Chapter 18: Who is that guy?
When Piper arrived home she found her mom in the kitchen. She saw her taking a sip out of a glass but Carol hid it as soon as she noticed Piper coming in. Her daughter however had a rough idea that the glass most likely contained alcohol.
"Where have you been, Piper?" Carol asked and Piper heard how the alcohol had made her tongue heavy.
"Doing homework with one of my classmates. It was an assignment for two." she told her mother. It was only partially lied but her mom seemed to believe her so she went upstairs to her room.
It was pretty late in the evening, her dad still wasn't home and Piper wondered if he had another of his business dinners. Piper knew that her dad had been cheating on her mother in the past and wondered if this was what her mother obviously being upset and her father still not being home meant. She remembered seeing him that one time when she went to see that movie with Sara. She decided not to worry about it anymore and read a bit instead.
The next days she was busy with different things and didn't see Alex very often. They texted though and Piper paid attention to not read Alex's text or text her while Carol was close because she knew she had problems not to show her happiness and didn't want her mother to ask questions why she was smiling while texting.
"Hey, if you want to keep it secret, stop smiling like a madwoman every time you get a text." Cal said, who obviously noticed.
"I'm trying. Guess why I never read my texts or text while mom is around?!" Piper gave back.
"Good choice. But if you need someone to teach you how to hold up a poker face…" Cal alluded.
"How would you know?" Piper asked unbelievingly.
"Games with friends?!" Cal answered.
"Really?!" Piper looked at him surprised.
"What should be wrong about that?" Cal asked.
"Nothing. It just didn't seem to be a game one of your age would be playing." Piper replied. "Plus, I don't think mom would say it's a good idea."
"Everyone needs to have a secret passion. You've got your girlfriend and I have poker. And I don't think that mom would say dating Alex is a good idea either." he argued.
"Touché." Piper chuckled.
"Piper. Can I talk to you?" her mother shouted from the kitchen.
Piper's eyes went wide and she looked shocked. She didn't notice anything, did she? Piper had been very careful around her.
"Sh. Calm down, I guess it's nothing. When did she ever notice anything about how things are going for us?" Cal asked. "It's not like she is very perceptive or even cares about that."
Piper knew he was right. She was relieved that it was rather unlikely that her mom had noticed something but it made her sad that her mother didn't really care about what happened in their lives.
"What is it mom?" Piper asked when entering the kitchen.
"I just wanted to have a little chat with you." she started but clearly she had something in mind.
"Okay. about what, exactly?" Piper asked curiously.
"Well actually I wanted to inform you that I asked the Wiley's over for dinner this Friday and their son, he's about your age, is coming too. So I wanted you to know I want you to be there. Maybe you and Michael can talk a bit. Maybe you'll like him." Carol told her.
"Mom, I don't need you to set me up with someone if that's what this is about." Piper said a little shocked. She really didn't feel like getting to know anyone, not like this, and especially not with her mother's intention of getting her a boyfriend behind it.
"You will be there Piper. The Wiley's are a good and respected family. It will be good for us to connect with them." Carol explained.
"Urgh. Then you make friends with Mrs. Wiley. You don't need me to be Michael's girlfriend - is that what you intend with that?" Piper felt her anger rise.
"No need for a tone like that. And it wouldn't hurt you to give that boy a chance." Carol insisted.
"What if I already got someone that I like?" Piper asked her mom.
"That would be new to me. Is there someone? Please introduce him to us." her mother seemed surprised.
"More hypothetically." Piper tracked back. "I still can do that by myself. I don't need you setting up anything for me!"
"Dinner Friday is set and you will be there. No more discussion." Carol stated and turned away signaling Piper the end of conversation. It made Piper mad and angry. She had to get out, she couldn't stay with her mother at this moment. She grabbed her jacket and went outside and started walking. She didn't really have a set destination where she was headed but somehow found herself standing in front of the Vause's house. Obviously her subconscious had led her to Alex. She knocked and Diane opened.
"Piper! Alex didn't say anything about you coming over." she looked very surprised.
"Yeah, she didn't know and it wasn't actually intended, if that makes sense?! I just started walking and found myself right here." Piper tried to explain and Diane could see that she was upset about something.
"Well, come in. Alex isn't home at the moment but she should be back in about half an hour." Diane explained.
"It's okay, I can wait." Piper replied.
"What's up? Something is bothering you, I can see it." Diane gently. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Trouble with my mom. And thanks, but not right now." Piper replied and looked pretty devastated.
"I'll make you a cup of tea and whenever you are ready to talk about it you can come to me, okay?" Diane offered.
"Thank you." Piper smiled weakly at her. She sat there for a while. A bit later she heard the door open and hoped it was Alex. Diane saw Piper perking up a little from her down mood and was fascinated that her daughter caused that reaction.
"Piper!" Alex shouted when she saw her sitting on the couch. She gave her a big smile which seemed to lift Piper's mood a little but as soon as she saw the distress in Piper's eyes she asked "What's wrong Pipes?" she looked at her worried.
"My mom…" she answered. "Can we go to your room?" she asked quietly.
"Sure." Alex took Piper's hand and they went to her room.
"This is unexpected. But a good surprise." Alex said when they sat down. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"I hate this!" Piper felt herself getting angry. Alex was shocked a little - she didn't mean… "I mean that I can't tell her about us. And now she planned a stupid dinner on Friday and invited some of their friends." Piper stopped.
"And that made you angry for what reason?" Alex asked.
"Because she forces me to be there! And she didn't invite the Wiley for no reason. They're bringing their son Michael who is apparently my age and he's the reason my mother invited them." Piper told her "Can you guess what she's up to?"
"Woah. What? Is she trying to set you up with that guy?" Alex looked at her shocked.
"According to her it wouldn't hurt to give him a chance because he's from a good family and it would be good for our family." Piper was clearly annoyed.
"What are you going to do?" Alex asked her.
"Well I can't not be there, mom made that very clear. I'll either have to endure this dinner or get really sick until then so I can stay in my room." Piper listed her options.
"You could fake to have a bad headache and feeling sick, cause you ate something wrong?" Alex proposed.
"I could try. I don't want to do this dinner." Piper said and leant into Alex. Alex hugged her and as always Piper felt a lot calmer in her arms.
"I have the feeling though, even if you manage to skip this dinner your mom won't set up more of these." Alex said.
"I got that feeling too. But I can't tell her about us, Al. I wish I could. I really do. Then all this trouble would be over. But I'm scared of the consequences." Piper replied almost mumbling it into Alex's crook of the neck as her head laid on Alex's shoulder.
"It's okay, Pipes. I totally understand that. I wouldn't either." Alex told her reassuringly and added half jokingly "Just promise me you won't ditch me for some stupid rich guy."
"Never!" Piper exclaimed. "I wouldn't. I love you." she hadn't thought about it. It was the first time she said those three words and for a moment she was shocked that they came out by accident, but it was the truth and she didn't regret saying it even though it wasn't planned.
"You do?" Alex was surprised by those words too. Her heart was beating so fast she couldn't believe she just heard Piper say it. "I love you too." she replied, not because she felt it was necessary after Piper said it but because it was true.
"Yes. I do. Believe me. I wouldn't do anything to sabotage this. I am so happy that we're together. I don't want to be with anyone else." Piper replied feeling excited too about hearing those three little words from Alex too. She looked at her and smiled. They moved closer and shared a sweet but very emotional kiss.
XXXXX
Friday was getting closer and Piper dreaded the dinner more and more. She had eventually come to the point that she wouldn't be able to fake being sick and would have to play along for the evening. Maybe SOMETHING good would come out of the evening. One shouldn't lose hope, right?
Piper was in her room and dressed for the dinner when she got a text. She looked at her phone and was happy to see that her girlfriend had texted her.
[Alex: Ready for the dinner or do you try to fake sickness?]
[Piper: Nah. I'll somehow try to survive the dinner.]
[Alex: Good luck then. I'm here if you need to talk.]
[Piper: Thanks. I love you.]
[Alex: I love you too]
When she was ready she went downstairs to greet the guests when they arrived. Piper intended to be the good daughter her parents expected her to be for tonight. She'd play along and hopefully things would get easier after that. Indeed the Wiley's arrived soon enough. They exchanged the usual welcomes and greetings and soon found themselves sitting at the dinner table. While they ate the topics were the typical things her mother usually talked about with her friends from her country club. Piper noticed that Michael next to her look as bored as she did. She decided to put both of them out of misery by starting a conversation.
"What did your parents force you with to come to a boring dinner like this?" she asked.
"Long story. But I learnt that it makes my life easier if I just play along and they'll leave me alone." Michael answered.
"Yeah, same here." Piper chuckled.
"You didn't have a choice as your parents host this dinner, right?" Michael asked.
"Well I could have faked a weird headache." Piper laughed. Somehow how he asked and said things had a weird twist to it so she felt at ease.
"I should have come up with an easy idea like that. Then I could be at home right now and do what I want." he seemed shocked he hadn't had an idea like that. "Why can't I be so clever?!"
"Well thanks for saving me from this. I am really not interested in the country club gossip." Piper replied.
"You're welcome." he smiled at her. "And it was you who started the conversation. So I should be thanking you."
Soon they were done with dinner and their parents moved to the living room.
"Do you want to join them?" Piper asked.
"Not really." was his answer.
"How about we go outside into the garden?" Piper suggested.
"Sure." he agreed.
Once they were outside both felt more relieved and free. No parents' ears listening in on what they said.
"It's nice and refreshing, isn't it?" he asked.
"Yeah. I need to tell you something though." Piper started. She wanted to make things clear so there weren't any misunderstandings.
"Shoot. I'm listening." he looked at her curiously.
"I know our parents really set this up so we get to know each other and maybe become boyfriend and girlfriend." he looked shocked. "What? It was obvious?!" Piper added, she couldn't believe he didn't see through their parents intention.
"Oh damn. I should have noticed that." he looked a little embarrassed.
"Well, anyway. I need you to know this isn't going to happen. My parents don't know it, and I have no intention of telling them soon, but I'm already dating someone." Piper told him directly.
"Alright. That's absolutely cool. You're nice and all, but I'm not really interested." Michael replied. "You want to know why?" Piper nodded and he whispered his answer into her ear. She was a little surprised, but didn't show it. He quietly added a "But please don't tell my parents."
"I promise, I won't. Okay, well then that's settled." Piper gave a small smile.
"Guess it is." Michael just returned.
"Do you think they will stop that, if we protest hard enough? Setting us up with other people?" Piper asked out loud.
"I don't know. So far I didn't have an idea that that was what's happening tonight. But I don't believe so." he scrunched his face as he realized that.
Piper seemed to think about it for a bit. "I might have a solution for that."
"What do you suggest?" he looked at her curious.
XXXXX
The following sunday Piper and Alex hung out and talked. Alex of course wanted to know how the dinner went on Friday. Piper didn't go into detail too much and just told Alex that it wasn't as boring as she thought it would and that she and Michael understood each other pretty well but they made it clear they weren't interested in anything closer.
Tuesday during lunch break Piper sat with Alex, Polly and Scott and ate her lunch.
"Hey. Would you like to go see 'Lost in the woods' tonight? I think it just came to cinemas last week and it sounds cool." Alex asked Piper.
"Can we do that tomorrow? I, uhm, I promised Michael to hang out." Piper said.
"Really?" Alex was surprised by that statement but added a mumbled "Sure, we can go tomorrow."
Piper of course noticed the change in her girlfriend's mood. Was this jealousy? No. Alex wouldn't get jealous.
"If you want you can come?!" Piper offered.
"Nah, thanks. I'm good." Alex replied. "I gotta go." she said and got up to empty her tray and left the cafeteria.
"Who is Michael and why is Alex so upset about you hanging out?" Polly asked her and Piper told her about the dinner on Friday and the agreement that she and Michael had made.
Meanwhile Alex found Nicky outside, one of the few times she found her friend not in a corner making out with her girlfriend.
"Hey, what's up, Vause? Trouble in paradise?" Nicky asked her.
"Hi, I don't know. Piper had this dinner on Friday where her parents tried to set her up with that guy from some fancy family. And she said they got along well and agreed that they weren't interested in going along with their parents plan. And now she's hanging out with that guy." Alex let out a frustrated sigh.
"And you are jealous, because you think he lied about not being interested?" Nicky wondered. She hadn't seen her friend like this.
"I'm not jealous!" Alex denied. "And please, who wouldn't be interested? Have you seen Piper? She is so beautiful, she's smart and kind and funny."
"I get that. But it really sounds like you're jealous. Maybe it's nothing. Talk to her about it." Nicky suggested.
"Yeah, who knows, right?" Alex replied still a bit upset.
Alex calmed down a little over the next few days and told herself that nothing happened between Michael and Piper and that she was just overreacting. But when she asked Piper to hang out on saturday and she got the same answer that Piper was already hanging out with Michael the anger and - she eventually admitted it - jealousy returned. Piper offered again that Alex could come, but Alex again declined.
Saturday afternoon Alex decided to go through the park as she really needed to get out of the house. She was still upset about Piper. When she got there she saw Piper walking through the park with whom she guessed was Michael. Even she had to admit that he was a pretty handsome guy which made her even more angry. They weren't walking too close but anything so close to Piper was not okay with Alex. She was a little surprised about herself. She'd never thought she'd ever be so possessive and jealous. But she was scared to loose Piper. With adrenaline fueling her anger she went up to them.
"Do you think what you're doing is right? Walking through this park and chatting like you're on a happy date?" she asked furiously.
"Alex. What…" Piper looked surprised. So surprised even she couldn't reply.
"Don't, Piper." she turned to Michael who looked at her surprised and a little shocked. "Did she tell you she had a girlfriend?"
"Uhm, yes. She did." he said almost defensively. "You must be Alex then." he held out a hand. Now it was Alex's turn to be surprised. "It is nice to finally meet the girl Piper can't shut up about."
"Oh. Then what is this?" she wanted to know.
"We made an arrangement to get our parents off our backs. Didn't you tell her?" Michael turned to Piper.
"I thought I did. But I must have forgotten an important part obviously." Piper seemed in thought. "Is this why you were grumpy all week? Because you thought there was something between Michael and I?" she asked Alex.
"Damn. I feel so stupid. I'm sorry." Alex was suddenly pretty nervous.
"It's okay, Alex. I'm sorry I obviously didn't tell you everything, I thought I did, and if the things were turned around my reaction would probably have been the same." Piper apologized. She stepped closer to Alex. "Are we okay?" Alex nodded and Piper happily threw her arms around her neck and kissed her tenderly.
"So would anybody tell me what this 'arrangement' is about?" Alex asked after they parted.
Piper told her. "Well, the evening of the dinner we talked for a while and while we got along quite well we both knew we weren't interested in each other romantically. We both also figured, that if we told our parents that, they wouldn't stop from trying to set us up with more people and that wouldn't make things easier. So we agreed to play fake boy- and girlfriend for our parents. I'm sorry I really thought I had said something about that on sunday but I obviously thought about how I would tell you so much that I thought I actually did." Piper looked at her with a very apologetic look.
"I forgive you. It wasn't the best week I've had, but you're forgiven. Just don't do that again, okay?" Alex smiled at her.
"I promise, I won't." Piper smiled back. "I love you."
"I love you too." Alex returned and kissed Piper sweetly.
"Ah, you lovebirds. You make me jealous." Michael mockingly complained from behind.
"Then get yourself a girlfriend." Alex suggested.
"Yeah. That's never going to happen." he chuckled.
"What? Why?" Alex looked at him surprised. "I doubt you have problems finding one."
"Yeah that's not the problem. The 'problem' there is: I am gay. So... " he replied.
"Oh. Okay." now Alex felt even more stupid and embarrassed for thinking that he wanted to steal her girlfriend. "I didn't know. Well then let's find you a boyfriend."
"As if that's so easy. You don't know who is gay. At this age most guys aren't out yet. I haven't told my parents which is one of the reasons why I agreed with Piper to fake a relationship. She seems to be in the same situation. How about you? Did you come out?" he asked Alex.
"Uhm, yes. First there was a rumour going around at school, so most people know there, and I told my parents about a year ago." Alex told him.
"Wow. That's brave. You must have a good relation to your parents, I guess." he sounded a bit envious. "Plus very accepting parents."
"Yeah. The best I could." Alex said almost proudly.
They kept talking about Piper and her growing up together and how Piper's parents found out about Alex being gay and the troubles following after. When it got later Michael said goodbye and Alex and Piper walked home. When they reached the Vause's house they stood in front of the door. Piper had to go home and even though it was time both girls didn't want to part.
"I'm sorry again, for thinking you would go out with him, when you promise you wouldn't." Alex said sounding rather insecure.
"Well, I hoped you'd trust me, but I gotta say sorry too for failing to tell you everything. I guess we both made a mistake. But it makes me kinda happy, we sorted it." she smiled at Alex.
"Yeah, me too. You are so beautiful and amazing that I sometimes fear I might lose you." Alex silently admitted and Piper was surprised to see her girlfriend so vulnerable.
"Alex. You don't have to be afraid. I love you. You are all I want. Nobody knows and understands me better than you do, nobody makes me feel the way I feel about you. You're the smartest, kindest, bravest and most loveable person I know. And I could add so many more amazing things to that list. Trust me, I'm the lucky girl that you want to be with me." Piper told her looking in her eyes and seeing the insecurity turning into love.
"Wow. I love you too, Pipes. I don't even know what to say…" she was truly speechless.
"You don't need to." Piper replied she leant in and they shared a very emotional kiss.
"I'll see you monday at school, I guess?" Alex asked. "Or hang out tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I wish we could see each other tomorrow, but my mom promised my grandma we'd all come to see her." Piper replied.
"It's okay. Have a great day with you grandma." Alex smiled.
"Thank you." Piper smiled back. They said goodbye and Piper walked home.
Alex turned to go inside but when she opened the door she ran into her mom.
"Oh, hey." she exclaimed surprised. Then she saw the tears in her mother's eyes. She looked rather happy. Why was she crying? "Is everything alright?"
"Yes. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to listen in on you two. I was about to bring the trash out" she held up the bags in her hand. "when I heard you two talking outside. I didn't want to interrupt your moment, so I waited."
"Why are you crying then?" Alex was surprised.
"I'm just so happy for you. You both are so amazing together. And hearing Piper say those things I couldn't stop myself. I am so happy that you have someone who loves you like that. And even more because Piper is an amazing girl."
"Thanks mom. And yes, I feel like the luckiest and happiest girl on this planet." Alex smiled so widely that her cheeks hurt.