Page 54 of Bronx

Karma

The growling of my stomach awakens me. My eyes are puffy with sleep and sorrow, so I rinse my face in the en suite bathroom and head out to the kitchen to search for a snack, still in my borrowed robe.

I was hoping that Bronx would be in his bedroom or better yet gone, but I find him sitting in the living room, feet propped up and crossed at the ankles, flicking through television channels.

“You okay?” he asks casually, without even looking at me.

“Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?”

“I’m fine.”

“But is Ray?”

“Do you want to go home and find out if Ray’s okay?” he challenges angrily.

What an asshole.

“Sure, I’ll go!”

I turn around to stomp back to the guest room when the bass of his voice drops down to two commanding levels.

“Sit down, Karma.”

Something about Bronx’s authoritative tone makes my stomach flip in fear, but also in a little something that’s inexplicably odd.

The feeling is foreign to me.

I think it’s excitement.

I take a seat at the far end of the soft gray, modular couch. I cross my arms in front of me and stare at the television processing nothing I’m seeing on the screen.

“You are welcome to stay here until we find your brother. I’m assuming that’s why you want to find him, right? You need somewhere safe to stay after leaving Ray?”

“No, I’ve explained this a thousand times. Me looking for Lev has nothing to do with Ray.”

“But let’s suppose your brother was around. After what happened between you and Ray, you’d be staying with him, wouldn’t you?”

“Nothing happened.”

Bronx mutes the television and places the remote control down, staring at me the whole time.

“I get you don’t trust me and you may not even like me much, but the one thing I won’t tolerate is you lying to me. It’s unnecessary to lie to me and it will only get in the way of me finding your brother.”

I look down at my bare toes and bite the corner of my lip. I really suck at trusting people, but I can see that my lies or half-truths are not going to get past this one.

“Yes, if Lev was around, I would've gone over to his place.”

“Because?”

“Because… because Ray gave me this black eye.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere.”

This conversation is making me very uncomfortable. I already allowed Ruby to see too much of my truth and look where that got me, damn near unemployed.

“But that has–”

“And has he hit you before?” he asks, cutting me off.