Karma

Chapter 1

I pick at the chipped polish on my nails, wondering how Jaclyn, my best friend, managed to convince me that watching her find new clothes on a Saturday would be entertaining.

There's a middle aged man sitting next to me scrolling through something on his phone. I laugh at the irony of me being the dude who sits and waits while their ladies try on things.

Only I'm not a dude, and she's not my lady. I frown. This is what my life is.

"Does this outfit make me look fat?" She's chirpy as she goes out into the seating area to pose a thousand different ways for me. "I mean my curves don't help, but you know what I mean?"

"You look fine." I shrug. The man beside me seems to admire Jaclyn too. Until his daughter exits the dressing room too. I recognize her as the girl in my English class. Or was it math? No it was probably B.I.M.

Damn. What is it?

"Is she serious?" Jaclyn snorts, tipping her chin up to look at the poor girl. I feel my stomach churn. I've done this before. Watched mutely as the begrudgingly tore someone down. Did Jaclyn even know her name?

"Jaclyn stop. Her dad's two feet away." Is that my only excuse? We'll get caught. Jesus, I'm a disgrace to human kind. "Just get your stuff so we can leave."

"You're no fun." She pouts, but not before turning to the other girl. "Red isn't your color."

Crimson creeps to her cheeks, making my stomach much worse.

Her dad has gone back to his phone, completely oblivious to his daughter bring on the verge of tears.

"It's nice." I say, pointing at the dress that reaches just below her knees. It's not though. It's actually really ugly. I don't have the mean bone in my body to tell her that though. "The dress I mean."

Self consciously she flattens her palms over the length of the dress. "No, it's not." She says accusingly.

"Here, try something else." I look around a bit before taking a dress off the mannequin on display. It's shorter than the one she has on. "I think the red is good. Just try a different style."

She's hesitant to trust me, understandably.

"Just try it. If you don't like it don't buy it."

"Nothing could help that train wreck." Jaclyn laughs, grabbing my hand to leave.

I throw the dress over a clothing rack. When I turn around to offer her an apologetic smile, she's gone.

I'm an awful person. Maybe I wasn't ugly to her, but I sure as hell didn't say anything when Jaclyn was.

"Why do you do that?" I try to steady my emotions. She sets her stuff on the customer service counter and feigns innocence.

"Do what?" She tries to look genuinely confused. "Ask if something looks good on me?"

I roll my eyes, completely unamused by her meaningless banter. This is my presumed duty as best friend of Jaclyn, and up until freshmen year in high school I was very graceful in accepting the responsibilities. Now- well now its a little less amusing to build up her ego on the daily basis.