“Karma, the last thing I wanted to do was hurt you. But it was either me or a stranger and I knew someone else wouldn’t care that you were labeled a gold digger. I had to prove to them that wasn’t who you were, and you had to have no idea what was going on. I’m sorry. And if I had to do it again, I would have told you what Anthony’s father was doing. I thought I was doing something that would get you what you wanted in the end. I can see I was wrong and should have told my dad no.”
“I’m not someone who needs to be rescued, Bodie, I can take care of myself. You should have told me and let me make the decision for myself.”
“Where does that leave us?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Any trust we had was gone.” She got up to leave. “Just one more thing,” she said, and stopped in front of me. Karma raised her hand and slapped me across the face. “That’s for making me feel the way I do right now.”
She walked out of the office and I followed a few steps behind.
“Can you please take me home?” she said to Major.
He nodded and they started leaving the living room.
“I’ll see you later,” he said to me.
The three of them left and I wasn’t sure how to feel. Lana was about to say something when mom stopped her.
“Bodie,” mom said gently, “when you’re ready to talk, come find me.”
I nodded and left the living room. I went out to the pool and sat in one of the lounge chairs. I had a lot of thinking to do. I didn’t want to lose Karma, as a friend or more. There had to be a way to salvage this, I just had to figure out what it was.
Chapter 24
Karma
I didn’t say anything on the drive back to the university. I was angry and hurt. And also pissed off that Bodie was right about me lying to him. I lied to protect myself. He lied to protect me, which made him the better person right now. Except for the fact that he’d invaded my privacy. I wasn’t sure I was ever going to get over that.
Major dropped us off at our dorm and by the time we got upstairs I still hadn’t said anything.
“It must be really bad if you’re not talking,” Kayleigh said. “I’m not sure you’ve ever been this quiet since I’ve known you. Are you going to tell me what happened?”
“Yeah, but first I think I need a huge amount of ice cream and a large dose of Lucifer.”
“Okay, give me a bit and I’ll take care of that,” she told me. “You should go have a shower or bath, just relax for a few minutes.”
I decided a shower sounded like a good idea, so I got a change of clothes and headed to the bathroom. My shower was long and hot and just what I needed. Some of my anger went down the drain with the water, but I was still hurt. I knew that feeling would last a long time.
By the time I walked back into the living room, there were six pints of ice cream on the coffee table.
“I made Major go get us some. Here,” she said, handing me a spoon.
Looking at the flavors and grabbing the cherry cheesecake, Kayleigh set the mint chocolate chip to the side and put the rest in our little fridge freezer. When she sat down she put Lucifer on. Three episodes and two pints of ice cream later I was ready to talk.
I told her about the conversation between Anthony and his father, about what Bodie’s dad had to say and even about slapping Bodie. I wasn’t proud of that, but I couldn’t take it back now.
“Wow Karma, no wonder you were so quiet, you’ve had a really terrible day.”
“That’s one way to put it,” I said.
“So, are you ever going to speak to Bodie again?”
“I think I can be civil, but I don’t know if I can ever trust him again.”
“Can I point out the obvious, you lied to him first.”
“But he didn’t know that when he agreed to spy on me.”
“I don’t think that’s the point. I think he was trying to protect you from getting your heart hurt by Anthony.”
“Anthony had nothing to do with this,” I stated.
“I don’t really know Anthony all that well, but do you think if his father made him stop seeing you he’d go against his dad’s wishes?”
I was about to say yes, but I couldn’t. “No, I think he’d do what his dad said.”
“So, Bodie made sure that didn’t happen by doing something he didn’t want to do in order to see that you were happy. Right?”
“Ugh, I hate that you’re right. I want to be mad at him.”
“You can still be mad at him, but you have to think about the reason he did it. You told me yourself that when Bodie found out you lied to him about the sex he was angry, until he heard your reason. That has to work both ways Karma.”
“You’re supposed to be on my side, you know, best friends and all,” I complained.
“I’m always on your side, but sometimes you need a kick in the pants to get your head where it should be.”
“So, I’m just supposed to forget that he recorded my conversations and read my texts?”
“No, but you need to think about the reasons behind why he did it.”
She was right. I didn’t like it, but she was right.
“You know,” she started, “I was really surprised at how you handled everything when we got to Bodie’s. Even though I didn’t know what was going on, I knew you were mad, and I was sure you were going to go in there cursing like a sailor and causing a scene.”
“That was the plan,” I admitted. “But when his mom answered the door, I remembered my manners. I didn’t want your grandma to pop up out of nowhere and slap me on the back of the head.”
Kayleigh giggled. “Yeah, she would totally do that.”
“And when we went to Mr. West’s office, I was going to give Bodie a piece of my mind, but after listening to what his dad had to say I kind of lost most of my fight.”
“But you still slapped him,” she said.
“Yep. It was a stupid move but what’s done is done.”
“So,” she started, “what about Anthony?”
“What about him?”
“Are you going to keep dating him?”
“I haven’t given that any thought. He didn’t know about it until today, or at least that’s what I gathered from what I heard.”
“You know I only want you to be happy. But if you stay with Anthony, you’re going to have to deal with his father at some point.”
“I’m not making any major decisions right now. In fact, I’m shutting off my phone for the night. Will you wake me up in the morning?”
“Of course, I will,” she said.
“Okay, thanks. This subject is closed for now, I need to think. So, let’s get back to watching a hot guy with a sexy accent solve murders.”
****
Bodie
I had no idea what to expect when I sat down in Psychology Monday morning. Was Karma going to ignore me or yell at me? I didn’t like either choice, but I’d live with it. I was early so I saw when she walked into the room. I was fully expecting her to sit somewhere else, so I was surprised when she took the seat beside me. And I was even more surprised when she spoke to me in a normal voice.