Karma

Chapter 14

"Yeah?" Cameron asks, and I want to pinch him for agging her on. "What is it?"

"Aren't you going to say anything?" Stacy turns her scrutinizing attention towards me. "I mean this is for you after all."

Is it?

Because I'm starting to get the feeling that the only one who wants a little taste of what goes around comes around is her. I'm just here for the ride apparently.

"I'm listening." I tell her. "Don't worry about me."

She's not though.

Her attention is focused on all the wrong people.

She's trying to ruin the wrong person.

And in the aftermath of all this, she's going to take me down too.

"Okay, well you know that little rehab house for juveniles, just past that family owned restaurant with that giant chair in front of it?" The question is clearly directed at me, since Cameron has little to no knowledge of land-markers in town. We naturally describe places using distinct decorations as opposed to the normal naming of street names. "Do you know the place?"

Of course I know the place. I used to visit it once a week. It used to make me feel like shit because while I was taking care of first world problems, a huge part of my life was trapped inside the house with over-the-top fluorescent decorations and crochet blankets toppled in a basket.

I can still smell the distinct odor of lavender cleaning spray. Like they used the cleanser to get rid of all the real problems lying underneath.

They put on shows for visitors, but when we talked, I knew that the only thing keeping Steph's family moving forward was a need for normalcy.

"I know the place." I tell her. "What about it?"

"Well perfect little Stephanie Rayburn isn't so perfect after all."

She tried to be.

"Far from it actually."

She tore herself apart trying to be perfect.

"She was in rehab for three months." She keeps going. "Then the loser relapsed. Can you believe tha-"

"okay." I amend with a little more force than intended. "We get it."

"I don't think you do." If I wasn't trying to force the calm to run through my veins, I'd think that she meant that as a threat. "You don't seem grateful for the information."

"I am."

No, I'm not.

"Unless,"

It's not really a secret, I mean we were friends for five years. She needed someone to lean on during the rehab fiasco, and Jaclyn was to self absorbed to help her through it.

"Unless what?" The tension that has slowly been inflating this whole time is on the verge of exploding all over this room.

"Unless you already knew."

"Of course I fucking knew." I can't help the eye roll that follows. "It wasn't my story to tell though."

"Wow." She amends with a broken smile. "Well your cheating scandal with Dean wasn't Jaclyn's to tell, but she's smeared that shit like a new fashion trend."