His Sweet Karma

Chapter 1

                                                                                         MAHALIA

I woke up with beads of perspiration scattered across my forehead, neck, chest and back. Oh, hell no! Even my core was wet! I could still feel my flushed body from that stupid, weird dream. I felt like a voyeur, which I’m totally not! Who were those people anyway? They looked ancient though. I couldn’t remember their names or faces anymore. They were vague. However, what transpired was etched in my memory. It made me shiver.

“s**t!” I cussed as I got up from my messy bed in my night shirt. My feet found the Doraemon slippers on the cold floor. I almost jumped when my alarm clock shrilled, which pulled my attention to the bedside table, where a lampshade and my cellphone were also placed. I pushed the button of the digital alarm clock to turn it off and dashed to the adjoining bathroom. It was between my room and my best friend Sarah’s. Good that she was not up yet. It was just six in the morning. I could use the bathroom freely. But I had to hurry because she might want to use it in no time, too. She was six months pregnant, so her bladder was more demanding than mine.

I took a quick hot shower and put on my thick white robe, facing the mirror that was built in the wall, just above the pink sink. The bathroom had pink tiles, pink bathtub and pink toilet bowl. Yeah, it could hurt the eyes but I couldn’t do anything. The landlady was a pink lover. What could I do? This was the cheapest place I could find with my best friend, who offered to share the rent.

Sarah’s boyfriend left her after learning she was two months pregnant—that was last August. What a jackass! She cried for days after that but I was there to console her then.

***

“Just let him be, Sar. He is no good for you. Anyway, I’m here to help you. We can do this,” I said, hugging her and rubbing her back.

She sobbed. “I have to leave work as a masseuse in a few months. I can’t work until I’ll deliver the baby. And how can you help? You don’t even have money. How much do you have in your bank account?” she pointed out, stepping out of my embrace. Her face was wet with tears; her blue eyes were puffy and red, and her pert nose reddened, too.

What she said hit me in the gut.

I looked at her pretty face. She was blonde, petite as me, standing five feet and two inches. She had a diamond face, with side-swept bangs and past shoulder hair. Both of us had ripe curves but we were like contrasting sides. I was not pale as she was as I had Filipino blood running in my veins, from my mother’s side. My father was an American, a rich one, but I had trouble with money because he’s already dead.

“I have… um… maybe almost six hundred dollars?” I admitted, pursing my lips.

She gasped. “And what will you do with that? I even have to leave this place because John left. I can’t afford the rent anymore,” she told me, gesturing at the two-bedroom apartment.

We were in the small living room, which had an old long sofa, a single couch, a wooden low table, a set of TV and a game console. The wall was painted with cream color. There were stains on it, which I didn’t want to know from what. The recessed light fixture gave us the needed brightness that night.

I let go a heavy breath. I was about to ask her if I could crash here for the time being. However, the burning smell coming from the kitchen made her jump. She wiped her tears with the back of her hand and turned away to leave me. I followed her through the small hallway toward the kitchen. It was small and had an island table, which was used as a dining table.

“I prepared garlic butter baked salmon for John and look!” She sighed, on the verge of crying again.

“Let’s just eat it, to not put it to waste. It’s not so burned,” I said, grimacing at the blackened side of the fish meat.

We ended up eating it together, sitting opposite to each other. We ate quietly, then she took a wine bottle. I supposed she’d just sniff her wine though.

“You thought you could surprise him with the baby?” I looked at her with pity. I couldn’t blame her for skipping her contraceptive pill and having s*x with her boyfriend-s***h-roommate. It happens.

Her shoulders slumped, toying the fork with the meat on her plate after pouring the white wine in our glasses. “I knew he wasn’t ready yet but I thought… I thought he’d accept it though. It’s our baby and he knows it!” Her blue eyes were pained. She bit her lip, trying to not cry but her tears just made their way to her cheeks.

I held her hand and patted it. “We’ll do it together, Sar. Don’t worry. We’ll find a way somehow.”

“You want to stay with me? Share the rent?”

“Sure!” I was glad she offered. “I-I’ll check where we can rent. The cheapest one! And I’ll look for another job besides being a clerk.” Both of us hadn’t finished college yet. We’re twenty and we’d been best of friends since middle school. She lost her parents to a traffic accident when we graduated high school. Her grandparents were both in a retirement home, both sickly. As for me, I lost my mother when I was five because of cancer and my father remarried when I was ten… and he just died a few weeks ago. That’s why I am homeless now.

Her eyes narrowed after she wiped her tears with a table napkin. “You have the right to that company, Lia. I’m sure your father’s real last will and testament is just somewhere. I refuse to believe that he hadn’t prepared anything for you before he died.”

“I can contest my right to the company, of course, but I can’t hire a lawyer at this time, Sar,” I uttered dejectedly.

“Maybe… maybe we can find someone who can offer a free service here in Chicago.”

“I doubt that but I’ll try to find someone… maybe someday.”

“It’s really weird that your stepmom kicked you out from your own house just like that. Why didn’t you fight back? You have the right to stay there!”

“Julie said I wasn’t my father’s real daughter, so it made me fall apart.” I looked at my best friend with my eyes growing hot. “How can I stay if she said I was just someone my parents had picked up on the street when I was still a baby, huh?”

Sarah sighed in defeat. I knew she still had something to say to it but held back.

***

I slightly shook my head, dragging myself back to the present. I quickly brushed my teeth, thinking that my best friend might be up any minute now.

I sighed, looking at myself in the mirror. I spat the water after rinsing my mouth and placed my green toothbrush on the holder that was mounted on the wall beside the mirror. My friend’s red toothbrush was just beside it.

Brushing my teeth now suddenly reminded me of how my stepbrother Ryder tried to force himself on me. It was last year. I was in my big room in the mansion, and my father and his mother were not back from the company party. I didn’t go with them when my father invited me since I didn’t feel well.

I decided to clean the bathroom, trying to not remember it, but the memory just flooded in.

***

“Ryder? What are you doing here?” I asked, startled. I must have forgotten to lock my door. I remembered I went downstairs to get a pitcher of lemon water and a glass.

He sat on the edge of my queen size bed and smiled at me. He looked so handsome with even white teeth and plump pinkish lips. His red hair looked fiery even at the dull light coming off from the lampshade that was on, which was perched on the bedside table. His nose was prominent and straight; his eyes were blue as the sky and there was a devilish glint in them. He was a couple years older than me but he was a dependent one. Well, in terms of money. He always asked for money from our parents, went to lots of parties, got wasted and, for all I knew, he was also into drugs.

“I want to give you something for your colds. Or is it the flu?” He handed me a small transparent plastic with a round white pill.

I didn’t know what pill it was. I just stared at it. Then he got up to pour lemon water into the glass. Afterward, he also handed me the glass.

“Come on, little sis. Drink up,” he urged with an encouraging smile.

It always felt cringy when he called me little sis. He was my stepbrother but I didn’t like the way he looked at me right now. I took note of his branded T-shirt with V neck and his expensive jeans. Without any intention, my eyes went down below his belt and I could see the bulge of his frontal area.

I was an innocent girl and I had no idea why he had such huge bulge down there. But why did my eyes go down there anyway? Maybe because he was poised so close to me? I could smell his expensive cologne that assaulted my nose. I wasn’t fond of guys who appeared to take a bath on colognes. It’d make me puke.

I got up and ran to my private bathroom, retching. I didn’t have something for lunch today because I couldn’t eat. I slept through the entire afternoon and I woke up at around seven, went downstairs to get the lemon water and came back in to my bedroom.

“You’ll feel better with this, I promise,” he coaxed.

Just so he’d stop nagging me and go away, I took the pill from his hand and downed it with lemon water he handed to me.

“Please leave, Ryder. I want to sleep this off,” I mumbled weakly when I suddenly felt my world reel. I almost fell to the white-tiled floor of my bathroom. But he was fast to catch me. He effortlessly carried me to the bed and lay me down gently. But he didn’t get off of me. Instead, he leaned down to kiss my cheek, while his hand kneaded my soft waist and my hip. “Ryder, what are you doing? Get off me!” I muttered with slurry words. My hands were limp when I tried to push him away. I didn’t like what I felt. I was so dizzy and it was worse than how I felt earlier today. “What did you give me?” Now I began to feel hot.

“It was just a happy pill, little sis,” he whispered as he kissed my ear and down the side of my neck.

I wanted to cringe but I had no strength to even move away from him, even an inch. I could feel his hand go inside my blue-white night shirt, caressing my bare fair skin. I tried to stop him when his hand went further up my thigh.

“Ryder, stop!” I begged in a weak voice. Panic was already in my hazy eyes.

“You’ll love what I’ll do to you, little sis,” he whispered again, licking my face.

My face contorted at that. I abhorred it. Totally! I tried to push him again by the chest but he was too strong. Or rather, I was too weak. His scent was making me sicker and dizzier, while his hands were already groping my breasts and thighs. I groaned in protest. My brain was already ordering my body to move or hit him but my limbs were not cooperating. I could only curse Ryder at the moment as I lay there on my bed helpless.

My stepbrother was aiming to kiss me on the lips, only an inch away when we heard our Mexican housekeeper’s voice while knocking on my door. He went still for a moment.

“Mahalia? You haven’t eaten the whole day! Let me come in. I’m bringing you some chicken garlic soup. It’ll make you feel better, mi chica. Mahalia?” Juana called out.

“I think I’m going to throw up,” I informed Ryder feebly, eyes rolling and feeling dizzy.

He hissed and cussed in a whisper-yell, covering my mouth. I could barely breathe as my nose was also covered by his big hand. I tried to push his hand away and I couldn’t hold it any longer. Whatever was inside my stomach, I let it out.

“Ah, f**k!” Ryder was grossed out when my saliva and everything was thrown on his hand and the pillowcase. He then angrily slapped me hard across the face. It stung and burned before it became numb that I thought he injured my jaw. “Don’t you ever tell this to anyone! I’m warning you, Mahalia!” He clenched his teeth as he grabbed my face like his hold was going to break my already aching jaw.

“Ryder? Is that you in Mahalia’s room?” Juana’s voice was alarmed, knocking on the door harder. I thought she was also kicking it.

Ryder, with his long legs, strode to open the door. I could see Juana look startled at the doorway. She followed him with her dark eyes when he moved past her. She immediately eyed me with concern. Upon seeing the mess I caused, she hastily attended me, helping me up from the bed before I surrendered to the darkness.