A Word of Praise

The loud pop music was ringing in Kiara's ears while she tried to dance her sorrow away. A whole week, and she still felt like shit.

"I'm clocking you on that funeral dancing, baby girl." Michael reappeared out of nowhere after spending a suspicious amount of time in the bathroom of that poorly lit club.

"And I'm clocking you on having a blowjob in the bathroom."

"Touché. But it's my birthday, so I deserved it."

He pushed her to the bar to get another drink, and she ordered herself a water. While she nervously peeled off the label of the bottle, Michael began to braid her hair. The music wasn't as loud over there, and she enjoyed sitting on the high stools to rest her feet.

"Are you sure you're ok to perform?"

"Of course, it's your birthday!" She tried to turn around to smile at him, but he pulled her hair to stop her from moving.

"I wouldn't be mad. I know you're not at your best."

"I'm fine, Michael. I just need to get him out of my system."

It was harder than she thought it would be. She couldn't stop thinking about him. It was not in her plans to tell Michael about Chris either, but the man was inquisitive. His first question when they met during the week was 'did you bed sexy voice?'. After that, he extracted the truth out of her like a dental surgeon, fast and painfully.

"How do you plan on doing that?"

"I'll find myself a man tonight." She looked around determined.

"It's a gay club, Kia"

"A woman, then." She smiled, trying to turn herself around again. It was awkward talking to him facing the crowd.

"Can you sit still for a second, bitch? I'm almost done. Hair tie?" She handed over the band she kept around her wrist and waited for him to finish, taking a look at the bar mirror. "Thanks."

"Is it as good as when she did it?"

"No, but it's close"

Nobody would ever braid her hair like her mother used to. But that was ok, she didn't want them to. It was a good memory, and she didn't mind going nostalgic with that one. "Are you ready? I think you're next, after Lady Yaya"

"I don't want to go after the drag! I want to see her show." She whined, but Michael only laughed.

"You already missed her best show tonight." He winked with an amused expression and gulped the last drops of his drink.

"You dirty hoe, I don't want to see that! And I can't believe you banged Yaya"

"I didn't, I banged Nicholas. He wasn't in drag yet." Kiara laughed to the verge of tears, probably for the first time since... Him.

Damn, she missed him. What was he doing at that time? She looked at the watch to see if it was already one in the morning. He was probably asleep, with Batman by his side. Fuck, she missed Batman too.

She went backstage to get ready for the show and saw the drag queen ready for her performance. Maybe she could peak from behind the curtains while she got ready, but it was not the same as watching her from the audience.

Kiara was distracted while she applied her make-up and got into her almost nonexistent costume. The club was small, and she knew most of the crowd because it was Michael's favorite place. She allowed him to choose her outfit, and the sly whore picked a high-cut bodysuit that showed way too much skin. The only nice thing about it was that her whole tattoo was visible.

From backstage, she heard Lady Yaya singing Happy Birthday, Marilyn Monroe style, and she could almost picture the whole cake stunt. Michael was probably laughing his heart out and enjoying every second.

She took a deep breath and looked into the mirror. She was not in the best state of mind to perform a celebration routine, but it was Michael's birthday, and he adored her shows. It was always easier to perform when she knew someone like him would be watching. Her mind wandered back to another person who had a similar effect on her but shut it down right away. Nothing good could come from thinking about him now.

The music came to an end and Yaya left the stage, stopping by Kiara's side. She was dressed like Marilyn, which made things even funnier.

"You were not dressed like that when you left," Kiara mentioned.

"It's not my show if there isn't at least one reveal, darling." The queen winked with her gigantic lashes. "The crowd is amazing today, you'll love them"

Kiara nodded and went to the wing of the stage. The technical crew was almost done getting rid of the cake. She laughed at their struggle to keep the thing from falling apart. That's why she loved performing in informal environments, everything was raw and real. No blackout to hide the boy's work on getting her silks down, no smoke curtain to prevent people from seeing the artists sweat.

Right there, she felt at peace. She still wasn't fine, and she knew she'd go back to thinking about him when she was done, but at least she was ready to perform. The crowd cheered when they called her name, and she ran to the stage with a smile on her face.

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Her routine was easy, and she was planning on having some fun with it. There was no hidden meaning or message in her number, it was just a few of Michael's favorite tricks. As the big drama queen he was, he loved the ones that made the audience jump and clutch their hearts, thinking she'd fall.

She climbed the fabric and tried to locate Michael amongst the crowd, but the lights were too strong on her eyes. She prepared her first move and smiled mischievously at the audience she couldn't see. The first drop was simple, an easy slack drop ending with a split. They loved the damn splits.

When she got up again, she looked for Michael from a different angle. The light wasn't so bright at that height and she scanned the crowd once more. There he was! She smiled, getting ready to do one of his favorite tricks. That was a particularly tricky one because she had to fully let go of the silks and use her knee to stop the fall. It was beautiful and quite dramatic.

Kiara took a last look at the crowd before letting go, and as soon as she did, she saw him. She let out an out of breath scream when her knee failed to meet the fabric. She tried to grab the silks however she could, but her grip wasn't strong enough to stop the speed she had acquired. She held on anyway to avoid falling and shrieked as her palms burned.

She let go when she was close enough to the floor, but the damage was done. Then, she heard the crowd applauding and whistling, thinking it was all part of the show. She tried to bite back the tears and bowed to the crowd, but something moved and held her in a tight embrace she was not expecting.

"Are you ok?" Fucking hell he was really there. Chris was holding her like a precious little thing, but she couldn't focus on it because her hands were on fire and she just wanted to cut them out.

"Get off of her!" She heard someone shout. She looked up confused, and through her pain, she noticed a few security guards from the club were trying to prick his hands away from her. Shit. "It's alright, I know him"

The men seemed a bit uncomfortable letting him go but Chris must have sent them a killing glare because they backed off with their hands up after a while. Chris led her backstage while she tried to concentrate. She looked at her hands for the first time since the fall. Alright, not that bad. Definitely not her worst burn. But it looked like shit, especially on the parts where the skin acquired a leather-like appearance.

"Shit Kiara, I need to take you to the hospital"

"What the hell are you doing here?"