Alex stared at herself in the full length mirror that hung on Nicky's bedroom wall. She wasn't sure why she felt like she needed to look perfect tonight but she just did. She tried to shake the thoughts from her head so that she could relax and almost groaned when the thoughts were replaced with the images of the girl again. As she thought of her, she rubbed the scar on her stomach subconsciously; as she always did when the blonde beauty came to mind.

"Stop fantasizing about your girlfriend, Vause." Nicky commented from her position on the bed.

Alex dropped her hand immediately, blinking a few times as she came back to the present. She grinned at Nicky's reflection in the mirror, "Please tell me that Norma is coming tonight."

Nicky arched an eyebrow at her friend and laughed. "Vause, Norma is as straight as a ruler; no way are you getting into her pants tonight."

Alex raised her own brow, intrigued at the sound of a challenge. She thought of Norma, the pretty red head who was dating some 3-brain celled football player and chuckled. "You mean she's as straight as pasta; won't be so straight once she gets wet." Alex winked.

Nicky laughed again and shook her head, returning her attention to painting her toenails. Alex stood in front of the mirror for a few more minutes before she moved over towards the large window that occupied most of the far wall of Nicky's bedroom. Alex looked out, she was met with an almost perfect view of the sunset over suburban London. She tapped her fingers in a slow rhythm on the glass and allowed her mind to return back to the blonde, forgetting the prospect of turning Norma to the darkside. Alex had never been this hung up on a girl before, or ever for that matter. Even so, she was curious about this power that this girl; whom she had never properly met, had over her. Alex still wasn't even sure if she had actually seen her or if her brain had just shown her the image in some ways to grant her a somewhat decent death. She scoffed internally, there was no way her brain could come up with someone so perfect. Alex tended to go for the more grotty looking girls, ones with good standards but also had the rebellious-take no shit kind of look about them. They always put up a fight and the chase was Alex's favourite part. Alex's attention was drawn out of her thoughts and down to the garden where Nicky was now lighting the bonfire, there was the quiet murmur of voices below, muffled by both distance and the glass, as the first few people arrived and Alex sighed, heading out of Nicky's safe, warm and quiet room and into the impending chaos below.

Alex staggered towards the makeshift seating area around the bonfire and sat down on the nearest crate to her. The party had gotten into full swing about half an hour after the planned starting time and it had only taken Alex an hour to get drunk. She would have paced herself normally, revelling in the knowledge that actually being able to remember a party often made it better but after being turned down multiple times by Norma and then turned down by a few other very-lesbian girls she had thrown all caution to the wind and necked every alcoholic beverage that she could get her hands on. She stared into the bright, yellowy-orange flames of the large fire, cradling a beer between her hands and allowed herself to sober just a little. She gazed around the large garden and smiled, Nicky's parties were legendary at school. Everyone and their neighbour turned up for them and they liked her parties so much that they didn't make that much of a mess for fear of not being invited to one again. Alex wasn't sure how, but Nicky always managed to supply her parties with a neverending source of alcohol, weed and food. Alex presumed it was thanks to her mom's credit card. She took a long swig of her beer and smiled at a random boy who passed her a spliff as he walked passed. She put it in her pocket for later. She caught sight of Nicky who had her arm around some blonde chick, who was actually taller than Nicky. Alex chuckled, it wasn't that hard to find someone taller than Nicky. She sat there, watching Nicky chat to the blonde with curiosity, it had been a while since Nicky had tried to pull a girl - she was normally so concentrated and focused on trying to get back into Lorna's pants that she barely even glanced at other girls. Maybe she was drunk or high; or maybe both, Alex mused. She took another drink from her beer and was about to turn away from Nicky when the blonde laughed and looked back at the fire. Alex stopped dead in her tracks, beer bottle hanging suspended in the air and her mouth half open. She stared wide-eyed at the blonde girl, not really believing what she was seeing. She was drunk, after all. Still though - Nicky had her arm around the blonde still meaning that she was real enough. Suddenly Alex felt a fiery bout of jealousy rumble up from her stomach, Nicky had her arm around Alex's angel. Alex stood up quickly, swaying a little from the head rush, and walked; or rather stumbled, towards Nicky. She took a deep breath, put on her best smile and said, "Hey."

Nicky turned around at the sound of Alex's voice, dragging the pretty blonde with her and grinned at Alex. "Hey Vause, this is Piper Chapman."

The blonde, who Alex now learned to be called Piper, stared at Alex much the same way Alex had stared at Piper the first time. "H..hey.." She mumbled after a moment. "Good to see you're doing okay."

Nicky frowned and looked confused, "You two know each other?" She asked.

Alex glanced at Nicky for a moment but her eyes quickly trailed back to Piper, almost afraid to blink for the fear she would vanish into a puff of smoke if she even looked away for another second. "Something like that." Alex mumbled in answer, a slow grin falling onto her face.


3 hours earlier

Piper Chapman was not an overly popular girl. If anything, she was average. She did what she was told, always handed in her homework on time and stuck to the strict rule that boys were not her problem until she had finished her GCSEs in the summer of next year. This made for a rather unexciting and extremely average outer appearance, one that Piper held very close to her heart. Of course, Piper received a lot of attention from the boys at her school; she was outrageously pretty. Piper turned down most advances that they made to her, her excuses always being that she was focusing on schoolwork or she didn't want to be in a relationship, Piper had only ever given one boy the chance to date her. Larry Bloom. Larry was only a few months older than her at 16 and he wasn't the typical boy that you would expect to see with Piper. Piper who fitted what one would consider a very popular, smart and lively looking appearance. Larry was exceptionally ordinary and also underachieving. When asked, he would describe himself as the typical jewish boy with no strive for the future other than riding on the back of his mother and father's penny. This was exactly the way he had described himself to Piper upon their first conversation and it was the exact reason that Piper had allowed him to take her on a date. Said date, however, was not what Piper had hoped it would be. She was texting Larry to confirm details of the date when he had let it slip that he was actually taking her to a party that his best friend, Pete, had invited him to. Piper sighed and collapsed onto her bed, so much for a free dinner and movie. She texted back the obligatory 'okays' and 'see you soons' before calling her own best friend, Polly.

"PIPER!" Polly exclaimed down the phone not a second after the first ring.

Piper laughed, "Hey Polls."

"You're going on a date!" She squealed.

Piper sighed and rolled her eyes at Polly who was ever telling Piper that she should accept more of the offers that she got from boys. Boys were stupid and immature and only wanted to get their dicks wet, Piper always countered. An argument that was solid. "I don't think I can call it a date anymore." Piper replied dully.

"What? Why?" Polly asked, her tone changing to sad and concerned almost immediately.

"He's taking me to a fucking party, Polly. Jesus christ, whatever happened to chivalry?" Piper complained.

"A party?" Polly paused for a moment, clearly thinking. "Well it could be worse. At least he isn't taking you to the park so you can sit on the swings and swap childhood stories."

Piper laughed, recalling the story of one of Polly's dates that had actually gone that way. "I suppose." She sighed loudly again. "Hey, do you want to come too?" She asked after a moment hopefully.

"Hell yeah. Oh! Is Pete going to be there?"

Piper rolled her eyes. "Yes, of course he is. Since when does Larry go anywhere at all without Pete?"

"Shut up Piper, I wouldn't want to go anywhere without Pete either." Polly gushed.

"Hmm, well I'll get the address off Larry and text it to you. I better go and get ready, I'll see you later Poll."

"See you later Pipes, love you!" Polly sung happily before hanging up.

Piper smiled and asked Larry for the address so she could send it to Polly and her mouth opened into a surprised 'o' shape when she got it. She easily recognised it to be in the richest area of their small suburb in London, Piper's family were well off but the address this party was at was in a place where only celebrities and millionaires lived. Whoever was hosting this party sure was someone big. Someone Piper didn't know, clearly. She forwarded the text to Polly who responded with the expected 'omg' and 'wtf?!' before standing up to take a shower and get dressed.

Another hour passed and Piper only had 20 minutes left until Larry would be there to pick her up. She sighed and rubbed her forehead, being careful not to disturb the light layer of makeup that she had decorated her face with. She stared into her wardrobe, 25% of her clothes already strewn out on the floor around her as she tried to decide what to wear. Now she knew where the party was actually going to be she didn't know what to wear and she felt stupid for not asking for some kind of dress code. She checked the time again, 15 minutes left and Piper hadn't done her hair yet.

"Shit.." She muttered to herself, deciding that she would just have to pray that there wasn't a dress code to the party she was soon going to be at. She tugged on a pair of blue denim shorts that stopped midway up her thighs and then pulled on a plain white t-shirt and a checkered red flannel shirt over that. She rolled up the sleeves on the oversized shirt before looking in the mirror again and smiling, the short showing off her athletic lower figure and her toned legs from all of her running. She hoped once again that she wasn't expected to dress up fancy for the party as she just had time to brush out her hair which had settled into natural waves and apply a paint of light lipgloss and mascara. The doorbell rang and Piper yelled that she would get it to save the embarrassment that she and Larry would both feel if her mum were to open the door. She jogged down the stairs, making sure that she had already grabbed her phone, some money and her house keys, and opened the door to see a smiling Larry.

"Hey." She chimed, appraising him. He didn't look too bad, she had to admit. He was dressed in clean pressed blue jeans, a grey t-shirt and a short pea coat.

"Hey." Larry said simply in reply as Piper moved to the left to grab her white converse off of the shoe rack. She shoved her feet into them and yelled out a goodbye to her mum before rushing out of the door and closing it behind her.

"Let's go!" She said, feeling a little more excited now.

"Sure."

Larry led Piper down her large driveway and towards the road where a variety of cars where parked that Piper knew very well did not belong to Larry. Eventually he stopped at a bright blue moped and looked at Piper expectantly before handing her a helmet. Piper looked at him incredulously. "Are you serious?" She asked slowly at the realisation sunk in that Larry actually expected her to put the helmet on her head and get on the moped.

"What? What's wrong with it?" He asked defensively.

Piper laughed, "Well, for starters, I cannot put that helmet and take it off without the possibility of ruining my hair or makeup or both. Secondly, I do not want to die in a bike accident and thirdly, unless you plan on staying sober all night I think you should call a taxi."

Larry sighed but must have realised Piper was right about one or all of those things because he took out his phone and dialled the number for the nearest taxi service. They only waited about five minutes for the taxi to arrive and it was only another ten minutes of quiet small talk in the back of said taxi before they arrived at the party. The sun had set quickly whilst they were in the taxi and it was dark outside now but the night was still warm enough for Piper to not feel too much of a difference in temperature once she had stepped out of the car. She walked towards a large yellow light that was being emitted from the back of the house and followed the sound of the music until she came to an open side gate that led into the garden of the large and very expensive looking house. As soon as she entered the garden she was immersed into the parties atmosphere and she reveled in it like she had been there for hours. A slow smile slowly graced her face and she picked up a cold beer from one of the various coolers that were spread around the area. In the centre of the garden there was a large bonfire that would challenge any seasoned Guy Fawkes celebrator and she gravitated towards it almost instinctively, craving the hot and dangerous warmth that it dealt. She stood there for five minutes, forgetting about Larry completely until he came up behind her and handed her a fresh bottle of beer to replace her now empty one. He smiled at her.

"You having a good time?" He asked.

Piper nodded and took a long drink.

"Listen, I know this was meant to be a date but if you don't mind... I wanted to ask if we could forget about that tonight and just enjoy ourselves however we want?"

Piper almost rolled her eyes, she wasn't surprised or hurt at the suggestion. She was almost glad of it. She knew that Larry would want to mingle and take advantage of drunk girls and she didn't care, as long as she could drink and sit by the fire all night as she people watched. She shrugged, "Sure. I don't mind." She replied casually to Larry before walking to the other side of the fire where she saw people pulling empty beer crates to create seats. She looked around and saw Polly eating Pete's face, she laughed knowing that she would never hear the end of how Polly had finally caught her long sought after conquest.

"What are you laughing at?" A voice asked from behind her, making her jump. Piper turned to see a bushy haired girl standing behind her, smirking.

"My friend eating that boy's face off." Piper replied, gesturing with a nod of her head in Polly's direction.

The bushy haired girl laughed on seeing them and then made a face at Piper. "Gross." She seemed to look Piper up and down for a moment before taking a step closer. "So, you enjoying my party?"

Piper couldn't contain her surprise that the bushy haired girl was the one who had arranged this party. "Wait, this is your party? Oh wow... Yeah, this is amazing. Like really. Best party I've ever been too.."

The girl laughed and nodded, seemingly ignoring Piper's surprise. "Glad to hear it, my name's Nicky by the way."

"Piper." She replied, nodding her own head.

Piper and Nicky talked for a while, they didn't have much in common but that started to matter less and less as Piper drank more and more, her original intentions of people watching all night were almost all but forgotten. Nicky, she found, was very funny. In a kind of vulgar and slightly annoying way. She also discovered that she was very much a lesbian and that her mother was away from home nearly everyday of the year, the only exceptions being Nicky's birthday, Christmas and mother's day. Piper thought for a moment that Nicky was quite lucky, Piper's mother was rather overbearing and pushy. At some point, Piper wasn't exactly sure when, Nicky had slid her arm casually over Piper's shoulders and had one hand toying with a strand of her hair. The thoughts that this notion induced were strange, Piper had never considered her own sexuality, any talk of differing sexualities in her house had been strictly forbidden and as far as her mother saw it, everyone in her family was as straight as a piece of scaffolding. Still though, Piper couldn't help but wonder about herself. Maybe she had been kidding herself all these years about why she had turned down nearly every boy who had approached her. No, she thought. I like boys, hot boys. She thought back to the day in the alley way, the alcohol bringing down the mental wall she had put up against that day without any effort and her mind floated to the girl she had found. She remembered thinking straight away that the girl was drop dead gorgeous and well, very sexy. That is until she saw her collapse onto the ground and the knife that lay bloodied and red just behind her. Piper heard Nicky make a joke and laughed, not allowing herself to be caught in a daze and looked toward the fire as she did so. Willing the fire to burn the memory of everything she had seen in the alleyway that day. Piper was grateful at the distraction that seemed to present itself to Nicky when a new, husky, voice said 'hey' behind them. She was about to sigh in relief that she would only have to pay attention a little bit until she saw the face she had just been thinking about and her mind went blank. Her body froze and her eyes widened. It was all she could do to stop her mouth from dropping open too. She stood as still as a statue as Nicky introduced them and then realised that she was expected to say something.

"H...hey.." She stammered, still in shock. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Good to see you're doing okay." She said before she realised the words had come out of her mouth. She had no idea if this girl even remembered her, or what had happened that night. She wanted to hit herself in the head for being so stupid and forward.

"You two know each other?" Nicky asked, confusion clear in her voice.

"Something like that." The dark haired girl mumbled, a slow smirk appearing on perfect features.

Piper stared at the girl standing opposite her as she talked to Nicky. She noted that the dark haired girl didn't take her eyes off of her for long, each time Piper locked eyes with her the green eyes behind the thick-rimmed glasses seemed to burn with more intensity than the fire behind them. There was a strange knotting feeling creeping up Piper's spine and her hands grew clammy. She wriggled out from under Nicky's arm and walked away from the two girls to go and get another beer, she needed to be able to think straight. She downed half of the sour liquid straight away and took a long, deep breath. Her eyes wandered back to the dark haired girl, had Nicky introduced her as Vause? Piper frowned. She certainly looked better than the last time she had seen her, where she had been delirious and clearly almost out of her mind. She was dressed simply but still managed to look ridiculously attractive in ripped back skinny jeans that hugged her long legs and a loose fitting black t-shirt that still managed to show off her curves and the leather jacket that she donned on top. Piper was so lost in checking out the girl that she hadn't noticed the fact that Polly had finally found her and was trying to talk to her.

"Christ Piper, are you even listening?" Polly fumed.

Piper shook her head and looked somewhat distractedly at Polly. "Oh, hey."

Polly rolled her eyes and followed Piper's gaze. "Who are you looking at?" She asked curiously.

"No one." Piper responded a little too quickly, earning a suspicious look from her best friend.


Alex looked towards Piper again, chewing on the inside of her cheek. She wanted nothing more than to go up to her after she'd walked away but Nicky was rambling on about Lorna again and Alex knew if she left it would only get worse once the party had died down so she waited for Nicky to stop talking. When Nicky didn't stop talking Alex looked around and spotted Lorna herself. She held up a finger, telling Nicky to wait and ran towards Lorna. She grabbed the short brunette by the arm and dragged her towards Nicky. "Just fucking tell her, Nichols." Alex grumbled, letting go of Lorna and looking around to try and see where Piper had gone. When she spotted her walking towards the gate, assumedly to leave, Alex all but sprinted towards her. "Piper, hey!" She yelled, trying to get the blonde's attention. She couldn't let her slip away again without getting to have at least a conversation with her. Piper turned, surprised for a moment and then the wide-eyed innocent look set in again once they locked eyes. Alex grinned at her, and beckoned for the blonde to come over to her. Piper obeyed.

"We didn't get to have a conversation before.. you ran away." Alex accused, teasingly.

Piper smiled and shrugged. "Well, I never got a proper introduction."

Alex raised a brow and extended her hand. "Alex Vause, pleasure to finally meet you."

Piper shook her hand, her pale fingers lingering a moment longer than necessary. Something Alex noted dutifully. "Good to put a name to a face." Piper replied.

"So tell me, Piper, how did you end up here?" Alex gestured to the party around her.

Piper sighed and rolled her eyes, "I was supposed to go on a date with this guy from my school and he took me here instead and then asked if we could forget that this was a date. Presumably so that he could get it in with some drunk girl with no standards whatsoever."

Alex laughed, "You don't sound that upset about it." She commented.

"No, I guess I'm not as upset as I should be." Piper smiled, grabbing yet another beer and downing it all in one.

Alex grinned and raised both her brows, a little shocked. "Big drinker, huh? Fancy a little competition?"

Piper giggled adorably. "Are you trying to get me drunk?" She slurred slightly, the sudden intake of alcohol affecting her straight away.

Alex shook her head. "By the sounds of it, you already are."

"Know it all." Piper grumbled, grinning.

Alex stayed quiet for a moment, taking a sip of her own drink. "So tell me, why aren't you upset about getting ditched by your date?" She asked.

Piper shrugged and didn't say anything for a while. "I don't know. At first I thought it was because I don't really like him but then I thought it might be because I don't like guys, you know?" Piper asked in the kind of confidence one would talk in when you are drunk. "I mean, I'm not sure because I've never..been.. with a girl." She giggled as if the thought of it was extremely rebellious and the sound made Alex smile.

"Would you like to find out?" Alex asked, the alcohol in her own system only boosting the ever present confidence she held.

Piper looked at her, her blue eyes smouldering in the dimming light of the fire. She took a step closer to Alex but stumbled and started to fall forwards, Alex held out her arms to steady the blonde and laughed quietly. Now that Piper was in her arms she felt nervous, the confidence she had felt only a second ago seemed to have jumped out of the window. She swallowed hard and looked at Piper intently. Piper cast a long look down to Alex's lips, her long eyelashes fluttering. Alex leaned down towards Piper's lips, almost touching them when someone seemed to rip Piper from her arms.

"What the fuck!" She shouted as she saw Piper being dragged away by Nicky and another girl. Nicky gave her a warning look and Alex knew better than to follow. She cursed and kicked at a bottle that lay near her foot. She had been so close but she was still so far. She finished her drink and then tossed the glass into the fire angrily. Alex's night had certainly not gone as planned.


Author's Note:

Thanks for the reviews you guys left on the last chapter, made me want to write more to this story! I decided to have them live in England simply because they are still school age and I know nothing about what school is like in the US and also because it will be easier for me to write about the surroundings, having never been to the US I wouldn't feel able to write any kind of accurate descriptions of the areas. Aside from that, I'm more or less going to keep things semi-canon as far as personalities and relationships between characters go. Please let me know what you think of this chapter, the more reviews I get the more inspired I am to write for this! And, of course, thanks for reading :D