System Revenge: From Trash Boy to Top Boss

Chapter 10

Xavier and Ernie stood side by side, with shared smiles and their eyes gazing out at Damon’s VIP lounge. They were enjoying themselves, as they were sure their plan was going to work. From within their circle, they see the small change in Aria’s friends’ looks. 

Beatrice, Chloe, and Daphne suddenly had an anxious pout, and their earlier self-confidence was replaced by nervousness. Even Aria, who looked so relaxed, deep down could not think straight and wondered if she was weighing her options correctly. She wondered if she had made a mistake, staying or even coming to this party in the first place.

By this, Ernie felt a surge of pride taking over his body as he gripped his hands around his drink he had gotten at the bar. He shouted through the constant thumping of the music, his voice as clear as ever. “Hey Newton, why don’t we spice things up, a bit more?”

A ripple spread through the audience. They had all been watching, waiting for the next part of this drama to happen. People stopped talking, and heads turned.

The grin on Ernie's face widened, and he had a predatory smile in his eyes. "Since all my friends here are supporting me, I really need to give them something to celebrate once we win.” 

He stopped. It didn't quite make sense to Damon or Aria, but the guys around Ernie already understood and began to lick their lips as their eyes darted towards Aria’s friends.

“What are you proposing, Ernie?” Damon asked, his voice calm, though his eyes narrowed slightly.

Ernie’s gaze swept over Aria’s friends, lingering on each one. “I don’t just want Aria, Newton. I want her friends too, you know, for my friends. Even if it’s just for one night.” He puffed out his chest. “After all, who wouldn’t want a piece of the famous friends of Aria Golden?”

A roar of approval went up from the crowd, a mix of cheers and wolf whistles. The challenge had just gone through the roof as the air crackled with anticipation. Would Damon back out now? Or would his pride and his newfound confidence drag him and his new companions down into a humiliating defeat? 

Aria’s friends choked with shock; Beatrice, in particular, looked terrified. Her eyes darted from Ernie to Damon. She had slapped Ernie twice tonight. What kind of revenge would he demand from her?

Aria’s face hardened as she turned to Ernie, her voice cold. “You will not subject my friends to such a cruel fate, Ernie. They are not pawns in your pathetic games.” Her jaw tightened; she hated bullies, and Ernie was acting like the worst kind.

She glanced at Damon as he met her gaze, his expression unreadable, but his confidence, somehow, remained unshaken. A flicker of hope, a desperate thought, sparked within her. She pulled out her phone, quickly checking her bank balance. 

A sigh escaped her lips. She had a substantial amount, enough to match Damon’s; if he could raise half a million, she could match him to a million, at least, to counter the guys. But did Damon even have that much? He seemed so sure.

She turned to her friends. “Stay,” she commanded, her voice low but firm.

Beatrice, Chloe, and Daphne looked at her, their faces etched with fear and disbelief. “Aria, have you gone completely mad?” Beatrice hissed, her voice barely a whisper. “Have you become so foolish as to fall in love with someone like Damon, and now you’re willing to risk everything, including your dignity and ours, for him?”

“We value our friendship with you, Aria,” Chloe added, her voice trembling, “when it’s of benefit to us. But now… now you’ve lost your self-respect and your status, all for a known pauper who just happened to win a lottery and buy you a bag!”

Daphne nodded vehemently. “This is insane, Aria; we’re leaving.”

Aria tried to explain, to tell them about her plan, about the confidence she saw in Damon, and about her own willingness to contribute. “No, wait, guys, I have a plan; just trust me.”

But they wouldn’t listen. Beatrice scoffed, a cruel, dismissive sound. “To be fair, Aria, we always thought you were too soft for our liking. Your status in this school warranted some guts, some pride. But you were always too good to everyone.” 

A venomous glint entered Beatrice’s eyes. She had always been jealous of Aria, always waiting for the right opportunity to usurp her. This was it. “Your end has come, Aria, and we’re abandoning you. Once your downfall is concluded by these little boys, the shame and embarrassment will make you a nobody in this school, and then you’ll have nothing.”

With that, Beatrice, Chloe, and Daphne turned their backs on Aria. They walked directly to Jane’s VIP table, their faces set with a cold, calculating determination.

“Ernie!” Beatrice called out, her voice surprisingly loud and clear. “Damon and Aria have agreed to the full weight of the challenge and in exchange for our support, we’d like to redeem ourselves and be excluded from the consequences. Each of us will contribute a hundred thousand dollars to your spending power!”

A collective gasp swept through the club. Three hundred thousand dollars, added to Xavier and Ernie’s half-million, brought their rough estimate to over a million and two hundred thousand dollars.

“One point two million, roughly!” someone shrieked.

“Damon is done for!”

Ernie and Xavier exchanged surprised glances, their eyes wide. Xavier leaned into Ernie. “I promised you we’d win,” he whispered, a triumphant smile passing down his face.

Beatrice still kept her eyes on Aria, adding, in a voice that was dripping with malice, “And for our help, Ernie, you will help us throw away whatever dignity Aria has left, tack it on the media, and make sure she loses everything she ever had in this school. ”

A wave of shock rippled through the crowd. The sudden, brutal betrayal left everyone stunned, but as the initial shock wore off, a few murmurs began. “Aria had it coming,” someone whispered. “She chose to side with a nobody.”

Aria froze in her chair, her heart beating in her ribs, and a sharp pain in her chest rising out of her chest, the shame that the girls she trusted were against her, and the betrayal she felt. And if, by some miraculous grace, she and Damon win this bet, she would make sure the three girls pay for what they had done.

Damon was as torn as Aria; he could not believe her so-called friends were just willing to leave her just like that. He had a strong surge of protective anger because he was certain he was going to win, and when he did, he was going to deal with her former friends in person and he would make them regret their betrayal.

In his mind, he called out to the System with his voice urgent. “System, what options do I have? I need more help. I need to crush these guys and I need to make those girls pay.”

His mind raced, quickly calculating his current balance. He had started with $1,000,000. He had spent $200,000 on his clothes and Aria’s bag. That left him with $800,000. Xavier, Ernie, their friends, and the three former friends of Aria now had a combined spending power of at least $1,200,000. He was outmatched and he had to think fast. He needed a way to bridge that gap, and then some.