Piper's POV

"Supply closet. Lose Mr. Touchy-Feely."

I kid you not. James was actually talking to me. And that's the first thing he's said to me for the past few weeks.

I felt a twinge of anger when he insulted Carlos, but hell, I wouldn't have known the difference if he said "I'm Hitler reincarnated. Now go kiss a walrus, Barney." All that mattered was that he was the one saying it. But then again, I had nothing against Taylor Lautner giving me a thorough lesson in Gibberish… His tongue might just have to help mine out, if you know what I mean, wink wink.

Something about watching him do the robot in the middle of the club on my birthday kind of killed that fantasy…

"Um… Carlos? I um… gotta go do something." I sounded ridiculous even to myself.

Deciding to play along, Carlos replied with a skeptical "And whatever might that be, Piper?"

"I…um… am gonna… um… go make sure the sinks in the bathroom are turned off. Yeah. I'll go do that. You know how eco-friendly I am… Um… Go green! Hugs not drugs!"Oh god… And once again, my beastly lying skills have proven themselves.

"Piper… Come on. What's so important?"

"I'm thirsty?"

"There's water right there…" Carlos pointed with a shrug to the nine trillion (Hey. No one ever accused me of being good at counting) water bottles on the table not two feet away from us.

"Um… Um…" Brilliance! "God dammit Carlos. Do I have to spell out 'I need a tampon' for you?"

"Oh." His eyes went wide, just as quickly as his cheeks turned as red as Lacey's hooker-chic lipstick. "Oh. Well… um. I- Oh." He looked down, continuing to turn amusing shades of crimson. "I guess I could just wait here while you um… Why yes, Kendall! I'll be right there!" He darted towards my cousin who hadn't even registered that his name had been screamed not two seconds earlier. Nice cover, Carlos.

Not wanting to risk a sudden mind change from Señor Smooth, I darted for the darkened closet that I'd seen James slip into over Carlos's shoulder just moments before.

James's POV

"James?" she whispered. "James, are you there?"

"No," I joked.

Oh, Piper. "Fuck. Sorry, wrong closet." She started to open the door, but stopped after the first few centimeters of light crept in.

"Wait a second…" she mumbled. Ha. You thought she was kidding.

I pulled the string attached to the lonely, nearly burnt out bulb basically duct taped to the crumbling yellowed ceiling. Her eyes widened, her lips quivering with some unidentifiable emotion.

Without wasting a second, I scooped her up in a hug. She wrapped her legs around my waist, quietly crying into my shoulder. I whispered various words of comfort into her hair, hoping she didn't notice that I needed them more than she did.

After a few minutes of this, her breathing evened. With her face buried into my neck and her legs still clamped around my waist, I confessed.

Everything.