Chapter 21: Chapter 21

Nicole cussed as she saw Zach and Vega by the ice cream stand, now she didn't have to wonder about why Arielle had been acting like a banshee all day long and lashing out at anyone that she came across for no reason, the reason was standing right in front of her, and it made her feel a bit angry and more useless. "I'm so pissed off right now!" Nicole got out in frustration and tugged at her hair harder, then gasped when the hair gave and she stared in horror as she stared at the chunk that had come off. "oh my goodness, I'm going to go bald at this point".

Jenny who stood watching Vega and Zach turned to look at the hair, her eyes widening in alarm. "Nicole, are you sure this is normal. You've been losing a lot of hair lately".

Nicole groaned low in her throat and resisted the urge to give her hair another vicious tug. "You think I don't know that, I'm aware of how much hair I'm losing but that's because I'm always stressed out. Do you know Zach is now going practically everywhere with Vega, he doesn't even look at Arielle anymore, and that serves her right because I prefer to lose to Vega than to her, but the change happened so fast, it's giving me whiplash. It feels like I wasn't even allowed to show him that I could be the perfect girl for him, it's as if I never stood a chance from the very beginning. Ugh...I'm so fucking frustrated right now".

Jenny exhaled, her gaze becoming depleted. "It feels that way doesn't it, but I'm truly not surprised, we've always been relegated to the background, we always followed Arielle around and we had to do everything she said, maybe that's why we can't do anything on our own. You complain that you weren't given a chance, but no one was, I mean Vega is the last person Zach should be seen with and yet it's happening right in our faces, so I think for you to win this bet depends on you, and no one else, we have to stop waiting for someone to give us a chance or an order before we know what to do with ourselves." She said, her pitch rising at the end, the feeling that she'd been repressing coming out in vivid colors.

Nicole's eyes widened, then she started pacing abruptly. "You're right Jenny. Oh my goodness, everything you're saying is just the way things are in our lives, I mean look at me, I say I'm not going to let Arielle influence me anymore yet I'm still keeping the drugs she'd bought for my weight loss and using them, I'm still freaking dressing like her and..." She paused as Jenny stared at her in confusion. "What?".

"You're using drugs? When did you start, how come I knew nothing about this" she asked, staring straight at Nicole who looked embarrassed.

"It's been three months already. Arielle said I was overweight and bought me some drugs to help slim me down, look it worked, so I kept using it because I don't want to be fat again".

Jenny stared at her incredulously. "Nicole, you were never fat! You've always looked healthy... What drug are you taking..."

"Why, you sound as if you think Arielle gave me poison or something. It's just some weight loss drugs that I'll stop using soon, it's not a big deal" Nicole said with a shrug.

"It is a big deal. You started losing your hair three months ago. Can't you add two and two together? Arielle gave you those drugs so you could go bald. Look at your hair Nicole, in the next two months if it keeps falling out at the rate it is, you'll be hairless" she gasped, her eyes wide as a cat who'd thought of something disturbing.

Nicole stared at the ground as she mulled Jenny's words over, then it was like she got an epiphany with the truth hitting her in the face like a horsewhip. All this time, Arielle had only pretended to help her, but behind the help was an agenda to have her destroyed. Nicole's eyes blurred with pain-blinding anger as she realized that she'd been played and trampled upon. Arielle had never been a friend to her, her aim had been just to ruin their lives and other people's lives through them. Arielle had kicked at her self-esteem until Nicole had blindly followed everything she told her to, until recently, and that was all because she stood her ground on winning Zach Dante's for herself, if she hadn't left the shadows of Arielle, then maybe she'd have succeeded In destroying more than just her hair.

Nicole had always wondered why Arielle would go out of her way to get her drugs, drugs that she didn't know shit about but was dumb enough to use. "I'm so fucking stupid!".

"What are you going to do, if Arielle is capable of this, I don't think she'd take it easy on you if you threaten her chance with Zach".

Nicole whipped to face Jenny, her red eyes murky with unshed dissipating tears. "Take it easy on me?" She muttered, then scoffed. "I might have been taking her orders for years but during those times we followed her around, I learned a thing or two so she won't be able to touch me or do anything to me ever again..."

"What are you planning to do?"

"I'm going to give her a taste of her own medicine Jenny. I'm going to ruin her whole perfect image, and also make her lose some hair if I can and you're going to help me".

Jenny took two uncertain steps back. "Me? Arielle hates me than she does you".

"I know that so you better do a convincing job of apologizing to her".

Jenny's brows furrowed. "Apologize to her, after she shoved me off just for telling her to leave you alone"

"I freaking know all that Jenny but if we're ever going to have our revenge, you have to do it and as for Vega, we'll have to make her quit the competition because I won't be able to win as long as she has Zach interested her".

"I don't know which Is harder, getting Arielle to take me back or getting Vega to willingly get out of the bet".

"Both will be a piece of cake and once Zach is mine, I'll share that huge amount of money with you and we can do whatever we want because we'll be filthy rich" she convinced, grabbing hold of Jenny. "No one will ever be able to order us around and Arielle will be so humiliated, she won't dare show her face around school," she said with a dark promise in her eyes and Jenny fidgeted in worry.

"What are you going to do?".

"I'm going to do everything it takes to win Jenny. Everything and anything it takes to win".