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THEY SNORT THE ECSTASY and Coy Hawkins himself passes Nikki the rolled bill.

     
    “INDIAN,” Renee says.
    Coy Hawkins flips the top card off the deck and it’s black. It’s the three of clubs.
    “Drink,” Coy Hawkins says.
    Renee chugs her beer.
    “Indian,” Renee says.
    Coy Hawkins turns over the next card and it’s black again.
    “Drink,” Coy Hawkins says.
    Beer runs down Renee’s chin.
    “Indian.”
    “God, she just don’t wanna say nigger,” Angel says.
    Renee giggles. The next card’s red, the nine of diamonds.
    “My turn,” Renee says.
    Coy Hawkins slides the deck in front of her.
    “Nigger,” Coy Hawkins says.
    Angel picks up the deck and throws it at Renee and cards fly everywhere.
    “Jesus Christ,” Renee says.
    Coy Hawkins looks at Angel.
    “What, you don’t wanna play nigger-Indian?” he says.
    They’re all sitting at the card table. Nikki feels fucked up.

     
    NIKKI AND RENEE DANCE in the living room. In the yard the pickup doors are open and the stereo is cranked up.
    Angel sits on the couch with her arms crossed over her chest. Coy Hawkins sits in his chair with his boots up on his footrest. Angel is not wearing one of her dresses or any makeup.
    Renee does a lot of different dances. She does the running man and the cabbage patch. She does the robot. She bends over and pops her ass in the air.
    In his chair Coy Hawkins laughs. Nikki grins at him and something warm inside her brain bursts and bursts and bursts.
    Angel is watching her.

     
    RENEE MAKES NIKKI go to the bathroom with her.
    “You were always so quiet.”
    Renee’s peeing.
    “What?” Nikki says.
    “I never would’ve thought.”
    Renee pulls her shorts up.
    “What are you talking about?” Nikki says.
    While Renee washes her hands she looks at herself in the mirror. Her red lips smile. She doesn’t seem to notice her crooked eyes. Nikki is leaning against the sink, too, but the other way. She also stares at Renee’s face.
    “Your daddy’s handsome.”
    The ecstasy drips down the back of Nikki’s throat.

     
    NIKKI NEARLY BURNS RENEE. Renee’s face was far away and then suddenly it was so close. She jerks her cigarette back.
    Renee is leaning forward. She is sitting on the arm of Coy Hawkins’s chair. Nikki is sitting on the arm of the couch. Renee is looking at Angel, whose arms are still crossed.
    “What happened to your glasses?” Renee says.
    “What happened to your hand?” Angel says.
    Renee covers her wrist brace with her fingers.
    “It’s been broke,” Renee says.
    “Her daddy broke it,” Nikki says.
    Renee looks at Nikki and her cheeks flame up, like when Nikki told she was a virgin, but when she speaks her voice is a long flat line. They all sound that way.
    “Nikki,” she says.
    Coy Hawkins reaches around to stub his cigarette out and then he keeps his hand there, on Renee’s hip.

     
    NIKKI FOLLOWS COY HAWKINS into the kitchen. She stands by the card table while he pulls beers from the fridge.
    “Virgins make more money,” she says.
    Coy Hawkins looks at her.
    “Don’t they?”
    He picks up a card from the floor and puts it on the table.
    “Drink,” he says.

     
    NIKKI SITS NEXT TO ANGEL on the couch. First Coy Hawkins went down the hall and then Renee did. Nikki’s waiting for them to come back. She’s holding a beer but she hasn’t cracked it. Its condensation is all over her leg.
    “That gorilla pimp’s gonna find me,” Angel says.
    Nikki looks at her. Angel has her knees up under Coy Hawkins’s shirt.
    “You seen what he does to their necks?” Angel says.
    She touches her throat.
    “Every time you look in the mirror you gotta see that shit, even when you’re eighty.”
    “He’s so little. How does he even beat them?”
    “You don’t know nothing,” Angel says.
    Nikki is looking at the hall again.
    “Nikki?”
    Her temples are crawling.
    Angel’s hand slips between Nikki’s thighs. Angel’s finger drags up the middle of Nikki’s bikini bottom. It starts