14 - Karma's a B*tch! - pt. 1

Chapter Six



I stopped hanging out with Kris and Katie.


How could I ditch my friends, my best friends, after one lunch with the cool kids? Well, I tried to sit with my friends at lunch. However, our friendship dynamic had fundamentally shifted. But it wasn't them who'd changed, it was me.


My friends didn't try to push me out.  But they went back to gossiping about Ari and her friends, despite my presence.


After one lunch with Ari, I couldn't stomach listening to them. I started to ask myself, "Why had I chosen to hang out with them?". Then it occurred to me. I hadn't chosen anything.


When I'd first started attending Sunny High, I didn't have any friends. The dean had assigned me a friend and I'd gone along the path of least resistance. Like I'd always done because it was easy and drama-free. After I made this realization, I sat with them for the full lunch period—I didn't want to be rude. But when lunch was over, I left with no intention of returning. And I didn't.


The plan wasn't to cut them out of my life completely, only lunch. But I got busy. I started practicing with the dance team before and after school. I was falling in love with dance again.


And my boyfriend, well he loved it too.


Yep, you read me correctly. The other reason I'd started neglecting my fraying friendships. Cameron was back in town and we'd made it official. We went on dates and hang out pretty much every day; including school nights. And we may have even played a little baseball.


Not literally, metaphorically if you know what I mean. No home runs yet, but we were dancing over the third base. We'd come close to rounding the base a couple of times. I'd stopped it. Cameron was always respectful and never pressured me.


I was also spending a lot of time with Ari, which meant I couldn't spend time with Kris and Katie. As a result, text messages from them were left on read. Eventually, they stopped texting.


In my defense, the time spent with Ari wasn't fun. Scratch that, spending time with Ari was always fun. It did at least lean in the academic direction. Her hoverboard idea was far more difficult than she'd originally thought. Any extra time I'd had, we spent working on it.


We spent hours talking and laughing while we worked. We took "breaks", spending them going out to eat, going to games, or down at the skatepark. We probably would have finished early, had we not taken so many "breaks". I'd mentioned this to Ari, and she said I was wrong and then proceeded to practice a kick-flip on her skateboard. I might've been right on this one.


Today is the last day to get the hoverboard finished. It's due on Friday along with the presentation. Saturday was our party but today it happens to be our birthday. Because of this, I'm a bit whiner than usual. I wanted to spend my birthday with my boyfriend; instead, I'm in Ari's stuffy garage playing with power tools.


We also aren't speaking to each other. We'd gotten into our first "fight". I'd complained about the wasted time, and then she'd snapped. Ari went from zero to one hundred with no in-between. I'd only seen it once before with her and Dechlan. One moment she was chill, then suddenly enraged. We argued for about thirty minutes and started comparing who had done more work. Which I'd felt was clearly me.


We are taking a mental time out from each other. Same room, no talking. Ari is tinkering with the magnets on the bottom of the hoverboard. And I'm silently seething and watching her work. Despite my own frustration, I feel bad about our tiff. She'd had a rough time of it today.


The day had started out well. At school, Ari's friends, and want-to-be friends had flowered her with birthday gifts. Everyone knew gifts only counted when everyone could see them. And I'd never seen someone receive as many gifts as she had. I might've been jealous, but Cameron had hand-delivered a bouquet of white rose to me at school. My gift had been delivered with love from my boyfriend. I'd never had that before.


Then the day came crashing down. An anonymous student gave Ari an unwanted birthday gift. Delivered via the Dirty.


It was titled "Every Prince, Princess Aurora has Done the Dirty With. Happy Bday!"


The title pretty much says it all. It was a list, or more a timeline, of every guy she'd ever slept with. It was compiled of past post, photos of her and her supposed lovers. No cap! There were dozens and dozens of photos. The timeline also included past blurbs from the Dirty, guys claiming they'd slept with her. I was disgusted and appalled. The worst part is I knew the slut-shaming list was mostly fiction, but most people at school would see it as fact.


I was there when Ari found out about the post. James had pulled me aside and asked me to tell her. I refused. I'm a strong believer ignorance is bliss, at least on your birthday.


Courtney ended up telling her. She handed Ari her phone without saying a word. I got to see her expression as she scrolled, and scrolled, and scrolled...The last guy on the timeline was John, the guy from the college party. Curiously, it wasn't the same photo of them shot-gunning, but a new photo of them. I didn't ask her about it.


As she continued to scroll the pain had been evident in her face. Her grief was so palpable in the air around her, I'd felt like I could reach out and touch it. She'd put a hand to her face and rubbed the creases between her brows. I for sure thought she was going to cry, but when she pulled her hand back her face was blank.


She handed Courtney her phone back, smiled, and then made a joke about how much game she had. For some reason, her bravado hurt more to see than the split second her face had contorted into pain. I wanted to cry for her.


"Stop looking at me like that," Ari says and snaps me out of my thoughts.


"What?" I look at her in confusion.


Ari sighs and stops fiddling with the hoverboard. "You're looking at me like I'm going to break."


I look away. She's right. I'd been staring and my eyes are on the edge of tearing up.


Ari sighs again and drops the wrench she is holding.


"Stop it, okay?" She says, "I'm fine. You're supposed to be angry at me not pitying me."


She is referring to our argument over the project, but I can no longer find it in me to be upset.


"I'm sorry," I say.


She's about to protest, she hates it when I apologize, but I finish before she interrupts.


"...about complaining." I point to the makeshift hoverboard and she visibly relaxes. "It's not your fault we're behind. I'm frustrated because it's our birthday and we should be out celebrating."


Ari smiles her slow creeper and says, "Excellent! I'm happy you feel that way. Because I finished an hour ago. I was stalling." She checks her phone then walk over to the side garage door.


I watch her in a mixture of shock and confusion. She'd finished an hour ago? She bends over and picks up an object, before walking back towards me. She hands me an envelope.


"Happy Birthday! Open it." She says with an up-to-know-good smile.


I look at her suspiciously before tearing open the envelope. I shake the contents out and small card falls out and hits the ground. I bend over to pick it up.


"It's a driver's licenses?" I ask. "I already have a license. This isn't even me." I squint at the unfamiliar women in the photo.


Ari rolls her eyes. "Oh my god. Do I have to explain everything to you?"


I'm a bit offended by her comment, I'm not that slow at catching on. I look down at the card again. The woman looks a bit like me. Except she is older, about four years older. This woman is of drinking age.


I shake my head. "No."


Ari nods her head up and down vigorously. "Yeeessss." She draws her 'e' and 's' out like she is trying to hypnotize me.


I cross my hands in front of my chest. "I'm not using this Ari."


"Yes, you are..." She pauses to look at the ID. "...Susie Rogers. How else are you going to get into the bars?"


"Nope, no way Ari." I shake my head. "It's a school night."


I pull out any excuse I can think off. "And...and we have a presentation tomorrow." I point to the hoverboard in exasperation.


Ari lays her fingers over the driver's license in my hand as if she is about to take it back. She doesn't take the license but holds her hand in mine. I know what she is doing. Her eyes flicker over my face as if she is looking for a key weakness in my defense.


She bites her bottom lip and my eyes trail down to her mouth. She deliberately drags her teeth slowly across the soft skin. It leaves her lips slightly parted and moist. I quickly look back up to her eyes. She isn't looking at me but off to the side. Was she trying to seduce me into going? Funny.


"Okay." She sighs and says, "It's your birthday too. If you don't want to, I won't force you." She pulls her hand away from mine but leaves the license.


"Really?" I ask cautiously. She never gives in that easily


"Yep, but I'm still going. Keep it." She points to the license in my hand. "It's a gift. We can use it next time."


"You're going? With other friends?" I ask her. Her back is turned to me. She is already heading towards the door.


She turns and says. "I guess alone now." Her eyebrows contort in grief, then she gives me a sad smile. "I've had an incredibly rough day. I need this, I hope you understand."


Oh, she's good.


I know what Ari is doing, but it doesn't seem to matter. She'd had an awful day. It was take-some-pills-slit-my-wrist bad. How could I say no? I couldn't let her go by herself. Ari might be manipulating me, but she didn't bluff. She'd go drinking all by herself, take risks, and get into all sorts of trouble.


I wasn't a narc but I could easily text Courtney or James and let them know of her plan. They'd go in a heartbeat, I knew it. I didn't want that. I wanted to go, I wanted to be there if she needed me, and I didn't want her to take someone else.


This time it's my turn to sigh but in defeat. "Okay, I'll go." I scowl at the driver license. "This doesn't even look like me." It did, but I felt like complaining.


"We are going to have so much fun, chica."


The corners of her lips are twitching. Ari is struggling to hide the victorious smile hiding behind her blank face. She'd won again and she was trying not to rub it in my face. Seeing her this happy made me giddy and I can't help but smile.


Her smile breaks free and she squeals. "Sweet! Now call your mom and tell her you're staying the night to work on the project." She starts towards the door leading to the house, but stops before going inside and says, "And don't invite your boyfriend. This is a girl's night out."



Hello Everyone! I'm super excited to share this chapter, it's one of my favorites. It's also the longest at 6 bite-sized parts...but the stories about halfway through time for a little rising conflict.


Also hoping some of you guys start to catch on what this story is really about...it's not about getting popular...but something a little deeper and closer to home. Shout out to @coloredhoodies & @gracemark11 figuring it out so damn quickly. Lots of love ~ Izzy


TBC...As always thanks for reading.

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