chapter 19- rude awakening (p6)

“He doesn’t like ‘bigger’ girls! I’m not a ‘bigger’ girl! He’s not a chubby chaser! He likes me for me!!” Kate rallied despite emotional tears beginning to form in her eyes. This battle was taking a toll on her. She felt exhausted. She had to act fast otherwise Mia would bury her where she stood.

“Calm down fatty, don’t take your insecurities out on me!” Mia dismissed Kate’s proclamations.

“You’re the one with the insecurities! Deep down you know sex isn’t just the glue holding your relationship together, it’s everything!” Kate cried knowing this would agitate Mia to no end, “Hannah was right. Trent’s only dating you so he can get a leg up on that bingo game! And I think, deep down, you know it!”

“I was wondering what the heck you stuffed yourself with to get so fat, but now it’s obvious. You’re full of sh*t!” Mia burst appearing to lose her cool. Despite her best intentions, Kate’s words were sinking in.

Competitive until the end, Kate knew she shouldn’t have expected anything less from Mia. Even if Mia knew Kate was right, she’d never admit it. It wasn’t in Mia’s personality to back down. Wait a minute… That was it!

“You know what?” Kate began with renewed vigor, “Rather than slapping the sh*t out of you right here and now, how about we settle this our way? Tomorrow morning.”

“Ha! Is that a challenge?” Mia tilted her head regaining her composure. Her facial expression reflected her smug curiosity.

“You bet your ass.” Kate yelled, as Mia spied the inklings of a double chin jiggle a bit under her opponent’s face.

Mia was irritated Kate hadn’t completely crumbled at her feet. The girl’s cheeks appeared red from embarrassment and her body appeared inflated like never before, yet still she didn’t beg for Mia’s forgiveness. The blonde’s body had blown up in every direction and yet she still resisted with hurtful lies about Trent. Maybe Kate didn’t truly realize just how far she’d fallen down the social ladder. Maybe she didn’t yet realize her place in the pecking order as nature intended. Maybe she needed a more forceful reminder of just how inferior she truly was.

Not letting up, Kate interrupted Mia’s train of thought by loudly proclaiming, “If I win you can’t have sex with Trent again until summer break. See how long your relationship lasts then!”

This was a serious stake for the bet, even though Mia was confident that Kate could never beat her at anything, she still had to negotiate such a ridiculous demand, “Winter break.”

“Spring break.” Kate compromised.

“Deal! Even if I lost to you by some stretch of the imagination! Trent and I don’t need sex to enjoy our time together.” Mia justified, as she decided to claim her own ridiculous stakes, “*Ahem* When I win, I’m officially the boss of who is allowed in this house, at all times! You’ll have to beg for my permission to have anyone over! And I’m allowed to change my mind. If I say you and Jay have to leave. You get the f*ck out, no questions asked.”

“Deal.” Kate agreed without blinking an eye.

“Haha! Game on porky! You must be crazy if you think an out of shape ditz like you can beat me at anything.” Mia laughed unable to believe Kate’s misplaced confidence, “We’ll do a race at the track.”

“No. Track was your sport. I’m only gonna do this if I have a fair chance.” Kate declared, “If you’re so much better than me at everything, how about we settle this with a game of tennis?”

“I haven’t played any tennis since the summer.” Mia admitted, while she wondered how much of a threat Kate would be in her preferred sport.

They both had experience playing tennis. Kate played in high school but stopped when she’d gotten into college. Mia had played at the local country club every summer since she was in middle school, but she’d certainly never been on a team. Reflecting, Mia knew she’d lost more than a few tennis related challenges to Kate freshman year. Back then Kate had clearly had the edge in experience and conditioning, but Mia figured she didn’t have those advantages anymore. Still though, it was an unnecessary risk to bet the whole challenge on her tennis skills. Changing her tone, Mia proposed, “How about we make a day of it? A comprehensive competition. A three-part challenge. Best two out of three. We’ll have a race, we’ll play a game of tennis, and, if I somehow don’t win both of those events, we’ll settle the score with something else. So, what do you say? You in?”