“Excuse me, but that’s my phone,” I said to Lauren.
“Yeah, and you’ve taken more pictures in the last week than you have in the last month,” she said, not even looking up. Her finger kept flicking away. “Guess that’s what happens when you get a life. Aw! Look at this one!”
She turned the screen toward me, displaying the selfie Christopher and I had taken after our successful paper airplane experiment. There was an acidic feeling in my stomach.
“Oh, he’s cute,” said Glen, my stylist, pausing momentarily in his work. “Boyfriend?”
“Um, no,” I said.
“Christopher should be here for this,” Lauren said. “And I’m sure he’d want to hear about the whole Damon-being-fired thing. I still can’t believe that jackass.”
“Have you heard from Tarek?” I asked, half wanting to know and half wanting to simply change the subject. “Do you have any idea why he showed Loretta that video?”
“He didn’t tell me. But he seemed pretty pissed off at Damon after the whole toilet paper incident.” Lauren shifted in her seat. “And I may have told him how Damon shoved you to the floor.”
“You did?”
“Uh, yeah I did. You’re my sister and he should know his cousin’s a jerk.” She stopped scrolling on my phone momentarily. “But you know what? He didn’t seem all that surprised. Just mad. My guess is he forced Damon to come clean somehow.”
“Wow. Kinda harsh, making your own flesh and blood turn themselves in,” I said.
Lauren grinned. “Tarek has a good moral compass. It’s one of the reasons I like him.” She blushed, and it was almost too sickening to witness. It hit me that I was jealous. She had an actual relationship happening, and I had zip.
“So…what exactly happened with Christopher?” she asked. So much for changing the subject.
“I told you this morning,” I said. “He left. He went to visit his cousins yesterday and he’s not coming back.”
“Are you sure he’s not coming?” Lauren asked.
“That’s what his parents told me.” I was going to lift my shoulders, but worried that would result in my ear getting clipped by the shears. “I think he’s mad at me—for going skiing with Damon. And I got the feeling he wasn’t exactly comfortable hanging around the lodge while his parents were suing the place. I guess he didn’t like me enough to stick around.”
Lauren gave me a You know better than that look.
“What?” I said.
“Um, please. That boy is totally smitten with you, Tess. It was written all over his face every time he looked at you.”
“That sounds promising,” said Glen, resting a hand on my shoulder.
“Well, even if he did like me, I’m never going to see him again.”
“That’s a shame, because with this haircut, you’re going to look like a supermodel,” Glen told me. Then he put down his shears and picked up a blow dryer, effectively cutting off any further conversation.
And my sister started to scroll on my phone again. I decided to close my eyes and pretend that none of this was happening.
After a few minutes of blowing and using some sort of weird gel stuff to muss my hair, Glen stepped back to look at his handiwork.
“Amazing,” he said. “A complete transformation.”
Lauren looked up, and her jaw dropped. She stood up, lifted my phone, and snapped a picture, then did the same with her phone.
“Loretta! You have to see this!” she called.
My grandmother appeared at the doorway, her phone against her ear, and her free hand went up to cover her heart. “I have to call you back,” she said into the phone, and ended the call.
“Is it that bad?” I asked.
Glen tsked.
“You look gorgeous!” Loretta said. “Glen, turn her around so she can see herself!”
Glen spun my chair, and there I was. Except it wasn’t me. It was an older me. A more sophisticated me. A me with cheekbones and incredibly stunning blue eyes. Where had those come from?
“He’s right, Tess. You look like you could be in the pages of Vogue.”
Then Lauren started to tap away at my phone.
“What’re you doing?” I asked, panicking.
“I’m sending the picture to Christopher,” she said. “He should know what he’s missing out on.”
* * *
• • •
“Where shall we go for lunch?” Loretta asked once we stepped out onto the sidewalk. My whole neck felt cold and tingly, and I turned up the collar on my coat. I was going to have to become a scarf person with this haircut.
“Is there a Japanese place nearby?” I asked.
“Yes! We can go to Yuki. And it’s so close we can even walk there.” Loretta turned and started to walk down the hill. Lauren and I fell into step behind her, Lauren basically gaping at me the entire time.
“Will you stop?” I asked, trying not to smile.
“I’m sorry. It’s just…it’s amazing. You look like an entirely new person.”
I took out my phone—noticing that there were no messages from Christopher—and turned the camera so I could see myself. My reflection was really going to take some getting used to. It was unbelievable how much the shape of my hair had changed the shape of my face.
“You should FaceTime Mom. She won’t even know who you are.”
“Oh my God, you’re right. Let’s do it!”
Loretta paused at a street corner, waiting for a light to change, and I quickly called my mother, holding up the phone so she could get the best view of the new me.
“Hi, Tess. What a lovely sur—”
She stopped and her face froze. For half a second I thought the call had dropped. But then she screamed.
“Oh, my goodness! You cut your hair!”
“I did! What do you think?”
“Sweetie, you look beautiful!” my mother cried, tears in her eyes. “Oh, honey, you look so much older.” She covered her mouth with her free hand. “Oh, I wish I’d been there.”
I felt a pang, but tried to shove it aside. “I know. I’m sorry. I just felt like if I didn’t do it today, I was never going to do it.”
“You don’t need to apologize. Was this on your list?”