Chapter 11

Thanks to When-A-Sprite-Meets-Unicorn for reviewing, and thanks to everybody for reading.I'm a found of Teenage Piper and Alex, and I like Piper/Taystee together. It gives that.

XXX

JUNE 2010

The house was empty. There was only the sound of her heels reasoning on the tiled floor. Piper knew Diane was there, cleaning the bedrooms upstairs. The car was parked in the driveway. So Alex was there too, picking up her mother. Probably reading on the veranda, Piper thought.

She crossed the kitchen, stopped in front of the glass door. Samain in front of her eyes to protect herself from the sun, she looked through the sparkling glass. Alex was sitting cross-legged, turning a page.

The door creaked as she entered.

"Hi."

Alex browsed a page, closed the book. "Hi Pips."

"Did you come to pick up your mother?"

"Yeah. She's almost done." Alex's voice was neither completely hostile nor completely friendly.

Without another word, Piper sat down on a armchair, across from the rattan sofa where Alex was seatteled. Without hiding, she detailed her profile: the short green vinyl skirt, the simple black top, the left arm nonchalantly resting on the armrest, the long legs stretched out in front of her, the bare feet. How did she feel? Nostalgia? Envy? They broke up 5 weeks ago. It was a bit early.

"Can I do something for you?" Alex asked sarcastically. She opened her book again, to escape Piper's gaze, perhaps.

"Nothing," she replied. She just wanted to stay there, watch Alex read, feel the weight on her shoulders desapear, forget what she had seen.

"Something is wrong in Piper's wonderland?", Alex was scoffing her more kindly, now.

"After lunch, I ran into my dad walking out of Red's restaurant with Polly," she finally said. Alex looked up at her, probably because of the tone of her voice, above a whisper.

"He was with Glenda.

"Glenda the redhead or Glenda the blonde?"

"The blonde. He promised my mom. I heard him promise my mom it was over."

"Are you surprised?" Alex asked pragmatically.

"Nope."

"Maybe you should talk to him, tell her you know Piper."

She sighed, crossing the distance between them.

"I can't. When I told my mum, she acted like it didn't exist. She was herself and she was, different when she did this. If my dad has the same reaction , it will driving me crazy."

She saw Alex reach out a hand to grab hers, change her mind. Then she touched her own face. Piper had seen him do this in class, when she had to solve a complicated problem.

"Don't worry," she said finally. "I just wanted to tell someone who would listen to me. You're the only person who doesn't pretend it doesn't exist."

She moved closer to Alex, put her head on his shoulder, smelled the perfume of her hair.

"You know, none of that matters." Piper was surprised but didn't move. Alex was sarcastic at times, telling her how mean, selfish, manipulative she was. But other times, she was sowing how much she was loving her, saying the three words, sometimes. There, her voice was sweet.

"Next year you're going to college. You'll have your life away from the drama of Carol and Bill. You can start giving a fuck now."

"That's easy for you to say. You're going to college in September."

Alex sighed, "I'm going to live in an apartment next to college, Piper. I'm going to work in a coffee shop, and attend classes without graduating."

Piper sat up straight on the couch, glaring at Alex, "I know all that. I also know you'll be far away and I won't see you again."

"You can't do that Piper.", Alex whispered, Piper barely hearing her, behind the noises she was making as she was puting her book in her bag.

"What?" she asked, surprised.

"You have Lary. You chose Lary." She was almost mumbling. Then she shouted, "What do you want from me Piper? Tell me!"

The question resonated like a blow. She didn't really know what to answer.

"I don't know, but I think, I need you. Like, a friend? You're leaving soon, anyway."

Alex frowned, her forhead incredibly creased: "Yes, I'm leaving. But I'll be back for the weekends and the holidays. And each time, you'll be there, with your little games. So, please, let me to go away, really."

XXX

Back to the present

"Piper?"

Taystee's voice is calm in her ear. Piper softly returns to the reality. She's a little ashamed to be in her thoughts, to steal her colleague's time in this way. Taystee is always so nice to her, despite her temper.

"Excuse me. It's...a difficult day."

Hmm, it's been a while," Taystee mutters. Then, she smiles at her.

"I'll get us something to drink. made ice tea for everyone. It's clearly a failure, you'll see, but it'll be enough to end the meeting."

Piper nods quietly. She looks at the letters on the paper in front of her, the texts they've chosen for next year's book club, Taystee's back walking away. She thinks of Alex, who asks her to let her go, of this brutal memory of their adolescence. She didn't let him go. Then she, Piper, left. She came back. Then, finally, they have built a life together.

A life that is so strange, for 8 months. "What could happen if we had a child?" became a game between them. They talk about the house, babysitting during their working days, who will be "mom" and who will be "dad". But, still, the main question remains unanswered.

So Piper wonders something else. Should she let Alex go? Or, should she go away from her so she can build another life?

XXX

Light footsteps approach the desk. Not Taystee's, she figures. She turns around. She is so beautiful. She can't stop this thought from taking shape when she sees the little girl, with straight black hair and almond eyes.

"Can you read this?" she asks placing a colored book in Piper's hand. She should ask her why she's not with the other children, or why she's alone here. Instead, she sits on the fground next to her. She begins to read.