“You’ll be seeing us real soon.”

Cairo watches silently as Parcy and his friend leave through the wide glass doors they had previously came in from. He was secretly relieved that the altercation didn’t escalate into something bigger. Of course, he wouldn't dare voice his solace to his witnesses. There was no room and no time for such a trivial sentiment.

Cairo and his friends turn around and stare at Samantha. Sam, standing there with her hands still clasping the dime bag she had brought earlier, looks right back at them. It was hard to make out the expressions so colorfully painted on Sam’s face. To say her appearance was dubious did not do justice the angry demeanor that festered from her years of indignation. Now with Ricky gone, Cairo downheartedly thought, he was afraid that the same demeanor would roll over on anyone and everyone that was in its way.

“What?” Sam asks.

“We’re taking you home,” Cairo replies as he tries to grab the substances out of Samantha’s hands.

“Like hell you are,” Sam shoots back. Sam grasps her right hand and rolls it into a fist, hiding her high as she uses her other to slap Cairo’s out of the way. “What makes you think I have to follow a single order you say?”

Cairo looks at his friends in bewilderment. Marcel and Lance both just simply stared back. They didn’t want to bother themselves with such a troublesome girl.

Sighing, Cairo looks with cold eyes as Sam gives him a middle finger and begins to leave for the door. She didn’t get far as Cairo then suddenly reaches down at her legs and swings her over his shoulder. Stunned patrons look at the scene as Sam, thrashing and screaming wildly, scraps to get free.

“Let me go,” she continuously shouts, “Let. Me. Go.”

The cold air hisses at Cairo’s face as they leave the Arcade. The icy breeze even seems to fight against him as Cairo waits for Lance to open his car door. Without warning or waiting, he then throws Sam into the backseat. Looking at the cuts and scratches that Samantha’s nails had dug into his skin, Cairo shuts the door right in her face just as she was about to climb back out.

Staring at Marcel, he calls out “shotgun” and bolts for the passenger seat. Despite protests from his friend, Cairo refuses to give up his space and watches as Marcel grudgingly takes his seat in the back.

“Let me out now,” Samantha demands, “I’m not going anywhere with you punks.”

“These punks just saved you from making another mistake” Cairo replies, “what are doing buying drugs with a baby still inside you? Have you no common sense?”

“Don’t touch me. I don’t want to here that from you Cairo. You know how many people are hooked on your product already? You are single handily destroying the suburbs and you want me to criticize me?”

Marcel shakes his head in disapproval before muttering, “This bitch is ungrateful.”

Samantha unfortunately overhears Marcel, and in her rage begins clawing at him.

“Get this crazy bitch off me.”

Cursing under his breath, Cairo unbuckles his seatbelt and turns toward the back.

“Calm down,” he shouts above the two, “Sam I need you to calm down. SAM PLEASE CALM DOWN.”

Cairo grabs Samantha by the arms and pulls her close to him. He notices the familiar shaking she exhibited when he last saw her at Mimi’s house. Their eyes lock. Cairo hesitates. With her arms in his hands, Cairo apologizes.

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what,” Sam snaps back, “You don’t understand what you did wrong so what are you even sorry for?”

“If you would let me continue.”

Cairo pauses. He didn’t expect to be in this kind of situation. He didn’t expect Samantha to so suddenly break down and ask for an explanation. She had never demanded one in the past, and Cairo never imagined himself mature enough to give her one.

“I’m sorry that Ricky treated you so horribly,” Cairo begins, “I’m sorry that I chose to cover for Ricky instead of being there for you when you were hurt.”

Cairo watches incredulous as Sam’s expression, previously showing her vulnerable state, transforms to rage.

“What kind of apology is that,” Sam shouts, enraged. “I’ve faked better ‘sorry’ then the bullshit you spat.”

“You know what,” Cairo shoots back indignantly, “I’m just trying to keep you safe. You wilding out doesn’t exactly make things easier.”

“Keep me safe from who? Ricky?”

The car falls silent.

Sam continues again, noticing how no one even tried to respond to her accusations.

“You talk about ‘family’ and ‘taking care of each other’, but when I really need you, you just stayed put and watched. This is not a family, and even if it is I’m not a part of it.”

“So, fuck you Cairo, fuck you Marcel, and fuck you Lance. Avery is too good for you.”

“Sam,” Lance icily says suddenly. “Shut the fuck up.”

Taken aback, Sam nevertheless glares back at him.

“Am I wrong?" she spits, "Just say it. I’m a commodity. A bitch that’s only worth as much as she puts out. Isn’t that why you asked me where Ricky was hiding his plants?”

Cairo glances at the rearview mirror and watches callously as Sam begins roughly wiping the makeup off her face.

With the residue of cheap cosmetics smeared all throughout the surface of her face, along with the earlier evidence of abuse from Ricky, Sam leans forward and slaps her dime bag on top of the armrest.

“I have bruises and you still think about him instead of me,” Sam mutters. “How could you choose him over your childhood friend?”