10:45 rolls around and a man walks up to us as Kiera is busy talking at me about random jobs she's done and I blow out vape smoke.
"Chlesea..?" The man in a tracksuit speaks to draw my attention, his voice sounding familiar.
"Kendrick? Man, I hardly noticed ya without your fancy ass suit." I snicker and cross my arms, vape still in hand,
"I don't appreciate your continued teasing Chelsea." He rolls his eyes and crosses his arms; looking sour about this all still.
"Oh c'mon. Lighten up; You're free! They released your chains. They clipped your wings but you've finally regrown 'em again ya know?" I chuckle, punching his arm lightly and trying to be optimistic for once.
"Maybe." He responds, defaulting to a neutral and undetailed response as he continues to look away, disengaging from the conversation.
"So THIS is the corpo eh? He's a bit skinny ain't he?" Kiera asks amusedly, taking his wrist in her hand before he tuts and pulls his arm away.
"My name's Kendrick. And I go to the gym every other day; I'm not skinny." He scoffs, rubbing his wrist and rolls his eyes in annoyance.
"Oh yeah? You compensating or somethin'? What do you bench?" She snickers, looking him up and down in a challenging manner.
"Bench isn't for your arms. That's for your chest and back." He answers with a sigh, keeping his arms crossed as he overlooks Kiera judgingly.
"Whatever it is you do for your arms then." She responds with an eyeroll, annoyed by his correction and technicality.
"Curls, push-ups, chest press-" he answers quickly and simply as Kiera groans.
"Oh what-ever. I don't care about all that. How mych do you chest press then?" She questions.
"75." He answers simply.
"Pounds? Pft, you're weaker than a 14 year old-!" She laughs hysterically before kendrick corrects her.
"Kilograms." He answers simply again.
"Oh-" Kiera falls silent, not knowing how to answer. He responds soon after with dripping sarcasm he's slowly learning from me again.
"Yeah. Turns out you don't gotta be borged up to be a machine; just go to the gym." He responds with dripping Sarcasm, causing me to burst out laughing.
"Oh that was corny and you know it Kendrick. Where'd you get that line from? Johnny Silverhand?" I continue laughing hysterically at his confident and sarcastic comment.
After a couple of moments of awkward silence replacing my fading laughter, I speak up again, looking to them both.
"Okaaaay. So Kiera, this is Kendrick; the Corpo I told you about the other day. Kendrick, this is Kiera; my best and only friend in NC." I introduce them both to each other, watching them shake each other's hand.
"Nice to meet you I guess." Kiera responds less confidently and more quietly, the tone changed.
"Nice to meet you too." Kendrick responds as if he's forced to but remains polite all the less.
"Great, now that introductions are over, you said you wanted to be a Merc?" I query Kendrick as they both turn to me whilst I brush a strand of hair out of my face.
"Well not that specifically but-" he responds with a shrug before I cut him off.
"Yeah yeah, whatever you wanna call it. Well welcome to Merc biz 101 rookie. First lesson? Drop that Corpo shit. That fancy lingo and the suits gotta go. No more acting like you're backed by a Megacorp 'cuz ya ain't. And no-one around here like Corps. Means you're at a disadvantage already choom." I smirk, pushing myself from leaning on the railing and towards him.
"Right… gotta speak casual and with slang. So what am I to you now, an apprentice?" He snickers with a question, raising an eyebrow.
"Could say that." I shrug once again, finding his shock amusing; he obviously didn't expect me to take his sarcasm seriously.
"Great, so I lost a scholarship to the most prestigious school in the world and became a low life criminal? The world's healing." He responds with annoyance, shame and even slight disgust at that fact he is forced to stoop as low as crime like me.
"Don't be so hard on yourself! Like I said you're free. More free than a bird, an atom in the sky or a stuck-up corpo prick in an office." I respond in a taunting manner which just elicits another disgusted scoff from his lips.
"Whatever. What's the next "Rule" of the streets then?" He questions with an angsty Eyeroll before looking to me.
"Glad you asked! Second rule is mind your own biz. Don't go searching for trouble, don't go getting into other people's biz that doesn't concern you, don't look at people too long, have confident body language but not Corpo levels, keep to yourself; you know general hood stuff." I answer with my face dropping more neutrally, walking around his form like a shark who's just spotted his prey.
"So just don't go looking or starting stuff that doesn't concern me and don't look out of place. Seems simple." He replies with a neutral and nonchalant shrug.
"Corpos always say that and then they get picked off the street for looking at a guy wrong and, at best, leave with a missing limb or chucked into the river with concrete for shoes and, at worst, tortured for the next 3 months. You saying that it "sounds easy" makes you sound LIKE a corpo because you're all cocky egotistical bastards." I answer with increasing annoyance.
"Oh here we go with your Corpo rants again. You know for a girl who hates Corpos, your really fucking obsessed with them aren't yo-" He counters me for the first time; finally sick of my teasing and judgement of his work.
"Guys! Don't start arguing. Chelsea, he's not part of Arasaka anymore so you don't have to keep hating him." Kiera stands between us, crossing her arms and trying to descelate the situation.
"Oh so you're taking HIS side now huh? You were annoying him just a minute ago-" I frown in disbelief and offence as she sides with Kendrick.
"I was teasing him on his gym, not about getting fired from his job, losing his Scholarship AND shaming him for pursuing that. And no, I'm NOT siding with him but he's right. You're obsessed. You make fun of liking Johnny Silverhand whilst being exactly like him yourself!" She argues, defending Kendrick who seems surprised and thankful.
"Oh yeah? Name one example." I retort in challenge angrily, putting her on the spot.
"Just now! Calling him a "cocky egotistical bastard" because he was a corpo, might I add a GOOD one from what i've heard from YOU!" She argues, not letting it go, continuing to try and stop the argument between us.
"That's because he is. He's sooo convinced that everything is so easy around here when I've seen FIRST HAND-" I point to Kendrick accusing which agitated him and makes Kiera more annoyed.
"He's NOT. He's just saying that-" she tries to speak but I cut her off,
Ignoring her for my own statement.
"That blending in is easy when there's clear evidence that-" I state before Kiera raises her voice because I interrupted her, regaining control over the situation.
"JUST LISTEN TO ME FOR ONCE!" Kiera shouts, causing a few curious looks from the ground floor and stunning even me into silence.
"I LOVE YOU, OKAY? I REALLY DO! MORE THAN A FRIEND!" She shouts loudly as her eyes become glassy takimh deep breaths to calm down.
"Just… You NEED to listen to me. You constantly put yourself in needlessly reckless scenarios, you're constantly horrible to those who try to get close and ask for YOUR HELP and you just antagonise them because- because- I dunno… your scared of getting hurt again. Of being weak, of being something that you ARE. You're not a superhuman Chelsea. You're not Morgan Blackhand, You're not Adam Smasher, You're not Rache Bartmoss, You're not Alt Cunningham your- you're not invincible. If you keep doing this then it'll catch up! And I can't bear to see that fate. So just… start LISTENING. So PLEASE, cut him some slack! You're antagonising him and pushing him away when you yourself are at your weakest. You think you know it all and that you're undefeatable and your capable of all these things when you're NOT. And it'll get you killed.." Kiera speaks to me, her face hung low as she begins to cry in front of me, not wanting to see any on harm or hurt to come my way because she actually had feelings for me.
I notice the conviction in her voice and feel a pang of sympathy, Internally fighting and debating whether to listen or to ignore her. I tell myself that she's never done me wrong before and I've known her for 7 years; she's always listened to me and done what I asked but I never do so for her. After a couple seconds of heated debate; I speak again, refusing to back down.
"You think I'm not capable huh? That's i'm some random idiot who doesn't practice what she preaches?" I confront her whilst her face becomes wet with her tears, matting her hair to her face due to the picking up wind and sticking to her face.
"Wh-what-? N-no-! I-" Kiera begins to explain; a testament to her previous confession, looking afraid and confused.
"You don't think i'm undefeatable? Like i'm not running this whole damn Ghetto that YOU live in and protected you from Vincent huh?" I interrogate again, playing with her emotions and twisting her words to manipulate her.
"No-! That's not what I'm saying at all-!" She responds as she cries harder, griping her black jumper like a velco strap.
"You think that I'm weak, I'm vulnerable and that i'm "at my weakest." That i'm gonna get myself killed. YOU THINK that just because i've known you since 2072 that your exempt from the rule "trust no-one in Night City". You hate corpos just as much as I do and you sit here and lecture me about it? What the fuck Kiera? You LOBE me yet you don't BELIEVE in me? Some fucking girlfriend you would be." I look to her with disgust and fury, pushing her away emotionally, mentally and slightly even physically; standing up from the railing she pinned me on.
"I- th-that's not wht I mea-!" She cries harder as I take her hand and hand her my gun, her tone extremely distressed.
"Think you can do better? Think this i: EASY? Shoot me, right now. Take my place as the Ghetto's leader and make your own calls right now." I demand as Kendrick stands to the side, shocked. And Kiera looks devestated.
"I- I'd never-! You're so much better than me Chelsea but-" He tears stream like the strongest river current you'd ever see; her emotions as chaotic as the cloudy. rainy and windy weather right now which still picks up.
"Yeah. I know. Because your fucking weak Kiera. Always have, always will be. You haven't got the fucking balls to shoot me." I spit out in anguish, rolling my eyes and laughing as the wind picks up even more with even the sky beginning to rain almost as if it were weeping alongside Kiera.
"Don't talk to her like that!" Kendrick finally begins to stand up for her as she did for him, causing me to laugh again.
"Ohhh so NOW you're fucking tough huh? Shame you couldn't do the same when staring down the barrel of my gun 2 weeks ago. Don't tell me you're soft too." I laugh dismissively and almost disgustingly, not realising how I sound right now.
"Maybe not but it's as you said. To be a Merc, you have to have the balls to be one. Yet I bet you couldn't shoot Kiera. You care about her just as much as she cares about you, you just don't wanna admit it because your too much of a stubborn and cold bitch to accept you have flaws." He responds to my arrogance with his own defence of Kiera as she, with the sky, weeps around us.
"Oh yeah? Fucking watch me." I take my gun from Kiera and place the barrel to her head as she cries so hard her face turns red, covering her body in fear of being killed by me.
But nothing happens. The shot never fires and I stand with a shaky hand, showing my own weakness.
"What's wrong? Are you weak too?" He taunts and mocks me as I don't fire, taking the gun from me.
"Not weak. Just… just-" I stammer, unable to defend myself and looking away.
"Just a hypocritical piece of shit who's afraid to be weak again because she can't handle being truly supported by someone in a city where it's minimal." He calls me out, tension remaining high.