"I told you camping was a bad idea. I can't work this shit out to save my life."
Amy chuckled to herself and smiled as she watched her best friend struggle to assemble the mess that was their tent. Karma was only barely visible beneath the mass of tent poles and zips and nylon sheets.
"You could try reading the instructions," Amy sniggered, earning an eyeroll from Karma, who had long since abandoned the instructions. The brunette emerged from the pile of tent sheets and flopped down on top of them in defeat.
"Fuck this. I give up," she moaned, closing her eyes. "I. Give. Up."
"It's not that hard."
Karma shot up, eyes wide and jaw dropped in mock exasperation. "You take that back! This was your stupid idea in the first place!"
Amy raised her eyebrows.
"Okay, maybe it was mine," Karma sighed. "But the tent is yours. Why am I the one putting it up?"
"Come on. We both know I'm the lazy one in this relationship," Amy joked. Even now, three weeks after their "coming out", she still felt a rush of blood in her cheeks and a hint of butterflies in her stomach when she thought about the possibility of them actually being together.
Shut up, Amy. She's your best friend. You're just doing her a favour. She'll get with Liam and she won't need you to be her girlfriend anymore and that will be that.
Karma got up once more, picked up the tent sheets, bunching them all into a pile in her arms. She headed to the edge of the clearing where they'd built their fire.
"The fuck are you doing?"Karma said, snapping out of her train of thought. She watched with curiosity as the beautiful brunette struggled to attach one end of the tent sheet to a thick, sturdy branch, and proceeded to tie a tight knot with the leftover rope.
"If neither of us are gonna put this damn thing together, I might as well come up with an alternative."
Amy laughed as Karma finished tying up the sheet to a tree directly across from the first.
"A hammock? Really, Karma? A hammock."
"It's a good idea!" Karma pouted, visibly deflating. "What's wrong with a hammock?"
"We'll have like, no room."
"So?"
"What if it rains?"
"What if it does?"
"Karma," Amy moaned, throwing her arms in the air with exasperation.
"Amy!" mimicked Karma, impersonating Amy's whiny tone. Amy tried to keep a straight face but fell over in fits of giggles as Karma abandoned the hammock and jumped on top of her, tickling her everywhere she could reach.
The two spent the rest of the evening by the fire, toasting marshmallows and talking endlessly about everything; school, parties, crushes, Netflix, and to Amy's disgust, Liam.
"He's so gorgeous, Amy," she gushed. "And he's so smart and passionate and he's actually into me now that everyone thinks that we're together. I never thought he'd ever even notice me, and now we're having a secret fucking affair. How insane is that?"
"Pretty insane," the blonde would agree absentmindedly.
However, when the topic of conversation was anything but Liam, Amy loved listening to Karma. She loved hearing her talk about everything – even tiny things like her homework, her favourite characters on different TV shows, even what she had for dinner last night.
"I'm probably boring the ass off you," Karma would apologise.
"You're not. You never do," she'd say casually, all the while her stomach full to the brim with butterflies and knots.
Later on in the night, when the fire had died down and the moon was high in the sky, the pair found themselves in Karma's makeshift-hammock, two shivering figures huddled as close together as possible.
They had done this all the time when they were younger – every single sleepover they had, Amy would insist on being the one to use the sleeping bag, but somehow they'd always end up fast asleep and snoring away in each other's arms. But recently things felt different for Amy.
What used to feel natural and normal now felt much different. Not in a particularly bad way, no – now there was just a sort of lingering insecurity, a subtle fear of Karma somehow finding out how Amy felt about her if she got too close to her.
She knew it was ridiculous, of course – but she often felt as if Karma could read her mind. Sometimes she worried that if she opened up anymore to Karma, she'd figure out everything.
She'd realise that Amy was in love with her.
Karma leaned her head against Amy's shoulder and sighed, staring up at the inky night sky.
"This is just like your ceiling," Karma said, and Amy smiled.
"Yeah. It's comforting."
"Comforting? What's there to be nervous about here?" Karma asked.
Amy turned her head to the side and looked down at her friend, barely visible in the dark of the forest clearing, and raised her eyebrows.
"Uh, bears and shit?"
"Don't worry about them. You're with me, I'll protect you," she smiled. Amy gave her a weak grin but closed her eyes and turned onto her side, trying to get comfortable.
They were silent for a long time, nothing but their steady breathing and the sounds of the forest surrounding them – crickets chirping, squirrels scurrying about, the faint rush of the stream running below them.
Finally, it was Karma's quiet voice who broke the silence.
"Amy?"
"Yeah?
"Are you mad at me?" she whispered.
"No."
Karma sat up, and looked down at Amy. "I call bullshit."
Amy sighed, and sat up next to her. She stared at her best friend, the cold night air cutting at her body now that her best friend wasn't leaned up against her. "I'm not mad at you, okay?"
"Then what is it?" Karma pressed on.
Amy bit her lip. Karma knew there was something up, and she knew that she'd stop at nothing to find out what it was.
She took a deep breathe, and decided to start slow. "I don't want to fake it anymore."
"You don't want to be my girlfriend?" said Karma. "I thought you didn't mind."
"No, it's not that- I do, but – Karma – I love you, okay?"
Karma smiled, her eyes crinkling up in the cute way they always do when she smiles for real – not her fake smile she wore around Liam. "I love you too, doofus. But why don't you want to be a, yunno, 'couple' anymore? It's fine with me, but I thought you liked being popular."
"No, Karms, you don't get it, okay? I want to be your girlfriend. But that's it," She took a deep breath and ploughed on, the threat of tears welling up beneath her eyes. "I don't want to be your fake girlfriend or your way to Liam or any of those other popular kids. I want to be your girlfriend. Your real one. And I know that it's weird and fucked because you're my best friend but ever since this stupid idea – this fake girlfriends thing – I can't stop thinking about you."
There were tears pouring down her face now, and she wiped them away angrily, waiting with bated breath as Karma processed what she'd just said.
"You love me?" Karma repeated, her expression unreadable, her voice quiet.
Amy nodded.
Karma sat speechless for a moment, looking at Amy in shock.
She took Amy by the front of her shirt and pulled the blonde towards herself, falling back into the hammock and she kissed her hard. Amy responded with such enthusiasm that they almost fell out of the hammock, and the two broke the kiss in a fit of giggles.
Amy leaned back in towards Karma and kissed her once more; softer and gentler this time, prolonging the moment as much as she could. As if it were her first kiss.
Which, in a way, it was.