Kaileigh was staring speechless after everything Andrea just disclosed. She had seen Andrea lag back and talk with Steven, but she quickly diverted her attention to the customer at hand and provided assistance to him then cleared the que of other transactions. By that time, she saw Steven walk out in staring at her like he had just been greatly offended. So now she stood there and could only stare dumbfounded in her knowing with a low, "You.. do..?" blurted out during Andrea's break to sigh. The informal nickname or term of endearment felt rather personal to her as she wondered why she just called her that in this professional environment and quickly started trying to think and link patterns together. After all the things she had listened come from Andrea's mind out in her speech at her, she was quite puzzled and even wondered if somehow Andrea knew she was coming and had already been prepared to offer her job. There was no memory of a job availability posting anywhere or even at the door the last time she was here which was less than a day ago buying beauty products with Becka.<br/><br/>Her mind did the blinking thing again like something in her tugged at the ocular strings to get her eyes to look back at her and tune her aural chords to focus on listening and silence her thoughts as Andrea continued only for her eyes to follow the pointing to the monitor with the four quadrants of surveillance. A single nod came from her as she now knew that must have been how she knew, but it looked to be getting busy as she headed to the back. It made her wonder if there would have been enough of a break in the transactions for her to catch the exact moment that would need to be viewed. In that calculation after crunching the variables together left her more uncertain than before that she would have caught it all at that exact moment. Kaileigh smiled and immediately dropped it from her mind as the pardon graced her from her warming boss beside her. How she referred to Steven didn't warrant any reason at all to correct her at this moment after what he had done to her, yet she still felt compelled to defend him.<br/><br/>Before she could open her mouth, the suggestion came for her to take her lunch now as she nodded, but her mouth couldn't stay quiet. "Umm... Andrea... ya know... he's not that bad. He can be very rough around the edges, and my mom told me long ago that boys can be rather dumb and silly... then added that they mean well even if their meaning is rather... lame and lost. My bestie, Becka, comes in here with me all the time me and she looks up to you as the mother figure she doesn't have just so you know... but anyway, she  won't stop nagging at me about how wrong I am about Steven, and I just wish... Everyone would stay off my case about him... I know what I'm doing!"<i>She really doesn't.</i>"She has backed off about him because of the fights about him it has caused, and... I... I think she's... afraid.. of..." Hearing herself start to say it and remember how heated things got in a few instances, it made a few tears swim their way out her ducts and slither down her cheeks. "Afraid it'll lead to the end of our friendship..."<br/><br/>She backstepped many steps away from her boss and waved off any compassion and care right now as she ran out the door and into the lot only to stop in her tracks and tilt her head. "STEVEN?!?" A loud sniffle came from her as she slowly stepped forward now towards his figure with his back turned, yet the smiling blonde who was dressed very... loosely, just smirked and didn't leave her flirtatious posture as she could hear, "Is that your girlfriend?" as she came closer. Kaileigh couldn't see his face, but he also didn't answer at all. In closing the distance now, she heard the slender blonde sourly say, "Bitch has nothing on me and my talents, cutie. Catch ya later." This girl shot a wink to Kaileigh then blew a kiss at Steven as she walked away oh so seductively with her overly feminine gait. Steven finally turned around with a neutral face, smiled then leaned in to kiss the distraught girl's lips. Taking a step back from the kiss had him now looking at her confused. "What was that..? Who was that..? I don't-"<br/><br/>He put his mouth over her lips then made a sinister shushing noise unlike what she never heard from him before then slid his hand off and kissed her again and more deeply this time which caused her hands to grab upon him out of instinct. Holding her close in a hug now after breaking the kiss, he made a peaceful and calming shushing noise now while rocking in place with her. "THAT... was nothing. She's just one of those girls who targets unavailable guys... happens all the time at high school, or did you not pay attention to that while still there..?" Before she could say another thing, he started back again. "You have nothing to worry about, babe. Now what's troubling you because obviously something else was before you were startled to find me still here?" More silence filled their space for a moment. "Kalmah..?"<br/><br/>In deciding she didn't want to talk about it, she deflected and deferred only to press her charge on him. "I'm fine... Now you owe me for what you did in there, and you better be careful too. She WILL not take you screwing around and going back there again lightly. Consider that a friendly warning delivered from an employee if she didn't already say something harsh upon you. She called you slime. Lucky for you she was angry at me and is letting it go. Now that's just about the sweetest thing someone has done for me... probably the greatest kindness I've ever received from someone." His eyes narrowed while gazed off past her in his holding of her. "Alright! I get it... so go worship your new boss if she is so good to you." Kaileigh almost scoffed but kept herself quiet. "Chill, bro..." Steven rolled his eyes then sighed himself. "Alright... what do you need me to do for 'what I owe you' as you say..?"<br/><br/>"Jerk... You really are being a douche today. What is the matter with you..?" Steven held her back out straight so they could make eye contact once more. "Forget it, Kalmah. Did you even tell her you go by Kalmah..?" The girl just blinked in her gaze on him before it fell pointed to the ground with a frown as she shook her head. He nodded with a snicker that sounded like he hardly took anything going on with Kaileigh with even an iota of sincere seriousness at all. Her eyes came back up to him. "I'm on lunch now. Run me back to my house and wait outside for me. I just want to go grab a few things, chat with mom for a moment, then you can drive me by Becka's. I want to go see her in person and let her know I'm okay. That's how you can pay that debt to me. Then drive me back of course. We can easily do that all within twenty minutes, so let's get moving."<br/><br/>They got in his car, and the show-offish, bad boy type he was that he mostly hid from Kaileigh was in full effect in his driving. Parking before her house, Kaileigh went straight in and froze as her dad tilted his head away from the television, clicked it off then pointed at the recliner for her to sit. She shook her head slowly with a look of hurt as she held eye contact with him. "Where's mom-" He gave her no chance to speak. "No!!! You be quiet now! No talking do you understand!?" All Kaileigh could do was nod in fear as she shrunk down into having a seat in the chair as he stood up and paced while keeping his sights fixed on her. "You won't be speaking with your, mother. I knew you had sneaked your little self out after you locked yourself away in your room for a while. We had a long discu-" She popped up out of her seat and got in his face which flared his chagrin as she disobeyed him so quickly which would then turn to temper rage. "No, you listen!!! I went out and got a FUCKING job!!! Be proud of me, asshole!!!" The silence in the moment between their stares felt to Kaileigh like a gun was pointing between her eyes and she was provoking the shooter by pulling a gun out and aiming it on him back.<br/><br/>There wasn't any chance of him doing anything worse than what happened already today. He couldn't possibly hit her again or do any further harm after earlier. These are where her thoughts trended towards as he pressed his fingers to rub at his forehead then empty the chamber with a heavy sigh. "You are no daughter of mine... You just made this all that much easier." His tone was low but even in his resolve before it then rose up to show his dominance and stance in the decision that was made. "I'm glad you found yourself a job since you decided to quit school, Kaileigh. You'll need that income because... you have forty eight hours to move all your stuff out before I trash it. I'm disowning you. Now I won't stop you from seeing your mother, but you will not interact with her until you are fully moved out. Go sleep at Becka's tonight or with that bad news boy of yours for all I care, but you are not coming back here unless it is in moving things out."<br/><br/>Storming out in tears does not quite put into words on how she took that heartbreak. Closing the car door, Steven watched her with fright as she stared straight ahead and tears stopped while numbness built. "Becka's." That was all her dead monotone voice could force out. He didn't dare open his mouth to ask any questions or check on her. Clearly to him whatever had happened to her was horrible and was a smart enough boy to know saying anything right now was foolish, even dangerous. Arriving at Becka's, she dragged herself out and up to the door. A simple moment after she knocked was all it took to have her fallen down to her knees and refill the numbness back with bawling her eyes out as she writhed and screeched even. Steven shot out but froze and stopped as Becka opened the door and started crying over her in grabbing her up in a worried and terrified hug.<br/><br/>Becka could only stare in shock and horror after she had gotten her inside and up into her room and comforted her enough to calm down and start explaining her day up to the point of now. "Sweetie... look up at me now... You have to get back soon though, but I promise we'll figure things out. Everything will work out... You'll see. Fuck your dad after what I saw him do to you today. It is always the ones who seem so clean and are beloved in their community who are the monsters behind closed curtains and locked doors." All Kaileigh could do was stare down and barely breathe. "Kalmah... please... look up at me. Give me any sign that life is still there." She slowly tilted her head up towards Becka and forced something of a smile on her face. Fresh tears poured out as she pounced on Becka for more hugs. "Say something... anything... talk to me about anything to distract me, Becka..." While patting her back and rubbing the her back of her head, she did all she could to try to alter her mood with anything before finally asking how her first day of work has been.<br/><br/>Strangely enough as Kaileigh disclosed her anxious antics and Steven's idiocy along with how awesome and understanding Andrea has been, it got some laughs to be shared with the and calmed Kaileigh down. "So... with you working at like the only place we ever go to in buying almost everything we can think of that we need from there... what's your discount for working there and does the bestie get access too..?" She stared at her dumbfounded a little and rolled her eyes in a playful way more than anything else. "Really, Becka... Uhhh... fine! Yeah... there's something. I don't remember it much except her glossing over it with a lot of details unloading on me. Something about... cost plus tax." Becka now stared back in trying to understand what she just said. "Uhhh... you can ask more about that some time later as well as putting in a good word for me in sharing access with you, eh... hmm?!" Kaileigh sighed and held her head in her hand by the palm. "You're killing me, girl... Look I gotta run. Thank you for everything. Talk to your parents and figure stuff out. I'll text you later once I'm off. Love ya, bye!" With a quick hug and kiss, she was out and back in the car. Interestingly enough, she acted like she was more broken as a tactic to keep Steven quiet.<br/><br/>Exiting the car door, she said nothing to him or gave him no hug or kiss, yet she smirked to herself a little as her back was turned and was walking away and then got back in. She glanced up to the clock and noticed she had one minute to spare somehow though it felt like to her maybe she was gone longer, but the clock couldn't lie to her eyes. Turning to have Andrea in her vision now, it froze her instantly. An instinct that was becoming very aware all too quickly over the course of the day here with Andrea was rearing its head. Andrea's perception pierced through her; she knew how well her new boss could look at her and read her so easily and skillfully. It was sobering and made her feel so vulnerable in knowing she could never hide anything from her. Walking up to her when she wasn't busy, all she could say was simply, "I'm back, ma'am... Sorry if I was gone a little over the time." It wouldn't have to take Andrea's keen insight and perception on Kaileigh though to know something was horribly wrong; her voice betrayed her completely as the words came out in such somber and shattered tone.