“I don’t like it, but okay, I’ll do it. But I’ll do it for Karma, so I can prove she’s not what Pagano thinks she is,” I said.
“Thank you,” dad said. “Now, let’s go over the game plan.”
Chapter 12
Karma
The next day in Spanish, Bodie sat next to me like normal, but he was acting like he didn’t want to be there. In fact, I don’t think he paid attention to the professor the entire class. I know he emailed the assignment to her last night because he copied me on it, but today it was as if he was in another world. Finally, class ended, and I had a chance to talk to him.
“Hey, are you okay?” I asked, as we were leaving.
“Yeah.” Was his only response.
“I call bullshit, Bodie,” I told him and waited.
“Just some family stuff,” he said finally.
“Okay. But if you need to talk, I’m available,” I said.
“Thanks,” he said. “See you later.”
I watched him walk down the sidewalk, before remembering I was going to be late for class if I didn’t hurry up. Something wasn’t right and I wanted to know what it was. Yesterday, he was fine when we worked on our Spanish homework and today, he seemed like his dog died. I was hoping he’d open up and talk to me.
My next class was literature, and the professor was extra boring today, so I got out my phone and started texting people.
Me: Are we still on for girl’s night coffee?
I sent that to both Kayleigh and Gabbi. I knew they were in class but would get back to me when they could. Then I texted Anthony.
Me: Hey handsome. What are you doing?
I had no idea of his schedule or even what he did, so I wasn’t sure if I would get a reply right away. I smiled when I saw his response a few minutes later.
Anthony: I’m trying to create a new spreadsheet for my father. BORING.
Me: I have no opinion on that as I’ve never made one.
Anthony: Trust me, they’re boring as hell.
Anthony: Aren’t you supposed to be in class?
Me: I am. The prof is just like your spreadsheet … boring.
Anthony: I sympathize.
Anthony: But aren’t you the naughty girl not paying attention in class.
Anthony: Naughty girls get punished
Me: Oh yes, please punish me!
Anthony: Oh, I will
Me: Did you have anything specific in mind, because I do.
Anthony: I have a few ideas. Tell me yours.
Me: I thought you could lick my pussy until I’m about to come and then deny me, over and over and over.
Anthony: Fuck, Karma, I almost spit my coffee all over my desk. You will be punished now.
Anthony: And nice visual by the way
Me: I aim to please
Anthony: And please me you do. Now stop texting me and get back to class.
Me: Yes sir!
Anthony: You will be calling me sir later.
It took everything I had not to giggle out loud in class. I put my phone away and did my best to pay attention. I needed to keep up my grades or I was off the team, and there was no way I was letting that happen.
****
Bodie
I read the text exchange between Karma and Anthony for the third time. As part of proving to Antonio Pagano that Karma wasn’t after the family money, I had to have access to her phone. That meant being able to record phone calls, see her texts, and listen to her voicemails. It was a huge invasion of privacy and I hated it, but it might be the only way to help her.
Looking at my phone again, I read the part she texted about licking her pussy. I couldn’t get that out of my head. I remember what she tasted like and the sounds she made as my tongue found her clit over and over.
“FUCK,” I yelled out loud.
“Dude, what the fuck?” Major said, running into my room.
I looked at him, but didn’t say anything.
“Are. You. Okay?” he said slowly.
“I didn’t know you were here,” I said.
“That doesn’t answer either of my questions,” he said. “Is something wrong?”
I decided to tell Major what exactly my problem was. I needed someone to talk to that wasn’t my dad.
“I have to initiate the bro code pinky swear, zip your lips, friendship clause,” I said seriously.
Major chuckled. “I haven’t heard that since we were kids. This must be serious.”
“It’s fucking serious alright. You can’t say anything to anyone, ever, not even Kayleigh.”
His face lost all its humor. “Okay, man, no problem. I swear I won’t tell a soul, not even Kayleigh.”
I took a deep breath and told Major everything my dad told me last night.
“That fucking sucks,” he said.
“It gets worse,” I said. “I hacked into her phone so I can record her calls, listen to her voicemails, and read her texts. Oh, and let’s not forget that I bugged their dorm room so I can hear what Karma says to Kayleigh.”
“Duuuude. I don’t even know what to fucking say to that. If she ever finds out she’s going to kill you. So, is that what this was all about a few minutes ago?”
“Yeah. I was reading a text exchange between her and Anthony. And to add insult to injury they were sexting.”
That almost made Major laugh, almost. “What are you going to do?”
“My job. I need to prove that she’s not what Antonio Pagano thinks she is. I’m just going to have to find a way to think of this as just a job. Try and remove myself from it if I can.”
“Yeah, I don’t see that happening,” he said.
Honestly, I didn’t either.
“The girls are doing their coffee night, why don’t we grab Chad and Zach and go do something. Take your mind off this for a couple of hours.”
“Yeah, okay,” I agreed.
I left my phone on my bed and we left the dorm. For the next little while, I didn’t want anything around that reminded me of the guilt I was feeling about Karma.
****
We decided on laser tag as the activity of the night. At first, it seemed like a juvenile idea, but only the four of us could make a stupid bet to get the night started. Whoever was the loser, had to wear a dress around campus all day tomorrow, and not just any dress, one the other three picked out. I really didn’t want to lose.
After we’d been playing for thirty minutes, I realized the three of them were ganging up on me. I figured this was Major’s doing and set my mind to get him, but he was sneaky tonight and playing a good game. By the time our hour was over I was the loser.
“You fuckers did that on purpose,” I said, as we turned in our gear.
“Yep,” they said, and started laughing.
“I hate you,” I said, but couldn’t help the smile that was forming.
“You can hate us all you want but you are wearing a dress tomorrow, all day,” Major said grinning.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, knowing I would do it. We always honored our bets.
“Time to go shopping,” Chad said, with an evil grin.
I knew this was going to be really bad for me.
Chapter 13
Karma
Kayleigh, Gabbi, and I walked into the coffee shop that had recently become our new Tuesday night tradition. It was off campus and had great coffee so we made it our weekly girl’s outing.
“Oh my God, Tiffany,” Kayleigh said excitedly, when we got to the counter. “I didn’t know you worked here.”
“Hey, Kayleigh,” the girl behind the counter said. “Yeah, I’ve been working here for almost a year now.”
“How come we’ve never seen you before?” Kayleigh asked.
“I’m not sure. I usually work weekends and mornings. I’m filling in for someone tonight.”
“That explains it,” Kayleigh said. “We’ve only been here Tuesday evening.”
I nudged Kayleigh in the arm, and she got the hint.
“Oh, sorry,�
�� she said. “Tiffany, this is my best friend, Karma and this is our teammate, Gabbi. Girls, this is Tiffany, a friend of Bodie’s.”
Tiffany smiled. “It’s nice to finally meet you,” Tiffany said looking at me. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Don’t believe anything Bodie tells you,” I said, with a wink.
She laughed. “It’s all been good.”
“Then it’s definitely a lie,” I said.
That made Kayleigh snort. I smacked her arm, but she just laughed at me.
“This is exactly how I imagined meeting you would go,” Tiffany said with a grin. “Do you ladies know what you want?”
It took a minute, but we finally ordered and then went and found a table.
“When did you meet her and why don’t I know about it?” I asked Kayleigh, when we sat down.
“Bodie brought her to dinner the other night, you know, while you were busy being fancy at that party,” she said, smiling at me.
“And are they really just friends?” I asked.
“Yeah, as far as we could tell. Bodie said she’s in love with her best friend’s boyfriend.”
“Ouch,” I said. “And Bodie hasn’t fucked her?”
Gabbi laughed and Kayleigh rolled her eyes at me. “Karma, a guy and girl can be friends without sleeping together. You and Bodie are friends, right? And you two haven’t had sex.”
It’s a good thing I didn’t have my coffee yet or I might have spit it out. “Right,” I said, totally lying.
“What’s with the funny look on your face?” Kayleigh asked. “Is there something I should know?”
I had to think fast, or she was going to figure it out. “No, I’m just not used to casually using the word sex in conversation. I’m proud of you.”
“Whatever,” she said, but was smiling. “Are you ever going to let that go?”
“Sure, when we’re eighty.” I told her. This time it was her turn to smack my arm.
Tiffany brought out our drinks a few minutes later. “I’ll be right back with your food,” she said, and went back to the counter. Kayleigh got up to help her. “Here you go.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“You’re welcome. Do you mind if I join you guys for a bit?”
“Sure,” I said. “So how did you and Bodie meet?”
“At the beach,” she said.
“That’s too funny,” I said. “We met him on the beach too.”
“But I bet it wasn’t at midnight.”
“Um, no. What were you doing at the beach at midnight?” I asked.
“I had to get away from my apartment. The beach wasn’t far, so I walked there. I was sitting up on one of the lifeguard towers watching the waves when a guy sat down on the ramp. I’ll admit, I was nervous at first, but then he just sat there, doing the same thing I was. I finally said something and scared the crap out of him. We started talking and he seemed decent. Even threw a fit to drive me home since it was too late for me to be out alone.”
“Sounds like Bodie,” I said.
“I happened to mention I worked here, and he showed up the next morning asking to be friends.”
“That’s sweet,” Kayleigh said.
“How long have you been friends?” I asked, wondering why I didn’t know anything about her.
“Only about a week and a half, I guess. It was two Saturdays ago that we ended up at the beach at the same time.”
“And he hasn’t tried to sleep with you?” I asked.
Tiffany laughed. “No. I think he’s hung up on someone already. But that’s okay with me, I’m not looking for a relationship, or anything else for that matter.”
“Bad breakup?” I asked.
“No, worse, in love with someone I can’t have.”
“Wow, yeah, that is worse. Sorry,” I told her.
“But it’s been nice to get out and do things with Bodie. Or, even just texting or talking to him. He has a way of making me forget to feel sorry for myself.”
“That’s great,” Kayleigh said.
The door dinged with a customer. “I gotta go,” Tiffany said. “The four of us should plan to get together soon.”
We all agreed that sounded like fun. Kayleigh already had her number from the other night, so we were going to try and plan something in the next week.
As soon as we got back to the dorm, I texted Bodie.
Me: Why didn’t you tell me about Tiffany?
Bodie: Huh?
Me: I met her tonight
Bodie: What? How?
Me: It turns out the coffee place Gabbi took us to is the same one Tiffany works at
Bodie: Ok, what do you want me to say?
Me: Why haven’t you said anything about her?
Bodie: I don’t know. It’s not like you and I talk about our relationships.
Me: You don’t do relationships
Bodie: Neither do you usually
Me: True
Bodie: What about you and Anthony?
Me: I wouldn’t call it a relationship, yet. I haven’t even known him for two weeks. We’re having fun. Possibly dating, it’s still casual.
Bodie: So, you’re not in love with him?
Me: Fuck Bodie, you sound like a girl. I don’t do love. I do sex and fun. You know that.
Bodie: Yep, I do. Gotta go, see you tomorrow.
That was probably the strangest conversation I’d ever had with Bodie. I shook my head and opened my books. I was falling a little behind and I knew better than to let that happen. I put my phone on silent and spent the rest of the night catching up.
****
Bodie
I woke up to Major banging on my bedroom door.
“Time to get up and get beautiful,” he yelled, and then started laughing.
I heard more laughter in the main part of the dorm. That meant Chad and Zach were here too.
“Just fucking great,” I muttered and got up.
Ignoring them as I left my room, I took a shower, taking as long as I possibly could. I was dreading going out there and keeping up my end of the bet.
“Okay you fuckers,” I said, after I put on underwear, “where’s the dress?”
Major threw it at me and then Chad threw a bag at me.
“What this?” I asked, holding up the bag.
“It goes with the dress,” he said laughing.
“Fuck,” I said, and went back to my room.
As part of the bet, the guys got to pick out the dress I had to wear … all day today. We sure got some funny looks at the department store last night when they made me try on like twenty dresses. And if I wasn’t the one wearing the dress, I would have thought it was hilarious, too. But, not so much now as I looked at the dress. It was sleeveless and skin-tight. And let’s not forget bright red, sparkly and short. There was no way I was going unnoticed today.
I put it on and dumped out the bag from Chad. I shook my head at what I saw. There were bracelets, necklaces, and even a pair of heels. Trying to be a good sport I put on the jewelry, but not the shoes, I didn’t do heels of any kind, ever.
“Are you assholes happy now?” I said, walking out of my bedroom.
They all had their phones out, recording me. But they were laughing so hard I don’t think any of the videos would be steady enough to see. That was absolutely fine with me.
“Dude,” Major said, in between laughs, “you look so pretty.”
“Can I have your number sexy?” Chad managed to say.
Zach whistled at me. “Let me take you on a date.”
“Are you done yet?” I asked and waited.
“Not even close,” Major said. “But for now, we’ll stop. You have a class to get to.”
“Where are your shoes?” Chad asked.
“I’m not wearing those things. That wasn’t part of the bet.”
“But they’d complete the outfit,” Chad said and burst out laughing again.
“I hate all of you,” I told them.
“Don’t be a sore loser,” Majo
r said.
“I’ve got the fucking dress on, don’t I? I’m not a sore loser.” So, that was maybe a little bit of a lie. I really did hate losing.
Major just chuckled at me. “Time to go.”
I put on my tennis shoes, grabbed my bag and walked out of the dorm. If I was wearing a bright red dress today, I might as well own it, so I put a smile on my face and a little swagger in my step. Major, Zach, and Chad were right behind me, no doubt taking pictures I’d regret later.
Not surprisingly, I got lots of looks directed my way. Some people seemed shocked but mostly everyone thought it was funny.
When I got to my class, I stopped outside the door.
“Are you three assholes going to follow me into class, too?” I asked.
“Nah, we just wanted to see you do the walk of shame,” Major said. “Red is certainly your color.”
All three of them started laughing again, but let me walk into the class alone. I did my best to ignore everyone and looked for Karma. She was on her phone and hadn’t seen me walk in yet. I went and sat in the chair beside her. The look on her face when she saw me was priceless. Then she started cackling.
“Oh my God, Bodie! What the hell?” she managed to say.
“Lost a bet,” I told her.
“Wow, that’s quite a bold style,” she said, still laughing.
“The guys got to pick it out.”
“I see. Well, they did a great job. Red is definitely the right color for your skin tone.”
I rolled my eyes at her which only made her laugh harder.
“Do you ever win any bets?” she asked.
“Sure, just not any in a while,” I said.
“Do you guys make bets often?”
“Not as much as we used to. In high school, it was a new bet almost every week,” I told her.
“Class,” the professor said, trying to get our attention. “Class,” he said louder. “What seems to be the trouble today?”
Almost everyone in the room pointed at me.
“Young man, would you care to stand up,” he said. So, I stood. “Ah, I see. Did you lose a bet?” he asked me.
“Yes sir,” I said.
“Well, nice to see you’re a man that honors his bets. And that’s a beautiful dress, by the way.”
Diving in Deep (A Bay State University Novel Book 2) Page 8