The Internship
Chapter 9:
White Lies & A Bet
Darkness. That was all that she felt surrounding her. Nothing register to the blonde's now semi-numb body besides a sporadic change in pressure on her arms and feet every so often. Echoes of voices that seemed like nothing more than far off memories swam into her ear and prodded her brain to wake up.
'Fuck, Nicky. Careful.'
That one was raspy, unique, and seemingly imprinted on her brain. The next was less familiar, but enough so that at least Piper knew who was around her for the time being.
'I'm doin' my best here, Sasquatch. We're not exactly on the same level, ya' know.'
'That doesn't give you an excuse to almost slam her head into the side of the wall. Plus, I saw you gawking.'
'Dude, you can't blame me! Didn't you see that girl? Like holy shit.'
A jingle of keys and the sound of a door knob turning was the next sound that the woman could make out. She forced her eyelids to split slightly at the sound, wanting to know what was going on around her. The last thing that Piper could remember was sitting on the couch with Alex, her neck and cheek burning sweetly under the woman's touch. She remembered leaning forward, mentally begging to finally feel the dark haired woman's lips on her own.
"Jesus, Pipes," she heard Alex say in a soft grunt. She felt the pressure on her arms leave her and instantly her back was cooled by what she was imagining to be a white fluffy cloud. It felt heavenly, soothing, and she relaxed even though her vision was still nothing but a fading blur.
The darkness overcame Piper Chapman. As the rest of her body was met with the same cool sensation, she drifted off to sleep.
At the sound of a creaking door, Piper's body began to twitch and awaken. Her eyes split only enough to feel the burn of light originating from outside the open doorway. The feeling caused her blue orbs to instantly retreat behind her lids once more.
Another sound, this one coming from fairly close to her head, caught her attention. Though she didn't make a move to inspect the noise, Piper tried to focus enough to listen more closely for more.
The door creaked once more and the latch clicked into place. Shortly, those noises were followed by much more interesting ones: voices.
"I'm not sure what you want me to say, Nicky," Alex's voice carried quite heavily, even through the closed door. Piper could see Alex saying those words in her mind and visualized her adjusting her glasses before she spoke.
"Words are usually a good place to start," Piper couldn't hear Alex's best friend as well as she heard Alex. She forced her body to inch closer to the edge of the bed. "Come on, Vause, you can take it slow if you need to. Say it with me, I-," Nicky was drawing out her words like someone teaching a young child to read, "Li—ke-,"
"Fuck off, Nichols," the words coming from Alex held no hostility, if anything maybe just a tinge of annoyance.
"Hey, I'm just-," Piper could no longer make out anything that either woman was saying.
'Shit.'
The blonde forced open her eyes. The only way that she was able to determine they were actually open was thanks to the light pushing its way underneath the bedroom door.
A groan caught in Piper's throat as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and pushed up with her arms. Instantly, a sharp stabbing pain coursed through her right ankle. She bit her lip to keep from yelling.
"Are you gonna say somethin' or do I need to beat it out of ya? C'mon, Al. I know how you overthink shit. You need to talk about it," Nicky's tone went from playful to serious fairly quickly with her longtime friend.
"Piper is different," Alex finally said after a moment of silence passed between the two women. She sounded slightly confused, as she let the words slip out.
"Now we're getting somewhere. Why is she different?"
"I don't know," her voice grew softer and the lapse in dialogue made Piper take another step toward the door. As soon as she shifted her weight onto her right side, Piper knew she had made a grave mistake.
"Oh fuck," the words stumbled out of her mouth as she stumbled into the door, causing a very audible commotion. She slid down the door and shifted over to the wall beside it before reaching down to massage her ankle.
"Piper?" the door beside the young woman swung open and smashed into her side. "What the hell?" Alex Vause was now looking down at her defeated frame.
"Okay, I give in," Piper said as she looked up at the dark blob that was speaking in Alex's raspy voice, "Door 1, Piper 0."
A chuckle from the blob made Piper's lips pull into a smile, despite the ache in her ankle.
"Doors are beating you by more than just one point, kid," Alex knelt down to Piper's level, and, for the first time in what felt like an eternity, she finally saw the woman's face again. It was framed by her dark, flowy, slightly messy hair, and perfectly accented by the thick rimmed, black glasses that were perfectly in place on her nose. "What were you doing?"
"I," Piper paused, but the gears in her head quickly started functioning again, "was thirsty," Alex's eyebrow raised a bit and her signature smirk appeared.
"I already brought you water," Alex was eyeing Piper, but her gaze softened quickly, "Come on. Back to bed, kid," Piper put her arm around Alex's shoulders and scooted herself up off the floor with the woman's help. She fell onto the bed, as soon as she was close enough to insure that she would make it.
"Thanks, Alex," Piper whispered. Alex glanced over her shoulder strangely before turning back to the blonde and leaning over her.
"Anytime, kid," Piper's cheek tingled as Alex's finger pushed her hair off her face and around to the back of her neck gently. A sweet smile crossed Piper's gaze once more before the room grew dark again. Piper's mind followed in suit shortly after.
The five-foot ten form that was Alex Vause groaned as she was pulled from an unexpectedly deep sleep by a strange, up-beat chime.
She blinked her eyes a few times, meeting the ceiling of her living room with her gaze before she stretched out her arms and rolled onto her side. A loud thud made the woman groan once more, realizing that she had fallen asleep with a book on her chest.
Annoyed by the steady increase in the volume of the chiming noise, Alex stumbled up and towards the kitchen to find the culprit. Piper's phone was vibrating obnoxiously while also causing her head to throb from the alarm. The dark haired woman dismissed the alarm with the slide of her finger across the screen and returned back to her couch.
Thankfully, Alex was accustomed to her own apartment well enough that she could maneuver without the use of her glasses, since they seemed to be missing. Alex looked down at the book that had fallen off of her chest before picking it up and placing it on the coffee table. She had been rereading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. She had started it Tuesday, thinking it would help her clear her mind a bit. She was wrong. Glancing back down toward the floor, Alex spotted her glasses, which were slid half way under the edge of the couch. She bent down and retrieved them, slipping them on and yawing directly after.
It was going to be a long day.
The door to Alex's bed room creaked a refusal to move, with which she empathized, as she slipped into the bed room where the blonde intern slept quietly.
The young woman hadn't moved since Alex had tucked her back into bed some four hours ago. The only indication that she was even alive was the steady, slow rise and fall of the sheet that was draped over her chest. The blonde's body was curled slightly, under the sheet and around a pillow that she also had her arm wrapped around. Alex couldn't help but envy that pillow.
'Fuck, I'm a mess.'
Deciding against waking the sleeping intern, Alex slipped back out of the room, leaving the door open to avoid the risk of making any more noise. She found her phone on the end table by the couch and dialed Ben.
"Good morning, Alex," his cheerfulness this early in the morning made her want to wretch. He knew that she was far from a morning person, but he enjoyed annoying her with it anytime the chance presented itself.
"Hey," she said flatly, hearing a chuckle from the man, "I just thought I'd let you know that I'm taking Piper to a few of the other companies we consult with today," the young professional was being vague on purpose.
"Huh, not a bad idea, Vause," he responded, completely buying into her bullshit as she knew he would.
"It was actually something Piper brought up at our meeting yesterday," she falsely elaborated while walking toward the kitchen, "She's a smart kid. You should keep her resume around; give her a shot when she has her degree."
"I'll keep that in mind. I'll also assume that neither of you will be in the office today. See you at Rips tonight?" Fridays at the usual bar had been Alex's go-to activity to begin her weekend for quite some time now. It was the perfect mixture of alcohol, women, and people to fuck with, which was, in a sense, everything that the woman could ask for.
"Probably," Another lie. She wasn't going out tonight. No, she needed to figure out her current situation with the blonde intern, not complicate it further with something completely meaningless. "See you later," she ended the call before hearing Ben's response.
Alex sat the phone on the kitchen table and began making a pot of coffee, along with her usual bowl of cereal. She reached for a bowl from the cabinet and paused, her eyes focusing on nothing in particular as an idea popped into her mind.
"I wonder if we have any eggs...,"
Alex walked around her kitchen. From the outside, it seemed as though she was mindlessly making breakfast, quite possibly at peace with everything in her life. It was, in fact, quite the opposite.
There was something different about the tall, dark haired, career driven woman. Here she was, domestically making breakfast for herself and her hung over, still sleeping… something. Another question that would go unanswered for Alex, what was Piper?
There had yet to be any talk of feelings, or any talk of anything really. They had just been going back and forth, one would pull and the other would push; and so the cycle had continued since their meeting. Piper Chapman certainly wasn't a weak minded young woman. Alex had no problem flustering the girl and she quite prided herself for it, but she did have a fairly difficult time predicting the blonde's next move. She wasn't one that could just be stuck in a box and labeled, she was quite the enigma: sometimes fiery, sometimes shy, and sometimes absolutely fucking adorable. And other times-.
"FUCK!" Alex heard the loud yell come from her bedroom. It was followed by heavy footsteps clomping around her apartment like a beast let out of a tiny cage. "Alex, why didn't you wake me?!"
"Well, good morning to you, too," Alex smirked as she fought back a laugh while taking in the sight before her. Piper was breathing heavily as she looked wildly in all directions, clearly searching for something. Her hair was matted on one side of her head, while it was wild, free, and sticking up in ways hair shouldn't be able to stick without some sort of product on it. Her dress was twisted around her body in a way that looked painfully uncomfortable.
"Where's my phone? I have to call-," Piper's eyes grew wide. "Alex! Why are you here and not at work where I have to call you and tell you I'm late?"
"Piper, I-," the blonde cut her off, making Alex glare at her in response.
"Shit! Shit! I'm going to get fired, shit!"
"Pi-," she was cut off once more; Alex crossed her arms over her chest.
"I need a shower," the girl was frantic, and Alex decided it was about time to calm her down, "and clothes. Shi-,"
"Shut the fuck up for a second, kid!" Alex's raspy voice raised, clearly scaring Piper into a quiet stupor, at least for now. "Good, you're not going to work today-,"
"But-," Shit, this girl didn't know when to stop talking.
"Piper," Alex cut her off, pulling out a chair from the small wooden table in the more open area of the tiny kitchen. "Sit down, shut up, and eat the French toast."
"What about-,"
"French toast!" Alex commanded. Piper stood there, one hand on her hip while the other was pressed to her forehead.
"But, why-,"
That was the last straw. Alex walked around the stubborn woman and pushed her by her shoulders to the table. Once she finally got the blonde in the seat in front of a plate of French toast, she fixed her a cup of tea and placed it on the table.
"Good girl," she praised Piper for remaining seated as she took her own seat across from the blonde. "Now, are you going to be quiet while I explain?"
Piper took a bite of the warm, fluffy, syrup drenched toast and Alex grinned when she heard a deep, pleased groan exit the woman's full mouth. She nodded slowly as she cut into her next bite.
"You're at work," she nodded at Piper with her eyebrows raised, indicating that the woman should agree. "I called this morning and told Ben that we would be touring other companies in the area that we work closely with."
Some unintelligible statement came from Piper in return. Alex tilted her head to the side slightly, wanting to judge the woman hard core for trying to speak with her mouth full.
"Sorry," she swallowed finally, "Where are we going?"
"There are no companies around here that we work with," Alex explained, her expression unamused as she sipped at her cup of coffee from earlier that morning. "But, I know that Ben doesn't know that." The blonde's eyes squinted a bit, locked with Alex's eyes for a silent moment.
"You're fucking brilliant," Alex just smiled.
"I know."
Alex's fingers expertly tapped key after key on her laptop as she lay across the couch, her glasses pushed up into her hair and her ankles crossed over one another. Although she didn't go into the office today, she needed to get some work done. It was almost an obsessive compulsive action from her to work as much as possible, finding some sort of mind-calming peace out of drowning herself in a problem that didn't involve her social life directly.
After breakfast, Piper had gone to shower and Alex had given her permission to go through her room and find whatever clothes she thought would fit. They would be somewhat big on the woman, since Alex was a bit taller than she and had a bigger frame, but at least she would get out of the dress she wore the night before.
'Inevitable.'
The word crawled into her brain like a pest, squeezing in even when she thought she was able to squash it with work dominating the forefront of her mind. Nothing took the blonde haired woman out of her thoughts for very long, it seemed, if at all.
Alex shut her laptop off and carried it with her to her bedroom. The water had cut off some twenty minutes ago, so the editor assumed that Piper would be dressed by now. The door to her room was only cracked; she pushed it open with her shoulder.
It seemed that Piper had found a small pair of sleeping shorts and a tank top to wear. The tank was gray, plain in the front and designed in the back so that most of her skin was bare; the shorts were pale blue in color and came no further than a third of the way down the blonde's thigh.
Alex felt herself staring, gawking even, at the woman whose hips were swaying and rolling rhythmically to a song playing through the speakers on her phone as she folded up the red dress from the night before and put it on the now made up bed. Alex's senses were ignited, a burn traveling through her body and finally settling into a red hot flame in the pit of her stomach.
"Wherever you go, whatever you do, you know I will follow you down," Piper quietly sang the words as her eyes glanced up toward Alex. The dark haired woman swore she could feel the blue eyes skating up her body slowly before they finally were focused on her face. Piper was biting her lower lip, her eyes lowered and seductive as ever.
'Damn you.'
"Thanks for letting me stay here last night," Alex wanted to throw the words back into the girl's face, knowing that she knew what she was doing to the dark haired woman right now. Instead, she took a deep breath and placed her laptop on the nightstand.
"Anytime, kid," she said simply, before walking to the kitchen and gulping down a glass of ice water, tricking herself into believing that it would help.
"You know, we didn't really talk about anything at our meeting last night," Piper was now standing just inside the kitchen doorway, her arms crossed over her thin stomach.
"Is there something you wanted to discuss?" Alex calmed herself down and gave the blonde a false concerned look, "Complaints about your work environment, maybe?" Piper grinned.
"Besides the large, annoying prick that keeps warning me about my manager, and my manager bruising me with doors," a smirk pulled at the corner of her lips, "No, I don't have any complaints."
"For the record," Alex spoke in a serious tone, "you were in my way." Alex watched as the laughing Piper pulled out the chair she had been sitting in earlier and took a seat. She didn't follow, resolving to stay across the kitchen.
"Oh, but of course," the blonde rolled her eyes, "I want to discuss you."
Alex Vause wasn't one to discuss herself. Hell, she didn't like thinking about herself on her own. Her childhood hadn't exactly been a happy one, her teenage years were even worse. Beyond that, she had made her fair share of mistakes on her life's road so far. Those were her burdens to bare, however, and that wasn't about to change anytime soon.
"Well, ask away," she decided to humor the girl, finding her feet moving toward the table of their own free will and she sat across from Piper once more. If it became too personal, she could always deflect.
"Okay," Piper paused for a moment and Alex could tell she was thinking. She must not have thought Alex was going to give in to her interrogation so quickly. "You and Nicky, did you ever…?"
"Did I ever fuck Nicky?" Alex's words were cut off by laughter. She shook her head viciously, "No, I mean, not that I remember. We've done a lot of fucked up shit over the years," she shrugged, realizing that she really didn't know the truth to that question. They had woken up around each other after many drunken nights together, but neither ever remembered anything happening. "I guess it could've happened, but if it did it was while we were both heavily intoxicated."
A look of relief seemed to cross Piper's face, which made Alex laugh once again.
"Okay," Piper had her thinking face on again, "What the fuck happened to my ankle last night?"
"I honestly have no idea, kid. Wish I did. One minute, I'm downstairs cussing Fahri for not picking up his fucking phone and the next Nicky is helping you hobble down the stairs. I thought you were passed out still at the time." Alex explained everything she knew. Thankfully, by the time Nicky and Piper had reached her, Fahri had taken over the chaotic situation and they took their leave. "My turn."
"I can't believe you've never heard of Joan Jett. God, you are WASP-y," Alex laughed as she took in Piper's faux-hurt expression. The two had moved to the living room about an hour into Piper's questioning that turned into a conversation about pretty much anything and everything.
"Well, excuse me if I was a sheltered child," the blonde pouted. She was stretched out on the couch, her legs laying over Alex's lap where the black haired woman had placed them after they had become restless in their crunched up position. Alex's forearms rested upon them as she looked down toward Piper.
"I love rock and roll," Alex sang the lyrics in her raspy voice. She shook her head, chuckling, "that doesn't ring any bells?" The blonde just stared at her blankly.
"I was only allowed to listen to the music that my mom approved of," Piper threw her head back and pulled her hair into a ponytail over the edge of the couch. "I guess Joan wasn't on her list."
Alex glanced over to the clock on the wall, noticing that it was almost time for the office to close. She hadn't planned on going out with her colleagues tonight, but she would definitely be going if Piper wanted to go.
"So, Ben, Jerry, and a few other people are heading to Rips about now," she didn't have to finish her sentence, Piper already knew where it was heading. The woman popped up off the couch, clearly feeling much better after last night's fiasco, and held out her hand to Alex. The editor took it quickly, a familiar and now wonderful feeling of warmth shot through her palm as she did so. The two were on their way out the door when Piper's phone rang.
Alex held the door open for her as she looked at the screen. "Polly?" She sounded confused. Alex remained silent as they walked down the hallway to the elevator.
"Pol, what's-, what do you mean where am I?" Alex didn't want to pry, but she glanced at Piper long enough to conclude that she seemed both shocked and confused.
"When did you get here?!" Piper's eyes cut to Alex and she mouthed 'Fuck'. Alex stopped walking, causing Piper to stop and finish her phone call under Alex's concerned gaze. "Well I'm about to go out for drinks with my…," Piper was now looking directly at Alex, "manager," she finally decided, "and co-workers," Alex leaned her back against the wall and was surprised to watch Piper take a step toward her, closing their gap as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Fine, no stay there. I'll be there soon."
"Everything okay?" Alex asked when Piper pulled the phone away from her ear.
"Polly is at my apartment," her voice was filled with annoyance at the situation. "I'm sorry, but do you care to drop me off there?" Alex wanted to frown, but didn't and simply nodded, taking the girls hand and leading her to the open elevator.
"Sure, kid."
"Vause! Thought you weren't gonna show," Ben's voice carried through Rips over both the music and conversations of the many people using alcohol to blow off steam after a hard week's work.
Alex had dropped Piper off a little over an hour prior to her showing up at Rips. She wasn't really feeling the scene at all tonight, but knew that if she didn't show up to her usual ritual there would be more questions for her to deal with later.
"I was just finishing up some work," the editor lied to her boss for the third or fourth time today, she had honestly lost count at this point. He nodded, taking a long pull from his bottle. Alex took a seat around the booth with the rest of the people from her office.
"Where's the kid?" Jerry asked from across the table. Alex pretended not to know.
"Said she already had plans."
"Probably with Daniels again, I saw them talking yesterday," Alex kept her face as indifferent as stone, not wanting to give off any sense of any emotion toward the intern besides a friendly work relationship.
"It's a possibility," she agreed, the words tasting bitter on her tongue.
"Fuck, Daniels already got to her?" a man who was so unimportant around the office that Alex didn't know his name spoke up next. "She's a pretty girl, I was going to ask her to grab coffee with me sometime." Alex wanted to glare at him.
"I don't think Piper's your type," the words slipped out without her intending for them to leave the confinement of her mind. Curious eyes now stared at her from all directions.
'Fuck, now you've done it.'
"Oh yeah, what's my type?" the man became defensive.
"My best guess?" Alex looked across the bar and found the most plain, boring looking woman in the room, "Pant suit to your left: reserved, quiet, conservative, and boring as a fucking plank of wood."
The man's face grew the shade of a tomato that had been allowed to become much too ripe. He looked absolutely infuriated, and it pleased Alex to such an extent that the conversation about Piper left her mind for a moment.
"On an unrelated note," Ben cut in, Alex was sure he was trying to diffuse the tension between her and the tomato-faced man, "I'll bet 200 bucks that this girl right here can get any girl of your choosing to leave with her in less than half an hour."
The editor's eyes shot to look at Ben. He was referring to her and the crazy, red man when he spoke. Obviously, their boss had too much to drink already.
"What the fuck, Ben?' Alex said quite angrily.
"You're on," they were shaking on it.
'Fuck me.'
"Don't let me down, Vause," Ben's whisper in her ear made her shut her eyes in pure irritation. This was absolute bullshit. At least Piper wasn't here to see it; that would make this even more difficult.
"Fine. Pick my poison," the words left her mouth and cut at the man as she flagged down a waitress. "Can I get a shot of Makers?" the waitress nodded and turned to leave, "actually, bring the bottle."
'I'll need it.'
"My girl!" Ben yelled across the entire bar as a brunette, who just so happened to be a model, was being led out the back of the bar by Alex Vause, who shook her head as she watched tomato man place a wad of cash in Ben's outstretched palm.
After throwing back a couple of shots, giving her enough time to figure out how she was going to handle this situation, Alex had sauntered over to the woman and struck up a conversation with her. She made the model laugh with little to no effort, which put Alex at ease with her plan of action.
The model was very, for lack of better terms, dimwitted,and it had taken less than fifteen minutes for Alex to charm her and get her to follow her out of the bar with her. At least, charming was what everyone else saw from afar. When Alex went to whisper in her ear, something that looked extremely flirtatious, she had promised the girl a hundred dollar bill to go along with the bet for the sake of her friend.
Usually, Alex would've felt nothing against Ben for putting her up to it. She would've actually welcomed the challenge with open arms, won, and had a night filled with alcohol and a moaning, naked model in her apartment. She had no desire for that right now, however. All that Alex wanted to do was go home and relax, and possibly even talk to Piper later.
Nothing ever worked out the way Alex planned for it to.
They reached the back door, where Alex pushed it open and held it for the brunette to pass through first. On the contrary, the door was opened to reveal two women who were about to enter the bar. One was a short brunette with a fair complexion. The other was Piper.
"Fuck," Alex's eyes glanced between all three women, whose eyes were all fixed on her, and cue-ball who was looking especially interested in the scene. "Fuck."
A/N: And so ends chapter 9, which was very Alex-centric. I apologize once again for the time it took to post this chapter (I've rewritten it twice now). I hope you all enjoy it! I will be posting at least one more chapter by Monday. Actually aiming for two over the weekend (was going to start tonight, but since I have to be at work in a few hours I should probably sleep). Please review and let me know what you think! Thank you for all the wonderful words so far and for the continued interest! I really appreciate each and every one of you.
Also, if you're interested in reading some short fics or wondering when I plan on updating, I have a tumblr dedicated to my fanfiction works now. I'll usually post a daily update on progress for this story and I may start to hint at another story I'm about to start working on (OITNB related, of course). Check it out if you'd like, the link is on my profile.
