The small gifts that Alex received on her last day at Gateway were overwhelming. The students held a party for her at the end of the day, and several of them baked cupcakes and cookies to celebrate her short time in the classroom. One of the most humorous boys in her Advanced Lit class, Will, got down on one knee and proposed to her. The kids got a riot out of it, and Alex laughed heartily at the gesture.

"I'll wait for you, Will," she said with dramatic effect.

"That's all I ask," he said.

Piper sat on the far side of the room, clearly enjoying the action in the front. She looked…intriguing, Alex thought: wavy hair, lip gloss, tight name brand jeans, and a rose colored sweater that fit like a glove. It didn't hurt that she was sitting on the top of her desk with her legs slightly open, swinging both feet. She also looked older, a fact which was not lost on Alex. She recalled first meeting the girl and how young she appeared. There was something about her now, even four months later, that made her seem more mature.

Not that Piper had many occasions, but she never seemed jealous. (Case in point: the fake proposal.) Her confidence was one of the thousands of appealing things about her.

Throughout the party, the women kept track of each other, and Alex was reminded of how couples who'd been together for ages acted at parties—one person could be across the room, but the guests could always tell that the two people belonged to each other by simply watching their eyes.

It was the third time that Alex felt that overwhelming in love feeling in the past four months, and it literally took her breath away.

After about an hour, the students began to disperse, and Piper was one of the first to leave.

"Thank you for being here, Alex. I learned a great deal from you." She shook her teacher's hand.

"You're an excellent writer, Piper. It was a pleasure working with you."

They held hands longer than the average well-wisher, a fact that Alex hoped wasn't obvious to the rest of the students in the room. She was a bit taken aback by the blonde's early departure. If she'd had to guess, she would've thought Piper would be the last to leave.

Ten minutes later, Alex announced her departure and forced the six kids in the room to leave.

When she arrived back at the faculty residence, she texted Piper. Didn't expect you to be among the first to leave. Everything ok?

Piper: Had to take care of something.

Alex changed into sweats before replying. When will I see you again?

Over the next hour, she finished packing the boxes that contained everything she owned, and still didn't get a reply from the blonde. Maybe it was better this way, she thought—she could drive away into the sunset without some private, messy goodbye.

She put the last of the seven boxes into the car she'd borrowed from her mom, making sure to put the painting that her student had given her on top of everything so it wouldn't get damaged. Alex slipped on her leather jacket, got into the car, started the engine and said goodbye to her temporary home. As she pulled out of the driveway, she looked around for Piper, but there was virtually no one around other than a maintenance worker tinkering with a snow blower.

The dark haired woman drove out of the gates of the school and headed West, past the train station that made her nostalgic.

"Alex!" She heard in the distance. "Alex!"

She looked out of the rearview mirror and saw Piper running behind her. A smile crossed her face, but she was also concerned for the blonde, who seemed to be sprinting down the highway to get to the beat up Corolla. Alex turned down a side street and put the car in park. The temperature outside was close to freezing, so rolling down the window proved difficult as a heavy frost had settled into the rubber crevice.

"Where were you going?" Alex asked as Piper approached the vehicle.

"I needed to get away from this place." Piper put her hands on her knees to catch her breath, and Alex was reminded of the first day they met. "I couldn't be here without coming to your house to say goodbye, and if I saw you, it would've gotten…uncomfortable."

The dark haired woman lowered her head, silently agreeing with her. "I guess this is goodbye for the foreseeable future."

Piper slowly stood, breathing somewhat under control, and rested her hands on the window sill.

The women stared at each other for a moment before the blonde finally mumbled, "Fuck it."

She grabbed Alex's face with her cold hands and kissed the older woman for all she was worth. Alex couldn't fight it, and truth be told, she didn't want to. She'd wanted this kiss every minute of every hour of every day for months, and it was finally happening.

Before Alex knew it, she was pulling Piper through the open window and into the car. Her long, nimble body finally made it inside, all the while barely allowing their lips to part in the process. Alex shoved the seat as far back as it would go, and Piper straddled her lap, knees bent and legs under her. The blonde was able to carefully lift Alex's glasses on top of her head without allowing her mouth to leave her lover's. They continued to kiss, and it was all tongues and teeth and lips, clashing together like stormy waves rolling into shore. Alex's hands were splayed across the girl's back, while Piper's moved from her cheeks down to her neck. Piper grabbed a fistful of her teacher's leather jacket as she angled her face to deepen the kiss.

There was nothing graceful about their union, but it felt like the closest thing to heaven that Alex Vause had ever experienced. Piper tasted like vanilla, and Alex wondered if the rest of her tasted so sweet.

"Piper," she managed to breathe out after five minutes. "Piper," she tried again. She loved the way her lover's name sounded coming out of her mouth in the throes of passion.

"Hmmm?" The blonde kissed her way across her cheek.

She pushed against her chest until they were eye to eye. "We have to stop."

"Tell me you don't want this," she replied in a husky voice.

"Believe me, kid, I absolutely want this." Alex gave her a closed-lip smile and brushed the blonde's disheveled hair out of her face. "But we're in a dangerous position, and if we got caught, you know what the consequences would be."

Just then a car drove by, but lucky for them, it was going too fast to see anything. Still, Alex thought, it was a huge risk.

Piper closed her eyes, fused their foreheads together and took a deep breath. "I think I'm in love with you."

Her admission caused Alex's heart to do somersaults. She kissed Piper softly on the lips. "I know I'm in love with you."

That revved up another round of making out, this time with skin contact. As the blonde tried to change the angle of her head, Alex tugged at her bottom lip, pulling it between her teeth, and then soothing the mark with her tongue. Piper's hands reached under Alex's blouse, and the sensation of the girl's hands on her stomach sent a feeling of ecstasy straight to her center.

She tried moving her hands further up Alex's shirt, but the dark haired woman stopped. "No, no, no. We can't go any further than this." She pulled her shirt back down. "We've gone too far as it is. I'm not saying that I don't fucking love having your tongue in my mouth, but we really have to end this right now, babe."

Another car passed by, and Piper finally pulled back. "Where does this leave us?"

She wiped the blonde's swollen lips with her thumb. "Until your 18th birthday, not very far."

"That's so fucking ridiculous," Piper spat out. "It's like on this one day, everything changes just because my birth certificate says I'm older. Turning 18 doesn't make me any more mature or any more ready for a relationship. I know what I want—who I want, and I don't need to wait six months to figure shit out!"

"It's the law. I realize it's stupid, but we can't help that." Alex shrugged. "Would you rather me in prison when you turn 18, or in bed with you?"

That caused Piper to smile. "In bed with me." She punctuated the statement with a firm kiss.

Alex couldn't control her reaction to the blonde. They kissed again for another two or three minutes, this time far more in sync. One of them moaned, and then the other, driving them both insane.

"I'm going to count to three, and then I'm opening this door." Alex hoped that her lover didn't hear the regret in her voice.

She did as promised and opened the car door. Piper climbed out and had to flex her cramped legs. Both women smiled at the motion.

"Want me to drive you back?"

"No," Piper replied. "I'm going to go for a walk."

"It's getting dark. Don't stay out too late, babe."

"I won't."

"We'll talk soon." Alex tried smiling but she knew how pathetic she looked.

Piper nodded, but no words were forthcoming.

"Goodbye, Piper." With those parting words, Alex drove away, hands gripping the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white.

She kept her tears at bay until they pooled so heavily under her eyelids that she couldn't see, so she pulled over and wept. She cried and cried and cried some more, hating the fact that she had to leave Piper behind all because of her fucking age. Alex had no idea how she'd survive six long months without seeing Piper, but she knew that for both of their own good, that's what needed to happen.


Author's Note: This was another fun chapter for me to write, and I really hope it was rewarding to read. Let me know, please.