The Reason Why

Chapter 14: You're Gonna Love Me

2013

 ‘’Good morning, beautiful.’’ 
Karen looked to Jimmy, she probably woke him up.
‘’Why am I here?’’ she asked.
Jimmy kicked the blankets off of him and Karen saw he didn’t wore a shirt. She started to feel dizzy. 
‘’Did we do what I think we were doing?’’ 
‘’I wish.’’ Jimmy sighed. He got out of bed and Karen thanked the Lord for the fact that he was wearing underwear. ‘’You fell asleep but you couldn’t drive back anyway, you were really drunk.’’
‘’Oh my God, what do I have to do? I’m married, I have a kid.’’
‘’Relax, we didn’t do a thing.’’
‘’But I woke up in your bed! And I lied. Oh God, I have to call Kimberly.’’ She grabbed her phone. Last night she told the others that she was with Kimberly, she had to know something.
She started to cry when she heard Kimberly’s voice.
‘’Kimberly?’’ 
‘’Karen!’’
‘’Kimberly, you need to help me.’’
‘’Why? With what? Karen, what’s wrong? Are you crying?’’ Kimberly started to panic on the other side.
‘’I… I woke up in another bed.’’
‘’What?!’’
‘’No, we didn’t do a thing but you need to help me! What if Jimi finds out?!’’
‘’Come to me, now!’’
Karen grabbed all her stuff together and walked to the door.
‘’I have to go! I’m sorry, this whole thing was a big mistake.’’ Karen said before she left. She saw disappointment in Jimmy’s eyes and it made her feel a bit guilty. But then she thought about Jimi, her Jimi, and that guilt was bigger.
‘’We’ll talk about this another time, okay?’’ Jimmy whispered.
Karen nodded. She didn’t want to see him again actually, but they had to talk about it. That was for sure. Another tear streamed down her face when she left the room.

The first thing the girls did when Kimberly opened the door was giving each other a hug.
‘’It’s okay, sweetie.’’ Kimberly said straight away.
‘’I’m dead, Kim, dead.’’ Karen cried.
‘’Come, sit down. Look; this is your perfect alibi.’’ She pointed to the couch. 
‘’A Disney Princess blanket? Okay.’’ Karen took a seat on the couch. Kimberly wrapped the blanket around her.
‘’Last night, Daisy and I made a cozy shed and left it on the couch. Schlap left very early this morning and he must have seen it.’’ Kimberly explained while she took a seat on the chair next to the couch.
‘’I don’t get it.’’
‘’If you want to hide this from Jimi you need an alibi for last night but also a witness. Of course I can be the witness but we’re best friends, best friends do everything for each other including hiding secrets. I’m not gonna lie, you’ve been really stupid but everybody is sometimes. In the dark it looks like someone lays under the blanket, when Schlap comes home in twenty minutes he sees it was you. So he actually thinks you slept here. He’s our witness!’’
‘’But he knows I wasn’t really here last night.’’ Karen started to cry again. ‘’What do I have to do? I don’t want to lose Jimi!’’
‘’Karen , calm down. He wasn’t home last night. He came back in the dark and left in the dark. A friend of him is real sick and he takes care of him.’’
‘’Like God planned it. Oh gosh, Kimberly this is perfect. Thank you!’’
‘’And now tell me what happened.’’
Karen sighed and started to tell the whole story.
‘’Oh Karen.’’ Kimberly said after her friend finished the story.
Kimberly please help me. Tell me that everything will be okay.’’ And again Karen started to cry.
Kimberly said nothing. She stood up and walked to Karen and hugged her. For five minutes she watched Karen scream, swear and cry. 
‘’Thanks, I needed that.’’ She wiped her tears off.
‘’Let’s wait until Schlap comes home. Then you go back to your family and tell that you were a bit to drunk to drive.’’ Kimberly smiled to her friend.

The whole way back home Karen was scared. What if Jimi saw that she was lying? It freaked her out but when she entered the living room everything was normal. Cassadee sat by the fireplace, writing her story on her MacBook while listening to music and Jimi sat on the table playing the guitar while Bailey replaced the lyrics of the song into gangster words and made a rap song of it. They ended up laughing real hard and Bailey fell of the chair. She was the first one who noticed Karen.
‘’Aunt Karen! You’re back, I missed you!’’ she shouted.
‘’Hi you.’’ Jimi smiled. ‘’Let me guess, you fell asleep on Kimberly’s couch.’’
‘’Exactly, I drank a bit too much.’’ She said.
‘’It’s fine with me.’’
‘’But you have to stay today. Today’s the last day.’’ Bailey made up a sad face. 
‘’Oh, I will.’’ She dropped her bag on the couch and Cassadee noticed her. She looked up and smiled.
‘’I’m glad you’re back.’’ She removed her earphones off the computer. ‘’I get crazy of those two.’’ She nodded to Jimi and Bailey, she was now teaching him how to rap now. ‘’Yesterday Uncle Jimi got the karaoke machine outside and it was fun, ya know, but they sang until 3am. 3am! And this morning even Uncle Jimi was happy and they were playing with food and continued with these gangster language.’’ Cassadee had to laugh. ‘’They’re crazy.’’
‘’Oh, I heard that it’s good that I’m back.’’
‘’Yes, you’re the only one who can rule uncle Jimi. It’s like that doe replaced me into Uncle Jimi.’’ She pointed to Bailey.
Karen rolled her eyes and had to laugh too. ‘’I’m going to take a shower.’’

‘’The bonfire is a keeper for sure.’’ Karen took a sip of her sweet tea.
‘’I’m sad that we have to go back tomorrow.’’ Bailey said. 
‘’Well, we were thinking about leaving late in the afternoon and staying at mom and dad’s place for two weeks. The plan was actually that Elijah would stay there for two weeks but it’s insane if we bring you back, and leave again. So we’ll stay there two days. If you stay too, you’ll see us two more days.
‘’Yes!’’ Bailey shouted.
‘’Ah, no, I don’t want that.’’ Cassadee looked to each of the three and started to laugh. ‘’Nah, kidding, I’d love to.’’ She looked to Bailey. Her friend was giving her the look.
‘’What?’’ she said. ‘’Oh, oh, I’m sorry!’’ she laughed.
‘’What’s happening between you too?’’ Karen asked.
‘’Bae’s just against the words ‘nah’ and ‘doe’.’’ Cassadee explained.  ‘’Even though she started with it.’’ 
‘’Look, two questions.’’ Bailey said to Karen. ‘’One: are you black?’’
‘’No.’’ she replied.
‘’Second: are you in a gang?’’
‘’Well, maybe.’’ 
‘’Oh Lord.’’ Cassadee muttered.
‘’Ayee, I’m through this level! I did a week about it!’’ Jimi shouted out of nothing, he was playing a game on his phone.
Cassadee looked at him. ‘’Did you just seriously said ‘ayee’?’’ 
‘’Yeah, Bailey said it’s cool.’’
‘’God help me, it’s like I’m surrounded by idiots. My uncle says ‘ayee’, my aunt might be in a gang and it looks like my best friend studied gang-o-logy.’’ Cassadee got up. ‘’But I always know who I’m with, I’m with the gang.’’ She sang.
‘’That’s the most genius thing I’ve ever heard.’’ Jimi laughed.
‘’Oh my God, oh my God!’’ Bailey shouted. She looked at her friend and both started to sing.
‘’Last night in Brooklyn, tonight in The Bro-onx. Tomorrow I’ll be miles from here, ain’t nothing to me, nothing to me.’’
‘’Ooh, Lord, I was born with a gun in my hand. Living that life a few could understand. Sometimes it gets so confusing, and I don’t know who I killed. But I always know who I’m with, I’m with the gang.’’ Cassadee finished.
‘’This is insane, you two are so weird.’’ Even though everything what happened Karen could laugh. She tried to follow Kimberly’s instructions to act normal and she did. Again, Jimi got the karaoke machine and they sang until 11. Karen proposed to go to bed early, but Jimi and Bailey drank too much Red Bull and they were hysterical. Bailey jumped on Jimi’s back, and he ran through the house while making the sound of a horse. Everything was normal.