Chapter 25

Karma:

Ok on the weird-o-meter scale, it is above a hundred and fifty percent past what is considered normally weird. So I am sitting at lunch with both Lauren and Shane facing me. They both just keep staring at me, as if they were studying me looking for clues or something. I later find out that they are both investigating some case involving my break-up with Amy. What is wrong with people – and especially these two? I saw what I saw. She cheated. I'm heartbroken. We broke up. End of story.

"Why did you come to Shane's birthday party when you said you weren't going to?" Lauren asks me.

"I just went OK." I say.

"No, you didn't just go; you came with the intention of finding Amy." Shane says, "The first thing you asked me was her whereabouts."

"Yes, I wanted to know where she was."

"OK, but why?" Lauren presses on.

"Ever heard of a jealous girlfriend? Well, I had an intuition and I went to check if my gut was right."

"What did your gut say?" Shane scoffs, "That she was going to cheat on you."

"Exactly and it was right." I say.

"Hmm! I don't think so." He shakes his head, "That's not how a jealous girlfriend who had an intuition would react. You were almost sure that she was doing something but you just needed to confirm your doubts. A jealous girlfriend like you, and I know you, would just politely make small talk before discreetly going inside the party and survey the area. You went straight upstairs."

"Well, isn't that where everyone go to make out in a party? Upstairs?" I say, getting annoyed. What is he trying to prove?

"How did you even know she'd be making out at the exact moment that you came in the party? She could have been flirting or talking with someone at least." Lauren speaks up.

"So…couldn't I just randomly go upstairs?"

"No, you didn't even walk around the room and upstairs is not even near the first place that you should have checked first, which was the living room. You walked straight in the middle of the crowd and went up the stairs." Shane says. "There's something that happened before coming to my party that you are not telling."

I sigh, "I received a text from an anonymous person."

Lauren and Shane look at each other then back to me. Lauren was the first one to speak up, "Do you still have it?"

"I think so." I take my phone out of my purse, "Here it is."

Shane grabs it from my hand and started sifting through my file and I couldn't help but feel like my privacy was being violated. You never know what those two are up to; you can never tell. One minute they are bickering at each other and the next minute they are friends. I don't even know why they are bringing up this party anyway. It was so long ago. Can we just forget and move on please?

"Is this the text?" He hands me the phone to let me see the text that broke me in pieces. I swallow and I just nod.

"Let me see it?" Lauren takes the phone from Shane's hands.

"You might want to check up on your girl…" She reads.

"Now, can I please leave? I'm starting to have a headache and I think I'll just go to the nurse." I snatch my phone away from Lauren and I shove it back in my purse.

"Wait! We're not done talking to you." Shane calls out after me.

I roll my eyes and I just shout back, "I think there's nothing more left to discuss." Then I just disappear in one of the school building and I head straight for the school clinic.

Hopefully the nurse is here because I can't tolerate that fucking headache and I need a freaking aspirin. With how backward the world has been moving lately, I mean, since when did Shane and Lauren were that close? I finally reach the clinic and I enter. There was no one so I let myself in and I sit down, waiting for someone to show. I thought about going through the nurse's cabinets but, I wouldn't want to place myself in trouble now, would I? In the middle of my thoughts, I hear a noise. It was a really low, barely audible noise that somehow made me think of bed sheets. Is someone sleeping in here?

I get off to walk in the direction of the curtains. I see someone's shadow lying down on the bed behind the curtains. I slide the curtains to the side to find her sleeping fondly. I approach the bed and I'm lost, yet again just like before, in a daze. And now, just looking at her like that, it brought back the memories I have with her and why I never could find the reasons why I was so much in love with her. I still couldn't tell why. I know she must think I hate her but; I'm more in love with her than I had ever been. How could I hate her? I wonder how she's doing; how she has lived through the day, what she ate, every single phrase she said throughout the day, what bothers her lately, what's on her mind because my princess seems thin. She lost a bit of weight and I remember what Lauren told me yesterday; about her going days without eating.

I feel something tugs at my heart, gosh! Is that doubts? Did I really see her in between Reagan's legs? Was it really her that I saw? Oh fuck! Danm you Shane and Lauren! Now I am in doubts about the whole thing. Who sent me that text anyway? She shifts under the bed sheets, turning her face to look up, her closed eyes facing the ceiling and her lips slightly parting. I want to kiss her. I trace my fingers along the side of her cheek, then her jaw, around to her chin, before running them along the flesh of her parted lips. I am in love with her too much. She is so beautiful. How can I hate her? And oh fuck! I want to kiss her. So I bend down a bit, leaning my head forward keeping my eyes fixated on the lips that I've been yearning for and then, I stop as she opens her eyes to life.

"Lady Belle…?" she sounds groggy, and tired. She still has one of the sexiest sleepy voices ever.

I quickly rise up, "huh…I'm Karma…not Lady Belle." I cough, "I heard someone in here so I came to check to see who it was."

She sits up on the bed, wiping her face with her hand. "Yes, I fell down in gym because I was lacking energy."

"What happened?" panic quickly overcomes me.

"I didn't eat breakfast this morning." She shrugs.

I was surprisingly pissed, "What do you mean you didn't eat breakfast this morning?"

"I wasn't hungry."

"You know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You are not fucking five Amy, how many times do I have to remind you?" I scold her.

"Alright, I was just in a hurry and I didn't have time to eat." She says, "I came late to school so I didn't get to eat in the cafeteria."

"You ignored the alarm clock again? You do this every fucking morning." I shout, getting heated at her carelessness.

"I didn't ignore it, it just kind of end up across my room this morning and shuts itself off resulting in me not hearing it ring." She raises her shoulders as if to say 'it wasn't my fault.'

I roll my eyes, "For fuck's sake, can't you be more responsible Amy about school and your health? I'm not always going to be there for you."

"Like right now?" she mumbles but I hear her.

I say nothing.

"Whatever you were going to do to me before I woke up, do it." She says.

"What are you talking about?"

"You were going to kiss me right? Then do it." She says again.

I start turning back but she grabs my wrist.

"I'm sick and tired of you walking away from me." She fumes, "You were about to do something to me, and I ask you to do it. I know you want to kiss me just as much as I want to kiss you."

"How do you know for sure?"

"Because I felt your touch; I felt your fingers running along my lips Karma, that's what woke me up. And I hate myself for waking up before you got to do anything."

I snatch my hand away from her, "Then you should have stayed asleep."

"But it wouldn't have counted."

"Why not?"

"I wanted you to be aware of the truth that while you were kissing me, I was aware of you kissing me."

"Why?"

"Because, I would believe again, that you are just as much in love with me as I am with you."

I do not contradict her though I wish I could. She couldn't have been more right.

"Now, do it." She asks.

I sigh then I look down at her and I sit on the bed right next to her. Her eyes lower as I do so then I grab her face in both my hands. I feel my heart racing a hundred miles per minute and I feel the air around me reducing making it hard for me to breathe. I look at her lips which she moistened just a second ago by running her tongue over it. I lean my head closer and she does so too to meet me halfway. Our lips finally crashed together for the first time in months. I couldn't feel more relaxed and at home when I feel Amy's tongue pushing in to infiltrate past my teeth and I open up to let her in. I instantly let out a soft moan and she brought her hand to the back of my head, stranded fingers in the strands of my hair, pulling me forward. It felt so refreshing and so right. As if it was what we are supposed to do, to be with each other and love each other and only kiss each other and not anybody else.

She breaks away, "You kissed me…" she breathes. "You still love me." She smiles, clashing her forehead against mine.

"I never stopped." I whisper, closing my eyes.

"Lady Belle, won't you come back to me?" she pleads.

I shake my forehead against hers before pulling away from her, "I…I can't. I'm sorry." I rise off the bed so that I can get away from her, "I have to go."

"Lady Belle…"

I stop, and then I turn around, "What?"

She chuckles, "I had you before but not in the way that I wanted you. Nonetheless, back then, I had you in my life the way that I needed you and I was happy. Then you became mine, both in the way that I wanted you and in the way that I needed you; only to just lose you again by forsaking me of every ways that I had you in my life." She gets off the bed and walks towards me.

"Don't…" I step back, snatching the hands that she had just grabbed, away.

"Come here…" her voice is low and husky. She pulls me close to her, embracing me in a tight hug that rose feelings in me that were, until now, dormant.

"I can no longer stand the pain of living without you and I'm not going to let you live without me either, Lady Belle, I just refuse. And however selfish that may sound, you can and should only be happy with me. Not any other man, not any other woman, but me – just me."

"Princess…" I breathe.

"At least, I'm still your princess…" she whispers.

I break away from her hold and I see her eyes dramatically change to a look of desperation and hurt. But before I walk out, I stop, facing away from her, "Take care of yourself Amy…" then I leave, without glancing back.

Once I reach my classroom, I take my usual seat where Amy is missing next to me, because the seat beside me is hers. Halfway through the lecture, I feel my phone buzzing. I discreetly pick it up to see Amy's text. I immediately open it, surprised at my own eagerness. "Lady Belle, you walked away from me, yet again. But it's OK; I'll never stop chasing you until you become mine again. I mean, you know what they say, once the chase is done, the thrill is gone." I did not realize the big grin spread across my face until Gregg pointed it out to me.

"What's got you all giddy?" he says.

I jump, "What? No…I'm just looking at something." I quickly say while shutting my phone off.

He pouts, "Oh I wanted to see what it was that you were laughing at so that we could laugh together."

I shake my head, "It's nothing Gregg, I promise you." As I say the latter, I remember when Amy tells me, "Lady Belle, I promise you." God, I really miss my princess.

He frowns but later smiles again, "OK, do you plan on attending the masquerade ball?"

"When?" I ask, not really interested in knowing though. I don't care really.

"It's by the end of next week." He says, "How can you not know? It's homecoming."

"I don't know, I guess because I'm not really interested." I say hoping that he gets the hint that I am just not in the mood and I don't feel like partying.

"Come on," he pleads "there's going to be a good DJ there."

I wonder if Shane knows about this and if he does, maybe Amy would be there too. "I know, I heard of it. It's what the whole school is talking about."

"You see then you know it's going to huge. Plus, there's going to be a lot of things happening, you have to come." He insists.

"Alright, I'll think about it."

He grins then adds, "Can you also make sure that your super-hot gay friend comes too?"

I look at him, "You like Shane Harvey?"

"Well, yeah…he looks cool and he's popular in this school. Everybody loves him." He smiles, "I'd like to get to know him better."

I chuckle, "I never thought you'd finally come out of your shell to finally go chase after someone."

"Well, you said it yourself, 'if you want to be happy, go after what you want,' and I want me Shane Harvey."

I grin, "Good for you."

"So, can you please tell him about it?"

"As popular as the party person that he is, he was probably the first one to know about it." And I'm pretty sure right about now, he's trying to convince Amy to go. Hopefully he succeeds, because if she goes, I'll go too. I mean, I'll go just because, you know…not because I'm dying to accidentally end up seeing her there and we just hang you know... nothing like that. It would be just a casual, completely innocent, accidental encounter.

Amy:

I decided to just skip the rest of the school day because, well, I want to. Shit! Do I need a reason to skip? I walk to the parking lot of the school and I hop in my car then I speed out of the school facility and unto the streets that will lead to my house and then my bedroom. On the way, all I keep thinking about was the fact that Karma had kissed me. She kissed me and…well…she kissed me. I was on cloud nine right now. I am in completely good mood and nothing can shatter this happiness. I reach home to find an empty house. My mother and Bruce must still be at work and Lauren is obviously still at school. I run upstairs to my bedroom so that I can get out of these clothes and unto some sweats then up to bed and sleep.

I finish taking a shower then I walk over to my desk to find a text from Shane in my phone. I click on it, "Amy, we are so going to the masquerade ball next week!"

I roll my eyes, and then I reply to him, "Isn't this homecoming?"

He replies almost immediately, "Yes, it is."

"And you expect me to go to homecoming without my Lady Belle?"

He replies, "Yes doughnut! I already have Lauren and Theo and Liam convinced. The only one missing is you."

"You save me for last because…"

"…you'd be the most difficult one." He replies.

I think for a moment maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea, "I'll think about it."

"Promise?" he texts, "Promise?"

"I promise." I say, and then I end the conversation.

I quickly changed in my sweats and sports bra. I couldn't find anything else really, or is it because I didn't try to. I'm thinking though, would Karma go to the masquerade ball? I wish I had asked her when we were in the clinic together. Karma would go, I mean, she loves those things. I think about texting her to ask but I hesitate. I can't remember the last time we even texted each other; it was such a long time ago. I click on contact and I look for her name. It didn't take me long to find her, I mean I don't have that many people on my phone as my contacts anyway. I want to click on her to send her a message but I hesitate. I never thought I'd reach the point where I have to think before texting Karma. It's quite sad that we got to this point. But I mean it though, I will not let her live without me – never. So, I assemble the courage to text her.

"Hey, are you going to the ball?" I press send. The next few seconds felt like an eternity. I kept staring at my phone for what seems like an endless century when really, it was just a minute since I sent her the text. Why isn't she texting back? I knew I shouldn't have texted her. Gosh, I am so stupid. Of course she doesn't want to speak to me. What was I thinking? Two minutes went by, and still no text. I started thinking about how it is because she is in class and that's why she is not texting me. That's it, the teacher took the phone away from her. No, what if she just really doesn't care and won't text me back? I pout and then thirty seconds after the two agonizing minutes, she responds.

"Are you?" she replies.

I look down at the phone; I don't know what to reply. "I am going." No, I erase it. I'll write something else, "It's Shane who keeps pestering me about it." Shit! She doesn't need to know that, it's completely irrelevant. I erase it. "I'm thinking about it." I click send.

Thirty seconds later, "Me too…"

So, does that mean she might go? "So, you might go to it?"

She replies a minute later, "Did that mean that you might go too?"

"Well, I'm probably going to go." I send.

She takes a minute before texting me back, "me too…"

"So, I'll probably, possibly, maybe, see you there?" I send.

"Probably, possibly, maybe, yes…" she replies.

Nothing could wipe the grin that I dozed off with off my face.