(As a little refresher of the last chapter, Justine and Paola stole Karma from her house, Paola told her they were throwing a party for her so it's no longer a secret. They gave her a costume to wear. Paola's little brother, Brian wants Karma to catch a case for him)

Part 2/3

Spraying on the last few bits of my perfume, I tossed my hair as I flip it from side to side testing the hold on it making sure it's staying in place after Justine laid down the lace with got2b glue.

Part of my birthday gift from Justine was a brand new lace front wig that's about 10 to 12 in Long. I'm pretty sure she only bought it for me because I had to talk to her about wanting to get into wigs but not knowing where to start so I'm glad that she was here to help.

I've always loved my natural hair but I've been looking for ways to protect it other than doing braids or faux locs. Although I think I might try passion twists next.

Paola looks over at me as I'm stood in the mirror. She and Justine surprise me with matching outfits as we all looked like we came straight out of an episode of Jake the American Dragon.

My eyes find hers as she looks at me with a smile and she says, "I just knew blue would be your color. And this costume idea was great. I'm a freaking genius, Justine, tell Karma I'm a freaking genius." she smiles widely

"You're a freaking genius," Justine says with a boring sound in her voice as she places mascara on her lashes not really paying attention to the conversation. She looks down and fixes the top of her pink costume that looks similar to mine as Paula stands there in green.

Paola bites the inside of her cheek grinning widely as she looks over at me beginning to walk closer to me as I'm still stood next to the mirror of her vanity. Getting off the bed, she stalks towards me and stands behind me resting her chin on my shoulder. With her being a few inches shorter than me she had to stand on her toes to be able to do so, as she wrapped her arms around me from behind.

"Happy birthday, Karma." she smiles up at me as she continues to look at me through the mirror, "Despite everything that might happen tonight I hope you enjoy your party."

What she said caused me to raise an eyebrow and confusion only because I didn't know what she meant when she said, 'Despite everything that might happen tonight.' I didn't want to dwell too much on a because I wasn't trying to get into an attitude or any kind of argument on my birthday. There's surely something that Paola is hiding from me but I'm deciding to not think about it as much so I just smile and nod at her.

With her returning my smile she let go of me and we're moving her arms I'm around my waist and walking back to the bed where her makeup was sitting on it as she places her makeup back into the bag.

Justine stands up quickly rubbing her hands together and flipping her hair behind her shoulder saying, "Are you guys ready to go? I'm pretty sure that people are already there. But then again, I just realized that you can't show up on time to your own party. Ugh, I'm really about to punch Paola for not keeping her mouth shut we can't just walk in there with you."

I watch an amusement as Justine is glaring at Paola as she tries to figure out how to get me into the party without people knowing that I already know about it. Because if I walk in with the both of them it would be obvious. The party started at 7 and it is now 7:15

Justine claps her hands and says, "Welp we can always just drive around town for the next hour or so before we lead you into the party. We would keep you out longer but I'm really excited for the catering guys that we hired and I'm hungry and I don't feel like buying food because I'm broke." she says causing me to chuckle, Buying these outfits and your hair was a good investment but it cost a very pretty penny."

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After riding around in Paola's car and having Justine contradict herself by insisting that we pull up to Chick-fil-A to waste more time, we finally got to the venue of the party and I'm almost shocked to see that is actually the place where we would have the annual haunted house.

I wonder what they would have had to have done to get this venue. Especially last minute because I know they have not been planning this for that long. I couldn't be more thankful.

They saw the astonished look on my face as we pulled up and I did not fail to miss the huge sign in the front yard of the house saying, "Happy Karma-Ween." The corniness of the sign immediately bringing me to laughter as I try to hold it in.

When we park, Paola grabs her phone that was sitting in one of the cup holders as I watch her from the back seat turn on her phone. I watch her press a few buttons but for some reason, my eyes aren't working right tonight and I don't have my reading glasses.

She put the phone to her ear and I watch as she told her head to the side holding the phone close to her for a few seconds before she begins to speak to whoever is on the other side of the phone, "Ryan, the chicken has landed in the coop, I repeat, the chicken has landed."

When Paola says this Justine and I look at her with her eyebrows raised she turns back to me in the back seat before looking over adjusting in the passenger seat and shrugs her shoulders saying, "What? he was really excited about being able to do the whole walkie-talkie thing and I told him we're not going to do walkie talkies so I decided on using codes. I just told him that you're here."

Shaking my head I roll my eyes knowing that what she said was true and that is the type of behavior that Ryan would wanna indulge in. Removing my seat belt I fixed my hair as I look into the front-facing camera of my phone in nervousness kind of wishing Paola didn't tell me that they had a party for me so that I could have remained clueless.

Walking out of the car, I jump as I feel myself begin to get ambushed by Paola as she rushes over to me and places a blindfold on my face beginning to quickly tie it behind my head.

"Paola what are you doing?" I ask

She scoffs and says, "I don't know if you have noticed. But this is a surprise party. By the way, when we walk in there you better act surprised. I can't have them jump out and shit and you stand there with that blank ass bored expression on your face." she says and I yelp as she ties the blindfold tighter than necessary as I send her a glare even though she can't see my eyes.

"Yes ma'am," I say quietly as I clear my throat feeling someone throwing my hair behind my left shoulder and a stick being places on my lips, immediately feeling a sticky substance along my lips and I hear Justine tell me to rub my lips together as I feel the taste of cherry coat my tongue a bit when I move my lips around.

They both grab my hands and I feel myself begin to be led to walk forward.

They lead me up towards the stairs and walked me slowly so that I wouldn't trip over my heels. When I'm led up the stairs, I hear Paola whisper at someone to my right before I hear the creak of a door open. It's completely silent and I know for sure that we're inside.

I feel the back of my blindfold loosen and I sigh a bit in relief because that shit was cutting my circulation.

I'm sure the blindfold messed up the shape of my hair so as I begin to rake my hands through it and shake it out with my eyes closed. When the blindfold lifts completely, I jump back in shock as I hear people say loudly, "Surprise!"

I'm met with a huge room full of people that I know and people that I've just seen around school. The room looks like one big strobe light as the LED lights change to various colors just flashing at me repeatedly. I see my name plastered everywhere. A DJ in the far back and a bar in the same area. I gasp loudly as Paola nudges me and I remember that I'm supposed to be surprised,

I place both of my hands to the side of my face to the point that I look like the kid from home alone for a few seconds and I say, "Oh my gosh!" I squeal, "for me?!" I say as I grab my right hands and use it to cover my mouth and I look at Paola and Justine as they both look like they're holding in laughter at my antics

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"You totally knew about the party," Ryan says to me as I stand with my back against the way talking to him as hounds me for my horrible acting.

Ryan, Paola, Cyrus, Justine, and I are sat in one corner just talking. After an hour of dancing way too much, I decide to get a drink and relax.

I was a bit surprised that Jesse wasn't here especially after how he made it seem like he was going to go to bat for me but I guess I wouldn't blame him for keeping his distance.

Justine drank a bit too much and she found herself sitting on Cyrus' lap as he wraps his hand around her waist holding her close to his chest as she downs her next shot as he's scrolling through her phone.

Paola and Ryan are in a similar setup as they seem to be boo'd up as well and here I am realizing that I'm a damn fifth wheel.

Going back to his question I say, "What gave it away?" I ask innocently

"That fake ass look on your face when everyone jumped out." Cyrus says as looks up at me from his seat, with his left hand rubbing circles on Justine's thigh, slapping it quickly trying to force her to stop when the beat of 'One Dance' by Drake comes on and she flails her hands around, jumping up and down on his lap saying, 'oontz oontz' over and over again mimicking the music

I laugh at the scene in front of me and say, "Well, Paola and Justine told me to make that look because someone," I say cutting my eyes to Paola as she rolls her eyes, "wouldn't keep the secret to herself."

"Y'all keep talking about what I didn't do rather than what I did." she starts, "I literally had to beg this fool to let me have this venue if I let him come and he didn't even show up." she sighs and leans back into Ryan's chest

"Wait, what fool?" I ask in confusion

"Your boo!" I hear Justine say as she drags the word boo exaggeratedly.

I raise an eyebrow and flip my hair, cocking my head to the side as I say, "What--Jesse?" I ask, "Why would you need his permission for any of this?"

Ryan swallows his drink as he answers for both of them saying, "His family owns this place. They rent it out for haunted houses every year."

"Well, why didn't he rent it out for the haunted house this year?" I asked and I hear Cyrus suck his teeth from where he's sitting underneath Justine as he shakes his head and scoffs quietly to himself causing me to raise another eyebrow at his attitude

"I feel like the way that I feel about you as a human being just changes every time you open your mouth," he says and I feel my jaw dropping surprised at how rude he's being and I genuinely don't know what's going on

Ryan is quick to cut in when he says, "You do realize what today is right?" he asked me and I nodded

"Well yeah, it's Halloween," I say

"Jesus Christ, bruh," Cyrus says again and I roll my eyes at his input.

"Okay, so what am I missing now?"

"I will never understand what this man sees in you, girl. Alright listen up." he says as he sits up straighter with Justine still on his lap, "He knows that today is Halloween. He also knows that today is your birthday. So if your little friend had to beg him to throw this party in this specific venue instead of having the haunted house this year what do you think that means?" he asked and I immediately started to put two and two together finally understanding.

Jesse canceled the haunted house this year for me.

Cyrus notices the realization on my face and said, "Y'all I think she gets it." he says sighing leaning back into his seat on the small couch as he rests his arm on the armrest

"Wait so why isn't he here?" I ask Ryan deciding I'm no longer speaking to Cyrus. Surely he knows the party is today, of course, so why wouldn't he come.

"Because." I look back over at Cyrus to see him holding a joint as Justine is holding alight trying to light the end of it but failing to even get it to work so Cyrus sighs and gives her the joint instead, taking the lighter into his own hands.

Realizing he's not going to finish his sentence I see Ryan give me a solemn look as he gets dragged away by Paola to the dance floor when the song changes and 'Gas Pedal' by Sage the Gemini comes on.

Knowing that Paola can't control herself to this song, I watch in amusement as Ryan stares at her with an eyebrow raised as she turns around and begins to gyrate and do all kinds of things her mom would whoop her ass for if she saw her right now as a blush coats Ryan's cheeks when he chuckles and places his hands on her waist from behind.

Justine begins to mirror what Paola does in her seat that is Cyrus' lap but is quickly shut down when Cyrus smacks her thigh again and says, "I don't care, you gon' stay still before you go out there and start something you won't finish."

"Well, who said I wouldn't want to finish?" she says this, and I'm immediately confused because I thought they hated each other for tonight so I don't know what's going on here but the look of lust on both their faces is making me sick.

Scrolling through my phone, I walk over to where Ryan and Paola were sitting but this doesn't even last for 2 minutes before I feel someone tap my shoulder. I look up to see Jules, my old lab partner before I switched Jesse, he looks down at me with that wide beautiful smile of his it says, "Happy Birthday, Karma."

I smile at him equally as wide and say "Thank you Jules. I appreciate it. It was nice of you to come."

"Yeah you know I wouldn't miss this for the world." He sits down next to me and I notice that he's wearing blue scrubs and I immediately ask him, "Are you a doctor?" I ask and he laughs and says, "Yeah! Are you some kind of samurai warrior or something?" he asks and I smirk to myself saying, "Well I didn't get to pick the outfit." and he nods and I notice he's chewing on gum as he smiles at me.

His braids are freshly done in cornrows braided back and I can't help but notice how good he looks tonight. Like really good.

Apparently, I, am not the only one how noticed when he looks at me with a look in his eyes that I couldn't quite decipher. The song changes to Nobody Has To Know by Kranium when he asks, "I just came over here to ask how you are and if you wanted to dance?" He licks his lips at me and I smile to myself as a grin forms on my face and I'm about to decline when I turn my head to see Justine looking at me with wide eyes daring me to say no as Cyrus looks at me with an eyebrow raised.

I look back at Jules and say, "Sure."

He smiles and grabs my hand as he says, "Come on." He licks his lips and leads me to the dance floor, walking us near Paola and Ryan and I don't miss the way he Ryan raises an eyebrow at me too and I look at him from over Jules shoulder and mouth 'what' he shakes his head and pays attention to Paola again as she's now standing upright and is swaying to the music with his hands around her waist.

Jules and I are in the same position at first, before he spins me around so that I'm facing him as he tightens his grip around my waist. Knowing that this song isn't supposed to be that kind of a slow dance song, I smirk to myself and turn quickly beginning to bend over and whine my waist and circular motions deciding to let go for once since I've been so stressed and bleak this entire party. I actually wanted to have fun.

I feel his hands grip my waist tighter, my hips move in ticking motions, rolling them to the beat of the song.

I feel Jules' entire body tense up from behind me but I don't pay too much attention to it only because I really love this song.

I stop immediately when I feel his presence gone, his hands leaving my waist. Confused, I stand up straight and turn around to look at him and ask what's wrong but I feel the wind knocked out of me when I'm met with Jesse.

He clenches his jaw as he looks from me to Jules and then back to me as he says, "You couldn't have waited five more minutes?"

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OOP
This is the first 3000+ word chapter whoooooo it took me hourssss
BTW THANK YOU FOR ALL THE BIRTHDAY WISHES LAST CHAPTER!!! Y'all are so sweet ✋🏾😭
Love you, thanks for reading!!

It's not edited so there might be some errors