Chapter 4: Natalie
Michaela didn’t even bother filtering her chatter for the ride share driver.
“Vertigo is a bit, y’know, freaky,” she said.
She had told me where we were going after we got in the car. The club’s name was Vertigo, and it was located in a less than desirable area of town. I was skeptical, but she said she knew people who had been.
“Weirdos go there?” I said, horrified.
“Uh, not exactly. I meant freaky as in…a sexual way.”
“You’re taking me to a sex club?!”
Now I understood why she wouldn’t tell me where we were going until I was safely locked in the car. I looked down at the handle and considered yanking it open, but we were going about sixty-five miles per hour. Tuck and roll probably wouldn’t work at this speed. And I wouldn’t want the poor driver to have a lawsuit on his hands.
“No! It just has sexual aspects to it, y’know what I mean?”
“No. No, I don’t know what you mean.”
My imagination began to run wild with possibilities. I pictured a random stranger bending me over the bar and fucking me in front of the entire club. Or maybe the club’s furniture was bondage equipment, and the waitresses would whip me when I asked for a drink.
I was disgusted, yet extremely turned on. It would be the erotica I liked to read come to life. But what I read to get off didn’t equate to what I would do in real life. It was just a fantasy.
“Like, there are girls on trapezes who are naked. And the waiters and waitresses are pretty much naked.”
“Oh,” I replied.
“See? Just naked bodies. You can handle it.”
“I really don’t know if she can though.” Mark turned around from the front seat.
Mark and Michaela had met senior year of college. To be honest, I thought it was pure lust between them, the way she described their sexual escapades. But I had been wrong. Mark had asked Michaela to marry him two years later.
“Oh hush, Mark!” Michaela demanded.
“It’s a personal opinion. Sorry, Natalie,” he said.
“It’s fine.” I interlaced my hands and looked down at them.
He was right. I wasn’t bold enough to try something like this. What I should have done was stay home. I could have blamed it on work—I had been there until eight o’clock finishing those damn financial statements.
But I had followed through with my plans and was beginning to regret it. I had seen naked bodies, but I’d never been around them for fun. Being naked was something to do with your partner, not something to show off to the world.
“Don’t listen to Mark,” Michaela said. “You want to be more adventurous, right? Well this is your first step.”
As much as I wanted to believe those words, I didn’t know if I could. I wasn’t sure it was possible to train myself out of a lifetime of being conservative. I didn’t dwell on it for very long, as we had pulled up to the outside of the club.
Michaela ran her hands through her thick, strawberry-blonde hair and gave me a smile. “Are you ready?”
My throat constricted, and all the saliva in my mouth had dried. I shook my head in a circular motion, caught in between a yes and no.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me through the club’s doors.
My eyes dilated as they searched for a light source in the darkness of the club. My pupils quickly shrunk back to size as a strobe light flashed, giving me a moments glimpse of my surroundings. As Michaela had said, there were girls suspended from the ceiling, doing various tricks on bars. I wasn’t sure how they contorted themselves that way. There was a girl upside down, hanging from the crook of one knee.
Michaela kept hold of my hand and led me through the club. I didn’t know how she could see anything—when I walked in here, all of my senses became impaired. Along with my sight, my body began to feel strange. Although the club’s AC was blasting, I had a cold sweat pooling on the back of my neck. My free hand reached to wipe it away. My efforts were useless, and more took its place.
I knew the club’s music was deafening. The DJ’s booth was unlike any other I had seen; there were an innumerable number of speakers surrounding it. Although the music was blasting, it was a tiny echo in my head. It had reached the highest decibel and was now working backwards.
All of my trust was in Michaela as she led me through the club. There was no way I could have guided myself. Finally, she sat us down at a booth.
“Pretty cool, right?”
“Right…” I echoed.
It was as if I had forgotten how to speak. I didn’t find Vertigo cool at all. It was overwhelming every sense I had and making my heart race at an abnormal pace. Michaela chattered about how the club was a hidden gem, and she didn’t understand why it wasn’t the most popular spot in town.
I nodded, only half absorbing what was coming out of her mouth. My eyes were slowly starting to adjust to the darkness, and I began to get a good look at my surroundings.
A bar was in the right corner of the venue, with many club-goers flocking around it. Perpendicular to it was a large dance floor, although what the people were doing definitely wasn’t dancing. Sex with clothes on would have been a better way to describe it. The dim lighting was useful for hiding how red from embarrassment I was.
Adrenaline coursed through my body, and my heart was beating as though I had run a marathon. I glanced up and took a deep breath, trying to compose myself. Rather than finding a spot to focus on, my eyes found more girls on trapezes.
“Are you okay?” Michaela’s voice broke me from my trance. “You’ve been twitching the entire time we’ve been sitting here.”
“I’m…going…fine.” Words were still failing me.
“Okay,” she responded.
“I told you it would be too much,” Mark said. “Look at her. She’s about to faint.”
“She’s fine!” Michaela glared at Mark. “She just needs to adjust to the scenery.”
Mark raised his eyebrows at Michaela but didn’t argue.
I tried to remember the last time I had been to a club. It was probably Michaela’s bachelorette party. I didn’t remember if I had a good time, though. There had been dancing, boys, alcohol. Probably why I couldn’t recall.
At twenty-nine years old, being at Vertigo was not a fun time. I didn’t know if I felt this way because of the atmosphere of the club or the fact I was getting older. Either way, I wasn’t sure how much alcohol it would take to make it a good time.
“This is different,” I commented, forming my first sentence inside the venue.
“Different! Great way to describe it.” Michaela clapped her hands together.
I nodded in response. My heart rate was still accelerated, but now it was closer to the speed it would be after a light jog.
“You still look like you’re about to have a heart attack.” Mark tried to conceal his laughter but failed miserably.
“No, she doesn’t. You feel fine, right, Natalie?” Michaela asked.
“I…did you put something in my water bottle earlier?” I wiped another pile of cool sweat that had formed on the back of my neck.
Mark began to laugh even harder. “No, that’s just you.”
“Oh,” I responded.
“Deep breath in, Natalie.” Michaela inhaled. “Deep breath out.” She exhaled.
I followed her directions. There was no reason for me to be panicking. I was in a club, not cage diving with sharks.
“You’re right. What am I freaking out about?”
“See, I knew you were fine.” Michaela appeared pleased with herself.
“Yeah, I am.”
“So, where does your adventurous journey go from here?” A devious smile had spread across Michaela’s face.
I bit my lip. All I had known was I wanted to be more adventurous. I did something without a plan—shame on me.
“Mmm, no plan?” Mark mused.
“Stop it, Mark! Only I can make fun of Natalie.” Michaela shot her husband a glare.
“But what if I have great suggestions?”
“Well, I suppose you could share those suggestions.”
“Okay. How about you start by flirting with that”—He pointed at a man across from us— “guy over there.”
“Seriously, Mark?” Michaela said.
“Hey, at least I’m coming up with adventurous ideas. Well, adventurous for Natalie.”
“I don’t know if I can,” I squeaked.
Michaela looked at me with pity. “Why don’t we get drinks first?”
I nodded. Alcohol would definitely help the situation. If I want to accomplish something, I need to relax. I just won’t go overboard.
She looked at Mark. “Can you get us drinks?”
“How many hands do I have, Michaela?”
“Two, obviously.”
“How many people are there?”
She realized she had walked into a trap and scowled at him. “I’ll come with you, My Dear Husband.”
I smiled to myself as they walked away. Their fighting wasn’t the heated type that a lot of couples had; it was adorable bickering. Michaela told me they hate-fucked each other after, so I was sure they’d be having a great time tonight.
A bitter taste entered my mouth when I realized I no longer had someone to do cute things with. Not like Nathan and I did anything like that while we were dating. Our relationship was very traditional—he took me on dinner dates, and we went to upscale parties. There was no bickering, partially because even if I disagreed with him, I would never vocalize it.
Who the fuck does Nathan think he is, saying I’m not adventurous. Tonight would be the time of my life, no matter how much alcohol it took. Glancing around Vertigo, I could safely say I had adjusted to my surroundings. My heart rate was normal, and the cold sweat was gone.
“Hey.” The man Mark said to flirt with had walked over to me. He wasn’t bad looking, but he definitely wasn’t my type. He was wearing short sleeves, and I could see that his arms were covered in tattoos.
“Um, hi,” I responded.
“Can I sit with you?”
“O-okay.”
“How’s your night going?” he asked.
“It’s…going. What about you?”
“It’s going well.”
I nodded in response, which created an awkward pause. I didn’t know what to say, and he wasn’t bringing anything up. This was why I didn’t flirt with strangers. If there was no chemistry, I was stuck in this awkward situation and I didn’t know how to excuse myself.
“They sure look like they’re having fun, eh?” He motioned to the orgy that was the dance floor.
“Oh…yeah.”
The unnamed man smiled. “I take it you’re not into that.”
“To put it lightly.”
“So, what are you into?”
My heart skipped a beat. The look he was giving me wasn’t flirtatious or friendly. The look in his eyes was borderline disturbing. “What do you mean?”
“Like BDSM or roleplay. Hopefully nothing illegal, but I could work with it.” He shot me a smile that made my skin crawl.
The darkness I had adjusted to was creeping in on me once more. His cheap cologne invaded my nostrils, and my stomach began to churn. I had to get away from him. He would either take me in the alley and kill me, or I would lose all bodily fluid when I vomited on his shoes.
“I-I need to go,” I mumbled. “Sorry.”
I wasn’t sure why I was the one apologizing when he was being creepy. Social habits were strange things.
I stumbled towards the bar, scanning the club for my two friends. Unfortunately for me, they were lost in the throng of people. My chest heaved up and down in a feeble attempt to suppress my nausea. I didn’t have time to wait for them. I wanted out of this club now.
It was so dark when I had entered that I didn’t even know which way the exit was. I scanned the room, looking for a way out. A door to what presumably was the bathroom was to my left. I could just splash some water on my face, compose myself, and text Michaela I was sick and had to leave.
I couldn’t tell the speed of my movement. My brain was telling my body to move fast, but everything around me seemed to be moving slowly. It was an eternity before I reached the door and pulled it open. I slammed it shut behind me and leaned against it, grateful for the escape. Michaela’s words ran through my mind as I rested against it. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. I followed the directions twenty times before I was able to open my eyes.
There was a set of stairs leading to a basement area. It wasn’t a storage area—the interior was clearly decorated. I found it a bit odd that the bathroom was downstairs, but I couldn’t blame the club for an architect’s bad layout. My workplace was a prime example.
I darted down the stairs in search of a women’s restroom sign. When I reached the bottom, there were no signs at all. The hallway didn’t go two directions, which could indicate one gender to the left and the other to the right. It was split in three different directions.
This probably wasn’t the bathroom—my stomach began to churn at the possibilities. Had I stumbled upon some sort of Mafia operation? Maybe there were young girls being held captive down here.
I shook my head. That was what I got for watching too many crime documentaries. I pushed past my ridiculous thoughts and stepped forward. It was obvious the bathroom was down here, but which way? I peered down each hallway. The left one appeared to be the shortest, so I chose that one.
The décor in the basement was quite different from upstairs. The club area was very trendy, with its dim lights and dark color scheme. I would have mistaken this for a high-class hotel, if I hadn’t known I was in the basement of Vertigo. The wallpaper had classic dark red stripes adorned with gold accents. Each door was made of an expensive looking oak, and the handles matched the gold of the wallpaper.
As I made my way further down the hallway, I convinced myself these were individual bathrooms. The upscale décor made it quite obvious. I repeated that thought in my head as I pushed a door open.
I exhaled in relief at what I found. It was a powder room—this was upscale. Inside the room was a closet, sofa, sink, and mirror. Here I was, thinking I would find a sex dungeon or people being tortured. When I get home, I’m switching to a different type of documentary.
I shut the door and flopped on the sofa. Vertigo was appropriately named—my head was spinning from how overwhelmed I was. I’ll just rest here until I can compose myself, and then leave.
That was when I saw movement from the corner of my eye.