Karma

Chapter 8

I tighten my vest over the white cotton shirt that I borrowed from my mom because despite its simplicity, it's perfect.

I don't really know why I'm here, but I want to go back so that Cameron could convince me a little longer not to do this to myself.

I had told him that I wanted to see Dean for some closure, and he warned me that it was a bad idea. Maybe it was because I was mad about Stacy and Riley wanting to turn this whole thing on Stephanie, saying that she was helping Jaclyn in all of this. I know she is, but there's still something genuine about our relationship. Genuine enough to leave her out of my mess. We've shared too many secrets for me not to protect her.

He told me over and over that I was too good to put myself through something like begging for an explanation, but I disregarded his warning and sought Dean out, despite the weeks of built up it had taken for my courage to step in. The weeks that seem to drag because I haven't talked to anyone since my out of control rant.

Besides that, Cameron told me not to run crying to him anymore, so I didn't. He doesn't have any official ties to me or my problems, and I'm not going to force any on him.

"Karma?" I can recognize his voice, his smell, everything, anywhere. "Hey, how are you?"

I feel a harsh breath get knocked out of me. I'm really shitty actually.

I don't really know what crossed my mind when I had asked Dean to meet me at our usual bakery, the same one that we had our first kiss in. The first time we held hands. The time he asked me to be his girlfriend. Nostalgia I guess, but I want to take back my texts just so I can go hide under a blanket and forget that he was ever even a part of my life.

"Babe." I look up at the word, stunned and angry. "I'm-"

"Don't call me that." I tell him, tracing over the frost that has built up on the cup of my iced coffee. "I'm not- We're not a thing anymore."

I had intentionally pulled myself together for this set up, taking more than half on hour on my hair which has done nothing more than frizz because of the humidity, and I even put on eye shadow, disregarding my usual routine of mascara and blush. I notice then that he's probably done the same for me because I get a strong whiff of his signature cologne.

I used to tell him that a guy who smelled good was the sexiest thing in the world, and now I wish that I would have told him that being faithful is pretty sexy too. I didn't think I had too though.

"Why'd you want to meet here?" He must remember that we shared a lot of first here too because there's almost this undertone of having the upper hand when he says here. "Or at all?"

He takes a sip from my coffee, which offends me more than it probably should. We used to share drinks here all the time, but surely he knows that things aren't the same between us. Maybe we just haven't realized it yet, but things have probably never been the same since he cheated. He would have felt the change before I did though because he knew we were broken before me. I don't really understand why he's so nonchalant about this. Shouldn't he be freaking out as much as me?

"Why her?" I can my sanity slipping away from me the longer I watch him try and conjure up an answer in all that empty space he has in his head. His well perfected veneer seems to be cracking by the second, and I'm a little proud that I could knock him off his game. "Well?"

Perfect hair, flawless teeth, gorgeous body, bright future. He was everything. He was my everything, and he just had to go and throw it away for a piece of ass.