#ekena

Chapter 1

“This is so dumb.” I complain as Karma sits on my bed, typing away at my laptop. She’s wearing nothing but my button up shirt I was wearing a few hours ago and her underwear. Part of me is telling me to stride across the room and kiss her, but my self control wins out.  Karma just smiles as she focuses on what she’s doing without even sparing me a glance. Typical.  Finally, she looks up at me. “Can you grab it downstairs? I just printed it on your wireless printer.”  When I don’t move, the beautiful redhead rolls her eyes, reaches behind her, and throws a pillow right at my head. The dork then throws her arms up in celebration, “YES! HEADSHOT!” It’s my turn to roll my eyes. “Fine.” I groan as I go downstairs, praying I won’t run into Lauren. I’m wearing just as less as Karma and I don’t want to give my devil of a step sister any more reason to tease us about our…. situation. 

Quickly, I grab the paper from the printer and make a dash for the stairs and make the sharp turn to my room. Without a greeting, I toss the paper to Karma when I get in.  She clumsily catches it and cocks her head at me. “Where’s the fire, flash?”  I ignore her and swiftly close my door, which makes Karma chuckle, “I don’t want Lauren to see me. She’s the reason you’re doing this in the first place, remember?”  “And Liam.” Karma adds, “And Shane.”  “Right.” I agree, plopping down beside her on the bed. “So… what’s your idea?”  Karma tears the paper in half and gives one to me. When I get it in my hands, I read the square box that’s similar to the half Karma has. 

Karma & Amy’s Punch Card  Around the bold title are six little circles, three on top and three underneath the title.  “What the fuck is this?” I question, turning it sideways and upside down as if looking for a secret message.  Karma laughs and touches my arm to stop my movements. “This is to prove them wrong.”

“How is a punch card going to prove them wrong? Aren’t punch cards used to get more things at stores?”

“Yeah… But in this case, when all our holes are punched we have to stop.”  At first, I’m about to ask ‘stop what?’ but then it comes to me and the world stops. Stop having sex with Karma?  “Um….”  Karma looks at me with furrowed eyebrows. “It’s the only way, aims. The others think it’s more than it is. Just the other day, Shane asked me how my girlfriend was doing.” The redhaired girl sits up and runs her hands through her hair frustratingly.

Chapter 2

  As usual, I wake up before Karma. My first sight is her, on her side not facing me. For a while, I watch her, trying to remember how we got here. I roll onto my back and stare up at my ceiling. My mind wanders back to that night.

That night, September 5th

Why Karma wanted to drag me to this stupid party is beyond me. Liam, Lauren, and Shane were going too, but that hardly makes a difference. Whenever the five of us go to parties together, we all usually end up doing our own things and splitting off with different goals in mind. Liam and Shane’s goals are usually to hook up. Lauren usually looks for more ways to make herself more popular by socializing. Karma and I usually just stick together. If we start to get bored, we leave. But once in awhile, we’ll find different people to hook up with. On a good night, we both find someone to hook up with. 

The last time we went to a party like this, Karma found a good looking guy named Aiden. He never called her back. Somehow, I was able to find a nice girl as well, but didn’t follow through. The girl was so drunk, she could barely walk so I called her a cab instead. Her name was… Julie or Jules or something? My thoughts are interrupted by Karma lightly touching my shoulder. “I’ll be right back.” And she leaves my side. Usually, that’s code for ‘I’ve got my eye on someone, I’m going in for the kill.’ Most likely, she will not ‘be right back.’ A half an hour goes by and I start to assume my theory is right. I make my way to the kitchen where Liam is inhabiting. He’s surrounded by three girls who are giggling uncontrollably at something he said. When I enter, he points at me. “Hey, let me make you a drink.” Shrugging, I take a seat on the stool across from where he’s standing. “You like old fashioned?” He asks as he gets a glass out of the cabinet. “Definitely.” I say, watching him as he takes out a bottle of whiskey. When he’s done, he pushes the glass toward me, to which I gladly lift to my lips. At the taste, I grimace. “Damn, that’s strong.” “That is a Manhattan.” Liam smiles as he leans forward on the kitchen island. “I know you have a high tolerance, but I doubt it can keep up with that beauty.” He nods toward the glass in my hand.

“Great.” I chuckle, already feeling a little dizzy. “I’ll catch up with you later.” “Ok. If you need anything, I’ll be here.” Liam says, “Let me know if you need a ride. I saw Karma with a dude.” “Course you did.” I mutter as I take another sip while walking away. It was only a matter of time before I had to use the bathroom, so I went upstairs in search of one. I went to the first door to the right and stumbled into a bedroom. Two people were making out on the bed. They jumped apart at the sound of my entrance. “Oh my god, sorry I-” Then I realize it’s Karma and the random guy she probably was planning on hooking up with. They’re both roughed up and messy from the make out session. The guy is staring at me as if annoyed by my disruption. Karma, on the other hand, refused to meet my eyes. “-was looking for a bathroom.” I finish, clearing my throat awkwardly.

“There’s a bathroom right over there you can use.” Karma says, still not able to look at me. And sure enough, there’s a bathroom connected to this room, which must be the master bedroom. “Thanks.” I say. Awkwardly, I move past the guy to go to the bathroom.

When I come out, Karma’s alone on the bed. The guy is nowhere to be seen and she’s laying on her back, staring at the ceiling. 

She turns her head to me and smiles slightly. “Where’d your hookup go?” I ask, placing myself on the edge of the bed next to her. “Probably still sulking that you killed his boner.” The redhead replies casually. On the other hand, my eyes widen. “Sorry, Karms. I didn’t mean to-” “Don’t bother.” Karma says, turning onto her side to face me, “I told him if his penis is that easy to turn off, I don’t want it.” I can’t help but laugh at that. “Wow. So not ‘the one’, huh?” Karma scoffs and sits up. “I hope I never find ‘the one’ at a party.” “Me neither.” I chuckle. Then I turn my head to look at Karma and I realize how close we are in proximity.

What happens next is inevitable. Her lips meet mine and it’s like second nature. It’s magnetic and automatic. It’s as if right when we kissed, the entire world exhaled and said the word ‘finally,’ which was also the word running through my head over and over again.

I push her away gently when the sober part of me asks ‘what the fuck are you doing, Amy?’

“We’re drunk.” I state. Though, on my part, I’m not that drunk. Karma shakes her head as she catches her breath. “It’s ok,” She pants, “It doesn’t have to mean anything.” She snakes her arms around my neck and kisses me once more. And once more, I’m drawn in. That night was definitely not our first time, but somehow, it felt like it was.

But the next morning, we didn’t hold hands. We didn’t cuddle and revel in our newfound love. When we woke up, we rushed to get changed. We said bye to each other and went separate ways. Since then, we’ve had regular hook ups and remained best friends. The problem was our group of friends knew. They know. Lately, they’ve been giving us a really hard time about it. They don’t get how we’re able to pass this off as no strings attached. Karma and I have been hooking up with other people with no strings attached for months. Since we’ve been hooking up with each other, we haven’t been with other people. With each other, it’s easier. We get the memo without saying it. Get in, get out. That’s it. No attachments. Nothing. The sound of Karma stirring brings me back to the present. Turning to face her, I watch as she stretches and turns to face me. She gives me a small smile that gives me butterflies. “Hey.” She says.

  “Hey.” I reply. We don’t usually stay in the morning. One of us usually gets up. But it feels good to have this moment, even if it has to be broken soon. Karma surprises me once more and closes the space between us to place her lips against my bare shoulder. It’s barely a touch, but it stirs so many feelings. Feelings I’m not supposed to have. Then as quickly as it happened, Karma pulls away and sits up. “I should get going.” “Yeah.” I say, getting up as well to go to the bathroom. When I come out, I’m surprised Karma is still in my room. Fully dressed, but still present. I raise an eyebrow. “Hey, stranger.” Karma smiles at the greeting. “Can I use your bathroom? Sorry, I just really need to brush my teeth. Do you still keep my spare underneath the sink?” “Yup.” I tell her as I plop on my bed and grab my phone. I hear the faucet running when I open the first text I missed from Liam.

  Hey, where the fuck are you and Karm? We thought you two were going to come to winter formal last night??? Call me.

Can’t blame him for being worried. He’s being a good friend. But a part of me is pretty sure he knows very well where we were and is fully aware what we were doing. He’s just asking for confirmation. I text him back, hey im not going to call, karms is in my bathroom. Just gonna say we found better things to do.

  Right when I hit send, my bathroom door opens and Karma exits. “Thanks, aims. See you at school later?” “See you.” I reply, shooting her a smile as she leaves my room. Not even a second after she leaves, my phone vibrates. Liam replied, i see… see u in a few hours?

  I type yea and hit send before getting up to get ready for school.

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