CHAPTER 2- MEET BELLA

Bella did not get a chance to respond as Angel walked out of the dressing, almost running towards the stage. Bella knew it would be a long one because Angel was not the type to forget, nor was she one to just drop certain topics, such as the one she had just initiated. She let out a heavy sigh.

If Angel had heard about it already, it meant the whole club knew about it, “how is the news always spreading so fast around here?” She thought to herself as she kept on walking. Angel was almost always the last person to hear rumours in the club, as she did not relate to most girls in the club. After cleaning off all that heavy makeup, she got changed into a proper outfit, a short halter neck, and a backless dress.

It was not in any way decent, but it covered up more areas than the lingerie she previously had on. With a coat and little duffel bag in hand, she walked out of the dressing room, the instant she stepped out she was met with some subtle glances from the other girls, undeniably talking about the incident from a few hours ago. Still walking confidently towards the back door, she got whistles and cat calls from men hanging around the door.

Quickly getting into her car, she shut the door and stayed in waiting for Angel. It was their thing. She finished first most times and would wait to give Angel a ride home. While in the car, her mind wandered off to the incident from earlier, the memory of his beautiful face had her reminding herself she would definitely use her vibrator so as to avoid having sex with a stranger that she would wake up regretting to.

While still drowned in her thoughts, Angel gently knocked on the car window bringing her back to reality and rolling the window down, it was tinted so she had to know the person knocking before opening the door. She slid into the car and casually threw her things in the back seat, another annoying thing she did. What's wrong, Mia? you seemed to have been deep in thought. ‘Mia’ she almost forgot it was her real name.

Bella was just a stage name, same as Angel, they were really Mia and Cameron, Cameron’s mom had given her the name before she was born, they thought she was a boy and just stuck to the name even after she was born. It was not safe using your real name in a club filled with thirsty, dangerous men, men that were undeniably more dangerous than they appeared. I am okay, probably just stressed from the day, “is this your way of avoiding the conversation from earlier?” she said.

As already known, the girl would not just drop the topic. The wait in the car was not enough time to think of a response for Cameron, she did not even know what the question was but she was nervous, everything about him made her nervous and it made her agitated that she did not know why, “it is probably his hot bud” Angel said as Mia drove out of the packing lot. She gasped and turned to Cameron with a surprised expression on her face.

“I thought you did not see him or know who he was?” She asked. “I do not” Cameron said, “but the girls gave me enough description to be able to paint a mental image” she added with a giggle, “of course they did” Mia thought to herself. Both of the girls spoke about the man from the club throughout their drive up to the kitchen in their apartment. It was the early hours of the morning, but Mia insisted on making breakfast and preparing for school instead of going to sleep like Cameron suggested.

“Fine, suit yourself. You can stay up longer than me while I go take a much needed rest” Cameron said as she headed for her bedroom door. Meanwhile, Mia, on the other hand, turned to the batter she was whisking earlier and decided to make waffles instead of pancakes. She did not know how to explain to her friend that she was always awake after the nights at the club because the mornings were usually when she fought her demons and not that she was insomniac.

She stared at the batter for a while after that, deliberating if she should make the call or not, and at the end of the day, she made the call. "Hello, Mia. We have been trying to reach you all day, " a voice said immediately they answered. "I- I know, I have just been a bit uh- occupied with work," Mia said. She knew why they were calling. It was for her sister. Mia had a twelve years old sister who spent more than half of her life in the hospital. She had managed to get her fully admitted in the hospital, but Mia found it hard to meet up with the expenses that came with it.

Unlike Cam, who knew about her family and simply did not want to associate with them, Mia knew close to nothing about her family or her past besides her sister, who was her only family. She did not remember anything about her parents or any other family. She was used to it.

When the alarm clock rang, she went to Cameron’s room to wake her up, that was their routine… Mia's alarm clock was set about an hour before Cameron's so she usually got up first, and then she would wake Cameron, who would then go back to sleep for what she usually claimed to be five more minutes but would end up sleeping until her alarm clock came on. Then, she would spend the next hour in complete chaos trying to find an outfit and the right books for her class.

Cameron never looked like she used two minutes to apply her light make up, or like she did not throw on the first thing her hands touched in her closet, she almost always looked put together like she had spent the day before planning out her outfit. Mia, on the other hand, always looked like she rolled off the bed and walked straight to school. She used to look put together, sexy even when she went to school, until she became a stripper.