Kevin stepped forward with his offering, holding it with both hands and smiling broadly as if he carried a priceless relic or timeless heirloom of great personal value. Sienna, for her part, regarded it much the same. Her mouth hung agape in awed wonderment, accompanying wide eyes that sparkled with anticipation and appreciation of such a gift. The fact that it was a large glass bong sporting a pookie in place of a bowl would've made the scene appear strange to anyone other than those in the room.
"It's beautiful...," Sienna marveled, extending her hand to first caress the thick tube of glass before accepting it into her own possession.
"I thought you'd like it," Kevin replied after a few moments, allowing Sienna to continue appraising its craftsmanship with a curious hand.
"Did they have these back in my day?" Amber mused from the corner of the room, nursing a dwindling Newport between her fingers and looking nearly as entranced as her young daughter.
"Not sure, started seeing them around about ten years ago myself. The hits you can get off these things are massive though," Kevin answered, prompting Sienna to finally reach her other hand out and hold it herself.
"I don't doubt that, it's fucking massive," Amber agreed, stamping out her cigarette in a nearby ashtray.
"Well, I figured it was about time for her to move up to the big leagues, she's been melting puddles like a fucking fiend. You guys are probably my best customers these past few weeks, which ain't great since you pay with 'other' things," Kevin admitted, smirking and nodding toward Sienna.
"I haven't heard you complain," I remarked from my vantage at the kitchen table.
Kevin had been supplying Amber and Sienna with a steady supply of shard and was collecting his payment at a highly regular and exuberant rate. He had probably fucked Sienna between 30-40 times in the past 3 weeks since Sienna's parents had visited—dropping by unannounced more than half the time. With the amount of shit he had been supplying I had allowed it, but I was not about to accept him whining about getting a raw deal.
"I'm not, but I also gotta probably talk to you about it," Kevin replied, his tone sounding a bit strained.
I flashed him a sidelong glare, feeling less than pleased about a change in our arrangement after he'd been enjoying my daughter enthusiastically for 3 weeks.
"I'm all ears," I welcomed, although in a tone that was anything but welcoming.
"Maybe just you and me," Kevin offered through a half smirk, nodding his head once in the direction of the two women in the room.
"You can say it in front of them or you can keep it to yourself," I challenged.
I noticed my own tone—stern and confident—another indication of a change I'd undertaken since meeting Sienna that I was only lately becoming more aware of. Perhaps the result of paternal concern, as misplaced as that might appear given the circumstances, I had become increasingly intolerable of anything encroaching on my role as protector and overseer of the pursuits of my beloved women. While never viewing myself as an intimidating or menacing man, I was also not unaware of being a larger than average adult male in above average physical condition. Kevin's darting eyes and tense demeanor indicated that he too was aware.
"Yeah, I get it," he nodded, making his way over to the table and taking a seat adjacent to me.
Sienna and Amber followed, striding confidently to the table and sitting purposefully before turning their attention to Kevin.
"So, look, this whole thing has been great. I don't mean any disrespect here, but I gotta pay my bills and I gotta do my thing, right? I deal, that's what I do. And if I don't have the cash to buy the shit, I don't have the shit to sell you and the whole thing don't work, so you see my problem, right?" Kevin explained, ending with his hands out in exasperation.
"So, what are you proposing?" I sighed in kind.
"I get that you never would have developed this raging ice habit if you were paying cash like everyone else, and that it would be fucked up to suddenly switch it on you like that after everything, so I was thinking of a compromise," he added, looking between us for a moment before continuing.
"So, I kind of have a side gig, girls that came to me for shit and then couldn't pay so I hook them up with work and—"
"You're a pimp," I interrupt.
"It's not that organized, but basically, yeah. These girls turn tricks, the john pays me, and I give the girls shit," Kevin described.
"So, you want Sienna to be one of these girls?" I asked, trying my best to conceal a confusing series of emotions the idea was eliciting within me.
In response Kevin shrugged and smiled weakly, once again revealing the palms of his hands in an apparent reaffirmation of his financial predicament conflicting with his previous arrangement with us.
I sighed, trying to think honestly about it for a moment.
"I'd be a prostitute?" Sienna pondered aloud.
"Well—" Kevin started.
"Yes, honey. You'd fuck strangers for money, or in this case drugs," Amber interjected plainly.
"But I already do that, I'd just be doing it with people other than him," Sienna reasoned, motioning towards the now-silent Kevin sitting across from her.
"Yes, but that's a very big difference," I cautioned.
"I guess, but it doesn't really seem like that big of a difference to me," Sienna countered.
"So, you'd actually be interested in that?" I pressed.
"Well," Sienna's eyes squinted in thought as she looked up to the ceiling for a moment, "I guess I really don't see a problem with it," she finished, bringing her focus back on me.
I contemplated the ramifications of this venture, certainly not overlooking the increasing opportunities for the authorities to get involved.
"How exactly do you see this working?" I queried.
"With my other girls, the guys come to my place and basically get set up in the back room with whoever answers their phone first. But with you, there's no way anything like that can happen in this neighborhood without some serious attention, not to mention you probably don't want these dudes showing up to your home and shit," Kevin paused, noting the nodding heads before going on.
"So, my proposal is you bring her over to my place when you need to re-up. With one picture of her I can have dudes lining up around the block waiting, as many as you want. You fuck until you're done, then you cop your shit and you come back when you need to cop again," Kevin outlined, clearly having given thought to this proposal.
I had to admit, his skills as a hustler were impressive. Amber must have noticed my arched eyebrows because she seemed to move on to the other details.
"Who are these men? How do you find them? Are any of them violent?" Amber peppered questioningly.
"Some are current or past clients; some are friends or friends of clients. I've never heard of any violent stuff, if they do the girls have never mentioned it. It's all word-of-mouth, I don't got no girls standing in front my place on the curb. Like I said, it's a side-gig, I never even planned it. Shit just happened and it seemed like it was there to do, so I do it," he reiterated in detail.
"Well, whaddaya think?" I asked, turning toward Sienna.
Sienna's lips pursed quizzically, her nose scrunching adorably as she mulled it over.
"Yeah, I'm down," came her reply.
Again, my brows arched reflexively, betraying my own ability to conceal my surprise.
"Is that okay, daddy?" she added, her expression softening as she tried to read my face.
Was it? Fucking Kevin for drugs or a tattoo artist for work was once thing but condoning a parade of complete strangers of dubious character to bed my daughter was another. It represented great risk, to me and especially to Sienna. The possibility of violence, disease, incarceration—these were not insignificant considerations, despite how readily Sienna seemed to accept them.
But there was also the arousal that I felt thinking about all of it. I wanted Sienna to be used and defiled. I wanted every remnant of her innocence and purity, such that it remained, to be completely and utterly extinguished. I fantasized about how the effects of being a junkie prostitute would leave their marks on her, how expediently her youthful appearance would decay. I longed to live that fantasy.