Do you all have any idea how many people have asked me to update Payback? Wow. I'm thinking maybe I should! Well, actually, I'm having some trouble putting up the next chapter. First of all, I wrote the chapter out in class one day like a year ago (I like to plan ahead, lol) and then when we got the new house we packed everything into the garage. Well I haven't seen the papers since. And it's killing me! Second of all, I'm scared that when I put the chapter up, half of you will come to my house and murder me after reading it.
But for now, please enjoy chapter 5 of Fallen Angels (please! thank you!) ...after the reviews.
Paige Halliwell-Matthews - I haven't described her as bubbly, but I think I like it!
Alaii - Piper is a little annoying to Leo, isn't she?
psychokitty3 - My 8th grade literature/lang. arts teacher had flamingos around the room. Our "all-access pass" was a cartoon picture of a flamingo.
LeoPiper-Forever - I like writing it from Leo's POV. No one ever knows what's going on inside his head!
piperleo4eva - I like writing my characters how I want them to be, not with the personalities the show portrays. I mean, think about it, in the show, Piper's...kinda mean. And a little whiny, just a little. I like having her be more carefree and funloving.
GeminiPiper - The kitchen cabinet thing came from my own ideas, thank you! We just got a new house put in where we live and the kitchen has like thirty-some cabinets! (it's ridiculous, seriously!) So my mom plays "hide the..." and she puts something in a cabinet. Then she asks me, "Hannah, will you find me the..." whatever it is, and I have to look in every cabinet to find it! It's hilarious! Last Saturday was my b-day (14!) and we had a party. In the morning my friend tried to cook pancakes for everyone and we couldn't find the spatula because there were too many drawers! good times, good times...
Shima and Tempis - lol, I liked it too!
She managed that night to make me talk a little about my life. I confessed to having a sister but wanting a brother before she was born. I told her a little about my somewhat overbearing parents and how desperately they want me to get married and have kids. I even told her about my three cousins, Matt, Brad, and Anna, the cousins I've stayed closest with.
I turned most conversations around about her, and she didn't mind talking about herself. I learned a lot.
Her mother died when she was young, her father walked out soon after that. She and her sisters were raised by their grandmother. After their Grams died, Prue, Piper's twin sister (I had to memorize that little fact), who was older by ten minutes (I also had to memorize that), took over a lot of the parenting roles. Piper seemed to be the most light-hearted of the bunch, the most whimsical. Her twin sister sounded like a hard worker, a devoted wife and mother. Her younger sisters Paige and Phoebe sounded a little more like Piper—carefree, just enjoying life. She was close to all of her sisters, and even lived with Phoebe. Paige was still in college and Phoebe had just graduated. Prue lived in the manor that the girls all grew up in. Piper and Phoebe rented an apartment across town. Paige lived in a dorm with two roommates.
If I had asked where it all started I would have gotten her life story.
She certainly didn't seem to mind coming into my house for four hours. She didn't seem uncomfortable at all. Actually, I was the uncomfortable one. She just came in and made herself at home. If I'd had the spare bedroom fixed up she probably would have stayed the night.
She didn't though. She left around nine, like I said, saying her sister would be worried. She also said that she would be back. I was sure to believe her this time.
I was surprised with myself, really. Why didn't I...call the police and report a stalker or tell her to go away and leave me alone? Why did I let her into my office, into my home?
I didn't know why. There was just something about her...Something...
Instead of sitting around wondering, I went to bed. I woke up around 9:30AM. It was a Saturday, so it didn't matter. I let Toby out and got him to chase the cat across the street. He took off out of the front yard like a bullet and chased the cat to the end of the block before I called him back in. I poured him a bowl of dog food into his dish in the kitchen. He just stared at it. I knew he was saying, "What, only this dry food? Come on, Man, gimme a little more credit." He didn't usually get just dry dog food, I usually heated up some Ramen noodles or soup or leftovers for him, but today I just didn't feel like it. For myself, I settled on toast. I wasn't all that hungry, anyway.
I sighed.
"What now?" I hadn't realized I'd said it out loud until Toby looked up at me. "What?"
His mouth opened and a huge tongue came rolling out to one side. The corners of his mouth literally turned up into a big smile. "Check your dish," I said, and he immediately turned back to the food.
I had to smile.
I lazed around the house most of the day, did the dishes and a couple of loads of laundry. After that I flopped on the couch. Toby, who had been either following me around or playing in the backyard barking at the neighbors' dogs all day, hopped up and curled up beside me, putting his head on my leg.
"Good dog," I said quietly, petting him. His tail started flopping against the arm of the couch. I looked at him. He didn't lift his head but he looked at me. "Good boy," I said, a little more enthusiasm in my voice. His tail flopped harder and started wagging. I smiled.
I decided to call Ashley, see what was up with her. She answered a little out of breath. "Hello?"
"Hey Ash."
"Leo! What's up?"
"Not much..." I heard her breathing hard. "What're you doing?"
"Um, nothing...It's uh..." She held her hand over the speaker on her phone and shouted, "Fine! You win!" To me she said, "Alyssa's other daughter came over and we were playing tag."
"You're always busy."
"You're not?"
"Not today...Had a strange night anyway..."
"Oh yeah? What happened?"
"I, uh…met this girl—" I started.
"Oh—my—God."
"What? No! No, no, no!"
"Oh. Oh, God, you scared me, Leo."
I nodded. "Yeah."
"So who is she?"
"Well...She kinda...came up to me in a restaurant and just started following me everywhere...She got in my car and came home with me, too."
"Creepy."
"Yeah, kinda...She seemed okay...She said she'd be back. She left here around nine-ish...She loves to talk. I think she just needs a friend. She lives in town, or so she says," I explained.
"Sounds like a stalker. Watch your back, she might shoot you," she said, but I could tell she was joking.
"Aren't you supportive…" I mumbled.
"Ah, don't worry about it, I'll bring flowers to your funeral."
Piper didn't lie; she showed up around seven. She wanted to go out. I didn't really have a choice, because she pulled me out and walked me down the street. She let go of my arm when I swore not to run away.
"Promise?"
"Yeah."
"Swear?"
"Yes, yes! I swear!"
"Okay..." She unwrapped her hand from mine and we walked down the street. "It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" she asked, running ahead of me and twirling a little, throwing her head back.
Her hair was down and she was wearing a blue and white light-but-long skirt that flowed around her knees as she twirled. Her denim jacket was buttoned up and she held her arms out and she spun in the grass.
She was beautiful. She stunned me speechless.
I checked myself.
We walked around the local parks and talked about past relationships, about our favorite foods and places we wanted to travel. I found her easy to talk to, but I didn't tell her much. She and I both agreed that we loved and wanted to visit Spain someday, and we agreed that bratwurst were better than hot dogs.
We ended up at a nearby elementary school playground. She was sitting on a merry-go-round. "Spin me!"
I shook my head.
"Come on! Please!"
I couldn't refuse her. I spun the merry-go-round fast enough for her to lose her balance and grab one of the rails when she tried to stand up. She laughed and I couldn't help but join her.
It was probably ten o'clock by then. She was lying in the grass now, staring up at the stars that were coming out. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the moon was almost full.
"C'mere," she said quietly, looking up at me.
I was still standing. I moved over to her.
"No, I mean, lay down."
I laid on my back opposite her, our heads almost touching.
She sighed. "I tried to count the stars once...There're just too many of them..."
I nodded. "Yeah, I think everyone's tried."
She agreed. There was silence for a moment, in which we both tried to count the stars. "I got three hundred forty-two," she said after a moment.
"I got six hundred seventy-two trillion."
She laughed.
There was silence again.
When Piper spoke again, it was quiet, a whisper. "Leo?...What happened that made you so...cold? I mean, I know you weren't always like this. I mean, you had to have been fun once…I mean more fun," she added quickly.
I took in a deep breath. Could I really tell her?
"Please tell me," she pleaded.
I took another breath. "About a month and a half ago..." I stopped. I wasn't ready to tell the story. Not yet.
"What? What happened?" She rolled onto her stomach to look at me. I got a glimpse of her face and her hair from upside-down.
I waved a hand in the air, staring up at the stars. "I went through...a...really, really bad breakup..." I said.
She laughed. "That's it? God, how many of those have I gone through..." She fell onto her back again.
"My girlfriend of about seven months cheated on me with my best friend, got pregnant, and miscarried. And then she was asking to get back together with me while she's living with the man she cheated with."
Piper stopped laughing. "Oh." She was quieted, subdued. "I'm sorry," she said, rolling onto her stomach again.
I shrugged. "Yeah, well..." I held a hand in the air to help me count the stars. I didn't expect it, but she wrapped her hand around mine.
"I really am sorry. I didn't know...That would've killed me," she whispered, and I didn't have to see her face to know she was telling the truth.
We made our way back to my house. It was then that I realized she didn't have a car. "Did you walk here?"
She smiled. "No, I took a cab. My car's in the shop."
I nodded. "Oh."
We got to my door. "Can I come in?" she asked quietly. I knew she had been somewhat subdued, if not humbled, after finding out why I was "so cold". I shrugged. She smiled. "Thanks." She followed me inside, made her way to the living room, and sat on the couch. She grabbed the remote without any question and turned the TV on. She started flipping through the channels. "So that's why you were trying to get rid of me that day we met?" she asked, turning her head to see me come into the living room after getting a drink.
I shrugged, not wanting to talk about it. She seemed to understand.
Her playful demeanor soon returned and she was messing with me again. I had been sitting on the Lay-Z-Boy, almost falling asleep but trying not to, when she came and sat on the arm of the chair. I opened one eye and looked at her. She was watching the television. "What?" I asked.
She shrugged then, and slid down the arm of the chair, falling on top of me. I pushed her off and moved to the couch. She fell back into the back of the chair and sighed. "Humph."
There was silence for a few moments. Piper had the remote control and was flipping through the channels.
"Will you settle on something already?" I said, with a little more curtness than I had meant. She seemed to understand, and didn't get upset.
"Jerry Springer's on," she mentioned.
"It doesn't matter."
She changed it to Jerry Springer and left it there for a while. She laughed and cheered with the crowd and I was silent. I had nothing to say, at least, not right now.
At the commercial break I spoke up. "Why are you still here?"
Piper smiled. "You've asked me that before."
"And you said—"
"You look like you need a friend."
I recalled her exact words from the day before. "You said it in past tense then," I noted.
"Well that was then. Now I think you still need a friend."
"Oh, and you think you're that friend?"
She nodded with a smile. "Yep. Whether you like it or not." After a moment she added, "You're an angel, I don't have to know you long to realize that. You've just fallen off the path and now I think you need a little saving..."
I said nothing.
"You know," she continued, "you're all...shelled up. You need to get out and enjoy life."
"A month ago I had no life to enjoy."
"And now?"
I shrugged.
"Life isn't all so bad...You said you have a sister, that's something. You seem to get along well with your assistant..."
"Are you going somewhere with this?"
"You're just so shelled up. It's almost like you're asking for sympathy but you refuse to take it from anybody."
"I don't want sympathy."
"Then what do you want?" she asked. It made me think.
"I don't know."
"Well I know what you need."
I decided to hear her out. "What do I need?"
"A friend. You need to have some fun. You need to go out with your friends, enjoy life."
"I have friends, we went out a couple weeks ago."
"That was two weeks ago. What about now? Come on, it's Saturday night! There's gotta be some action on the town somewhere. This is San Francisco, after all."
"I don't think so..."
"Come on..."
"Piper..."
She stopped and smiled.
"What?"
"My name," she sighed.
"Yes, that's your name."
"No, I mean you've never said my name, except when we first met." She smiled again and cocked her head slightly. "I like the way it sounds when you say it."
"Whatever," I said, standing up. "And we didn't meet, you came up to me." I headed for the back door.
She stood up and followed. "Yeah, because you were looking all down and out! You needed some cheering up! Now admit it," she called after me, "you like my company. You don't say you do, but you do!" she yelled as I went outside. She followed. "You may not even realize it, but you do need a friend, maybe more."
"I don't want a relationship. Not right now." I got on the hammock in my backyard.
"Maybe that's not what you need! Maybe you don't need a relationship for anything like that. I never said you did need one. Hell, I don't want a relationship either. I need a friend, too. Everybody does. But I'm here to help you."
"What, were you sent from God?" I snapped, waving a hand in the air. She was standing behind me on the porch. "Did a little birdie tell you to come find me? 'Oh, Leo needs a friend. Go annoy him.' Is that what it said?"
She did this little kid stomp as she made a loud annoyed noise. "You know something? You are so damn stubborn and cold from your own damn breakup that you can't even realize that there's still some good in this world! Not everything is gonna cheat you out and play you over, Leo. I bet your sister wouldn't, Sarah wouldn't! Damn it, I wouldn't either!"
We were quiet for a few seconds.
"Fine, if you want to be an ass about it, then be an ass! You can call me when you're ready, when you want to talk. It hurts, Leo, I know it hurts, but it's going to hurt! That's life!" Her voice dropped. "Here," she said, walking up to me and handing me a piece of paper, "that's my cell number. You call me when you are ready, okay?"
I didn't say anything. We sounded like an old married couple fighting.
"Call me."
That was all she said before she left. I heard her shoes on the floor as she walked inside, through the house, and closed the front door behind her. I wasn't sure how she got home. She must have found a way to manage.
I pinned her phone number onto my refrigerator with a magnet. For two days I didn't think about it...At least, I tried not to. Every time I passed through the kitchen, however, I glanced at it.
Tuesday afternoon, I decided to call. She answered within three rings.
"I knew you'd call."
"How'd you know it was me."
"You're the only Unknown Number I know."
I smiled slightly. Saturday night, she had made me realize that maybe there was some coming back from what had happened. I had spent the last two days thinking hard about it. Now I thought I was ready to talk.
"Are you going to tell me now?"
"You already know."
"You told me what happened, that's all. I want to know more."
"You wouldn't care."
"The hell I wouldn't. I care about you," she said.
I wasn't sure of what to say. How could you know someone for three days and suddenly care about them? I figured it was possible. But we weren't even friends...Were we?
"I'll tell you what, meet me at the park at six, okay?"
"...Okay."
"I'm serious. I'll be there."
"...So will I."
I walked to the park at six and saw that Piper was there already, sitting on the merry-go-round. She was looking at the ground and pushing the merry-go-round back and forth with her feet. She looked up at me when I reached her. She smiled.
"Hi."
I barely returned it. I was curious to see what she would ask of me, what she would want or say. She patted the spot beside her on the merry-go-round. Instead of sitting beside her, I sat on the other side of the merry-go-round. She was out of my sight and I was out of hers.
"You're strange," she said with a laugh.
"Thanks, I think."
"Anytime."
We were quiet. There was no one else in the park.
"What was her name?" Piper asked quietly.
I sighed. "Monica."
"Monica what?"
"Monica Perkins."
"I don't know the name..."
"Count your blessings," I said, making Piper laugh.
"I will, then...What was your friend's name?"
"Joe."
"I don't know anyone named Joe," Piper thought aloud. "So you were dating for seven months?" she asked.
"Almost eight."
"And you didn't know...?"
"Of course I didn't know she was cheating. One day she told me she was pregnant. Then she let me think it was my baby—"
"It might've been," Piper cut in.
I nodded. "Maybe...Maybe not."
Piper was silent for a few seconds. "...So then what happened?"
"After a week or so...she told me...She said she had been having an affair with Joe for two months and that she didn't know if the baby was mine or his."
"You had two things to deal with at once."
"Yeah."
"What did you do?"
"I left her, kicked her out of my house."
"She was living with you? In the house you're in now?"
"Mmm hmm."
"Oh."
"Yeah...When she said she was pregnant...we talked about getting married..."
"Married?"
I nodded. "We told our parents."
"You were officially engaged?"
"No, but they knew we were thinking about it."
"I think I'd rather have the spontaneous proposal," Piper said. "You know, like, on bended knee. I think I'd like that better than just talking about it some rainy morning."
"Ha."
"Hey," Piper warned. "Watch it. A girl needs a dream."
I sighed. "After she told me, I asked her whose baby it was...She said she didn't know. Not a week after she left, I got a call from the hospital saying that she was in the ER. When I got there, I saw Monica in a room crying. I asked her what happened and she told me she miscarried. The doctor's said she was under too much stress."
"No kidding," Piper snorted.
"Joe showed up there, too..."
"Did you guys fight?"
We hadn't moved from our spots on the merry-go-round. My back was still to her. "Yeah, we fought."
"What did Monica have to say?"
"...She told us to stop, and when it came down to it...We were both beside her bed. Then I realized what was happening and I left and went into the waiting room. After Joe came into the waiting room we fought again, but it didn't get too physical...I went back into Monica's room alone and told her I didn't want to see her or talk to her again. I left."
"Then what?"
"She started calling me a month or so ago...Said she wanted to make up, get back together. I saw her in my office two weeks before I met you. I haven't seen her since, and I haven't talked to her, thank God..."
I'd been looking down with my eyes closed and when I looked up, Piper was standing right in front of me.
"What?" I said.
"Come on. Let's go have some fun."
I looked at her. She had listened to my story, and now I could see what she was doing. She didn't like to confront anything hard for her. I thought I had her figured out now. She hated difficult situations. That was why she was so playful and why she never talked about her own bad times. She was probably legally depressed because of that, but it seemed to be working for her.
"Why?" I asked instead of saying anything I'd just figured out.
"Because. You need to stop thinking about Monica right now. Burn all of her photos and memories later. Can we have some fun now?"
Okay, that was a long chapter, I think. In Chapter 6, I'll show you that Piper's life isn't picture-perfect either.
Coming up: Chapter Six-Tragedy
Ooh...Ahh...
Hope you liked!
