DerbyGhost

Derby here! And here we have it! The last chapter of the Valentine's Day Heart attack! A visit to the club! I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for reading so far. I really really appreciate all the feedback and positive vibes I've gotten from this story. It makes me so happy seeing your comments and thoughts and emojis and speculation. Thank you!

You know sometimes you see those movies where there’s a line for the club. People are all waiting and the bouncer is there checking IDs and making sure nobody is getting too rowdy. The cute girls always cut to the head of the line and the luckless protagonist just kind of has to sit there and wait and maybe get into a fight while that’s all going on?

Yeah well Three Card Monty on a busy night was not like that, at all. In fact I hesitate to even call it a busy night. Yes, it was the weekend, But beside a few people milling about outside vaping into the muggy June air, there wasn’t some big push to get in. Not much of a push at all. More like a leisurely linger. 

But that’s not surprising given Monty’s reputation on campus. This was a college town after all, and most of the paying customers had gone home for the summer. Well that and Take My Wife, Please was doing a “Bring your own glass” night where they would fill up whatever glass you had with whatever beer you wanted for a buck. I’d gone to one of those once and had to deescalate a situation between a very hungry frat bro and a weasley looking plastered guy who kept taking people’s tater tots because he thought they were his. 

Those truly were the dark days. I promised myself I’d never go back, for good reason. There’s only so much vomit that you can clean off of your shoes before you have to buy a new pair. 

Rather than the assorted summer school kids, it looked like the majority of customers for Three Card this evening were in their mid-twenties, townies by the looks of them. Grad Students mingling with the newly graduated, sucking in that quiet peace before they had to figure out what the fuck they were going to do with their lives.

After a short conversation with the bouncer Kass and I were let into the club and went off on a quest to find my sister. For a moment I was nervous that I wasn’t going to be let in, but apparently Kass brought some of the paperwork verifying that I was a KT and that I was definitely of the legal drinking age. 

Stepping into Monty’s, it was wild how different the vibe was at night than during the day. It’s one thing to step into a bar when nobody is there, that in and of itself is already a liminal space. But with the lights out and the dancefloor full of people, it gave the whole business a completely different feeling. I was able to completely forget, at least momentarily, that this was a front for some magical jackwads. Curvy women and dashing femboys in stereotypical bunny suits (complete with twitching floppy ears that looked remarkably realistic) mingled through the crowd- collecting drinks, performing some sleight of hand, and selling trays of bubbling and smoking shots. Laughing crowds awkwardly bumped and ground, grinded? What the hell is the past tense of grind? Well whatever it was, they were out there doing it in abundance on the dance floor to the pulsing bass beat.

Figuring it was the perfect time to drop my glamour, I tapped my choker twice and breathed a sigh of relief as I felt my pointy ears where they should be. I had only had them for a few weeks but I was so attached to my new features. A few people at some surrounding tables applauded for me, probably thinking I was part of an act so I waved and sheepishly followed Kass to a group of tables in the corner where Stace and Audrey were waiting. Stace was wearing a button up shirt and some nice slacks, the shirt had little images of cats in bowties all over it. I wasn’t sure if I should be flattered or insulted, honestly. My sister had also gone for a black dress, but not as risque as mine. She wasn’t in constant danger of flashing everyone if she stood up or sat down wrong, and for that I was a little jealous. But then I remembered how absolutely stunning I looked and smiled and gave her a big welcome hug.

“Oh my God, June, you look stunning. Wow, my little sis has all grown up. It feels like just last week that you were wearing your first dress.”

“That’s because it was just last week, well unless we count the times that you dressed me up as a kid.”

“Nah, I treated you basically like a doll back then. Last week, or so I’m told, you made the decision yourself to wear the dress because that’s how you wanted to look. That’s important. And oh my Godddddd,” Audrey squealed and pulled me even closer, “I am just so proud of you!!!”

At this point Stace stepped over and pried my sister off of me. “Yeah she’s had half a gin fizz and she’s already a little out of it.”

“The gin is just so fizzy. So fizzzzzzy.”

“I know babe, I know.” Stace looked down lovingly at her partner, “She’ll stop being so goofy soon. She was just so anxious about seeing you. She’s been bouncing off the walls all day getting ready to see her, and I quote, ‘totes amazing trans sister who is so cool and I love her so much.’”

I laughed, “Well it looks like me and Kass need to catch up to your alcohol consumption, so why don’t we go snag some drinks and meet you both back here?” Stace nodded and wrapped her arms around Audrey telling her to behave as we pushed our way through the crowd towards blessed alcohol. 

As it is with most places like this, the bar was the central hive of activity. From that point everyone spread out to go do their own thing. People who were going to dance would awkwardly take their drinks out to the floor or maybe find that one friend who didn’t want to dance and have them guard their drinks. People who just wanted to get shitfaced tended to stalk the bar like vultures, sliding in whenever someone else left and adding another item to their lengthy tab. The few people who were here for magic, and there always were a couple of first timers, were over by the stage area to the right of the bar, clapping and giving tips. And the people who wanted to do coke and fuck skipped the bar entirely and just went to the bathroom as has been the way for generations. 

One thing that I found frustrating about Three Card was that they were one of those places that never put out a menu of their drinks. They didn’t have specials, they didn’t have bartender suggestions. They were a bar that assumed you had been to a bar before and knew exactly what you wanted. In fact they didn’t have a beer list, so I vowed I wouldn’t play 20 questions to see if I could find one or two local brews that I actually liked. It instead required a certain knowledge of alcohol that you want beforehand, which typically leads to indecision and panic. Fortunately we had to wait in line so I had time to think about what I wanted.

I was yanked out of my thoughts by a baritone voice asking “What can I do for you ladies?” It belonged to the bartender who probably thought he was some fucking hunk gift to this Earth. He had slicked back black hair and what he probably considered a “Classic” movie star face. And of course he had one of those button-up dress shirts which seemed to be missing the top, oh, three or four buttons. Which sure, he was handsome in a generic way but nothing to write home about. One of those guys that probably could have starred on some teen sitcom as a basic bland love interest that was only found hot because he was white and vaguely attractive. 

Pointing at Kass I said “Not a lady, and I would like a tequila sunrise please. Light on the tequila, I’d like to make it to the sunrise.” 

Kass wrapped me up in a quick hug and said, “Thanks cutie. I’ll have a vodka cranberry please.” We made light conversation as our chad bartender spent most of the time trying to catch my eye. Is this what it was like with cis men? Probably. They were all so blatantly obvious. The vodka cranberry was out first and Kass made hir way back towards the rest of our group. I told hir I’d be fine, I wanted to make sure to pay for it using the KT stipend. I had a plan to get drunk tonight on Monty’s dime, and I didn’t want hir paying for me. Also I wanted to watch my drink getting made, for curiosity and safety sake. 

A moment later I had my tequila sunrise in front of me, giving it tentative sips. Still too much tequila, but it would have to do. I’d just take it slow. “How much do I owe you?”

He gave a sly smile, “for someone as gorgeous as you? First rounds on the house.”

It took every bit of self control to stop myself from rolling my eyes. Instead I muttered a quick, thank you and started making my way back to the group.

“Hey wait, one second before you go.” I turned, and saw he was still staring at me.

“What?”

“You’re a Knot Thing right? We don’t get many like you here, at least during business hours. I just have a question for you, real fast. It won’t take too much time.”

I sighed and contemplated my choices. I could ignore him and we’d get shitty service by like ½ to ⅓ of the bartenders here, or I could grin and bear it and laugh at his question behind his back. My gut panicked a bit hearing that though. Random people asking you if they could ask you a question never really seemed like a good sign. Especially if you’re trans. Like they know what they’re going to say is probably shitty and they just want your permission to go ahead and stick their foot straight into their mouth. 

So since he wanted to prove how much of a walking protozoa that he could be, I thought why not let him. Batting my eyelashes, I leaned into the bar slowly becoming aware of how much cleavage I was showing and was like “Why sure, you can ask me aaaanything you want.” This was going to be a trainwreck and I wanted to see how bad it would be.

He casually leaned over the bar, getting as much into my space as he dared. I could smell the little work drinks that he probably snuck from under the bar on his breath. “You’re a Knot Thing right?” Ah, since I never directly answered the question the first time he’s literally asking it again for confirmation. Already I could tell we were working with some big brains. 

“Well I prefer the term KT, but unless I’ve unraveled and nobody told me, then yeah that’s me.” Maybe this actually wasn’t the best decision that I could have possibly made. I probably should have just taken the drink and followed Kass back to our seats. I could feel my ears flattening against the back of my head. I was in “warning” mode.

“So that must be your sponsor huh,” the bartender cast an appraising look Kass’s way and apparently decided that zie wasn’t a threat to his planned conquest. Given that the conquest was me, I was looking forward to telling him how wrong the tree was that he was barking up. “Wow I can’t believe that someone like that gave you the knot. Thought you’d be looking for more alpha material. Since you seem all delicate and feminine. Sure she looks all buff but I bet you could use a real owner. I bet she lets you get away with anything without any proper discipline.”

I sputtered on my tequila sunrise nearly spewing the drink across the bar. Looking straight into the bartenders eyes I said, “Please, please, please never smash those words together like that again. Like I’m not even going to touch the blatant misogyny of your comment but I swear to god, go to urban dictionary and look up the word knot, I beg of you.”

“I’m just saying, everyone knows that animal knots can get a little freaky-”

“Please for the love of God think about what you’re saying.” I held my head in my hands, trying desperately to not burst out laughing right there and then.

“You don’t have to get all bitchy at me, I’m just curious. Everyone always talks about getting some Knot Thing tail but you’re all so rare, I just wanted to give you the opportunity to get tamed by the real deal.”

“And thaaaat’s?” swirling my tiny plastic straw around my drink I gave him a puzzling look. 

“Me,” he said, confidence slightly fading.

I gave him a quick head pat and grabbed my drink. “Sure it is bud. I’m going to leave and then me and all my friends are going to laugh about how stupid you sound right now, but good luck. Maybe next time don’t actively dehumanize and fetishize the person you want to fuck. See yaaaa!~” 

After dodging a few errant grabs towards my tail from intoxicated dancers I made my way back down to the rest of the group, laughing as I went. Everyone was kind of freaked out that I took a while, but I told them that the story was totally worth it. After I was done, nobody seemed to think it was as funny as I did. 

“Holy shit, Juni,” my sister sighed, “what the fuck were you thinking?”

“What? He was being an ass so I wound him up a little bit. Maybe next time he’s going to think a little bit before he broadcasts whatever dumbass thing that pops into his head about people who are different than him.” I looked around the table and saw that I was holding the minority opinion.”

“Oooooor,” Stace said, “He could now be holding a grudge and will watch you all night, wait until you’re all alone, and plan something shitty for hurting his ego.”

“He… He wouldn’t do something like that right?” I deflated.

“I don’t know!” Stace said, “That’s the thing, we don’t know what kind of man this guy is. Maybe he’ll laugh it off and it’ll be a dumb story when he’s sober. Maybe he’s going to take it out on you or someone else. It sucks, but you basically just poured gasoline on the whole situation.”

“Well hold up,” Kass interjected, “it’s not her fault if he goes and does something shitty. He’s still making the individual choice to hurt someone. What Juni did was wicked dumb, sure, but that’s because she doesn’t know what it’s like being a girl at a bar. There are just different rules, and she’s had to learn a lot recently.”

“God I’m a fucking idiot.” I sighed, “I guess I just assumed that, y’know, this would just be a funny story or something. He was acting like such a blowhard and I just wanted to call him out on it.”

“I get it,” Audrey sighed and gave me a sad smile. “But at the same time Juni, you need to be careful okay? I just got a sister. I’m not losing you so soon okay? Now come on, drink up and let's talk about nicer things like where in the world did you get that cute choker from?”

~~~

Things were a little less tense from then on. It was nice to just sip on a very poorly made mixed drink and be able to chat and feel like I was a part of a group. And even in a way it felt good that they were fussing about my safety. It made me feel like I was someone worth protecting. 

After a round Stace went up to the bar and got us all fruity rum drinks that were apparently made by the other bartender, and those were great. A perfect combination of fruit juices and barely visible alcohol. As the night went on we got a little sloppier and started talking about fashions. Pointing out outfits that we loved from the crowd and putting together a dream outfit from all of the individual pieces. 

In no time at all the stresses of the month had been forgotten and replaced with a bubbly haze of happiness. I was out with my friends and they loved me. I just wanted to give all of them a big hug and let them know how much they meant to me. At about the time I made my mind up, I felt a hand press against my shoulder and I turned to see Kass, my absolute bestest buddy in the whole wide world. 

"You know," Zie said, "we've been doing an awful lot of sitting for people who came out to have fun. C'mon kitty cat, let's dance." 

I looked at the rest of the table and Stace made little shoo motions with her hand. Apparently she wanted to have some alone time with Audrey and I didn't want to interfere with that. 

As we got closer to the dance my brain began to get more and more agitated. Each step turned up the pressure until I just wanted to snag Kass's hand and turn back. Picking up on my nervousness zie leaned close, whispering in my tufted ear so I could hear hir more easily over the crowd, "What's wrong kitten? You look all shaken up."

I glanced at the crowd. Everyone seemed to be moving so flawlessly, there was a grace to them that my heart told me that I was lacking. It came so naturally to them and as soon as I stepped out and tried dancing some sort of disaster would strike. Maybe Bun would play a trick on me and push me into people. Or maybe one of my heels would snap and I’d show my ass to the crowd. Out of the corner of my eye I could see people watching Kass and I and I just couldn’t take it. “I, I- Kass I don’t know if I can do this. People are watching and I’m just going to make a fool of myself. I’ll just be some KT pussy freak who can’t dance.” My worst thoughts were digging their claws deep into my brain on a night that was supposed to be so much fun. 

A single tear slid down my cheek only to be wiped away by a soft hand. I looked up and saw Kass’s concerned face looking down at me. “Juniper Lane. You are not, nor will you ever be a freak. Not to me. Not to any of these people. You’re a beautiful woman, and if they can’t see that then they really need to re-examine their thoughts around beauty and gender. The only person here who is going to be mean to you is you, well, if you let yourself.”

“But I, everyone keeps-”

“Looking at you?” Zie smiled at me, “Of course they’re looking at you. I haven’t been able to stop staring at you all night. Juni, you’re the prettiest girl in this whole club right now. How could they not look.” Zie took my hand in hirs, holding it firmly. I could feel the warmth of hir skin against the soft fur of my paws. “How about this kitten, one song. Give me one song to just dance with me, to let me enjoy this moment with you. Don’t think about them. Don’t think about your sister, or the future, or the bartender who is a dick, or even yourself. Just be here with me in this moment and let go. Don’t worry about looking silly, because everyone here is worrying about looking silly. That’s the trick to dancing. Just feel the music and move. Watch, I’ll show you.”

And with that zie tugged me out onto the floor, moving in smooth clean patterns. Hir body was hypnotizing, swaying to the movement. I took a moment to just drink in hir curves flowing to the incessant beat of the music. It didn’t matter that I didn’t recognize the song, or still felt uncertain about my own dancing, I just stayed laser focussed on Kass having fun. Zie looked so carefree, like zie was exorcising all hir demons on the dance floor. I had to join hir. Tentatively, almost like the baby steps that I took as a freshly formed KT, I inched my way to hir.

And we danced. At first awkwardly and stilted, I found that I could settle into a rhythm pretty quickly. I tried to focus on Kass’s advice, and instead savored the feeling of my body moving. The beat of the drum and bass thumping through my whole spirit as my tail kept time to the music electrified me in ways I didn’t think possible. And the whole time there was Kass, Kass carefree and excited, bouncing right there next to me. Like magnets placed at other ends of the table we slowly drifted towards each other, matching our rhythms and steps. For a moment we were about an arm’s length across, and the next I found myself stepping closer. Wanting to savor the smell and sight of hir even more.

The night was young, we were drunk, and I was in love with my best friend.

~~~

“So let’s see, it’ll be ‘something sugary, fruity, and sweet’ for you and ‘something chocolatey but not too much’ for you. Yeah I can do something like that, I love a challenge.” We both nodded at our new bartender. Turns out dancing can build up quite the thirst, so Kass and I made our way to the other side of the bar where we met Caite. We both were a little bit tipsy and tired so I vented that we weren’t really sure what we wanted and she told me to just give her a ballpark idea and she’d make the perfect drink for us.

“God Caite,” I said, “you’re so much better than that other guy at the bar.”

“Who? Derrick?” Caite tilted her head in the direction of mr. Wants-To-Fuck-A-KT. We both nodded. “Ah jeez, what’s he doing again? I keep telling him he’s on thin fucking ice.” 

“He was giving my best friend the creeps over being a KT!” Kass stated, voice one step away from yelling. “He kept talking about wanting to be the one to tame her or whatever.”

“It wasn’t amazing…” I mumbled.

“Oh my God,” Caite laughed. “Are you the one who, oh let me see how he phrased this ‘was such a tease’ that he’s been sulking about all night. God typical Derrick.” 

“So wait,” I said, picking my head up. “You’ve known that he’s a creep this whole time and this place still keeps him employed? Kind of fucked up.”

Caite growled, “Of course it’s fucked up. Every single time this happens, and it usually happens with KTs or animal girls, I tell Craig that he needs to be let go. And every time Craig tells me that Derrick is suuuuper sorry and has apologized. And then nothing happens. And of course nothing happens because he and Craig are roommates. GOD.” She huffed, slapping a cleaning rag onto the bar and angrily spot cleaning. “I tell you what, your drinks are on me. I’m going to watch him all night. And if he even comes close to you I’m gonna be right behind him breathing down his neck. Tonight once the bar is closed, me and Derrick are going to have a long hard talk about what his issues are. But that’s my problem, not yours. You two take these drinks and have a fun night, kay?”

As we walked back to our table which was still taken up by Stace and Audrey making out Kass turned to me, “Do you think Caite’s going to actually do anything?”

I shrugged, “We can hope right? Who knows, maybe she’ll talk some sense into him.” Kass snorted and shook hir head. “What? I don’t know, maybe she will. We’ve got to hope right? Either way it’s nice to know that we have someone looking out for us.”

“That, sister,” Kass winked my way, “Is non-cis dude solidarity. We look out and help each other, it’s a pretty cool thing. It’s a little safety net.”

“Well does this solidarity, uh, involve going to the bathroom.”

Kass tilted hir head back and forth, “Mm, maybe. Why?”

“Because I have had to pee since like, three songs ago and I don’t know how much longer I can hold it. And this is really weird because I didn’t think KT’s had to pee. This is, uh, kind of new for me. You don’t think about how weird the urge to use the bathroom is until you haven’t had to for like a month.”

“Alright Juni, let’s just set our drinks down and go. You two are going to look after them to make sure they’re safe right?” Getting a thumb’s up from Stace we headed off to the bathroom together. 

~~~

The women’s bathroom was a mystifying and mysterious place, or at least so I’ve been told. There was always this other nature about it. It doesn’t really hurt that my entire life I’ve had stories drilled into me about “perverts going into the women’s bathroom” and how this was such a danger to everyone’s physical and mental health. Because of all the fearmongering, there rests still an element of taboo to venturing in one. Hence why I haven’t gone to the bathroom as a girl in public before this evening. Even if you know that people should be cool, it’s hard to shake that feeling. 

Which is why it was very anticlimactic when we just walked into the bathroom and did our business. Just like that. Nobody stopping me, nobody telling me that I didn’t belong here. I just kind of peed and walked out of the stall. Kass was still doing hir business so I just had to wait after washing my hands and hope nobody looked at me too funny. Sure enough, worst fears were confirmed when a woman stared at me for a moment for having cat ears, but she mostly just slid up close to me and said “Oh my Godddddddddd those are so cuuuute. Did you pay for an enchantment for the night?”

I flicked my ears and she let out a squeal of glee, “Uh, no actually. These are my ears.” 

“Oh my Godddddd wowwwwwww.” She had the surety and confidence that accompanied a woman who was absolutely wasted. And in that I had a bit of a kinship with her, albeit I wasn’t that far gone. “You are just adorable!”

“Thank you, um,” I wanted to compliment her back but saying ‘I like your ears too’ is sort of weird when the other person just has normal human ears. That’s how rumors get spread that you have an ear fetish or something. “I really like your top, it brings out your eyes!” Compliments are nice, everyone likes compliments. This of course lead to more squealing and then we had to take bathroom selfies which means that more of her friends wanted to take selfies too and we had our own little photoshoot going on in the bathroom. By the time they left Kass had come out and was redoing hir lipstick. 

“Well you seem pretty popular.” Zie smiled, probably one step away from a ‘I told you so.’

“Yeah, girls love cats I guess.” 

“Not just girls. Enbies love cats too.” Zie turned to look at me in the bathroom and I almost melted under hir gaze. The fluorescent light seemed to catch in hir hair and give hir an ethereal glow as zie walked up to me, wrapped hir arms around my neck, and pulled me into an Earth-shattering kiss. Hir lips were warm and I could taste the lingering chocolate on her tongue from her drink. Shuddering, I felt the cold tile press up against my back as zie pushed me up against the wall, fingers curling in my hair. My body was wrapped up in the delicious tidal wave of sensations that threatened to capsize me. If this was what kissing felt like as a woman, well, I would have gotten hit by a truck a long long time ago.

“You know,” I whimpered, “If this is what happened in the girl’s bathroom, I think I could get used to it.“

“For once, kitty, please shut the fuck up and kiss me.”

DerbyGhost

I regret to say as well we have reached the end of my pre-written chapters. The last bits are going to take a little longer now to get done, but hopefully it won't take too long.