Page 35 of Wicked Surrender

Instead, I booked a late walk-in sort of appointment with a franchise hair salon and fixed up the “accidental” haircut I had earlier. My mother and grandmother would be appalled to ever set foot in one of these places that popped up in strip malls, but it worked for me. I’d always been a low-maintenance kind of girl, not putting too much effort or thought into my beauty routine. Avoiding too much sunlight seemed smart, as a starter. Since my shampoo and conditioner liked me, and I kept my hair long and straight and usually one length, I saw no reason to change things up.

If I got into bioengineering, or even if I went into medicine and maybe became a surgeon, I’d need to be able to keep my hair up. Practical. That was me. Besides, it would exhaust me and wear down my soul if I tried to keep up and compete with a natural beauty like Mai.

“Can I interest you in anything else?” the stylist said once she evened out my hair. The dead ends were gone. So was the evidence of that frat brother pulling a prank to cut it earlier. “A style? Maybe a manicure?”

I glanced down at my simple nails, bare of polish and neatly trimmed. To her, it probably looked boring, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to go overboard and try to impress anyone.What you see is what you get.

“No, thank you.” I sighed, ready to go home and try to relax.

“You should take a picture of her hair for a new post,” another stylist said as she swept hair from a client she’d just had. “Such straight, sleek hair.” She winked at me.

The praise warmed me from the inside out, even though she was likely only saying that in the vein of delivering top-notch customer service.

“Do you mind?” my girl asked.

“Not at all.”

She took the picture and said she’d tag me. I didn’t really care, but hey, maybe if they posted more often, they got a bonus. I was all for helping others in any manner I could. That was a big part of why I couldn’t walk away from tutoring Jason, too.

As I left the salon, I checked my feed to see her post.

I immediately regretted it.

Sitting in my driver’s seat in the parking lot, I sighed and sank further into a nasty gloom.

What waited for me in my feed was the nastiest, cruelest, and meanest cyberbullying I could imagine.

I couldn’t stomach all the horrible comments to the posts that Jason and his friends shared. I couldn’t be patient with all the sappytake me backcrap that Ethan kept tagging me in.

Worst of all, I cringed and grew madder and madder at all the inappropriate videos and pictures that were popping up. It had to be photoshopped or AI. Because I’d never done any of those X-rated things people were sharing.

A single tear streaked down my cheek, the only sign of how furious I was. It wasn’t sorrow, but rage. Anger that I would be subjected to this for no damn reason.

I browsed past a dozen crude, disgusting private messages, sickened that strangers would reach out to me to comment on my body or how I could test out to be better than second-best with them. Lewd suggestions turned my stomach.

With trembling fingers, so hopeless to the relentless bullying, I logged out of all my accounts. Fuming and seething as I drove home, I swore off them all until Jason quit this farce of caring about his grades.

12

JASON

For the first time since Dean Chen and Mr. Gormer told me that I had to go into the university’s recovery program to stay in college, about a month ago, I skipped classes Friday morning.

It was a nice break not to have to see Laura on Thursday night because of the library’s unexpected closure that night. Having all that free time didn’t mean I partied and drank, though. I slept. Dropping onto my bed, I ignored the party downstairs and simply rested.

In the morning, I felt groggy from sleeping too much, but in a rare moment of self-reflection, I was grateful I could sleep in like that. I was glad that I could determine what I wanted to do with my life, even if it meant skipping for a morning.

I’d always been self-sufficient and independent to the core. It was a personality and lifestyle borne of being dismissed and cast aside by parents who hadn’t ever wanted to be parental at all. It also meant that I hated to rely on anyone or depend on others too much.

Like Laura.

I didn’tneedher to tutor me.

I didn’t want her to stay in my head all the time, either.

That breakup video between her and Ethan was still on my phone, but every time I thought about sharing it, I hesitated. Each time I got onto my social media and got ready to caption the embarrassing video, I couldn’t go through with it.

The whole point of putting up with her tutoring was to pay back Dean Chen. I was supposed to target her and have no misgivings about ruining her life and seeing to her unhappiness.

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