Bunnie worked part-time jobs but made most of her money stealing and reselling expensive clothes with Stacy. When she was still 16, she met Jeff, who was in his 20s. Jeff took Bunnie to a party, got her drunk, and then raped her. The following morning, another partygoer attempted the same thing. While Bunnie often felt guilty about many of her experiences, she has never blamed herself for these assaults.

Bunnie later met and fell in love with Tony, a privileged young man intrigued by street life. Tony and Bunnie did drugs and spent most of their time having sex. Bunnie had an ectopic pregnancy and was crushed that she needed to terminate it as well. Tony was heartbroken by the loss; Mindy and Bill tried to encourage Bunnie to come home, but she refused. Days later, she went out in the desert alone, thinking about how meaningless her life felt and considering death by suicide. She picked up some broken glass and was cutting herself when Tony found her.

At 17, Bunnie was living with Stacy and her moms, who had a volatile relationship not unlike the one Bunnie had with her own parents. After Stacy attempted to die by suicide, Bunnie made a private vow to always be there for her. Weeks afterward, at a house party, Bunnie met Mark, an Italian American man involved in gang activity, illegal drugs, and weapons.

Bunnie had a proclivity for falling for dangerous men. While she was with Mark, Bunnie was almost shot in a drive-by shooting. She also discovered that she was not Mark’s only girlfriend. Mark pressured Bunnie to find full-time work, so Bunnie got a job at a pest control company. Her boss, Karl, paid for her car, phone, and apartment, effectively becoming her first “sugar daddy” (88).

Bunnie found out that Mark was cheating on her with a stripper and broke free of his controlling ways. She also decided to try stripping herself. She had been practicing for years, but was still nervous to be on stage. Her first customer asked her to kick him in the groin, but she refused. She was then called over to a bachelor party. While dancing for them, she accidentally passed gas, but managed to pass it off on one of the men. Still, she was horrified, and didn’t return.

One night, Bunnie tried ecstasy with a friend but ended up taking a pill laced with heroin. She and her friend spent days sick in bed, praying to God to stop taking pills if she survived.

Bunnie had another ectopic pregnancy, but neither Mark nor his family provided any support or comfort. Bunnie felt more alone than ever. She decided her life had to change.

Bunnie moved in with Tasha and Tasha’s son on the other side of town. Tasha was dancing at the Olympic Gardens strip club; she helped Bunnie get a job there as well. Bunnie liked working in the VIP room, where she made $2,000 on her first night.

Bunnie loved living with Tasha. Their friends visited often to party. During this time, after a botched wisdom tooth surgery left her in severe pain, Bunnie’s drug use escalated and she became dependent on pain medication. At the same time, her dancing career took off: She enjoyed what felt like a glamorous and close-knit atmosphere.

Bunnie auditioned for Playboy magazine but wasn’t selected. Instead, she was cast in a reality series where she asked to have sex with a man on camera. Bunnie agreed for $5,000, but she and the man only pretended. The experience opened the door to the idea of being paid for sex.

A man named Sunny came into the club one night offering to take Bunnie, Sasha, and another girl home with him. This was Bunnie’s first experience of sex work. She was embarrassed and nervous at first, but followed her friends’ lead and soon found it quite easy. It empowered Bunnie to know she was in control, and that she had something others were willing to pay so much for. Going home with men became a regular occurrence, but Bunnie couldn’t see the damage she was doing to herself.

Bill and Mindy came to visit. Bill gave Bunnie a stack of photos, including ones where Bunnie was with both of her biological parents. Vague but powerful associations flooded her mind. She sobbed as she thought of the time she had lost with her mother.

A few weeks later, Bunnie received an online message from a woman claiming to be her mom. Bunnie didn’t believe it until Vanessa sent photos of them together. They talked for hours on the phone. Bunnie found out she had an older sister.

Around the same time, Bunnie met a woman named Grace. The two used increasingly dangerous drugs and robbed their sex work clients. Eventually, they started using crystal meth. At one point, Bunnie felt so dissociated that she asked a tattoo artist to plunge his needle into her arm until it bled. Her arm became so infected that she risked amputation. Bunnie stopped using meth after that, but continued using other drugs.

Bunnie developed a dependency on Xanax. One night, when showing off how many she could take, she got so sick that she almost died. No one helped, besides turning her on her side as she slept. Bunnie awoke in horror and began cutting back on Xanax.

During this time, Bunnie dated several different men, continued sex work, and lived off of sugar daddies. One boyfriend, Eric, called the police and had her arrested for driving under the influence. This began a long chain of fights and drama. When Eric was charged with domestic abuse, he and Bunnie dealt with it by getting married and leaving for Texas. Bunnie continued dancing and sex work, which made Eric increasingly jealous.

When Bunnie was in the car accident that almost killed her, she was told that one of her vertebrae had snapped and that she should have been paralyzed. Bunnie refused the recommended surgery and was left unable to fully turn her neck.

Bunnie started dating her next partner, Paulie, before divorcing Eric. She and Paulie drank and used drugs together. Bunnie became close with Paulie’s family; his mother gave Bunnie her nickname that she still uses today. She and Paulie got married, but their relationship fell apart when their arguments escalated and arrests became frequent. Bunnie admits that each of her relationships ended in part due to her toxicity and abusive patterns of anger and manipulation.