Tiffani Rigby | Tinker Bell (whistleforme) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2012-03-15 23:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | rachel dawes, tinker bell |
Who: Tiffani and Whit
What: Meetings & bonding!
When: Wednesday
Where: A locals bar, just off the strip
Warnings: None!
There are three key factors that made the small little dive bar that Whit had entered one of her favorite places to stop after work. Number one, it was on the bus route home, so she didn’t have to go out of her way. Number two, it was well off the strip, which meant the place was populated mostly with locals, many of them fellow casino workers. Finally, they had good burgers and two dollar pitchers after ten with a casino ID. It was clearly a place that catered to the set that catered to the tourists.
As Whit walked in, she noticed the uniforms of the various hotels strongly represented, along with beautiful girls in sweatsuits and heavy makeup, getting a bite and a drink between their early and late shows. Whit had always envied those girls, with what she assumed were glamorous jobs where everyone thought they were beautiful. She glanced over the crowded room trying to find a table, but they all seemed full. She silently cursed under her breath, taking a drag off her cigarette. She finally spotted a four top in the corner with a solitary female occupant. She stubbed out her cigarette and walked over, smiling at the other woman. “Hate to ask, but could I join you? Not an open table, and I’ll even get the first pitcher.” She tried to seem friendly, even though she was clearly exhausted.
Tiffani loved working between her two jobs, but it was always nice to have a day off from everything. Of course, after she’d gotten her school work done and ran all of her errands, Tiffani was left with a lot of free time on her hands and not a whole lot to do. She’d taken a nap and then she’d gone out to Coyote Ugly, but it was too busy and she didn’t want to hang around with a bunch of tourists. That’s why she went to her favorite fall back. It was just off the strip and only locals seemed to really know of it. She was dressed in jean shorts and a v-neck tee with sneakers and her satchel bag to complete the outfit. She’d taken a table in the corner to just watch all of the people that came in and out. She knew a bunch of them and said her hellos here and there.
She’d just ordered her food when a blond she didn’t recognize walked up to her. “Sure thing,” Tiffani replied without a thought, giving the girl a smile. It was clear that she was exhausted and she knew that look pretty well. “You work at...the Wynn, right?” she asked, recognizing the uniform. “My name’s Tiffani.”
A look of relief crossed Whit’s face when Tiffani said yes. She gently set her bag down in an empty chair before taking the seat across from the other girl. “I do. High rollers and VIP area.” The girl was clearly a local and likely worked at the casinos herself. She nodded toward Tiffani, “What ‘bout you? You work the strip?” Maybe this girl was lucky and worked somewhere else. Maybe she had gotten away from the demeaning labor of waiting on overweight tourists with more money than sense.
She signaled the waitress over and ordered a pitcher and a burger. Her eyes slid over to her dining companion, and she took in her outfit. The girl seemed a bit more together than Whit felt, and she truthfully felt dowdy in comparison. She wished she had changed out of her uniform at least. She self consciously put her hair back up in the clip that it had been secured into since she had gotten off her shift. Tomorrow was her day off, and tips had been good this week. Maybe she should go out and get her hair cut. Keeping up appearances lead to better tips from the creepy old guys who tried to hit on her.
“Ohh, that sounds like fun. I work over at Coyote Ugly, actually,” Tiffani replied with a warm smile. She shifted her things so that the blond had more room for her own things and it took only a moment for the waitress to come back with a pitcher of beer and two glasses. Tiffani took the pitcher without a thought and poured the blond’s glass first before her own.
“What’s your name?” she asked, giving her a once over. She looked pretty good for someone who’d just come off a shift at the Wynn. She would’ve loved to work at the Wynn, but she was a stripper first and a bartender second. Tiffani didn’t mind, but she knew that working at a strip club wasn’t necessarily looked upon favorably, even by the locals. “How long was your shift?”
Whit didn’t know much about Coyote Ugly, other that it was probably one of those overpriced gimmicky tourist traps, but then again that described most of Las Vegas. She took a sip of her beer before speaking, her tired voice betraying her trailer park roots. “I’m Whitney, though most folk calls me Whit.” She took another sip of her beer and gave Tiffani another smile. “I just worked 10 hours. Had a girl quit on us. But that’s not strange, given it’s waiting tables. People come and go. I’ve got three years and almost seniority.” She did wonder what better offer the girl had gotten.
“You a waitress or a bartender?” She picked up her pack of smokes from her bag and nodded to the other girl. “Mind if I smoke?” She tried to be polite about smoking, since she knew it was a nasty habit and most folks didn’t want to be intruded on by her cancerous vapors. Considering all the vices a girl in Vegas could have, Whit felt that smoking was far less dangerous than binge drinking and having sex with random strangers.
“Nice to meet you, Whit,” Tiffani replied with a warm smile. She was always the friendly type and she knew what it was like to have to deal with shitty customers all night. There wasn’t any reason for her to be anything but friendly, especially in a place for locals. “I know how that goes. It’s rough when someone quits. Hopefully they’ll get you some help quickly then,” she added, trying to be positive.
“I’m a bartender, and I don’t mind if you don’t mind my bumming one,” Tiff replied with a grin. She didn’t smoke often, but when she was around people who smoked, she got the urge to smoke as well. The waitress came out with their food and Tiffani immediately dug in, hungry after not eating much of anything all day. “I don’t know about you, but I love the burgers here. Some of the best, and they don’t charge tourist prices.”
Whit willingly put her pack and lighter on the table to share when the food came. “This can wait until after I eat. It would be a crime to let fries get cold.” She grabbed a fry off her plate, stuffing it into her mouth. “I love this place,” she said after she finished chewing. “Food is cheap, beer is good and it’s on my way home.” She popped another fry in her mouth, justifying the calories by the simple fact she’d have to walk a few miles tomorrow to get errands done.
“Yeah, the tourist prices.” She rolled her eyes with a grin. “We actually have, I shit you not, a plate of so called gourmet sliders and fries that cost thirty bucks at the Wynn. For food that tastes like it came out of a White Castle sack. Though, to be fair, most of ‘em get it for free ‘cause they are gamblin’ so much.” She laughed, thinking about the suckers who would pay for such a thing. “They wrap the little burgers in tiny wrappers so the suckers can keep gambling while they eat.” It was one of the many ways the casino kept players forking out money.
“So,” she said after another bite. “You like the Coyote Ugly? It a classy place?”
Tiffani popped a few fries in her mouth, favoring the food over the prospect of a cigarette. They weren’t going anywhere and, she hoped, neither was Whit. “It’s a little out of the way for me, but it’s totally worth it.” She took another sip of her beer to wash everything down and it was just as well that she did because Whit had her laughing a moment later. “Oh god, are the casinos really that bad? I knew it was a little crazy, but man, that’s just...wow. I’m kind glad I don’t have that kind of money, you know?”
Her life wasn’t the best, true, but she was happy with where she was at. “Coyote Ugly’s pretty sweet. It’s always super crazy, but I thrive under the pressure, you know? Plus, it’s fun dancing on the bar and the tips are pretty good. Pays the rent and all, and that’s all I can ask for, really,” she explained with a shrug. “It’s nice to have a break every once and a while, just unwind,” she smiled. “When’s your day off?”
“At least they tip good?” Whit said with another shrug. “I always like it when we got some guy in who had to work hard, like us, once upon a time. They always tip the best.” She took a bite of her burger, taking a moment to savor the perfect burger. She never understood how anyone could be a vegetarian. Meat just tasted too damn good.
“I get tomorrow and Sunday off. Works out well, best tips are weekends, and I like having a weekday off. Get more stuff done on a Thursday.” She looked over at the other girl. She was actually really enjoying the company. It was rare she got a chance to just sit and talk to someone. The closest she got to conversations outside of work most days was yelling at her neighbor to turn down his music. “What about you?” She wondered what the other girl would think about her plans for her Sunday off - to check out the mysterious hotel that promised her a way to get in touch with her guardian angel, Rachel.
Tiffani was really enjoying talking with Whitney and she was glad they’d managed to meet in such a random place. “They tip well enough to get me through the month,” she replied with half a laugh. Making ends meet was something that she had to work towards every month, especially with her classes taking away from time she could be working at the Crazy Horse. When she was really strapped for cash, she’d get a week at Sherri’s Ranch, but she hadn’t needed that for a while, and for that she was grateful.
“I had today off. It’s pretty nice, but once my errands and my homework done, and I’ve taken my nap, there’s just not a whole lot left to do. Since it was kinda late, I didn’t have enough time to head over to this hotel on the other side of the strip. I’ll get over there next week hopefully,” she babbled on, not really recognizing that perhaps she shouldn’t be talking about Passages so openly. “It must be nice having two days off.”
Whit really didn’t have to work too hard to get through the end of the month. She was fortunate in that way that working the VIP lounges did pay quite well, certainly well enough that she could make it work every month living in her tiny studio. She even had a bit socked away for her someday, though that someday might never come at the rate she was going.
Her ears perked up at the mention of a hotel on the other side of the strip. “Hotel? That’s funny, I was heading over this weekend to a hotel on the other side of the strip.” Now, that was incredibly odd. She knew there were other people in Las Vegas like her, but how odd would it be that she was sitting across from one of them? Did this girl have a guardian angel like she did? “Is it the place they wrote about in the journal?” If she was wrong, she could always pass it off as being written up in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the local paper.
Tiffani had to work to make ends meet. She wanted to save up as much as she could, but classes and textbooks, plus the traveling that she did, tended to eat up a lot of her income. Add to that her rent, utilities, and other living expenses, and sometimes her finances were a little tight. She was trying though, and that had to count for something, right? Things were getting better though, even with the addition of Tinker Bell flitting around her head.
“Yea,” she replied before eating another handful of fries. “OH!” It dawned on her then that not everyone was on the journals. But wait...hadn’t she talked to a Whitney the other day? “Wait, you’re the girl that broke her heel, aren’t you?” Tiffani had to laugh at that. “What a small world! Oh man, that’s too funny. He hook you up like I said?” she asked with a grin.
When Tiffani asked if she was the girl with the broken hell, Whit actually physically stopped for a moment. Her jaw dropped open and once she finally regained control of herself, she managed the sputter out “Yeah, thanks... took him, uhm, less than 10 minutes to fix.” What were the odds that she would be directed to another just like her by chance? Maybe it was her guardian angel again. Whit was a lonely girl, and Tiffani seemed like someone she could be friends with.
“So,” she said, chewing on her bottom lip a second. “Have you been there? I mean, do you have these thoughts and voices and stuff?” Her words seemed to almost spill over themselves. She was suddenly relieved that she wasn’t alone. There were other people like her, and they seemed normal, so maybe she seemed normal to everyone else.
Tiffani grinned widely when Whit said it hadn’t taken the man long to fix her shoe. “Told you!” She was very excited to be able to put a face to a name. Talking on the journals was almost too impersonal sometimes and Tiff always did better in person. She always seemed to be inviting people out to Coyote Ugly for drinks just to increase the chances of meeting new people. What were the chances of meeting someone here?
“I did! I went when it first opened, but the doors weren’t crossable yet. I could see inside though and oh man. Tink wouldn’t shut up!” Of course, that led to a bit of annoyed twinkling, but Tiffani paid her no mind. “She’s the fairy from that Disney movie with Peter Pan. You know it? Who’ve you got? Hopefully you can understand yours. I can’t understand a thing Tink says,” she replied, babbling a bit. She always did when she got excited.
Whit laughed, feeling a ton more at ease about this whole voice in her head thing than she had since it started. Even though she was fairly sure she wasn’t crazy, she still worried that she was, in fact, crazy and this was all some hallucination, some way to deal with an unhappy life.
“Well, I’ve never been. I just got my journal, and well...” She shrugged. She really didn’t have an excuse, did she? Well, other than the fear of the unknown. “Mine is a girl named Rachel Dawes, from those Batman movies? She was Batman’s kind of girlfriend who ended up choosing some other guy. Though seriously, who would choose Aaron Eckhart over Christian Bale?” That comment got her an It’s complicated! that made her laugh. “She seems real nice, and is always trying to get me to do the right stuff - I like her. She wants me to go to the hotel...”
Tiffani could tell that she and Whit would get along really well even after sharing a meal together. She recognized the name even before Whit explained, mostly because she tried to be up on her movies. Especially the one’s with the hot guys and fast cars. “I’d pick Christian Bale any day, let me tell you,” she replied with a grin. She took a sip of her beer, finishing the glass, and began to refill it. “She’s a great character, from what I remember. You could have a lot worse,” Tiff reassured the blond.
“And the hotel’s great. If you want, I’ll come with you. I dunno if I can go through your door or anything, since Tink’s a fairy and all, but I can still go to the hotel with you if you want. I’ve got my afternoon free tomorrow,” Tiffani offered without a second thought. Honestly, how could she not offer to go with her. “Going helped me a lot with Tink. She was pretty quiet after we went, and there’s nothing like flying. Oh, you should see her wings. They’re beautiful.”
Whit nodded, “That’s true. I mean, I assume if there are good ones, there are really bad ones as well. I mean, what if you got, like, Jason Vorhees? Or like... I don’t know... some serial killer?” She shivered slightly, as the realization that somehow she could end up an even worse person, or that worse, there were people out there who were being influenced by such people.
As much as Whit would have loved to have gone tomorrow, she also knew she had too many things she couldn’t blow off. She had laundry stacked from here to hades, and she couldn’t very well put it off any longer. Not to mention bills to pay and she needed to get out to see about getting a few new things for work. “Actually, I was thinking I’d go this weekend. I don’t have as much time tomorrow, and I figure if I am going, might as well give myself all the time I can, just in case. I’m sure she wants to see friends and stuff.”
Tiffani nodded, not the least bit put off by Whit’s reply. “No worries! You should go when you’re ready, you know? It’s a weird experience, but definitely worth it and Rachel’s pretty great.” Tiff gave her a warm smile and took another bite from her burger. She was about half done with it already and eager to keep talking to Whitney. “But anyway, what brought you to Vegas in the first place?” That was always a good place to start, wasn’t it?
“Me, I grew up here. Don’t know much of anywhere else, but I like it here.” It was only fair that she share too, right? She’d always worked too hard to be able to really develop relationships with people but over the past year or so, she’d tried to make more time to be social.
Whit wasn’t sure exactly what to tell her new friend about her background. How did you explain that you were basically trailer trash from Pahrump? “I moved here three years ago. Not many jobs back home. Got tired of taking orders from fat truckers at the Taco Bell at the Citgo. So I decided it would be easier to just move to Vegas.” She shrugged and finished her own mug of beer and poured another one. “Didn’t have any ties to Pahrump anymore. Mom died and well?”
She paused again and took another drink before pushing back her plate and lighting up. “I guess I came here because I didn’t want to live in a trailer all my life. I am gonna be something. Famous. Or something.” She gave the other girl a smile. “Already moved up in the world. No longer livin’ in a place with wheels?”
Tiffani knew more about fat tourists and guys pretending to be something they weren’t, but fat truckers at Taco Bell didn’t sound the least bit appealing. “VIP section’s definitely a step up,” she replied in what she hoped was a reassuring manner. “My mom died too. I never knew my dad; he was one of mom’s clients.” She shrugged, having long sense come to terms with it.
“You could definitely do it,” she added, sincerely believing that Whit could make a name for herself. “Rent’s crazy. I’m glad I downsized to a smaller place once my mom died. I’m trying to go back to school though, so that takes up more time and money. School’s so goddamn expensive, and I’m just going part time.”
“We have a lot in common,” Whit mused, her voice dropping a bit. “My dad was well, my Ma says he was a poker player, but I don’t think some big shot professional poker player would have looked twice at my ma, nor been in Pahrump.” She never had argued with her mother about the identity of her father, but she had never believed her story either. She knew that she was better off not knowing.
“I thought about going to school at one point, but I only got my GED. I don’t even think that’s good enough for clown college.” She glanced away a bit. She knew she should have finished high school. “Had to quit school and support my ma. She got hurt at work.” She knew it was an excuse, but it made her feel better to justify her mistakes on her mother’s mistakes. She just hoped she could break the pattern.
“I got my GED,” Tiffani replied with a smile. “You’d be surprised. State schools are easier to get into and I’m really only taking a couple classes. My mom’s the one that thought I could never amount to anything. Part of me wants to get my degree just to show her I can, you know? Not that it matters much.” Her relationship with her mom had always been strained, but she was doing much better on her own. Well, sort of. She was still stripping, just like her mom said she would, but she was doing it on her terms, and that meant everything.
“Some days I dunno why I try. It’s not like I know what else I’d do, you know? Besides, I’ve made some real good friends with the girls I work with. Is the Wynn friendly enough?” Tiffani knew that one of the hardest things about Vegas was how competitive the workers were, sad as it was. Some places were a lot better than others though, and Tiff was glad for that.
“You seem really smart. I bet you can do it!” She was really impressed with the other girl, who seemed to have it so much more together than she did. Whit’s life was the same thing over and over again - work, go home, work - with a few interludes of shopping and drinking. Maybe she should take up some classes - Rachel seemed to agree with the idea.
“The Wynn is... well, it’s competitive. People really think the VIP areas are the end all be all, and there are some catty girls there. Also, there are some girls who do... favors.” She didn’t want to really explain any further, since it wasn’t a polite topic. Then again, she was worried she might offend the girl. “I mean, you can fuck whomever you want, but I hate the girls who do it to try to get ahead.”
Tiffani grinned and shook her head. “Nah, I mean, maybe I could be a bar manager or something, but I’ll never get to much more than that. I’m not even halfway through my degree and I’m only getting my associates.” There were plenty of reasons to not finish her degree and no one was better at finding them than Tiffani. She didn’t even realize that she was doing it half the time.
When Whit went on about the girls she worked with, Tiff shrugged again. She couldn’t really say anything about those girls because it was basically what she did. Sex had lost it’s meaning very early on and she was more than okay with that. Perhaps a bit more okay with it than she should have been. “It doesn’t sound too bad. Plus, VIPs tip well. It probably makes it a little more worthwhile.”
Whit was still a virgin. She’d always been too cautious with men - after all, men were the source of her mother’s weakness, and Whit was not going to be weak. She was not going to let someone ruin her life any more than her mother already had. “The money is very good. I just wish that I was doing something a bit less... physical. Maybe a bit more with my mind. But a job is a job, and I am lucky to have it.”
She glanced around the room again, and took another drag on her cigarette. “Do you ever worry that this is all a dream? That whatever this is we are experiencing is just that - a dream.” After a few beers, Whit sometimes got a bit broody. “I mean, I have these thoughts, these memories of a girl who had this amazing life.”
Tiffani could understand Whit’s concerns. Being a cocktail waitress wasn’t for everyone, but it was one of the few jobs that came in abundance in Las Vegas. “I’m sure you’ll find something you’ll be happier with soon. That’s the key I think, finding something you love to do.” She finished off the last bit of her fries then and wiped her hands on a napkin before reaching for a cigarette herself. She lit it with a well practiced movement and put the lighter down atop the pack.
“Not really,” Tiff replied after taking a drag of her cigarette. “I mean, maybe it’s because Tink doesn’t communicate very well. She influences my emotions a lot and sometimes I dream about flying, but I don’t mind.” She took a sip of her beer before continuing. “I think it’s different for everyone. At first, Tink was a little upset because she’s normal sized now, but I try to spend a couple hours in Neverland when I can so that she can get used to it. I think it’s just an adjustment period.”
“I guess maybe I keep hoping I can entertain people. I sing and dance, but I’ve never been to a formal dance school, so none of the Vegas places want me.” She knew it was a foolish dream, anyway. The voice in her head tried to assure her she needed to try. She needed to get out there and chase her dream.
She took another drag on her cigarette. “Your place ever do like, open mic nights?” She wasn’t sure where that came from, and she almost regretted her action. She took another drink, trying to keep from chickening out.
Somehow, Tiffani didn’t think suggesting Crazy Horse would fly with Whit. It was dancing, and technically so was Coyote Ugly, but they weren’t hiring at the moment. “You could probably take classes though, if you wanted,” she suggested. “But we don’t do open mics. I know there’s this one place...god, what’s it’s name?” She had to think about it for a minute, but it would come to her eventually.
“How’d you get into singing and dancing?” Tiffani had gotten into stripping and bartending thanks to her mom, but she hoped that Whit had a better reason for her passions. She didn’t want to be a downer either, but unless there was some sort of miracle, she doubted Whit would get very far. That certainly wasn’t a comment on Whit. It was a comment on Las Vegas in general. “Does the Wynn have anything?”
“Classes are expensive.” She wasn’t sure she would even know how to find classes anyway. “I considered maybe you know, maybe some more adult clubs. I always thought that burlesque was pretty neat.” That was, after all, far more classy than a strip club, it was art, right? “Or maybe busking. I play guitar.”
She shrugged, “I’ll do something, eventually.” She waived over the waitress to get back to the “Maybe I can ask the Wynn. It might be nice to have some sort of exposure at work. It would help the tips, right?” She laughed and finished off her drink.
“Burlesque takes a lot of skill. Those might be one of those places where you’d need formal training,” she replied, sound less than thrilled that she was saying such a thing. “I bet there’s classes though somewhere.” Tiffani strove to be positive for others, even if she couldn’t quite be positive for herself. She thought, then, that maybe a way to get a little more cash flow for both of them might be to move in together, but they hardly knew each other. Maybe, if they kept getting along so well, they could discuss it.
“You should definitely ask at the Wynn though, especially since you work there. They’ll probably be more likely to give you a shot, you know?”
“So, what do you want to do when you get out of college?” Whit was tired of talking about herself and her problems. She would wallow in them enough on her own without sharing them with someone else who clearly doubted her as much as she doubted herself. Maybe she was fooling herself. Maybe she should bribe a pit boss and become a dealer.
“I mean, with a degree, that’s gonna open up all kinds of doors, right? I bet you could run one of these places.” The waitress brought another pitcher and she poured herself and Tiffani another glass and then raised her own. “To making it in this city... no matter what.”
Tiffani shrugged at Whit’s question. “Honestly, I’m not all that sure. It’s just an associates right now, and I dunno what I can really do with it. I mean, maybe try and be a bar manager or something, but I don’t know if that’ll ever happen,” she replied. Fortunately, she was saved from saying much else because her glass was refilled and they were toasting to making it in Vegas. “To making it big, no matter what,” she echoed, taking a healthy drink from her glass.
They spent the rest of the evening getting to know each other, drinking beer after beer and losing track of time. Tiffani couldn’t have asked for a better ending to her day off. They exchanged numbers before splitting the bill and saying their goodbyes. Definitely an awesome day. One of the best she’d had in a long while.