Karma

Chapter 3

7:03 am, Karma: Still want a ride?

7:05 am, Steph: my mom's taking me. thanks anyways.

I stare at my phone for a few moments expecting to get a jk text, but it never comes. Stephanie, a mutual friend of mine and Jaclyn's, is too easily mortified to let her too old to dress that way mom take her to school for everyone to see. On her sixteenth birthday she figured she'd get her license just as easily as she got her driver's permit, but no one told her that the driving test actually consisted of driving and not just a written portion.

She still can't seem to get the parallel parking down, hence her lack of a license.

I've taken her to school since I've had my permit, despite the law saying that I wasn't allowed to do that.

7:06 am, Karma: Seriously?

She doesn't text me back.

"Hey," My mom is already in my room, but she knocks on the door frame anyways. "Your bright eyed and bushy tailed."

Hardly

My mom's gaze sweeps over me before she says, "I can't believe you're a senior now." I almost think I see regret flash in her eyes, but it's gone before I can decipher. "Times flown huh?"

This. Of all the things that happened last night, and she wants to completely ignore it. This is what she chooses to wade through instead.

"Are you nervous?"

I shoot her a sharp look, astonished that she's just asked a really dumb question. "I haven't talked to Dean all weekend, but it's because he cheated on me." I keep saying it, but it still doesn't feel real. "What do you think?"

"Can we ta-"

"No." I say passively, pulling my hair back into a ponytail. "We can't."

It's always the same song and dance with my mom. I've tried a million different times to mend a relationship that was never really worth saving to begin with. She'll do something to intentionally hurt me, and I forgive her without even being asked to. I've always shown her that if she doesn't feel guilty for what she's done to me, then it's okay because I'll feel guilty enough for the both of us.

"Karma." A moment of hesitation passes until I finally walk away, leaving her in my room alone like she's done to me so many times before.

"Good morning!" Someone yells, and when I look over I see Cameron waving at me from his porch, his dark hair repeatedly falling over his eyes, despite the many times that he tries to push it away.