We spent the next two weeks seeing each other almost every day. She called a lot, and sometimes when I left my office building she was standing on the steps, or sometimes she was waiting for me at the park.

She got to be a pretty good friend. She was annoying, but I really didn't mind the company, and she was always there if I needed her for something.

She spent most of her spare time at my house. She never mentioned a job, but I assumed she had one. She must have been bored at home, though, because for some reason my house seemed to be a jungle of fun for her.

She liked to come over at bad times, like when she had a fight with one of her sisters. She'd never come over when my sister or friends were there or anything like that, but she came over at midnight once or twice, and at seven in the morning on a Saturday once. I'd been out with my friends the night before and I had a bad hangover, which just gave her a big laugh.

Once she started knocking on my door at three in the morning.

Three fifteen in the morning, actually...


When I got to the door, she was waiting patiently on the front porch.

"What do you want?"

She sighed. "My sister's been out with her boyfriend all night and I'm dead bored. She'll be back home tomorrow around lunchtime...I think. Who knows, she spends all her extra time with him..." She paused a second. "And God knows what they're doing right now..." she added with a shudder.

"You're complaining because she spends all of her time there?"

She considered this, then understood what I was getting at. "I get bored."

"You spend all your time here."

"Not all of it," she said, sounding offended, but I knew she wasn't.

"It's three in the morning," I informed her, just in case she wasn't sure.

She shrugged. "Wanna hang out?"

I opened my front door to let her inside. She made herself welcome, played with Toby a little bit, then flopped down on the couch with him. "Got anything to eat?"

"Why?"

"'Cause Phoebe and I haven't gone to the grocery store in a week, and there's nothing to eat. We've been eating bread and water."

We talked for a while, until at least five in the morning. Piper managed to find the remote control and found one of her favorite movies, Erin Brockovich, on TV. We talked through most of the movie. We were quiet for a moment when she suddenly blurted out a question.

"So have you ever been in a threesome?"

I did a double take at her words. "What?"

She waved a hand. "A threesome. You know, two guys and a girl, two girls and a guy..."

"I know what that is. I was just...surprised that you asked it."

She shrugged. "I've never been in one. I've never been with a girl, either. Except, there was this one time, when I got really drunk on Spring Break on my second year in college. I had like, just turned twenty-one and my friends and I got really drunk and my friends and I played some kooky Truth-or-Dare game, but it didn't really go too far," she said casually.

"Um..." I tried to think of something to top that. "I dated twins once."

She smiled widely. "Oh my God, you did? What was that like?"

It was actually an interesting story, I thought. My friends teased me about it a lot. "Well, I was dating a girl and I didn't know she was a twin. We went out on our...fifth or sixth date...I took her out to dinner and we went back to my place...The next morning, after she went home, I checked my messages and found a message from the girl. She said she was sick and couldn't make it that night. I was totally confused so I called her back and she said she never went out with me that night. I asked her who that was then and she said she had a twin sister."

"Oh my God, you slept with the other sister?"

I nodded.

Piper almost screamed. When she finally calmed down, she asked, "So how many girls have you been with?"

I sighed. "The twins, but only once with each...There was my high school sweetheart, Amanda Hayes...Kayla Perkington...and Monica..."

"Five girls?" Piper asked.

I shrugged. "It was supposed to be four. Hindsight's twenty-twenty, I should take Monica out and make it three."

She laughed. "I've been with four men. Well, one of them was my best friend and we were together for a couple years, and on and off through most of college. He was the one I lost my virginity to. He actually died in a car accident a couple years ago..."

"...I'm sorry," I said honestly.

She shrugged me off. "I don't talk about it much, and I don't wanna talk about it now." She continued with, "There was a man, a wonderful man, named Caleb...Caleb Robinson...I loved him...Then there was an old friend of mine, Jacob Green. Oh, and there was an man I didn't know who um...took advantage of me, and that was all four." She blurted out the last part quickly.

"Wait, what?"

She shrugged. "Nothing, nothing..." She stood up and walked into my kitchen. I jumped up and followed her. She was drinking some water when I found her.

"Piper...What did you say?"

She held up one finger to tell me to wait while she finished downing the entire glass of water. She set the glass down on the counter. "I said he took advantage of me, that's all I said."

"Piper..."

She pushed passed me and headed for the door. I caught her. "No, let me go!" she said, struggling against me. "Let me go!"

I didn't let her go. I'd heard what she said loud and clear and I knew she wasn't lying about that fourth man. I finally got a hold of her wrists and turned her around. She tried to beat me, but I restrained her. It looked like she was crying.

"Let me go!" she was shouting, struggling to get away.

She finally stopped her struggle, and it was then I noticed she really was crying.

"Piper, tell me what happened," I said.

She shook her head and sobbed.

"Piper, tell me."

She sobbed again. "It was after my friend died, in the car accident!" she yelled at me, beating her fists once against my chest. She struggled again and I finally let her go. She took a step back. "I was walking home a few weeks after his funeral and it was raining! Some guy came out of the alley and grabbed me! He pulled me into the alley and raped me, okay?" she shouted. "He raped me and left me in the alley all alone! He left me alone and some bum found me and called the police! Are you happy now? Are you happy?"

I was stunned. I didn't say a word. I watched as she slid down the wall in her despair and cried, pulling her knees to her chest and hiding her face in shame. I suddenly snapped to and immediately ran to her. I knelt down by her side and put my arms around her. She pulled away at first, fought me through her tears, but she soon gave in and let me hold her. I scooped her up in my arms and carried her upstairs to my bedroom. I laid her on the bed but she didn't let me go.

I got her to lie on the bed and she pulled me down to her. She lay on her side next to me and curled up against me. It wasn't long before her sobs turned to sniffles, then there was nothing but her quiet breathing, interrupted by a quiet cough in her sleep. I covered her in a light blanket and sat back to watch her sleep. She sniffed every now and then but she didn't wake up.

I'd only just met her, but she already seemed like such a close friend. An annoyance, yes, but a good friend nonetheless. I was surprised that she'd opened up to me so freely, but as I watched her sleep I realized I shouldn't have been surprised...

I had no idea.

I didn't know that she went through that sort of trauma. Her best friend died and then she was pulled into some alley by God-Knows-Who. I let out a breath of air and ran a gentle hand down her cheek, just tracing her cheekbone. I brushed some hair from her eyes. She sighed in her sleep.

I wondered how she kept up her happy-go-lucky spirits after going through something like that. If she'd been through that already, I assumed that there were other horrible events in her life as well. But how did she stay so...fun-loving and carefree?

I had no idea.


The next morning, I woke early, around 7:30AM. I had slept on the couch but I still slept well. The first thing on my mind when I woke was Piper. Strange, I thought, but then as I thought about it, it wasn't that strange. She had, after all, had a major breakdown and slept here overnight. Why shouldn't that be the first thing on my mind?

I went upstairs to my room, where she was sleeping. I opened the door quietly and looked inside. She was lying on her side, her back to me, so I figured she was asleep. Toby was sleeping at the foot of the bed. He looked up and stared at me. I nodded at him to go back to sleep. He padded his feet out on the bed, stretched out, then put his head back down.

I smiled to myself. That dog really did like Piper.

I took another glance at her, and, assuming she was asleep, closed the door. I had no idea she was facing the opposite direction so that I wouldn't see her crying.

I went downstairs and made breakfast, biscuits and gravy. I made myself a bowl and left the stove on low to keep the food warm in case Piper wanted some when she woke.

I was reading the newspaper when I heard a voice behind me.

"The police said I was lucky."

It scared me so that I jumped around. I saw Piper behind me, hugging herself. I noticed she was wearing one of my long t-shirts, a football jersey from a local high school team. It reached down just above her knees, which was good because I knew she didn't have pants on or shorts to wear.

"...I hope you don't mind...It was laying out and it was clean, so..."

I shook my head. "No, no, it's okay."

Her hair was down and a little messy from sleeping, and some of it was falling over her shoulder. Her nose was red and so were her eyes. She was rocking gently back and forth, standing in the kitchen doorway.

It hit me that this woman I'd just met was standing in my kitchen wearing, one of my shirts, having just woken up after sleeping in my bed. I couldn't help but realize what an outsider would think, looking at this situation. I took another look at her. Even though she looked as if she'd been crying, she really was beautiful.

"You hungry?" I asked, covering my thoughts.

She shook her head.

"Sit down," I offered, motioning to the seat across from me. She didn't sit, but when I had my back to her she started speaking again.

"They said I was lucky because I didn't get sick, no STDs...And I wasn't pregnant."

I turned back around slowly and stood up. She wouldn't make eye contact with me. She kept looking past me to the wall or table or floor.

"Piper," I said quietly, trying to sound calm.

She started shaking. "It was two years ago. I never went into therapy for it, I don't like to talk about it...I couldn't see his face so they couldn't get a picture or description...But I can hear him...I hear him everyday, in my mind...And I remember his eyes, all I saw were his eyes...They were gray...Just gray...The police never found him...For all I know, that bastard is still out...running the streets." She shook her head again. "I haven't really...dealt...with it...I guess..."

I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. I just took her in my arms and held her. She fell right into me and started crying. She'd said she never dealt with it, so I assumed she never thought about it or cried about it.

Maybe now was a good time to do that.


She had said she didn't feel good and wanted to go home. She said her sister had her car and that she'd walked to my house the night before. I really had no choice but to believe her. I told her that it was fine, I could take her home. The truth was that somewhere inside of me, I wanted her to stay. But I knew she wouldn't. She changed into her old clothes and went into the living room to wait for me. I came downstairs.

"You ready to go?"

She nodded.

"Okay, come on."

She stood up and walked slowly in front of me to my car. I opened the door for her, helped her in, and closed the door. Then I went around to the other side of the car and got in.

"You're gonna have to direct me," I said, starting the engine.

She nodded again. "Eighteen-twenty-one Walnut Street," she took a deep, calming breath, "Maple Grove Apartments." Another breath. "I'm Apartment Complex Seven," she took one more breath. "Room Twenty-nine."

"Eighteen-twenty-one, seven, twenty-nine. Got it." I nodded, too.

Her eyes were closed by then, her head back on the seat of the car. The window was down and her hair was being blown about in the wind. She smiled.

I think she fell asleep on the way to her apartment. I didn't want to wake her when I pulled into the parking lot, and luckily she stirred when I pulled the keys out of the car.

"Oh," she said, glancing at a blue Jeep Liberty, "Phoebe's here."

"That's her car?"

She nodded.

I got out and went around to open her door. She slipped out of the car and waited for me to close the door. I thought she was going to walk up by herself, but she looked up at me and asked in a small voice, "Will you walk with me?"

I couldn't tell her no.

Gently, she reached for my hand. She wrapped her hand around mine slowly, as if registering my reaction. I knew she had released some large barrier in her life and had finally broken down about her traumatic encounter, and I didn't want to hurt her, so I let her take my hand.

I remembered what apartment number she'd said it was and asked what floor she was on. "Two," she said.

I led her up to the second floor and found Room 29. She stopped in front of her door and dug through her purse for keys. She stuck the key in the lock, but then she hesitated. She left the key in the lock and turned to look up at me.

"Thanks," she whispered.

I nodded. "It was the least I could do."

"For now it's the most," she said. "...I'll...call you..."

"Sure." I nodded again.

Just then the door opened. Piper and I both jumped. A woman I guessed was Piper's younger sister Phoebe stood in the doorway in a camisole and pajama bottoms. Her just-past-shoulder-length dark blonde hair was tousled slightly and she yawned.

"Piper, where ya been?" she asked.

Piper glanced at her sister, looked her over, and asked, "Are those my pants?"

Phoebe shrugged.

Piper shot her sister a menacing look that made Phoebe laugh, then she turned back to me. "Thanks again," she said.

"Anytime."

"Keep that shirt for me, would ya?" she asked, forcing a small smile onto her pretty face. "I liked it."

"Sure."

Phoebe made a noise, and Piper glanced at her for a second then returned her attention to me. "Like I said, I'll call you..."

"Okay."

She turned away and let my hand go. I watched her walk past her sister, who winked at me, and go inside the apartment. Phoebe followed her sister in and closed the door. I heard them talking for a moment.

"Who was that?" Phoebe asked.

"A friend."

"A friend you stayed all night with?" Phoebe sounded as if she were teasing.

I could hear Piper's loud sigh. "I didn't sleep with him."

Their voices faded away and I walked out of the building to my car and went home.


So now you can see that Piper's life isn't all hunky dory either!
But she's still so happy.
They call that DENIAL! (ahem...sorry)

review! lol
:-D