"Why her?" Nicky complained. She crossed her arms and glared at Red. "You could have hired anyone!"

"I'm not having this discussion now," Red said, glancing at Piper, who was trying hard not to look as if she was listening to the hushed conversation currently happening in the back room. "And I don't know if you've noticed, but there aren't exactly people battering down my door to get a job here."

"But Red-"

Red held her hand up, her eyes hard. "Nicky, I said no."

A moment of steely silence stilled the air between them. Raising three boys had been easier than dealing with Nicky's attitude when she was in that kind of mood. It was hard not to relent. Even harder when she turned on her heel and stormed out of the building without another word.

Red listened to her disgruntled stomps and the sound of the door slamming, and then took a deep breath. She smoothed down her apron and stepped out into the store again, plastering on a smile as she did so.

Piper looked at Red, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She cleared her throat. "Listen, Red...if this is going to be a headache for you, I could leave-"

"No," Red said sharply. "I don't intend to start taking business advice from a fifteen-year-old."

Piper wrung the rag she had been using to wipe the counter over with. She bit her bottom lip, watching the bell on top of the door sway gently in Nicky's wake.

"I just need someone who can ring up the customers and run a rag over the counter tops from time to time." She glanced at the rag in Piper's hand. "And it looks like you're halfway there."

Piper beamed.

"Nicky will come round," Red continued, one hand on her hip. She straightened out the products sitting behind the glass display case and stared out of the large front window. "She's just stubborn and…" she cut herself off.

"And she doesn't like me," Piper filled in, rolling her eyes. "I don't know about coming round, though. I think she wanted the job and thought I was calling her bluff."

"She wanted the job?" Red asked in surprise. "She never mentioned wanting to work here. If she had, I would never have advertised for someone else. She's here all the time anyway. Eating all my inventory." She tutted, but a faint smile crossed her lips.

Piper looked down. "I think...I think she just wants to know that you need her like she needs you. You know, that you want her around."

Red looked up, her brow knitted. "She said that?"

"Well, no," Piper admitted. "I don't think she'd say that to anyone, let alone me. Just a feeling, I guess. I don't think she's that upset because you hired me. She doesn't dislike me that much. I mean, I hope not. I think she just feels pushed out."

Red said nothing for a moment, nodding slowly. "I should talk to her."

"Yeah, maybe you could catch up with her tomorrow, or-"

"No, I should go now," Red replied. She looked to Piper, her eyebrows raising. "You'll be fine here for a few hours, hm? Call it a trial period?"

"Wait, what? I've only been here for half an hour. And I thought the job was already mine!"

Red was already slinging her purse over her shoulder and grabbing her keys. "I won't be long, just serve whoever comes in and if there are any problems, my husband's number is on the fridge!"


"Mom, are you sure you want to take the bus?" Alex asked skeptically as it pulled up beside them with a screech of old brakes. She glanced at her watch, biting her lip. "I could call Piper, or Nicky, or even a cab."

When she'd answered the phone after school that day, the last person she'd expected to hear from was her mom. Of course she was glad that she was finally getting out of hospital, but she'd wished she'd got a little more time to prepare. All she'd had time to do was pay the electricity bill and grab a few essentials.

Her phone buzzed then, but Alex didn't pull it from her pocket.

"We don't need charity," Diane snapped, wincing as she climbed the steps. "We can't ask your friend for any more. Her dad already looks down on me, giving me that job."

Alex hated watching her mom struggle. "Mr. Chapman doesn't look down on you. He's nice."

"Mr. Chapman is nice," Diane parroted. "Nice! You've got a lot to learn. Aren't you gonna answer that damn phone?" she added, annoyance painted on her features as Alex's phone buzzed again.

"You're not gonna quit, are you?" Alex asked, anxiety seeping into her voice. She tried not to look too worried, but Diane sighed.

"No, baby," she said, lacing her fingers with Alex's as they took their seat at the back of the bus. "I'll be on my best behavior. Just for you, though."

"Good," Alex said quietly. "I just want you to be happy, Mom."

Diane cupped Alex's face. "You don't have to worry about that."

Alex wished that were the case. Her mom had always loved her and for that she was grateful, but she'd never had her life together in a way that grown ups were supposed to. She bounced from job to job and it never stuck, and her boyfriends were never keepers. Alex hated her Dad but at least she only had one step mom to put up with.

"You know I love you, don't you?" Diane asked. "You're so grown up for your age. I always felt like I grew up with you instead of raising you." She let out a small, almost embarrassed laugh. "I want you to do good in school and get a good job, you know? I don't want you working so hard to support us and not turning in assignments. You'll end up like me." She looked away.

Alex squeezed her mom's hand. "There are worse things to end up like than you."

Diane gave a little nod. "And there are better."

Alex mirrored her with a slow nod of her own. "I'm trying to plan for the future," she said quietly. "I really am."

"I know," Diane said. "You're smarter than I ever was, and a good girl. Some might even call ya boring. Maybe you'll be the first one of us to go to college. Probably the first one without a record too." She smiled faintly.

Alex pressed her lips together and looked out of the window. The blue sky had turned an ugly shade of gray and raindrops were rolling down the glass. "Yeah, maybe."

As her mom closed her eyes, Alex sneaked a look at her phone. Three missed calls from Nate lit up her display and she swallowed hard.

Can't talk now. Call you later.


Nicky's patience was being tested. She banged on the door again, scuffing her shoes on the front step. "Come on! I know you're in there!"

She stood, scowling, listening to the click of locks as the door finally opened up. Joel wrinkled his nose at the sight of her. Despite the rain, he didn't step aside. Instead, he squinted at her.

He wiped his brow, the bag of trash in his hand overflowing. "What are you doing here?"

"Getting wet," Nicky snapped. "Are you gonna let me in or?"

"Uh, yeah," Luschek said with a little stutter. From the look on his face, he decided the dirty joke that popped into his head wouldn't be appreciated. Instead he stepped aside to let her storm in. "Come inside," he muttered sarcastically. "Make yourself at home."

She took him at face value and threw herself down on the couch amongst the trash he hadn't yet managed to clear up. Kicking a can of beer out of her way, she glared.

"Piper fucking Chapman," Nicky said, chucking a can into the bag Luschek held up. "First she takes my best friend, then Red...what next? She's gonna get stoned with you under the bleachers?"

Joel laughed, flopping down next to her. "Hey, you know I wouldn't turn her down."

"No-one ever does," Nicky said, her face dark. "Marka would probably prefer her too."

Luschek looked over at her. "I don't prefer Piper."

Nicky felt her cheeks heating up, so she looked away. "You're only saying that because I'm the only one here to help clean up all this shit."

Luschek smiled. "You got me," he said, laying his hand on her knee. She didn't move it, but turned to look at him. He leaned in. "So. Do you wanna clean the puke off the kitchen floor or the broken glass from the hallway? My parents are gonna be home pretty soon..."

She fell into giggles. "Definitely leaving the vomit to you."

"You're so generous."

"I know," Nicky said. She leant forward and plucked a stray bottle from the coffee table. She held it up teasingly. "Dare you to drink whatever's left in this."

He raised his eyebrows. "You think I won't?"

Nicky shrugged, her lips tugging up into a lopsided smirk as he downed the rest of the liquid. His lips almost instantly puckered and he spluttered.

"What the fuck?" he asked, spitting it out and wiping his mouth. "Who the hell uses a beer bottle as an ashtray?"

Nicky couldn't speak through her laughter.

"Fuck you, Nichols," he said, but he couldn't help laughing either. "Why would you waste perfectly good beer that way?"

"Perfectly good beer?" Nicky asked. "It tasted like you bottled the water from the gutters."

"I think that says more about you than me," Joel said, his brow wrinkling.

"Yeah," Nicky said, grabbing a different bottle from the table and finishing the contents of it, "I think you're probably right there."


Piper drummed her fingers on the counter top. Still on a high from actually being hired, she wasn't upset that Red had left her. She stared at the empty seats in front of her and craned her neck to see if anyone was coming in.

They weren't.

She sighed and pulled her phone from her back pocket. With another quick glance at the door she held it to her ear. "Hey, Al! Guess what? I got the job!"

"Wow!" Alex said in a hushed voice. "That's great, Pipes. I'm proud of you. How is it going?"

"It's fine," Piper said. "Although Red's left me here alone to go talk to Nicky. Why are you whispering?"

"Because my mom's asleep in the other room," she replied. "We just got home from the hospital."

"Oh," Piper said in surprise. "I didn't know your mom was coming out today. Did you get home okay? I could have picked you both up."

"I didn't know either," Alex said, and Piper could tell she wasn't particularly happy about it. "But she's home now and she's safe."

"Well, that's the main thing," Piper said. "Let me know if you need anything, okay?"

"I will."

"Don't hang up yet. I wanna hear your voice some more," Piper admitted with a little laugh. "Does that sound dumb?"

A smile played on Alex's lip and she slipped outside so she could talk more freely. "No," she said, breathing in the cold air of the early evening. "It's cute. What do you want me to say?"

"Anything," Piper said.

"Okay…" Alex thought for a moment. "Have I ever told you about the time I broke my arm?"

"No," Piper said. "Is that how you got that scar? I'd wondered about it."

"You noticed that, then," Alex said, smiling. "You never said."

Piper shrugged. She remembered feeling the scar early on in their relationship. Before it had really been a relationship. For all the things Piper said without hesitation there were an equal amount of things she held back. She'd felt it by chance; a sizable rather jagged raised scar just below her elbow.

"I felt it a while ago," she admitted. She omitted that it had crossed her mind that Sylvie had been the one to give her the scar. "How did you do it?"

"When I was younger, like maybe twelve or so, I used to pack a bag and go into the woods for a day. I'm not sure why. It was just quieter there. My parents were going through this custody battle and Diane wasn't doing so well...I don't know. It was just my escape."

"Didn't your parents worry about where you were?"

Alex laughed softly. "They didn't really notice."

"Oh."

"It wasn't all bad," Alex insisted. "Some days I'd skip school and go up there instead. I took my lunch and ate it by the creek. One day I found this cute treehouse. I'd only ever seen them on TV but this one was pretty big. It was empty inside but I would lay down inside it with a book. Sometimes the light would hit just in the right way and...it's hard to explain, but it just felt peaceful."

Piper hummed. "It sounds beautiful."

"It was," Alex agreed. "Anyway, I'd been going there for a few weeks...I guess the ladder hadn't been used in a few years. It wasn't even a real ladder...just some branches held together. A few rungs from the top, it snapped under me."

"Oh, wow," Piper said. "Did you black out?"

"Not at first," Alex said. "I-"

"Hang on," Piper said suddenly. "I want to hear the rest but some customers just walked in." She let out a little groan.

"What?"

"It's people from school," she complained, peeking at them through the doorway. "You know Nate Griffiths and his sycophants?" Piper rolled her eyes. "You know he once said he'd like to see my-"

"Nate Griffiths?" Alex echoed.

"Yeah. Sorry, is it a bad line? I have to go anyway. I'd better serve them. Wish me luck."

"Wait, Piper." Alex felt her heart thudding. "Be careful, okay?"

"Careful?" Piper repeated. "Of what?"

"Just...don't mess around with them. I know you think they're just jerks from school but they're worse than that. You don't wanna be talking to people like that. Are you listening to me?"

"I'm listening," Piper said quietly. She hated feeling in the dark, and she constantly felt like the rug was being pulled out from under her with Alex. She loved her, but she hated how she could be sometimes. It hadn't felt right in school earlier, and now this. She chewed on her lip.

"I'm not joking," Alex said.

"I didn't think you were."

Alex hesitated. "Okay. It's just not like you to accept things blindly. You usually have a thousand different questions before you agree to anything."

Piper glanced up at the small crowd gathered by the display case. "If I asked, would you tell me?"

Alex said nothing.

"They're coming over. I have to go." Without saying goodbye, Piper hung up the phone. She set it down on the counter and stared at Nate. His name had triggered a reaction in Alex and she didn't like it one bit. If anything, it was like a red rag to a bull.

Nate stepped up to the counter. He pointed at one of the pastries behind the display case. Piper wordlessly pulled it out and scanned the corresponding barcode.

"$2.95," Piper said. "Do you want takeout or dine in?"

"Takeout," Nate replied smoothly, sliding her a $5 dollar bill. "Keep the change. Piper, right?"

Piper nodded as she printed his receipt and despite what he'd said, slid his change over to him. "Yep."

"You must be new. I used to come in here a lot. The old lady's a real hardass. You're Vause's girlfriend, right?"

"Something like that," Piper replied. "Why? You know her?"

Nate smirked. "Something like that."

She handed him the bagged up pastry and stared back at him. Her Dad had always told her to look people in the eye, especially people trying to intimidate you. She held his gaze unbreakingly.

"I'd like to see you around, Piper. Maybe you should come to one of my parties. I bet your sort of girlfriend would love to come, too. You should bring her."

Piper broke the stare when the bell above the door jangled. Red stepped through it, already glaring at the gaggle of teenage boys standing in her store.

"Didn't I throw you out the last time you were here?" Red questioned, throwing her purse down on the counter. She put her hands on her hips. "Are you bothering my staff?" She turned to Piper, one eyebrow raised curiously.

Piper shrugged.

"You've got your order, so go. Get out. You're lucky my husband isn't here." Red turned to talk to Piper. She picked up a sugar dispenser to wipe the counter free from spillages.

Nate rolled his eyes but headed toward the door without much of a fight. He took a bite from the pastry and for a moment, it looked to Piper as if he was going to leave without another word. Until he didn't.

"It's not my fault your daughter's a junkie. An easy one, too. She practically threw herself at me." He looked at Red up and down. "Not that I would have wanted her."

"Get out!" Red's hand trembled. The sugar dispenser flew through the air to hit the wooden door frame as he quickly ducked out of it. It smashed against the floor with a flurry of sugar. The sound of his and his friends' laughter filled the still air as Piper looked on in shock.

"Are you okay?" Piper murmured, gently reaching out to touch Red's arm. The contact shocked Red back to reality.

"Yes," she said quickly. "Are you? I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left you alone on your first day. I never would have, if I knew they would be around." She moved robotically as she grabbed the dustpan and brush from the store cupboard and set about cleaning up the mess she'd made.

"Let me do that," Piper said, taking the brush from Red and kneeling on the floor. "I only knew him from school. He was fine with me. It only really turned nasty then. What was he talking about, your daughter? Is he talking about Nicky?"

Red nodded. "It isn't like he said at all."

"No," Piper murmured. "I'll bet." After a beat she gained the courage to ask the question that hung in the air. "What happened with Nicky?"

"She did some stupid things on drugs. To get drugs. Piper, promise me something. You will stay away from drugs and anyone who does them and deals them. It is not worth it. It is not fucking worth it."

Piper nodded.

"And you stay away from Nate Griffiths," Red warned her. "I don't want any of my girls going anywhere near him. Do you understand me?"

A/N:

Thank you for reading and thank you for the reviews on the last chapter. I really appreciate them. I feel like I just post a chapter then look at the date I posted it and a month has passed already. Crazy. I hope you liked this chapter. Let me know your thoughts.

Hope everyone is doing well.

- Star xo