“You’re the best,” I said, hugging him.
He hugged me back and whispered, “We need to talk Karma, but not now. Later, after the party. Okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” I agreed.
“Now, go have a good time,” he told me. “You deserve it.”
He stayed where he was, but I could feel his eyes on me as I walked away.
****
Bodie
I watched her until she was surrounded by people that cared about her.
“You’ve got it bad,” Major said.
“Huh?” I didn’t even know he was there.
He chuckled. “Karma, you’ve got it bad.”
There was no point in lying now. “Yeah, I guess I do.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“I have no idea. She’s been through so much these last few days; I don’t want to make things weird or awkward.”
“Has she said anything to you?”
“Not really. We haven’t been alone, but I told her we need to talk after the party, and she agreed.”
“Are you going to tell her you love her?”
“I don’t love …” I cut my words short because that would have been a lie. I did love her. “I hope one day I can tell her, but tonight isn’t the night for that.”
“Good luck, man. You’re going to need it.”
Major went straight to Kayleigh and pulled her in for a kiss. I remember not too long ago telling him he was a pussy for falling in love, and now, here I was, in exactly the same position. I shook my head but found myself smiling.
****
A few hours later the party was winding down and almost everyone was gone. I hadn’t really spoken to Karma much all night, so I went over to her when there was a break in the conversation.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey. Are you having a good time?”
“Yeah. It’s still hard to believe that nightmare is over.”
“Are you still up for talking?”
“Yes. We really need to.”
“I have a room here for the night. When you’re ready to talk come to room 2014, it’s down the other hallway near the end.” I handed her a key card.
“Okay. Are you leaving now?”
“Yeah. I’ll see you in a bit.”
She nodded and I left her parent’s suite. I figured she’d be a while, so I turned on the TV and flipped through the channels until I found a car show. I was looking at the TV but not really seeing it. There was a lot going on in my head.
I was worried about how this talk with Karma was going to go. I really didn’t know if she’d had feelings for Anthony and if she did, what was she feeling now? Did I want to start a relationship with Karma after all the shit she’d just been through? What was I going to do if she didn’t have feelings for me?
“Fuck,” I said out loud. I hated feeling this way. I went out to the balcony for some fresh air.
I don’t know how long I’d been out there when I heard the door to the room open and close.
“Bodie?” Karma said.
I left the balcony and went back into the room. “Hey,” I said, feeling more nervous than I did this morning at the hearing.
I turned off the TV and we sat on the couch.
“Let me start, okay?” Karma said.
“Sure.”
“So, these last few days have been crazy and scary, but you’re the reason I’m sitting here right now and not in jail. Everyone at the party told me how you didn’t give up until you were able to find a way to prove I wasn’t guilty. Bodie, I’ll never be able to thank you enough for doing that. I know that without you I would have been convicted and put in prison. My life would have been over, but you saved me.”
“I had to,” I told her. “I knew you were innocent and being set up. I wasn’t going to let you go to prison if I could do something about it.”
“No one but my parents have ever done anything like that for me. I knew under your player attitude you were a good guy.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“I do, and so did everyone in that room tonight. My parents think you’re a saint.”
I chuckled. “They’d be the first ones to think that.”
“Well, they do. Thank you for making sure they got here and everything you’ve done for them.”
“I wanted to make it as easy on them as possible.”
“And you have no idea how much I appreciate that.”
We were both quiet for a minute. I wasn’t sure where this conversation was going, but then she pulled out a folded-up piece of paper.
“I know it was you who was responsible for this and I need to thank you. After that first night in a cell, I was scared and terrified I’d never leave. These messages were a lifeline to the outside. Never in my life had I ever been so happy to see some familiar handwriting. This was the first time you saved me over the last few days.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I kept quiet.
“Bodie,” she continued, “I probably read your message a hundred times over the last five days. I believed you when you said to trust you. I’ve had lots of time since Friday to think about a lot of things, and one of those things was you. I realized that you are one of the few people in the world that have my trust. When I told you the reason behind my nightmare, that was big for me. You are only the fourth person to know anything about what happened to me.”
Karma tucked the paper into her pocket and took my hands in hers.
“I realize that you wouldn’t have done any of this unless you cared about me and I care about you too, but after everything that’s happened, I have to focus on me right now. I have to make sure my life is where it needs to be, and I have to do that on my own. I can’t jump into another relationship until I know what I want.”
I looked at her. “I understand,” I told her. And I really did, but she’d just said the last words in the world that I wanted to hear.
“I should probably go,” she said.
“Yeah.” Even I could hear the disappointment in my voice.
I walked her to the door. She handed me the key card back.
“I’ll see you in class tomorrow?”
“Yep. I’ll be there.”
She opened the door and left, and I felt like a piece of my heart went with her.
“When did I become such a girl?” I said out loud, shaking my head at myself.
I didn’t realize how much I wanted a relationship with Karma until she walked out that door. I knew we’d still be friends, but it was going to be hard.
The last thing I wanted to do was go to class in the morning, but I’d missed enough over the last week. I kicked off my shoes, striped down to my underwear and crawled into bed. I closed my eyes, and of course, thought about Karma.
Chapter 39
Karma
I knocked on the door to my parent’s hotel room.
“Karma?” mom said, when she answered. “I thought you were going to see Bodie.”
“I was, I mean I did,” I said, and walked in.
“Honestly, I thought you’d be spending the night there,” she said.