"What are we doing in your closet?" Lorelei whispered to Anya, although she couldn't actually see her.

"Hiding," Anya whispered back. "Ooh, I think I just found my old diary!"

"If I could see, I would snatch it from your hands and read it, but I can't see, so therefore, I shall sit here with your hand on my thigh in the depressing darkness of your closet for no reason."

"Lorelei, that's your hand on my thigh," she said indignantly.

"That's not my hand," she giggled.

Lorelei had gone over to Anya's house when school ended that day, and after they'd ransacked the kitchen, they'd gone into Anya's room, hiding in her closet. They had been in there for about a half-hour at this point. Lorelei was still unclear about the purpose of this 'in-the-closet' activity, but she had no complaints. Strange behavior like this was what the two of them had grown up doing together.

"I'm surprised she hasn't found us yet," Anya said, sounding quite impressed.

"Whooom?" Lorelei drawled. She was trying to make shadow puppets, but was not succeeding.

"Ilonka. We're playing hide and seek."

"We are?" she demanded. "Why didn't you invite me to play?"

"I did! We're playing!"

"Are we winning?"

"So far."

"We're morons," Lorelei sighed.

"Yeah…"

Suddenly the closet door burst open, and instead of seeing Ilonka's face, a grinning boy's face popped into view. Anya and Lorelei screamed and jumped up, causing clothes to fall off their hangers and onto them. "Jesus!" they yelled in unison.

"Hello ladies," Chris laughed. "I never knew I was able to make girls jump like that."

"Quick, quick, close the door!" Anya cried, grabbing his wrist and pulling him into the closet.

Wedging himself between the two girls on the closet floor amid the fallen blouses and pleated skirts, Chris asked casually, "What's going on?"

Before anyone could answer, the door flew open again. This time it was Ilonka's face they saw as they were bathed in unwelcome light. A smile broke out over her face, and she clutched the closet door tightly in excitement. "I find you Anna!"

Anya grumbled, never one to like losing as she climbed out of the closet. "You win, baby--go hide and I'll come and find you, okay? Hide good!"

"Count to ten," Ilonka said, her face a mask of seriousness.

"I'm counting," she said, and her sister stood in the middle of the room looking at her in expectance. "ONE--"

Giggling, Ilonka took off running from the room to hide.

Smiling with warmth, Anya looked back at Chris and Lorelei and explained, "I'll be right back."

"Close the door on your way out, will you?" Lorelei called, laughing as Anya obediently shut the closet door on them.

In the pitch-blackness, Lorelei felt Chris move beside her. "Son of a--ow," he muttered. "I think I have a book up my ass."

"There's better places to keep your bathroom reading materials," she giggled. "Hey, it might be Anya's diary. Keep it so that I can read it later."

"Oh, for you, the world," he laughed, shifting around.

"What are you doing?" she asked, wondering why he was moving so much.

"Undressing."

Lorelei involuntarily squeaked.

"Kidding, kidding." He tossed the book he'd been sitting on in Lorelei's general direction.

"Aaah, my eye!"

"Aaah, I'm sorry!"

"Actually, you missed me completely," Lorelei said. "I have false outbursts sometimes because I like to hear people's reactions."

Chris smiled at her, but she would never know. He cleared his throat. "So--"

"Ooh, is this story time?"

"No."

"Fuck."

He burst out laughing.

"Go on," she sighed.

"How does it feel to be Teddy Duchamp's first admitted FLAME?"

Lorelei moaned. "I'm not his flame, and where did you get that idea?"

"Apparently you were looking elsewhere at lunch today, because I've never seen Teddy look at anyone the way he was looking at you. For a minute there I thought he was gonna throw up on you because I've just never seen him look that way, but then I realized he likes you."

"I thought that that was what he was saying…" She sighed, resting her chin on her knees.

"Look, maybe you think Teddy's just crazy and that he's no good--Maybe you don't. I know you're an open-minded girl, but I also know that there aren't very many people in this town that see any hope in Teddy." Chris paused, and he could sense her waiting on him to continue. "But--obviously, if he likes a girl like you, he's trying. He doesn't want to end up--" He couldn't bring himself to say like his father. "Lorelei, drop Reese. Forget about him. He doesn't care if he breaks your heart. And that's something Teddy would never do to you."

"I think I'm in a pickle."

"No, you're not," Chris said. "Who cares about Reese's feelings right now? He doesn't care about yours. What do you feel for Teddy?"

"Pickle, I said," she repeated.

"You feel for his pickle?"

Her laughter echoed in the small closet. "I just mean, it's all messy, what I'm thinking and what I'm feeling. I can easily cut things off with Reese. But…I can't just shut off my feelings for…" She wanted to say "you," but she just couldn't, not even when he couldn't see her blush.

Chris tousled her hair. "It's okay, kid."

"I don't think I'll be sleeping tonight."

"A lot of sex is to be had?"

"Yes," she lied, and then cackled. "But no. Now I'm all thinking about Teddy and whatnot and I won't be able to sleep."

"You do like him," he teased, poking her in the side.

"I don't know!"

"Hahaha you want on."

"I haven't spent all night debating the Teddy issue, therefore I do not know if I want ON."

"What's with you and the word 'therefore?'"

"Doesn't it make me sound smart?"

"Like a mad scientist."

The closet door opened, Anya flew in, and then it closed again. "Shhhh," she hissed. "We're hiding again."

"This isn't a very original hiding spot, Anya," Lorelei told her. "And besides, once you come out of the closet, you cannot just come back in."

"Ilonka doesn't seem to mind my unoriginal hiding spots. And I'm ignoring your in the closet joke, if you can't tell." She sounded breathless. "What were you guys doing to keep yourselves occupied?"

"Confiscating your diary and talking about boys," Chris replied.