Amy's alarm clock seemed to ring with more intensity the next morning. Amy threw her arm at the clock in an attempt to shut it off, but missed and knocked it onto the floor. Her head was pounding as if there was a kickdrum behind her skull. She rolled onto her side only to find a very naked, very hungover Liam Booker. Amy jumped from the surprise, she didn't even remember coming home from the night before. She suddenly realized that she too, was also very naked. Amy got out of bed and put on some clothes, not being careful about how much noise she was making. First she went to into her bathroom and gulped down to aspirins and some water.
Amy slammed her bathroom door, which caused Liam to regain consciousness. "What the hell?" Liam said in shock as he slowly realized where he was.
"Good morning to you too," Amy replied with her usual amount of dry sarcasm.
"What am I doing here?" Liam asked in desperation. He got up out of Amy's bed as fast as he could, only to realize he was sans underwear. Liam snatched the comforter off of Amy's bed in order to hide his manhood.
"I don't know, you tell me," Amy said. "Last thing I remember is stuffing my face full of cake with Lauren."
"Amy," Liam began. His face filled with guilt and regret. "Did we just..?" Liam let his sentence trail off as he gestured toward Amy's ruffled bed.
"Oh my god, I don't even remember," Amy said softly. She sat down on the bed and closed her eyes trying to remember something, anything from the night before. "Oh no, what have we done?" Amy said. Her voice trembled with every word. Liam sat down next to Amy with the intention of consoling her. He raised his arm to put around Amy's shoulder. Amy slapped it out of the air."Don't you dare touch me right now," Amy said clenching her jaw.
"Alright, alright. Could you just relax for a second?" Liam said raising his arms in defense.
"No, I will not relax!" Amy strained. "I think we just made a huge mistake." Amy buried her hands in her face. "What are we gonna tell Karma?" she said her voice cracking. She removed her face from her hands to look up at liam. He could see her eyes were on the verge of tears.
"There is no way Karma can know about this." Liam said. "Understand?"
"But how can I not tell her?" Amy questioned. "She's my best friend, we never keep secrets from each other."
"Well, it seems to me you've kept quite a big secret for the past few weeks," Liam commented. Amy glared at him and slapped his arm.
"That was different!" Amy practically growled.
"Look, Amy, if you tell Karma about this she'll never forgive either of us." Liam said. "I know we're both pissed at her, but I know you don't want that. At least I don't. It would totally kill my chances with her."
"Wow, Liam. After all this, all you care about is getting with Karma," Amy said in disgust. "I don't know what she sees in you."
"Well, at least she sees something in me," Liam retorted. "You know deep down that she'll never love you in the way you want."
"Don't you even go there," Amy snarled.
"Whatever, the point is do not, under any circumstances, tell Karma about tonight," Liam said. "As far as she's concerned, I was never here."
"Okay, I won't tell her," Amy relented. "You're right she can never know about this."
"Well then I guess we're finished here," Liam said. He stood up off the bed and searched the floor for his pants. He found his jeans lying in a corner and walked over to them, still holding the comforter over his genitals. Liam turned his back to Amy and dropped the comforter so that he could put his pants back on.
"No peeking, Raudenfeld," Liam said teasingly.
"Ugh, don't flatter yourself," Amy snapped. Liam grabbed the rest of his clothes from around Amy's room and headed for the door. "Hey, you better not be seen or heard when you're leaving," Amy warned. "Nobody at all can ever know you were here."
"Message received," Liam said, slightly intimidated by the stern look on Amy's face.
Liam slipped out of Amy's room and crept down the stairs, only to find Farrah and Lauren making breakfast in the kitchen. It was impossible for him to sneak out in that direction. Liam headed back up the stairs and into Amy's room.
"What are you doing? Please don't tell me you're back for more" amy said. "You need to get the fuck out. Now!"
"Yeah, I know that! But your mom and Lauren are making breakfast downstairs and I'll get caught."
"I guess you'll have to climb out the window," Amy said as she shrugged her shoulders.
"Climb out the window? Are you fucking crazy?"
"Listen here, horndog, if my mother or Lauren sees you, Karma finding out will the the least of our problems." Amy snatched Liams clothes out of his hands. She climbed onto her bed and towards the window behind it. She opened the window and chucked Liam's belongings onto the bushes below. "Get climbing, Richie Rich," Amy demanded. Liam huffed and stuck his feet out the window in preparation.
"I don't think this is safe," Liam said.
"Oh please, since when have you cared about safe," Amy said. Just then, Farrah knocked on the door.
"Amy, darling, are you awake yet?" her mother asked.
"Go!" Amy half-yelled half-whispered. Liam hopped out the window and landed into the bushes. "Come in," Amy called to her mother.
"Good morning, dear," she said. "Who were you talking to?"
"Oh, I was just talking to Karma on the phone before you came in," Amy replied quickly. Her mother's face twitched with a hint of uncomfortable-ness at the mention of Karma.
"Speaking of Karma, I think you and I ought to have a talk about your, um, behaviors recently," Farrah suggested. Amy sighed audibly and rolled her eyes.
"Do we have to talk right now?" Amy asked. "I would hate for both of our days to start out bad."
"Alright then, sweetie. We'll talk later tonight." Farrah said. "Now come downstairs for breakfast. I made pancakes, and Lauren made a quick trip to that donut shop down the street for you." Amy smiled at the fact that Lauren had been thoughtful enough to go get donuts for her. Farrah exited the room and Amy followed her down the stairs and to the kitchen.
Bruce and Lauren were patiently sitting at the table waiting for Farrah and Amy to arrive. Farrah sat down next to Bruce, and Amy took the seat next to Lauren. "Alright, now that everybody's here, we can say grace." They all joined hands and for the first time, Amy and Lauren weren't totally disgusted by having to touch each other. After Bruce said grace, he and Farrah struck up a conversation about politics and other grownup whatnots. After a long period of silence between the two new step sisters, Amy decided to make an effort to at least talk to Lauren.
"Hey, Lauren," Amy said. "Thank you for bringing the donuts." She smiled as she reached to grab a large pink, sprinkled donut from the box sitting on the table.
"Your welcome," Lauren said. "I guessed that they were probably your choice comfort food. After all, you own like three items of donut-themed clothing." Lauren finished off the last of her breakfast and got up to clean her plate and put it in the dishwasher. Amy finished up her donut and followed Lauren.
"You know Lauren, I know that we didn't get along in the beginning, but I really do care about you now," Amy said in a hushed voice.
"Gee, thanks." Lauren said with her usual snarkiness. She tried to push past Amy, but Amy blocked her path with her forearm.
"Look, I understand if you don't want to tell me, but you can talk to me if you want about Tommy," Amy said. "and also the pills you've been taking."
"Don't worry about me, Amy." Lauren stated. "I know exactly what I'm doing and I have no need for a confidante."
"Okay, just know that I'm here."
"How could I forget," Lauren said with sass. Lauren pushed past Amy with more force, and went up to her room.
"Well, at least I tried to be nice," Amy muttered to herself. She walked past her mother and Bruce, who had moved on to a conversation about their upcoming honeymoon. Amy made a face in disgust as she overheard their dialogue. She made her way up the stairs and to her room, trying to banish the thoughts of her mother and Bruce getting it on.
When she got to her room she sat down on the bed and tried to acquire any recollection of the night before. She turned her head and glanced at the the picture of her and Karma on her nightstand. Amy felt anger boil up inside of her. She slammed the picture down on her nightstand when she couldn't bear to look at it anymore. She flopped onto her back and stared at the ceiling as she contemplated what she should do next in regards to speaking to Karma.
Part of her didn't want to speak to Karma at all. That part was heartbroken and angry that Karma would probably never be able to love her the way Amy wanted her to. The other part of her wanted nothing else than to be with Karma. Amy wanted to spill her deepest thoughts to Karma, like she had done in the past. She wanted to lie her head on Karma's shoulder and cry until there were no tears left. She just wanted to spend as much time as possible with the person she was closest with.
Amy then realized that talking to Karma about any of the recent events was now impossible. Karma had been slightly driven away when Amy confessed her feelings towards her. Amy didn't want to put any more space between them by telling Karma that she accidentally slept with Liam. She had only one other person to turn to: Shane.
