Piper thought her fiance was a wonderful man, and she was so grateful that she had found someone so sweet and caring. She was glad she had finally found someone her parents approved of. Larry was the perfect guy to bring home to parents. He came from a wealthy family, he had a stable job writing for a magazine, and owned a nice apartment of his own.
Piper met Larry through her best friend Polly. He was her next door neighbor, and long story short they ended up becoming best friends. Piper was at Polly's house about as much as her own, so she got to know him as well.
When he asked her on a date, Piper was pleasantly surprised. So that date turned into more, and eventually a great relationship. They moved in together and it was all going great. After about one and a half years of dating, Larry proposed. Piper had once again been pleasantly surprised, and very happily agreed. Her parents were thrilled, and Piper was excited to spend the rest of her life with the man that she loved.
Three months. That's how long it took to go from happy and in love, to completer resentment on Piper's part. "I just don't see why you can't come," Piper huffed, crossing her arms across her chest. "Babe, I told you. I have a deadline on this article. You know how long i've been working on it," Piper reluctantly gave in. She knew how many hours he had spent on this piece. "Fine. I'll just go with Polly."
With that, Piper went into the bathroom to start getting ready. While her curling iron was heating up, she grabbed her phone and called Polly. "Hey Pol, Larry had a huge writing deadline and I don't want to go to this party alone. Will you be my date?" Piper pouted into the phone, hoping her best friend would take pity on her. "I don't know if I can Piper."
"But Polllll! Who will I go with? I fucking hate work parties, and I don't want to suffer all by myself," She whined. "I'm sorry hon, I have to work tonight."
"Polly you don't even have a job."
"I do too!"
"You have an online store selling soap. Online meaning you work from home, whenever you feel like it." Piper stated dully.
"A very popular soap store, which I need to keep stocked. Sorry Pipes. I'll come to the next one."
Piper hung up feeling defeated. Guess she'll have to go alone.
Work Parties suck. Piper had predicted this, as she didn't have a particularly exciting job, which meant she didn't work with particularly exciting people. Still, when her predictions proved true she wasn't very happy about it. She lasted a few minutes of boring conversation with her coworkers, before heading to the bar in search of alcohol. She would need it to get through this.
After about two hours Piper decided to give up and go home early. She said her goodbyes and went outside to hail a cab.
Slightly tipsy, she walked down the hall to her apartment and got out her keys. She was about to open the door, when she was stopped by the noises she heard inside, she quickly unlocked the door and threw it open. Inside her home, on her couch, was her fiance having sex with her best friend. Both oblivious to Piper's entrance, they continued on as Piper watched, stunned. Once her brain finally registered was happening, Piper was furious.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Piper yelled.
The two jumped apart like a couple of teenagers caught by their parents, and quickly tried to cover up.
"Uh Pipes you're home early! I uh thought you were going to be out...a little...later." Larry said stammering and looking down.
"Oh i'm so sorry I forgot to call before coming over to my house. I just didn't think I would find my BEST FRIEND FUCKING MY FIANCE!" Piper had never truly felt rage until this moment.
Very calmly, she walked over to where Polly had been standing, awkwardly, wrapped in a throw blanket. She looked her up and down raised, then raised her hand and smacked her across the face. Polly yelped and covered her face.
"I deserved that." Polly looked down, ashamed.
"Yeah no shit." She looked over at Larry, anger flaring in her eyes, and he backed up slightly, expecting the same. She looked at them both then, both cowering under her intense glare.
"Get out." She stated simply.
"But pipes-" Larry started, when Piper put her hand up.
"Go stay at her house tonight. My stuff will be out by the end of the week."
"Piper can't we at least talk about this?" Larry sounded desperate.
"There's nothing to talk about Larry. You made a fucking commitment. When you asked me to marry you, we both made a commitment. A commitment to be faithful to each other for life. We're not even married yet and you already cheated on me, and you expect me to trust you to last for life?" She laughed in disbelief. "Fuck that and fuck you. Now both of you need to get out. I have shit to do."
With that she turned on her heel and walked out of the apartment. Once in the elevator she finally let herself process. Her supposed best friend. And the supposed love of her life. She could feel the tears starting to come and tried to compose herself. This was going to be a long night.
The first thing she did was go to the nearest store where she could buy boxes and packing tape. She wanted to get this part out of the way. She rushed back home, just wanting to get as much done tonight as possible.
Rather than letting herself think about what was going on, Piper went to straight to work packing her things. She stuffed her clothes in bags, not caring enough to fold them. All her toiletries went into boxes, as did her books, shoes, and anything else she would need. She made sure to leave the essentials out for the few days she would still be here. She won't take any furniture. Couldn't. Even the things she bought. It will remind her too much of him.
She sat down and made a list of all the things she would need to get for her new apartment.
Shit. I'm going to have to find a new apartment. Fast. She checked the time - 4:32 a.m. The apartment hunt could wait until the morning.
She needed to rest if she was going to get anything done. She walked to her bedroom and looked around. She was so angry. How could this be? That the two people she trusted most in the world were the ones to hurt her the most. The more she thought about it, the more angry she got. Turning to the wall she punched it as hard as she could. Again and again she punched it, tears of anger and sadness blurring her vision. She punched the same spot over and over until her fist went through the wall and she felt searing pain. She pulled out her hand, examiling it. Her knuckles bled, and bruises were already forming. Slowly, she uncurled her fist, pain shooting through her hand. She'd deal with that later.
She collapsed onto her bed and fell asleep on top of the covers.
Piper woke up feeling like complete shit. Her head was pounding, her eyes were swollen and red from crying, and her back ached from bending over boxes all night. She reached for her phone with her right hand and yelped as she felt pain shoot up her arm. She looked at her hand and was surprised to see the amount of damage she had done. Her hand was swollen and bruised, and there was dried blood on her knuckles. She grabbed her phone off her nightstand with her uninjured hand and turned it on. It was well past noon, but she didn't feel bad about sleeping in, given the fact that she was up until four in the morning packing her things.
She slowly got out of bed, and walked straight to the bathroom to get something for her head and hand. Carefully, she washed the blood off her hand, then cleaned the cuts on her knuckles. She rinsed her face with cold water and brushed her teeth. She found an ace bandage and wrapped her hand up carefully, not wanting to cause any more damage. She changed into clean clothes and, feeling a little better, she found her laptop and began to search for an apartment.
Her father had always told her to put a small percentage of each paycheck into her savings account for emergencies. Luckily, this was the one piece of advice Piper had actually taken from her father. Her savings account contained enough money to take care of everything she would need to move into a new apartment.
Finding an apartment she could move into on such short notice proved to be difficult, but once she found one she felt confident in her decision. It was well within her price range, judging from the pictures it was in good condition, and it wasn't in a bad neighborhood. She filled out the online application and hoped for the best.
She went back to work packing, which was a little hard with her injured hand, but she managed and finished around three. Her stomach rumbled and she realized she hadn't yet eaten. Deciding she needed to get out of the house, she grabbed her keys, purse and phone, and walked out the door.
She walked to a small cafe near her apartment. Once she got her food, she sat down at a small table in the corner of the cafe. Looking through her phone, she had several missed calls from both Polly and Larry, along with a few voicemails and texts. She scoffed and shut off her phone, setting it face down on the table.
A few minutes later, it started ringing and she picked it up. The call was from an unknown number, figuring it was about the apartment, she answered it quickly.
"Hello?"
"Hello, is this Piper Chapman?" the voice on the other end questioned.
"Yes, it is. Who is this?"
"Okay good. Hi Piper, my name is Nicky Nichols, i'm calling about the application you submitted for the apartment. I was wondering if you'd like to come look at it later today."
"Yes i'd love to! What time should I come by?"
"As soon as you can make it."
"I can be there in twenty minutes, if that's alright?" Piper was eager to be able to move her stuff in.
"That sounds great. Just buzz the lobby and i'll be let in. See you soon."
Piper quickly packed up her things and hurried out the door of the cafe. She hailed a cabi, and was soon on her way to her new home.
Once she arrived to the apartment building, Piper was even more confident in her decision than before. On the car ride here, Piper had discovered the neighborhood contained a grocery store, coffee shop, and a diner all in walking distance of the apartment. The apartment building looked clean and well taken care of.
She paid the cab driver and got out of the car. Walking up to the building, she saw the call box and buzzed lobby. A few seconds later the door opened revealing a short women, with a mane of copper blonde hair, wearing dark eyeliner around her large eyes.
"You must be Piper. I'm Nicky, we spoke on the phone" The women extended her hand towards Piper.
Piper took the offered hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you Nicky. Are you the landlord?" Piper doubted it, the blonde was definitely too young, but she was curious.
"Nah, i'm just filling in. The real landlord is out of town. You'll meet her soon, assuming you take the apartment."
"I think I just might," Piper said, chuckling.
"Come on, i'll show you the place." Nicky grabbed some keys off the desk in the lobby and walked to the elevator, pressing the button. Piper followed her into the elevator and they stood in silence for a few seconds.
"So why do you need an apartment on such short notice anyway?" Nicky inquired.
"Break up," Piper replied simply, not wanting to elaborate.
"Well that's shitty."
The elevator doors opened, and Nicky walked out first, Piper following. The women stopped in front of a door and unlocked it.
"So this is the place," Nicky put her arms out and spun in a slow circle. "Bedroom is over there," she said pointing. "Bathroom, living room, kitchen, and laundry room." She took Piper into each room and they looked around. "Shit, this is nicer than my place," Nicky laughed. "I live down the hall. Red-the landlord-put me in charge for the weekend. I should've switched apartments while she was gone," Piper laughed at that.
"So what do you think?" The blonde asked once the tour was over.
"Looks good to me," Piper shrugged. "Unless there's something wrong with it that you're not telling me," she joked.
"Guess you'll have to find out," Nicky chuckled. "So, you wanna sign the lease and get this done?"
Piper contemplated it for a second before deciding. "Let's do it."
"Great."
With that, Nicky took Piper back down to the lobby and she signed the lease. She wrote a check for the cost of the security deposit, and first and last month's rent.
"Okay good. Here's your key, and a spare. And you're all set. Start moving in whenever you want."
"Thank you so much Nicky." Piper shook the woman's hand.
"No problem. See you later neighbor."
The blonde turned on her heel and walked away. Piper exited the building that was now her new home. She put her key on her keyring and hailed a cab. Giving the address to the driver, Piper sat back, feeling happy for the first time today.