Jessica is one of the two Puerto Rican women that are the subject of the book, and her story is most fascinating to me in terms of her attempts to fit into normal relationship contexts. At sixteen, she was already skilled at bringing men to pay attention to her - "You could be talking to her in the middle of the bustle of Tremont and feel as if lovers' confidences were being exchanged beneath a tent of sheets" (LeBlanc 3). She was always fooling around, but she attempted to be the "wife" of a big-time heroin dealer named Boy George. She was kept by him, giving her jobs crushing heroin into powder and being beaten when she disobeyed. Her friendship with Coco, and her life in general, is painted as somewhat aimless; after renting a limo to send her and her friends anywhere they want in the city, the gesture seems empty: "They wanted to leave the familiar world behind, but no one knew the direction out" (LeBlanc 399).
One of the biggest decisions that defines Jessica is her refusal to cooperate with the police to testify against Boy George, in exchange for immunity. This decision lands her in jail right alongside him. Jessica seems to feel that she simply has no other way to make a life for themselves than to tie herself to men for support and money. Becoming entrenched in a life of poverty and drugs, it is very difficult to try to find a way out - Jessica, though, seems more or less at peace with her life, though she does not believe it is a good one.
