Queen Bee Syndrome

Chapter 27: Poodle Hair

"Oh my God, does this look anything like the pictures I showed you?! I look fucking ridiculous!"

"Calm down Em, it's nothing to freak out over," I tried to assure Emma. She was sitting in a salon chair, with a very frightened hairdresser standing behind her.

"Calm down? Calm down?! I look like a fucking poodle!" She screamed, making other people in the salon turn to look at us.

"I-I'm s-sorry," The hairdresser stuttered, "I thought adding m-more curls would make it look n-nicer."

"Well obviously you thought wrong!" Emma hissed.

I bit my lip as my eyes wandered over her hair. It didn't look bad, honestly, but it wasn't what Emma had envisioned so to her, it was hidious.

"I'll get one of the senior staff to help," The hairdresser mumbled, and quickly scurried off.

"Way to go, Em. She's probably gone to cry in the bathroom now."

"Good," Emma frowned, "She was supposed to make me look great, and now look at me! I can't go to prom like this!"

As she spoke, an older woman with a cute pixie cut walked towards us.

"Now, ladies, what seems to be the problem?"

As Emma spoke to the older hairdresser, trying to hold back tears, I stepped away and looked at myself in a mirror attached to the wall.

My hair came out looking nice the first time round, but I didn't want to go for anything too elaborate. It was loosely curled, with the sides pulled back around my head and fastened with a pretty gold hair clip. My dress was already a statement so I didn't want to over do my look anywhere else.

The last few months had gone so fast, I couldn't believe it was already prom. As I thought about what tonight would be like, I felt my phone buzz in my pocket.

I pulled it out and opened the message on my screen.

'Got the corsage! Looking forward to tonight x - Cam'

The text also had a picture attached, which had a beautiful white lily corsage with a gold ribbon in a plastic box. I smiled and quickly replied to the text.

'Me too Cam, can't wait!'

While my message seemed cheery and light, I actually felt the complete opposite. I was in no way looking forward to prom, which was completely unlike me.

I loved getting dolled up for prom and having fun with Emma and all my other friends. But tonight was different. The sheer thought made a lump rise in my throat, which felt very difficult to get rid of.

I knew exactly why, though. I didn't want to admit it to myself, but there was no denying that I was not looking forward to tonight because of one thing and one thing only: Nash.

We hadn't spoken since that day at the mall, if you would even consider that speaking. And he never mentioned the bet to me. Hell, he never even looked at me anymore.

I had assumed that he had let the bet go. I mean, he was closer to winning than me at this stage, but there was no doubt in my mind he wanted nothing to do with me.

Honestly, I didn't want much to do with me right now.

"Jolie? Jolie, what do you think?"

I snapped out of my thoughts and turned my attention to Emma, "Sorry, what? I was miles away."

"She was just saying what she was going to do to fix my hair," Emma said, her voice sounding hoarse from holding back tears, "She said she'll bring all the curls up into an updo. What do you think?"

"Oh, that sounds lovely, Em," I beamed at her, "You always look great with your hair up."

She looked at herself in the mirror for a moment, before returning her eyes to me and smiling.

"Yeah, you're right. Updo it is."

I nodded, still smiling at her, and settled into the chair beside her.

Despite everything going on in my head right now, I knew Emma was looking forward to tonight, and I wanted to make an effort to enjoy it with her. I'd practically put her through hell these last few months with all my drama, it was the least I could do.

As myself and Emma made small talk about prom with the hairdresser, I couldn't help but let my mind wander back to him every so often. It was a regularity for me now, for him to enter my thoughts randomly throughout the day. But whereas months ago, a random thought of Nash would irritate me, now it made me feel sad, angry and guilty.

I wish I could make things right, I thought. I fucked up, majorly, the least I could do is apologise, right?

Oh no Jolie, that will just end in an argument and you know it, I mentally argued with myself.

But what if it doesn't? What if I can fix everything?

Yeah, right, I scoffed quietly to myself, if anything he'd end up hating you more than he already does.

And there it was. Another lump in my throat. All because of the thought of Nash Grier hating me.

If this had been before last January, I wouldn't have cared less how Nash Grier felt about me. But things had changed, and definitely not for the better.

If only I could put them right...
__________________________
A/N: Hello there... long time no update.
(That was a terrible joke, I'm sorry).

I'd like to start off first by saying, yes this update is dreadful, but it's a start. A start to me actually finishing this God damn story.

It's been well over a year since I last updated, and honestly, I'm not even a part of this fandom anymore (I had to reread this myself just to remember what some of the characters were like).

I also want to say, I am so very sorry for abandoning this story. It was rude of me to do that, without even really giving an explanation. And while this wasn't my priority for the past year, I always felt a stab of guilt for never finishing this. Hell, I had originally planned to write a series! (Please don't expect anything from that now... I've barely managed one story, let alone a whole series).

Anyway, enough rambling. I want to finish this brief return chapter by saying, yes I do want to continue this story, because I hate leaving things unfinished. I cannot tell you all how often I will be updating it, but I definitely will not be waiting an entire year to continue again (and if I do you all have permission to hunt me down and slap me).

So, once again, I am very sorry, and hopefully you all can forgive me :)

- Amelia xx