“That’s it, right there,” Tiffany pointed from the driver’s seat. “It’s Sakiya’s car.”

How could I miss it anyway? It was a deep red and white convertible; painted the colors of Woodcrest. Her obsession with this place was disturbing. She was standing there, leaned against the car in her pink and white TRI PI outfit. Like us they had this standard outfit for all of their members; it was a pink sweater with a white collar and a knee-length white skirt. All of the pledges wore it to events but Sakiya often wore it obsessively. Her long blonde hair was tied up in a high ponytail and her arms were crossed. From here I could almost see the smirk on her face. Yeah, okay, she’d won.

“Hey Sakiya,” I said as Tiffany, Isabella, and I crossed the parking lot.

“Hey beautiful,” She smirked. “You got the stuff?”

“Maybe,” I said cautiously. “Do you have my pledge?”

Sakiya glanced back toward the car, then pushed off and walked toward us, meeting us halfway.

“That’s not your pledge,” She said, looking at us smugly. I sighed.

“No, she’s not our pledge,” I said. “Did you figure that out all by yourself?”

She smiled broadly. I wanted to smack her.

“More importantly,” I sighed. “Did you tell anyone?”

Sakiya raised an eyebrow.

“No I didn’t tell anyone,” She said almost defensively. “What kind of monster do you think I am? We kept her in a private room and let her watch movies. You got my letters or not?”

“They’re in the back,” I said. I glanced at Isabella and Tiffany who walked back to the van.

“I assure you,” Sakiya said smirking. “We treated her JUST like any other GAT bitch who happened to be staying over.”

“That’s reassuring,” I said plainly as Tiffany and Isabella came back carrying the long cardboard box.

“You can put that in the backseat of my car,” Sakiya said. She waved her hand toward the car and out stepped another TRI PI accompanied by some girl who I hoped was Audrey. As she stepped closer to us I could see that it was in fact Audrey but she was wearing the TRI PI pledge outfit which was similar to Sakiya’s, but had the three PI symbols etched across he chest. She was also made up really, REALLY well. She passed as a woman better right now than she ever had. Damn. The next thing I noticed was that she was limping.

“What did you do to her?” I said accusingly.

“Nothing,” Sakiya laughed. “When you tried to pull your prank she sprained her ankle on the way out of the basement. We took care of her.”

“Wait, so you didn’t kidnap her?” I said incredulously.

“She was free to leave whenever she wanted,” Sakiya shrugged. “It was just hard for her to do on a sprained ankle.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Unbelievable,” I said as I watched the letters being loaded into Sakiya’s car. “Hey Audrey.”

“Hey,” She smiled. She looked so happy. I felt so pissed. “Great to see you!”

She was speaking with a better upward inflection than usual. They must have seriously worked with her. Putting us to shame.

“Hey Audrey,” I said. “Head to the van okay? I need to talk to Sakiya.”

“Okay!” She said happily. Tiffany and Isabella stood on either side of her and helped her toward the van.

“Look um, “ I said to Sakiya as soon as they were out of earshot. “Thanks for…taking care of her.”

“You don’t need to thank me for human decency,” She said, still smirking. “But you do need to keep your hands off our stuff.”

“No promises,” I said, turning on my heel and walking back toward the van.

“Did they feed you?” I heard Isabella asking Audrey as I climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Yeah!” Audrey said. “Sakiya showed me how some cool stuff, like eating meat and vegetables instead of bread.

“Great,” I threw the van into gear and pulled out of the parking lot. “Little over two days and they put you on the keto diet.”

“The what?” Audrey said questioningly.

“Never mind,” I shook my head and turned onto the highway, taking us through a row of lighted restaurants and stores as the rain started to cut through the night. I flipped the wipers on and cringed as they squeaked across the glass. Audrey chattered to Isabella in the backseat about makeup and things she’d learned; she seemed happier than usual. That was good. After a few blocks I turned into the Wal-Mart parking lot.

“Um, what are you doing?” Audrey asked. I could see her eyes widening in the rear view mirror.

“I need shampoo,” I told her. “Like, a lot of it.”

“I…can I wait in the van?” Audrey’s voice was panicked. I frowned.

“Remember what I said about not leaving you alone?” I pulled into a parking space beneath a street light and turned back toward her.

“Well, I mean,” She stuttered. “Maybe you can drop me off at the house and you can come back out?”

“I’m not wasting gas like that,” I said, getting irate. “What is wrong with you?”

“Audrey,” Isabella said, placing her hand on her shoulders. “Why don’t you want to go into the store?”

Audrey lowered her head and focused her eyes on Isabella’s knees.

“I…” She started to say, but choked on her words.

“You what?” Tiffany turned around and stared at her.

“I’m afraid people will laugh at me,” She said quietly. I couldn’t see her face but it sounded like she was on the verge of tears. I could see her literally shaking. Isabella took her hand.

“Audrey?” Isabella said, looking down, trying to make eye contact with her. “Do you trust me?”

She continued to shake like a leaf but she finally nodded, just slightly.

“Okay, Audrey?” She spoke her name again, softly his time. Audrey raised her head, allowing Isabella to make eye contact. “You look like a girl, hun. When we walk into that store no one is going to see anything but a girl. No one is going to laugh at you. I’ll stay by you and hold your hand the entire time, okay?”

I swear even under her makeup I could see her turning pale. God, I hoped she wasn’t going to throw up in our van. She’d be cleaning it if she did. Finally she nodded again. Isabella turned and slid the passenger door open, stepping out onto the damp concrete. The rain had mostly subsided. She held her hand out to Audrey.

“First step is the hardest, right?” She said with a soft smile. Audrey gingerly took her hand and took that first step out of the van and onto the blacktop.

“Okay,” I said, stepping out and locking the door. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Aleah, can I talk to you?” Isabella stared at me as I walked toward the store.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Listen,” She said in a whisper. “This is just a shopping trip to you but this is Audrey’s first time really out in public. She’s scared to death. We need to stay with her.”

“She’s…an adult,” I shrugged. “She can handle herself.”

Isabella pursed her lips and glanced over her shoulder at Audrey who was huddling behind her.

“Right now, she’s not,” Isabella said to me sharply. “Think of her as a kid. That’s the position she’s in. This is all new to her.”

“Like a kid,” I repeated back slowly. Maybe she was right; I thought back to Jayne; I remembered her dressing in my clothes back in the day and going out with me. She’d never seemed that nervous about it. Maybe it was different for everyone. “Alright, um, we’ll just…stay together.”

As we passed through the airlock and into the store I noticed Audrey making a very clear attempt to stay behind me. She didn’t want to be seen. I turned and placed a hand under her chin, locking my eyes with hers.

“Keep your head up,” I said quietly so that no one else around us would overhear. “Don’t look down at the floor like that. You’re a woman, act like one, be proud.”

We walked toward the personal hygiene section, passing by several shelves of razors, travel shampoo, and stupid promotional products with the ‘As Seen on TV’ logo emblazoned on them. More of a money sink than anything else.

“I think—” I started to turn into the shampoo aisle, and then I stopped dead in my tracks. Mike was walking toward us from the end of the aisle. Yeah, like he needed shampoo for that mop on his head. I should explain this a little. Weeks ago when we first took Audrey in, so to speak, Mike, the overbearing asshole assume that Audrey was on our porch to hit on his girlfriend. I don’t really understand the logic behind it, there were over thirty other girls in the house that she could have been hitting on but Mike had some serious control issues. Long story short: Mike beat the crap out of Audrey and landed her in the hospital; the police had yet to do ANYTHING about it. It should be safe right now though; when Mike had beaten Audrey up before, she looked like a guy. Right now, she didn’t. I mean seriously if I didn’t know who she was I wouldn’t have known she was trans. I wished I could convince Audrey of that because she was standing beside me shaking again, her eyes locked on the floor.

“Hey, hey!” Mike waved at us like we were old friends. I wanted to snap his neck and mount his head on a wall. Not my wall, just, any wall. Preferably a wall I didn’t have to look at. “GAT’s out on a shopping trip, huh!”

“Yeah,” I forced a laugh. “We come to stores like normal people, who knew, right?”

He immediately looked past me, staring straight at Audrey. Oh dear god.

“Who do we have here?” He said with a shitfaced grin. “I don’t think I’ve seen her before. One of your new pledges I guess. What’s your name?”

Audrey started to look up. Mike was staring at her, expecting a response. I didn’t know how well Audrey’s voice would pass for female.
“Her name is Audrey,” Tiffany said quickly. Audrey’s sigh of relief probably could have moved mountains.

“Why don’t you let the lady answer for herself?” Mike smirked. The way he said lady, pretending to be respectful. He couldn’t even be respectful to his mother. He suddenly reached out and put his hand under her chin, lifting her head up the way I had, but my god he had no business touching her. “Hey, why don’t you look at me when I’m talking to you?”

Audrey wasn’t just mortified, she was terrified. I could see it in her eyes. Suddenly, Mike had his hand on her waist as if he was trying to pull her in. It was subtle, but he was damn sure doing it. Enough. I stepped in between them and cupped my hand, throwing it forward and slamming it into Mike’s crotch. I squeezed as hard as I could. He paled and tried to pull back but I kept my grip. As soon as I did it, Tiffany casually stepped behind him and interlocked her arms in his, pulling them behind his back and forcing him back into the aisle, away from prying eyes.

“Get off of me you bitch!” He hissed. He didn’t want to be too loud; there was no way he’d want people to know his was happening to him. I found a sensitive spot and squeezed it with my thumb and index finger. He rocked his head back, slamming it into Tiffany’s shoulder.
“Behave,” She told him, looking down at him.

“I don’t know who raised you,” I said sternly. “Probably some farm animals in incest county or whatever but here in the civilized world we don’t just walk around touching people.”

“You’re crazy!” He glared at me. I squeezed harder and leaned into him.

“Apologize to her,” I gritted my teeth and jerked my head, indicating Audrey.

“I’m…I’m sorry,” He croaked.

“And you won’t do it again, right?” Tiffany said from over his shoulder.

“Right,” He said with a cracking voice.

“Promise?” I asked. “Cross your heart and hope to die?”

“Yes!” He said desperately. I squeezed more.

“More detail,” I smirked.

“Cross my heart and hope to die!”

I nodded to Tiffany, we let go at the same time and dropped him to the floor.

“Let’s go,” I said to the others, forgetting about the shampoo. We made a beeline for the exit, keeping Audrey safely between us. Crossing the parking lot took forever. Okay maybe it really didn’t but it sure seemed like it. I could hear Audrey breathing as we passed by parked cars making our way to the van. She was going to hyperventilate before we got there, or she was going to choke; I could hear her quiet sobs starting to cut through every breath she took. We made it. I tore open the door and I Isabella loaded her into the van. Tiffany and I ducked, following her in. Thank god it was a cargo van; we had more than enough room.

“Audrey,” Isabella said, taking both of her hands as I knelt in front of her between the seats. “Are you okay?”

Audrey’s answer was a series of sobs and chokes as she trembled and tears destroyed her mascara.

“Talk it out hon,” I said. “Tell us what you’re feeling.”

She tried to talk but it just wasn’t working. I laid a hand on her knee. She looked at me with tear stained eyes.

“Come on,” Audrey,” Tiffany said from behind Isabella. “We can’t help you if we don’t know what’s going through your head.”

“I don’t…I don’t…I…” Audrey stammered. “He just touched me like…like I was…”

“A piece of meat?” I finished for her. She nodded.

“Can you tell us what you’re feeling?” Isabella asked gently. “Sometimes it helps to talk it out, okay hon?”

She didn’t need to explain it to us, we already knew. That look on her face; I’d worn it so many times. I was used to it by now. She felt violated; used. As if all of her power had been taken from her. Sure not much had happened, but it had been enough. It was weird for her, really weird. She’d spent her entire life in that male ‘bubble’. I mean yeah she wasn’t exactly a prime male specimen but she was still spared things like this. Now that bubble was broken. She was exposed, vulnerable. The ultimate downside to being a woman.

“We’re going home,” I announced, crawling between the two pilot seats and taking my seat behind the wheel. I slammed me head against the headrest and sighed, feeling my own heartbeat against the sound of Audrey’s sobs. If we’re going to be honest, I’d forgotten. I’d completely forgotten that she was going to experience this. That she had to experience it. How was I even going to protect her? I couldn’t, and it hurt. But I would try. From now on I swore to god I was going to try, no matter what it took.