A/N: I personally don't think that I have written this chapter to the best of my abilities but hey ho, I was tired, I have been travelling all day. I just hope you still enjoy reading it. Thanks to all those who have reviewed so far, you have set me well on my wa to getting my 100 reviews. ChaseHunt0506- thank you for your kind review, I couldn't help but smile when I read it, I'm glad my updates make you grin. I3Vauseman- thank you for both reviews - thank you very much for leting me know when american summer break as, it always confused me. In britain we call 'I never have...' Never have I ever, which is slightly more fun to say wwhe you are mostly drunk. Thank you for the longer review, it made my day to read it when I woke up this morning. Tedious is definitely a good word to describe my job. I enjoy Mexican food a lot and frequently cook it even though my mum dislikes it as she says it can be too spicy. I also love pasta dishes, i'm a sucker for anything with pasta in it. Thank you very much for the virtual present, you put some thought into that writing I can tell, I can confirm that my smile met my eyes when I read that bit :) Also thanks to Marijnkx thanks for the huge compliment, I'm glad you are enjoying my writing, and I'm nineteen this birthday.
CHAPTER NINE
Nicky loosely instructed everyone to grab a chair or stool or anything to sit on and place it around the island. Nicky's games usually went on for hours so everyone was best sat down.
Nicky disappeared out of the kitchen and then quickly re-appeared through the swing door holding two bottles of apple cactus jacks and one bottle of Heineken with no cap on.
"Would you do me the honors Vause?" Nicky asked as she placed the bottle down onto the black granite surface of the island, she pushed it gently and it sped down the table. Alex placed her hand out and stopped it carefully as it reached her so as not to spill any.
"It would be my pleasure Nick." Alex announced loudly, all eyes were on her now as she downed the bottle of Heineken in one, chugging impressively but somewhat loudly. The crowd seated around the table all cheered loudly as she slammed the bottle down on to the surface a little harder than she intended to.
Piper winced at the noise and Alex felt something sink inside of her. She hated that Piper didn't have a nice family unit like she did but at the same time she felt thrilled by the fact that no one else on the table knew why Piper hated that noise, she was all too familiar with it.
Alex wiped her mouth slowly and purposefully with her jacket sleeve so as to appear sexy to everyone else at the table, she didn't know any of them apart from Nicky and Piper but she had an appearance to maintain and that was what she did.
Alex lay the bottle on it's side in the middle of the table. Nicky seemed to have pulled some plastic shot glasses from the middle of nowhere and was filling each of them up.
"Clockwise or anti-clockwise Nick?" Alex questioned knowing that the rules seemed to change every time they played.
"Anti- Clockwise this time Vause."
Alex simply nodded in acknowledgment as she began to explain the rules. "Anti-Clockwise it is which means that we go from me towards Nicky at roughly six and then it comes round to Piper before coming back to me." Piper was sat right next to Alex at the table on her left.
"Is anyone else fucking roasting?" Nicky interjected, she was meant by a chorus of approving hums from the crowd. "Open those windows Vause."
Alex sighed as she took her leather jacket off that was now gently sticking to her skin, she was nice and cool in the kitchen before Nicky and the crowd of smokers piled in. She slung the jacket over the back of the chair she was sitting on and stomped over to the window, she didn't intend to make as much noise with her shoes as she did but that's what comes with being heavy footed and wearing Doc Martens on tiled floors. It helped her to emphasize her exasperation of Nicky's interruption.
She cracked the windows open and returned herself to her original spot not really paying attention to the fact that Piper was watching her every move.
Nicky placed three shots in front of each of the fourteen people sat at the island. "I'll explain Vause, the rules have changed slightly since we last played."
"How did I know you were going to say that?" She remarked rolling her eyes and tutting at her frizzy-haired friend.
"Anyway," Nicky raised her voice slightly above the noise "Anti-clockwise is the way to go, Alex spins first, then George, then John, then Nat, then Gloria, Tiff, then me, Carrie, Suzie, then Sam, then Joe, then Wanda, Susan and then Blondie and back around."
"The name's Piper." She interjected Nicky just as she was getting into the swing of things just as the frizzy haired girl had done to Alex just minutes before. She had to find a way to repay her for punching Larry. It didn't require half of the bravery that Alex's feat had, especially since she decided to stay in the same house as the guy she had just punched, but it was a start.
Alex noticed what she was trying to do and smiled widely at the blonde girl.
"The person who spins the bottle has to ask the truth or give the dare, if the bottle lands on yourself spin again. You have three shots for a reason, if you don't want to do the dare you have been given or answer the truth you have been asked, you have to take a shot, once all three shots are gone you are out of the game. If you are out of the game and the bottle lands on you the spinner spins again, if you are out of the game and someone takes a shot you have to take a shot with them, the more of a pussy you are the more likely you are to get blind drunk. You can't take more than two dares or two truths in a row. Get it?" Nicky asked unsure of what the answer would be as she reeled off a lot of information in a very short time and half of the crowd were already either half-drunk or high which made the game more fun. She was once again met with an approving chorus of hums.
"Right then Vause, you start."
Alex span the bottle a little too vigorously and it took t a while to slow down, when it did it came to a stop pointing at Nicky.
"Truth or dare?"
"Truth!" Nicky almost yelled.
"Have you ever slept with more than one person in a day?"
Nicky was trying her luck with one of the smokers from earlier, Susan so she didn't want to ruin it all by admitting that she had in fact slept with a few more than just two in the same day. She took a shot.
"Coward." Alex mumbled.
George was next to spin the bottle, and so it proceeded until it was Nicky's turn, the others in the group weren't very good at setting dares or asking truths much to Nicky and Alex's dismay, they were professionals at this game by now so they were playing on another level.
Nicky span the bottle hopeful that it was Alex so she could get her back for the previous question and make her take a shot too, but it slowed down slightly too quickly and landed on Piper.
"Dare." Piper chanted before Nicky even had the chance to ask the question 'truth or dare?'.
"Aren't you an eager beaver blondie?" She questioned. "Alright then... I dare you to do a handstand."
Nicky had noticed the large adhesive pad stuck to Piper's hand when she was twiddling with her blonde curls and too advantage.
"That's not fair Nick, you know she has a bad hand, she can't do a handstand." Alex was suddenly defensive of Piper, or simply of Piper's suffering as Alex told herself.
"She'll just have to take a shot then won't she?" Nicky smirked, her one sided smile showing a glint of menace.
"No, I can do this." Piper replied standing up from her chair and heading towards the nearest wall, she took her shoes off. "Is it okay if I do it against the wall?" she asked Nicky.
"I'm not sure thats wise Pipes." Alex suggested Piper back down from the dare and take the shot instead but the more people objected to it, the more she wanted to do it, so she did.
Piper barely felt the pain due to all of the alcohol that seemed to flowing through her veins and the painkillers she took probably aided that.
The game went on for over an hour until there was just Piper, Alex and Nicky left in the game. Suzie, Susan and Sam were all spectating and the rest of the group had disappeared off after they had drank all three of their shots. Nicky quickly abandoned the having to drink a shot even after you're out of the game rule as some of the people were now beyond drunk and they were running out of cactus jacks.
Nicky tapped out first out of three as she refused to answer Piper's truth. "If you had to choose one person in this room to have sex with tonight who would it be?" Nicky immediately took her shot. She wasn't usually shy and reserved but this seemed to be the angle that she was working to try and get Susan into bed, Susan was timid and fairly reserved so Nicky introverted slightly. The frizzy haired girl was definitely in touch with her primal instincts as she faced every dare and completed them all with varying degrees of success.
Alex turned her chair slightly to face Piper, the pair were now the last two in the game and Alex wasn't entirely sure how Piper was still conscious, she had had far too much to drink and yet here she was waiting to drink some more.
"let's just take it in turns to ask each other questions the shall we?" Alex asked.
"No more dares please." Piper almost begged as she began feeling a little queasy.
"Fine, I'll go first, Piper, how many times a day do you masturbate?"
Piper scrunched her nose at Alex. "I don't masturbate."
Alex lifted one eyebrow in half-surprise. "Your go."
"How many sexual partners have you had?"
Alex paused, looked up at the ceiling in thought and began tapping each of her fingers against the granite as if to count. "Hold the two, carry the one... a fuck load."
Piper wasn't surprised.
"Have you ever slept with a woman."
"No." Alex wasn't surprised at the blonde's response, she didn't expect anything other.
"Have you ever fell asleep during sex."
"Nope." came the reply.
This game had dragged itself on for way too long. Alex pulled out all the stops for her next question.
"How'd you really get that cut on your hand?"
Piper sighed and necked the shot back, it burned the back of her throat mimicking the burn she felt in her eyes as tears threatened, she was drinking to forget yet here she was playing a drinking game and remembering. The blonde very suddenly felt very sick and she dashed out of the kitchen and headed to the upstairs bathroom. Alex watched as she left, eyes trained on her amazing long legs as they pushed themselves into an almost sprint, ears trained to the cheering she could hear from the spectators as she had won the game.
Then it came to Alex, very quickly, she could have offended Piper with that question. She dragged up something that she didn't really want to think about, she could be the reason Piper dashed out of the room. The raven haired girl grabbed her jacket from the back of the chair and dashed out of the kitchen and through the house just as she had done almost two hours ago, she spotted her running upstairs and turning right on the landing and so she did the same. She could hear someone crying from behind a closed door, instead of charging in lie she usually would she knocked gently. If she was the reason that she was crying then she didn't want to upset her anymore by storming into the room, on the other hand there was the risk that it wasn't Piper at all, or that it wasn't crying, Alex shook her head and tapped on the door gently.
"Hey Pipes, it's me Alex, can I come in?"
"I...guess...so." Piper replied between sniffing and crying.
Alex let herself in, somewhat surprised by the enormity of the bathroom, it was roughly the same size as Alex's bedroom at the apartment, which Alex thought was fairly big in it's own right.
She crept up behind Piper who was sitting next to the toilet bowl.
"I crossed a line with that question didn't I?"
Piper nodded "I'm just glad I had a way out of answering it." she replied slightly more composed now.
Just as Alex was about to ask her why she didn't just tell people the truth Piper sat up and threw up violently into the toilet bowl. Alex stepped forward dropping her jacket to the floor she bunched Piper's hair up into a makeshift ponytail with one hand and rubbed circles into her back with the other hand.
After about ten minutes Piper had finally stopped throwing up.
"Don't mix your drinks kid!" Alex mocked, not at all surprised by the throwing up due to the excessive amount of alcohol she had seen Piper consume not even thinking about any that she had consumed before the pair met up at the bar.
"Thanks." Piper retorted.
"For the advice?" Alex quipped, slight confusion evident in her voice.
"No," Piper was shivering now. "For holding my hair." her teeth began chattering. "and the back rubbing thing."
Alex walked over to pick up her jacket from where she had dropped and walked towards Piper before slumping down next to her leaning against the wall.
"Here kid, put this on." Alex draped the jacket over Piper's shoulders and Piper pulled on the lapels slightly pulling it on to war her body. "Let's get you home kid, where do you live?"
Pipers teeth slowed their chattering until eventually they stopped altogether although it was evident that Piper was cold as she had goosebumps all over. "I live in the next street over, I can get there on my own don't worry."
"Nonsense." Alex shook her head as Piper dragged herself to her feet still holding onto the lapels of Alex's jacket.
The blonde wobbled slightly as her legs were commanded to stand and then when she was stood up as straight as she could get she swayed slightly. "I don't need a babysitter Alex, I can do this, I'm fine."
"Oh, there's the irony." Alex mocked as the pair exited the bathroom. The raven haired girl insisted on holding on tightly to pipers left elbow especially as the pair walked down the stairs. " You are less than fine Piper, I'm going to walk you home, you can direct me, no more arguments."
Piper didn't argue, she was way too tired for that. " I should tell Polly I'm leaving."
"Don't worry about that kid, I'll tell her when I go back in there."
Piper began shivering again as the pair stepped outside and met the cool air.
"Put the jacket on properly Pipes."
The blonde complied and pushed her arms into the sleeves giggling slightly at the realization that her hands didn't come out of the other end, just her fingertips poked out from the black sleeve.
Alex smiled to herself. 'I could win the bet, I could take advantage now.'she thought. The raven-haired girl frowned at herself for even thinking about taking advantage of a drunk woman especially over a bet.
The blonde directed Alex to her house and as they stood outside Alex could hear her parents arguing. She didn't really want to leave Piper at this house with these monsters that called themselves her parents but she didn't have any other choice. Piper wriggled her way out of Alex's fairly firm grip and attempted to shrug the jacket off of her shoulders.
Alex placed her hands on Piper's upper arms "Don't worry about the jacket, bring it back next time you are babysitting or something."
Piper nodded. "You are an amazing person Alex, you know that? And you're pretty too, I bet you didn't know that."
Alex smiled. "You're drunk Piper."
"And you are tall, are we stating the obvious now?"
Alex giggled, she was beginning to appreciate this girl more and more. Before the raven-haired girl could do anything Piper leaned forward and placed a bad attempt at what she assumed was supposed be a kiss, upon her left cheek.
Alex pushed her back slightly still holding onto her upper arms.
"Kiss me." Piper slurred as she attempted to lean forward again.
'Now's the chance' Alex thought, once again mentally kicking herself straight after.
"You are drunk Piper. Now turn yourself around and head into your house, you know, that big fucking place there, that thing you live in." Alex's humor was quite clearly not lost on drunk Piper as she laughed whole heartedly for the first time since the pair had met and what a magical sound it was.
Piper began swaying from side to side as she stumbled towards the door.
"Be careful Pipes." she commented, more as a warning to keep away from her monstrous parents and less so as a warning to be careful on her journey down the path to the front door. "And remember you are always welcome at my place any time of the day." As Piper disappeared through the door Alex heard the arguing grow louder and then silence as Piper shut the door behind her.
The raven hared girl filled her lungs with the cool air that surrounded her as she cleared her thoughts. She couldn't use Piper to win a bet, that girl had more problems than enough without Alex trying to get her kicks in too. 'I'll have to tell Nicky that the bet is off' she thought to herself as she began walking back to Polly's. Just as she left the end of the pathway she heard a female voice of which she assumed belonged to Piper's mother scream "You're drunk." Alex feared for Piper but continued walking anyway. A tear rolled down Alex's face as she heard a loud bang, a similar sound to that of a knee banging against a coffee table but much louder. Alex's walk quickly turned into a sprint, she wasn't entirely sure what to do in this situation as she had no experience so she ran, all the way back to Polly's house where Nicky was waiting out the front.
"I just sent you a text, did you get it?" Nicky asked, slightly baffled that Alex had definitely come from in the house.
"No, sorry, I haven't checked my phone all night." She pulled her phone out of her pocket, deleted the seven missed calls from Sylvie, and read her two text messages, one was the very text that was in question, it read 'Susan left, no pussy tonight, will try my luck with Lorna tomorrow instead, meet me out front in ten, I'll ride you home.'
"Got it." Alex said lifting her phone slightly to signal to Nicky that she had got the text.
She completely ignored her other text from Sylvie that read simply 'BITCH!'.
As Alex crouched her way down and into the car she thought about a way to approach the bet situation.
"Hey, Nick, about the bet." She finally spoke as Nicky too crouched her way into the car.
"Whoa, you fucked her already, nice going Vause."
Alex had to interject. "No, it's not like that, I haven't fucked her and I don't ..."
Nicky interrupted "Don't tell me your going soft on me Vause! Don't tell me you are actually going to let her open your steel cage."
Alex hadn't thought about it that way. "Fuck no, I was going to say let's make this interesting, We have a week to finish the bet, and if at the end of the week no one has won the bet then the cards are off the table." She thought that if she only had a week then she could easily refrain from sleeping with her within that time frame, she wouldn't have to use her at all and she could still remain solid with Nicky. Plus Alex didn't see Nicky getting into Lorna's pants anytime soon, she was still swooning over Christopher the stand up chump.
'This is an easy way out' She thought to herself.
A/N: I hope you liked this chapter even if I didn't. Almost my birthday, let's see if we can get the reviews up to 100, it would be the best present ever. Thank you for reading.
