You The Shit, Karma.

~~Karmen7

School the next day was hell. I was half asleep almost all morning, Bree had skipped so I was mostly alone with all the fake bitches that I called friends, and then Wess started with me during lunch.

Oh, poor, poor Wess. He sucks at paying attention to warning signs.

I was sitting at the lunch table with the Allies when someone sat their ass on the edge of the table where I was lounging tiredly. I knew that ass pretty well, after all I'd--

"Hey, beautiful," he murmured and I could hear the cocky grin in his voice.

"Go away, Wess," I said--warning sign 1.

"Naw, I'd like to stay here and admire you, Karm," he said, moving his ass so he was sitting sideways right in front of me.

I slammed my fist down on his thigh, giving him an instant dead-leg--warning sign 2. "Leave me alone, asshole," I hissed, glaring up at him, trying not to admire his cuteness. I didn't like im at all, there was no room in me for Wess's cuteness AND the hatred I had for him.

"Hey, don't be a bitch," one of his friends that hade been standing there with a couple other guys snapped.

My head flicked towards the blond white kid and I glared at him. "Excuse me?" I said politely, but my eyes were anything but. They glared daggers into his face.

"You heard me," he hissed. "Don't be a bitch."

I looked at him before slowly nodding and rising to my feet. I was about a foot and a half shorter than him, but that didn't matter in the slightest because I've been dealing with a half psychotic mother for almost two years now. To say the least, I took the kid out with a swing at his balls and as he lay on the ground groaning, hands grasping at his crotch, I slapped him across the face as a teacher came running in.

"Who's the bitch now?" I growled in his face as Mr. Laponza, an algebra teacher, yanked me away from the kid cringing on the ground.

Wess was staring at me with a strange look on his face as I was tugged out of the cafeteria and forced into Principle Peters' office a few corridors down the way.

He looked up from papers he'd been skimming over and sighed wearily. "Why are you here today, Karmen?"

"A boy mentally assalted me," I said simply, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at Principle P.

He rolled his eyes, heaved a deep breath, and tiredly asked, "How, Karmen?"

"Well Tanner," I said informally, calling him by his first name--as you can tell I've been her a lot over the last year or so--earning myself a glare, "This boy was calling me rude names in the cafeteria so I took it upon myself to see that it didn't happen again."

Principle P groaned and massaged his temples as he continued to ask again, "How?"

"I punched him in the balls and asked who the bitch was now," I said smugly.

In the end, I got two hours of detention after school. At least I wasn't working today.

I was driving home when my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. I nearly got into an accident trying to wrestle it free from my jeans, but I managed to and, without looking at the number, I answered.

"Yeah bro?" I said as I turned down the music I had blaring.

"This is Karmen right?" a familiar voice asked and I immediately regretted answering.

How the hell did this kid get my number? And why the hell was he calling me?

"What do you want, Alex?" I huffed as I took a left to go to Benz's daycare.

"I wanted to apologize for the way I acted last night," he said, sounding sincere. "I was stupid and you looked cute and I dunno."

My brows rose at that. I was cute? DId the guy see how I was dressed--sweatpants and a tanktop? Who I was carrying with me--a carseat with a baby? Was he talking to the right Karmen--I'm pretty sure there were lotsa strippers he probably knew with the name "Karmen"?

"I guess your apologie's excepted?" I said, but it came out more like a confused question. I hadn't expected him to apologize for last night, he didn't seem like that type of guy to say sorry to a girl, nevermind a stripper..

"Can I make it up to you?" he asked.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked suddenly, still confused and it was irritating me. He must have some alterior motive to this, every guy has some kind of agenda when it comes to a girl. "You just said some rude things, you dont need to make it up to me."

"But I do," Alex said, "I want to."

I groaned as I parked my car in the daycare parking lot.

"How?" I asked warily after a moment.

I didn't trust this guy, he was rude and obnoxious, and to add to it, he seemed to have some kind of god complex because of his fame and money and vanity. I may have only worked as a stripper for a year or so, but I've seen so many guys like him and they were all the same. Jerks who had nothing better to do but harass a stripper.

 "I'm going to give you the biggest part in my music video and pay you twice as much as all the other women," he said triumphintly, once again expecting me to swoon at the offer.

"I already said no to that, Alex," I snapped irritably, the fact that he instantly thought that I'd do it because he asked me to was just pissing me off.

"But I heard you need money," he murmured, "You have a baby you take care of, I saw him, and you obviously need to take care of yourself, Karmen. I'll be paying you a grand for each session for the music video you have to go to."

A grand? As in a thousand dollars? He must be loaded...And I honestly did need the money, the college fund I was putting together for Benz wasn't growing that much and if anything I needed to give him a good future if he was going to have a sucky past...I really didn't want that for him...

"I do need the money," I breathed, biting on my lip as I sat back in the car, staring out the windshield blankly, my brain twisting the pros and cons almost painfully. "Badly..."

Alex on the other side of the line was sitting there quietly listening, waiting for me to make a choice. "That's a lot of money," he said as I heaved a tired sigh, "There are going to be a little more than a handful of sessions, Karmen..."

The daycare before me had a big bay window near where I was parked and through the window you could see the little kids' playroom where I saw Tori walking into it with a little mullato baby...Benz.

In that moment, I didn't know if my snap decision was going to be a good thing or not, but seeing my baby cousin made me want the best for him and quickly, before I could overthink it, I whispered, "Yeah, I'll take the job..."

"Great," Alex said and I could hear the smirk in his tone. "I'll probably see you Friday at Rossi's becase that's when we'll be shooting the first part of the video."

"Okay," I said quietly, starting to get lost in my own thoughts, loosing interest in the conversation as I got out of the car and headed for the daycare doors."I'll see you then, Alex."

"G'bye, Karmen," he murmured.

"Bye," I said and before I could hang up, Alex added, "Oh, and Karmen?"

"Yes?"

"Don't get used to apologies, this doesn't happen often," with that he hung up.

My temper flared as I heard the cockiness return to his voice and, for Benz's sake, I hoped I could get along with Alex for the duration of this video...