Sorry this took longer than usual. I wanted to make sure the ending felt right. Hope you like it!

"Please."

It was only one word and Karma said it so softly Lauren almost didn't hear her. Almost. But she did hear and it was enough, that one word was just enough, to make her pause. She kept her grip on the door handle, but she didn't turn it.

Karma took a step closer but she was tentative and hesitant. That wasn't like her and, oddly enough, it wasn't like them (and Lauren tried really hard not to think about thinking about her and Karma as a 'them'). They hadn't hesitated, they hadn't been tentative. Nothing about this… this… whatever the hell this was had been that way, not ever.

Seeing Karma so scared and timid was enough to make Lauren's heart hurt. But only a little.

She hated Karma, after all.

And besides, Lauren figured, all Karma was scared about was getting caught. She didn't want Shane or Amy (especially Amy) to find her with her hand in the cookie jar. That's all Lauren thought she was. The cookie jar. The temptation. The thing that was delicious and decadent and everything you wanted but oh, so very bad for you.

A part of Lauren liked being the cookie jar. It was the same part of her that liked sending Karma all those text messages, the ones that talked about how much she liked the taste of Karma's lips and, occasionally, suggest some other… things… she might like the taste of.

That was dirty. That was fun. It was sexy and secret and Lauren loved watching the way Karma would blush whenever she got one and the way she would (unconsciously, of course) squeeze her legs together as she read. In those moments, Lauren really liked being the cookie jar.

This wasn't one of those moments.

This was one of those moments when Lauren hated being the cookie jar. It wasn't because she wanted to go public or announce to the world that she thought Karma was just about the sexiest thing she'd ever seen (especially since she still had no idea when the hell that had happened). It wasn't that she wanted to date Karma openly and for everyone at Hester to see.

Lauren still didn't know if she could spend five minutes in a room with the girl if they weren't kissing.

But there was a part of Lauren, the part Theo had done what she imagined was irreparable damage to, that wanted the option. She wanted the possibility that one day, if they both wanted to, maybe she and Karma could be…

Fuck! Lauren didn't even know the word.

More?

Obviously, she knew, they'd have to start as friends because they'd never done that. And sure, maybe it would have to be friends with benefits, but Lauren had felt the way Karma kissed her and the way Karma's hands squeezed her ass and she was pretty sure Karma wouldn't mind the 'with benefits' idea. Lauren knew she wouldn't mind it.

But that was the sort of thing the cookie jar didn't get to have. That was the sort of thing reserved for people the 'hand' in said cookie jar wasn't ashamed of or embarrassed by. Liam and Amy and Reagan and even, God help her, Shane were the kind of people that got that.

And Lauren hated them for it. She hated that they got to be out and open and loved and adored and everyone saw it. Amy had Reagan and Reagan had Amy, the girl who had dumped a soda over another girl's head! Shane had Duke, an MMA fighter who had confessed his love on television!

(OK, so that was only because Shane had outed him, but really, Lauren wasn't counting that.)

Even Booker, the man whore himself, had never had to hide his dalliances. OK, so maybe he had with Karma, at first. Maybe back then Liam had been the cookie jar (or maybe it was Karma, but that really wasn't the point). The point was that, even for 'Kiam' (and oh, how Lauren hated that name) the cookie jar and the hand that was in it had, eventually, been out there for the world to see.

She and Theo had been out there too. The whole world had seen.

Seen him lie. Seen him keep secrets. See him betray her, cart her step-sister off to jail, and seen her accidentally reveal her biggest secret live on Vashti's camera phone.

Lauren never wanted to go through that again. But she at least wanted to know that maybe, just maybe, she might have the chance.

And she really, really wanted Karma to feel the same way.

Karma took another hesitant step forward and reached out, covering Lauren's hand with one of her own. "Please," she said again, just as softly. She closed her fingers around Lauren's hand and held it.

Lauren hated that even then, that hand on hers felt so good.

"Please, what?" Lauren asked. She didn't make a move to open the door, but she didn't take her hand away either. She knew what was on the other side of the door. Shane. Probably Amy. The end of this… whatever… the two of them had going.

Answer right, Lauren thought. Say the right fucking thing.

Lauren was hoping (kinda, sorta desperately) that Karma would say something, anything, that would give her an excuse to not open the door. But Lauren knew, if there were a million things Karma could say, probably 999,999 of them were wrong.

Please don't open the door. Please don't tell Amy. Please don't tell Shane and the entire school that I've been hooking up with you, I'm ashamed enough as it is. Please don't ruin me for the rest of high school or screw my chances of at least getting Liam back.

"Please, what, Karma?" Lauren whispered again. She was waiting. Waiting for an answer, waiting for a sign, she didn't know what what she was waiting for.

But she did it anyway.

Karma had grabbed Lauren's hand on instinct and now she had no idea, none whatsoever of what to do or say next.

She lived so much of her life like that, doing everything on instinct. Karma was smart enough to know that was probably half the reason found herself in as many messes as she did. That and her inability to see what was right in front of her. That was the only explanation she'd ever had for how she had fallen so stupidly for Liam and missed Amy, right in front of her.

And now, Amy wasn't just right in front of her, she was right outside the door! There was like a foot of wood between her and Lauren and Shane and Amy. And if Lauren opened that door, Amy would know everything. And so would Shane. And if Harvey knew everything, then the school would know everything.

And, oh shit, it would be the entire school!

This wouldn't just be run-of-the-mill dirt for Shane. This was his gossip nirvana. The two girls he hated most in all of Hester caught (and there was that word again) in a compromising position. They'd both be screwed. More than screwed. They'd be fucked. Ruined! Destroyed!

Destroyed, Karma thought, might not even cover it. This was past that, this was whole new worlds of high school hell. Her life would be in the hands of Shane Harvey, the best friend of the two people she had hurt most in this world. Shane could finish the job that faking it and her parents getting busted for drugs had started. And no matter what hot and popular boy she somehow tricked into dating her, it would never be enough. She'd never even find her way back near the school's social ladder.

Right now, with that door shut, Karma still had a chance. It wasn't a good one, she knew. Right now, she was headed for obscurity. Soon the school would move on from the 'newness' of what had happened and she'd become a footnote. A forgotten chapter in Hester history. She'd be, at best (or worst, depending on how you looked at it) the answer to a trivia question.

Who was that bitch that faked it with Amy before she came out?

Karma could hear them all laughing about it. She could hear the jokes and the puns and the funny little memes that would go around the school's social media. They'd all laugh at her. Liam and Shane and Ivy and Brandi and Vashti and…

Lauren.

Karma glanced down at her hand and discovered that, at some point, Lauren had turned her hand over and laced their fingers together.

Karma had grabbed Lauren's hand on instinct, the way she did so many things. But Lauren… Lauren didn't work like that. Lauren thought. Lauren considered. She'd had to, Karma knew, to make sure she'd kept up appearances, that she'd kept her secret safe.

She'd grabbed Lauren's hand on instinct. Lauren held hers by choice.

And Karma didn't know, not even the tiniest bit, what the fuck to think about that.

Instinct was what had driven Karma all her life, it was the reason behind all her plans. It was, she knew, what had gotten her into this mess in the first place. Though, to be fair (and staring at her hand in Lauren's, Karma felt the need to be fair) she hadn't once thought of it as a mess until Amy was standing outside the door.

And fuck Shane and fuck popularity and fuck her social standing! That was the worst! Amy would know!

Amy would find out that her best friend had secretly been making out with her step-sister. There weren't words for how wrong that was. She and Amy hated Lauren. Hated her! OK, so maybe Lauren and Amy had been getting along a little better lately (ever since the wedding, really, but Karma wasn't thinking about that) but still…

Getting along a little better wasn't quite the same as 'yeah, I'm fine with you having hot and sexy super secret makeouts with my step-sister in the janitor's closet.'

They were hot and sexy makeouts though.

No! Karma was not thinking about that. This was not the time. Amy was outside the door and Lauren's hand was on the knob (and holding her's, but so not the point) and that, Karma knew, was definitely not the time for thinking about those kinds of things!

Things like how much she liked kissing Amy's step sister (a lot) or how good Lauren's lips felt on her skin (sooooo good) or the way Lauren's ass felt when she squeezed it (firm, yet supple, yet… perfect).

Fuck.

Just… fuck.

Karma tried to focus on the door. She tried to focus on the just barely audible tone of Shane's voice on the other side of it. She strained as hard as she could to try and hear Amy's voice. Her voice, Karma was convinced, would do the trick. It would get her mind off Lauren's kisses and back to where it belonged. Worrying about Amy.

And maybe that was something she should have done before she started all this… stuff… with Lauren. After all, Amy was the one she was in love with. Amy was the one she was trying to get at the party.

The party when Amy had made it quite clear she was happy where she was, with who she was with. The party when Shane and Liam had given up on helping her.

The party when she'd found herself all alone and crying and broken. Until someone asked if she could kiss her. And Karma, on instinct, had said yes.

She remembered all that now. Especially how good it had felt.

How good it still felt.

Fuck. Again.

This had to stop! Karma had to stop thinking about Lauren and her lips and her tongue and her hands and her ass (especially her ass). She had to think clearly. A few months ago she hadn't thought clearly at all. All she had thought was 'lesbians equals popular and popular equals Liam Booker' and that had been an unmitigated disaster.

She'd lost her virginity in a thunder box. She'd broken her best friend's heart. She'd lost her first boyfriend and almost lost her best friend.

Clear thinking! It was the only way to go!

"Karma?"

Lauren's whisper shot into her brain like a bullet. Karma's eyes snapped up and she found herself staring at a very concerned and confused Lauren.

"You OK?" the tiny blonde whispered as she squeezed Karma's hand gently in hers. "You just weren't there for a minute and I was getting worried -"

"Please stay."

Karma wasn't sure which of them was more surprised, Lauren at hearing it or her at saying it. It had come out… you guessed it… on instinct.

Lauren stood stone still, her eyes flitting back and forth between Karma's hand in hers and the other girl's eyes. She saw the surprise in Karma's eyes and knew that the redhead was just as freaked and confused as she was, but somehow, she'd done it.

She'd found the one in a million.

"Please," Karma said, taking one very non hesitant step toward Lauren and bringing their joined hands up, pressing them between them as she leaned forward, brushing her lips against Lauren's in the softest kiss they'd ever shared.

"Stay."

And so Lauren did.