Piper Chapman was almost 14 when she had first met Alex Vause. She was 15 before they started dating, and she had just turned 16 when she decided to come out to her parents.
She currently stands in the doorway of her bedroom clenching and unclenching her sweaty hands. She had to do this today.
She felt ready enough, and she had never really heard her parents express views on homosexuality. Though, she could probably guess that they weren't too positive.
Piper Chapman had been raised to fit in. Her parents tried to control every aspect of her life, from setting up dates and even trying to choose her friends.
She glanced at her phone. She had many missed texts from Alex, asking if she was alright and telling her she didn't have to do it if she wasn't ready, and that they would be 18 before either of them realized it and then they could run off and explore the world without worrying about what anyone had to say.
However, she had also been telling her that ever since Piper brought up the idea of coming out. It felt like too long. She felt like sooner or later, her parents would ask why she never went out more than once with any of the guys they set her up with.
And that she would snap. Snap, and say it's because she had been dating someone for a while now, and they would find out and kick her out. Or worse, send her somewhere far away from Alex.
She didn't want it to go down like that. She wanted to have a civil conversation where she could try to rationalise with her parents and explain to them that she loved Alex.
Some might find it weird that she would rather get kicked out then be moved away from Alex, but she practically lived with Alex and her mom half the time anyways.
She had a job, so she could afford to stay there with Alex without worrying about Diane's financial situation.
She took one last second to breathe and try to calm herself down, before forcing her feet to move out the doorway of her room and down the hall, and then finally down the stairs where her mom was painting her nails and her dad was reading the paper, both with discarded plates from dinner and empty bottles that were once filled with alcohol.
Maybe, just maybe it wasn't such a good idea to try to approach her parents with a sensitive topic while they were both intoxicated.
Maybe, just maybe if she would have thought about it more she would have backed away and waited until having a rational conversation was possible. But she didn't.
"Mom, Dad. I need to talk to you guys about something." She paused, trying to find her wording.
They looked at her, and she couldn't help but notice the bored disappointment in their eyes before she had even said anything.
"I... You know that girl that stays here sometimes, we do homework and stuff… uh, Alex?" She asks, expecting a response along the lines of 'oh, yeah we know her, what's up?'
Instead she just gets that bored, uninterested look for an increasingly awkward amount of time.
Looking back on it, she doesn't know why she expected that comment considering her parents had been disappointed with who she chose as friends since the fifth grade, when she introduced them to a girl named Lorna. They said she had an interesting personality. And since then, they were uninterested in her friend choices.
"Well, we're sort of… I mean, she's my uh… my girlfriend?" She said, though she phrased it like a question. Almost as if she was asking permission and not as if they had been dating just under a year.
Her father was the first to respond. He returned his eyes to his paper and camly stated "get out".
Piper was confused, she expected a negative response, but certainly not one so blunt and calm. She definitely didn't expect her parents to kick her out without even talking about it.
They didn't have questions? They didn't want to know for how long, or even why. Though, she's not so sure she could come up with a real answer for that last one.
"Ex..excuse me? What?" she was tentative, she didn't want to escalate this, but she didn't really want to be kicked out either. Just because she had preferred to be kicked out rather than moved, doesn't mean she wanted either to happen. She wanted to be able to explain this better, even if she didn't know exactly how yet.
"I said get out. You have five minutes to get anything you may need, though I don't really care since you're just going to be a dyke either way." He sounded calm, even disinterested. Like he didn't care, but Piper could hear the hate in his voice.
She decided to to as she was told, and shoved a few outfits, her phone charger, and all the money she currently had into her backpack, with her phone safely in her back pocket.
She was on the verge of tears, but didn't yet let them out, promising herself that she would revisit this, possibly when her parents were less intoxicated and more rational, but that didn't stop the hurt and almost guilt that flowed through her veins and settled in her stomach when she kissed the top of her younger brothers head, saying "goodbye, I love you" and not really knowing when she would see him again or what he would think of her when she did. He was only currently 10, and still very impressionable.
She didn't meet her older brothers eyes as she walked out the door, but he was watching with a concerned look covering his face, but even though he was nineteen, he didn't stand up against his parents, even to stand up for his younger sister.
Piper made the long walk to Alex's apartment, a walk that she made often, but this time it felt different.
It felt like this was the last time she would ever greet her elderly neighbor on the porch, who seemed to always be out there with a cigarette lit between her fingers.
It felt like the last time she would say hello to the dog in the fence, the one she always had a treat for. But not today, considering her current situation.
She knew it wouldn't be the last time that she ran up the stairs to knock on Alex's door. She can remember her saying "error 404, apartment not found" to help her remember the number. She smiled at that, a smile that contrasted the sad tears that raced down her face. She smiled at the thought of Alex, and she felt comfort in knowing she would see the brunette in just a short amount of time.
She felt not only comfort, but relief when the door swung open to reveal her smiling girlfriend, who looked just as beautiful as the first time she saw her, even though concern is clear on her face.
Alex noticed the tears on her face and immediately took her into an embrace, asking if she was okay and if she needed somewhere to stay. Piper just returned the warm hug, and smiled into her shoulder.
This silence, however, was not awkward and unwanted. This silence let Alex know that everything was okay, because she was here now, and she wasn't taken away and she wasn't forbidden to see her.
Everything was just as it was supposed to be.
End.?
Idk how this turned out lol I just wrote it in fourth period in the time constraints of two hours after a huge fsa test. If you want more? Like I can't promise anything but I do have fourth period every other day and maybe something will happen in the motivation department if you ask.
I might end up cleaning this up some/adding more detail if I have time or motivation. But this is it for right now