Page 65 of What Goes Around

Someone had held onto this picture for years.

I flattened it carefully.

In the photograph, my father stood beside a woman I had never seen, but who looked so much like me it made my breath catch.

They were tall and blond, sunlit and smiling into the camera. Early twenties, carefree, glowing. Their bodies angled toward each other.

I brought the photo closer, studying her face. The curve of her jaw. The shape of her eyes. The faint dimple in her cheek when she smiled. Features I had spent my whole life seeing in the mirror without ever knowing where they came from.

I traced her face with my fingertip.

Was this her?

My mother?

She was beautiful. The kind of beautiful that could’ve stepped straight into the fashion world.

I turned the photo over. In faint pencil were two names: Brandon and Ines.

My chest tightened. So that was her name. Ines.

I snapped a picture of the photo with my phone and carefully placed it back. At least now I had something, some thread to follow.

The next day, I went shopping using my father’s guilt money along with some of my own savings. If I was rebuilding myself in this second life, I needed clothes that fit properly.

I bought myself an entirely new wardrobe. A kind store clerk helped me find pieces that actually flattered my shape.

Five tops, three pairs of pants, three dresses, two skirts, jackets, shoes… everything was mix-and-matchable, feminine and sleek.

In my past life, before everything went to hell, I’d just begun exploring my own style. Clothes that made me feel beautiful.

But I never got to fully grow into it, because then came Payton’s wedding… and everything after.

This time, I kept my distance. I still talked to Payton, texted her, but less.

She noticed, of course. She even asked why I didn’t come over anymore, why I seemed… different since her Aspen trip.

But I brushed it off, told her nothing was wrong, that she hadn’t done anything wrong.

That I was just busy.

And then there was Nick.

He’d sent a few messages - How are you? I heard about Anton, what an idiot.

I hadn’t responded.

Yesterday, he finally asked why I wasn’t answering at all.

Payton must’ve told him what happened with Anton… the whole disaster everyone at school already knew: that something was going on between me and Anton, and then he disappeared into a room with Apple instead.

I didn’t know what to say to Nick.

In my previous life, during senior year, we texted constantly, sharing memes, jokes, and random little things. We were friends, but he was away at college, so we rarely saw each other in person.

Later, when we finally became a couple, he told me something I never forgot.

When he heard I was going to that party with Anton, and it sounded like a date, he snapped. He broke into his parents’ liquor cabinet and drank half a bottle of tequila by himself.