell? I probably looked like a fool, standing at the back of the club with my mouth hanging open. Dante nudged me and my head swung his way. He gave me a what-the-fuck look. I shook my head at him, not wanting to shout an explanation over the music.
Gianna and her crew finished their performance, the DJ flowed into a new track and the crowd transitioned into dancing again. Other places I’d been to hired dancing or singing acts to mix up the club experience. It livened up the crowd when a surprise performance occurred since they always seemed spontaneous. It barely registered with me when Skylar and Nina took off to use the bathroom. I couldn’t see Gianna anymore and was scanning the crowd when Dante yelled over the music, “Hey, man, I’m gonna go talk to Taye!”
“I’ll come with you !” I yelled back, figuring Gianna would be nearby.
We work ed our way through the masses and found Taye chatting up a petite brunette. When Dante was done greeting his cousin, I pounced on questioning him. “Hey, Taye, who’s the hot blonde in your crew?”
His expression filled with disapproval. “Don’t even think about it, Caleb. I know you, man. We don’t put up with anyone fucking around with Gigi or Cece.” Huh, Cece must be the Hispanic chick that danced with them.
“Gigi?” Now this would be good. “It’s not like that, Taye. It’s just I’m pretty sure I know her. Where’d she go?”
Taye gave me a skeptical look and pointed over to the dance floor where Gianna was dancing with one of the Hispanic guys from the crew. “She’s over there with Jared.”
My eyes darted over the pair, taking in her smiling up at the guy. So this was Jared . The guy she called when something went wrong. I’d rarely seen her smile and right now she was smiling as if she were high on life. At Jared . I didn’t know why, but the uncomfortable feeling of jealousy coursed through me.
“Yeah, that’s her , Gianna,” I stated when Taye continued to stare at me with wary disapproval.
Finally, and almost reluctantly, Taye said, “Hey, you guys should come to the after party at Jared and Cece’s house.”
“ Sure, why not?” I agreed nonchalantly. It would be interesting to see how Gigi handled me invading her group of friends. I’d known Taye for years but he and Dante didn’t hang out much so I’d never met all of Taye’s friends.
A while later Taye rode with us to the after party to show us the way. Nina sat between Dante and Taye in the backseat. Skylar sat up front with me since she was sort of my date for the night. We arrived to the house the party was at and unloaded from the car, with Skylar easing up next to me as we strolled up the walkway.
Urging her in front of me and ignoring the confused look on her pretty face, I let her and the others go in ahead of me and stood back when we entered
William Gibson, Bruce Sterling