3.

Genie woke up rubbing her eyelids. Fuck, her head was banging. It was usually like that after her night 

shift.

After working hard, dancing for hours on end, it was no surprise that she had to take a painkiller just to drive home without her head aching like someone was drumming without knowing exactly why. 

She shrugged on a robe,  one that she had gotten at the thrift store-she usually slept buck baked, walked into her kitchen and popped two aspirins then checked the time.

One o'clock. She opened the fridge and saw it was empty. Save for a carton of spoilt milk and an avocado. 

How did avocado get there?

At least she had time to go get groceries.She had been putting it off for a week now. 

Hopping into the shower and cursing her bad luck that the hot water had finished, she had her bath and got out.

Then she threw on a pair of jeans and a cutoff shirt, casual.

Grabbing her purse and her car keys, she walked out of the house, ignoring the bite of hunger in her stomach.

Walking into the grocery store, she selected a few things she was sure she really needed. The rest would come from takeouts and pizza. She wasn't a big fan of cooking, avoided it as much as possible.

Stopping at a drive thru on the way back home, she got french fries, a large burger and a diet Coke. That would suffice for breakfast till she was ready to make pasta and that would be when she was ready to go to the club for her six pm shift.

She worked five pm to six pm and eleven pm to twelve pm everyday except Sundays. She wasn't religious, but Sunday was her day off, her own self chosen day.

Genie walked out of her car, carrying the takeout bag in one hand and hauling five other grocery bags in the other.

She would have taken them in one at a time but going several trips wasn't something her lazy ass was interested in.

She balanced the bags and was lumbering down the sidewalk to her very small apartment when her neighbor called out to her.

"Hey, Genie. Afternoon. Need some help?"

She shook her head. Mingling with her neighbors wasn't something she had ever been interested in even though, Sam, who was walking over to her already tried every single day to start a conversation as soon as he sighted her.

She knew Sam was a writer of some sort, comic and all that but that was all the information she wanted and was interested in. She wouldn't have even know if he had not forced the information down her throat.

Not that she was snobbish or anything but moving to the new neighbourhood six months ago, she had left a toxic one. 

Until she knew exactly who her neighbors were, she had no interests in making friends although Sam had proven to be harmless so many times.

"Here, let me help you with some", Sam said to her, grabbing three of the bags she carried.

" Thanks Sam"

"No problem. It looked really heavy. So, what have you been up to?"

Genie groaned. It was one thing to accept his help but she wasn't in the mood for any form of conversation at all. 

"Working", she replied, curtly.

Sam smiled at her.

"I've been working too on this new comic series. It's going to be about a handicapped boy who becomes a super hero by night. He has this metal installed in his-

"Not that I'm not interested in your story Sam, you know that I am. But we're at my door", Genie interrupted, grateful for the fact that the sidewalk to her door was a short distance.

"Oh", he looked disappointed ,"Maybe I could come in and tell you all about it", his expression seemed to brighten.

Hell no, Genie thought.

"My living room is really in a state of disarray. Thanks for helping me, but I'll just take it from here", she told him as sweetly as possible.

"Are you sure? I don't mind scattered places. You see, my room gets so untidy when I'm focused on-

Genie feigned a loud yawn

"God, I must be crazy tired. I'll talk to you later, okay Sam? I'll hear all about your book later"

Sam's earlier down disposition at the fact that she wasn't going to let him in lit up considerably.

"Okay, then. Have a good day, okay?"

"I will. Thanks again, you're a life saver", Genie told him and smiled.

"Oh, it's no problem. I was glad to be of help, no problem at all"

Genie stifled a laugh as his cheeks blushed and he walked away with a sprint in his step.

Poor guy, he just needed someone to hear all the things he has to say and pay him attention. Too bad she had none of that to spare.

After a short nap, or a long nap, considering she slept about two hours, she had another shower, wore clothes and hopped into her car.

She checked the time, it was four o'clock and the club she worked at was twenty minutes drive if the traffic was good and forty if it wasn't.

Either way, she had time on her side.

Driving down the highway, the previous night incident came back to her with renewed anger.

The egocentric fucktard that offered to buy her. If she did not have a reputation for being polite, she would have kicked the fucker in the place where the sun doesn't shine.

That would have calmed her nerves sufficiently.

Was he going to be at club? Max mentioned that he was in the country for a few days. He probably would have other places to see and that was absolutely fine with her.

She did not know why it bothered her so much, but she'd rather not set her eyes on him again. 

She pulled into the parking lot and checked the time, four thirty. The traffic had been on her side.

She walked inside the club, greeted a few girls who were serving drinks, had a little chat with the bartender, he was a funny guy, and walked into the dressing room.

The crowd that she had seen was sparse but it was expected.

Although the club was open almost twenty four hours, most of their customers came at night.

Especially those that needed to unwind from a busy day, those that came to celebrate a promotion or the closing of a deal, the crowd they drew came mostly at night.

Large crowd or a few number of people, it didn't matter to her as long as she got her paycheck. That was why she took the job, she needed a paycheck badly and this was the best place she could use her unfinished theatre arts degree.

Quite a big shame after all the tuition money, her father would have said but at this point she did not give a hoots tooth. He was well dead and in his grave. Had been there for the past three years.

She needed to take care of herself and it this was the only way, she would do it and add a cherry on the top.

She had moved to this new neighbourhood after her mom had finally died from a long struggle with ovarian cancer.

After her mom had died, she had abandoned her schooling, she had been in senior year in college, and had looked for jobs everywhere to support her self and her younger brother.

The neighbors, well, the neighbors hadn't taken too kindly to the kind of jobs she had picked up, claiming she was soiling her family's name.

But had they given her one cent? No, sir.

Her dad had been extremely generous when he was alive, her mom too, giving out to their neighbors before they asked.

Her mom would say, "come on now, Genie. You know we have more than enough for ourselves, let's be nice"

Well, what did nice do to her and her brother? It drove them out of the fucking neighborhood.

And here she was, twenty two, living alone, working overtime at the club to try and pay for her brother's tuition. He just started college and with the money she got from their house and property after the lawyers and taxes had taken half, she was surviving just fine.

Well, not fine but she was getting through.

"Hey, Genie. I see you're early today", one of the new girls, Graciela said to her as she passed by the chair Genie was sitted in, carefully applying her makeup.

Genie bit hard on her tongue to stop herself from giving a sarcastic reply. She wasn't going to let Graciela bait her, not when she had her tongue down Max throat. Maybe when he had moved to some other new girl, and Genie was sure Graciela had no backing, she would give her a piece of her mind and maybe add a slap.

Graciela had been employed only a month ago but she was grating her nerves.

What bone she had to pick, Genie had no clue.

But she knew how to fake playing nice and that was what she would do, till...

"Yeah, traffic was light"

"Good. We don't want you getting into trouble with Max. He can be such a bully at times"

I don't want to fucking know, Genie thought but smiled at her.

"Did I tell you, he's giving me my own personal solo time"

What the heck? In less than a month? Even with her unfinished art degree and the fact that she had nailed the interview, she had gotten her solo three months after she had been employed and that was after tons of "Max, did you see me on stage?" "Max, I think I ready for a solo" " Max, I know I'm ready for a solo"

Graciela couldn't move her leg to save her life. 

But she was willing to spread them to get the spot. Oh well, it wasn't any of her business.

"Congratulations"

"I know, right. Catch you later, byee", Graciela walked out, shaking her pert butt in rhyme to the irritated shaking of Genie's head.

"She's a fucking bitch. I don't know why you waste time being so polite to her", Clarissa called out, coming from behind a large locker where they kept equipments.

"Because it's easier to be. If I wanted to be un nice, I'd scratch her eyeballs out"

" That wouldn't be a bad idea, you know. She fucking annoys me. Gets in my face every time with "Clar, this" or "Clar, that", like who the fuck told her she could call me Clar in the first place?"

" As long as Max has his tongue down her throat and his dick in her, she'll be on air. Then it'll be another new girl and it'll be as if he had never talked to her in his life", Genie said.

She had watched two girls quit when they discovered that the fact that they had their tongues down his throat for a while didn't mean they'd have it there forever.

After her solo, Genie looked around for Max. So far, she hadn't spotted his friend but she was going to give him a piece of her mind. He was to never ever break her rule again even if his father wanted to have her for one night.

Walking around, she spotted him at the rear exit of the bar with a man. Not caring if the man with him was a potential business client and what not, she matched up to him.

"Max, I need to talk to you for a second"

"Not now, Genie", he told her, impatiently.

"It can't wait. I need to talk to you now"

Seeing the look on her face and realising she wouldn't bulge, Max excused himself and dragged her by the arm away.