CHAPTER TWO
Alex rushed through the traffic on her cheap run-down motorbike a gift,or more like a payment, from her new boss. Working at the diner had it's advantages, and a handsy boss just so happened to be one of them so when he got more than a little flirty one day Alex threatened him with a sexual harassment lawsuit if he didn't leave her a nice lump sum in her next paycheck. Needless to say he couldn't pay so Alex made him a second offer, give me your bike or I will ruin your life. He went with the first option. The second was the late shifts, the diner was usually fairly empty with just a few people filtering in for a late night coffee, which meant Nicky could come and hang with her at work. Lucky for Alex her boss wasn't in today otherwise she probably would have been fired for being over an hour late even though the diner was all the way across town.
Back at the apartment Piper was picking up toys from the bedroom floor. "You have a lot of toys don't you?" Piper gestured towards the overflowing toy box.
"Yeah, but my favourite toy is in Alex's room, she only lets me play with it in there, she likes to make sure I don't break it because it is her favourite toy too." Elizabeth replied walking over to the bookcase.
Piper laughed. "So do you and our sister get along then?" the blonde enquired standing and approaching the bed as the young brunette dived in.
"Yeah, we play games all the time" Elizabeth passed Piper her book and wriggled her way under her covers.
"I love ." She stated as she began to read. "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish."
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At the diner work was slow for Alex, Nicky had just arrived and was leaning over the bar helping herself to soda.
"You best not do when my boss is in" Alex scolded as she stood behind Nicky.
"Shit Vause, warn a bitch next time eh?" Nicky visibly jumped making Alex laugh.
"For that you can dry some dishes" The tall brunette threw a red checkered towel in Nicky's direction, everything about the diner was cliche, right down to the barely there outfits that they wore, the only thing missing was a pair of roller skates. Alex's uniform consisted of a tight white crop top emblazened with the diner's name 'Neptune's' and bright red daisy dukes with whit sport socks and black Chuck Taylor's. Everything about the diner screamed typical American stereotype down to the milkshakes and cherry pie to the vinyl records that plastered the walls. The brunette regularly felt sickened by the whole situation from her uniform to her boss but she didn't have the heart to leave the job, she needed this, her mum needed this and most of all Elizabeth needed this. She wanted to give Elizabeth the money she never had growing up, she wanted to buy her new sheets for her bed and new shoes so she wouldn't face the bullying Alex had at school.
God knows Alex hated the bullying but fuck if it wasn't a character builder, she was stronger now than ever, even if strength came with a steel cage around her heart and ten foot brick walls surrounding the rest of her. She wanted different for Elizabeth even though what she had in her childhood was just fine, Alex wanted more than just fine for Elizabeth, she wanted perfect.
"Eh, Vause, what you thinking about? You've been staring at that wall for nearly ten minutes now, you waiting for someone?"
The tall brunette just shrugged and tightened her ponytail "No, just keep drying, kid."
"Done." The crazy-haired girl threw her towel back at Alex which was now considerably damp.
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Piper smiled as she closed the book rubbing her thumb across the young girl's forehead before walking over to place the book on the bookshelf. "Night" Piper whispered before turning off the light and retiring to the living room. "God knows how that kid falls asleep with the light on" Piper thought to herself. It was obvious that this was a family poor in money but rich in love and obviously a lamp or a six year old was not at the top of their 'to buy' list.
She slumped onto the sofa and looked at the clock before turning on the TV, 7:15, not bad timing at all considering it took her nearly an hour to get Cal to sleep at home when her parents weren't home, which was almost every night. Piper was thankful that Danny was now old enough to take care of him so she could earn some money.
Thinking of money the blonde decided that this family needed it more than Piper did. There was no way this family could afford to pay Piper what she was asking for, plus she enjoyed it. "I'll give them the first time free" she thought to herself, "from here on in, I will charge less."
After an hour of mindlessly flicking channels Piper found herself drifting in and out of sleep only to be awoken by Diane bursting through the doors at eleven with one brown paper bag in each arm.
"I finally made it home, I'm sorry Piper, I got caught up at work, I'll pay you the extra hour I promise" Diane seemed flustered as she began emptying the brown bags into the cupboards and fridge, banging the tins loudly as she stacked them.
The blonde jumped up from her seat on the couch and rubbed her eyes as she attempted to fix her gaze upon the clock. "Oh no, don't worry about it." Piper yawned. "Tonight was on me, consider it a probation period" she said sleep evident in her voice as she walked over to the kitchen taking a seat on the same bar stool type chair that Elizabeth had sat on earlier that night. "Oh and in future, I will only be charging five dollars an hour instead of the original ten I was asking for." Diane shook her head.
"Don't be silly girl, you've got to eat." Diane rifled through her purse still evidently flustered and panting slightly from what Piper can only assume is the six flight stair climb to the apartment.
Piper placed her hand upon Diane's as it fumbled through the purse. "I don't need the money Ms. Vause this job is just something to get me out of the house, it's just an escape. Your daughter is a credit to you and she speaks very highly of you, not so highly about Alex though I'm afraid, although she definitely does love her too." The blonde let out a sleepy laugh as Diane lowered her purse to the counter top and stopped fumbling.
"Thanks Piper but please call me Diane, I'll ring or text you next time I need you, what with shift changes and all."
Piper smiled "I'm flexible so just give me at least an hours notice and I will be here don't you worry" Taking that as her cue to leave she headed for the door.
"Oh and Piper, Thank you so much for tonight, you are a credit to your parents too ya know"
The blonde turned around and flashed Diane a half-hearted grin "Remember to tell my parents that if you ever have the misfortune of meeting them" she quipped before turning on her heels and heading through the door.
Diane furrowed her brow at that comment and looked at the clock, twenty past eleven. Alex would be home in less than an hour. As she screwed up the brown paper bags and dropped them into the bin she smiled to herself "What a kind young girl Piper is" she thought and with that she headed to Elizabeth's room. Upon opening the room Diane was expecting to be greeted with the familiar plastic minefield but was extremely shocked to find a spotless floor. Never before had Diane been able to walk from the doorway to Elizabeth's bedside to give her kiss without stepping on or breaking at least two toys. "Piper Chapman is a miracle worker" She thought to herself as she placed a kiss on Elizabeth's forehead.
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Alex ushered Nicky out of the diner as she flipped the light switch and pulled the door closed. Locking up was one of Alex's job descriptions and yet she hated it, it meant that she was always the last one out and when she wanted to rush home and apologise to her mum for being so stroppy earlier on in the night it was a hinderance.
"Bye, kid" Alex waved Nicky off as she began walking down the street. The diner was in a much nicer part of town than Alex lived in and lucky for Nicky she only lived round the corner.
The dark-haired girl took out her bobble, let her hair feel the breeze for a moment and then stuck her helmet on. There was nothing better than riding through the city in the darkness on her bike, just her and the open road for a few miles. She smiled under her helmet as she kick-started the engine to life and wheelspun it out of the car park. Nicky rolled her eyes as she heard the familiar squeal of the bikes tyres. "Show off" she thought to herself as she disappeared around the corner.
Alex adored everything that came with owning a bike. The recognition from other bikers was incredible even if her bike was shitty and run down. Her favourite thing by far was her leathers, she threw them on over her uniform and was always pleasantly greeted by the smell of leather and the promise of cold knees. That was the only problem, she needed knew ones, the leather all-in-one she currently owned was secondhand and wearing thin at the knees, presumably from some previous accident the other owner had.
As she stepped through the doors of the apartment slightly out of breath, the raven-haired girl was pleased to be greeted by her mother who gestured towards the sofa and then towards a cold beer on the coffee table, Alex immediately knew her mum was in a good mood. She approached the sofa slowly taking her leathers off as she walked, eventually throwing them off and over the back of the sofa. "Listen mum, about earlier..." She began as she slumped down onto the sofa just as Piper had done hours ago.
"Forgive and forget, kid" Diane smiled and Alex was pleased to see that it was one of her favourite smiles, one that touched her eyes. "Guess who got a pay rise today." The raven-haired beauty thought her mum's smile couldn't get any bigger but it did. Simultaneously, the pair reached for their beers off of the coffee table and stretched them slightly above their heads before clinking the rims together "Cheers" they both began before they were interrupted by Alex's beer frothing over. The pair giggled like schoolgirls and Alex licked the bottle relishing in the relief that the cool condensation gave. "So let me tell you about the new babysitter..." Diane began, starting the conversation that would span most of the night.
A/N: sorry for any spelling mistakes, I don't have a spell checker and the keys on my laptop don't always work as well as they should. I wanted to get this chapter up as soon as I could, Piper and Alex will meet in the next chapter I promise. Thank you for the reviews. Keep them coming.