"We should really stop this."

That's Karma's usual line. She's said it every time. Whenever she and Lauren have somehow (like they don't know exactly how) found themselves in the janitor's closet again, she's said it.

"We should really stop this."

Neither of them thinks about it for too long, usually they don't even pause what they're doing. Lauren's pretty sure Karma just says it so she can be saying something (the girl loves to talk) and for… what's that phrase…?

Plausible deniability.

I tried to stop. Really I did.

Sure you did, Karma. Sure you did.

"Your protests," Lauren muttered in between kisses, "would be much more believable if your hands weren't on my ass."

The tiny blonde heard the sudden, and expected, gasp as Karma realized exactly where her hands had wandered as she enjoyed (really enjoyed) what Lauren was doing to her. Apparently, the feel of Lauren's lips moving along her neck and sliding down to her collarbone, and her tongue darting out to taste the redhead's skin had something of a distracting effect.

Karma quickly yanked her hands back up, resting them on Lauren's hips. She had the urge to tug the blonde closer to her and to press their hips together and maybe grind a little…

No. Nope. Nuh-uh. Hips staying at safe distance at all times.

Lauren tipped her head back (and Karma managed not to whimper at the sudden loss of contact) and eyed Karma carefully. It was one of those moments. If Lauren pushed and Karma wasn't ready, she'd freak and run and probably find Amy and sob and sob and sob.

But if Karma was ready…

"I didn't say stop," Lauren said, deciding to push a little and hope for the best. She took Karma's hands and guided them back down, pressing them firmly against her ass until, yup, just as she'd hoped.

Karma grabbed a hold. All on her own.

"Neither did I," Karma said. And even though her voice wavered just a little as she said it, she still tilted her head back, giving Lauren more and easier access to her neck. Access that Lauren wasted little time taking advantage of.

Neither of them knew what the hell they were doing, just that whatever it was, it felt really, really good. And, given their recent romantic histories, feeling a little good without having to analyze, think about, investigate, or contemplate sounded just about right. Karma didn't have to think about how Amy had broken her heart and how Reagan had literally just let it happen. And Lauren didn't have to think about the humiliation of everyone knowing how Theo had lied to her and finding out she was Intersex.

Karma had tried to bring it up, once. The third or maybe fourth time they were in the closet. She had, as casually as possible, mentioned that if Lauren ever wanted to talk about anything (and 'anything' totally and obviously meant Theo and / or her secret) but Lauren had stopped her in mid sentence with what Karma could only describe as a brain-melting kiss.

She hadn't brought it up since.

And Lauren, for her part, had tried too, though somewhat less obviously. She had mentioned, again, that Amy clearly didn't know what the hell she was missing right in front of her eyes. Of course, Karma might have been more inclined to talk about that had Lauren not been nibbling on her bottom lip and running her fingers up and down the redhead's sides back between every word.

Lauren never brought that up again either.

But just because they weren't talking about it didn't mean both girls weren't thinking about it. In fact, even though neither of them would have ever admitted it, half the reason they kept meeting up (and more than half the reason Lauren kept sending those suggestive text messages) was so they could stop thinking about it.

For those few minutes they were in the closet together, the rest of it disappeared. Karma stopped seeing Amy kissing Reagan and leading her out of the movie theater. Lauren stopped seeing Theo searching lockers. For ten, fifteen, sometimes twenty minutes at a time, both girls got to stop thinking and just feel.

And feeling was good.

But feeling, no matter how hard they tried, couldn't last forever.

Shane stood outside the janitor's closet, one ear pressed against the door. He couldn't hear anything (which he was sort of grateful for) but he knew they were in there.

Karma and Lauren. Lauren and Karma.

Holy shit, this was big!

This was, Shane thought, the biggest. Yeah, sure, Amy and Liam doing the deed had been big. Monstrously big. But it had been big in a different way. Big pain. Big hurt. Big devastation for people he cared about (and Karma). It was the only secret Shane could ever remember actually keeping (and telling Amy he knew didn't count as not keeping it because she already knew, just not that he knew).

This, on the other hand, was big. Like gossip big. Like drama and shocked faces and Oh. My. God's big.

This was the sort of thing Shane lived for.

So why, he wondered, was he having such a hard time with it? Why wasn't he opening the door (they did know it didn't lock, right?), snapping a picture, and running to Vashti with the tumblr's new top story?

Intersex Presidential Candidate and Former Fake Lesbian Caught in the Act!

He could just imagine the notes that would get. And he would be the one to break the story which, of course, would do nothing but remind everyone who really ran Hester. Lauren might have thought her little secret would get her to the top and Karma might have thought playing gay would make her popular. But everyone knew who the real King was.

This was his chance! This was his opportunity to put Lauren in her place and to punish Karma for what she'd done to both his best friends! This was the kind of moment that Shane 'Capt. Outer' Harvey lived for!

So why wasn't he doing it?

Shane might have thought a little longer about that and maybe even come to a conclusion or two (or just busted in and taken the picture because, let's face it, he is Shane) if he hadn't been interrupted by a very small and very sad voice behind him.

"Shane?"

He spun, his back bumping against the door, and froze. Oh. Shit.

"Oh, Amy… hi?"

Lauren had moved back in and started nibbling her way up Karma's neck until she reached her ear. She sucked gently on Karma's earlobe, grateful that the other girl had remembered to skip the earrings today, before moving back around and placing several short and sweet pecks on Karma's lips, the last of which slowly deepened into the kind of kiss that left Lauren's hands tangled in Karma's hair and both girls moaning into the other's mouth.

Until they heard the bump against the door and the unmistakable sound of Shane's voice on the other side.

They both froze. Neither of them could make out exactly what Shane was saying through the door but they both would recognize that voice anywhere.

"Amy," Karma whispered. "He said Amy."

Lauren was pretty sure that was Shane had said too, but her fear (and yes, she was afraid of Amy being just outside the closet) was overridden by something else.

Anger? Maybe. Annoyance? Probably.

Jealousy? Oh fuck no.

"So what?" she whispered back, her lips brushing against Karma's cheeks. "So what if it's Amy?"

Lauren knew exactly 'so what'. She hadn't forgotten why Karma had been crying in that bedroom at Shane's party, nor had she forgotten that it was less than a week ago. She might have been an excellent kisser, maybe even the best at Hester (and Karma definitely would have voted for her) but even Lauren Cooper's lips couldn't make someone fall out of love in a week.

Not like she wanted to anyway. She wasn't trying to steal Karma away or win her heart. No way! Lauren was just trying to feel a little better and forget that jackass Theo.

That was all.

Totally all.

"So what?" Karma asked. "Your step-sister, my best friend, the girl I… I…I…"

Lauren waited, semi-patiently, for Karma to finish the sentence, all the while trying to remember that it was her ass the redhead was still gently squeezing and her arms she was still in.

Not that any of that mattered, of course.

"The girl you, what, Karma?" Lauren finally said. "Love? Want? Need?"

If each word seemed to come out a little angrier and a little more bitter, neither girl noticed. Or at least would admit they did.

Karma glared at her. "Keep your voice down!" she whispered as loudly as she dared. "Do you want to get caught?"

Lauren started to reply, probably with something sassy and snappy. But then she stopped, her eyes round and wide, and her heart dropped to her feet. It was that word.

Caught.

Caught. Like drug dealers on a high school campus. Like fake lesbians. Like the stereotypical mean girl hiding her Intersex secret. Like two girls in a closet doing something with someone they shouldn't.

This… thing. This… whatever it was they were doing was something they could be caught at. It was something they were doing wrong.

Or at least Karma thought so.

Other than her brief and sort of crazy worries about Karma maybe setting her up, Lauren hadn't really thought about what they were doing in any way other than what they were doing. Except for, a little (or a lot) when Shane had made her think Amy and Reagan were breaking up. But even then, even when she'd had that momentary epiphany that she might be, sort of, a little bit, crushing on Karma. Lauren had never really thought about what they were doing in terms of right or wrong.

The fact that Karma obviously had, told Lauren a lot. And she didn't like any of it.

Lauren untangled herself from Karma and stepped back. Karma's eyes never left the ground and she made no effort to keep Lauren close. She was, obviously, too busy listening, trying to hear what was going on just outside the door.

The look on Karma's face was one Lauren had seen before. It was the same one she remembered from the night of the wedding, when Karma heard Amy's toast and the lightbulb had, finally, gone on. It was fear. Karma was totally, unbelievably, mind-numbingly afraid of getting caught. Caught with her.

Was any of it real?

No.

Yeah. Lauren was so not dealing with that again. Especially not for something that wasn't more than a handful of stolen kisses in a closet. She wasn't going to be the secret anymore and she sure as hell wasn't going to be the thing no one wanted to be caught with.

"I think you're right," she whispered. "We really should stop this."

Lauren slipped past Karma and made her way to the door. Her hand was on the knob when Karma grabbed her arm.

"What are you doing?" Karma whispered.

Lauren smiled sadly. "Getting caught."

.