There's a first time for everything, especially for winning, even for Barbara.
"Today is my birthday, Sunday, October 31st. Happy birthday to me. Happy Halloween to everyone," said Barbara for no one to hear.
Already a little bit drunk, she sat alone again. Alcohol her only friend, she had suddenly taken a liking to Cosmopolitans. The cranberry and lime juice gave her enough of a kick to mask the vodka and triple sec. Plus, she loved the red color of her drink, especially when staring down at her glass in depression. Red made her angry and she had every right to be. Right now, anger is what she so needed to take action. Her only friend, her co-worker and, coincidentally, the woman who was also her roommate, was on stage getting all the accolades and attention from everyone, especially from men.
"Congratulations Veronica," said the big boss. "You won the contest again."
"Oh, thank you," she said acting shyly coy, while posing for the camera. "I can't believe I won...again," she said with an annoying laugh, much like the laugh of Rachel on Big Brother 12.
"I love your costume," said the man in charge of fashion design at the magazine where they worked.
"Smile and say, Paris," said the photographer taking her photo for the official company newsletter and for the press release to be published in all the fashion magazines.
"Great costume, Veronica," said all of her male co-workers, and even some female co-workers, congratulating her one after another, while leering at her nearly naked body with some of them giving her hugs and kisses on the cheek.
They, especially the men, all gathered and congregated around Veronica still congratulating her and wishing her well for winning, yet, another company Halloween costume party.
"It's bad enough that I must share my birthday with Halloween but now that I must share my birthday with Veronica winning yet, another friggin' company Halloween costume contest is more than I can bear and too much to endure. It's my birthday and she gets all the attention. It's my birthday and she gets all the well wishers, the compliments, and the men. Well, no more. This time next year, for my 30th birthday, I'll be a new woman," she said raising her glass in toast to herself.
Thinking, no doubt, that Barbara was toasting her, Veronica waved to her co-worker, friend, and roommate and gave her a big cheesecake smile, along with her pixie pose. Barbara raised her camera and took Veronica's photo.
"This is the perfect photo that will give me the motivation I need to continue my transformation through the winter," she said to herself. "Asshole," said Barbara through her teeth. "Selfish, self-centered bitch. Whore. Slut. Breast implanted bimbo. I hate you," she said under her breath, while smiling, waving, and blowing kisses at her friend.
"You're so lucky to have such a beautiful friend," said a man from the next table.
"I'm truly blessed," said Barbara playing him with her own version of Veronica's plastic smile and rolling her eyes, as soon as he looked away. She wanted to puke her hatred of Veronica all over him.
"Isn't she gorgeous," said someone else at another table.
"She's a real winner inside and out," said Barbara beginning to slur her words.
"She has such a great body," said someone else.
"I wish I had her body. I wish I had her face. I wish I was her," said Barbara for only herself to hear, while downing her drink and ordering another from a passing waiter. "Waiter! Hit me with another one of these Cosmopolitans and keep them coming, until I have red liquid dripping from my unconscious body."
She pictured herself lying on the floor under the table, as if a beached whale with a harpoon in her side, and no one noticing her.
"Yes, ma'am," he said with a laugh.
Beginning to gain a few pounds from eating too much fast foods and from not exercising enough, Barbara wasn't much to look at, especially when standing in the shine of Veronica's radiance. With her mousey, brown hair, smallish breasts, and oversized eyeglasses, she looked more like a bank auditor, then she did an employee of a famous fashion magazine. She wished she looked more like Veronica.
"Ronnie was so popular. Ronnie was so pretty. Ronnie was so phony, but every man and even some women wanted her," said Barbara working on her fourth drink.
Barbara grew extraordinarily and exasperatingly tired of watching her best friend and roommate get everything. When she won the Halloween contest the first time, she handled that with aplomb. Then, when she won the Halloween contest for the second year, she handled her second win with a bit of jealous rivalry. Now, the third consecutive win, she was thinking of how she could poison her friend without anyone knowing she had been murdered and suspecting.
Tired of being the invisible wallflower, while Veronica got all the men, she wanted and needed some attention, too. Tired of sitting home alone, while Ronnie went on hot dates to faraway places with a different man every month, she wanted her turn at living life large, too. The type of woman who'd give you the pantyhose off her legs, Barbara was a swell gal and a real friend in need.