Chapter 11
Of course I regretted it
I regretted not coming here sooner.
All the exhaustion from senior year seemed to melt away under the Florida sun, healed by endless beaches, coconut y
seafood.
water, and fresh
When Divia heard about Tanner’s betrayal, she went full protective cousin mode–threatening to set me up with every hot guy in Miami while dragging me to every fun spot in the city.[]
“That asshole doesn’t deserve you,” she’d rage while planning our next adventure. []
“We’re gonna make you so hot he’ll cry.
Summer in Miami was surprisingly manageable–fewer tourists, decent weather.
We hit the bench at sunrise, went jet skiing, parasailing, deep–sea fishing, hit up water parks, tried cliff diving…]
Every day was so packed I’d collapse into bed completely drained, with no mental energy left to think about toxic people back home.[]
Tanner’s group seemed to be having t
their own blast
The girls‘ group chat kept sharing photos from their Alaska adventure–scenic shots that honestly looked incredible.
I’d been avoiding looking at any of it, but the girls kept gushing about how “nesthetic” everything looked.
But one afternoon when Olivia finally crashed from exaustion and gave me some downtime, I mindlessly scrolled and clicked before I could stop myself]
Their group had hit all the major spots–group photos at every scenic overlook, everyone looking annoyingly photogenic
But it was the couples shots that absolutely destroyed me.]]
Harper had posted a whole Instagram carousel, and dead center of every grid was her and Tanner[]
Against endless mountain ranges, crystal clear lakes, towering glaciers–all the places I’d dreamed of visiting
Every single hackdrop was somewhere Tanner and I had planned to see together.[]
for years
The ache in my chest was immediate and brutal, like someone had ripped my heart out through my throat.[]
All those plates we’d promised to explore–he was seeing them with someone else, making new memories that erased ours completely
Tiks out nobody’s actually irreplaceable. What a fucking joke ||
Olivia caught me spiraling when she woke up and immediately started coasting me
“It’s just some Instagi
Instagram posts, babe. Who can’t take pretty pictures? I’ve never lost a photo battle in my life.”
“I’ve been telling you–you just never bothered with your glow up clean yourself up for college and those MIT boys won’t know what
hit them. You’ll forget all about
nd your basic ass childhood friend.“[]
From that day on, Oliola forced me into a complete makeover mintage ||
She had me try on every flowy beach dress in her massive closet, swapped my thick glasses for beauty tour
rcontacts, and taught me her entire
Hair styling, hail art, spray tans all the post graduation transformation essentials she insisted were mandatory
“We’re making you into the baddest hitch at MIT,” she declared while cuting my hair
Under her expert transformation. I barely recognized myself in the mirene.
Gone was the academic grind girl, replaced by someone who looked like those lifestyle influencers I used to secretly envy
Even my mom was shocked when she saw the photons, actually tearing up “My little girl’s all grown up.”
My Instagram was absolutely exploding||
Classmates were losing their minds over the transformation, sharing my photos in our group chat with pare disbelief.
All the positive feedback made me self conscious, so I jumped into the chat to deflect “You guys are too sweet–it’s all good lighting and editing, “[]
My comment appeared at the exact same time as one from Harper’s friend: “Calista’s Photoshop skills are insane, you’ll have to teach us sometime.”
The shade was so obvious it hurt.
The group that went dead silent.
Joy couldn’t stand the passive aggression and immediately posted the original unedited photos I’d sent her–live photos that couldn’t be altered ||
Everyone went even more insane, including our teachers.
“Had no iden our class president was hiding model potential under those buggy uniforms.”
“Calista was already gorgeous without makeup, this just makes it Instagram ready.
“Academic grind was seriously hiding natural beauty–we could’ve had two campus queens in our class.“[]
The girl who’d thrown shade earlier stayed quiet, but another one of Harper’s minions jumped in with: “Live photos can be edited too, just saying“]
The pettiness was unreal, but I didn’t need to defend myself–half the class did it for me
Tanner and Harper never commented on anything, but I noticed Tanner stopped posting from their trip entirely after that day.
Itadin silence. Interesting
Soon after, Mou called with life changing g news–my MIT acceptance letter had arrived.[]
1 sobbed for hours, ugly crying tears of pare relief and joy!]
–
All that work, all those sleepless nights, all the sacrifices–it had finally paid off
But then Mom’s voice turned serious: “Honey, Grandma’s in the hospital. You need to come home right away.”
