Chapter 77

The group managed to find a spot to play miniature golf that wasn't crowded. They bypassed a couple of spots because they wouldn't be able to play together because of the size of the group. The conversation hadn't dwindled much – and Allie didn't even pout (much) when Shelly claimed a spot in Leslie's Mini Cooper. Adam decided he would have to have his legs amputated before he could fit in the tiny box.

At the golf center, the discussion returned to school.

"Are you all at USC?" Leslie asked.

"Shelly and Adam are," Sarah said. "The rest of us are starting at Santa Lucida Junior College in June."

"That's probably a good plan," Leslie said. She saw the look that crossed Adam's face and quickly clarified. "I mean I wish I had done that. I have to spend more time learning about stuff I'll never use than studying what I might want to do in the future. I didn't mean JC was for dummies or anything. I didn't mean that at all."

Adam's harsh look faded.

"Adam says the same thing," Allie told her, unaware of Adam's reaction. "He hates his music appreciation class."

"Mostly I hate that I have to take 100 hours of classes to justify the university having those departments," Adam clarified. "Music appreciation is just my gripe this semester. Last semester it was sociology. Next semester it will be something else."

"I feel the exact same way," Leslie said. "What are you studying?"

"Business," Adam said. "Shelly is talking film studies."

"I'm a general studies major right now but I'm switching to psychology during the summer," Leslie said. "I have most of my general requirements satisfied."

"Did you manage to stay in school last semester?" Adam asked. "Sean was wondering. He said you didn't come to class after Thanksgiving."

"I got a medical dispensation to take my exams later," Leslie said. Her smile faltered slightly but didn't disappear. "That would have been a lost semester if I hadn't. Luckily most of my injuries were not sex related. There was damage there, of course. But the worst was other stuff. I had a bruised kidney. I had to have my spleen and appendix removed. There was some other stuff. But it's done and over now."

Adam's face took on a terrifying look again. Allie saw it and was certain that if Adam Walters ever crossed path with the fat slob who ran 'Florida Funhouse' there would be trouble. And she figured it would be very likely that the fat slob would regret his behavior more than he had with the sizeable payout she was sure Leslie had been awarded. She was surprised that she didn't feel threatened by Adam's protectiveness of a girl he had just met.

"I wish I had gone to junior college," Leslie continued, unaware of how Adam's look had changed or that Allie had shifted her attention to him. "I could have completed my general studies courses there and either transferred somewhere else or just picked up an associate's degree. But psychology will require more than just a bachelor's anyway. So I guess it's moot now. If I had picked something different though it might have made a huge difference."

"That's what I discovered when I started researching things," Sarah said. "I want to work on my writing skills. I don't need to take a Diversity Requirement. If I want to study something like the History of Homosexuality or the Jewish Question, it should be my choice to make. I shouldn't be expected to take it just so they can have a department of African-American or Women's Studies."

"Same with me," Allie said. "I want to study design and art. I don't need a history or political science course."

"How about you, Karlie?" Leslie asked.

"I'm not sure," she said. "I might look into communications or photography. I'm interested in both."

"Hell, do both," Leslie said. "For the difference in cost between USC and Santa Lucida, you can probably get both degrees for half the money and still finish before I do."

General laughter greeted the comment but Leslie might have been right.

"So why psychology?" Shelly asked. "You seem to do well in your film studies class."

"I took it thinking I might be able to learn to act," Leslie answered. Her face took a sheepish glint. "I can't do dialog worth a damn. I know I will never be able to take a job at a clinic or work traditional psychology jobs. But, well, I figured I could offer counseling services at AMS or something."

Adam nodded.

"I'm sure they can be used," he said.

"Probably more than you even realize," Leslie said. There was a serious tone to her voice. "If you get some time check out a link on the adult database. There is a list of porn stars that have died. Most of them are from suicide or drug overdose. Almost all the younger ones died that way and the number over the past 20 years is in the hundreds. Girls in their teens and early 20s who have killed themselves or gotten so immersed in a destructive lifestyle they died."

"Jesus," Sarah said. "I knew it was a problem but I didn't know it was that bad."

"It is that bad," Leslie told them. "I have worked with three girls in 18 months who have killed themselves – three girls in their late teens who put a gun in their mouths and pulled the trigger or downed a bottle of pills. Josey Swallow killed herself just last month."

"It's not hard to figure," Adam said sadly. "I mean, most of what this industry puts out is designed around the humiliation of females. Sure, there are some products that don't go that way but they're rare. I stumbled onto something over the weekend that has women treating other women that way."

He shook his head.

"Then you have to couple in the fact that we're likely to be alone a lot," Karlie said with a sigh. "Most of us are alienated from our parents and families. There is no support system."

Allie nodded and frowned.

"And there are the people we tend to surround ourselves with," she said. "I've met so many girls whose boyfriends have them totally isolated. They keep them away from everyone else – probably so no one notices that the girl is treated the same way in private as she is in public."

"Terry," Leslie said softly. "That was his deal. He was older and I let him dictate decisions that should have been my own. He would drive a wedge between me and anyone I might have something in common with. That's why today is so much fun. This is the first time I've done something like this in years. Honestly. I can't think of the last time I went out with friends. I hope this isn't the last time."

"I don't think it will be," Shelly said. "At least it won't be for me. I'd like to do things with you in the future."

"It's only a shame that we don't have a place to shoot down here," Leslie said. "Rebecca is in the same spot as I am. The people she knows in Las Vegas aren't exactly the type of person she wants to hang out with."

"She is in the same situation as we all were a month ago," Allie said. "We put ourselves in a spot where we had no friends. I was that way. I was too ashamed to talk to people outside the industry, ashamed of what they would say about me or think about me. I didn't like most of the people I met in the industry. They were all fake, you know. They were either fake or hard. The hard ones were so bitter, so harsh. I just couldn't convince myself to get to know them."

Leslie and Sarah nodded.

"Especially the guys," Sarah said. "God, they were ridiculous. They acted like I should bow and scrape and let them treat me like they did on camera. I have a little too much self-respect for that."

"I didn't for the longest time," Leslie said.

"But you have a reputation as a hard ass," Shelly said. She covered her mouth but Leslie laughed.

"That reputation is partly deserved but not entirely," Leslie said. Her voice had returned to the lighter quality it had held for most of the night. "I can be difficult. I'll admit that. But it's mostly when someone presses me into a place where I have to be difficult. The other part of that comes from Terry. Sometime last summer, he decided I should get out of the business. I'm enjoying what I do. I wasn't interested in leaving. So he started to make things a pain in the ass for anyone who tried to hire me. He insisted on a dressing room – a dressing room! I was going to be naked and getting humped in a few minutes but he wanted me to have a dressing room. I didn't know about it. I should have, but I trusted him."

"So what about your alleged feud with Rita Looker?" Sarah wondered.

Leslie tilted her head in the manner Adam had come to expect.

"Also partly contrived but not entirely," she admitted. "I jumped Rita's claim. She planned for almost a year to be the first of the non-nude girls to make the transition. I turned 18 a couple of months before she did and made my debut almost six weeks before she did her topless shoot. That did not make her happy. I know that for sure. But in my defense, I had no idea of her plans. It's not like the non-nude girls have a convention or anything. Dixie Wonder beat her out, too, but she only did a scene or two before she quit."

"It sounds like it's as much Rebecca's parents' fault as it is yours," Adam said.

Leslie's face took on a puzzled look.

"Should have screwed earlier," Adam corrected with a shrug and a grin. "She'd be older. If you didn't do it on purpose, it wasn't your fault any more than it was theirs."

The girls chuckled and shook their heads.

"It didn't help that Pat and Terry did not like each other," Leslie continued. "I mean, not at all. It was because they were so much alike, now that I think about it. I didn't like Pat very much either. He was, I don't know, condescending, I guess. He acted like Rebecca's site was all that and mine was just a way to work my way into doing this. Then Rebecca decided she wanted to do more than blow him. He got worse after that. He made some bad comments about me in one of the trade mags and ran me down to some producers. Terry returned the favor. Rebecca and I had actually never met until a few months ago. The first time we spent a few minutes together was at a trade show in Vegas. Terry and Pat were both gone by then and she and I hit it off immediately."

"Just like we have," Allie said.

Although the conversation turned to lighter topics on the course, the competition took on a fiercer edge. Adam was a lost cause. He had little experience with golf – miniature or actual – and he blundered from hole to hole registering the highest score on almost every one.

The girls were a different story. Once they hit the carpeted course, they were playing to win. Karlie was really good. She explained she lived down the street from a similar facility and would be allowed to spend her summer days there. Her mother had forced her to get a job during the summers so she would not be able to influence her father or her uncle and it turned out the complex was hiring.

Shelly was also good. She had little experience but she could judge angles and bounces and undulations better than anyone else. Allie and Sarah were better than Adam but a rung lower than Shelly and Karlie. They got better as the game wore on – unlike Adam, whose frustration caused him to falter the longer he played.

Leslie was hit and miss. She scored three holes in one but she was a risk taker. She would try the high-risk, high-reward shot on every hole and wound up with more risk than reward most of the time.

At the end, it was Karlie and Shelly dueling for first place; Sarah and Allie firmly in the middle; Leslie several strokes behind and Adam languishing (far) in last place. Still, the group giggled and laughed at almost every shot and had fun.

The group behind the sixsome – a father and two teenage boys – caught up to the group but didn't want to play through. Adam guessed the males didn't mind the sight of five attractive females walking in front of them and bending over to get their balls out of the cup. Adam knew he certainly didn't mind the view.

Allie nailed the clown's mouth on the 19th hole and won a free game, leading to a victory dance after she twirled the putter like a baton and stuck it in her pretend scabbard like a pretend sword.

Adam was last – as he was at every hole and didn't even aim at the clown's mouth. In fact, he had to fight an urge to hit the ball as hard as he could and see if he couldn't send it to the parking lot behind the center. He turned around after missing the hole by several feet to the left to find Leslie, Allie and Shelly standing close behind him, looking up at him with innocent expressions on their faces.

"Can we have ice cream, Daddy?" Leslie said in a little girl voice. "You said we could if we behaved ourselves."

She pasted a fake smile on her pretty face and Adam laughed. In fact, everyone within earshot laughed.

"Sure, Kid," Adam said. "Let's take this crew to get ice cream."

The group broke up after their mid-evening treat – with Leslie heading back north to her apartment and the rest heading south to theirs – but not before the girls made plans for the next day.