I knew she was high but hearing her say those things really hurt me and I snapped. I raised my hand to her and slapped her on the cheek as hard as I could. I wasn't going to take such disrespect from someone that I had cared for and loved for so long despite all of her flaws and baggage.
"Don't you ever speak to me like that again, Ken. I don't care if you're high or if you're sober. Never speak to me like that ever again. I may be a mess but at least I have control of my life unlike you. If it wasn't for me, you'd most likely be dead right now so show a little bit of gratitude, you ungrateful unemployed pathetic junkie,"
"I'm not unemployed. I have a fucking job," She claimed as tears rolled down her eyes and smeared her mascara all over her cheeks.
"Doing dishes in a poor Chinese restaurant isn't a fucking job, Ken,"
"At least what I do involves keeping my clothes and tits to myself,"
The more she spoke about my job, the more self conscious I became about it. I hadn't cried in a while and I didn't want to cry now but it was kinda hard not to because Ken's words had made me so damn emotional.
"Get in this fucking car and let's go," I yelled and pointed at the open door.
"I don't want to go anywhere with you. I'd rather stay here," She said and tried to walk away from me.
"No, you're not!"
I grabbed her hand and pushed her to the door. She staggered into the car and I slammed the door shut after she was in. I wiped the tears from my eyes before hopping in as well. Samuel drove the car and I suffered through one of the most uncomfortable car rides I'd ever been in. It didn't take long for Kendra to doze off due to her severe intake of those god-damned pills and as she slept, I stared at her and it made me feel so many conflicting emotions. I was angry at her for all the things she had said to me and I was also sorry for all the things I had said to her. She was right, though. A part of me chose to put up with her for the reasons she had mentioned. I have never been ashamed of being a stripper but sometimes, I did feel like trash because of how often I was sexualized by my clients and although I loved it, it wasn't always something I was proud of and having Kendra around kinda made it all a little bit better.
We got to our place and Samuel drove away after dropping us off. He wanted to help me carry Kendra inside but I didn't let him; she was my friend, my burden, my responsibility, my curse and my gift. I put her in bed, cleaned her up with a wet rag, changed her clothes and woke her up long enough to get her to drink some water.
It wasn't too late but I was exhausted and wanted to head to bed but I changed my mind after remembering the binder with Malcolm's agreement papers. I felt even more inclined at that point to consider his offer and take it because it didn't require stripping. I know, I know; I love to strip and I'm not ashamed of it but what Kendra said earlier was still bothering me and I felt that maybe doing something else for a change would make me feel better about who I was…and the money was good too so that was another incentive.
I had thrown the binder on the couch when Kendra and I came in so I went to get it and took it to my desk to read through it and see if I liked his "conditions" and "requirements". The agreement started off pretty nicely but it all started to go downhill the longer I read. He had made some very strange stipulations and requirements that I didn't quite like and just as he had asked, I marked them down and planned to renegotiate the next time we would meet. When that time would be, remained a mystery to me because I didn't have any means of getting in touch with him which meant that I would have to wait for him to call.