What We Choose novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Clippers

Dessa

My hair started coming out on a Wednesday, in the shower, in Kenna's tiny bathroom with the pink tile.

I ran my fingers through the conditioner and they came away full.

Long red strands, wrapped around every finger like I'd been pulling weeds.

I stood under the water and looked at my hands for a long time.

By Friday there was hair on my pillow, hair on my sweater, hair in the bagel I was eating at my desk in Boston.

My boss sent me home at noon.

He meant it kindly. He'd also seen the post.

Everyone had seen the post.

Sienna's sad face in front of the ocean. Colter and Dessa Quinlan were involved long before any of this.

Somebody had screenshotted it into a Boston gossip account. Somebody else had found my Instagram.

Homewrecker, under a picture of me at graduation.

Hope the cancer wins, under a picture of me and my mom.

I'd made the account private. It didn't matter. The screenshots were already everywhere.

Colter called me the night it went up.

"Let me answer it," he said. "I'll post the card statements. The dates. Everything."

"No."

"Dessa."

"If you answer it, it's two rich people fighting on Facebook, and I'm the girl in the middle." I was lying on Kenna's couch with my mom's quilt over my legs. "I'll answer it myself. To their faces. When I pick the place."

He was quiet for a second.

"Okay," he said. "Tell me where."

He never argued with me twice.

At ten to two on Friday night, Kenna flipped the sign on the bar door to CLOSED and locked it.

"Okay," she said. "Barstool. Now."

The bar was empty except for us. It smelled like lime and old beer. Somebody's forgotten scarf hung on a hook by the door.

Kenna set a pair of electric clippers on the counter.

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