EIGHT

Nicholas came out of the bathroom, a towel tied around his waist. He looked at Ashley’s sleeping figure on the bed, shook his head and smiled fondly. Careful not to make a noise or disturb her, he treaded slowly towards the dressing table and picked up his body cream. He spread out his palm and pressed out the cream.

After rubbing cream all over his body, he hurriedly wore his jeans trousers and shirts. He picked up his hair cream from the table and pressed out the cream. He stared at it with a puzzled look on his face. It looked oddly strange. Then he, shrugged and rubbed it all over his hair.

He pressed more into his hands and rubbed all over his hair. He was so engrossed in rubbing the cream all over his hair that he did not realize the transformation that was taking place on his head, neither did he bother to check the mirror.

Once he was done, he tapped Ashley. “Hey babe.”

Her eyes fluttered open. She closed them back and yawned. Then, she opened her eyes. She smiled slowly. She opened her mouth to talk, “Nick…” But her gaze trailed towards his hair and she gasped, touching it. “Nick, what did you do to your hair?”

He shrugged, raising his hand to touch his slightly. “Nothing. I just rubbed cream all over it. What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nicholas, have you looked in the mirror today?” Ashley said, still staring at Nicholas’ hair with wide eyes.

“No, why…..?”

She stood up and began to push him to the direction of the mirror. “Go ahead and take a look at yourself.”

Nicholas stopped in front of the mirror and his eyes widened. “What...what….what the hell?!” Frantic, he touched his hair with his hand. He ran his hands through his hair. He turned to Ashley, panicking. “Ash, what’s wrong with my hair?”

“I don’t know. Did you dye it?”

“No!” he snapped. “What the heck is this?!” He pulled at his hair frustratingly, hitting his hand on the table. He grabbed his hair cream, opened it and peered at the content. “I knew that there was something wrong with this cream,” he hissed in anger. “God! I should have paid more attention!”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know, Ash,” he snapped, turning towards her. “I don’t know!” He stormed towards the door of the room, flung it open and stalked away, slamming the door loudly behind him.

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Malvika, Natasha and Diane sat at the dining table. There was a bowl of cookies in the middle of the table. They randomly reached out to pick one and chew as they chatted.

“He actually called me a white?” Diane asked, looking at her sisters, her brows furrowed in displeasure as she chewed on the cookie in her hand.

“Yeah but don’t worry sis, we already got back at Nicholas for what he said,” Malvika said with a smirk and Natasha bobbed her head up and down in agreement.

Diane eyed them suspiciously. “What did you do?”

“Nothing much,” Natasha replied. “Just something that will keep him bothered for few days.”

“Guys, hope it’s not…….”

“Don’t worry. “It isn’t dangerous,” Malvika assured her. “It won’t kill him.”

“Besides, you have to thank us,” Natasha said with a pout. “It took us nearly three days to be able to carry out our revenge!”

“I didn’t ask you to,” Diane replied, rolling her eyes.

“Ouch, that hurts,” Malvika said, dramatically placing her hand on her chest.

Natasha bit into the cookie in her hand and chewed slowly. “You know we’ve always got your back, sis.”

Diane smiled. “I know.”

The loud bang of a door upstairs made them flinch. Malvika and Natasha looked at the direction of the stairs. Then, they turned to look at each other and smiled conspiratorially.

Diane looked around. “What’s that?”

“Oh, I think he must have seen our present,” Natasha giggled.

Malvika smirked. “That’s right.”

“I thought you said it wasn’t dangerous, so why is he screaming?” Diane asked.

“Er……let’s just say it will keep him traumatized for some days,” Malvika replied.

“What did you do?” Diane asked.

Stomping feet were heard on the stairs and the three sisters turned their heads towards the direction.

Nicholas stood at the bottom of the stairs, breathing heavily. His hair was bright pink mixed with purple. He held a tube of hair cream in his hand. Ashley stood behind him, hands on her hips.

Rachel hurried out of the kitchen. “Mr. Langston, what’s wro……..?” she rushed out in panic. Her voice trailed off and her eyes widened as she saw his purple and pink hair.

“Who is in charge of cleaning my room?” He thundered.

“Sir, I…..”

“Who is in charge of cleaning my room?!” he yelled angrily.

“Mina sir,” Rachel replied, bowing her head quickly.

“Get her for me!” he screamed.

Natasha stuffed an handful of cookies in her mouth to prevent the laughter from spilling out. Diane looked down at the table, shielding her smiling face with her long hair. Malvika just stared at Nicholas, her amusement expertly masked with an indifferent expression on her face.

Mina came in few minutes later, her eyes wide with fright. “Good….good….good…good morning sir.”

“Save the greetings,” he snapped. “Who else entered my room aside from you?”

“No…no…nobody sir.”

“Really? So then, you were the one who put this horrid looking colour in my hair,” he screamed.

“No…no sir.”

“Who did it?” he asked angrily.

“I…I..I don’t know sir.”

“Aaargh! Get out of my sight!” he yelled and she hurriedly scurried away.

“What’s going on? Why are you shouting?” Jenny asked as she descended the stairs. She caught sight of Nicholas’ hair and screamed. “What the hell?! Why did you dye your hair?!”

“I didn’t,” Nicholas replied in frustration.

“So?”

“Somebody mixed some weird stuff with my cream!”

“Who?”

“That’s what I’m trying to get!” he yelled.

“Who is that sick person?” Ashley fumed. “Anyone who thinks this is funny must be sick.”

Natasha swallowed the cookies in her mouth. “I think it’s funny,” she said mischievously.

Ashley scoffed. “Seriously. I’m sure your lame ass sisters also think so.”

Nicholas turned to her, his eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Natasha, do you by any chance have a hand in this?”

Natasha’s eyes widened with mock innocence. “What?! No! Why would you even suggest that?!”

“If I find the person, he or she is dead meat.”

“Have you checked the CCTV footage?” Jenny suddenly asked.

Malvika and Natasha stiffened.

“That’s a great idea!” Ashley concurred.

“There are no cameras in my room,” Nicholas groaned.

“Oooh.” Ashley and Jenny looked momentarily defeated. Then, Jenny said, “How about the hallway? There is a camera there right? It’s close to your room.”

“Yes, yes,” Nicholas replied. “We will check the footage.”

“Gosh, you guys,” Malvika scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Why do you need to search the footage like you are looking for a criminal? It’s just an harmless prank. The dye will wear off soon.”

Nicholas glared at her, his eyebrows pulling together suspiciously. “Find a way to get the footage before I return from set,” he said to Ashley and Jenny.

“Sure.”

He turned. “Diane, aren’t you going to work?”

“No. I took today off. Logan will look over things for me,” she replied.

“Okay.”

“What will you do to your hair?” Ashley asked. “You can’t go out looking like that.”

“I’ll put on a cap, I guess,” he said, sighing in defeat. “Gosh, if I find the person behind this, I’m so going to deal with him or her,” he raged.

Malvika and Natasha exchanged panicked looks. Malvika turned her gaze towards Nicholas who was climbing the stairs, muttering angrily to himself while Ashley followed behind him. She tried to turn around but her gaze caught Jenny’s and she frowned. Jenny was staring at her intently and suspiciously.

“What?” Malvika snapped in her direction. And for the first time, Jenny shrugged her shoulders and went upstairs without saying a word.

Immediately they were out of earshot, Natasha grabbed Malvika and began to shake her. “Malvi! Oh my God! I had no idea there were security cameras in this house. What are we going to do?!”

Malvika shrugged. “They are just bluffing.”

“What?”

“I said they are just bluffing,” she repeats. “They can’t do nothing.”

“Malvika!” Diane exclaimed.

Malvika sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever. We will try to come up with something.”

“I can’t believe you are so nonchalant about this,” Natasha said. “What should we do?”

“First, we wait for Nicholas to leave the house, obviously,” she stated.

“Then?”

Malvika shrugged. “While we are waiting, we will be thinking of what next to do.”

Diane slapped her forehead in exasperation. “Oh, goodness!"