All right, my brother has finally gone BACK to his college, so I now have the internet to myself again! Yay! That means updates! Things were pretty hectic for a few weeks, what with finals and all (which were easy, except that I took geometry-my worst subject-on Friday the 13th)...But now they're over, we're having a party TONIGHT and YOU are ALL invited! (unless you're reading this tomorrow, lol!) Yay! Party!
Hope you all enjoy the update! It's pretty much a filler chapter, but the next chapter will be a LOT longer.
Chapter Twelve - Ten Years From Now
We had a wonderful relationship from then on. Almost two months after we first "officially started dating" (Piper's words, not mine), she was packing up to move in. It made sense, considering the fact that she spent all her spare time here anyway and had for the past six months.
Six months...Wow...I'd known her for half a year and I'd only really just met her. I know that sounded strange, but it's true, I really just found out who she really is. She wasn't as self-confident as she seemed. She compared herself to other women just like every other girl on this planet. She worried about her looks and always wore matching clothes...Usually. When she was at my house, she would let loose and not have a care in the world. She would walk around wearing a plaid shirt and striped pants with a jacket that had bubblegum-pink dots on it with her hair messed up.
She didn't care, not over at my house at least.
But that was all I could ask.
Once, I found her on the couch, being bored, freaking out over an infomercial. I came home from work and saw her there and walked up to her. "Hey, Sweetie."
She sighed and grunted in response.
"What's wrong?"
She nodded toward the television. She set the remote down beside her and shifted on the couch, with her right leg under her and her right arm on the back of the couch.
"...Conair?" I asked, seeing the infomercial she was watching. Conair was selling some sort of hair straightener/colorer/crimper/glosser/can opener...Okay, I went too far. It doesn't open cans.
Piper shook her head. "The women in the commercial..." She shifted again, pulling both of her knees up to her chest and locking her arms around her legs. She rested her head on the top of her knees and sighed again.
"What about them?" Right now the infomercial was showing before and after pictures of women with horribly frizzy hair turning into silky-hair goddesses.
"They're too damn beautiful..."
I moved to sit beside her on the couch. I watched the show for a moment then asked, "So? Why is that bad?"
She smiled and hit me in the chest with a pillow. "Typical male."
I smiled, too. "Seriously, why are you comparing yourself to women on infomercials with frizzy hair?"
Slowly, she turned her head to glare at me.
"What'd I say?" I asked innocently.
"I never said I was comparing myself to them!" she shouted, hitting me with the pillow again. She fell back into the couch after leaving the pillow on my face.
I tossed the pillow to the recliner to prevent any more hitting. "You are comparing yourself to them, though, aren't you?"
"Well duh! Look at them! They've got perfect hair and perfect teeth and...Ugh, you're a guy, you wouldn't understand..."
I moved closer to her, not quite sure what was up with her mood swings but going along with it. "Listen, your teeth are just fine, and you have beautiful hair. It was actually one of the first things about you I noticed."
She looked at me, smiled a little, then glued her eyes to the television. "What was the first?"
"The way you walked." I ran a hand through her hair. "See, as long as I can do this, your hair is perfect."
"Even if it looked like that?" She nodded to the TV again, and the picture of a blonde woman with crazy hair came up.
"Even if it looked like that...which it doesn't and it won't. And besides, you know they fluff up those people's hair to make it look worse."
She nodded. We were silent for a moment, watching the TV and making fun of the women with the frizzy hair. Piper had already reached for my hand and I stroked her hair with my free hand.
"And they're all like Size Zero!" she suddenly burst.
I almost jumped. "What?"
"Look how skinny they are! They're like Size Two!"
"And you're a three, quit complaining."
"Some of my clothes are fours..." she muttered.
"The buffet clothes."
She smiled at me and barely nodded.
"Exactly, see? Those clothes are for going out to eat out and close a buffet...Besides, you don't want a toothpick body, that's just...too skinny. And I like that hourglass figure you've got goin' on."
She sighed slowly.
"Why are you even beating yourself up comparing yourself to them?" I asked, my lips near her ear. "You are absolutely beautiful, you're hot in a bikini, and even hotter naked. Stop wanting to be someone else."
It took her a moment to stop blushing. "What're you saying? I shouldn't...cut my hair or...lose ten pounds?"
"Don't you ever cut your hair."
She smiled.
"And if you lost ten pounds people would think you were anorexic or something."
She looked at me. "Should I stay the same then?"
"I wouldn't have you any other way."
She smiled again. "Thanks."
I had to smile back. "Anytime." I kissed her and pulled her onto my lap. We settled back into the couch. When we pulled apart she grabbed the remote and flipped through the channels. She settled on watching the end of Rocky IV, which turned out to be one of her favorite movies.
A week later Piper approached me with a question. "Leo, I have to talk to you."
I followed her into the living room and sat beside her on the couch. "What is it?"
"I need you to think for a moment, okay?"
"...Okay..."
"I mean into the future. What do you think your life will be like ten years from now?" she asked.
I almost laughed, but I didn't, for her sake. "Um...I think I'll still be working the same job, but maybe I'll be vice president of the company or something...That would be nice...I wouldn't have Toby...I'd have a couple of other dogs..."
"Do you see me?"
I looked at her. "What?"
"Me. Do you see me in your future, in ten years?"
I nodded. I could picture that. "Yeah, I see you."
She smiled and I knew that was exactly the answer she was looking for. "I love you," she said.
"I love you, too, but why did you ask anyway?"
"I read this article today and it said that if you can picture your future and the person you're with now is in it, then you know you found the right man...or woman." She smiled.
"I don't need to look into the future to know that. I can just look right in front of me," I told her, making her smile again. God, I was good. I was learning exactly what to say.
The truth was that I'd never thought about it. I never really did think about the future and things like that, but I knew women thought about it a lot. I wasn't really surprised when Piper asked me. I knew something was on her mind.
The more I thought about it, though, the more it made sense. Why wouldn't Piper be in my future? I loved her, she was amazing. I loved everything about her, the good and the bad.
"Oh, and Leo?" she asked.
"Huh?"
"My, uh...birthday is coming up soon...Like in three weeks...Whatcha gonna get me?" She put on her most pleading face.
"I don't know, what do you want?"
She shrugged. "I don't know...Flowers, chocolates, engagement ring...You know..." she said casually, waving a hand.
I laughed. "Yeah. Right."
She smiled. "By the way, there's a message on the answering machine for you. It's, uh...your mother."
"My mother, why?"
Piper shrugged again. "I don't know. She's your mother. By the way, when were you going to introduce me to her? I haven't met any of your friends, either."
"Count your blessings."
"I want to meet them."
"No you don't." I got up to go to the kitchen, where the answering machine was.
"Why not?"
"Trust me!"
She got up and followed me. "Can't I just...talk to one of them on the phone?"
I laughed out loud. "That's funny."
"I wanna meet them, Leo."
I sighed and looked at her. "Fine. I'll call them and have them meet us at Gloria's next Friday."
"...Gloria's? Why don't I know this girl?" She was teasing.
"It's a bar. Friday's is karaoke night."
"Ooh, yay!"
I pressed 'Play' on the answering machine and my mom's voice started playing.
"Leo, it's your mother. Just calling to check in, I know we haven't talked in a few weeks. Anyway, I have some news. We're planning a family reunion in a couple weeks, not this Saturday but the next. The whole family. Ashley and Michael are planning on going, you oughta come to. We miss you over here, and I know you miss the rest of the family, wherever the hell they are..."
I laughed.
My mother's voice continued. "But anyway, I really want you to go. Bring a friend, preferably a girl...You know what I mean..." She giggled. "Remember Saturday after next. Bring a girl!"
The message ended. I looked up at Piper. She laughed. "Good, I get to meet your parents!" she said.
"No, you get to meet the whole fam damily."
And here is when I have a problem. I'm going to finish all my stories, but I'm really drifting away from Charmed fiction. I mean, lately I've been writing a few different fics off to the side with characters with different names, is all. I have a couple of fics that I'm working on that I really want to post, but I don't think they'd make all-to-great P&L Charmed fics. I don't want to stop writing for you guys, because I love it and actually I've formed some pretty good friendships through this site, but I kind of want to start another account just for fiction. All that really means is I need a Misc. category, because the only real differences are that I've used different character names and personalities. I know I already do that, but I've really been using the character names Ana and Jaron instead of Piper and Leo, I've given them brothers and sisters, pasts and futures...
Basically what I'm doing is difting toward writing books, not fanfiction. I don't want to go over to FictionPress and start something there, but I want to get my stories read without having to dub them "fan fiction". I've drifted away from Charmed a lot I've noticed. I still watch, of course, but I'm not so crazy about it anymore. (eek, I'm growing up!) I still want you all to read the story I have going, because I really think it's good. It's not finished, but I think it's gonna be great...
I'll finish all my fics, then I have to decide what I'm going to do. I'm thinking I might just write the stories how I want them for a while. I'm kind of becoming attatched to the characters I've created, and I'm using their names and personalities a lot. Like instead of having twenty fics around Piper, Leo, Prue, Phoebe, and Paige and only having them in it, I have a new set of characters I'm using, and I like them. I'm kind of just playing God right now with "their lives" in my stories. It's kind of weird because all I'm used to is writing Charmed fics, but I've sent some stories in to my Literature teacher, and I think once I finish something, she can help me get published. I used to just want people to read what I wrote and get my voice (or words) heard (or read...whatever), but now I want to be published for real.
So that probably didn't make too much sense and you are all confused now...I'll finish all my fics before I do anything drastic. I may just start a new account at sister site. That's kinda scary, though, because I wonder how many people will read my stuff.
Hope you enjoyed this chappie, the next one will be long.
Review, please, it makes me happy, and I like being happy!
-hannahlt09
"the squirrel whose sister is a dog"
