Karma: Chapter Three

As soon as I stepped onto school grounds, Anna rushed over to me and attacked me with questions, firing one after another. “Is he gorgeous? How did the date go? Fill me in on every detail! What’s he like? Did he fart? Where’d he take you? Is he going to make Cameron jealous? OMG! Did you see Cameron there? Do you like him?”

I blinked a couple of times before trying to answer her list of questions. “I guess he’s good looking. It was alright…he’s really funny, a gentleman, but there’s just nothing there.”

“Nothing?” she replied weakly.

“Nothing. No, he didn’t fart. Where did that question even come from?”

She blushed. “I don’t know…just putting that out there. Now answer my questions!”

“We went to Olive Garden and I had alfredo and he had something with shrimp in it. I even asked the waiter if it had nuts in it. The waiter probably thought I was nuts! I lied and told him my brother was allergic to them. Gah, I’m such an idiot, Anna! No, we didn’t’ see Cameron there. He was probably with Julia in our bed.”

“Julia? That’s real? I thought she just hacked into his Facebook or something.”

I sighed. “It’s real.”

“I’m sorry, Audrey.”

I shrugged. “It happens. Now tell me about your date with Angelo!” I wanted the topic off me and shined onto someone else.

“Oh, that! He got us into the over 21 club. His parents own the club, so we didn’t even have to wait in line! We danced until my feet hurt and then we went to a very dark corner and…”

“You didn’t do it, did you?”

She seemed confused for a second before realizing what I was talking about. “Oh no! Oh, goodness no! Why would you even suggest something like that?”

“I don’t know…”

“Speaking of Angelo, there he is. If you’ll excuse me…”

She strode over to Angelo, who was at his locker, and greeted him with a big, wet kiss. I turned away; I didn’t need to see that. I love her to death, but I didn’t want to see any of that PDA.

By the time lunchtime had rolled around, people had constantly been coming up to me and asking me about my breakup with Cameron. When about the hundredth person asked, I lost it.

“For the billionth time, yes! We broke up! Quite frankly, it’s none of your business. So go feed off the other rumors, okay?”

The junior’s eyes widened and she retreated, muttering, “Someone’s got issues.”

I sent her the middle finger, and stormed into the cafeteria. I wasn’t hungry, so I didn’t bother waiting in the outrageously long lunch line. Anna was sitting at our usual table in the corner of the room, chatting animatedly with Angelo. They looked so adorable together—almost like they were meant to be. I’m glad Anna didn’t give up on him, and I’m glad he was able to take a hint.

The table seemed empty without Cam’s presence. I sounded like a depressed, lovesick teenager…and I was. So I had an excuse, right? Sure, I brought this all on myself, but heartbreak is heartbreak, no matter who caused it.

I slumped down onto the cold seat next to Anna. Cam usually got to the lunch room before me and warmed my spot up. I really depended on him…

“Hey Audrey,” Angelo greeted politely.

I smiled. “Hi Angelo, Anna.”

Angelo and I weren’t exactly friends, just connected by Anna. You know, a friend of a friend. It’s like you would only hang out with that person if the person who was both close to you was there. Catch my drift?

“So it is true that you two broke up?” Angelo asked.

I sighed. “It’s true.”

“And he really is dating Julia?”

“Unfortunately…”

“But that’s alright because Audrey’s dating a college student,” Anna piped loudly. “He’s all man, no boy.”

“Thanks Anna,” Angelo said sardonically.

“It’s okay,” Anna reassured him. “I like boys.”

“Pedophile,” I coughed, which earned me a playful punch in the arm.

I could feel Cam’s eyes burning a hole in the back of my head, which made me smile. Round One went to me. I began to hear the rumor mill starting up. This would be around the entire school by the end of the day.

“She’s not really dating a college boy,” I heard Julia say confidently. “She’s just making that up to get Cam all jealous.” Her brainless minions murmured in agreement. “You’re not seriously jealous of a fake guy, are you?”

“Of course not,” Cam replied quickly.

Yeah right, I mentally scoffed. I turned around to face Julia. “You’re right, Julia. He’s not a college boy, he’s a college man. I thought Anna made that clear before? You probably couldn’t hear me with all those split ends, right? And you can have Cam. You can have my leftovers.”

I left before Julia even had a chance to react. I wanted my last picture of her with her jaw hanging out.

People were no longer talking about my breakup with Cameron, but my hookup with Gavin. Apparently people went crazy for college kids. Anna told me that Cameron and Julia were going to the movies to see Men in Black III. Coincidentally, that’s what movie I had told Gavin I wanted to see tonight. I would make sure that we would sit in front of them, so they had a good view of what was about to go down during the movie.

I wouldn’t have a problem guessing where they would sit. Cam was very particular about where he sat. He wanted to sit where he could see the screen and get the movie theater experience, but not so close where he would have to turn his head to see the whole screen. Cameron was very picky.

So here I was in front of the screen, watching previews and stuffing my face with cheddar cheese popcorn. I didn’t have to eat that horrible chili lime stuff anymore. I avoided my dad after school, before sending a last minute text to him saying that I had another date with Gavin. I didn’t want to introduce Gavin to my dad because he was only a short term fling.

“Geez Audrey, slow down. You’re going to choke,” Gavin commented, eyeing the half empty bucket.

I looked at him, with popcorn filling my cheeks so I looked like a chipmunk, and smiled sheepishly. I held the bucket up and offered him some popcorn. He shook his head and went back to watching the endless movie previews. Cameron and Julia had only come in a couple of minutes ago. I was positive that Cameron saw me, and he didn’t look too happy about it either. I was sitting in the spot that we usually sat in. If he could ruin a sacred spot, so could I.

The theater was fairy empty, seeing as the movie came out a week ago, so most of the people had seen it then. Half an hour into the movie, I snuggled closer to Gavin, making it deliberately obvious. Gavin looked down at me and smiled, putting his arm around my shoulder.

I traced my finger on his arm lightly, making him shiver. “We don’t have to just watch the movie,” I whispered suggestively. “We could do something else.”

He raised an eyebrow. “What did you have in mind?”

I smiled and smashed my lips against his. You know when I said there was no spark? I was wrong. There was most definitely a spark. It was electrifying, but it wasn’t as good as Cam’s.

“I like that idea,” Gavin said, pulling away.

I put my finger to his lips. “Then stop talking and let’s get to it.”

The other people didn’t really notice us. They were too intrigued in the movie to even care. I had moved onto Gavin’s lap, straddling him. I only did this so I could get a better view of Cameron and Julia’s reaction. Making out with my date while looking at my ex and his? That was creepy.

Cameron’s jaw was clenched and he was trying to concentrate on the movie. Julia was just downright shocked. I winked at her before returning to Gavin’s heavenly lips.

An usher came in and told us that only one person was allowed in a seat. We’d have to stop disrupting the film or be escorted out. We just cuddled for the rest of the movie. We refilled our popcorn about three times before the people at the counter got annoyed with us and stopped refilling it.

“That was such a good movie,” I gushed.

“We hardly watched it,” Gavin teased, flicking my nose lightly.

“True, but from what I saw it was.”

Julia made her way over here, sporting her award winning smile. “Hello Audrey, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?” she insisted sweetly.

“Why should I?”

Gavin held out his hand. “I’m Gavin and you might be?”

“Julia.”

“Well any friend of Audrey is a friend of mine.”

“We’re not friends,” I pointed out.

Julia laughed dramatically. “Don’t be ridiculous, Audrey. Of course we are.”

“Since when?”

“Look at her, she’s a kidder. So are you really in college?”

Gavin looked amused and turned to me. “You talk about me?”

“No,” I muttered.

“Meet my boyfriend, Cameron,” she said, emphasizing the ‘my’ and pulling Cameron closer to her.

“Nice to meet you, Cameron. I’m Gavin.”

“I wish I could say the same for you,” he muttered.

Gavin seemed taken back by Cameron’s rude response and put on a half smile. The four of us just stood there in the middle of the theater lobby; Cameron was looking as tense as ever, Gavin standing there awkwardly, Julia sending flirtatious looks to my date, and I was just in the middle of all of this.

“Gavin and I have plans, so if you excuse us…”

I tugged on Gavin’s arm, leading him away from the couple. When we got outside, he looked at me puzzedly. “We didn’t have any other plans, did we?”

“No, but I just wanted to get out of there.”

“We can make more plans if you want?”

“What did you have in mind?”

“We can finish what we did at the movie theater before that man interrupted us?”

“Hm,” I said, pecking him on the lips. “I like that idea.”

He drove me home and we sat in my driveway, making out in his car. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t exactly the smartest idea because my dad was home…but I didn’t really care.

“I think I should go,” I gasped as Gavin sucked the skin on my neck. Gavin made a whiny sound in the back of his throat and I pushed him off. “Sorry, buddy. I have school tomorrow and you have class.”

I gave him one last passionate kiss before going inside. It was going to be very easy to convince Cameron that I really liked Gavin, and it was going to be as fun as hell doing it.