Chapter 3: Gifs

By the end of the summer, Piper and her girlfriend had broken up. Things were amicable between the two. Her girlfriend was given time to find a place to live and Piper helped her move her things out of her place. With the new semester right around the corner, and their schedules aligning again, Alex decided that she would start trying to get closer to Piper. This was their last year in college. This was her last chance. She had to know where she stood and if Piper felt anything for her.

During the fall break, Alex sat next to Piper in the classes that they had together. Piper never made a move to sit with anyone else, so Alex took this as a good sign. They had also become friends, so this could be taken as a benign gesture as well. Piper had a confidence about her that Alex was drawn to. Now that she was single, so many of Piper's actions could be taken as flirtation. Alex was guarded to this thinking, but sometimes it was hard to overlook.

"Hey." Whispered Piper.

Alex's thought bubble popped and realized she was day dreaming about Piper again instead of paying attention in class.

"Yeah?"

"Look." Piper slightly turned her computer screen to show Alex the comic n her screen. Alex quickly read the meme on the 15" display and smiled due to the humor. In Alex's peripherial, she could see Piper looking at her and smiling. She has noticed more and more that Piper looks her direction a few seconds longer than typical friends do. Is it possible she's interested?

Piper turned the screen back around. She wasn't paying attention to what the professor was talking about. Something about UNIX and commands. She could study it later. Right now she was sitting next to Alex and she would find more things that brought that amazing smile back to Alex's face. She loved that smile. Loved? No. She thought that her friend had a nice smile. Her friend was straight, right?

"Hey, have you had lunch?" Alex asked Piper after class.

Piper had already eaten her daily protein bar that she had every day for breakfast and lunch, but she would NOT pass up the opportunity to spend more time with this beauty.

"Not really." Piper stated simply.

"I was going to grab some Panda Express down in the Student Center. Did you want to join?"

Piper mustered with every bit of restraint that she possibly could to avoid a "YES!" accompanied with the fist pump and responded as coolly as she could. "Sure. Sounds good."

This lunch after class became a daily thing. The place changed, but the company didn't. Every day after class the two had lunch with laughs and talk of class. Sometimes one would by the other's meal, with a weak fight, but promise to "get the next one" since they both knew that there would always be a "next one."

"Guess what?" Alex randomly asks Piper as they are walking back to class after one of their afternoon lunches.

"What?"

"Tree!" Alex laughs as she shoulder plows into Piper bumping her closer to the tree they are passing by. Both girls laugh as Piper pushes Alex playfully back once she gains her balance back.

Walking to and from class or lunch, Alex and Piper would walk closer and closer. Almost touching, but not actually making physical contact.

Piper was bubbling over with excitement about this new relationship with her best friend, but she didn't have anyone to tell since her friends were guys and friends of her ex. She kept it to herself, but at the same time, she wanted someone to know, so she started letting hints drop to Alex herself. The medium of hints: gifs.

Alex and Piper would have entire conversations via gifs when they were texting. Most of the time they were gifs from their favorite show, which had lesbians in it, so hints were easier to drop. Piper would send gif that involved the couple of the show to Alex. Soon Alex would reciprocate with similar gifs. Not clear evidence that Alex showed interest, but it was enough to know that Alex was not homophobic in the slightest. She now knew that Piper was hitting on her and she wasn't running as far away as she could. So, Piper kept doing it. Little more each day. Sometimes Alex would leave a giant question mark for Piper to go mad over.

Piper couldn't get clear enough hints from Alex, so she wanted to try to reach her with something else that could be taken as friendly. Time to bring out the Smarties. Smarties are small candies that Piper likes to snack on when she's coding so when they would be working on particularly hard program together, she would bring out a pack of smarties and offer to share them.

"Smarties?" Piper offered.

"Dude! I love smarties!" Alex's eyes got wide with a smile almost as bright.

"Wanna split with me?"

"Sure!"

Alex and Piper shared that pack of smarties. After that day, Piper made damn sure to grab a pack before leaving the house every morning – just to share them with Alex. Eventually, she brought two packs so that she would either just give the pack to Alex, or they could share more than 1.

"Hey, last one." Alex hands her pack to Piper.

"So?" Piper was confused a pack of Smarties with a single Smartie left.

"I don't eat the last one." Piper thought back. She couldn't recall a single pack where Alex did, in fact, eat the last Smartie. "The last one is always for you."

Piper smiled and ate the last one. Apparently, Alex knew the tradition as well as Piper did and remembered each occasion as well. That had to be a good sign, right?

"Ugh! I cannot figure out why my code isn't running!" Piper exclaimed in extreme frustration. Once again they were in the basement library in a study room where it was just the two of them surrounded in computers and the sexual tension that seems to follow them wherever they went.

"Here, let me look." Alex rolled her chair the foot over to Piper's computer to look at her screen. Piper leaned back in her seat as her mouth went dry at the close proximity. She could smell the aroma of Alex's shampoo, or was that her deodorant? She didn't care. It smelled great. The fact that she was close enough to smell Alex was enough to drive her wild. Piper knew that she was supposed to be looking at the screen, debugging her code too, but instead, she was looking at Alex's outstretched neck. Man, she had a sexy neck. Piper had to do everything in her power not to lean over and start kissing her neck, up to her jaw line… and her mouth…

"Dude, you left out a semi colon." Alex's statement about made Piper jump out of her skin.

"What?!"

"A semi colon. Right here." Alex laughs as she points to a line on the screen.

Piper looks and sure enough, there is a missing semi colon throwing a wrench in her entire program.

"Gotta watch them semi colons. They'll get you every time." Alex said with her sly smile that killed Piper every time.

"Yeah?" Piper said as she threw a punch into Alex's arm. This kind of physical contact was the only kind that the two allowed; the playful punching or pushing. Alex rolled her chair back to her computer.

"Fuck you." Alex said laughing.

"Okay." Piper laughed back. Alex didn't reply. Piper noticed this and decided to push a little bit for some more clarification.

"See, this is when you say 'No thanks', or 'not my type'. Something of the sort."

"Oh, yeah?" Alex glanced over her shoulder at Piper then back at her computer screen. "I'll keep that in mind."