Page 79 of TJ Powar Has Something to Prove

Her stomach drops as soon as the page loads. There’s another picture of her.

Well, two pictures. One is from the old meme, where she was the Hot One. TJ looks at her and doesn’t feel connected to her at all.

Then there’s the other photo. Someone must’ve taken it during Spring Break, when she was stretched out in a lawn chair in her swimsuit. It’s... not flattering.

The caption:What it looks like when you buy it online vs when it arrives

She scrolls through the top comments.Need a refund STAT, this one’s defective, says one.Is that even a girl????says another, to which someone’s replied,Bro that’s a sasquatch.

It’s still absolutely vile to read these comments. They’re as bad as they were the first time about Simran. Most of them are even the same commenters.

She sighs and exits the app as the warning bell rings. This isn’t anything new. It’s just another step in a long journey, although the endpoint isn’t entirely clear to her anymore.

Her phone buzzes again. Chandani, asking where she is. TJ answers, then leaves the stall. Just as she’s drying her hands, Chandani bursts in, Piper in tow.

“Did you see?” she asks without preamble.

TJ doesn’t bother pretending. “Yeah. So what? We’re going to be late for class.”

Chandani looks at Piper. “She didn’t see.”

“She didn’t look?” Piper squeaks. She’s clutching her phone with both hands. “Oh my god, she didn’t look.”

“Look atwhat?” TJ whips around, irritated. “I told you, I saw the post already.”

“Show her, Piper,” Chandani commands. When Piper doesn’t move, Chandani snatches the phone out of her hand. “She deserves to know.”

She shoves it in TJ’s face.

TJ focuses on the screen. It’s a list of all the likes on the post. Forty-nine of them so far. So what? They’re all assholes, they—

Something catches her eye.

charlie_rosencrantzzz is listed.

Her eyes refuse to send the signal to her brain at first, and then her brain refuses to interpret the signal, so it takes several seconds of staring uncomprehendingly before it sinks in.

This has to be a mistake. She takes the phone from Chandani. Her friends are silent as she counts the number ofz’s in the handle. Three, like always. She taps his username to make sure it’s his account. It is. She refreshes the page to see if his like will go away. It doesn’t.

No. No way. TJ’s already shaking her head as she looks up. “He probably accidentally liked it.”

Piper nods vigorously. “Yeah, maybe.”

Her brain is going a million miles a minute. “He got hacked. Or he misread it.”

“Are you even hearing yourself?” Chandani crosses her arms. “Hemisreadit? It’s a photo, bitch. And besides, I thought you were a debater. Shouldn’t you be looking at the facts? Why are you making excuses instead of considering the simplest—”

“Becausehe wouldn’t do that!” TJ’s voice rises loud enough to make Piper flinch. She takes a breath, willing herself to calm. “He’s not that kind of person, he’s good, he’s—”

“Isn’t that what you thought about Liam?”

Chandani’s words, said so coolly, slide between TJ’s ribs like a knife. And she’s not even done.

“Listen, TJ. In those last few weeks you were still datingLiam, I had to listen to people talk about how stupid you must be for not seeing that he wasn’t into you anymore. How desperate you acted. And when he broke up with you, how you were screaming your head off at him, completely losing it—”

“Shut up,” TJ whispers.

“No, you need to hear this—”