“Oh, it’s nothing; I just got a little lightheaded, is all.” I’m not sure, I could’ve sworn she said something before she fainted, but I had more important things to think about. My phone was already going crazy with texts, and the comments on the forum were coming hard and fast.
I don’t know how to feel or what to think about this turn of events. I didn’t want to look, didn’t want to read people’s compliments, knowing that it wouldn’t be long before the comparisons began again. That’s the way it used to be before, and I was always second best. Everyone was always going on and on about Gia’s mom and how pretty she was, followed by how much the daughter resembled the mother.
My heart felt sick each time I looked down at the screen, and I barely paid attention to mom, who seemed a bit dazed. I looked out the window for Felix to arrive with Gia; I needed to hear everything about the weekend. It was eating me up inside until I had a calming thought. It’s a wig; it has to be. There’s no way she’d got all that glue out of her messy curls. At the very least, she’d have had to cut her hair to get it out, or so I’d wished for.
I paced the room nervously as I waited, putting my phone on mute to escape the annoying texts. What’s the big deal anyway? It’s just stupid hair. But the new hair isn’t all they were talking about. They were also making a big to-do about the dress, the whole look, and the fact that she was having dinner with the Russos.
It’s as if that one picture had undone years of hard work. Now people were singing her praises and acting like they wanted to get to know her; meanwhile, mom was sitting in a chair in the corner looking like she’d lost her mind. “Where the hell is Felix? Mom, call him and see what’s going on. As soon as she gets here, we’re burning that wig.”
“Wig? What wig, who’re you talking about?”
“What the hell is the matter with you? Gia, of course, you saw the picture; what’re you going to do about it?”
“Oh, yes, Gia, of course, that’s who was in the picture.”
“Why are you talking like that? Did you hit your head?” She just shook her head and looked around the room as if searching for something. She looked…scared.
Her reaction was making the nerves in my tummy do jumping jacks. She can’t come apart now, not when things are taking a turn for the worst. I need her to be with it so she can work on Felix while I deal with Gia. I’m not sure how or when it had become so important for me to be better than her. Not sure what exactly had triggered this need in me, but it’s been going on too long for me to stop now.
The fact that she was this close to Gabriel Russo and his family is something I can’t even let myself think about. No one knew until that photo that she’d spent the weekend with them. No one had asked, and who’d have expected things to turn out this way? I’d told the girls about the prank I’d planned to pull on her, though they knew it was more than that. How am I supposed to face them now?
It’s as if she’d purposely done it to make me look bad. I couldn’t resist looking at the phone one more time, glad that it hadn’t cracked when I threw it in my rage. I can’t express the feelings that came over me seeing her looking like that while sitting so close to Gabriel and that look on his face. Adoring? Admiring? My heart felt sick as I was afraid it was more. Why does she deserve for him to look at her like that?
For a split second, it felt like I was losing my mind, everything was a jumble, and another look outside showed no sign of Felix returning. I needed to see Gia in front of me. Needed to make sure that the picture was just a fluke, that she hadn’t changed that much in one weekend. I need that thick flowing beautiful mane to be a wig, something I can easily destroy to expose the shaved head I’d planned for her when I emptied the glue into her shampoo bottle.
How come everything has been going wrong here lately? It all started when Gabriel got involved. For the first time in a very long while, I’ve been losing to Gia, and it’s not a good feeling. After years of subduing her, I’m starting to feel the way I used to when I was a little girl who sat on the sidelines at every party. Parties I was only invited to because my mom was friends with her mom, the goody-two-shoes who always went out of her way to involve us, her charity cases, according to mom anyway.