//Have you ever tried sleeping with a broken heart? Well you could try sleeping in my bed, lonely,//-Alicia Keys.

*Third party*

Daniel was quite surprised to hear a song playing in Bella's room when he woke up, he knew she was a lot of things but morning person wasn't one. The only reason she'd be awake at, according to her, an 'ungodly hour' as 5am would be because she didn't sleep at all.

She must have had another nightmare, he thought and had gone to check on her but her door was unusually locked and he didn't want to risk waking her if she was then getting some amount of sleep. Luckily, it was a Thursday and Daniel knew she had only one class at noon.

He immersed himself in adding finishing touches to his class project that was due later in the day and by the time he finished and got off the phone with his Intel at his father's rehab centre, three hours had passed, yet that one song was still on replay in Bella's room.

At that point he wasn't sure if it was a cry for help or just her love for the artist.

Daniel wasn't much of a social specimen, music and musicians weren't something he familiarised himself with as he wasn't privy to such things when he was growing up. Without a mother, his childhood was spent trying not to starve and cleaning up after his drunken father.

He could treat himself to Mozart, played by a full Orchestra once in a while, and Bon Jovi will always have a special place in his heart but surprisingly he picked a few lines of lyrics from Bella's song in the few hours he spent working on his laptop, which was something he couldn't say for One direction that she'd constantly played and sometimes forced him to listen to.

He listened outside her door for any sign of movement or singing along before banging on it, he was contemplating going for the spare key when the handle turned slightly and Bella peeped through a small crack.

"Love, you've been playing 'hello from the other side' for almost four hours straight, are you okay?" it was a pointless question, he could tell from her red eyes and bloated face that she was anything but.

"Did you had another nightmare?"

Shaking her head from side to side, "I'm already living it." She said dejectedly.

Daniel pushed the door opened and threw his hands around her in a hug. You poor thing, he was going to say softly, until he set his eyes on the array of shredded clothes behind her and...wait, were those human hair?

"What the fùck happened here?" He pulled back to take a proper look at her, his heart skipping a beat as he took in her shorter hair. "You cut your hair?" He gasped, picking a strand and twirling it around his forefinger in examination.

"What happened?!"

"It was a moment of insanity, I'm over it now." She replied. Daniel stepped around her into the room and looked at the mess with his hands on his hips. Looked like a mini tornado happened there.

Her bed was bared, it pillows, sheet and cover resting in different angles of the room, an entire content of a drawer emptied at the foot of the table, a red scissors lay a foot away from him on what had once been her Minnie hip length pyjama but had been reduced to pieces.

He picked it up and examined the angry zigzag cuts. "Believe me when I say I'm glad you're over that insanity but I still want to know what it was about?"

She snatched the rag from the tip of his fingers and in a frenzy began to pick everything off of the floor. "What does it matter?" She mumbled and Daniel could hear the repressed sob in her voice.

"I'm still the same ugly, worthless girl, in spite of my long hair and pretty clothes."

Confused he stared after her, she walked to her wardrobe and matched back with a trash bag. He watched as she struggled to hold the bag open and shove the shredded things in her hands into it but couldn't manage due to how terribly she was shaking and muttering cusses under her breathe.

He walked up to her and grabbed her shoulders to still her.

"Bella." He called gently. "Talk to me, does this have anything to do with Iverson?" It was his best guess, it would explain why the said Iverson was no where to be found.

Bella's shoulders slouched and she dropped everything back at her feet, Daniel forced her to face him and hugged her to himself, allowing her to have another cry on his chest.

With clenched teeth he held her tightly. He respected Iverson, he really did but if this persist he'd have to ask him to move out.
There was a short list of things Daniel cared gravely about and Bella happened to be at the top of it.

Sure Iverson needed a place to stay as his only other option was one of his father's houses downtown that was a three hours drive to school, Daniel had easily offered him his place not only because Iverson had helped him in the past but because he was on the market for a male housemate anyway.

He needed another guy in the house for reasons he couldn't tell Bella yet, the fact that they knew and had history with each other had been a coincidence in his favour but it might just not be worth it if it was affecting her sanity and self esteem in any way.

"I want you to meet this girl." Daniel said. With his hands on her shoulders he guided her to the mirror on her dresser.

"She probably didn't sleep a wink last night, she's cried her eyes out, her hair is a mess and she's chopped off a good portion of it but still, take a look at her and tell me what you think in your honest opinion?" He said to her, gathering her now shoulder length hair in one hand so she could see herself clearly.

Bella squirted her eyes at her reflection and bit her lip in thought but otherwise said nothing. "You are beautiful Isabella, who ever tells you otherwise simply can't be trusted, they are an obvious liar."

"Will you date me?" She asked out of the blue and Daniel paled. Letting go of her hair, he instantly put some space between them.

"You won't." She turned around to face him. "Even your girlfriend knows this, every woman have some insecurity but not Cynthia. She brought me here to stay with you and rarely visit because she knows I'm no match for her and you'll never stoop that low."

"You're wrong." Daniel snapped. She was, the fights he'd countlessly gotten into with his girlfriend on this topic, even they were at it till late afternoon the previous day.

He was the one who didn't want Cynthia frequently at his place and sometimes she understood his reasons, other times she just won't see past her jealousy. It was why Daniel tried to spend more time at her place than he did his own.

"The question you are asking me is just all kind of inappropriate." And he was going to kill Iverson for putting him in that situation.

"How so? I'm not asking you to date me, I'm only asking if you would. Say you weren't with Cynthia? Will you think I'm hot?"

"Yes I would." He quickly said then bit his tongue. "You're beautiful both in and out, anyone will be lucky to have you."

Bella held his gaze as if she could somehow tell if he was telling the truth by staring into his equally brown eyes long enough, Daniel didn't dare blink.

"Ugh." She relented and pressed the heel of her palms to her eyes. "I'm so sorry Daniel, I have no right putting you in a position like this, I'm just...a mess."

"Yes you are." Daniel agreed with a smile. "But it's okay, we all need a little reassurance sometimes." He said, picking one pillow from the floor and tossing it back on the bed. "Don't let him get to you, Love."

She smiled and went to hug him, what would she do without an understanding bestie like Daniel? She ask herself that question almost everyday.

"Why don't you clear your mess and take a shower while I fix you something for breakfast?" He asked and she nodded into his chest.

"Thank you." She said before letting him go.

**

Through their group chat, Bella briefed her friends the sordid tale of how she lost her hair and how terribly she regretted it after, it was obvious now that she was one of those people who do crazy things when they are upset and then spend the rest of their lives regretting it.

Claire called it an hairmergency and aborted their shopping plans so they could meet at Jenna's-the hair vixen of the trio- and see how best the situation could be rectified.

Bella got there not long after and Jenna hid neither her distaste nor disapproval of the saffron coloured scarf wrapped around her head like an hijab as she received her at the door.

"Please promise me the next time he gets you into a rage, you'll be cutting something of his and not yours." She said, immediately getting started. They washed the hair out in her adjoining little shower and Bella tried not to panic when after, Jenna produced different kinds of hair product, hand dryer, curler and what have you.

"I'll really appreciate if we keep me a brunette please." She said, eyeing the green hair on Jenna's heard. Jenna goes through hair dyes faster than anyone could chew a gum, just the last time they saw each other she had been spotting a red hair and now she'd gone green.

Rolling her eyes Jenna said. "I won't dye your hair without your permission although now that you mentioned it, I think you'll look really good with red hair and I still have some..."

"No thanks."

"Come on, you need to experiment with new things. Who knows, you may actually like it."

"Still a no from me." Bella chuckled before taking her seat, making a mental note to verify all and any product before it touches her hair but Jenna was set to even out the length first and Bella's heart shed a drop of blood with every other trim.

"Mama is here!" Claire's chirpy voice soon rented the air as she bursted through the door. "And she brought the good stuff." She sing-song, dancing the pints of Cherry Garcia ice-cream in her hand and a box of nuts.

She widen her eyes dramatically on seeing Bella, "Oh God, your hair is shorter than mine now!" She wheezed towards them like she had tires on her heels. "This is so exciting."

"It's the same length." Jenna said but Claire wasn't listening. She unceremoniously dumped the ice-cream on Bella's laps and darted into Jenna's kitchenette in search of spoons.

"..I mean, you'll look smoking with any style. You have one of those faces I hate, those kind that deceive people and make everything look good until you personally try it." She added three spoon to the ice-cream and began to look around for a place to seat.

"There's a plastic chair outside by the door?" Jenna suggested and Claire squirrel to and from.

"And then we can go look for that motherfùcker, I already took the liberty of learning some dangerous words on the way here. There's Jujitsu, Judo, Tai kwan do, kara..."

"I don't see how those are harmful unless you know how to fight them?" Jenna laughed.

"And just before we set out, why didn't you tell me you know him?" Bella asked, finally able to pinch in a word.

"I do?"

"Yes, he's friends with Biggie."

"Weird, what's his name?" Claire wanted to know as she absentmindedly took the ice-cream back from Bella and cracked it open.

"Iverson." Bella said, hating the warmth that crept on her just by the mention of that blasted name.

"Iverson?" Claire repeated in surprise. "Iverson Benson? Tall, ridiculously handsome, with blue piercing eyes and drives a red Ferrari?"

Jenna chuckled while Bella just rolled her eyes.

"Fùck me backwards!" Claire exclaimed, practically leaping out of her chair. "Iverson is the ásshole you've been talking about? Are you insane? That guy is the most down to earth person I know, how could..."

"Claire." Jenna called warningly, Claire's soprano voice tends to get unbearable when she's yelling and the sun is hot outside.

"No," she went on. "You can't just use Iverson and àsshole in a sentence and expect me to be calm, do you even know what you are talking about? I know this guy and I'm telling you now, there's no single mean bone in his body."

"You don't know shít about him!" Bella shouted and sprang to her feet, getting herself in Claire's face. "I grew up with him, you weren't there, don't you dare make the things he put me through sound made up."

"Girls." Jenna called but got ignored.

"Maybe you were misinformed or there was a mistake somewhere." Claire argued still. "I'm an excellent judge of character and I beg to disagree on this one."

"So whose side are you on now?" Jenna asked.

"Don't ask me to chose." She glared at the both of them. "Iverson is my boyfriend's best friend, two weeks ago, he ASKED me what I wanted for my birthday and I had joking asked to drive his Ferrari for one month and look here bítches." She held out the car's key for them to see.

"Unbelievable." Bella said grimly. "He lend you a car and that automatically makes him a saint. Well guess what, he doesn't even like that car, he drives it because his father gave it to him and he must have given it to you because he has another one."

"Bottom line is he didn't have to, I'm not his girlfriend. And his land rover developed some faults yesterday, I heard it had to be towed and I tried giving him the Ferrari back but he'll hear nothing of it, because that's the kind of person he is. Not the jackass you painted."

Bella took in a deep breath, half of her head that had been mildly aching before felt about to fall out now. The sleepless nights she'd gotten since Iverson made his way back into her life was simply sad. Why does he have that much power to affect her so?

"I don't want to fight my friends because of him please." She said, falling back into the chair for Jenna to continue the probing and poking on her head. "I just want a little revenge and I need your help. After everything he's put me through, I think I deserve a pound of flesh."

"Count me out." Claire said without missing a beat. "I'm not gonna raise a single finger against Iverson. I maintain that he is a nice guy."

Bella narrowed her eyes as Claire angrily stabbed a spoon into the ice-cream. These are what Iverson does, he steals her peace and turn her friends against her. He has done it before and intentionally or not, he was doing it again. She was going to find a way of making him pay one way or another.