The English department of a comprehensive school were going on a work social. Diane, a teaching assistant who was of African origin was unsure when the location was suggested.
'What are you worrying about?' said Colleen in her Boer accent. 'It will be great.'
'I don't know,' replied Diane with dwindling protest. 'Maybe it will be.'
'We have to go somewhere, right?'
'Right.'
Throughout the day, Diane could see excitement building for this social event, on this half day, yet Diane only experienced rising dread. Before the social, they were to go for a curry at Brick Lane and when the waiter brought their dishes, the diners brought out the bottles of wine, since the Muslim restaurateurs allow their consumption but do not allow their sale on their premises.
Dinner subjects tend to be fluid and fleeting, especially when involving stimulants, but there was one recurrent subject with the group of excited and overweight teachers and that was the expulsion of a couple students that happened earlier.
'I wish I didn't have to do it,' said the deputy head of the comprehensive who had tagged along with the English department. That was the department she had originally come from. 'The paperwork is getting longer.'
'Was it only the two boys?'
'Yes.'
'But I swear there were like six kids fighting.'
'We're only allowed to expel two kids every semester. And thank god for that. Just the two of them are thirty pages each.'
She downed a glass of wine and let the grapes cool the spiciness of the Indian palette.
'Yeah it's getting harder to deal with them,' said Diane. 'But what can we do? They're kids and we have to deal with them, even the troublesome ones. I don't think -'
'It's such a shame,' sighed one of them, with a cheeky smile. The teacher sitting opposite her caught the smile and chuckled. 'Skindeep at least…such 'lovely fallen creatures.' Hehe.'
'Yes!' Diane said in a near shout, not hearing the last comment. 'And really I don't think -'
'We should be allowed to expel more than two,' said another teacher who had specialized in the Classics at university. 'Everything will be cleared up if we can.'
'Not if it's thirty pages to expel one,' rejoined the deputy head, shoveling food down her throat. 'I'm not doing such paperwork, not all of it at one time.'
Diane looked at her a little askance.
Though the subject had more legs, the wine started taking over and topics changed and broke quicker than the drunken flush across their faces.
'How is your new adventure going?' asked someone to the deputy head, a person who had a permanent red streak above her lips from where she tore the hair off.
She grimaced and shrugged to express considerable disdain.
'Alright,' she answered in a growl.
This deputy head was a big woman, tall and wide, with masculine shoulders. In her forties her life had been loveless for so long that she had begun to date women for companionship as no men seemed interested in her. She couldn't stand the prospect of being alone forever and so went against her sexual orientation.
Diane watched as the deputy shared some pictures of them at Winter Wonderland where they were holding cups of mulled wine. Diane couldn't hide her scorn but no one heard her kiss her teeth. She had known many wide shouldered women who managed to get partners and the decision to go for women seemed crazy though when she glanced at the shoulders she probably could see why.
Although the dinner itself could be considered a social after work event, and in fact and essence it was, it was more like a stop before their true destination. Once finished, the buzzing ladies, loud and exuberant, made their way to Tottenham Court road. Diane stepped out of the station a little disoriented. This was early evening in central London, with Christmas around the corner, so it had quite a few people around. She wasn't really used to central London like that and definitely not with the place where they were going so asked where it was.
'It's two minutes from here. A really inconspicuous place.'
'You've been there before?'
'Oh yeah. Many times,' Colleen replied back. 'Obviously.'
Everyone besides Diane seemed to know the way and she looked from one to the other as the only black woman in the group.
'What time is the…performance.'
'At seven.'
'I thought it was seven thirty,' the deputy head said.
'No that was the old schedule. They revised it a couple months ago. I'm on the mailing list.'
'Oh that goes straight to my spam.'
'I gold star mine.'
'Hmm. I should have done the same.'
The place was next to a crepe shop and a cinema, with two huge guards standing in front of a black door with ropes to the side.
'Hello teachers!' said one of the bouncers. 'Another school trip?'
'Yeah. With no kids!'
'Haha! Not with us anyway but I'm sure we'll find some inside.'
'Haha!'
They were waved in. The black bouncers looked curiously at Diane for they did not tend to see black women at their establishment. She returned a brave smile.
The interior of the main hall was like that of a cafeteria or a large cocktail club with tall circular tables spotted around the room. Towards the right was a stage with curtains down. It was already full with the show about to start when they walked in and they hurriedly made their way to their table which was reserved for regulars, VIPs, and was close to the stage. One of the teachers let out a shriek of excitement, screaming 'woo!' when she sat on the table, which had a couple bottles of champagne and a myriad of glasses. Someone else in the crowd responded to the shriek with their own and now several other women were shrieking, unable to contain themselves.
Diane sat down and accepted the glass of champagne poured by the deputy head but didn't drink from it. She had shrunk a little from the excitement everyone showed that she herself didn't possess. She sat with a closed body when the curtains were drawn.
A sexy little funk song by Prince resounded while seven guys with suits came in view on stage. Chocolate City had opened its gates for voyeurism and its residents were all black men. The shrieks that were heard before were nothing to the cacophony that made the room shake as the ladies made their feelings known. All the women had risen, leaning forwards on the tables, or standing up waving their fists, releasing the pent up emotion. Diane was startled by the outburst of the white women which looked like the sudden splash of foam waves or a flash from a camera that one didn't expect. She turned from the women around her to the stage, for the performance had begun.
Initially the men followed a choreography, each gyration precise and calculated but then the clothes started to come off. Teasing each item, the crowd screamed every time something came off, it started with the tie and then the shoes, until they were left with a thong. By this point each one was doing his own thing: some were twerking and others completely removed everything to helicopter their long cocks.
Diane did not know that the strippers would be black, the name Chocolate City and its potential meaning going over her head. But looking on, a wound began to wax sore. Diane was a married woman and had had other relationships with black men before, but this was the first time she had seen an attractive black man naked. The ones she had seen before were average at best while her husband was…a good man. Instead of being happy at finally seeing an attractive black man, she was scandalized. Multiple white women were on stage with the deputy head on her knees while a dancer spat in her mouth. Diane was thinking of the idea that these white women had experienced attractive black men before her and in ways she herself never had and probably never would.
She sat tense without being able to move and not for a moment had an intention to go on stage herself until she noticed something about the music they were playing. She heard Channel Tres - Brilliant Nigga then, D'angelo - When We Get By, and then a dancer was phantom playing piano keys while Frank Ocean - Pink + White was playing. These were songs of poignancy, of spirituality, of black love, and she looked at how they were used and the setting. The deputy head, the reluctant lesbian, was now taking two dicks at the same time. The shock and jealousy she had previously experienced was replaced by rage at the desecration.
'Who is responsible for this?' she asked herself, staring at the smiling black dancer with dreads, naked, with a cock ring, going from one end to the stage continuing to phantom play the keys to the frank ocean song. He was smiling until he caught the eyes of Diane. He stopped smiling and looked confused as a champagne bottle hurtled towards him. It moved faster than the panties he was used to.
Most people didn't realise what was going on and hollered when Diane went towards the stage. They encouraged her and wanted to see some black love on the stage too. Then the noises of delight dimmed and a few cries of shock resounded when they saw the blood on the dancer's face, dodging Diane's blows, reaching for her arms to try and restrain her as she was trying to take his head off with a shard of glass she had taken from the floor. In her mind the show had to stop and only a dead body would stop an orgy. Even with the injury and the mood killing violence, the dancer's dick was still hard because of the cock ring, refusing to go soft as the circumstances demanded. Several other dancers along with a few teachers went to the black man and black woman and tried to separate them - which they succeeded, separating the only black woman from the woozy black man, with blood all over his face now. The imposing deputy head, the reluctant lesbian, was now towering over Diane, and some of the dancers, her face sweaty and flushed, naked, holding Diane's arm by the wrist, whose hand had the shard of glass. She then broke the wrist, saying that Diane must be having a moment, that someone should take her to the hospital, but that it definitely was not going to be her. There was some argument about who would do it as no one wanted to leave but two junior teachers were then instructed to do the dirty work.
The music continued to play, the show went on as there were no dead bodies; the bloodied dancer went to the back, while the two teachers escorted the distressed Diane to A&E, grudgingly cooing her, treating her like a basket case, intermittently asking her what her problem was, trying to ruin a bonding event.
