STRIP CLUB by NICOLE SELLEW
November 21 2024I watched as one girl danced even when they cut her music. I watched the girls on their knees, scraping the money into bags. I watched a boy in a Patagonia puffer jacket try to take a Snapchat video of one of the dancers.
Are you taking a video, asked the dancer.
The boy shook his head. A bouncer came over and shoved the phone out of the boy’s hands. The video, if there had been one, was gone.
The dancer was frozen. She looked younger than she’d looked before. She looked afraid. Even in the low light, which was meant to erase everything, the dancer looked afraid. I watched as the boys I’d just met slipped dollar bills into the other strippers’ G-strings. I watched one of the boys smack a girl’s ass. He left a red handprint.
That’s not allowed, said the boy sitting next to me. He said it into my ear, as though he were sharing an exciting secret. They don’t usually allow that.
Nicole Sellew is a writer living in rural CT. Her novella Lover Girl will be out with Clash Books in 2026.