Chapter 31
Karma’s a Bitch – Kayla
T he next morning, Callie and I wake up bright and early.
She sits up and yawns. “Ready for the sea again?”
“Mhm.” Honestly, I’m just excited to see Jack again. I also hope we can have more private moments on the yacht. Although I know we’ll have to be careful. Aside from Captain Bryant and Callie, I don’t want anyone else on board to know about us.
I also want to ask him about his plane phobia. It’s a tender side of him that I haven’t been made aware of. Not by him, at least. I thought it was a little tasteless of Jenkins and Harper to speak about it so openly in front of everyone, but I was happy to know about it, nevertheless.
After showering, I double and triple check that I have everything packed up.
“How many days do you think it will take for us to get to Greece?” I ask. She has much more experience and knowledge about these things than me.
“Hmm. A few days. But obviously nothing like Florida to here.”
“Right.” I have a basic understanding of geography, so I already assumed that.
“Are you ready?” she asks after slinging her luggage over her shoulder.
“Yep.”
Before we head out, I give our room one last look. I’m excited to leave but also kind of sad.
“Kay?”
Right. “Coming!”
We meet up with Gwen, and the three of us hail a cab.
“How was the rest of the night?” I inquire. Callie and I left earlier than a lot of other people. Fortunately, we left just before she got drunk enough to start crying about Dirk. Of course, I’m happy to be there for her. But from everything she’s told me, it doesn’t seem like that situation is ever going to change. So, getting all upset over it feels kind of like wasted energy to me. Not that she wasn’t warranted in mourning their relationship and their lost future, though.
But back to reality. Gwen didn’t appear to be too hungover, so I figured it wasn’t that wild.
“It was fine. Jenkins was a huge downer though.”
“Um.” My hair is up in a bun, and I push my hand across the top to make sure all the fly-aways are gone. “Did Harper ever come back?”
Callie and I exchange a look.
“ Tsk. You know what? No. It was so weird. It was like she disappeared into thin air. I tried calling her a bunch of times, but she didn’t answer.”
My friend then leans over and gives my hand a squeeze. “I’m sure it’s fine,” she then mouths.
I nod. She’s probably right. What’s to say she snuck away to Jack’s room? And even if she did, he’s made it quite clear that he isn’t interested.
When we pull up to the train station, more of the crew is already huddled up.
Denver gives me a big bear hug, and he still smells like alcohol from the night before.
“Have fun last night?”
“Yeah. I slept like a baby after, though.”
“I’m sure.” Like with the Dirk situation, I was also thankful every interaction I had with him that didn’t include a mention of Maria or how much he missed her. Again, totally fair thoughts and emotions to have, but nobody could remedy the situation until he was back in Florida with her.
“Alright, crew!” Captain Bryant’s booming voice says behind me. When I turn to face him, I see a withered Jack next to him.
What the hell? I assume he must be sick… which means I’ll likely come down with something soon.
“Is everyone here?” Bryant takes a moment to look around. “Great. Okay, so same as before. We’re going to board the train, ride to Safi, and then get back on The Marina . Questions? Concerns?”
Everyone is silent.
“Alright, great. I’ll distribute your tickets.”
From there, he hands them off one by one.
Once I get mine, I pause in front of Jack. He seems out of it and like a zombie.
“Is everything okay?” I ask in a hushed tone.
“Uhhh,” he grunts.
“Are you sick or?”
I’m met with even more moaning. Part of me feels a little hurt that he’s acting like this, but I reason he must be feeling really bad.
“Okay, well. Let me know if I can get you anything.”
After that, he doesn’t say anything or even indicate that I’d offered to help him.
“What’s wrong with Jack?” Callie asks after I walk away with her.
“I have no idea. I assume he’s sick.”
She punches the air and kicks the ground. “Dammit! That means we’re going to be sick!”
“We’re?” I wasn’t aware of her kissing him.
“Yeah, dummy. We shared a room. Any germs you got from him, I’m sure you passed along to me.”
Oh, right. “I’m sorry.”
She sighs but then reaches in her little backpack. “It’s fine. I prepare for events like this.”
We then walk over and fill our water bottles up.
“Here.” She offers me a packet of Emergen-C, and I pour it in before shaking it all up. “Hopefully that will help. Trust me, being sick at sea is absolute hell.”
“I can imagine.”
We eventually board, and I can’t help but look over at Jack, who is closer to the front with Captain Bryant.
He’s facing away from me, so all I can see is the back of his head resting against the seat.
“I hope he’s okay.”
“Who?” Gwen asks.
“Oh. Um, Jack.” Again, I don’t see the harm in telling the truth. Everyone could see him earlier that morning.
“Oh, I know. He looks awful. Hey, Cal? Do you have one of those immunity booster packets?”
“Yep.” She gets another one out and hands it over to our other friend.
“Thank you. Honestly, I feel kind of bad for telling Harper we were in Morocco.”
I stop in my tracks. “I’m sorry what?”
She’s shaking her water bottle now. “What?”
“You were the one who told her?”
Callie puts her hand on my knee—as if in warning to watch myself.
“Yeah. So? She wanted Jack back, so I told her where he’d be.”
My teeth are gritting together.
“It’s not like it worked. He’s so stupid. Like he could ever do better than Harper.”
Callie’s grip intensifies.
“She cheated on him, Gwen. Some things are hard or even impossible to move past.”
She shrugs. “I guess.” Then, she gestures at Jenkins who looks almost as worse for wear as Jack but is no longer sitting by him like he did on the way to Marrakesh. Instead, he’s sitting with a young guy named Tyler and two others I don’t know very well.
Just before the train takes off, Gwen gets a notification on her phone, and when she opens it, her eyes grow wide, and her jaw drops. “Oh, my god.”
She shows Callie first, and she shoots a sympathetic look my way. “Kayla—”
“What is it?”
When the screen is turned my way, I see graphic footage of Jack… and Harper.
“This is old right?”
Callie shakes her head. “No.”
I look closer and see that everything transpired in his room at Izza.
No. Why? My eyes are darting as I try to process what I just saw.
Gwen, not knowing about my involvement with him, cheers Harper on. “Thatta girl! She knew what she wanted, and she went after it. Good for her.”
I feel red laser beams shooting out of my eyes, but my heart also feels broken.
Why? I can’t wrap my head around it. Why would he spend all that time with me if he wanted to be with her the whole time.
“I’m so sorry,” Callie whispers, so only I can hear it.
I swallow some tears. “It’s fine.”
She rubs my shoulder. “No, it isn’t.”
What is this? Karma for everything I thought about her situation with Dirk and Denver’s whole thing with Maria?
After that, I just stare at the back of his head and try to come up with any reasonable excuse for his behavior, failing every single time.
Then, as if my worst nightmares weren’t already coming true, I start to hear more and more peoples’ phones going off and then them scoff and whisper.
“That’s Jack and Harper,” someone behind us comments. “I guess they did get back together.”
I want to cry even more, so I just take a blanket and wrap it around my head.
Callie tries to console me by occasionally rubbing my arm. I appreciate her efforts, but part of me also wishes she never knew about my brief fling with Jack. It made all this worse because I felt embarrassed and hate almost more than anything to be pitied.