Chapter 2

Dani and I hadn't lost patience with Tinsley because of the mud. That was just the last straw.

Dani Reyes runs sprints for the track team — in on an athletic scholarship, Latina, hot-tempered, zero patience for anyone who plays dirty.

She got back from practice that night, heard about the bathroom, and threw her gym bag straight at the floor.

"That blonde bitch is at it again?" Her jaw was tight. "Last month she 'borrowed' your three-hundred-dollar allergy serum, got caught, and somehow flipped it on you — said your skincare was full of microplastics and she was doing you a favor, detoxing it for you. Last week she tossed my limited-edition running shoes in the trash because they're real leather. Said I was 'taking a life' and wrecking her karma. I should've shoved her head in the toilet right there."

That was Tinsley all over. Take whatever she wanted, and the second you pushed back, you were the monster who'd wronged her.

"Stay out of that bathroom, Dani. It's full of live fungus now." I handed her a bottle of hand sanitizer. "I'm already looking for a place off campus. For now we use the hall bathroom."

Right then my phone went off, buzzing nonstop.

A girl from our class had sent me a TikTok link.

I opened it and my blood pressure shot up.

Tinsley, no makeup, eyes rimmed red, putting on the trembly wounded-victim voice for the camera. "Guys, I'm honestly falling apart. All I wanted was to stick to my natural healing — grow a little pure beauty mud in my own bathroom. And my roommate, this smug bio-major know-it-all, not only trashed my beliefs, she wants to throw out everything I've worked for. She even threatened to kill me. Why is the world so cruel to people who care about the planet?"

The view count was already past a hundred thousand. The comments were one big pile-on.

"Oh my god, sending you love, Tinsley. Your roommate is evil."

"Drop her name! Let's get this girl cancelled."

"Natural is the way. Down with chemical poison!"

"She's lying about us online?" Dani snatched the phone out of my hand, shaking. "I'm gonna rip her mouth off."

Before I could stop her, she was out the door.

A huge bang — Dani kicked Tinsley's door clean open.

Tinsley was sitting there with that disgusting dark-red mud smeared across her face. The noise made her scream. "Ahhh! Are you insane?"

"Who's evil? Let me show you what evil actually looks like." Dani crossed the room, grabbed her by the collar, and hauled her up out of the chair.

"Let go! Help! She's a psycho!" Tinsley thrashed, scrambling for the phone on her desk to film.

I walked in slow, shut the door behind me, picked up her phone, and dropped it straight into the trash.

"Tinsley. Listen." I stepped in close, my voice flat. "You like playing the victim online — that's your business. But put my name or my face up one more time, and my lawyer hands you a defamation summons by tomorrow morning. Go on, guess. Your dad, the one selling used cars in Texas — can he cover Ivy League legal fees?"

The color drained out of her face. Nothing scared her more than someone calling out the fake-rich act.

"You — this is bullying!" she shrieked, loud and brittle, her voice shaking.

"Call it whatever you want." I gave a short laugh, and then my eyes caught on her neck.

Right at the edge of the mud mask, near her collarbone, there was a tiny red bump. Rice-grain small, easy to miss. And dead center, a faint white speck.

The spores were already in. One had found a follicle and started putting down roots in the fat under her skin.

I pulled Dani back before she could swing. "Leave it, Dani. Don't dirty your hands. Why bother with a dead woman?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tinsley screamed.

"Nothing." I turned for the door. "Enjoy your Miracle Red Lotus. Here's hoping your body holds up as well as your mouth does."