chapter 3- this means war (p3)

“No! Why was Hannah Ferrell here?” Mia demanded, as Kate could smell the rum on Mia’s breath. She’d clearly been drinking a lot, which meant she’d drunk a lot of pop too. Unfortunately, Kate couldn’t spot even a tiny bit of bloating across Mia’s tight waistline.

“I didn’t invite her.” Kate protested, as she tried to play it cool and line up a throw for her pong game. To Kate’s surprise, Mia was quick to pull her hand down in a demanding fashion.

“Then we need a freaking bouncer next time.” Mia fumed, as Kate could tell Mia was pissed. She needed to calm her down or she’d make a scene for sure.

“What’s wrong with Hannah? She always seems nice.” Kate muttered trying to ease the tension.

“She’s nice, to boys, because she’s desperate for anyone and everyone to f*ck her. The slut has zero standards. She’s not pretty, she’s not smart and she’s not nice, but more importantly she’s a lying bitch who likes to spread false rumors about me because she’s jealous.” Mia growled. Kate could see that plenty of people were eavesdropping, but Mia either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

“Calm down Mia. Next time I’ll be sure to keep the invite list smaller and we can have someone be a bouncer.” Kate assured Mia. Mia was satisfied with Kate’s response but there was still some further business to be had. Kate’s eye-catching getup certainly drew attention to her bust and shapely hips, but it didn’t hide the protruding bit of soft flesh that appeared freshly bloated around the lower portion of Kate’s abdomen. It was the perfect target.

“I’m calm.” Mia muttered, as she looked around. Everyone’s attention at the table was on her. Perfect. “Can I play?”

“We are in the middle of a game?” Kate explained, as Mia grabbed the pong ball from Kate’s hand and slowly poked Kate’s soft midsection with her other one. Kate’s eyes widened with a mix of surprise and fear, as she felt Mia’s touch.

“Don’t you have to go to the bathroom? You’re looking hella bloated.” Mia evilly teased with a smug expression on her face, as Kate’s cheeks blushed a fierce red color. Everybody’s eyes immediately followed Mia’s finger. Kate even gulped as she looked downward and regretted what she saw. She was sporting a little round food baby from all the beer, but what made it worse was that it didn’t look firmly packed underneath a muscled stomach, it served to extenuate the soft bit of chub Kate had been unable to vanquish from her body over the summer. It looked like fat. And Mia knew that. That’s why she’d drawn everybody’s attention to it. Kate was lucky Mia gave her an out for this humiliating situation, this time.

“Yeah, you can play till I get back.” Kate reluctantly gave in as she accepted Mia’s will. The last thing Kate wanted was to subject herself to any more humiliation.

“Oh, and I can’t find the key for the upstairs bathroom, so you’ll have to use the downstairs one like everyone else.” Mia smugly responded, as Kate heard Mia’s message loud and clear. Mia had effectively banished her from her own pong game. There was no use fighting her on it. There was nothing she could do. Yet. But in time, Kate swore to make Mia pay for this.

“Okay, I guess I’ll go wait in line. Good luck.” Kate replied, as she bit her tongue. There was nothing she could say to get back at Mia.

“Thanks Kate!” Mia cheered, as she happily lined up her first shot.

“Yeah.. you’re welcome.” Kate droned, as she walked back to the bar and grabbed herself a beer. Mia always had to be the center of attention. It was so annoying. Kate knew she needed to calm down, so she went into the kitchen to spectate how that pong game was going. Sitting against the countertop alone, she was a bit disappointed that Mia looked just as perfect as ever. After a whole week of trying to sabotage her, she had nothing to show for it. Kate took a pretty big swig of beer to ease her thoughts. Her plan wasn’t going to pay off in a week, she was in this for the long haul. Kate closed her eyes and imagined the day when Mia’s reign of terror came crashing down. It was such a pleasant daydream Kate didn’t even notice the guy causally walking over to sit next to her.