Let's just pretend I haven't just been away from this story for nearly two years. To that one person reading: here you go!
"Fuck me," is all the young brunette heard coming from the figure in front of her, covered in coffee.
The woman's face is covered by her jet black hair as she looks down attempting to pull her soaked shirt away from her skin. She began to raise her head, becoming more visible to the teen. Liz's eyes widened at the taller woman's contorted face as it shifted back and forth between anger and pain.
"This shit can't be happening to me," she thinks as her mind races a mile a minute thinking of how to ease the visibly tense woman.
"Shit! I am so sorry. I- I wasn't paying attention...the coffee took forever...I was running late...I rushed...she's going to be pissed. I should-" the young girl was quickly interrupted by the anger induced words of her casualty.
"Maybe, if you learned to be on time and fucking paid attention to what you were doing, this wouldn't be happening!" Her voice was husky. It was rough, impacting Liz with a sudden sense of fear.
She had moved from horrendous foster homes throughout her early years. Her clumsiness had only left her with bruises and the occasional scars- both from the incidents and the not so happy foster parents whose patience always fell short, making her an easy target. She was stunned where she stood, awaiting the retaliation of the woman in front of her.
At this time the older woman's green eyes met blue and it stopped her from continuing her rage. Her eyes seemed so innocent, stirring within her a sense of familiarity at the scene. The sunken bottom lip that accompanied the girl did the woman in. Regret began to sink in and it was time to right her wrong.
"Look," she said, her voice sounding less husky as her tone changed, "It's okay kid. Stop rambling and looking like Bambi before I get a heart murmur." She flashed Liz a smile as she shook the droplets of coffee off of her leather jacket.
The blue eyed girl couldn't help but feel the tension dispel, the longer she stared into the warm green orbs. She couldn't help wince in pain as the cool air contrasted with the heat of her skin. The raven haired woman gestured for her to follow as they walked through the coffee shop and down a narrow corridor. The woman hit her back on the door and pushed back swinging the restroom door open with enough space for Liz to slide into.
"You really did a number on us!" The taller woman wrung her own shirt and motioned Liz to do the same with hers. They stood in silence for a while, attempting to improve the condition of their shirts, using the hand dryer to dry up the rest. All Liz mustered was a faint, "mmhmm" with an apologetic look adorning her face.
Suddenly, as they near the end of their task and the teen heard the husky laugh. "I'm pretty sure I have third degree burns all over my stomach." The woman now shaking her head in disbelief.
"Well, it could've been worse." The girl offered, cracking a small smile from the right corner of her lips.
The older woman narrowed her eyes, "Oh. How so?"
Liz isn't sure she should've made the comment, but she realized too late and the words have vacated her mouth, "Umm, I could have spilled a cup of...of acid." Her voice ended in a shaky whisper as she stammered through her statement.
The older brunette stopped a moment to turn and face the girl. She was completely baffled by the comment and doesn't speak for what seems like an eternity. "Sorry. I don't know what the fuck is wrong with me sometimes." Liz brings her hands to run through her thick black locks.
The woman let out a booming laugh while pointing at Liz. "Maybe you have Turrets. You need to get that checked out, or maybe not because it's pretty fucking amusing!" She laugh at the teen while shaking her head.
"Well thanks for the honesty, I guess," she said gratified that the woman was able to laugh off the ridiculous statement.
"I'm Alex. I'd shake your hand, but you might manage to hurt me somehow!" A smug grin plastered on her face that the young girl seemed to stir both joy and frustration within her.
"My name is Liz. You're tall. Has anyone told you that? Or the fact that your grin/ eyebrow thing is really annoying? It's like you're mocking me in the worst way possible."
"Yeah, I've been told I'm tall. As for the rest, yep! Makes people lose their shit. Plus, I am mocking you so it's really effective. So, I'm taking it as a compliment. Wait, unless you have a jar of acid on you because that changes everything!" Her eyebrow quirked up and her mouth hung wide open in a playful manner. Liz shook her head and rolled her eyes as she made her way out of the restroom as Alex followed.
They were walking when she began to panic. "Fuck. Piper! Fuck!" is all she thought. "I need to go. She's going to be so pissed off!"
"Hey kid, relax," Alex said resting her hand on Liz's forearm, "tell her that there was a mishap and you'll be there a little late. We'll order the coffee and if it's not too far I'll walk with you. No big deal." The teen felt so in peace at the soothing tone of her new acquaintance. She didn't even care to stop and notice how she did exactly as she was told. She pulled out her phone and typed out a quick message to Piper, deciding she wasn't brave enough to hear the blonde unleash her temper over the phone while Alex stood there and listened. Liz wouldn't take anymore embarrassment.
They were able to order the coffee and walk out in record time now pacing rapidly through the main street leading to the park.
"Thanks for the coffee and the pep talk. I really need it when it comes to my friend. Blondy and her annoying ass temper. If you only knew! She's like on a whole other level of bat shit crazy." Alex examines the girl- her raven hair resembling her own, the one dimple that formed as her teeth left exposed for all to witness through her smile and those blue eyes. If everything didn't turn out so fucked up she pictured this young girl being a perfect combination of her and her former girlfriend. A warm smile crept onto her lips.
"Oh, I know bat shit crazy! My ex was textbook definition. I mean my reflexes are so damn amazing thanks to all the plates and mugs I dodged for being an asshole at the wrong moment, or showing up late for dinner because of work." Her stomach turned in a slow agonizing manner while her mind swirled with thoughts of her former love.
"Women," said the young girl.
Alex furrowed her eyebrows, "How did you know she was a woman?"
"I can read it all over you. The way you carry yourself just screams hot lesbian. Plus, no dude would throw dinnerware. That's a girl move."
"Hot lesbian? I still got it!" She winked and the familiar sly grin made its reappearance.
Liz said, "she sounds like a raging bitch."
"Excuse you! She was hot, had a hell of an aim when pissed and she's read everything. She was my perfect raging bitch. She has your friend beat." Her chest filled with pride emphasizing the 'my' part, but quickly deflated. That was all in the past; Piper was no longer hers and that wasn't going to change.
They continued their march down the street, bobbing and weaving through the crowd. The strange sensation of comfort radiated between both of them, managing to talk about books their entire trip.
"I swear! I have every book you can possibly think of. Let's exchange info. I have this interview for some work stuff, but we can meet up for coffee and I'll bring some books. If you're ever interested." Liz agrees with a nod, reaching out for Alex's phone and typing in her number as they reach the west entrance of the park.
"If anyone told me I'd get to a point in my life where I'd be trying to befriend a child, well I'd tell them fuck NO!" She huffs in admiration of her own pathetic tone, "Ain't life somethin!" The older woman was saving the contact info when she noticed Liz turn around.
The young woman sighed in relief, seeing the blonde standing by a bench facing the fountain so that her peripheral was the only thing visible. Her hooded sweater hung loosely on her form and she smiled knowing the Piper's new hoodie resembled her favorite one. She looked back at Alex and stared for a while, watching the older woman try to catch a full glance of the girl's companion.
Maybe these two need friends her smile grew impeccably large at the idea. "Hey Alex do you want to meet-" the loud ring denied her the ability to finish her invitation.
The persistent ringing derailed any attention the raven haired woman had assigned for the girl. "Sorry kid, I really have to rush out. Work opportunity and I really really need to pick this up. See ya when I see ya! I'll text you soon." Alex raised a hand apologetically as her heels shift her in the opposite direction of the park.
Liz remained in place for a moment as she watched the woman get lost in the crowd.
"Well well well! Look who decided to grace me with her fuckin presence." Piper stood, crossing her arms clearly annoyed by Liz's tardiness.
She tried to ease the tension and calm the blonde woman's temper, "Geez, language, lady!" She smiled that goofy smile that always managed to break Piper's tough exterior.
"Blue, I had a little run in with some woman," she points to her shirt, "literally!"
Piper put her anger aside and decided to go on this strange maternal tirade,"who was it? How dare she! Are you okay? Liz, we need to take you to a doctor right now!" She couldn't help feel this sense of anguish, she knew it was ridiculous, but Liz spent her whole life alone and she was hell bent on changing that.
"Relax, no one has died from coffee burns...I think…," Liz tried to make a joke. It failed. She spent the next few minutes watching a worried Piper look through her phone, searching for answers.
"See, Siri says there have been cases of injuries. This lady sued McDonald's because of it. No deaths, though, so you won't die, which is good." The blue eyed woman looks up from her phone at Liz. There's this look that made the young woman feel like she genuinely cared. That look penetrated her barrier of reluctance to allow herself to rely on anyone, ever.
"Good. I was worried I was going to die, but now that Siri says I won't die, because that was clearly on the table this whole time, we can all relax," she rolls her eyes at the older woman. She continued, "plus, how can you trust a thing that kept offering you search results for coffee buns. Those sound delicious by the way!" The blonde chuckled throughout the teens discourse on how she was overreacting and how technology will eventually end all humanity.
"Uuf! I thought I was bad. You just hijacked my ridiculous worry and took us on this conspiracy theorist paranoia shit." She sat back on the bench leaning her head back letting out a sigh. It had been years since she found a reason to care, but the fragile young woman resonated with her. Some familiarity of her past mixed with some hope for her future stood here, in the shape of a child.
Liz sat next to the woman in silence, trying to focus on not feeling the stinging that began to course through her stomach. The woman shook her head deciding to shift the conversation. "Thanks for the coffee," she said smiling gently.
"Eh, it was nothing. Only almost lost my torso, but you know, the queen has her coffee."
"It was worth it!" She giggles watching her companion fake a heart attack.
"So?" The raven haired teen sat wide eyed with anticipation.
"Right. Story time!" Piper shifted uncomfortably attempting to find the words to begin to tell her story, "I met Alex at a bar a very long time ago. At first it was this exciting thing I was trying out, this post-college phase. Alex worked for an international drug cartel and I tagged along for trips and dinners and all sorts of adventures. It was after every fight we had where either of us walked away thinking it was over that I felt this discomfort, this sinking hole in a bottomless pit of nothingness that I knew it was love. I would run back every time and we made up the only way we knew how," she wiggled her eyebrows at the teen who huffed over the skipping of the obviously important details, "Until I walked away one day, Left Alex and that part of my life behind."
Liz threw her arms up in the air and allowed them to drop, "That's it? That was the big Alex Vause story?"
"No, I saw Alex years later. When she sent me to prison." Piper chewed on her bottom lip, gaze lowered to the ground. There it was, that sinking hole feeling. Except, she doesn't want to run from it, mask it somehow, she allows herself to feel it.
The teen looked on in astonishment. She tried speaking a few times, but she was trying to wrap her head around those words her and prison. Piper has been to prison because of her girlfriend….her thoughts were everywhere.
"Piper…" it was almost a whisper, "if you don't want to continue, you don't have to."
Still looking down she said, "I want to."
They spent hours on that bench, Piper finally found the courage to tell her story out loud. She explained her involvement in the cartel without putting all the blame on Alex this time around. She mentioned her time in jail, both counts of cheating with Alex and with Stella. She mentioned Alex getting out and how she brought her back into prison selfishly. The most difficult was having to recount how she pushed Alex away, how they never spoke, how she allowed herself to stop trying and lean on alcohol. She didn't hold back. Liz sat through it all, listening intently, once in a while questioning her, or consoling her. Never once judging her.
"I want you to be better than me. I had it all," she wiped the tears that burn hot trails down her face, "and I threw it away. You, you weren't handed life easily, but that doesn't mean you have a free pass at fucking up and fucking up other people's lives. Understood?"
She hugs Piper with all her strength, "Understood."
"Good! Because I'm here. I'm sticking around to be your worst nightmare. You will be held accountable by me. I'm not your parent...legally, but you will listen."
"I will listen. No way I'm defying a convicted felon." She laughs that hearty laugh, "I will walk a straight line. No that you-" she's interrupted by the blonde.
"Don't. You get the felon joke, but you won't have the gay one" she smirks at the younger woman. "But that was the funnier of the two! How'd that chick look like, anyway? Your drug pusher sex goddess," she asked stretching her legs out on the bench.
Piper takes a sip of the now cold coffee, she closes her eyes imagining every time an emerald eyed beauty left her breathless, "She was tall, alabaster skin, beautiful green eyes hidden behind these secretary glasses, dark black hair,' she savors something in her mouth, but she can't quite assure it's the coffee that elicits that reaction, "she was intelligent, cocky, and loving...to me, an asshole to anyone. Her in a bad mood meant this scary glare. She was….is the whole package. If you ever saw her you'd know what I mean, she has this hot lesbian look."
Wait...Liz can't help think back to the woman from the coffee shop. Her name was Alex. She was fucking tall. No, no way in hell that's possible. She considers voicing her thoughts, but she let's Piper go on until she's done. Pushing her farfetched ideas back to paranoia ville.
Both of them eventually pull their bodies away from the bench, away from the heaviness of their conversation. They each go their own way when the sun begins to show signs of its departure.
There's that thought again, creeping back into Liz's mind on her way home. She checks her phone immediately feeling anxious. If she never texts me, I'll never be able to find out for sure…
I will finish this story. I will.