Karma Bites (2 page)

Before losing eyesight with him, I shoot one more glance his way. And he
smiles.
Not a real smile, because I’m not sure his mouth really works that way, but a half one. He has me in some kind of Caleb-induced trance.
Pfft, trance. It’s called good looks, Abbs.
But this is the first smile, so it has to mean something. I can’t help but return it. As soon as I do, the curtains close and he disappears behind them.

The trance is broken. Hell, I’d probably even imagined the smile, because that is my biggest fear. Imagining things, seeing things, believing things. As normal as Mom is in so many ways, I’m scared of becoming that hidden part of her most people don’t see. I’m scared of being like the crazy, vampire-obsessed woman I call Mom.

***

Out of the woods, I make it onto the street where we live. A couple minutes later, I’m closing the front door to our small, two-story house quietly, hoping to get a few minutes to myself before Mom walks in. Setting my backpack by the front door, I head straight for the kitchen. Math may be completely useless, but it works up my appetite. Or maybe it’s the whole running like a dog with my tail between my legs thing. I’m sure that can make a girl pretty hungry too.

I throw some peanut butter and jelly on two pieces of bread, slap them together and sit at our round little secondhand table. Mom loves going to thrift stores and yard sales. We do it a lot on the weekends. You never know what treasures you can find. I’m not so sure about this table, but I do have a really cool trunk in my room that I love. I’d love it a lot more without the vampire-killing paraphernalia inside, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers, right?

I make it about halfway through my sandwich when Mom rounds the corner into our kitchen. She gives me a smile, brushing her straight auburn hair, so different from my blond curls, from her eyes.

“Hey, kiddo. How was your day?” She doesn’t wait for me to respond before dropping the load from her left arm, on the table. “I found the best book at the library on my lunch.”

Mom is a billing specialist in the hospital. She hunts for vampire information on her lunch hour. Nice.

“Mom, I’ve had a long day. I’m not really in the mood.”

She rolls her eyes like I’m being a silly teenager who doesn’t want to look at some completely normal book with her mom.

“It’ll only take a second. It has this really interesting chapter in it about how some people believe vampires now have the ability to walk in daylight. Of course, no one knows for sure what information is true, or what’s manufactured by some crazy person, but
daylight
!”

I push up from the table. “No! No, no, no. I don’t think so. Don’t start thinking the undead stalk the daytime, too. I--” Can’t lose what little life I have. Don’t want you scared for us to leave the house. Do not feel like becoming more of a freak than I already am. “I think it’s one of the crazy people and not the…” Sane ones? No, that won’t work. “We’ve seen enough vampire movies to know
that.
” I wave my hand. “Pfft, vampires out during the day. Yeah, right.”

Mom shakes her head at me. “I’m not an idiot, Abbs. I know it’s unbelievable, and I know you don’t think they’re real, but I
know
, so I’m asking you to humor me.”

She sits across the table, so I fall back into my chair. My heart is doing this frustrated skip-a-beat thing that happens whenever I get upset. “I can’t do this today.”

Mom reaches over the table and grabs my hand. I hold it for a minute, because it feels good, normal, and that’s all I want. Just to be normal. “I’m sorry. You’re right. How was your day?”

This time, she waits for my answer. I run a few options through my head. I haven’t gone with the group-project-with-friends thing in a while. “It was good. I’m working with Brandy on a project for history. We get to choose one of our favorite historical duos and write a report on them.” I’m not a liar by nature, and it squeezes something inside me every time I lie to her.

Mom’s blue eyes go bright. It’s another difference between us. The only trait we share is the dusting of freckles across our noses. For the millionth time I wonder if I get my blond hair from my dad. He’s like a ghost to me. One that I sometimes think I can feel, but have never seen. Which I hope doesn’t make me a little loony myself. “I wish you would have her over. I’d really like to meet your friends.”

Invisible friends are a little hard to meet, Mom.
“I know. I’ll ask her again. Her parents are pretty tough on her.” Another lie, but what else can I say? That one day Mom spoke too loud in the library and ruined any chances of making friends?

“There are plenty of books on vampires at your disposal, Abby. You should read up. I can only tell you so much and honestly, I don’t even know if all the information I have is correct. The more you know, the more prepared you’ll be. Hopefully, you’ll never need the knowledge, kiddo, but you can never be too safe. The night is dangerous and I want to make sure you understand that.”

Like always, I’d nodded my head to placate Mom and that’s when I saw her: Stacy, hiding behind a row of books. The rest is, as they say, history. She found the perfect person to torture all through high school and I became Karma High’s biggest outcast.

“Good. It’s important that you know. If what I read is true…”

My head spins. Will it ever freakin’ end? “Mom! Get over it, okay? Vampires don’t walk in daylight!”

She sighs like
I’m
the one being unreasonable. “Maybe, maybe not. It wouldn’t hurt for you to read it just in case.”

One time we were driving and smoke started to come out of the hood. Mom freaked out and pulled to the side of the road because the car overheated. That’s how hot I feel at this moment. At any minute steam is going to start coming from my ears. But still, I grab the book off the table. “Fine. I’m doing my homework and then I’ll read the stupid book.”

One the way, I grab my backpack and lock myself in my room. I drop my backpack, toss the book in my closet, and curl up on my vampire-killing-kit-of-a-trunk that sits beneath my window and cry until there are no tears left and nothing to do but drift into darkness.

I dream about my dad. The faceless man who must have blond hair like mine. He finds me and tells me everything is going to be okay. That he loves us and never wanted to leave us. My dad tells me it’s not Mom’s fault that she’s the way she is, that he can make it better. And he does. All it takes is one talk from him and the veil is lifted from Mom’s eyes. She can’t believe she ever thought vampires were real. It was a tough time period for her. She missed my dad, but now…now she’s normal and we’re going to be happy.

Normal
…

Happy…

I’m startled awake by loud music from a car parked across the street. It’s filled with people from my school. People with normal lives. My dad didn’t come for us. I’ll never know who he is because Mom won’t tell me. Things aren’t better. I’m still the girl with the book, “Modern Vampires” in my closet. Normal, I’m not. Happy, no.

A few more months
, I tell myself for the third time today. Only a few more months and I’m out of here for good.

I assumed Stacy broke a nail or something, because she decided not to bless the school with her presence today. It’s amazing how no one pays attention to me when she’s not around. No taunts, no names, no laughs, no vampire fangs, not even from the other members of The LP. I suddenly become invisible and let me tell you, invisible is a lot cooler than it sounds. At least for me. Even if it wasn’t for my little…oddity… I think I would always be the kind of person who liked to fade into the background. Of course, in a vampire-believer-free world, I might have a few friends fading with me.

Today is one of those days I feel I can actually breathe. My morning classes are a breeze and, go figure, the day I don’t mind the snails’-crawl tick of the clock. The teachers pull more magic out of their hats and the first half of the day goes by too quickly.

It bites.

I’m on my way to the usual hell that is the high school cafeteria when a voice I hear from behind me gives me a pause. It’s not Caleb, but it is his friends so I know he must be with them. I feel a little woozy. The good kind of woozy.

“Dude, can we party at your house tonight? Rich got his hands on some beer.”

“No.”

I shiver, because the no
is
his voice. Again, pathetic, I know, but there’s something about him. Caleb wouldn’t even be considered the best looking guy in school or anything. He doesn’t play sports or look like he belongs in GQ Magazine like The LP’s friends. He’s a t-shirt and faded jeans kind of boy. If we had tracks in Karma, he’d live on the wrong side of them, but the boy reduces me to a puddle of hormones with one look. Or as the case has it today, one word.

“Why?” one of his friends asks.

I try and walk slow enough that I won’t get too far away from them, but fast enough where they won’t pass me.

“Because.”

I love how he doesn’t care what other people think. How he doesn’t feel like he has to give excuses for why he doesn’t want to do something. I smile. With
both
sides of my mouth. It’s not that hard. I wonder why he never does it.

“What the fuck ever. We’ll party without you.”

“Okay.”

“You’re a dick, C.” His friend is obviously pissed.

“Ouch!” Someone runs into me from behind, and I stagger forward.

“Excuse you.” I look over my shoulder and recognize Billy, one of Caleb’s prison-bound friends talking to me.

“Um…” I’m at a loss for words. Excuse
me
? Who ran into who here?

“Leave her alone. You’re the one who ran into her.” Caleb doesn’t even look at me, his eyes firmly on Billy. But me, I can’t take my eyes off of him. He’s tall and lean, but you can definitely see the muscles under his skin. He’s all long and sinewy with golden skin. Did I mention he’s hot? Well, he is.

“So? You don’t care about anything else. Why do you give a shit about her?” Billy isn’t letting this go and I want to slink away. Okay, part of me does. The other part is really curious about Caleb’s answer to his question.

“I don’t.”

Ouch. That isn’t the answer I hoped for.

“I’m just sick of you being an ass. I’m ready to get out of here.” They sweep past me without a word, Billy still arguing with Caleb and I’m left feeling dizzy. What just happened? The sea of students’ part around me as I stand in the middle of the hall, watching the backs of Caleb and his friends as they stalk away. When they hit the corner, he tosses a quick glance over his shoulder and right at me. I try and smile a thank you, but before I do, he’s already gone.

***

My day goes from great, to strange, to depressing in a matter of seven hours of school. On my walk home, I don’t even get excited when Caleb’s small cabin comes into view. It’s only about ten percent because he said he doesn’t care about me. I pretty much expected that on. No, the depressed is because of my dad.

Funny how something comes out of left field and knocks you for a loop. We’re studying our family history in class, a far cry from the duo project I lied about. We’re supposed to pick someone from our family and write a paper about them. Let’s see, I don’t know my dad or any of this family, and Mom has been estranged from her family since before I was born.

That leaves… Mom. I love her. Despite everything I really do, but writing a paper on her and reading it out loud?
So
not going to happen.

I want to cry, which really blows, because I’m not really a tears type of girl. I cried most my tears a long time ago. But two days in a row? That makes me feel like I’m going backward and I want nothing more than to go as forward as I can.

Even though the excitement isn’t zipping through my insides, I still glance at Caleb’s cabin as I walk by. It looks even deader than it was yesterday because he’s not peeking at me through the window. Which is just as good, I decide. I need to stop this pathetic crush. All I need is something else in my life to get all emo about.