Outside Reading Post 4b

Cupcake's life is going good. She moves in with Tommy her boyfriend and their friend Nancy who offers to pay for some of the rent each month. Soon after they move in, Cup discovers she's pregnant and gets an abortion without letting Tommy know about anything. Although Cup and Tommy love each other, Tommy soon becomes jealous of any man that looks at Cupcake and becomes abusive towards Cup. Cupcake searches for different jobs over the next few months and one day Tommy asks Cupcake to marry him. She agrees and Tommy's mother flys in from out of town to arrange the wedding. Cupcake is hired as a legal secretary trainee for a two-attorney law firm of Jack Baker. The people in the office quickly adapt to Cup's lack of experience and she picks up tips from many of the office employees. After working at the firm for a few weeks, Cupcake begins to realize she might have a smoking addiction so she approaches Tommy and suggests they quit smoking for a year. Cupcake and Tommy have their wedding, but because of Cupcake's addiction to booze and drugs, she's in a blackout for the whole wedding and doesn't remember any of it. After a few months of being married, Tommy gets more and more abusive and Cupcake, growing up on the streets, fights back. Cupcake convinces herself it's okay but one night when it gets bad, she calls the cops and ends up staying at her friend Mona's house. Cupcake quits her job at Jack's firm and her dad moves in, helping pay the rent. Cup gets a job interview at a firm for a man named Ken and quickly is hired as a secretary. While Cup is still roaming the streets, getting busted for drugs, a certain Cop that goes by the name of "Preacher" takes a liking to Cupcake and tells her he believes in her. That she can change her life if she just tries. Cupcake brushes off his advice and doesn't listen to him, assuming he's crazy.