Tricks

Eden wakes up to Jerome opening the door to help her escape. They get into Jerome’s car and drive away.

Jerome stops at a gas station and goes inside. Eden tries calling Andrew on Jerome’s cell phone, but the number is no longer in service. Eden tosses Jerome’s keys in the back and gets out of the car. She tells him that she is going to go to the bathroom. When Jerome’s back is turned, she ducks into the back of a truck.

The owner of the vehicle finds her the next morning. She tells the man that she got into a fight with her boyfriend and hid from him. The man looks around but does not find anyone matching Jerome’s description. He offers to give Eden a ride, and Eden says that she wants to go to Las Vegas. The man tells her that he can take her halfway.

The man introduces himself as Wes. Wes offers his phone for her to call her “brother” Andrew. Eden calls the number again, but it is disconnected. She pretends to leave a voicemail.

Eden worries about what has happened to Andrew as Wes continues talking. Wes drops Eden off at a truck stop. She thanks him, and he starts to ask for a favor. Eden immediately assumes that he wants sex, but Wes only asks her to promise that she will not date such a violent man again. He tells her that she deserves better. Eden chokes back tears and tells him that she will remember that.

Before she leaves, Wes gives her $20 so that she can buy lunch. Eden feels overwhelmed by his kindness.

Eden asks truckers to drive her to Vegas. Most ignore her, but one asks if she is running away. Eden makes up a story about how she is meeting her father in Vegas. He tells her that he will drive her to Vegas in exchange for oral sex, and she agrees.

Eden does not thank the driver when he drops her off at a diesel stop. She looks at the sprawling city of Las Vegas.

In Seth’s poem, he muses about how he has given up on his dreams.

Carl tells Seth that he needs to go to the gym to stay in shape. Seth knows that Carl is in complete control of his life, so he agrees to go to the gym.

Seth jogs on the treadmill and thinks about how he does not belong in Vegas.

Seth sees an attractive man walk into the gym and checks him out. They flirt, and the man introduces himself as Jared. Jared offers to show Seth how to use the weights.

They flirt as Jared shows Seth how to work the machines. Seth tells him that he is from Indiana, and he feels himself get excited to talk with someone for the first time in weeks.

Afterward, Jared says that he will be in the hot tub that night. Seth does not know if Carl will allow it, but he tells him that he will try to make it. Seth goes upstairs to prepare dinner for Carl when he comes home.

Carl comes home with a man whom he introduces as Brett. Carl kisses Seth and leads him to the couch with Brett. Seth feels nervous immediately.

Brett kisses and gropes Seth, and he pulls away. Carl tells him that he wants variety in their relationship and that he wants him to treat Brett as he would treat Carl.

Seth concedes and he gets sandwiched between the two men as they kiss each other.

Seth tries to set boundaries, but Carl says that he must play by his rules. Seth knows that he must submit to Carl, so he lets him position him, and they proceed to have sex with Brett.

In Whitney’s poem, she describes being chased by invisible monsters that she cannot escape.

Whitney goes through withdrawal. She hates what Bryn has done to her, but she also misses him when he is gone. Bryn lied to her about everything, and she knows that he has other girls in rooms whom he keeps like her. Sometimes he visits her and they have sex, but most of the time, she has sex with the men he sends her.

Whitney knows that she is addicted, even though she tries to control it. She knows that Bryn preyed on her in the mall because he saw that she was naive.

When Bryn comes back, Whitney is huddled in the corner, shivering. He inserts heroin between her toes, and Whitney feels better. They kiss, and Whitney asks him to make love to her. Bryn puts on a condom, telling her that she may have a sexually transmitted infection.

Whitney feels humiliated and pushes Bryn away, but he keeps going until she lets him have sex with her.

When Whitney wakes up, she finds a note from Bryn saying that he left her some heroin. Whitney does not know how she has fallen so low; she thinks about her old life but feels like she can never return to it.

Whitney waits outside of clubs like Bryn taught her. She approaches men as they leave the club, offering to take them back to her room. She thinks about how the next day is her birthday; she will be 16, but no one cares.

Whitney feels depressed thinking about her birthday. She misses her family and wonders if they worry about her. Whitney sits down on the sidewalk, feeling dizzy. Someone asks if she is okay, and she looks up at a man who asks if he should call 911. She tells him that she is okay, and he asks her what she does for fun.

The man moves his hand to her leg and says that he will walk her home.

Whitney walks home with the man. She sees the girl from across the hall go into her room before she leads the man inside. Whitney tells him to pay her before they have sex, and the man says that he does not pay for sex. He shoves her to the ground. Whitney goes limp as he rapes and chokes her, thinking that she is going to die.

Whitney can breathe again suddenly, and she hears someone screaming. She hears a voice tell the man to get out or else they will call the cops. The man runs out, and Whitney thinks that Bryn has saved her. When she looks around, she sees the girl from across the hall telling her to lie still. The girl says that her name is Ginger, and she promises to stay with her.

In Ginger’s poem, she writes about how she will stay with someone until they ask her to leave.

Ginger feels drained and sad because of the way that Las Vegas takes from people. She sees the people around her who once had dreams but now have been exploited by the city. Ginger thinks of Misty, one of Lydia’s girls, who swears that she will quit once she completes her degree. However, Ginger can see the way that the work sucks the life out of her.

Ginger thinks about Whitney and how she would have died. Whitney asks how Ginger knew that she was in trouble, and Ginger explains that when she saw the man follow Whitney into her room, she had a bad feeling. Ginger tells Whitney to take some days off work because of the bruising on her neck.

Ginger wonders how Whitney got into the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Ginger asks her if she still loves Bryn after what he has done to her, and Whitney tells her that he is everything to her.

Whitney drops off from the heroin. Ginger thinks about her family and wonders if her siblings miss her. She thinks about Gram’s promise that she could always come to her if she had nowhere else to go.

Ginger wishes that she could go home, but she never wants to fall under Iris’s abuse again. She thinks about how she tried to tell Iris what Walt did to her and how Iris told her that he made her into a woman.

Ginger thinks about the other men that Iris let rape her. She cannot erase the pain, even though Alex tells her that sex washes away once she showers.

Alex is late, and Ginger calls her, but it goes to voicemail. Alex comes in suddenly, completely disheveled. Ginger tries to hold her, but Alex pushes her away. Alex tells her that a man had sex with her and stole her money. Alex says that she is too upset to strip, so Ginger goes alone.

In Cody’s poem, he writes about how he does not recognize himself anymore in the mirror.

Cody does not understand how his circumstances led him to become a victim of the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Ronnie misses him, but he cannot tell her why he cannot have sex with her anymore. He hopes that she will forget about him and find a better boyfriend.

Cody makes payments on the credit cards, even though his mother noticed a charge to a gambling site. Cody blames the charge on Cory, knowing that his mother will not investigate it.

Cody goes to a night of poker at Vince’s apartment. He wonders if he is attracted to men after he has had sex with men.

Cody does not feel attracted to the men at poker. Chris gets aggressive with Vince’s dealings and says that he has a date with Misty.

Cody knows that he has an appointment with Misty and a client later, and he asks Chris if Misty is working for Lydia that night. Chris does not respond, which unnerves Cody. Cody wins, and then he leaves to go to his client.

Cody deposits the money in his account and calls Ronnie. He apologizes for pushing her away and asks if he can come over to talk with her later. She sounds relieved and tells him that he can come over. She cries, telling him that she missed him, and he starts to cry and says that he loves her.

Cody goes to the motel room, where Misty and their client are already inside, both naked. Cody takes off his shirt when the door bursts open behind him. Cody gets knocked to the ground, and Misty screams. Cody hears two gunshots. Chris calls Misty a “whore” and says that she promised to stop. Then, Chris attacks Cody, kicking and beating him until Cody passes out while wondering if he is going to die.

Cody hears someone telling him to wake up. He wakes up strapped to a gurney, and he sees Misty and the client’s bodies on a gurney with their face covered. He tells the paramedic to call Ronnie and his mother, and then he passes out again.

In Eden’s poem, she sees herself as a shadow of the person she once was.

Eden wanders the streets even though she knows that there are shelters because she is too afraid of people asking questions.

Eden has sex with men to survive. She thinks of Andrew to keep her going.

During rush hour, Eden goes to the street to knock on car windows. She sees a girl get out of a car, and she tells Eden not to look scared. She tells Eden to shower, but Eden explains that she is living on the streets. The girl gives Eden $50 for a motel room and tells her that she should go home. The girl says that her girlfriend, Ginger, keeps saying that being part of the commercial sexual exploitation of children is worse than the place that they came from before.

Eden feels grateful for the kindness of another stranger. Eden finds herself in a church, asking God for forgiveness. A priest comes up to her and asks her if he can help her.

In Seth’s poem, he writes that he has no way of regaining the innocence that he has lost.

Seth knows that he is only a toy that Carl plays with and that he can never get his innocence back. He calls his father, but as soon as he hears him say his name, Seth hangs up. At the gym, Seth tells Jared that he wants him, and Jared kisses him.

Jared takes him into the sauna, and they have sex. Seth feels good for the first time in a while because he has the choice to do what he wants.

When Carl gets home, he asks Seth why he wants to ruin their life together. Seth realizes that he knows about Jared. Carl says that he paid Jared to seduce him to test Seth’s loyalty. He tells Seth to pack his bags.

Carl does not listen to Seth’s explanations. Seth goes to his room and sends a couple of emails to the men in his chatroom, hoping that one of them will take him in.

In Whitney’s poem, she personifies heroin, calling it her “Lady.”

Whitney feels depressed because Bryn hardly ever visits her. She goes out to the streets and finds a man with crystal meth. She offers to have sex with him for the drug.

Ginger checks on Whitney more than Bryn does. She thinks that Ginger is the only one left who cares about her.

The man arrives with her drug, which he calls “black tar.” Whitney has never heard of it, but she decides to try it.

After the man leaves, Whitney takes more of the drug. She suddenly realizes that she has taken too much, and she panics, but she feels herself blacking out before she can call for help.

In Ginger’s poem, she describes how she searches for her old self but cannot find her.

Ginger and Alex had sex the night before, which is rare since Alex does not like to be touched anymore. Ginger feels sad because Alex is the one who taught her how to make love.

Ginger wakes up late, but Alex has already gone out. She decides to look for her because they do not need the money. Ginger sees people taking items out of Whitney’s old room. She knows that Whitney will not come back.

Ginger takes a cab to Las Vegas Avenue and sees Alex working a man. Ginger gets out and tells Alex to come home with her. The man offers to pay to watch them have sex, and Ginger agrees. The man flashes a badge and says that they are under arrest.

In Cody’s poem, he wishes that an afterthought could be a forethought.

Cody becomes aware of himself while under anesthesia, and he cannot open his eyes. He hears his mother’s voice asking him not to leave.

Cody’s mother tells him that no matter what has happened to him, she will help him. He hears her crying, and he feels desperate to stop her tears. He cries while hearing her crying, and his mother asks the doctor if that means he can hear her. Cody wishes that he could tell her that he is coming back to her.

In Eden’s poem, she asks an unnamed person if she can return to them and if they can go back to the way things were.

Eden feels grateful that the priest got her off the street and into a shelter for girls like her. She decides that hell exists on Earth and that she has already experienced it.

The shelter is run by a woman who was a victim of the commercial sexual exploitation of children. She wants teenagers to have a space to find safety and get off the street. Eden is glad that she is not pregnant and did not contract any sexually transmitted infections.

Eden’s caseworker is named Sarah. Eden tells her that her name is “Ruthie” because she is afraid that her parents might find her otherwise. Sarah asks about her parents, but Eden says that they are dead.

Eden emails Andrew’s mother, who still works at Boise State University. She emails her back, telling her that Andrew will be so happy to hear that she is safe. Eden’s parents had him arrested several times and harassed him so much that he had to change his phone number.

Eden receives an email from Andrew, who tells her how much he loves her and asks when she is coming home. Eden responds that she does not know but that she loves him.

In Seth’s poem, he does not know the meaning of the word “home.”

Seth realizes that he always thought that his father would change his mind. He talked to him on the phone, but his father asked him if he had asked for forgiveness from God. Seth reasserted his identity, but his father did not ask him to come home.

Seth messaged Loren, and Loren told him that he is glad that he is okay.

Seth lives with David, a man from the chatroom. Their relationship is like what he had with Carl, except that Seth works for Lydia’s escort service when he can so that he can have his own money.

In Whitney’s poem, she writes about how no one cares how she turned from a girl into a woman.

The doctors told Whitney that she almost died. She wishes that she had because she does not want to think about the person she was before she overdosed.

When Whitney opened her eyes, her mother was sitting by her bed. She told Whitney how sorry she was and that she could help her work through what had happened to her. Whitney goes to rehab. She does not know if she will recover, but she is slightly hopeful.

In Ginger’s poem, she writes about how a passing cloud may start a thunderstorm without anyone anticipating it.

Las Vegas has a court for the commercial sexual exploitation of teenagers. Ginger’s judge believes that the teenagers are victims of a corrupt system, so he is lenient on his sentences. Since Ginger has a family who still loves her, she can go home to Gram. When she called Gram, Gram cried with joy and said that she would help her with anything. Gram told Ginger that Iris was dying of HIV.

Ginger knows her family needs her, especially since the doctors say that Iris has a year to live. Alex is in a group home for pregnant teenagers, and she refuses to go with Ginger. She tells Ginger that she wants to be a better mother to her baby than her mother was to her. Ginger misses her, but she knows that she needs to prioritize herself over anyone else to heal.

In Cody’s last poem, he describes how he needs to find the courage to live his life. He thinks that life, and death, will always be a gamble.