Happy New Year everyone. Time to celebrate! Here is the next chapter.
Chapter 15: Confessions
Finally the day arrived and it was time for the spring party. Piper took her time to get ready. She got in her dress and put a little bit of makeup on. She didn't want to do too much as she barely ever wore any and she didn't want to overdo it. When she was done she looked in the mirror and was quite satisfied with her work. It was about time to leave to pick up Alex. Luckily they had everything in walking distance so she wasn't dependent on her parents or anyone else driving them. She could have asked Danny who was currently home for spring break as he was in college now and not living at home anymore but she didn't really want to involve him so she walked to the Vauses and she and Alex would walk to their school together. She arrived at the Vauses and rung. It was Diane who opened.
"Hi Piper. Woah. Great dress. You look beautiful, darling." she greeted her with a big smile.
"Thank you. Is Alex ready?" she asked. She couldn't wait to see her.
"I think in a minute." Diane smiled. "Come on in." she loved the fact that Piper didn't give in to her mother asking her to stay away. She wondered if there was more going on between the two of them than she knew. She knew about her daughters feelings for her friend but didn't know where Piper stood. But she hoped if there was something they wanted to tell her they'd come to her. She wouldn't push anyone.
"Alex, Piper is here." she shouted to let her know.
"I'll be there in a minute." the answer came back quite soon.
Piper didn't have to wait long for Alex to come out of her room. Piper's eyes went wide and her breath was taken away when she saw Alex walking towards her. She looked amazing. She smiled at her, at least she tried, she was completely enamored by Alex's appearance. Diane silently watched the interaction and was sure there was something.
"Hi." Piper said breathlessly. Had she been holding her breath without noticing?
"Hi." Alex said and chuckled. "You look beautiful, Piper." she managed to say. She too was taken aback by her friend's beauty.
"Y-You t-too." Piper stammered and blushed.
'God those two are cute.' Diane smiled secretly watching the two girls unobtrusively.
"Ready?" Alex asked.
"Definitely." Piper said trying to escape the situation.
"Bye, Diane." "Bye, mom." they said while leaving.
"Bye. Have fun girls!" Diane shouted after them and got a loud unisono "Thanks." back and heard the girls giggle.
"Please tell me what happened the other day?!" Alex begged as they were walking towards the school.
"Can we do that later?" Piper asked. "I don't want to ruin the evening."
"We won't let that happen. But I couldn't think about anything else the last couple of days." Alex didn't let go.
"Really? Ugh I don't know." Piper said reluctantly. Then they heard their names from behind and saw Nicky coming towards them. Somehow Piper was pretty relieved that Nicky interrupted the conversation.
"Hey Nicky." they greeted her.
"Hey guys. Before we're there, let me introduce you. Alex, Piper this is my girlfriend, Lorna. Lorna those are my two best friends Alex and Piper." she pointed to everyone making the introduction.
"Hello Lorna, it's nice to meet you." Alex said and held out her hand.
"Same. Nicky talks about you two all the time." the shorter brunette said.
"Hi Lorna. It's nice to finally have a face to the person she can't stop talking about." Piper replied.
"Nice to meet you too." she agreed.
"Chapman watch your tongue or I might say a few words who you can't shut up talking about." Nicky warned. Piper shot her daggers with her eyes.
Alex looked at her surprised. She had no idea there was someone Piper liked. "What?" she asked incredulously.
"What are you talking about? Nicky is just joking." 'shut up.' she mouthed to Nicky.
"Ah, right, jokes are my area of expertise, you see." Nicky added.
"Shall we go in?" Lorna asked to break the weird tension. They had arrived at the school.
"Sure." Piper quickly agreed and started walking.
They party was just as the fall version nicely decorated. This time with early flowering plants like snowdrops and daffodils and trees. The music was already playing and the group soon joined the other student's on the dancefloor. A while after they had arrived Piper saw Polly come in together with Scott. She shortly went over to say hi and offered them to come over to dance with them but they wanted to get something to drink first. So Piper went back to Alex, Nicky and Lorna on the dancefloor. They were dancing for a while and Piper tried not to stare but she liked watching Alex dance. She seemed to be completely lost in the music and she loved the way she danced. Nicky mouthed to her 'Tell her!' but Piper just shook her head. She couldn't. Too risky.
"Want to go outside and get some fresh air?" Alex asked after they had been dancing for a while.
"Oh yes. Good idea." Piper quickly agreed. Funny that this party progressed so close to the last one but then felt completely different. She felt better and more comfortable this time with Alex around.
"Oh god. Air." Alex exclaimed as soon as she was outside the building.
Piper laughed. "It's nice, isn't it?"
"More than that." Alex said. "Come, will you walk a bit with me?"
"Sure." Piper replied. For a while nobody said anything and Piper eventually decided to tell Alex about what had happened about two weeks ago.
"Do you know Jeremy Thompson, I think he's in the same class as Nicky?!" she asked.
"Uh, yeah. Why?" Alex asked already fearing that Piper would tell her she had the biggest crush on that guy.
"Well, his parents were over that evening when we did that movie night and couldn't do it at my home, because my mom had friends from her country club over." she started.
"Okay. And why are you telling me this?" Alex wondered.
"I'm not done yet. You wanted to know what happened. I know you noticed that something was bothering me after that and I probably should have told you about that. It's actually the same reason your mom had that fight with Carol." Piper explained.
Alex chuckled. "Still calling her Carol?"
"She is still behaving like an idiot that I don't really want my mother to be, so yes." Piper answered.
"I'm sorry to hear that. Keep telling me, please." Alex asked.
"Yeah. Well Jeremy told his parents about the rumour or whatever that went around at school that you liked girls and I don't know how they came to talk about it but the Thompsons told my parents and the basic line is: Carol is a homophobic idiot." Piper ended. She didn't want to go into detail too much.
"Oh shit." Alex replied. She didn't know what to say.
"You could say that." Piper chuckled. "However them telling her was the reason she actually made me go home that evening. She actually told me I shouldn't see you again, you would be a bad influence."
"Wow. I'm getting more speechless every second." Alex explained her silence.
"You don't have to say anything. I know this is weird and all, but you wanted to know. I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want to hurt you. It hurts me to hear her say so mean things about you and she knows you're nothing like what she says." Piper said with a lump in her throat and feeling tears in the corner of her eyes.
"I wouldn't have thought Carol would be like that." Alex said feeling bad seeing Piper so upset. "But thank you for not listening to her." she quietly added and Piper first saw Alex so vulnerable.
"I could never not see you. Alex." she ensured her. "You're the most important person in my life." she added.
"I .. You are too, you know? The most important person to me" Alex answered, trying to figure out if she should just take the risk and tell Piper about her feelings. Hearing her say all that and her still being here with her even though she had to go through all this trouble with her mother made her only fall even more in love with Piper.
"Really?" Piper said unbelievingly. Alex nodded. Piper eventually collected all the courage she had. "I, uhm, I … god I don't know how to do this." she chuckled under her tears. She had never been this nervous. "You know, Nicky wasn't joking earlier?! There is someone I like, or I think I've fallen in love with." Piper started slowly. Alex's throat felt constricted. "I just haven't been brave enough to do something about it. Alex, I think, I uhm, I am in love with you." she stumbled the last bit. Alex was speechless. Was this a dream? "It's probably completely stupid." Piper backtracked anxiously. "I shouldn't have said anything."
"No. Don't say that." Alex quickly intervened. "I, wow. I've dreamt of this day." she had to laugh while tears ran down her face. She was so happy. "I've been wanting to tell you that too. For soo long. But I didn't want to ruin our friendship. I'm in love with you too."
"Really?" Piper exclaimed excitedly.
"Yeah." Alex answered and moved closer. They both leaned in and finally shared their first kiss. It was sweet and quite salty as both girls were crying, happy tears, but still.
"Oh my god. This is like the best day of my life." Piper said shortly after they broke apart.
"They best day of our lives." Alex beamed at her. They kissed again both giggling.
"Finally I can do that." Alex said.
"For how long did you want to do that?" Piper wanted to know.
"Since shortly after the fall party." Alex quietly admitted.
"Damnit. We could have been doing this for so much longer!" Piper exclaimed.
"Why since when?" Alex was curious.
"Okay well I first had this feeling after the New Year's Eve party. But I wasn't sure and I first tried to ignore it, I mean, we've been friends for all our life. But well at some point I had to admit to myself that I had this crush on you and recently it actually turned into more than that. But I didn't want to ruin anything if you didn't like me like that." Piper explained.
"Oh dear. Guess we were both too scared." they both laughed. "But it doesn't matter. We got there eventually." Alex finished and kissed Piper again. She never wanted to stop. She would gladly do that for the rest of her life. They kept sitting there for a while both not saying anything but beaming with happiness that it was out and the other felt like they did.
Polly, still inside the gym building dancing with her boyfriend, had noticed that Piper had gone outside. She remembered Alex's warning vividly, but Piper came here with Alex so this time it was her turn to have an eye over her friend. Not that Polly didn't check on her every now and then. But she saw Piper leaving with Alex and didn't think she'd have to go after them.
"Do you want to stay here longer or go back inside?" Alex asked after a while.
"Uhm, I think I want to go back in, I'm starting to freeze a little." Piper replied her eyes still beaming with happiness.
"Me too actually. So let's go in." Alex smiled at her.
"Al?" Piper said reluctantly.
"What is it Pipes?" Alex anxiously asked. She already thought maybe Piper had changed her mind.
"Uhm, could we keep this to us for now? I mean I'm super happy that you feel how I do, but I …" Piper started.
"You don't want anyone to know yet." Alex concluded.
"Would that be okay? I just don't know if I'm ready for anyone to know yet and that it makes its way to my parents and…" Piper started rambling which Alex found pretty cute.
"It's okay, Pipes. I think it's better too for now. I want you all to myself." Alex replied and pulled Piper into her. Piper smiled widely and they went inside.
The found Nicky and Lorna dancing and joined them. Nicky looked at them suspiciously but didn't say anything. With the loud music a conversation would have been impossible anyway. Quite some time later Nicky said goodbye and that Lorna wanted to go home and that she'd bring her home. She again didn't say anything but they figured she had an idea. Obviously neither of them could hide their feelings well. It was a surprise they kept it hidden from each other for so long. Eventually they decided to leave too. Piper went over to Polly quickly to say goodbye.
"You're leaving already?" Polly was surprised. "I thought you had fun."
"I did. But I want to go home now." Piper replied.
"What is going on? There is something about you?!" Polly noticed but couldn't quite place it.
"Nothing. Later okay?" Piper avoided answering right now.
"Okay. See you Monday then?" Polly wanted to know.
"Sure. Bye." Piper waved and walked towards Alex who was waiting for her close to the door.
"Ready to go?" Alex asked.
"Yes." Piper smiled widely.
They started walking and after a while Piper took Alex's hand. Alex smiled widely at the gesture. Her heart jumped and she felt even more excited than before.
"I thought you didn't want anyone to know yet. If anyone sees that, you know how they are…" Alex started. "Not that I don't like it, I just don't want things to happen you're not ready for."
"That's very thoughtful. But not many people walk this way, most get picked up anyway. And well if someone sees then let it happen." Piper replied and smiled at her.
"Okay." Alex smiled back. She felt like her birthday and Christmas happened to be on this day, she couldn't really describe how happy she felt. They kept walking silently until they reached the house where Alex's family lived. Alex was about to go in thinking Piper would of course come in too when Piper stopped her.
"Al, as much as I want to, I think I need to go home tonight." she told her, her face turning sad.
"Oh. Okay. Why can't you stay over?" Alex wanted to know. She didn't want Piper to leave.
"I would love to but my mom…" she started. "I'm scared that one day she'll do something that I can't do anything about and I can't see you anymore. I'm okay with her being mad at me but I don't want to exhaust her ignorance too much." she explained her sadness audible.
"I get that. I wouldn't want that either. I would like to keep seeing you." Alex smiled at her hopefully but with a hint of sadness.
"I can't even describe how happy this evening has made me. Or rather you. And I am so sorry I have to go home. But we could do something together tomorrow?!" Piper offered.
"I would like that." Alex smiled.
"Then I'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait." Piper said sweetly.
"I'll go to sleep immediately, or at least try. So that it is tomorrow as soon as possible." Alex replied.
"Wow. I didn't now you could be such a softy." Piper chuckled. "But I keep learning. And I like it." she added.
"Only for you, so you can't tell anyone." Alex replied a little cocky.
"I won't." Piper replied. Both girls kept looking for something to keep standing there and not part yet. They however knew the moment was coming.
Alex moved closer to Piper and kissed her. Both girls were still completely entranced by the fireworks inside them whenever they touched or kissed. It was a sweet goodbye, knowing they'd see each other the next day.
Alex went in and found her mom sitting at the couch. She looked up when she heard someone come in. She saw Alex and smiled at her but her look quickly turned into a questioning one when she didn't see Piper coming in too.
"Hey. Did you have fun? Where is Piper?" Diane asked.
"I had the best day of my life!" Alex said excitedly. She couldn't hide it and was so excited that she went over and hugged her mom tightly. Diane felt the happiness radiating from her daughter and felt happy immediately herself. "Oh, and Piper had to go home. She's scared her mother will do something if she exhausts her mom's ignorance of her having contact with me. But we agreed to see each other tomorrow."
"That's great. Well not that Piper had to go home. But that you had such a great evening. Does that mean she likes you too?" Diane cautiously asked.
"Uh, wait?! Since when do you know it is Piper I was talking about? I paid so much attention to never saying it was her I had a crush on?!" Alex was surprised and loosened the hug but again it was proved she couldn't hide things from her mother.
"Well, I had my suspicions but wasn't really sure. When you did the movie evening you two were closer than I've seen you before. But when Piper picked you up today I was sure about it. The way you two looked at each other was nothing like friends would really do." Diane chuckled.
"Yeah, well. Until today actually we were both too scared to ruin everything if the other didn't like one like that but we talked and eventually Piper found the courage to tell me and it was like a dream finally came true. I can't even describe how happy I am right now." Alex beamed.
"I am so happy for you." Diane smiled widely and pulled her daughter into another hug.
"Thanks. I'm gonna go to bed now. Hoping it is tomorrow soon. I doubt though that I'm able to fall asleep." Alex rambled and went to her room.
"Goodnight honey!" Diane shouted after her.
"What's going on, hon?" Louis asked her coming into the living room. "Alex just passed me in the hallway grinning like a Cheshire cat."
"First love. Her crush actually made the first step and told her she liked her." Diane said feeling emotional too now.
"Really? Who is it?" Louis wanted to know.
"You'll never guess… It's Piper." Diane replied with a big smile.
"Piper? Her best friend, like a sister Piper?" he was surprised.
"Yeah. I actually had my suspicions it was her for a while but today when she picked her up I was sure. And now she just told me. God I hope this ends well though." Diane said.
"Wow. I had no idea to be honest. But I'm happy for her. I knew she had a crush and you told me about it, but wow." Louis replied. "Well, I think it's great. Piper is such a nice and kind girl. I couldn't wish for anyone better fitting for our daughter. Do you doubt this ends well?" Louis wondered.
"Well love isn't always easy. But I think those two always had a special connection that no one else really understood." Diane replied.
XXXXX
When Piper arrived home her mom had been waiting for her, just as she expected.
"Hello, darling. How was the party?" she asked to draw the attention to her.
"It was good. We had a lot of fun." she told her and it made her sad she couldn't tell her everything. She actually just wanted to scream out to the world how happy she was.
"Great. You're going to bed now?" her mother wanted to know.
"Yeah. It's kinda late and I'm exhausted from all the dancing." Piper replied.
"Goodnight, honey." Carol said and watched her daughter go upstairs.
"Goodnight, mom." Piper replied and disappeared into her room.
Alex and Piper now lay both in their respective beds and thought back to the course of the evening. How both had been lost seeing the other dressed up and looking so beautiful, to the dancing and most important to their moment outside talking about Carol's and Diane's fight first and that leading to Piper telling Alex she liked her more than a friend. It made both girls very excited. They couldn't wait to see each other the next day and both tried to sleep but had a big problem to actually fall asleep to to their excitement and giddiness. At some point the need for sleep overwhelmed both of them and they both had similar dreams based on the developments of the evening before.