Is this the right thing to do?
Can you live with yourself?
Is this really love that has destroyed me?
"A fool in love often stoops to do unreasonable things to maintain equilibrium in their chaotic environment." TheClownAreThere.
Chapter 1: Vacation.
Piper sat back against the scraggly leather of seat as the drivers forged on through the scalding heat.
Thank God she was finally out of the states. After having to write and defend her thesis after years after year of pressing chemistry courses all she needed was some relaxing time off. After completing what was supposed to take 8 years in only 5 she was dead tired and sick of her work, living on barely 4 hours of sleep at best.
Piper sighed and leaned back against the team in utter exhaustion.
"Hey, you okay back there miss?" her driver asked.
"Yeah," Piper muttered. "Yeah I'm fine."
"Long trip?"
"Yeah, ever since they got rid of direct flights from the states the route of flying small from Nassau to here really takes forever," she sighed.
"Yeah," the local agreed with her.
He was tall and dark skinned, probably mid forties, and worked for a local travel agency helping with tourists, but Piper didn't expect there were many tourists at all. The island looked completely abandon on most parts, just dirt roads and a multitude of plants overgrowing every side of them. Real estate prices were low and summer was the slow season anyway, so Piper doubted she'd see too many other people. And right now that was exactly what she needed.
"So you're American?" the driver asked quizzically, likely just trying to keep the conversation going.
"Yeah I'm from the states."
"And how is it up there?"
"Busy, busy, busy as all hell."
"Ahh, I gotchu. So what do you do up there in the states? Farming, waitressing…" He suggested.
"Hardly, but that sounds a hell of a lot easier. I just got out of college."
"Ahh university huh?"
"Yeah," Piper replied.
"Well sadly not many people around here get to go to university. When we had direct flights from the states things were great. There were always tourists, and 30 years ago this place was the shining gem of the Bahamas. But now it's just like a desert. When the french stopped coming on chartered tours it got real bad."
"What happened?"
"It just dried up mon. It's just gone really."
"Oh too bad," Piper sighed.
She was just starting to get into the conversation when her phone rang. She checked it quickly and saw it was her mother calling.
Piper sighed; she'd been dodging her calls for the last couple of days and she doubted they were going away any time soon. So she hit the talk button and out the phone to her ear, grudgingly.
"Oh finally you picked up Piper," her mother complained.
"Good to hear from you too mom."
"Oh come on Piper, you know better than this," she scolded.
"Better than what?"
"To run off right before you have the best pick at a job."
Piper sighed. "But mom I…"
"Was the best. You have always been the top of your class. You had the best pick of the jobs right away and now you're off to the Bahamas or something. Why Piper?"
"Look I need a break. I've been going hard into this since I was 16. I've been hitting this hard for 7 years in what should have taken me 11. Now I worked my ass off and I need a break," Piper shouted.
"Watch your tongue young lady…"
"No how about you watch your attitude mom? I need this break and when I get back in 2 months the entire world will want to hire me. You know I'm the best at what I do. My work in synthesis through enzymes as a grad student already got me out there with tons of people offering me a job in everything from positions as an Associated Professor, to a head position in chemical engineering. You'll have to look hard to find anyone who knows organic chemistry and enantiomer separation better than I do. So shut the fuck up."
Piper hung up her phone and slammed her head against the back of her seat. She had never talked to her mother like that, but after all her hard work she needed to stand up for herself.
"So you are a chemist?" the driver asked with sly interest.
"Yeah," Piper breathed. "Yeah I'm the best at what I do, and I wish I could get some respect for that," she huffed.
Immediately the car pulled over to the side of the road.
"What's going on, why are we stopping?" Piper interjected.
"Your wish has just been granted," the driver replied as he turned and pointed a sleek 9 millimeter at her forehead.
Piper froze in shock as her anxiety shot through the roof and she was finally fully awake.
Author's notes: So I wanted to do this story for a while and now I've gotten to. Don't worry I will still publish Love In Code on Saturdays, but this one is coming on wednesdays for now. So I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and thanks for reading!