For F it had always been the same. From early school, scouts, high school, army, everything. She had always been the prettiest girl – by far even. It was just a fact of life for her. She was constantly approached by boys and men, but they washed off her like water against rocks, and she was used to them always looking at her, while she was free to pick and choose.
It was the same when she started her new job as waitress at a bar. Even though she was new she immediately shot to the top of the tips table. Everything was normal.
Until she noticed – her.
Her – was a regular that would arrive a couple of times a week. Either alone, or with her sister. F later learned her name was O, but in her own mind she was always just 'her'. She was of similar size and build, and looked to be of the same age, and even F had to admit that O was beautiful – and that men seemed to wash off her as well, like water off rocks, as if she'd had a similar experience in life.
But what F really noticed, was that men were no longer so much looking at her. as looking back and forth between the two of them.
Another beauty, a challenge, a challenger. At first this only intrigued her, but it quickly changed to a feeling of who was this bitch, who dared to just waltz in here, and change the natural order of things? Not thinking that O, quite possibly, had the very same thoughts about her.
As F was a waitress and O sat at the bar, there was never any contact between them, but occasionally their eyes would meet, and daggers would fly. Oh, yes, they were aware of each other, and oh, yes, they were at war.
F started making sure her shifts would always fall on nights when 'she' would be there, as she found that she somehow enjoyed this silent crossing of swords with her enemy. O too noticed this, and the two rivals would always try to look their sharpest, as they arrived to the scene of their weekly distance dueling.
Tensions increased. The brief eye contacts changed to staring matches whenever F's work would let her have a moment, with the win-lose tally more or less equally shared, and whenever they'd happen to pass each other muttered insults were exchanged just mute enough so that the insults of each were only audible by her rival.
Then finally it would chance that they'd meet alone in the hallway to the toilets. One coming out the other one on her way in. This was it! Both were determined to stay their course and so they inevitably bumped into each other, chest first. But as another person just rounded the corner, they left it at that, just half-circling each other with a hateful glare.
But for F enough was enough, it had come to a head – a conclusion was necessary. So, when O left she ran out after her shouting "wait", and O turned around.
F was finally alone with, and having the attention of her rival. She walked towards O, who just stood waiting, neither girl lowering her eyes as they ended up almost nose to nose.
"This thing has to end", F hissed, "We have to duel. I have to defeat you. I challenge you."
"Are you that insecure?", O Hissed back, "You need security only because you know I'm better. But I gladly accept your challenge, just to humiliate you even more than I already have."
They took one further step forward, so their breasts did touch, as their noses would on and off, while they maintained their brown eyes' hatefilled lock, and started negotiating how they would defeat each other (the point was never winning!). Despite their hands itching, and their sentences being littered with insults like 'ugly skank', and 'deformed whore', they managed to thrash out a formula for their ultimate clash.
They both agreed that as this was essentially a Battle of Beauty, a fight, however welcomed, would solve nothing. Instead they would deliberately compete over guys. 5 to begin with. Yet who knew how serious that could get, so fights might be inevitable, not to mention eagerly anticipated. Plus it would mean that in each case the defeated one would find that she was not free to pick and choose, while the other, the winner, was.
"So, we have an agreement on the rules, skank?", F said. "We have an agreement, tramp.", O confirmed. Iinstead of shaking hands over it, they each confirmed it with a singeing slap to the other one's face, and then they pushed each other away,
But they had only walked away a couple of steps before they turned, and with a "Bitch!" and a "Whore!" lunged at each other and were in each other's hair. Their similar size and build meant that neither rival was able to gain an immediate advantage, and their relentless hairpulling started out with a stalemate, and they were quickly separated anyway, by an off-duty barman who walked past, and enquired what on earth they thought they were doing.
They did not care that they got separated at that time. They gave each other one last glance and turned around. Their duel to once and for all determine, who would get her self-image confirmed and who would get it destroyed, by knowing she had lost in a direct confrontation with a girl more beautiful had begun.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
