her reflection. “Did you notice how she’s wearing a long dress with sleeves to hide her hairy Sasquatch body?” Taryn asks, and DeAnna laughs.
I think back to Bronco’s house. Topanga and Lana said shaving would be too much trouble since they were on a time crunch. I figured they meant them shaving. I know women in the outside world shave and pluck and paint their faces. I have a little makeup on. Dove said my hair shined. Mama told me I was beautiful. Yet, Anders didn’t like the way I looked.
“Why her?” Taryn asks. “Anders is hot. I’d let him fuck me sideways if he wanted. Lots of good women would. All this time, he only fucked the bunnies. Then he goes and gets obsessed with a tit-less hick? Is he turned on by all the body hair?”
“You know what I think?” DeAnna asks while applying more lipstick to her already scary red lips. “I was telling Wyatt how Anders destroyed his brain before getting to Elko. That’s why he follows Bronco around like a big, idiot dog. He built a house just like Bronco’s because he’s too stupid to come up with his own ideas. Anders has no clue about women. Doesn’t even have a preference with the bunnies. Nothing is happening in his drug-decayed head. That’s why he zeroed in on that weird, ugly bitch.”
DeAnna throws her head back and laughs. “Anders is a junkie who’ll snap her fucking neck one night in bed. Serves them both right. Once Wyatt takes over, he’ll cut that brainless freak loose. Maybe put a bullet in his empty head. The Executioners can’t chance the junkie going crazy like he did with his last president.”
Opening the door, I yell, “You’re terrible people! How can you say such cruel things?”
The women turn around and smile at me.
“Told you she was in here,” Taryn says, and DeAnna’s smile grows.
“I’m telling Anders what you said.”
I move toward the door when they suddenly grab me. Taryn shoves me back into the stall. Then DeAnna pushes me until I fall into the toilet. My dress quickly soaks up the water.
“Listen up, you crusty horse-faced fuck,” Taryn says and slaps me across the cheek. “I don’t know what hillbilly, hippie sex shit you’ve used to trap Anders, but you don’t belong here. Your crunchy rawboned bitch family needs to stop trashing up our community.”
“She’s going to fucking cry,” DeAnna mocks and pushes me back when I try to wiggle myself out of the toilet. “I’d call her a butter face, but the rest of her is hideous, too.”
Kicking at them, I realize I’m stuck. They notice the same thing and laugh so hard DeAnna has tears in her eyes.
“What an absolute train wreck,” she says, backing out of the stall.
“More like a tit-less dumpster,” Taryn adds and then checks her appearance before they walk out.
No matter how much I try to push myself upward and get free, I remain stuck in the toilet. My tears turn to rage. By the time Topanga and Lana find me, I’ve kicked my shoes across the room and nearly broken a bone.
Gasping, Topanga says, “Oh, you poor thing.”
“Who did this?” Lana asks, looking horrified.
Topanga frowns at the younger woman. “Really?”
“Oh, yeah, the bitches.”
They each take me under an arm and pull until I’m free. I stumble forward and fall onto the ground. My dress is soaking wet. My face hurts. Actually, everything hurts from my struggle to get free.
“I want revenge,” I say as Lana dabs me with paper towels.
“Baby,” Topanga says, gently holding my face. “That’s not how it works. Taryn and DeAnna are royalty in the Woodlands. Taryn’s daddy helped create the Executioners. Her uncle is president. DeAnna is married into that family. They get to act like assholes, and we just have to give them the cold shoulder.”
“I tore up your dress,” I whimper, fighting tears again.
“I don’t care. We’ll get you home and cleaned up. It’ll be fine.”
We walk through the door with the plan of sneaking me out of a side exit to avoid people seeing what happened. Except I hear Taryn and DeAnna laughing nearby. I assume they’re saying I’m trash or ugly. What will Anders think?
My blood boils when my thoughts return to what they said about him. How they want to kill him! I change directions. No more side exit. My monster is angry now!
“Pixie,” Topanga says, holding me by the shoulders, “you can’t win this fight. Best to slink away and enjoy the